First time Wargamer Looking for start up Help.

Hi all, I am brand new to the hobby, and selecting Ogres because they just look awesome. I am putting together a 2000 point list to have fun, but to be kind of competive (meaning I don't want to get annhilated everytime I play). Let me know what you think, as any information would be greatly appreciated. The only semblance of a plan I have thus far is to put both my lord and hero in the Ironguts regiment and run it in a 4x3 block.

Ogre Tyrant
Fencer's Blades
Glittering Scales

Ogre Bruiser
BSB
Banner of Discpline
Additional Handweapon

6 Orges
Full Command
Iron Fists

6 Ogres
Full Command
Iron Fists

10 Ironguts
Gut Lord
Bellower

8 Leadbelchers

2 Ironblasters

Instead of the Tyrant, take a lvl 4 Slaughtermaster (same equipment). Slaughtermaster is almost as killy and makes all of your other stuff better to boot. Ideally get a dispel scroll in there too, but see how the rest of the points-fiddling goes.

I'd drop the unit champions from every unit (10 points for 1 more attack isn't worth it when it's units of monstrous infantry - the only reason to take one with ogres, ever, is to protect fragile characters which, frankly, we don't have), and get a standard bearer in on the ironguts. Give the crown of command to your BSB and move the standard of discipline onto the guts. That way, your big irongut-general-bsb unit is Ld9 and permanently stubborn, with re-rolls, which is awesome for us. Maybe drop a few leadies to make room for those changes - you've got plenty of shooting just with the two Ironblasters, anything on top of that is a bonus, really.

The above post is correct
The Slaughter master (I feel) is a much more forgiving setup He can do MOST things the tyrant can do and he also regenerates wounds per spell he casts from the MAW lore! Which again in my opinion is quite strong!

I would run -
Slaughter Master
Level 4, Armour of Destiny, Gruts Sickle (It gives you +2 to cast which means effectively you have a level 6 wizard!) And a 4+ ward save to boot! ( A save that cannot be bypassed by any means)

Bruiser
BSB, Crown Of Command, Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield, and a 5pts magic weapon for ethereal units.


Is for your core I would use 1 unit of 10 Guts and 1 unit of 10 Bulls
With the remaining points you want 2-3 Sabre Tusks
They will win you games! (literally)
They are not great in combat, they are not tough (relatively speaking) but they can re-direct your enemies charges and lets you pick which combats you want to fight and when
They are also good at taking out enemies cannons etc

Everything else is solid
You will find ogres a very strong army and a little forgiving in certain areas
Oh and a tip, since your running 8 leadies, they perform just as well in combat as your normal ogres so move them forward every turn! and charge to support your Ironguts

Chris

Chris and Flamebeast,

Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly. I was struggling with whether I should take the slaughtermaster over the Tyrant, but I think you convinced me. Here is the list as it stands after your very helpful advice. I am curious as to how the sabertusks will help me though. How do they redirect charges of the opposing player? I also toyed with the idea of dropping an Ironblaster and taking a Giant, is that any good? Thanks again for the help.

Slaughter Master
Level 4 Wizard
Armor of Destiny
Grut's Sickle

Bruiser
Battle Standard Bearer
Crown of Command
Heavy Armor
Enchanted Shield
Warrior Bane

9 Ogres
Ironfists
Bellower
Standard Bearer

10 Ogre Ironguts
Standard Bearer
Standard of Dsicpline
Bellower

6 Ogre Leadbelchers

Iron Blaster

Ironblaster

3 Sabertusks (I guess these get fielded on their own and stop marches and are sacrificed so my orges can smash something?)

Your list looks pretty good.  I would make a minor change:

Drop 1 sabretusk and use those points to add a Musician to your Leadbelchers for 10 pts (so that you can swift reform and still shoot) and add a Champion to your Ironguts for 10 pts (so that you can accept challenges from things that would kill your characters, and also to keep in the front rank to limit the wounds your opponents can do to your unit).

Re:  Giant or Ironblaster - In short, your opponents will complain about the ironblaster and you will complain about the giant.

As far as how to use your sabretusks, there are a few threads discussing the tactics involved, try a quick search.

Welcome to the Stronghold!

-Snark

For all new people I am now recommending going through the following link
http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=26514.0

It is a new aspect of the strong hold that can answer many questions about individual units/characters
Follow the links for the sabretusks and once you master what it teaches you, you will not loose many games at all

Follow the above link to the tactica! its where I started and it full of ogrish goodness

As for your sabres, they fill a variety of roles
They can be used to "snipe" casters (they are generally not well armoured), you can "re-direct" and yes, they are sacrificial units
If your enemy spends a turn shooting two 21pt models instead of your 1000pts block then its a win lol.
But yeh, read through the tactica! and avoid the Tyrant or Slaughter master bit. It will just confuse you
In short Slaughter Master is slightly more forgiving
As for the cannon Keep 2. People will complain when you do it, but when they stick something cheesy on the board its fine.
The cannons are good, one of the best in the game and redundancy is always good

Chris