The Stronghold Guard

Welcome to my new Gnoblog, The Stronghold Guard!

My previous Ogre Kingdoms army, the Metal Manglers, have now been retired and sold to make way for the new army and theme.


A little bit of background fluff

As some of you may remember, the Metal Manglers tribe was ruled over by a young Tyrant named Morgut the Mighty, and over several years the tribe became wealthy through dealings with the neighbouring Chaos Dwarfs.
As their wealth and numbers grew, the tribe migrated from the lowlands and headed up into the Mountains of Mourn to carve out their own Kingdom.
After much bloody battle with many other tribes, the Metal Manglers eventually arrived at the Ogre Stronghold, a fortress buried beneath what the Ogres call 'Maw's Tooth Mountain'.  Many more Ogres had allied with Morgut and joined the tribe since they had begun their journey, word of Morgut's strength had spread far.
Morgut knew upon arrival that this would be where he wanted his tribe to settle and call home, but the fight for control of the already occupied Stronghold would be their biggest challenge yet - the armies of the Stronghold and her allies outnumbered even his large force easily. 
However, instead of open warfare and mass slaughter over control of the Stronghold, the Overtyrant of the Stronghold invited Morgut to a gut-barging contest to decide their fate.
The conditions were that if Morgut the Mighty won, the Overtyrant would freely hand over the Stronghold and it's armies to Morgut.  If Overtyrant Hragged won, the strongest of Morgut's tribe would join his personal Guard, while Morgut's fate would be in Hragged's hands.
Morgut, knowing his tribe was outnumbered and having never been bettered in one-on-one combat, accepted the challenge. Had he heard the tales of the Overtyrant beforehand, he likely would have taken his chances with an all-out assault instead.
In short, Morgut was defeated by Hragged.  Humbled and impressed by the sheer strength of the Overtyrant, Morgut awaited his inevitable death.  It came as a surprise to him when Hragged offered him command of the Stronghold Guard, instead of ending his life.  Morgut had impressed the Overtyrant, and Hragged wasn't one to miss out on a potential opportunity of greater strength for the Stronghold.
So it was that an alliance was formed between the Ogre Stronghold and the Metal Manglers, the strongest of Morgut's tribe joined the Stronghold Guard, with Morgut the Mighty in command.


Army list

This will be the first 2000pts (I'm planning to keep on adding to the army for the foreseeable future):

- Morgut the Mighty, Tyrant - 296pts
(heavy armour, Luck Gnoblar, Tenderiser, Wyrdstone Necklace, Fistful of Laurels)

- Butcher - 165pts
(Bangstick, 2 Tooth Gnoblars)

- Butcher - 160pts
(Dispel Scroll, Tooth Gnoblar)

- Butcher - 160pts
(Dispel Scroll, Tooth Gnoblar)

- 3 Ogre Bulls - 126pts
(additional hand weapons, light armour)

- 3 Ogre Bulls - 126pts
(additional hand weapons, light armour)

- 3 Ironguts - 194pts
(standard bearer, Warbanner, Look-out Gnoblar)

- 3 Ironguts - 144pts

- 3 Ironguts - 144pts

- 20 Gnoblar Fighters - 42pts
(Groinbiter)

- 20 Gnoblar Fighters - 42pts
(Groinbiter)

- 9 Gnoblar Trappers - 54pts

- 3 Yhetees - 195pts

- Gorger - 75pts

- Gorger - 75pts

Total - 1998pts


The theme

This army will look a lot more regimental than the typical Ogre army, more on that soon (I have a few sketches to show - nothing special mind).


Until next time!

Sounds good Hragged. I've been wondering when we would get to see ur army.

As a suggestion, perhaps u could make ur force look a bit 'Guard'like by converting halberd-type things for ur Irongut units. These would just be rough copies of the halberds that other races use, and because they're wielded so inexpertly, they would still count as Great Weapons.

I never actually thought you would create another gnoblog. I saw your pirate one (it was for my liking) and was surprised to see the abrupt end.

I will look forward to seeing some models from the overtyrant. They'd better be good!

Thanks

That's exactly what I had in mind Ghworg, have you been looking at my sketches?
They're also going to be carrying Ogre-sized shields (something you don't see in many Ogre armies!).

As for the Pirates, they got put on the back burner as I was starting my business at the time. I've still got them here, but I doubt I'll go back to them until the Dogs of War rules get re-written.

cool 

Greatly looking forward to seing this gnoblog progress.

cheers,Gorg

Sounds like a great theme for an army. Will you be converting your ogres to be standing to attention like gORCUS' corpse eater bulls rather than advacning? Looking forward to seeing what the best of the Stronghold can muster!

thanks
Corai

18th April 2007

Work has begun on a couple of conversions - the Tyrant and the Irongut Standard Bearer.
Morgut will be based on the Paymaster Maneater mini, though I'm working on a different right arm, weapon, and a replacement head for him.
The Standard Bearer is based on the Pirate Maneater mini, with the Parrot Gnoblar and under-foot treasure chest removed (I cut my thumb again trying to remove that pesky Gnoblar!).  In his left arm he'll be carrying a Standard depicting the Stronghold symbol, and I'll be taking tips from gORCUS's excellent Standard conversion guide for the design of the Standard top.

To help with unifying the look of the force, I've decided that every Ogre will wear the same styled gut-plate.  To achieve this I'm using the round Empire shields (from the spearmen minis I think?), but with the lion heads removed and replaced with my own design (yet to be decided).

