Chaff for the win! More Ogre gaming in.

So, two more practice games under my gut plate last night.  One against another Ogre player, the other against the new Vampire books.   Come on in and find out what happened.



Now these won't be super detailed battle reports, but more a discussion on what works and what hasn't.

My list for both games was
Slaughtermaster:  Lvl 3 Maw, 4+ Ward, Forbidden Rod, Ironcurse Icon
Butcher:  Lvl 2 Beasts, Dispel Scroll
BSB: 3+ Armor, Dragonhelm, Potion of Toughness
8 Ogres: Full Command, Look out Gnoblar
8 Ironguts: Muso, Standard of Discipline, LoG
2 single sabertusks
3 units of 10 gnoblar trappers
Ironblaster
4 Maneaters: Muso, Banner of Swiftness, 2 brace of pistols, extra hand weapon, great weapon, Scout and Swiftstride



My first game was against another player who is coming to the same tournament as I am practicing for, also taking his Ogres.  Ogres are the only army he's played in Fantasy as far as I know.

This chap brought a bit of a different list then I did, which helps.  Not a ton different, but having 2 armies on the table really helps us both.  He sees what works on my side and vice versa, so a good learning experience. He had a Lvl 4 Death, Lvl 1 Maw, BSB, 3 leadbelchers, 3 maneaters with poison, scouts and guns, Ironblaster, 2 cats, 12 man gnoblars, 40 gnoblars, Ogre bull unit, big unit of Ironguts

We played Meeting Engagement.  His Ogre bulls got held back, my BSB got held back but it didn't matter as once they came on, they were joined by or joined with and protected.  So what did I learn from this game?  Go second.  He went first and deployed... then I deployed away and was able to dictate the fights.  I picked on units one at a time, got the charges I wanted and nearly tabled him.  He did nearly get my Ironblaster with his leadbelchers in a building, who my maneaters went and killed after they had killed the bull unit.  Everyone wants to put guns on these guys.  Maneaters are so damned awesome in combat!   My chaff is what really won it though.  It's really hard to deal with a bunch of small units on the table.  You HAVE to make them flee or take a charge to get rid of them, you simply cannot let them dictate your movement as the vampire player learned in my next game.  I was using them to block guys in place, tie down his redirectors, make his units get in each others way.  In four games, my gnoblars are easily my MVPs.  

Second game was against Vampires, my first against the new book and this fellas first trying them in 8th, being a long time player of them last edition.  He didn't really have any of the new stuff, but seeing this game you do NOT need them.   He ran with a Lvl 3 Necromancer, a Lvl 1 vampire, 40 zombies, 30 skellies, 30 ghouls, corpse cart, 5 blood knights, black coach.    Again, I used my crap to get in his way and used Curse of Anraheir to scare him.  He'd have to charge my gnoblars and die on a 1 or 2.  He didn't seem to want to do that, which if you ask me was a mistake.  You can heal pretty easily.  Invocation is hugely powerful now, the bubble effect is so good, plus wtih the corpse cart they were getting ASF all the time.  HOWEVER... that also meant they had to bunch up and my chaff loves nothing more.  I just kept in his way, redirected stuff, made it get in each others way.  I went and destroyed his skeletons with my bulls in one go.  Completely wiped them off the mat.   This was about turn 4 when I did that and was redirecting everything else.  We knew how the game would go, my stopped his stuff, not losing points and winning.   We basically called it there.  But then we decided to have some fun and do combats.  Ironguts charged into the ghouls, Maneaters fought the blood knights.  Killed the ghouls.  But HOLY MOLY... Blood Knights are AMAZING now.  Three attacks, the corpse cart got them ASF at I5 and S7 on the charge.  They destroyed my maneaters before I went.

So, I learned in this game... chaff is the key!  Just like my beastmen games actually.  Get stuff in way, fight where you want.

I am still trying to wrap my head around the ironblaster.  It never really did anything in 4 games now.   I ponder if that's not because of the opponents.  I haven't really had monsters or other warmachines to shoot at yet.   I need a few more games, especially against armies that can deal with my chaff.  I am going to play Skaven on Wednesday. That will be a big test.

I shall let you know how it goes!