On the Painting Table: Ogre Ironblaster

Look!

Man, I have had this dude for AGES and REALLY couldn't be bothered to paint him. But now I have!

The original model has the ogre holding some sort of strap things but these snapped and I didn't like the look of them anyway. I preferred him with a couple of hand weapons instead!

I have to say I'm not a huge fan of the rules but hey! It isn't about that half the time and I do love the model. Isn't that enough for God's sake!?!?!?

Massacre on Sunrise Plateau

Gill (Tempestrians) vs Tim (Ogres) 

And so it was that as dawn broke over the Sunrise Plateau in the Black Mountains, the full arrayed might of Tempestria assembled to make battle against the Ogres of the Kingdom of the Great Maw.

But standing against them were a multitude of monstrous creatures, towering Ogres and Yhetees and even a great sabre-toothed predator from the high peaks, trained to attack by one of their Hunters.

The Knights of Tempest Falls thundered into the Ogre assault, foiling their own explosive charges, their lances skewering fur and muscle even as they were hacked from their horse backs themselves. The Blessing of the Lady shone strong, protecting them but these towering leviathans seemed to feel no pain as they fought on.

The arrows of the Tempestrian archers filled the sky and the Ogres, with no armour to speak of, fell beneath the pointed rain. But still they bellowed and fought on, the Tyrant swinging his lackeys into position to eliminate his colourful enemies.

The Ogres routed or slew formation after formation of the valiant knights but Methuselah, "virtuous" leader of the Tempestrian forces were indefatigable. Every ogre who tried his blade was slain with no blood spilled from the powerful warrior.

The sabre tooth ignored the arrows slicing the air at it and devoured half a dozen archers, sending the rest to rout.

But from the tangled forest materialised the Golden Knight, ghostly defender of the dons of Bretonnia, no matter how distant, and, unable to harm him, the great beast fell to his sword.

All across the battlefield, the Ogres who had seemed at one point to be winning, were hacked apart by the remaining and most powerful warriors of Tempestria, but they were not yet finished.

From behind the Tempestrians own lines loped a massive howling Gorger, swinging the trunk of a tree. He pummelled the crew of a catapult and charged at the archers waiting behind.

But the Golden Knight was his undoing as well. Unable to hurt the enchanted warrior, the Gorger flailed impotently.

Of all the Ogre army he was the last to fall.

But fall he did.

Ogre Kingdoms Sabre Tooth Tiger!

Continuing my exploration of doing cool things in my campaign because they're cool and not getting too hung up on rules and such, may I present The Great Khan!

Here he is next to his masters in the Kingdom of the Great Maw!

This beautiful Sabre-Toothed Tiger was originally a PAPO toy that I've based and repainted.

The paint job is quite subtle - a blend of cream, khaki and bleached bone.

He's too long for a chariot base so I made an extended one from foam board.

This happy chappy is going to be part of my Ogre Kingdoms army - brought down from the mountains to fight alongside them. I'll come up with some kind of justification someday if I get round to it.

Rules wise, I went through Storm of Magic and looked at all the monsters arrayed there to get an idea of what proxy rules I could use. I went in the end with the rules for the Chaos Spined Best thingy without Regeneration or the spike attack for 180 points.

I looked for a while at the Rhinox and Lions as comparison but this dude is probably twice their size. He's actually bulkier than a dragon - so I felt I was justified on the choice.

Let's see how he plays out. I'm using him in my final game of the campaign turn - hopefully later this week!

Fell Things in the Watchtower of Filigree Plain

Never before, within the Border Princes, had such a horde of Ogres been arrayed, stretching out across Filigree Plain.

The Beasts and the Dwarfs of Chaos had insulted them on this land and now stood in mockery, leering from the tower top of the Watchtower at the Ogre's defeat.

King Maw bared his teeth and growled. This insult would not go unpunished. He would have Filigree Plain and he would have that watchtower if it was the last thing he did!

He let cry the signal for battle and all his monstrous infantry charged forward into battle, the Ironguts speeding in toward the Watchtower itself, nestled as it was against the wood hillside on the edge of the plain. They battered down the door but the Chaos Dwarfs inside fought in the opening and windows, batting them off. Nevertheless, the Ironguts killed far more of the Dwarfs than the Dwarfs killed of them.

