Yet another "where to start" thread!

This post turned out longer than I anticipated, TL;DR at the end!

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and I'm going to start playing Ogres! (duh  ) I've read through a bunch of threads and am even excited to join the community because it seems more active and more helpful than many others I've seen. So let me get out some background info on me:

I've been a follower of the hobby for around 8 years, but I never really played, nor did I ever buy most of an army at once. I've never had much money to spend on the hobby, hence only buying a boxed set or a single mini here and there. I recently got a job so I have some money to play around with, so I'm going to start a fantasy army for once. By that, I mean that I have a good bit of OnG's, WoC, and some HE's, but I never fully finished any of those armies because I lose motivation due to increasing in painting/converting skill and not wanting to field an army that's so mixed. Yes, I know I can strip models and repaint them, but I've done it so many times that I don't think I can ever really do it on a mass-scale ever again.

I've tried playing a few small games of 40k but it didn't feel right for me... I really like troop formations and prefer battles over skirmish type games, and I'm sure there are other factors that aren't coming to mind as immediately. I am fairly certain I won't be playing in competitive environments for a long while, just to throw that out. Anyhow, I want to give Fantasy a go, and since I'm here, I guess you could guess I chose to go with Ogres. Here are my reasons:

- Firstly, I've been dying to assemble an army and mix and match bits from various kits, and Ogres seem to be better than most armies for that to boot! I love the assembly and converting part of the hobby and I want to try my hand at it in a bigger scale than most of my other projects. Plus, the look the Ogres have is very appealing to me and I feel like with bigger models I'll have more room for fun conversions and the like.

- Secondly, the low model count will be lighter on the wallet, and more importantly, will be easier to finish painting. I'm really looking forward to having a full force painted up, and with Armies on Parade coming up, I'll have even more motivation to do so. To add to all that, whenever I look at an ogre army, I just get the feeling that it's more exciting to paint than some of my other armies.

So that's my background, sorry for the wall of text... 

Now, onto my palns: I've read around a bit, and it seems like two battalion boxes is the way to go. On top of that, I'm thinking of buying an Ironblaster and two boxes of Mournfang cavalry. I have some old metal chaos hounds that I can use as sabretusks (I only hear good things of them) and because I want to focus on converting and all that, I'll be using regular ogres and will be making a BSB (seems like everyone says its mandatory) and a slaughtermaster. I really want to get the SH/TT, but I'll probably get that at a later point... (how much bigger is it than a giant, by the way? If it's considerably larger then I might just get that instead of an extra box of cav or battallion)

Because I'm new to the game, and because I'm not TOO worried about army structure, I'd like to have your guys' feedback on what to do with my aforementioned ideas. Does what I have in mind sound like a good starting point? I want to buy a bulk of my stuff at once so I have as many options to bit swap as possible, just fyi

But the more important question is, would a you guys recommend me a basic starting setup? (how many bulls to make to ironguts, how many heroes to convert, etc)

TL;DR: Planning on getting 2 Batallion boxes, 2 Mournfang Cav, 1 Ironblaster. Will convert some Ogres into Hero choices, have proxt chaos hounds. What's a good starting setup (specific #'s apreciated) using those resources for someone new to Warhammer?

Copied from : http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=23792.msg317976#msg317976

I would suggest you build your army in the following order, adding more units as you can afford it.

#1 - a battalion (make 6x ogres - full command and ironfists, 6x ironguts - full command, 4x leadbelchers)
#2 - 30 bases, size 20mm (put the gnoblars from the battalion on these bases)
#3 - a firebelly
#4 - another battalion (make 3x ogres - ironfists, 3x ironguts, 2x leadbelchers, save the rest until you get a better idea what list you want to run, put the gnoblars on the bases you have left over from #2)
#5 - ironblaster (build as an ironblaster, put leftover gnoblars on bases from #2)
#6 - slaughtermaster
#7 - 1 box of sabretusks
#8 - 1 box of mournfang cavalry (build with a musician and standard bearer, use ironfists)
#9 - another ironblaster (build as an ironblaster, put leftover gnoblars on bases from #2)
#10 - another box of mournfang cavalry (use ironfists)
#11 - another box of sabretusks
#12 - convert a bsb (use leftover bits from all of the above, use an ogre body from #4 or buy Bragg / paymaster maneater / hunter / tyrant models to convert)
#13 - you should have a good idea how you want to expand from here:  buy or convert some maneaters, a tyrant, another firebelly, another butcher, a thundertusk / stonehorn, more mournfang cavalry, etc.

I would magnetize the arms for 2 sets of musicians and standard bearers each from my ogres, ironguts, and mournfang cavalry.  You will very rarely run more than 2 units of each type.  Champions are a great idea for ogres / ironguts and a horrible idea for mournfang cavalry.  Ogres and mournfang cavalry will always have ironfists.  If you get a stonehorn / thundertusk, I would magnetize it if you're up for the challenge (I have heard it is difficult to do).  There is no need to magnetize your characters, ironblasters, non-command models of ogres / ironguts / mournfang.  I would recommend against buying and building a hunter, any of the special characters, a scraplauncher, or gnoblar fighters.  Most of these units are not good enough to use competitively or in the case of gnoblars, can be easily converted from the kits above.  These noncompetitive choices do make great conversions (except for the scraplauncher), so feel free to buy them for that purpose.

Some other helpful advice:
- For modeling accessories (glue, knives, brushes, basing materials, etc), don't buy the expensive Citadel brand.  I recommend getting most of these items at a local hobby store for a much cheaper price.  You can use regular superglue, for example.
- Rare earth magnets can be bought on eBay with free shipping (expect it to take 2 weeks) for much less than in a local store.  I recommend size 3mm x 2mm for switching arms and 6mm x 2mm for magnetizing bases or the stonehorn/thundertusk.
- For primer, I recommend Citadel brand.  It may cost a bit more, but Citadel has excellent customer service in the event the primer messes up a valuable model.
- For paints, I recommend Citadel, Reaper, Vallejo, and Armypainter paints.  Everybody has their own favorite, but they are all quality paints.  Armypainter has an interesting approach called "dipping".  There are several threads around this forum discussing it.

Hope this helps!

-Snark

Planning on getting 2 Batallion boxes, 2 Mournfang Cav, 1 Ironblaster. Will convert some Ogres into Hero choices.


Thats how I started my army too. They are a great fun!

While I love sabertusks, I'd say that maneaters can be sub'd in for this choice at your leisure.

Two Batallions, as stated, plus one box of Ironblaster and possibly two of cat cav are enough to get you a reasonably playable army.  Once you get a feel for what you like you can expand from there.  I also used the female fire giant and frost giant models from the Reaper range for my Tyrant and Slaughtermaster (I have a thing about women leading my armies), but there are many options for characters either through conversion or purchase.