Best Bruiser builds

Hi all,

Im making a magicless, combat-orientated ogre list running a Tyrant and dual Bruiser set up.

The Tyrant is sorted thanks to many excellent suggestions in the Tyrant thread:

HA, Giantbreaker, Sword of Striking, TOTS, Greedy Fist, Enchanted Shield

Im now looking for how to kit the 2 Bruisers, 1 BSB and the other for added combat oomph....any suggestions?

Many thanks

Depends if you want a magic banner or not. If so The BSB with the MB would be good with the big name Mawseeker imo. Ld shouldn't be a problem using the tyrants leadership with a re roll. Equip him with HA & an IF gives him a 4+ armor 6+ ward. with toughness 6 would help him survive, he's is already decent in combat. Alternatively you can ditch the IF, give him a Great weapon, less survivable but he'd be str7 toughness6  5+ armor, strikes last.

The other could have a Gold sigil sword, Dawnstone, and a Dragon Helm w/ HA & an IF. Re roll-able 3+ armor with 6+ ward & strikes at initiative 10. Nothing to serious but again geared a little towards survivability (if they live they can do more dmg imo) since there already decent in combat.

Depends if you want a magic banner or not. If so The BSB with the MB would be good with the big name Mawseeker imo. Ld shouldn't be a problem using the tyrants leadership with a re roll. Equip him with HA & an IF gives him a 4+ armor 6+ ward. with toughness 6 would help him survive, he's is already decent in combat. Alternatively you can ditch the IF, give him a Great weapon, less survivable but he'd be str7 toughness6  5+ armor, strikes last.

The other could have a Gold sigil sword, Dawnstone, and a Dragon Helm w/ HA & an IF. Re roll-able 3+ armor with 6+ ward & strikes at initiative 10. Nothing to serious but again geared a little towards survivability (if they live they can do more dmg imo) since there already decent in combat.

Thanks for that 

Can the Bruiser have Mawseeker? Is it only Tyrants who can take it?
The Banner of Swiftness is a great idea for BSB and I like the load out for the BSB Bruiser.

The other Bruiser kit looks cool too.

Thanks for the advice

Bruiser can't have Mawseeker, it is a Tyrant only name. But nothing is stopping you giving him Deathcheater.

For a non BSB? Mr Maneater. He comes with stubborn. And he can pick his magic items for the situation.

The plan was for the Bruiser to go in a unit with tyrant and bsb so Golgfag doenst fit that bill unfortunately, although I will probably be taking some Maneaters so...hmmmmmmmmmmm

Best Bruiser build is BSB and second rank in a unit.

For a non-BSB build I've had some success with a bruiser with Heavy armour, Enchanted shield and Sword of striking.  Pop him into a unit of ME with stubborn and poison attacks.

Gives you a few extra attacks and stubborn + poison as well as a unit of bad-asses to watch his back (ME with AhW)

Hi Gutpaunch,

I've not seen many Tyrant + Dual Bruiser armies. Going without magic means that you can't rely on trollguts for protection against non-flaming attacks.

I've listed some builds on an earlier post http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=26881.msg354145#msg35414

If you are looking at protection on the bruisers then its possible to get a 2+ or 3+ armour save with a 2+ ward against flaming attacks,:

Impenetrable
Armour of Silvered Steel & Dragonbane Gem
2+ armour save, 2+ ward against fire based attacks.
Almost immune to fire based attacks and low strength poison.
Either 2 hand weapons or great weapon.

IF will not increase the armour save any further and there are enough wards, to get by without the parry save.

Stubborn
HA, Dragonbane Gem, Enchanted Shield & Crown of Command.
3+ armour save, 2+ ward against fire based attacks & stubborn.

Ethereal Killer
HA, Dragonbane Gem, Enchanted Shield & sword of Antiheroes (or any magic weapon)
3+ armour save, 2+ ward against fire based attacks.

Alternatively if you are looking at a ward against all attacks, then the following are possible:

HA, Enchanted Shield & Talisman of Protection - 3+ armour save and 4+ ward
Armour of Destiny & IF - 4+ armour save and 4 + ward.

If you wanted a more attacking option, then you could get rid of the Enchanted Shield/IF and give the bruisers either an AHW or GW.

I would recommend sticking them in a unit of IGs with the SOD as a non-stubborn Ld 8 is not that reliable!

Having a LOTGM caster who has Trollguts gives the Bruisers more attacking options, if they can rely on the spell being successfully cast every turn and having the 2+ ward against flaming attacks. They have no ward against the HKB, however, unless it is also flaming!

All the best in your search!

Badmarsh

This thread has been added to the 8th Edition Tactica Index!

http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=26514.msg350048#msg350048

I tend to keep my BSB fairly well rounded with a decent armour save and a generic ward. He often does very well with the following build.

Bruiser BSB - Heavy Armour, Enchanted Shield & Talisman of Preservation. Simple but effective with a 3+AS & 4++.  With this build and support from Savage Beast of Horros my BSB has downed a Greater Unclean One in a challenge! Job done! 

Hi Gutpaunch,

I've not seen many Tyrant + Dual Bruiser armies. Going without magic means that you can't rely on trollguts for protection against non-flaming attacks.

