Ogres in 500pts

In 500pts games, my Ogre army is going to be composed of 2x3 Ogre Bulls, 1x3 Ironguts and a Bruiser, a build advised by GW staff as it gets the maximum number of Ogres into my force. However, I am slightly concerned about the fragility of this build, and with only 16pts left over with only the basic units, I am at a quandary at what to spend it on. My main concern is that the majority of my force is unarmoured and has only Ogre clubs as weapons. However, if I were to upgrade my Ogres, my Bruiser goes into battle without equipment. My current idea is to arm one unit of Bulls with 2 Hand weapons and only give the Bruiser a heavy armour upgrade. Do u guys think this is a good idea or not?

Hi Ghworg!

Is this build going to be using the border patrol rules, warband rules, or just normal army book rules?  The reason I ask is that it can massivly influence teh advice I give you

In general, getting a lot of ogres onto the board is a Good Thing (tm).  At low points you needed't worry so much about the "fragility" of teh ogres as less pointy death is flying at them and, in combat, you generally don't face fully ranked units either (less static CR to deal with)

here's how I do it following the 3 rule types outlined above.

border patrol (butcher's can lead, need 1 unit with US10 or higher)

3 bulls
4 ironguts
1 butcher+bangstick (leader)
8 trappers

warband (unit champions and maneaters can lead, butchers can't - minimum unit sizes are reduced)

3 bulls
2 bulls+ironfists
1 butcher
1 rhinox rider (bull rhinox, thunderlord, heavy armour, ironfist) (leader)

standard rules

3 bulls
4 ironguts
1 bruiser (ha, gw, thiefstone)
8 trappers

I generally play using the standard rules, but all the others are helpful too Wildcard. However, can u explain the reasoning behind ur standard rules army list, as I am interested what tactics accompany ur use of it.

How about:

Bruiser /w Heavy Armour, Ogre Club - 134 pts
3x Bulls - 105 pts
3x Ironguts - 144 pts
20x Gnoblars /w Groinbiter - 42 pts
1x Gorger - 75 pts

Ironguts + Bruiser = Smash
Gnoblars support /w Static CR (or just mere annoyance, wannabe anvil)
Bulls flank along with the Ironguts.
Gorger deal with any warmachine.

500 pts total

sure, no problems!

general tactics:  this small force has 3 distinct elements to it:

1) the hammer unit.  This is the large unit of guts and I place the bruiser in here.  I give him HA and GW in order to pack as much punch as possible for a small amount of points.  He has a thiefstone to grant protection to my hammer unit in case anyone fields a mage (and my opponents generally have a lvl2 mage at this point level)  MR1 can be a nic suprise for them.  The bruiser also goes in here to bring it to 5 members and therefore to be more resilient to panic.  the enemy still has to randomize shots against it too

2) the flanking/sacraficial unit.  the bulls in this case.  this unit moves ahead of teh guts to try and bit charges, or position itself for a flank charge.  Against shooty opponents, it becomes a meat shield to ensure the guts hit the enemy lines intact.

3) the wildcard unit.  The Trappers!   The trappers are in for down and dirty work - and will be doing any odd jobs that come up (war macnine hunting, LoS blocking, march blocking, flank charging, annoyings things with sharp stuff, etc.)  They are the only unit with any tactical flexability at 500 points under normal rules (no gut magic...grr...)

generally tactics are simple at this point level, but here goes:

a) point the bulls at the nastiest enemy unit and move them as fast as possible towards it
b) move the gutts/bruiser to support it, but also threaten the other units in the enemy army
c) have teh trappers annoy whereever they can get the most points back or cause the most aggrivation
d) have a good think about how to respond to enemy charges - fleeing is still a perfectly acceptable tatic with teh bulls or trappers, so you can pick your ground a little more easily.  Its actally easier to set up bull charges in small games - look for the chances.
e) don't underestimate the psychological effect of having 8 ogres on the table - it can be more than you'd expect.

I've played a lot of games at 500 points, and only lost once (bad dice happen to everyone), and I believe that ogres can do very, very well.  I will say though that he border patrol/warband rules are better for us as we can use a butcher under them - and the added advantages of just having a spell like trollguts in play are huge.

Thanks Wildcard that is very helpful

Yeah, all my mates say Gut Magic is for chumps. I must prove them wrong!