But rather than fleeing, the Dwarfs still held! And before the Ironguts could attack again, a great and powerful Gorgon ripped through the undergrowth and battled the Ironguts, preventing them from continuing the fight.Behind it came a whirling spawn of chaos, all blades and hooves and grasping mouths.

The rest of the Ogre force swept across the plain, starting to close the arc toward the watchtower, but more of the fell creatures of Chaos came over the rise and ran toward them on hooves or stunted legs. And in their midst strode a gargantuan behemoth of metal smoke and flame: a K'Daai Destroyer, the ultimate expression of the malice and power of the Chaos Dwarfs: a gigantic metal statue come to life by sinister ritual.

The Leadbelchers let forth a tremendous volley of cannon fire but did little to harm it and King Maw realised there only hope was not to kill it but to draw it away from the Watchtower, long enough for them to take control of it.

Sending his Hunter and Sabretusks, his Maneaters and Gnoblars, King Maw's forces swamped and lured the Destroyer further and further away from the watchtower, hoping that in that, the battle might be won.

Meanwhile, with all the brutality within their monstrous frames, the Ogres battled against the Beastmen Gors, the Doombull and Leonine Giant, their numbers faltering but not breaking. King Maw himself strode to the aid of the Ironguts, as did his Slaughtermaster, and then finally the Gorgon fell, and with it, the Spawn.

At that moment, if they had renewed the fight against the Chaos Dwarfs in the tower they might yet have won, but they stood back long enough for the Leadbelchers to let fire at the tower. The ancient stone was too strong for the cannonballs though and the Dwarf armour within withstood much of the rest that got through.

The Ironguts charged in again but though they slew many Dwarfs, it wasn't enough and they were running out of time.

With the K'Daai Destroyer closing in on them, all they could do now was withdraw and plan anew.

Plan anew to take back Filigree Plain from the fell things of the forest.

On the Painting Table: Ogre Hunter & Sabretusks

My good friend Joao gave me two Sabretusks to add to the two I already had.

On a real Ogre Bender I immediately set out to paint them!

I'm looking forward to taking advantage of the new rule allowing larger packs of Sabretusks to be used. Better than anything is just that it makes a tired old unit look a little jazzed up and more exciting! 

The mane was done with two doses of brown wash over the base coat which is actually from a B&Q tester pot!

Here's looking forward to using them!

On the Painting Table: Ogre Firebelly

This is such a staggeringly nice model that I was actually quite worried while I was painting it that I'd be able to pull off the fire effect sufficiently well to not look like a tosser.

It isn't as good as the GW version but it isn't bad I guess. I'm reasonably happy.

Thank God GW decided to allow lores other than the lore of the Great Maw in Ogre armies. And Fire is my favourite lore. With an additional breath weapon, this guy is probably my most welcome addition to the new army.

On the Painting Table: Ogre Mournfang Cavalry

Well they took me a while to do but here at last, may I present, my Ogre Mournfang Cavalry:

These are such beautiful models and I have my good friend Neil to thank for making them possible (with a little help from Christmas).

I love the models so much I'd love to build an entire army based around them!

At the moment I only have two but I'll definitely be at least upping this to four in the nearish future. No doubt about it.

They were painted Graveyard Earth all over with a black ink wash on the fur and brown on the body, highlighted back up with Graveyard Earth and Kommando Khaki.

On the Painting Table: Alternative Ogre Gorger

Look at this beauty!

He's the latest addition to my Ogre Kingdoms army: an Ogre Gorger.

But why does he look good, I hear you ask. Surely the Gorger model is terrible???

Well true. So I went elsewhere. This handsome chap is actually Hogsquasher the Troll from Red Box Games, available from eBay.

He's distinctive and cool and I think does a top-flight job as an alternative to the official model.

I did the usual Bronzed Flesh | Flesh Wash | Bronzed Flesh | Elf Flesh for the skin; and Adeptus Battlegrey | Black Wash | Adeptus Battlegrey for the clothing.

 

I'll be updating my Ogre Tactica with him shortly so check it out if you like that kind of thing...

Tactica: Ogre Kingdoms

For a LONG time I have had a second Ogre Battalion sitting in my attic almost untouched.

Then I decided to get a bit obsessive and have had a major splurge on Ogres. I've now painted every ogre I own and though there are a few Gnoblars yet to be done, the army is now pretty solid.

Here now, for your viewing pleasure are the models and units that make up the army as well as my thoughts on tactics... 

Ogre Tyrant

I always try to play big games and the Tyrant is the natural choice.

