The Purple Maws - Far2Casual's Gnoblog (Ogres + Chaos Dwarves)

Hello everyone,

I'm starting a Gnoblog for my Ogre Kingdoms army that I will update from time to time with the progress of my painting, battle reports and things I'll participate to with it.

First of all, I began WFB like 10-12 years ago, with 5th edition and the awesome Magic Cards. At that time I was playing Warrior of Chaos and owning everyone with Frenzied Knights of Chaos and a huge lord in them, that was completely unstoppable (the frenzy were not giving you +1 attack back then, but *2 Attacks, so I basically had 4 S6 attacks per Chaos Knight ). Then 6th edition came out and I began an Empire army. We played for 1-2 years then we stopped as we all entered university and didn't have time to play that much.

2 years ago, there was so much dust on my models that my parents decided to throw them away ... 6 months before I decided to get back in the hobby. I had 5000 pts, 2000 pts were also painted.

So I decided to get back into the hobby because I discovered a club near where I live with my wife now. As I loved Empire I decided to buy this army first. I played with it 6 months, but I was pretty disappointed how this army turned out. I enjoyed this army with when it was the most glorious nation of men, where trained troops where led by courageous counts, supported by some knights, dwarf powder and some wizards. And now I had to play crazy dudes as base troops led by an fighty archlector (wtf, does that even exist ?) on a broken chariot that is reserved to Volkmar with two Steam Tanks on the flank. I had the vague impression of playing Order Demons

I started looking for another army, and I discovered that 10 years later only one single new army had been created : Ogres ! I saw the models ; I read the fluff ; I saw that with few models you had a complete army ; I read that it was a low-tier army ... How could I not fall in love with them ?

And so it has been one year now that I started to collect it and I literaly made jumps everywhere when I heard the rumours about a new book and even bigger jumps when I had it in my hands. It is simply put the most amazing army book I've ever held and believe me, I read them all in 6th, 7th and 8th edition. Nice fluff, lots of different units and builds, interesting magic, ASTONISHING new models. Waow, I almost cried of joy

Lastly, I started a Youtube channel about Ogres but as you may have noticed, English is not my first language (it's my third actually) and so I made it in French. So if you are interested :
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4F559C9FA82C5517&feature=mh_lolz

Here are some pictures of things that I have already painted :

The Tyrant, the Slaughtermaster and the Butcher :



A former BSB conversion that I will now use as a Banner for my Maneaters :


A brand new BSB :


My Firebelly :


My Ogre horde (with a Slaughtermaster and a Tyrant) :


My magnetized Gnoblars :



Some Ironguts :


Two Gorgers :


6 Leadbelchers :


A Giant :


The Ironblaster :


I also have a Scraplauncher there, in the back :


2 Rhinox Riders (RIP) :

Looking good.  I love the maneater standard bearer especially

As of now I am engaged in two different challenges in my local gaming club.

The first one is our internal yearly tournament, that I will organise this year. The idea is quite simple, it's a pretty standard double elimination tournament with fixed 2k5 lists. Each turn a random different scenario from of the 6 basic ones in the BRB will be played. The brackets can be found here :

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArDTJ_O2w51wdFAxZy05TlZxREVRdVA2UkZRMk1CVHc&hl=fr#gid=0

The first turn I am going to face a former HE player that will play his brand new Skavens during the tournament. The scenario will be Blood and Glory. I have a chance there, because my opponent only has 4 medium-to-small clanrats units (30, 30, 20, 20) with a standard that are easy to get, one BSB and his General on his Screaming Bell. I think I have a good chance to take it if I can dodge his 2 cannons, doomwheel and ABomb.

My list for this tournament :

Slaughtermaster, General, AHW, lvl4, Ironcursed Icon, Greedy Fist, Hellheart, Lore of the Great Maw - 382 Pts.

Bruises BSB, IF, HA, Crown of Command, Luckstone, Dragonhelm - 188 Pts.
Firebelly, AHW, Potion of Speed, Dispell Scroll, Lore of Fire - 152 Pts.

