Ogres appear much more squishy than I had first thought

With a toughness of four and light armor, Ogres look like they are glass tanks, is this accurate? Do you usually play large formations of Ogre Bulls or Ironguts, or do you keeep them down to 10-12 man units? How do you make them tough enough to survive multiple rounds of combat and act as a tarpit? Do you even want to?

Ogres aren't made to hang around and take abuse in a fight. Ogres need to get the charge and crush their opponents to win in combat. Killing folks before they can hit you is the best defense Ogres have. Might makes right!!

Ironguts shouldn't be in combat for long, your always striking last so your going to have numbers removed before you can hit back.

That being said you should be hitting back hard, I find Harmonic convergence and Iceshard work well for them. I have 9 in a unit plus characters generally.

I don't play with bulls much as they die slightly slower and don't kill as much, taking them up against great weapon opponents is your best bet.

As Randroid said, get the charge and smash face.

If you think you want to stick around try out Maw spells for +1 Toughness and 4+ Regen, and Crown of command.

Thanks for the insights.

Honestly, the two key parts to a successful Ogre army are the following:

1. Getting the charges (which has already been mentioned) - Those impact hits, plus the extra CR, really give an edge for an army that rarely has much static rez.

2. Augment magic. The LotGM is pretty well designed for it, plus we have access to some of the good buff lores, too. But honestly, our Ogres can't hold up as well without the magic support. But, with a Toothcracker, Trollguts, Wyssan's Wildform, or Harmonic/Iceshard, or even the death debuff, it makes our Ogres just that much scarier in combat, and more capable of lasting a grindfest.

Oh, and never underestimate Spinemarrow; getting Stubborn off in the right combat can easily win a game.

But, yes, otherwise, Ogres with ironfists gives you a 5+/6++ in CC, which is pretty mediocre these days. Ironguts get just the 5+ (via heavy armor), but they'll generally get more wounds (and more CR) in the long run. But for defensive capabilities, without the magic or the charge, don't expect for them to do exceptionally well.

I wouldn't call them glass tanks exactly. Fighting ogres is like climbing a mountain: it's not that progress is that difficult to make, it's just a long journey. At 3 wounds a model it takes a great deal of effort to bring one down and until you do you have all 3 attacks still raining down on your head.

Furthermore, those three attacks mean that on any given frontage of a unit the ogres will have a greater attack output than their opposing core troops (don't forget monstrous infantry get 3 supporting attacks as well). All this means that ogre core are exceptionally good at mushing up enemy core and in a straight up slugfest they come out on top in many more situations than otherwise.

However you don't want to think of them as invincible. They can take a lot of punishment, but it all adds up. Especially against high damage elite units such as white lions or warriors of chaos. When facing such units do not expect your ogres to carry the day unsupported. Either get some buffs into the combat, support your block with characters or elites of your own, or soften up the enemy first with shooting and magic.

With all that in mind, I've run quite successfully with 8 iron guts and 9 bulls as a unit size. I try not to tarpit with either, although stubborn can make them stick around in a pinch. A decent stall unit is 20-30 gnoblars with the general nearby. They'll hold something up for a turn while you set up a charge with the big guys. Otherwise if there's a unit that you really don't want to deal with you can stall it out with enough saber tusks and 10 man gnoblar units (speed bumps, I call em) to keep it out of most of the game.

Good luck!

Ogre's tend to favor Blitzkrieg tactics. Hit Hard, Hit Fast. Blitz the enemy and make them run or utterly crush them. We can help to mitigate larger units with ranged support in the form of Leadbelchers and Ironblasters and then mop up whats left with killer charges.

Between Impact Hits, Attacks and Stomps Ogre's rarely lose a fight on the charge. We aren't built for sitting around grinding out enemies (Well Mournfangs are but they are a different beast altogether). We favor augments to increase our already fairly formidable statlines however debuffing the enemy also works very well.

As others have stated our own magic compliments the army perfectly with buffs for every situation. Heavens works wonders offering a nice selection of buffs, debuffs and offensive magic. Beast's also works incredibly well with us, especially when combined with Ogre Magic.

Overall we are a very strong army that often intimidates the opponents when they hear we are packing Ironblasters and Mournfangs, that psychological threat alone can often make the opponent overcautious giving us opportunities to strike while the iron is hot. Ogre mentality is key to winning with them, Might is Right. As I've already said above. Hit hard, Hit fast and punish the enemy when they leave themselves vulnerable to charges.

The other thing not mentioned here is defensive kits on characters- Tough 5 and a decent ward save will bounce alot of attacks and save your relatively squishy core troops to swing back.

Think of an ogre like a big orc, or several big orcs.
Harder to hurt than a man, but not a mounted man in full plate.

By no means glass.
But we arent invulnerable by any means.
Any blackpowder weapon negates our save, our LD is lackluster, and we cant generate static res.

As MD says, blitz.
We strike first with impact, throw out more attacks and hit harder than almost anything, 18 ogres in a horde manage 54 attacks and finish off with stomps.
Ideally, you want to do so much damage on the charge you strip steadfast and run them down.

Magic is a huge help, however our signature spell isnt great, we cant afford to lose combats, so stubborn really doesnt help, unless you want stubborn Gnoblars.

Our Lords and Heroes are utter tanks, my T5 SM has a 2+ 4++ save and he regenerates wounds.  But they dont do much more damage than rank and file