2500 Points - Hunter on Stonehorn!

Greetings all,

For fun, I thought I'd try to create a competitive list with a hunter mounted on a stonehorn.  Now, this might not be the most competitive option, but it should be fun.

Anyway, here we go.

2500 Pts - Ogre Kingdoms Roster

Lords

Slaughtermaster, 385 pts (General)
. . Level 4 Upgrade
. . Lore of the Great Maw
. . Fencer's Blades
. . Dispel Scroll
. . Greedy Fist

Heroes

Bruiser (Battle Standard Bearer), 195 pts
. . Great Weapon
. . Heavy Armor
. . Talisman of Preservation
. . Ironcurse Icon

Hunter, 430 pts
. . Stonehorn
. . Sword of Striking
. . Enchanted Shield
. . Talisman of Endurance

Core

7 Ironguts, 351 pts
. . Full Command
. . Standard of Discipline; look-out Gnoblar

12 Ogres, 404 pts
. . Musician; Standard
. . Ironfist

Special

4 Ogre Mournfang Cavalry, 350 pts
. . Musician; Standard
. . Heavy Armor
. . Ironfist
. . Dragonhide Banner

Sabretusks, 21 pts

Sabretusks, 21 pts

Rare

Ironblaster, 170 pts

Ironblaster, 170 pts

Total Roster Cost: 2497


BSB and General go in Ironguts unit.  Both of them will be able to soak a lot of damage which should keep the unit alive longer than the 7 models would make it seem.

Got a nice big block of 12 Ogres to throw down on the table.  A couple of Sabertusks to go after war machines and help with redirect and deployments.

Mourfangs are another threat.  They rock with the Dragonhide Banner and 2+ save.

Two Ironblasters for redundancy. 

The build I went with for the Hunter was a 3+ armor, 5+ ward save.  With +1 to hit should be hitting most core troops on a 2+ and wounding on a 2+. I almost went OTS instead, but that is really good against certain enemies (such as Daemons), and not as good against others, so I went with a more generalized approach.

I don't like only having one mage, but that's what you are limited to if you go this route.

Thoughts?

My theory on the Hunter is that he needs to be going first. The Stonehorn does a huge amount of damage on the charge, and it's main advantage is that it goes before everything. When mine gets finished, I'll be running him with either the I10 or ASF sword to take full advantage of this.

The lilst itself looks good. You still have multiple threats, though a single mage and no Crown of Command is a worry. At least you have a Scroll! I'd be tempted to drop the Greedy Fist for the Crown, but it's a minor point.

Give it a try, and let us know how it goes!

How can you get the benefit from the Greedy Fist when you have Fencer's Blades?  I would take Crown of Command like mentioned earlier. Having the Dragonhide Banner is over-kill on 4 Mournfangs. I would spend the 50 points elsewhere. Other than that the list looks fine.

I think you nailed this list right on the head. Its going to be much more competative than you can imagine!

I dont think you need the crown of command on the slaughtermaster. Greedy fist+fencers blades makes him really, really killy and combined with the BSB (who I also think is an optimal build) I am not really expecting your ironguts to lose any combats if you play them right.

I also really dig your hunter build. Sword of Striking makes him an optimal killer, and 3+ as and 5+ ward is nothing to sniff at. Another possibelity would be armour of destiny + great weapon. 4+ as and 4+ ward combined with S7. Both are really good options.

Your units are also really going to combine well. The bulls can combi charge with stonehorn or ironblasters while the ironguts with characters and mournfang with dragonhide banner are just going to ram through anything in their way except deathstars.


Your list is just about perfect, except for a few things which are not easy to correct with the build you have:

- lack of flaming attacks
- only a single caster who is also general
- no hellheart and again only one caster to channel and dispel.

That slaughtermaster basically runs your entire army. If your opponent finds a way to nuke him, you have basically lost the game. You can also miscast, so better throw less than 4 dice at each spell!

That slaughtermaster basically runs your entire army. If your opponent finds a way to nuke him, you have basically lost the game. You can also miscast, so better throw less than 4 dice at each spell!

you have more chance to fail a LoS than die to a miscast. So i wouldnt worry "too much" about it. its a possibility, but so is dieing to a cannonball after a failed LoS...

so its not much of an issue.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

My theory on the Hunter is that he needs to be going first. The Stonehorn does a huge amount of damage on the charge, and it's main advantage is that it goes before everything. When mine gets finished, I'll be running him with either the I10 or ASF sword to take full advantage of this.