There's a lot of concentrated power in one place here. One of the great debates about army choice is how much to spend on characters. I find myself tending to gravitate toward going the full 25% on Lords and Heroes, using up fifty percent of the total army points right there.

In some ways that's bad - imagine how many more troops I could get on the table if I went more minimalist - but on the other hand, more units makes the table cramped (even on my eight foot board). Concentrating power into a single miniature means that the army width drops but I can apply a lot of damage in a single place.

I'm not a huge fan of the Ogre magic items so I tend to give simple weapons for my Tyrant. He already has Strength 5 which gives -2 to armour saves and wounds most things on a 2 or 3+. His Initiative isn't great so aiming for a Great Weapon isn't that bad a loss in terms of hitting last. +2 Strength means -4 to armour saves. That's the kind of thing that comes in handy against knights and heavy infantry. But be careful of overkill. If opponents' armour isn't great, an extra attack is probably more useful.

I always put him in a unit for missile-fire protection and the combat resolution bonus. 

Slaughtermaster & Butcher 

I love the idea of Ogre Butchers but found them a bit frustrating in the old rules. I'm VERY happy that the spell lores are less limited now (especially getting the Lore of Fire for Firebellies - my favourite lore).

With a Slaughtermaster and a Butcher in the army, and one of them having to use the Lore of the Great Maw, I'm inclined to give that lore to the Slaughtermaster.

The reason for this is that this lore becomes amazing if the Augmentation spells are cast at the higher power level. Placed in the centre of a densely packed army, the Slaughtermaster has a greater chance of getting the higher casting level off successfully and can potential affect a good portion of the force.

The Lore of Beasts is a pretty good lore in terms of augmenting combat spells and the Transformation of Kadon can't be beaten. It's my favourite spell in the game.

The Lore of Heavens isn't one I've had a huge amount of experience with so I'll hang fire on my opinion of that for now.

Hunter & Sabretusks

An interesting change for the Ogre Hunter now that Sabretusks can be a much bigger unit in their own right. I think if I could buy them cheaply I'd definitely go for a larger pack.

Now the Hunter slows them down a little (though he can be given a big name to speed him up a tad) so that's something to bear in mind.

Vanguard isn't as good as Scout (giving a free 12" move) but it allows the Hunter and his pack to get into a relatively good flanking position. This is a small and relatively manoeuvrable unit that does its best work in a supporting role. With Swiftstride and a flank charge, these guys can chase down fleeing opponents while their buddy unit repositions to take on the next enemy in the line.

Battle Standard Bearer Bruiser 

I've said it before but here it is again:

Always take a Battle Standard Bearer in every army! 

There are plenty of spare standards in the Ogre Battalion box to scratch build something like this. As with the Tyrant I don't tend to upgrade this guy. I don't rate any of the Ogre magic items and the Big Names aren't that useful either for my playing style.

There's two schools of thought here. Keep the Tyrant and Battle Standard together centrally for a tight, relatively unbreakable army, or split them up for a more spread out force, one covering each end.

In concert with a centrally-placed Slaughtermaster casting boosted augment spells, the central placing can lead to a devastatingly powerful elite force.

 Ogre Bulls 

 Except we don't call them Bulls anymore.

I just love these models. They were groundbreaking when they first came out and they look fantastic still. I have a six-man unit and an eight-man unit of these guys. They are REALLY vulnerable to bow-fire but in combat they can be wonderful.

As with all ogres though, don't forget:

• The FEAR
  
• The IMPACT HITS
  
• The STOMP

I'm not a big fan of shields as I often forget to use them. An additional hand weapon is easy to remember and does a lot of extra damage from a high strength unit like this. 

 Ironguts

 These guys excel at killing. And they excel at killing armoured opponents. -3 to opponent's armour saves is a wonderful thing but maybe we're going overkill against unarmoured opponents. Although we're wounding on 2s rather than 3s, could the points be better spent against horde armies...?

 Gnoblars

 These little chaps have been thoroughly marginalised in the latest army book, hardly mentioned in the background and snipped out of the new battalion box. Which is a shame in many ways. 

They provide a great rank bonus (hard to get for an Ogre) and because they're so cheap they can waste an opponent's time and not be a problem. Cunning uses can be found for luring enemy units into bad positions as the Gnoblars flee and angling so that charging enemies have exposed flanks from Ogre charges. 

