Yatta Yatta...
This is NOT a rumour. I have had the Ogre Kingdoms book in my hands today. I verified what I will write here as 100% accurate. Though of course I have compacted and edited the information to be fair as I can only review and therefore deliberately miss a lot out of the detail; but whatever is listed below has been double checked and is reliable.
The Army Book.
This is a good one, GW have learned their lesson on fluff lite books and provided a good rundown on ogres their society history and religion. Its all new stuff from GW though it is reminiscent of Chaosium's Trollpak (early 80's Runequest). There is more colour print than I have seen in previous publications, with full colour drawings or photos on most pages. The rules seen reasonably well written and includes a lightly cynical writing style (Chaosium style honestly) that downplays just how utterly nasty ogres really are. Its more convincing that the usual Chaos is ub3r fluff we see. While the writing is downplayed much of the artwork is not including a picture of a brutal attack on a Kislevite caravan and of an ogre cave with captives in large cages hanging high up above waiting to be eaten. The background is well written and witty, I wont spoil your opportunity to enjoy it for yourselves. I will instead stick to a few salient points.
a. The first thing to learn is that Ogres are NOT Chaos, this is NOT a Chaos army book. If you expected to integrate Ogres with the Beasts, Mortals and Daemon armies, sorry.
b. Ogres worship the Great Maw. (For those who know Glorantha the Krarsht Cult will come to mind here.) The religion is centered around eating, pigging out is a religious experience and being fatter is being holier and well as mightier. Not that the ogres would recognise piety as any trait, food is food.
c. Ogres are mercenaries. Many of the units in the list can be used as mercenary Rare choices. Dogs of War armies take available ogres as Specials instead. They keep all their special rules as they are taken directly from this army book. So in affect Chaos armies can add some Ogres after all, but so can their opponents...
d. Ogres come from lands far to the east of the Old World. They are very well travelled though as some of the models indicate. If we were to correlate the world maps they come from Siberia. p.s. By this standard you Yanks are Dark Elves
e. Chaos Dwarves are mentioned in the background directly, indication that GW has not abandoned them a la Squats.
The Miniatures.
The Ogres look good, however the basic Ogre Bull is fairly plain so as not to distract from the more extravagent ogres. The basic ogre has a pair of trousers and boots and a big metal shield over the stomach. This is probably a plastic kit. This gut plate has ceremonial as well as practical uses. They tend to carry big clubs unless upgraded to nastier weaponry. Ogres appear not to make much except gut plates and clubs, but scrounge items made by others putting them to good use. They look even less technically advanced than orcs, but possibly even more resourceful. Some of the more well travelled ogres can be equipped with a large array of looted items including firearms of various sizes, armour and weaponry. Some miniatures deserve special mention, but I will leave this until I describe them in the list.
Ogres.
The basic ogre profile hasn't changed and they 'champion and 'hero' up in pretty much the usual way. There are exceptions, but it would be unfair to list too much.
Ogre Special rules.
'Bull Rush': Get one impact hit on a 6" or over charge at normal strength.
'Cause Fear'
US3 each
'Nobody likes a Groblar': Ogre characters can NEVER lead a Gnoblar unit.
'Bellowers' : Ogres dont have musicians but some can shout unusually loudly which acts as the same. Not really a special rule.
Ogre weapons.
Ogre club. A hand weapon that counts -1 armour save if not used in conjunction with any other weapon.
Ironfist. Can be used as an additional hand weapon or as a shield.
Gnoblars
Gnoblars are S2 goblins with bigger ears and a few nice rules. They dont have much in the way of weaponry, just jagged scraps to poke and throw.
Gnoblar Special Rules.
Largely insignificant: A bit like 'ignore goblin panic' except noone cares. Not even other Gnoblars.
Bicker: Animosity except that if you fail they always do nothing.
Sharp Stuff: Gnoblars throw sharp objects, any sharp objects, twice each. 8" S2.