The lilst itself looks good. You still have multiple threats, though a single mage and no Crown of Command is a worry. At least you have a Scroll! I'd be tempted to drop the Greedy Fist for the Crown, but it's a minor point.

Give it a try, and let us know how it goes!

I had considered crown of command instead of greedy fist.  In the previous army book I never left home without it in fact.  However, this time I decided against it.  Reason being is that I feel that this small group should be able to defeat most enemies as long as I play it smart.  Two of the front will be toughness 5, with one WS 10 and the other a 4+ ward.  If I run into something that could hurt the regular ironguts, I'll challenge with the champion so they can't strike at.

Of course, this unit can't take on everything, but it should be able to deal with a lot of foes.

Still something to consider.  I'll probably try with both.  I just like the +1 Strength.  Makes the slaughtermaster pretty good in HtH.

Can you elaborate more on why you feel the hunter needs to strike first?  It could depend on the metagame.  However, when I usually play people take big blocs of troops.  So, even if I strike first, there would almost always be someone to strike back due to step up, therefore negating the advantage of striking first.  If I charged some fast cavalry or small elites, that might not be the case, but a lot of times those units will just die from the impact hits anyway.

How can you get the benefit from the Greedy Fist when you have Fencer's Blades?  I would take Crown of Command like mentioned earlier. Having the Dragonhide Banner is over-kill on 4 Mournfangs. I would spend the 50 points elsewhere. Other than that the list looks fine.

Greedy Fist is a Talisman.  It doesn't interfere with weapons or armor.

Where would you put the extra 50 points for the Dragonhide?

One other reason I took the banner though is to have SOME flaming attacks in there.  If I run into a Graveguard regenerating horde, at least I'll have a chance if I have to charge it (not from the Mourfangs, but from combo charging with the Ironguts and having the Ironguts and Bruiser get some hits in).

I think you nailed this list right on the head. Its going to be much more competative than you can imagine!

I dont think you need the crown of command on the slaughtermaster. Greedy fist+fencers blades makes him really, really killy and combined with the BSB (who I also think is an optimal build) I am not really expecting your ironguts to lose any combats if you play them right.

I also really dig your hunter build. Sword of Striking makes him an optimal killer, and 3+ as and 5+ ward is nothing to sniff at. Another possibelity would be armour of destiny + great weapon. 4+ as and 4+ ward combined with S7. Both are really good options.

Your units are also really going to combine well. The bulls can combi charge with stonehorn or ironblasters while the ironguts with characters and mournfang with dragonhide banner are just going to ram through anything in their way except deathstars.


Your list is just about perfect, except for a few things which are not easy to correct with the build you have:

- lack of flaming attacks
- only a single caster who is also general
- no hellheart and again only one caster to channel and dispel.

That slaughtermaster basically runs your entire army. If your opponent finds a way to nuke him, you have basically lost the game. You can also miscast, so better throw less than 4 dice at each spell!

Yeah, there are certainly weaknesses in this list.  And while I think it is competative, if I was going all out competative I wouldn't take a Hunter on a Stonehorn.

I had tought about a GW on the Hunter instead, with the Armor of Destiny, but I'd have to drop some magic items to do it from the BSB.  I am literally at 625 points in Heroes, the max, with the current set up as is.  GW would have put me over the top.

That slaughtermaster basically runs your entire army. If your opponent finds a way to nuke him, you have basically lost the game. You can also miscast, so better throw less than 4 dice at each spell!

you have more chance to fail a LoS than die to a miscast. So i wouldnt worry "too much" about it. its a possibility, but so is dieing to a cannonball after a failed LoS...

so its not much of an issue.

While this is true, I did have a game where, first turn, an Empire Great Cannon fired at my ironguts with tyrant (last book).  He hit and got a good bounce.  I failed lookout sir.  He then wounded.  I then failed 4+ ward save.  I then failed reroll 4+ ward save (luck gnoblar).  He then rolled a 5 for wounds, killing him.

Luckily this doesn't happen very often

One other reason I took the banner though is to have SOME flaming attacks in there.  If I run into a Graveguard regenerating horde, at least I'll have a chance if I have to charge it (not from the Mourfangs, but from combo charging with the Ironguts and having the Ironguts and Bruiser get some hits in).

DHB does not have a flaming breath attack, simply a normal breath attack (an icy blast even). Perhaps you should add a flaming banner somewhere instead?