And the trappers upgrade (though extremely expensive compared to the Gnoblars themselves is worth every penny against hordes or elite enemy units. And it becomes more cost-effective the larger the Gnoblar unit. 

After experimenting with Gnoblar hordes, I now use blocks of twenty. They just seem more versatile and manoeuvrable.

Leadbelchers 

 What a beautiful unit! 

I used to just have fours of these dudes and they look so much better now! 

Their firepower isn't quite as potent as it used to be but they don't shoot themselves anymore which is also good. This unit can put out tremendous damage and move while they're doing it. Plus they're great in combat. I see them more as flankers, shooting away for as long as possible while moving about before crashing into the side of the enemy army as needed. Is eight of them overkill? 

Or is it just-enough-kill?

 Yhetees

(Chuckles)

I really love this unit and thank GOD they reduced the points by 20 each with the new army book. I can finally start using them again (a good thing after spending so long converting them).

You can read an article about how I did it here.

They don't get an Ogre Charge but they're faster and stronger and they reduce the enemy weapon skill (if you remember it) - much needed as their Weapon Skill isn't great.

These guys hit like a ton of bricks and can Swiftstride their way to more reliable long-distance charges and better pursuits.

The official models really do suck but do what I did and enjoy!

Gorger 

Speaking of sucky official models, here's my version of the Ogre Gorger (really a Hogsquasher the Troll from Red Box Games).

In the game, this guy has five Strength 5 attacks (including Frenzy) with Killing Blow. He's Unbreakable so can trap units in place while his pals get ready to charge and best of all, he's an Ambusher.

This means, after rolling for his arrival from Turn 2 onwards, he can turn up from any board edge (generally in the rea of the enemy army).

Never underestimate the effect this can have on your opponent's battle plan. He costs the same as three Ogre Bulls but with that kind of ability he can be the proverbial spanner in the proverbial works and do a lot of good.

The Song of the Massacre on Filigree Plain

Beastmen & Chaos Dwarfs (Tim) vs Ogres (Mike)

From out the woods of Darkest Heart 

Came baying Beasts with weapons high

With horns and cloven hooves and snouts 

And wiry muscles drenched in fur 

The Beastmen came to bring their hate 

Of all things walking unlike them 

And with the Beasts of bowers dark

Came stunted monsters decked in steel 

Once noble and heroic born 

Now only wrong did they begat 

And marching rank on rank in gold 

They came to slake their vicious thirst 

 The Ogre Kingdom of Great Maw 

Besieged by south and west so far 

Now set its shoulders hard to east 

To meet this direst threat 

Twice the height of merest man but no less brutal when at war

The Ogres bellowed challenges 

And charged to test their strength 

Clash of axe and sword and club 

Clash of head and horn 

The Ogres and the Beasts and Dwarfs 

Did quake the earth beneath 

On the Plain of Filigree 

They fought until the dusk 

Battle raged and wounds were cut 

Bodies hewn and crushed 

Sorcery bought greater might 

And summoned nature's wrath

Spawn of Chaos were cut down 

But Beast Gors held their ground

The sun grew near to setting's time 

And still the combat fought 

Neither Ogres, Dwarfs, nor Beasts

Would flee without won war 

For all were animals in mind 

And wanted only death 

 But battles cannot last for long 

With end of day comes end of life 

Armies smashed and then devoured 

As victors rage with bloody lust 

And even well-matched foes must learn 

That one must lose for one to win 

The Beasts and Dwarfs had held the Plain 

And Filigree was theirs to claim 

The Ogres proud and confident

Had lost it all in just one day

Now battered, broken, slain and gone, 

Their Kingdom was at risk

On the Painting Table: My Ogres…

Well this is my first “freelance” post for my good chum Tim’s blog, The Last Chance War.

Firstly I had to decide what I was to write about. Do I cover my Chaos Warriors army that I’ve painted but only used once? Or perhaps I those amazing rat bastards also known as the Skaven horde?

Well I decided against both of these options and instead opted for my small Ogre detachment. 

A while ago I ordered a box of 6 Ogre Bulls from Wayland Games online store (which is an excellent resource by the way and I thoroughly recommend that you take a look when you can) as I wanted a stand alone detachment of either Ogres or Trolls.  In another life I’d ordered some Leadbeltchers which are fantastic models so I knew pretty much what I’d be getting when they arrived. 