Gnoblars can be added to the bases of characters. As walking wargear. Different gnoblars have different effects.
Luck Gnoblars: One rerolled save.
Tooth Gnoblars: Bonus to your casting roll if you eat him. Yum.
Sword Gnoblars: the gnoblar gets to attack too.
Lookout Gnoblars: Can get 'Look out sir' in smaller units.
OGRE CHARACTERS
The Lords cost 200pts, the Heroes about 130pts plus add ons. There is a fairly short list of magic items, mainly totemic stuff and a few enchanted weapons banners and the like. The main bonus is that most of the magic weapons are great weapons.
Ogre characters can also be given Big Names at 10-35pts depending on the name. These names are crude titles like Wallcrusher, Longstrider and Kineater. If you think of these as crude equivalents of 'Knightly Virtues' then you arent far wrong.
Tyrant - Your standard Ogre Lord
Slaughtermaster - A 'Wizard Lord' up to a point. You need to have a Tyrant to take one.
Bruiser - Ogre Hero with BSB options as usual.
Hunter - this is essentially an ogre hero, but he gets a Harpoon Launcher - S5 bolt thrower wielded as a crossbow with special rules for damaging large creatures. And can take Sabretusks, big cats that accompany him or can be freed up as fast cavalry. They are about as hard as a two wound genestealer.
Butcher - Your standard 'Wizard'. Dont make the mistake of thinking this will be a 1A pushover. Its just less than a hero with a little 'simple' magic.
CORE
Ogre Bulls.
Your standard ogres are mandatory, 1+. They are 35pts each and quite nasty. They start off with only an ogre club you can pay extra to upgrade their weaponry a little. They get commands at +20/+10. They replace old Ogres rules as Dogs of War, well you can take them they are better than the older ogres and cost the same so why not. Bull champions are called Crushers. Some of the pictures show Bulls ranked up with a rank bonus, including a 3x2 unit.
Ironguts.
Pay about half again, for a little extra leadership, heavy armour and a great weapon. Dogs of War can hire them too. Commands as for Bulls. Irongut champions are called Gutlords (the turkey pick of the names in this army book).
Gnoblars.
The 'Skinks' to your army of 'Krox'. Hand weapons and sharp stuff. No commands except a champion called a Groinbiter (makes up for Gutlord). At 2pts each these are made for full ranks to add to your Ogres command. The miniatures are ranked up deep and wide, though suspect they are useful mainly as four wide and very deep for outnumber tag teams with an Ogre units with full command. They nicely go together. You cannot take more Gnoblar units than you have units of Ogre Bulls.
Gnoblar Trappers.
These cost a bit more but scout and skirmish. Your only 0-1 unit. Champions are called Snarefingers. The models are much more varied than the regular Gnoblars, most are carrying beartraps or snares. Though there are no rules for them in battle.
Entourage: They also benefit from a Hunters leadership if he is within 12". They have special missile support rules if even closer.
SPECIAL
Leadbelchers.
These are fun. Each has light armour and a stolen cannon held as a shotgun and supported by chains. The ammo is not shot, but any scrap metal they can shoot. The miniatures are shown loaded and unloaded, I suspect you add the scrap yourself. Favoured scrap includes spears, swords, ogre clubs etc, basically anything except roundshot. Range is only 12" S4, but they use the artillery dice to determine hits. Oh they are Dogs of War too. I think we will be seeing a few of those at 55pts each. They can have a bellower and a Thunderfist champion but no standard bearer.
Yhetees.
Talled and lankier than Ogres, their weapons are covered in ice and count as magical. If the unit is hit by fire magic though the ice melts to normal weaponry, a nice touch. They also completely ignore terrain and undefended obstabcles in movement. Stats are similar to an Ogre but they are a little stronger and a lot faster. Cost about double a Bull ogre, more for a Greyback champion. Sorry they are not for hire.
Aura of Frost: Any enemy in BTB is at -1 to hit. Immune to Ice Magic.