On to the army list!
I've made a few modifications to it, as I feel the list in my first post doesn't have enough killing power for my liking.  The new list isn't complete, currently at 1741pts, but I'm mostly happy with my choices so far:

- Morgut the Mighty, Tyrant - 296pts
(heavy armour, Luck Gnoblar, Tenderiser, Wyrdstone Necklace, Fistful of Laurels)
This is the most effective build I've used. Tenderiser is awesome, and the Wyrdstone Necklace is essential IMO.
I find that Tyrants don't die often, but when they do it's usually because they've run away and gotten sliced up by enemy pursuers.  The Fistful of Laurels helps prevent that from happening.

- Butcher - 180pts
(Bangstick, Dispel Scroll)
- Butcher - 160pts
(Siegebreaker)
- Butcher - 175pts
(Sword of Might, Dispel Scroll)
I've decided against the Tooth Gnoblars, I think the 20pts spent on them could be used more effectively elsewhere.
However, I do think these guys could be getting stuck in a bit more with the rest of the army (therefore making them dual purpose combat and magic characters), so I'm investing in a couple of magic weapons to increase their combat potential and to give me more high strength killing power to utilise on the battlefield.  The 2 Dispel Scrolls stay, never leave home with less!

- 3 Ogre Bulls - 105pts
- 3 Ogre Bulls - 105pts
These guys have been stripped naked (ooo-err!).  Their role is primarily as decoys and baiters, so I think I was wasting points on unnecessary upgrades for them in the previous list. 

- 3 Ironguts - 194pts
(standard bearer, Warbanner, Look-out Gnoblar)
- 3 Ironguts - 144pts
- 3 Ironguts - 144pts
Same as before, but I'm considering adding Standards and Look-out Gnoblars to all units and placing a Butcher in each (as putting the Butchers on the front line will grant them greater line of sight for offensive spellcasting, and their new toys will increase the killing potential of the units in combat). The extra combat bonus from the Standards would be nice too...
Of course the downside is that then there's 300pts worth of Standards that could be captured - swings and roundabouts!  I do dislike having to hide my Butchers behind units when marching towards the enemy army though, time for a change maybe.

- 20 Gnoblar Fighters - 40pts
Dropped a unit because I don't think I'll ever be able to convince myself to paint two units of the little blighters!  I've also removed the Groinbiter - 2 points saved!
These guys are simply table quarter grabbers.

- 8 Gnoblar Trappers - 48pts
I've taken the unit size down to minimum to conserve points, though I might add the extra one back again if I have enough points remaining purely for the added security from panicking from shooting.

- Gorger - 75pts
- Gorger - 75pts
Both Gorgers stay, I find them extremely useful in many ways!

Total - 1741pts

I've also scrapped the Yhetees for now, and I'd like some advice on what to spend the remaining 259pts on please. 
More naked Bulls (you filthy get!)? Bring the Yhetees back? (I must admit I'm not a fan, though I probably need more experience with them). Leadbelchers perhaps, to help protect flanks? Maybe a Scraplauncher?  Also, should the extra standards be added to the Ironguts units?

Let me know what you think please!

i would say some more shooting. but maybe you could make a 5 man irongut unit with standard and look out gnobbie and put the tyrant in there

The yhetees are definately worth it.  They are minus 1 to hit for evrybody in base to base contact with them.  They also can move through terrain without penalty.  I would also put the other unit of gnoblars back in the list.  What everybody forgets about these guys is that they can take down Giants and Dragons with their shooting.  The whole unit gets to 2x multi shoot against large targets.  The thrown weapons they use means that they have no penalty for moving and shooting.  In range they would hit a giant on on 4's and wound on sixes.  So with 40 guys you would get 20 hits and seven wounds on average in one round of shooting.  You can't go wrong paying 80 pts to kill a large target.

The army list is good. However, it lacks flank support. I would suggest, if not another unit of Gnoblars (considering how u feel about them) some Leadbelchers. 2 units of 2 would be a cheap, sacrificial, and potentially useful choice. I would also advocate giving Standards to the Ironguts: the extra CR could be gamewinning, and, to be honest, if ur committing these guys to a fight where their Standards will be taken, ur not using them properly. I am also in favour of adding the last Trapper back in: with Gnoblars, the more the merrier! I'm not sure concerning the Butcher with the Seigebreaker: I reckon 2 cc Butchers is too much: if u want more cc power, take a Bruiser. If not, give the Butcher a Halfling Cookbook instead, it'll certainly help him survive.

Well, rant over, I hope u find this helped Hragged.

How's this project coming along Hragged???

JJ

An Ogre list with Gnoblar Fighters!
Well done that man!, I always use them, nice to see someone else doing the same
The list is pretty much what I use for competative games.

As regards to the Yhettees, I think you should give them another try for a couple of games, if you get the grasp of them they are brilliant, although not to everyones playstyle.

If you don't like them, you could slot in a Scrappy and L'belchers for some fun, or more guts if you wanna be competative.

@ Fantasyfreak: Make me three; I never field a list that doesn't have at least one unit of the lil dudes They always come in handy

JJ

Hmm, I agree with the inclusion of the second unit of gnoblars. I did this for the first time only recently and it has worked out wlel so far. Hoever I do like a single large unit in the army - large being a 5-man Irongut unit for the Tyrant. It's tough, needs 6 wounds caused to panic (which would be rerolled with Fistful of Laurels anyway) and hits hard where and when it matters. Just my opinion.

Nice to see you partaking in the gnoblar stakes here! I've never seen a model painted/converted by yourself yet and I look forward to it!

Belch!