10 Ogres, IF, FC - 350 Pts.
9 Ironguts, FC, Look-out Gnoblar, Standard of Discipline - 394 Pts.

4 Mournfangs, HA, IF, Musician, Standard, Dragonhide Banner - 350 Pts.
3 Maneaters, HA, 3 x AHW, Scout, Swiftstride, FC, Gleaming Pennant - 203 Pts.
1 Sabretusk - 21 Pts.
1 Sabretusk - 21 Pts.
3 Leadbelchers, Musician - 139 Pts.

Ironblaster - 170 Pts.
Scraplauncher - 130 Pts.

Total : 2500 pts


And I am also engaged in a first to 4 against a Bretonnian player. We will play 6 games on the 6 scenarios from the BSB with the same 2999 pts list against each other and the first to win 4 games is declared the winner. If it's 3-3 at the end of 6 games, we will play a 7th game on one of the 6 scenarios determined randomly, but each player has a power of veto against one scenario.

The list I am using against him is quite different and will be :

Slaughtermaster, lvl4, Fencer's Blades, Talisman of Endurance, Scroll, Lore of the Beasts - 375 Pts.

Golgfag Maneater, General - 260 Pts.
Butcher, lvl2, Hellheart, Lore of The Great Maw - 185 Pts.
Bruiser, HA, Crown of Command, Luckstone, Enchanted Shield, BSB - 179 Pts.

10 Ogres, Handweapon & Ironfist, M, S, C - 350 Pts.
10 Ironguts, M, S, C, Lookout Gnoblar - 465 Pts.
10 Gnoblars, Gnoblar Trappers - 50 Pts.
10 Gnoblars, Gnoblar Trappers - 50 Pts.

6 Leadbelchers, M - 268 Pts.
5 Maneaters, HA, 5 x Ogre Pistol, Stubborn, Vanguard, M, S, C, Lookout Gnoblar, Std. of Discipline - 355 Pts.
1 Sabretusks - 21 Pts.
1 Sabretusks - 21 Pts.

Ironblaster - 170 Pts.
Stonehorn, Harpoon Launcher - 250 Pts.

Total: 2999

Interesting times to say the least

For some reason I had it in my head that Golgfag's could not be the army general.

The second list looks very interesting and I'd love to hear how those battles go

To give an update about my future challenges.

1. Our gaming club cup : I will play my first game of our internal competition thursday against a former HE player that will try Skavens for the first time this year. The scenario for that game is Blood and Glory.

Here is his list :

Grey Seer, General, Screaming Bell, Skalm, Earthing Ros - 495 Pts.

Chief, BSB, Halberd, Talisman of Preservation - 117 Pts.
Warlock, lvl1, Energy Condenser - 85 Pts.
Warlock, Doom Rocket - 45 Pts.
Warlock, Brass Orb - 65 Pts.

30 Clan Rats, Shields, S, M, Firethrower - 217 Pts.
30 Clan Rats, Shields, S, M, Ratling - 202 Pts.
20 Clan Rats, Shields, S, M, Mortar - 167 Pts.
20 Clan Rats, Shields, S, M, Ratling - 157 Pts.
40 Slaves, M - 82 Pts.
40 Slaves, M - 82 Pts.

8 Gutter Runners, Slings, Poison Attacks - 144 Pts.
7 Gutter Runners, Slings, Poison Attacks - 126 Pts.

HPA - 235 Pts.
Catapult - 100 Pts.
Cannon - 90 Pts.
Cannon - 90 Pts.

Total : 2500 pts

Quite a nasty list with the Poison attacks, the Bell and the two cannons, but at least he has no Doomwheel. Now as we are  going to play Blood and Glory, my tactic will probably be a bit different. Like me, he has 7 Fortitude points, but unlike me his General is way weaker than mine. So I will probably throw the Mournfangs into the unit pulling the Bell to kill him, and then hunt his two small units of Clanrats holding two banners.

