First Tournament Results

Well, decided to take the ogres to a tournament with only 4 games under their belt against only 2 armies. I wasn't expecting to do well (and didn't) but it was a good time. Lot's left to learn, but I'll let you know what I learned so far. I'll give the list in the first post here and follow up with my recollections of the 5 battles I had over the weekend.

List:

Tyrant - sword of striking, enchanted shield, greedy fist, other trickster's shard, giantbreaker
Bruiser BSB - dragonhelm, ironcurse icon
Firebelly - lvl 2, dispel scroll, ruby ring
Firebelly - lvl 2, hellheart

7 ironguts, FC, dragonhide banner (tyrant here)
10 ogres, FC (firebelly 2 & BSB)
5 leadbelchers (firebelly 1)
6 maneaters, FC, gleaming pennant
sabertusk
sabertusk
ironblaster

First day

vs. VC
This was my first game against VC (in fact, all 5 games were firsts since I had only played against O&G and High elves before with the ogres and not since 6th with anything else). He had a Zombie horde army with a unit of vargheists, ethereal knights, corpse cart, terrorgheist, and mortis engine. A lot of stuff I hadn't seen before. He moved first and we both worked to get stuck in pretty quickly. I screwed up with my leadbelchers right off the bat. I looked right at the vargheists and their wings and immediately forgot they could fly. I put a blocking sabertusk in between them and my leadbelchers to shoot something else. That didn't work so well when he charged the next round. I have a lot to figure out! The maneaters were great (forgot to mention above, brace of pistols, stubborn, poison). They took out the terrorgeist, a unit of zombies, and almost made it through a third before he got reinforcements to take them out. Hellheart was very effective, causing 4 rolls! It didn't kill anyone but knocked 2 level 1s to zero and doing some damage to the necromancer! In the end I was beat in this one 12-10. I had trouble with the ethereal knights. I also took at lot of damage from the screaming. I started to really win the war of attrition against zombie creation near the end, but too little too late.

vs. Warriors of Chaos
This one was a bit odd. I ended up getting my tail handed to me here points wise 16-0 (scenario points) but I never felt like I was quite that far behind. The player had dragon ogres, hounds, skullcrushers, 2 marauders (one of which was an ambush unit) and a couple of other units. I can't recall what else to be honest because all I can recall is the skullcrushers who really rolled through me like a hot knife through butter. I did pretty well on the right flank where my maneaters walked through a unit of three dragon ogres like they weren't there and destroyed a unit of marauders with his wizard two rounds later. On the left flank my leadbelchers managed to wipe out the chaos hounds, but the ambushing marauders (with Wulkrik) managed to come in over there and take out my firepower. In the center the skullcrushers walked through everything! I can't recall what they hit first, but they hit it (ogres or ironguts) routed it, ran it down, overran and hit the next unit and rolled them up on my turn. It wasn't pretty. It was a fun game and I was really happy with the maneaters, but am now fearfull of skullcrushers.

vs. Nurgle
This was the only game of the tournament I didn't enjoy. I played a guy running an Epidemius list, which I wasn't familiar with before the game. He had a couple units of plaugebearers, a couple units of drones, a unit of 4 beasts, a lone beast, and a demon prince. I did almost no damage to him. I charged his unit of 4 beasts of chaos with my ironguts and tyrant early on and bounced off! I actually killed one of the 4 beasts in two rounds but was just mopped up. That enabled that unit to flank charge my ogres who were engaged with a unit of drones. My leadbelchers were rolled over by another unit of drones. The maneaters managed to kill a lone beast before getting swarmed. It was nasty. The tally (which I wasn't familiar with) raised the toughness and strength of all his units on the table. We were spread out a decent amount, so I wish that I had been more familiar with the rules to check some things. I'll have to make sure I have a better handle on some of these things if I do it again.

The first day was pretty good, although I was frustrated with the last game. Even though I wasn't expecting much in the way of success here with my level of experience I wasn't too happy that I didn't get one win. Oh well. At least I would be paired up with the losers bracket on day 2!

day 2

vs. dark elves
His list had 3 units of dark riders, 2 units of doomfire warlocks, a unit of witch elves, a sorceress riding with one of the warlock units, a general on a dark pegasus, 3 both throwers, and a massive unit (42 or so) of frenzied executioners (he had a special character). It was the first time I've seen someone so scared of leadbelchers. He went after them with everything (the bolt throwers, warlocks, dark riders) from the start. It was a very bloody game. His general with the pegasus charged my maneaters on my left flank. I don't think he appreciated just how nasty 6 maneaters with poison pistols can be. We destroyed the general with several wounds to spare!

I got the charge onto his witch elves with my ironguts and ironblaster on the right. It could fire, I just wanted all the impact hits I could get to make sure that unit was gone in one round. It was. I did exactly enough wounds to take out the unit, which had been whittled away by belchers and the blaster. I lost four ironguts in the process. In the center my ogres charged dark riders and overran into warlocks hoping it was enough to keep out of the charge arc of his executioners. It wasn't. i did get the hellheart off, which killed a warlock but knocked his sorceress from 4 to 1! the executioners mowed through the ogres who were also facing warlocks to the front. I think I went from a unit of 12 to a unit of 4 that first round but they held on snake eyes! They were destroyed in the following round and the executioners made a long overrun into the maneaters who were knocked down to a lone model but, since they were stubborn, held out for another round.

