Tactical display on dwarves

Hi guys. Coming back to WHFB after a few years break and after being disheartened by 8th edition. But want to give it another go.

Always wanted an ogre army so will start collecting them shortly.

My regular opponent will be a seasoned dwarf player who likes his artillery. I would really appreciate any tactical tips in terms of army building to help me work out what models I will need. Also tactically are dwarfs a bad opponent for ogres and how should I approach defeating them?

Thanks in advance!

Welcome back!

I actually have no real experience playing against dwarves, but I could think that this would be a good place to start looking for the tips you are looking for: http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=3874.0

Of course as you might have heard, dwarves got a new book just yesterday. Which probably has quite a lot new tricks and new goodies (like gyrobomber) which most of normal players have never played against. Of course I don't think it will change the fact that dwarves are slow, short and love artillery.

Yeah, the new book will likely change some of the finer points, but in a basic overview:

If the dwarves have great weapons, oppose them with bulls. If they don't, mournfang or iron guts. Iron blasters are good for knocking out their artillery. A gorger or two can buy you valuable time and cause havoc on the gun line. Magic is very difficult to get off; either don't bother or go all out (lvl 4 + grut's). If the anvil of doom remains unchanged beware of units that can march and charge or reform and charge.

The most important enemy unit will be the anvil of doom and what, if anything, changed about it. Keep an eye on the thread Pirkka linked above to see how people do against the new book, and post your own experiences so we can all benefit!

Welcome back!

As the Dwarfs just got a new book, there's really not that much that I can say about them. A good place to learn about their finer points is the Dwarf forum, Bugman's Brewery:
http://www.bugmansbrewery.com/

There already is a thread (and most likely will be lots more) about the new changes, so that's a great place to browse, lurk and learn

- Loran

Thanks guys. That was helpful. I also might face wood elves and orcs. Any tips against them?

I've never played vs orcs, so I can only point you to the tactics thread in the "know your enemy" section.

My little experience with wood elves is they have all the tools to cause ogres a great deal of headaches, if they are played correctly. Played incorrectly they provide the ogres a light snack and an ample source of toothpicks. Most wood elf players tend to be pretty good because if they aren't they switch armies pretty quickly. I would advise checking the tactics thread on them as well.

Good luck!

The problem with Orcs and Goblins is you could be facing ANYTHING. Their lists are often so very different it's hard to advise how to deal with them without an idea of what is coming your way. Any ideas?

Wood Elves are a royal pain at range, get them up close and personal and they melt against Ogre's. Check out the tactica threads we have here for some useful tips.

Orcs n Goblins - http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=3873.0

Wood Elves - http://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=3879.0

I've had to face wood elfs a couple times in the past few months. Deploy extra wide with your units even if you don't have enough models for a horde. Woodelfs rely on getting out of your line of sight, deploying a unit of 12 ogres 6x2 makes it so much harder for them. Then extend that to all your units and you can be more certain that they'll stay in front of you

With Orc and goblins there are no bad units, its more a question of pointcost and what is most efficient.  Main weaknes is low leadership and animosity - this gives them a 1 in 6 chanse every turn that units over unit strenght 5 wont move, or if your realy lucky, pick a fight with one of his own units.

Orc master

edit : fixed bad spelling errors my tablet doesn't notice with default Dutch settings

One likely unit in Orcs and Goblins would be the ever delightful fanatics (hidden whirling balls of death that pop out of units when you get close). You could use Sabretusks to lure them out, and the same tusks can hunt warmachines fairly nicely, since Orcs and Gobbos tend to have an abundance of them.

..Main weaknes is low leadership and animosity...

Haha, main weakness is themselves...haha

One likely unit in Orcs and Goblins would be the ever delightful fanatics (hidden whirling balls of death that pop out of units when you get close). You could use Sabretusks to lure them out, and the same tusks can hunt warmachines fairly nicely, since Orcs and Gobbos tend to have an abundance of them.

I find those sabretusks are best put to killing mangler squigs and luring savages out of the way (again, if they have them in their army...)

Manglers are pretty darn terrifying for any army to face, and us having a 21 pt model to take them out just by moving onto them is priceless...as is the opponents face when you do that. Also, making a horde or two of savages overrun 2-3 times is also priceless...

Against Wood Elves, if they're fielding Waywatchers I'll generally just ignore the unit.  They can scout up behind you, but they're a pain in the posterior to pin down and charge.  And given they're S3 bows I just barrel up the pitch and leave them do what they will.  Aside from that, try to stay in combat so they don't just dance around and shoot you to death.

Orcs & Goblins tend to ruin my day, mostly it's the Mangler squigs (and note it will always be a plural) and masses of fanatics that will rip through your guys.  Don't count on your Sabretusks surviving past turn 1, as they'll generally be Doom Divered to prevent you using them to step on Manglers.

Is it worth not bothering at all with magic against dwarfs and using the extra points on more ogres?

It's certainly an option, but I prefer to build all-comers lists so I don't go that route.

Judging from some of the grumbling over at bugman's it seems new dwarves lost a lot of magic defense in the new rules, made up for with more runes for buffs and shooting for reducing enemies. This means we might actually get a spell off against the new book.

Since dwarves always get +2 to dispel, leave your lvl 1's at home. Also I wouldn't worry about casting anything that remains in play, since the dwarves literally have nothing better to do than snuff them during their magic phase.

Definitely go for all-comer lists though if you can - unless your opponents prefer tailoring. It makes it more even and stops some potentially uphill battles.