My Tusks will have a hard time hunting all those pesky weapons, and I hope my Scouting Maneaters and my Ironblaster will save me from all his machines.

1. My challenge against Brets : We will play the first game on the 14th of November. Here is the list my opponent will use during the whole challenge :

Bretonnian Lord, General, Knights's Vow, Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Heroism, Sword of Strife, Enchanted Shield - 221 Pts.
Bretonnian Lord, Knights's Vow, Lance, Shield, Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Knightly Temper, Talisman of Preservation - 225 Pts.
Prophetess of the Lady, lvl4, Lore of Life, Steed, The Ruby Goblet, Chalice of Malfleur - 290 Pts.

Paladin, Knights's Vow, Lance, Shield, Barded Warhorse, Crown of Command, Dragonhelm - 125 Pts.
Paladin, Knights's Vow, Barded Warhorse, Sword of Might, Gromril Great Helm, BSB - 124 Pts.
Damsel of the Lady, Lore of the Beasts, Steed, Scroll - 105 Pts.

13 Knights of the Realm, M, S, Banner of Eternal Flame - 346 Pts.
13 Knights of the Realm, M, S, Std. of Discipline - 351 Pts.
12 Peasant Bowmen, Braziers, M - 82 Pts.
12 Peasant Bowmen, Braziers, M - 82 Pts.

4 Pegasus Knights, M - 230 Pts.
8 Questing Knights, M, S - 251 Pts.

9 Grail Knights, M, S, Lichebone Pennant - 387 Pts.
Field Trebuchet - 90 Pts.
Field Trebuchet - 90 Pts.

Total: 2999

Yes, it's a very scary list against Ogres. He has tons of hard to kill characters, one HKB lord that kills Ogres as it were gnoblars, two casters, huge lances of knights that I can't stomp and have a hard time to impact, two Trebuchets protected by small units of archers (no hunting for lone Sabretusks) ... I really ask myself how I will be able to handle all that, and especially the HKB lord.

The Hellheart will be premium here, as he always has his damsels inside his big lances, where even the miscast that causes one S6 hit on all models in base contact is a bane for him. He also handicapped himself for the watchtower, it will probably be easy for me to control it. But other battles will be tough, especially those where we will begin close to each other, like Blood and Glory and Meeting Engagement.


Battle reports soon. I also almost finished my Maneaters unit. To play 100% painted for these two challenges, I still need to paint Golgfag, 2 Sabretusks, a Stonehorn and 4 Mournfangs. That's still quite a lot of work

I was massacred by the Skaven with my cup list.

He had the Brass Orb, the Doom Rocket, a Screaming Bell, two Cannons, one Catapult, two Ratlings, a mortar and a flamethrower.

If I tell you he shoot 3 turns with all these, never missfired once and hit 80% of the time with almost everything, it should give you an idea how quickly the game ended 

For those interested, the battle report in french is there : www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOoWorQCEW4&lc=OO_9Jsph6P1f59nOkD4pA3taWn0gOAfRcnNrhjHN_Sk

I played the first game of the challenge against Bretonnia two days ago. We played Dawn Attack.

I massacred him badly. He lost everything, while I lost the two units of Gnoblars, the Ironblaster and ... that's all.

First turn I killed one of his Trebs with my IB, and the other blew itself up first turn.

Most of it was decided when his General's (that had HKB) unit of 13 Realm Knights + a Paladin panicked from the 4 deaths he took from the Curse of Anraheir casted with IF the turn before, and was caught by my Maneaters.

I took the charge from his Grail Knights with my Bulls + BSB + SM and finally killed them all when my SM casted both Wyssan AND the boosted Transformation of Kadon (I used my SoM Chimera finally !).

I charged his Questing Knights with the Ironguts + Butcher, destroyed him in one turn, and overcharged into his other big bus of 13 Realm Knights with another Lord, a Paladin and the Prophetess. He won 2 turns of combat until I combo charged them with the Stonehorn, the Maneaters AND the Bulls. It was ugly to see.

