New to OK, advice needed.

Hi all,

Just bought my first batch of OK. A tyrant, 6 Bulls, 6 IronGuts and 6 Leadbelchers, what else would you suggest to make a rounded army.

Welcome to the Ogre Kingdoms! Meat's over there in the corner.
A great start - my next suggestion would be the Battalion. You get 6 Bulls, 6 Ironguts and 4 Leabelchers, and enough spare gnoblars that with some bases you'll have a couple units, although you can convert these Leadbelchers into Bulls/Ironguts since you already have a few. This will give you enough feet on the table to do some serious damage. You'll get enough bodies in there to convert a Slaughtermaster too - someone you'll want as either a Lord or as a Hero (Butcher), for buffs.
Are you set on using your Tyrant as a Tyrant? A perhaps better option, although that is entirely in my own opinion, is converting that kit into a BSB Bruiser. Ogres suffer from LD, so a BSB is a near-must in games. I converted my BSB from the Tyrant kit, and it works great. (in my gnoblog, in my signature)
After that, Ironblaster(s) and 2 boxes of Mournfangs, and you're pretty much set to go. Ironblasters are beefed-up cannons, with the ability to shrug off nearly all warmachine hunters and a bounce re-roll, and Mournfangs are arguably the best Monstrous Cavalry in the game, pumping out a ridiculous number of attacks with a pretty tough defence.

Thanks for the advice, the Tyrant would have been converted from one of the Bull/Ironguts so yes I could use him as a Bruiser instead. I also have 4 standard bearers amongst my figures could use one of them as a BSB Bruiser.

Have now added a battalion box set to my figures.

Looks like I'll be scouring ebay for some Ironblasters and Mournfangs 

How effective are Sabretusks and ManEaters?

Both amazing beyond all reason. Sabres are the perfect chaff/redirectors in WHFB and Maneaters do...well...anything you want them to really. There are many threads about the use and builds of maneaters (and how to effectively use sabres).

As a start, check this out: http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=26514.0

I had a unit of 12 Maneaters take out basically an entire Daemon army singlehandedly. It was a rather shocking display.

My horde of Bulls never even made it to combat.

It's quicker to list the bad units in Ogre Kingdoms than the good ones - Greasus, Bragg, and the Scraplauncher.

That's it.

Hunters are a bit difficult to use though, and don't always give great results. Same with Giants. But we just have such high standards in the army you'll be fine with most models you like the look of - it just all comes down to how you use them.

I would recommend that you hold off building your battalion, if you have not already put them all together.

I know this sounds a bit lame, but you can glue the bodies onto the bases and put them in the back rank of your Bulls, Ironguts or Leadbelchers.  This allows you to play some games and figure out what units you like best.

The beauty of Ogres is that four units are all based off of the same body: Bulls, Ironguts, Leadbelchers and Maneaters.  There are divided opinions on the precise usefulness of Bulls vs Ironguts or Leadbelchers vs Mournfang and Maneaters.  I think almost everyone could agree that outside of highly competitive tournament play, all four units have their uses.  If you hear people disparaging Bulls or Leadbelchers, its only because us Ogre players are spoiled by other great choices in their competing slots.

A balanced approach to Ogre core would have about 10-12 Bulls and say 8-10 Ironguts.  This variation depends a bit on how many characters you have in each unit, but 4x3 and 3x3 blocks are common.

If you are itching for another purchase, I would highly recommend the Ironblaster.  It is an inexpensive model, it looks great and there is a reason why every list of Ogres you will ever see has at least one.

The special section has some great choices, and it is hard to go wrong with Mournfang Cavalry, Maneaters and Leadbelchers.  Units of four Mournfang (two boxes) are common, as are units of 6 Maneaters.  Leadbelchers are a bit of the underdog, and I have seen people talk about using between 4 and 8 in a unit.  Try your unit of 6 that you have built to see if they work for you.

You may want to consider which lords and heroes you want to use.  A very common setup is a Level 4 Slaughtermaster, Bruiser BSB and Level 1-2 Butcher.  Another option that people prefer is using one Tyrant and two Firebellies.  All of these options are solid, and you might want to take a look at the GW models representing these characters.  If you look at the painting and modelling section, you are likely to get a lot of good inspiration for converting you own.

Anyway, best of luck and welcome to Ogre Kingdoms.

The reason people tend to take a Slaughtermaster and a Butcher over SM and Firebelly is that one SM/Butcher must take the Lore of the Great Maw if one's knocking around. As such, the list tends to be built around buffs, and the second Butcher/SM tends to have a lore that also supports that.


Mind, plenty of people try different things. SM, Butcher and BSB are the most common setups, so if you have those it's hard to go wrong with them, before you try more experimental stuff.

Thanks to all,

The Ta'angut Tribe is ever growing

12 Ogre Bulls (inc Std), 12 Ironguts (inc 2 Stds), 10 Leadbelchers, a BSB, a SM and a Firebelly.
 
2 Mournfang and 5 Sabretusks (worth getting a Hunter?) will be added by the weekend.

Looking at adding another 2 Leadbelchers to give me 3 units of 4 (or 2 of 6?) and converting the other 2 bodies with spares from my battalion box. Will also get bases for the gnoblars from the BatBox to give me a unit of trappers.

With regard to Ironblasters how more effective are they than a unit of 4 Leadbelchers (same cost all bar 2pts)?

Ironblasters are incredible, Leadbelchers are very good. Both fill very different roles. Your units of 4 leadies will clear chaff and if working together rip some holes in combat blocks, the Ironblaster does what nothing else in the army can do, kill big stuff. Greater daemons, DP's, monsters, monstrous cav, all must watch out for it. Plus its a great chariot so a support charge from it can swing a combat (though flanking with some leadies can do that too.)
Get both and you'll soon see firsthand what I mean

For expansions I'd go for another pack of mournfang for a total of 4. That will give you the flexibility to field:

A unit of 2
A unit of 3
A unit of 4
Two units of 2.
I think you get the picture ; ) Flexibility is key for ogres as we do not have a lot of entries to field but rather multiple units of the same thing.

I prefer man eaters over mournfang but work your way into the army and see what you fancy : ) Man eaters can be converted easily from the mournfang/irongut boxes using a box of basic ogre bodies. See my blog for early pictures. I have my eaters painted now but pictures are a bit delayed : /

Welcome, enjoy and good luck!