Gnoblar Scraplauncher.
You will like this. First its a toughened chariot, with a 4+ save. Its pulled by a Rhinox, S5 A3. This looks like a mammoth with a rhino head and two big horns in a V. The chariot itself is on skis and is crewed by six Gnoblars, yes they ALL attack. To top it off it has an stone thrower that can fire in a forward arc and can fire while moving. The Rhinox must charge if it can do so, unless it passes its Gnoblar crews leadeship (pretty unlikely). Its not much cheaper than some steam tanks, but its a combination of chariot, artillery and unit.
RARES
Maneaters.
These Ogres have seen the world as mercenaries and have come back with the spoils. They have upgraded skills and leadership and cost about as much as two Ogre Bulls. Some of them have stolen Cathayan longswords which are so well made would equal a magic sword in the 40pt range, but they are not actually magic. Or they can have a brace of handguns, yes Empire handguns not pistols! Though they look like pistols to ogres and have pistol rules advantages. They are stubborn and Immune to Psychology. They have no command. They are Dogs of War (naturally). The miniatures are characterful and varied.
Slavegiant.
A giant carrying slave chains and wearing an iron mask. The chains have spiked balls on the ends. Just about like a regular giant but has some extra attack options involving its chains. It costs slightly less than a Giant from the Orc army book. One of its special rules is called 'Broken'. Some players may see this as having a double meaning.
Gorger.
A 75pt eating machine. Armed with teeth and claws. Its not far off the statline of an ogre hero. It has Killing Blow and is Unbreakable.
Ravenous: It must end up closer to the enemy each time it moves.
Bloodscent: This thing just turns up, and finds the battle about the same time 40K Reserves do.
Dogs of War
As usual.
OGRE MAGIC
Ogre Butchers (level 2) and Slaughtermasters (level 4) use Gut Magic. They can all cast any of the six spells. They are all cast on 3+ and are dispelled if in play on a 7+. Each time a successfully cast spell is reused it adds to the casting cost.
They don't count as remains in play for the purposes of the Butcher casting them.
Ogre enchantment spells only work on real Ogres, not ogre allies. Each ogre cannot benefit from more than one spell at a time (not including any nasty Remains in Play the opponent gets to cast on them).
Most ogre spells have a backfire effect causing a wound, Ogres will eventually kill themselves if they cast too often. Ogres also have their own extra punitive miscast table, but dont usually need to use too many power dice.
Bloodgruel: Self healing spell, can backfire.
Braingobbler: medium range panic causing spell.
Bullgorger: Improves targets strength.
Bonecrusher: medium range weak magic missile attack, can backfire.
Toothcracker: improves targets toughness, grants Stubborn, can backfire.
Trollguts: Target gets Magic Resistance and Regenerates, backfires.
Most spells ranges are short, but Slaughtermasters cast those at double range.
As you can see, Ogres can spam out a lot of magic each turn even if they dont take many mages. However remember that they have a relatively poor item selection and as an ogre each 'wizard' is already expensive. Opponents of Ogres will avoid scroll caddies in favour of dispel dice boosting items for a much better return. Gut Magic laughs at Dispel scrolls.
SPECIAL CHARACTERS
Skrag the Slaughterer, Prophet of the Great Maw.
An upgraded Slaughtermaster costing 400pts. The more models he kills in melee on a table from 1 to 15+ the more advantages he gets. These advantages are powerful and include Regeneration and Unbreakable every Gorger in the army also gets a lesser but not insignificant bonus also as Skrag kills more and more.
Greasus Goldtooth, Overtyrant of the Ogre Kingdoms.
An upgraded Tyrant counting as Two Lords and a BSB who costs 565pts. He is extra fat and reclines into battle carried by a tide of gnoblars. He has more bling than MrT.
The gnoblars are a very bad idea. Nurgling palanquins were obviously magical, this is like the Lilliputians all picking up Gulliver and running. To be honest this looks really daft as a miniature too. For kids only.
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