Had the pleasure of facing Antony K with his new Ogres recently. Antony has always been a top player and a canny opponent. He has also very creatively fashioned an all Budha army to represent his Ogre Kingdoms and is furiously trying to get them painted up for the upcoming NZ Masters, which you can see Here.
In his Army he had a Slaughtermaster leading two large blocks of Ogre footpads, BSB, Bruiser, Firebelly, Gorger, supported by 3 single Sabretusks, 2 blocks of Leadbelchers, Mournfangs, and IronBlaster. A relatively solid combo and lots of Flesh so would be hard to stop especially backed up by fast paced troops and a bit of cavalry. Terrain was going to favour the fatties as everything on the table just funnelled it onto my one hill deployment.
Army of Elves to face the despoilers was the standard army that's kept in the Clubs cupboards. Archmage (Shadow) leading triple blocks of infantry, Phoenix Guard, White Lions, Spears, supported by large block of archers, small unit of 12 archers, and a eagle and RBT combo. Protecting the flanks I had a unit of Dragon Princes, Tiranoc Chariot and a Lion Chariot.
Having played Ogres previously I was very wary of getting out shot by their Leadbelchers and having my infantry whittled down before we faced the inevitable clash in the middle. The spells I rolled was going to help having got Withering and Pit of Shades, the main weapons that I was going to use backed up by a bit of Miasma. So I left the Chariots and Cavalry to protect my flanks and tried to get my infantry into combat as quickly as possible. With Large pit of shades scrolled 1st turn and then casting and only splashing a single Ogre and Sabretusk the 2nd turn. I decided it was time to charge a exposed flank of Leadbelchers needing a 9 with the Tiranoc. Foolishly my days of playing as a Bretonian player made me charge his Sabrtusk diverter with the Phoenix Guard bunker and exposed my army to both of his Ogre footpad blocks. The game was pretty much decided by then as the Elves were never going to cause enough wounds as the Ogres counter charged and took the initiative. Ogres then started to show why they are much better in 8th edition and rampaged through the Elves accompanied with some very squishy sounds. Only thing to do was to congratulate my opponent on a very measured and tactical game.
Really happy that the game took on the variations it did as it was some very good sound tactical lessons that I learnt from this. Ogres have really improved with their mobile gun platforms supporting their always solid combat choices and protecting their fringes now there is dependable Cavalry and cheap diverter options. The tactics I took into this game I really didn't stick to and a more solid use of shooting and magic would have evened the match up for the Elves for sure.
The Elven commander walks away from this battlefield feathers a bit ruffled but a wiser and a more wary one next come conflict...
Elven Steel is crumpled by a mass of Ogre bellies as the Elven cavalry look on in muted silence unable to support the fight.
Ants Ogres look great, and thanks for the report Phil. I'm going to need little nametags on his smiling fatmen though, I still get a nervous twitch when I remember fighting a Bretonian with WW1 planes for things.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan for coming over and having a read. The lesson was painful but fully deserved in that game. The Ogre army is looking very good and all the units are clever representations of what they should be. Antony ran me through the list thoroughly before we began as he always does. Look forward to catching up with ya in a coupla weeks :)
ReplyDeleteYeah mate should be good, and sorry I haven't started trolling, I mean supporting your site earlier, didn't really know it was here, but I fully appreciate anyone who takes the time to put together their Blogwork. Ant's a good fellow, as long as he doesn't charge me with a puny weak looking buddah which is in fact his Ogre Tyrant of IncredibleDoom :D I'd say your next attempt will yeild different results, the unkown is difficult to fight.
ReplyDeleteBlogs only been up for about two weeks. Thought it was about time that I put my stacks of wargaming excess onto the web and not just storage cupboards. I'm just trying to plan on which army I should put on here next. I think I'll put the Spruekin (yes made from sprue) wood elves up next, top story to come :)
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