List of what is missing from the free rules

As you certainly know by now, Mantic has recently released a free version of the rules, as well as a limited version of the army lists.
Those rules and army lists are fully playable, but are missing some options compared to what will be in the printed rulebook.

As new players might not realise what other options exists for our beloved Ogres, here are the unit that were in the beta and that we should expect in the complete version.

Normal units

- Ogre Hunters : good in difficult terrain, and their traps/nets make charging them from the front difficult
- Siege Breakers : think "Ironguts on Steroid with huge tower shield", or maybe a mixed unit of Ogres with big shield covering for others with huge hammers.

Monsters

- Mammoth : has an option for a small ballista on top, perfect for an a certain model that has an ogre with heavy crossbow
- Giant : seems like the free lists don't like monsters very much, or maybe it's because Mantic does not have an official model yet ?

Heroes

- Siege Master : the Hero version of the Siege Breakers
- Ogre Warlord : the Ogre captain in the free list is more or less the equivalent of a Bruiser, already a powerful boss but the Warlord is your Ogre Tyrant
- Grokagamok : a special unique character, a *very* powerful Ogre Warlord and exceptionnal general

The rules themselves are complete expect for the following two things :

- they only include the default "Kill" scenario, the full rules has a few others that add some variety, things like needing to occupy the center of the table, or the ennemy half, and of course the usual "hold and control objectives" and "capture some mac guffins".

- The free rules don't include the artefacts.

While in theory completly optionnal, artefacts are a very good way to spend your last few points, and as they can be equipped on normal units too and not only on heroes, they can also be a good way to customise your units, see my other post "Using your Warhammer models in Kings of War" for some exemples.

Thanks for putting this out.  The free ogre rules felt a little anemic (no warmachines and only one monster?).  I feel I'll be jumping to KoW.  So far I've found AoS simplistic and sloppy, and the mandatory pregame discussion just irritating.

While it's true that Ogres are lacking in the war engines department, they have in fact access to long range static weapony with high piercing in the form of the Ogre Shooters (36" range and Piercing(2)), a very good mobile breat weapon with the Boomers, plus as a bonus the Mammoth ballista (it will probably often hit only on 6 if you move and shot, but it is a very cheap upgrade and with 2 attack has a chance of hitting similar to most war machines)

A captain with a heavy crossbow will also give you a decent 5 shots at Piercing(2) with the same 36" range, and by putting him near a shooter unit you benefit from his inspiring rule, as well as being able to fire at two different targets.

Also, I see nothing that prevent taking both the heavy crossbow and chariot upgrade for the captain in the final PDF, so this is a possible way to represent an ironblaster (it will however lower the defense to 4+). While it won't improve his shooting, being on a chariot will allow him to reposition or charge any unit that might come too close to your shooters.

Also, don't forget that you can ally other armies, like the goblins.

For information the full PDF of the rulebook is now available to backers of the kickstarter (including fluff).

The full lists are almost identical to the beta version, as expected.

The only differences that I know of are :

- The magic artefact "Orcsbain’s Amulet of Thorns" give the Phalanx rule to the unit instead of Ensnare (as already seen in a page preview on the blog, so it's not a surprise)
- The Ogre Warlord cost 10 points less than in the last beta
- The Ogre army has now access to a red goblin biggit (as already seen in the free version)

So all non backers, knows that you can use the beta version without remorse :
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nhZLDFOHUXC2MCA6NwYQWr0HF2mSyvEWIlNH4oCtBeQ/htmlview#

I think I'll pre-order the hardback book, it's out sometime in August yeah? I'd like to get a good feel for the setting as well as having a full copy of the rules.

Oh, those Seige breakers sound perfect!!  Have you seen my ogre army?

Oh, noce shields indeed.

Did you made them yourself or did you find some toy or model line that had shields at the correct size ?

The shields are from a german site I found, the armor is all green stuff.