Lastly, his 4 Peg Knights took almost all the points he got. Despite being shot at by 6 Leadies and an Ironblaster, he managed to charge one unit of Gnoblars (losing one Peg Knight to a trap !), overcharged the IB and making it flee off the table, until my Leadies finally shot them down.

A very convincing first victory, but I may not be that lucky all the time.

So disappointed by my performance in our gaming club cup, I am eliminated after my second game.

After the first game against a nasty skaven list that trashed me with shooting only (4 turns firing with 4 warmachines and 4 weapon teams with no missfire), I had to fight dwarves in a Dawn Attack battle. I told to myself : "Perfect ! His deployment is screwed, and I will trash all his units in no time".

But no. First he got 2 "2", 1 "3" and 4 "6" when deploying, so he was able to deploy in a corner, one flank protected by a river and his Anvil behind a building...  I had to deploy first and got the center for all my units, so I was pretty far way from him. Then his cannon + catapult went crazy and demolished my Ironguts + general in two turns ! My Ironblaster failed a dangerous terrain test on a barricade and lost his 5 wounds.

Ofc I demolished the units I managed to get in contact with, but he won the game by ... 31 points and I lost the battle due to the rules of our cup (that I wrote myself ).

The worst point of this whole story is that during these two games (skaven and dwarves), I forgot I had the Ironcurse Icon on my Slaughtermaster. Nice mistake when you're facing 4+ warmachines twice ...

It's a been while since I have updated my Gnoblog, and for a reason. In december / january, I was busy building and painting a 1200 pts list of Chaos Dwarves for a team tournmanent.

But first, I've painted some Maneaters and two Sabretusks end november :



And then my Chaos Dwarves, who are mostly from Mantic Games except for the Magma Cannon :

An Abyssal Dwarf Berserker Champion (Mantic) that I used as my Castellan :



Bull Centaurs (Mantic) :



My Magma Cannon :







Two Katsuchan rocket Launchers (Mantic) used as Deathsrieker's Rocket Launchers :







10 Abyssal Dwarves Blunderbusses (Mantic) used as Infernal Guards with Blunderbusses :






24 Abyssal Dwarves (Mantic) used as Infernal Guards with Shields :







And some pics after with the bases done :

Did you play with your CD with the Tamurkhan list? How do you feel about them, points efficiency-wise?

i hate painting purple but you seemed to have nailed it.  Though i wouldn't cut a 20 quid model, well done on that gutsman conversion

Thanks.

@ Spikes : The LoA list reminds me a bit how GW ought to build his army books. Some units are terribad, others are retarded. But I think Forge World always strives to get his lists/units accepted, so they always nerf them somewhat to balance them.

Still, there are some obvious problems in the internal balance. The Destroyer and the Magma Cannon are close to absurd. The Destroyer did not need that -1 to Wound crap to be awesome, the Magma Cannon did not need 24" range + artillery + flame template to be awesome. Everybody complains about them and I will admit that there might be a problem with those units.
The rest of the army is ok but completely overpriced : you pay 3 pts for Great Weapons, you pay 60+ points for a Centaur with 2 attacks, you pay 200+ points for a Mortar which is a bad version of a Hellcannon, etc. So it balanced it quite a bit.

Chaos Dwarves will be an army of the extremes. They will have super easy matchups against Ogres, Orcs & Goblins and the like, and they will very hard matchups againt other gunlines like Dwarves and Empire who will decimate their machines easily, and block the Destroyer. I think they are still fun to play, but in a tournament-oriented environment they might generate some frustrations because of these extremes (opponents will complain how absurd they are, CD generals will complain about how they suck against some armies).

It was about time to give these beauties a little bit of love ...

I painted the Thundertusk lately ! Only the Stonehorn's left for the achievement







And a Hellcannon for my Chaos Dwarves :

I haven't painted much the last year (curse Guild Wars 2) but I finally finished my Stonehorn lately. It is now official : I have painted at least one unit of each choice of our army book, special characters aside. Yay !