Meanwhile my sabetusks mopped the the both throwers. I managed to destroy everything but that massive executioner unit. I finally got a win, which was nice. It was a very bloody game however and I didn't have a lot left on the table.

vs. dwarves
This was an interesting one. He had one massive dwarf unit with 4 characters that made up most of the army. He fielded a unit of crossbowmen, 2 gyrocopters, 2 organ guns, and 2 cannon. He (like the 4 other opponents I've faced) got first turn. Cannons targeted my ironblaster, the organ gun the ironguts, and the gyrocopters came around the flanks. I ran my sabertusks right by one of the copters (both on the right) to get to the cannons. My maneaters reformed and blasted a gyrocopter out of the sky. Everyone else moved up with the leadbelchers firing at the quarrelers, I think killing a couple. Over the next couple of rounds the organ guns completely eliminated the ironguts (but not the tyrant). The sabertusks took out a cannon (the other one took out itself) but not before the cannons took out my ironblaster. The cats & tyrant took out the organ guns and lost a cat in the process while the leadbelchers outshot the crossbows.

I avoided the main dwarf unit until everything else was gone. Then I gang tackled it. I got flank charges from the ogres and maneaters with rear charges from the tyrant and last sabertusk. It was a bit of a grind. My tyrant accepted a challenge from his lord and last after a couple of rounds (forgot all about the other tricksters shard and stomp - actually forgot about stomp for the whole damn combat). the maneaters did a ton of damage and the ogres did none. He was stubborn up until the end of round 6 when the only thing left were the 4 characters. He passed, so in the end I managed to destroy everything but those 4 characters. I topped him on victory points but was so close to getting those last few models.

Day 2 was much better.

Ok, so 2-3. Not great but could have been worse. Generally nice folks. Here's what information I have after that experience;

• regular ogres don't kill much.
• maneaters are blenders - they kill a lot
• i didn't have a challenge with magic and never saw it make much of an impact. My firebellies rarely got spells off, but between the dispel scroll and hellheart I didn't really have a problem with the opponents' phases. I had a few fireballs, a couple of flame cages, and one flaming sword during the game. The VC player did create a lot of zombies. Overall my setup turned this phase into a draw at 2500 points.
• the tyrant didn't do a lot. The leadership was nice, but I might go slaughtermaster next time
• I had more luck using the ironblaster as a chariot than a cannon. It killed a few things here and there as a cannon, but not a lot. It didn't have much chance to snipe anything. No major monsters to kill.
• I really liked the results the leadbelchers got. I don't talk about them a lot here. They were not overwhelming, but nice and solid.
• I have to find a better way to remember stomp and other things like other tricksters shard
• there are some lists I need to read up on before I face them
• there are a lot of really good painters out there

So, I don't know yet what I'll do with all that. It may mean a different list (slaughtermaster over tyrant, more leadbelchers) but we'll see. The maneaters are my favorites. I read a lot of posts here about choosing those or the mournfang cavalry (I have both) but I really like how the maneaters work. With the brace of pistols they have so many attacks. If they can survive the enemy's turn they're usually golden.

That's my summary!

Hey Trample

Thanks for the write ups mate, it's great to have someone report on these things and I'm sure that even though you didn't smash face like you were hoping I'm sure it won't put you off for signing up for another tournament in your local area.

Some interesting observations you've listed and some of them I disagree with.  Remember this game is so match up dependent and that is even considering a unit by unit basis.  Ogres that pick their targets well will kill as much as any other unit provided they have the support whether that be through spells or characters helping the unit out.

Very much looking forward to seeing your army list take shape and improvements.

Thanks for the write up indeed, I always love to read batreps. Great way of getting to know different army builds and opponents tactics.

I will finally begin painting my own army next week (been playing with a friends army a few times) and will try to get in a good amount of batreps.

Great to hear that you had fun on your first tourney, keep up the good work!

Btw making a small card or just have a note saying:

1. Always roll for charge (mostly if you play other armies without ogre charge this is something you might forget)
2. Make way with characters
3. Impact hits
4. Fear check!!!
5. Stomp them! (Same time as ASL attacks)

This will help in getting in to the ogre ritme off handling close combat. All those points can make a big difference.

Some interesting observations you've listed and some of them I disagree with.  Remember this game is so match up dependent and that is even considering a unit by unit basis.  Ogres that pick their targets well will kill as much as any other unit provided they have the support whether that be through spells or characters helping the unit out.

The unit of ogres was OK. It was supported by two characters (not spells - had fire cloak in one game but never got it off and flaming sword went on the leadbelchers). I should have been a bit more clear in saying that compared to ironguts and maneaters the regular ogres generate very few wounds. Against the dwarves in the final battle the maneaters were dishing out 7 per round while the ogres dealt 1! So, the unit is OK, but my observation is that with their WS, initiative, and strength I can't expect much from the base ogre in terms of CR generation.

Btw making a small card or just have a note saying:

1. Always roll for charge (mostly if you play other armies without ogre charge this is something you might forget)
2. Make way with characters
3. Impact hits
4. Fear check!!!
5. Stomp them! (Same time as ASL attacks)

This will help in getting in to the ogre ritme off handling close combat. All those points can make a big difference.

Good idea! Thank you.

Haha if you are forgetting your combat attacks in the cc phase then you have some bigger issues Minigiant 

You could put challenges in there though, alot of ppl forget about those.

Bulls shine against anything with ASL, including Ironguts.  However, they definitely benefit from magic support.  If you go with an SM, I think you'll see a major difference.

Thanks for the writeup.  One thing to remember about regular Ogre's is that they are your anvil.  3 wide, with FC and Ironfists, will hold up a while.  Especially if you can get them the stubborn spell from LotGM.  Pin a unit in place, then flank it with something stronger.

Also, anything T4 is not a very good match-up for Ogre's.  Point them at something T3 with 5+ AS they will generate combat rez.  2 from impacts, 5 from attacks and 2 from stomps on average.