What Does It Take To Beat Ogres?, getting ready to face them

So i play my next campaign game against ogres, at 2000 points. So thought i would see what you think are the best units to match up against them? since it is an escalation campaign, i am limited on how much i can change my army comp from one turn to the next (can only drop one unit per core, special, rare, and add those points, plus add 250 points per turn).

My thoughts are since killing blow doesnt matter against ogres, and since they dont have alot of armor save, i just need to do as many wounds as possible to capitalize on their somewhat low leadership. Im playing against a great player, but have no idea on his comp, although im expecting him to have one huge block of bulls or ironguts to host his characters.

so casket is a must to try and get his smaller units to die or flee. although the catapults are only str 3, i love that one wound causes a panic, so it is in. a chariot unit to try and maximize impact hits. and i usually run 30 tomb guard which im thinking of keeping since they are Str 4 normally and use a necrotect to get to reroll. if i had halberd models i would use them probably, but i dont, so just normal hw and shield it is.

my real dilemna is core choices. should i drop my archers and go with more chariots? we roll random scenarios, so i love having 20 archers just for the watchtower scenario normally.

and i gotta keep my warsphinx and 3 necropolis knights just cuz they have been so good to me, and i want to see how they do against an army of toughness 4!

any ideas?

Two ideal magic items choices for you: the Canopi arcane item is almost picture-perfect for turning the bad guy's gut magic into power dice for you. And getting Heroic Killing Blow on a king with the DoE seems tailor-made for fighting ogres.

OK also hate the casket - low leadership, low model-count units == win for your magical artillery.

That doesn't help your core choice, but you're right - chariots are a good bet: Since you really want to be getting the charge against the ogres regardless (so he doesn't get the impact hits), so you're playing for the charge anyway, might as well get your own impact hits out of the bargain.

Thanks. after your post i went and checked the new FAQ for ogres and it says specifically that Gut magic spells are treated as remains in play spells. so this makes the Kanopi awesome!

Thanks again!

I would greatly stress keeping at least one block of archers. Mainly becuase he has little saves and even if you only kill 2 bulls before CC thats 6 less str 4 attacks... and a block of 20 archers isn't expensive.

Yep, thanks. i think ill keep my block of 20 archers just for that reason, and to discourage any ledbelchers from trying to sneak around the flank!

One other thing... A small/medium unit of cavalery might not be horrible here. Sure there toughness and armor save won't do much, but gnoblars arn't unheard of (fight them from time to time) and a 5+ (or 4+ if upgraded) str 4 on charge unit of horsemen are just right to deal with them. If there arn't any there not bad for flank charges (they can vanguard off to the side and then come towards the center getting there right after CC is joined since OK units are fast), and this is nice since if you win it doesn't take much to beat steadfast out of them and the extra CC res will help make them run.

Im going to play against my Ogre mate this saturday. I was thinking of bringing 2 warsphinx'es 3 knigts and a big bunch of like 8 chariots with king and mask.
U think warsphinx and chariots are our best choise against ogres ?
or what's is your thoughts ?

Cheers

Destroyer of Eternities

Casket

Doom and Darkness

Soulblight

Sniping magic (thundertusks too)

Leaves any ogre unit crippled after it's leadership/characters are dead.

Also wasting their high S attacks on T8 is pretty fun!

Well i just played against him. On one of my battles my tomb king (with 28 Tomb Guards) went to CC 2 times (with destroyer of eterneties).
First time i chose too HKB his thundertusk( before it strikes back ). And after this i charge into his champion heavy ogre unit, kill his BSB with HKB and run him down ^^.

I btw had first turn why my SCC kill 1/4 mournfangs who flees off the board. Nice day to be a TK!

Sweet!


..but wouldn't the Thundertusk get to attack the King before he strikes with Destroyer?

why? TK has a higher IN right...

Yea, DoE is no longer a great weapon so you strike in initiative order and I'm pretty sure the king has higher initiative. Though, which of the monsters has the ASL aura, is it the thundertusk or the stonehorn? Because that would make a difference.

Thundertusk would attack first, that's the one with the ASL aura.

I always give my DoE queen a potion of speed because the Tyrants usually have a lot of attacks and I want to avoid them, though it wouldn't help because of the Numbing Chill rule.. Ideally, Arkhan would have the thundertusk dead before it even gets close

Those tomb guard cannot get in close combat if they'd get the ASL rule, it cripples them against Ogres.. Especially when most Ironguts have great weapons or are Initiative 2 normally anyways.

If they have great weapons then do you strike simultaneously or go back to initiative order? Because one of those would still be fine for TG.

But yea, it is really worth it to throw most of what you have at taking out those big monsters before they hit your lines.

If two people have ASL, then it goes at the same time

If two people have ASF, it's initiative

I had my TG in the aura of that beast and lost a game, won't be doing that again

I hate those thing, you should try Purple sun OK have large base . In a game against my friend. Purple sun kill a Slaughter master, 5 ironguts, 4 bulls. and a stornhorn. It was worth losing a wound for rolling double 6s. The look of disbelief on his face. made my day.

Keep in mind though that the ASL aura effects _models_ within 6" not _units_ so you can have a few models with ASL and the rest of the unit not, depending on where everything is in relation to each other.