I've listed some builds on an earlier post http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=26881.msg354145#msg35414

If you are looking at protection on the bruisers then its possible to get a 2+ or 3+ armour save with a 2+ ward against flaming attacks,:

Impenetrable
Armour of Silvered Steel & Dragonbane Gem
2+ armour save, 2+ ward against fire based attacks.
Almost immune to fire based attacks and low strength poison.
Either 2 hand weapons or great weapon.

IF will not increase the armour save any further and there are enough wards, to get by without the parry save.

Stubborn
HA, Dragonbane Gem, Enchanted Shield & Crown of Command.
3+ armour save, 2+ ward against fire based attacks & stubborn.

Ethereal Killer
HA, Dragonbane Gem, Enchanted Shield & sword of Antiheroes (or any magic weapon)
3+ armour save, 2+ ward against fire based attacks.

Alternatively if you are looking at a ward against all attacks, then the following are possible:

HA, Enchanted Shield & Talisman of Protection - 3+ armour save and 4+ ward
Armour of Destiny & IF - 4+ armour save and 4 + ward.

If you wanted a more attacking option, then you could get rid of the Enchanted Shield/IF and give the bruisers either an AHW or GW.

I would recommend sticking them in a unit of IGs with the SOD as a non-stubborn Ld 8 is not that reliable!

Having a LOTGM caster who has Trollguts gives the Bruisers more attacking options, if they can rely on the spell being successfully cast every turn and having the 2+ ward against flaming attacks. They have no ward against the HKB, however, unless it is also flaming!

All the best in your search!

Badmarsh

Thanks for all that great advice Badmarsh.
The reason for no magic is that I will be going up against a magicless Bret army and a dwarf army with the obligatory anti-magic runes etc so I wanted to try something different and go for a combat heavy list.
I guess I should go for a defensive BSB build and an offensive non-BSB build to back up the Tyrant and keep the BSB in 2nd rank and step the tyrant and non-BSB in to the front rank..

Thanks.

Moniker - Thanks for the add.

Gutpaunch - a pleasure to be of any help!

To throw another spanner in the works, could be worth looking at more Big Names, Deathcheater as mpdscott has recommended or another Giantbreaker on the offensive non-BSB Bruiser. I wouldn't give the BSB Giantbreaker as you wouldn't want him involved in challenges. Putting him in the 2nd rank as MaanNaam has recommended.

Bonne chance!

Moniker - Thanks for the add.

Gutpaunch - a pleasure to be of any help!

To throw another spanner in the works, could be worth looking at more Big Names, Deathcheater as mpdscott has recommended or another Giantbreaker on the offensive non-BSB Bruiser. I wouldn't give the BSB Giantbreaker as you wouldn't want him involved in challenges. Putting him in the 2nd rank as MaanNaam has recommended.

Bonne chance!

Hate to be a bother, but you can only have one of each Big Name per army. However, Deathcheater can be a decent Big Name in certain circumstances, and Mawseeker can make an already tough character even that much more annoying to kill (plus, being in the LD-bubble, Stupidity shouldn't really be that much of an issue).

As something further to consider, if 1 of your characters is planning on taking the OTS, you might want to re-consider putting wardsaves on any other character going in the same unit.

I've found that a Bruisers natural tankiness and a decent armoursave, coupled with being immune to KB is often enough against most enemies and anything that would wipe the floor with him isn't going to be overly worried about a wardsave.

That being said, your BSB is probably the most important model in your army, so a wardsave is pretty vital.

In a nutshell, if your planning for the 3 characters to go in the same unit (and if the units looking to be 3 wide to capitalise on having a character-filled front rank) I'd opt for a ward-less Bruiser to stand in the middle of the unit, beside your tyrant (due to OTS) and a warded BSB that will sit in the 2nd rank (displaced by unit champ) this way, when the champ is killed (most likely to be focused due to lower stats/save), your BSB will step forward and still not be in B2B with the tyrant.

I've always gone for a slight compromise with my Bruiser - Sword of Striking, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of 5+ ward (I forget the name).

He's got two alright saves and is relatively poky too. If no-one else is using the 4+ ward Talisman, give him that and the Enchanted Shield. Loses out on combat efficiency, but durability's the most important thing.

Really though, the things that want to kill a BSB will probably be things that are definitely strong enough to accomplish this. CC Lords wouldn't mind having a stab at him, so the 4+ ward is the most important thing to keep him alive. Otherwise, I find most people tend to focus on Wizard Lords, and have the odd CC Hero that really still finds the Bruiser a challenge to bring down - my BSB with the first setup smacked up a Scar-Veteran with a Great Weapon and other tools and so forth.

One build I sometimes throw on my BSB(who doesn't tote a magic banner around)

Sword of Anti-heroes, HA, IF, Dragonhelm.

3+ armor, 2+ fire ward, and if the enemy has even 1 hero he's tossing out a bunch of Str6 attacks.

Defense kit for a BSB Enchanted Shield and Talisman of Preservation with Heavy Armour 3+ armour 4+ Ward.

Combat Bruiser Sword of Striking, Talisman of Endurance and heavy armour.  4+ armour 5+ ward and 5 points to spend on anther item like Enchanted shield or something. Pretty choppy against most armies except for Chaos, so if that is your meta, then perhaps he is not for you.