Originally I thought about heavily converting them to the ways of the chaos but if you read their section in the codex it states that ogres are resistant to mutation and with the excellent Forge World Ogres a reasonable price I thought that I’d leave them as God had intended. 

So with the small conversion bug on my shoulder I thought that perhaps I’d put more effort into the bases.  Normally I decide to use static grass, sand and bird grit which gives an excellent result but I wanted something a little different this time.  Luckily at work there are many flower beds that have the slate shingle around them, one lunchtime I foraged for small pieces of slate that would suit my needs and hey presto, I found plenty.  Admittedly I may have looked a little crazy and I did get some rather odd looks but it was worth it.

With the slate in hand I then wanted to embellish the base a little more.  I added a Gnoblar on a barrel, a couple of shields and a broken dagger to each individual base which I thought would bring the three models together. 

 

I hope that you’ll agree that they look really good.  I think that having the Gnoblar to the left of the detachment it gives the impression that he’s giving the orders.  Here’s a close up of one of them, giving a good look at his scenic base.

I’d be interested in hearing what everyone thinks of them as I have another 3 models with scenic bases to make up in the very near future.

Happy dweebing as my girlfriend would say.

Michael “Thorgrim” Batten.

Massacre in Slaughter Pass

Tempestrians (Gill) vs Ogres (Tim)

The Northern Pass was a heavily wooded valley thick with foliage to the east of Blackfire Pass, the main route north into the Empire from the Border Princes. And it was soon to be resigmared.

It was here that the Tempestrians had met and slaughtered the Ogres time after time already, the proud knights skewering rough Ogre bodies on the ends of their lances. But the Ogres had not had enough and now they were back for more.

From the wooded lowland hills, the Ogres charged down, accelerating as they approached the garrisoned knights. The knights moved into position, faces stern and ready. For the first time, as soon as the battle opened, the Ogres leapt into the potentially victorious position, a Hunter, skewering three knights with a single shot from his harpoon launcher and another unit devastated by fire from Leadbelchers’ cannons. The Tyrant called triumphantly for the rest of his troops to move in, leading the charge.

And then their fortunes changed.

The fast moving knights crashed into battle, wiping out or routing unit after unit of Ogres, stampeding them into the ground or away. Archers positioned in the centre of the Tempestrian battle line let fly with hundreds of arrows, whittling down their opposition before they could close at all.

Rachel d’Astatic let fly devastatingly powerful spells from her growing repertoire of magic booned to her by the Chaos Vein, incinerating the towering creatures. All along the battle line, the Ogres were being slaughtered again.

The Tyrant ran forward alongside his Battle Standard Bearer but when he looked to his left and to his right he saw that the remains of his army was in shambles, almost all of them destroyed. The bowmen’s arrows couldn’t penetrate his hide and he could take on anything the Tempestrians could throw at him, but he could not win without an army.

Once again the Ogres were defeated!

Once again they fled for the mountains.

And now the Northern Pass would have a new name.

From this day until the earth was no longer stained with stinking Ogre blood, it would be known as Slaughter Pass.

Spotlight On... The Ogre Yhetees

Taking a trip to my local model shop in Christchurch, I spotted a pack of War God Wendigos.

Now these are beautiful miniatures that my good friend Joao had already purchased a couple of. Apparently they were no longer available so to find a little stash was great news! I gave him a call and asked him if he wanted me to buy them for him and before I knew it I'd bought some for myself! Which left me with the predicament of working out what to do with them.

And then I realised! Ogre Yhetees!

These really are nice models and so I wanted to do something really special but my other challenge was there were a little small compared to my Ogres. Since there were supposed to be stronger, how could I make this make sense?

I decided to make a sort of movement tray diorama to give the models some height, make them look cool and draw the eye away from their stature.

Building a cliff did the job but I needed each model to be individually removable without destroying the look.

I used balsa wood covered in all-purpose filler to make the cliff, painting it a variety of greys and adding a bit of foliage from a railway model shop to cover some of the gaps. That tree is a railway tree. The Yhetees themselves were painted dark grey, inked black then highlighted back through all the available shades of grey to white.

They're lovely to play with but a bit annoying. The Yhetee rules don't seem to be that competative and this unit costs 540 points - over wuarter of a 2,000 point army. With the new cover rules, their previously amazing move through cover rule is a bit useless and without armour or impact hits they aren't as good as they might be after a new army book is released.

On the other hand, they do look cool. And that's the most important thing.

Right?