Suggested Changes to the Ogre Kingdoms Army
by Avian
The Ogre Kingdoms army probably holds the record for the army book that was out the shortest period of time before players started suggesting improvements to things they thought was sub-par. Here is my take.
Contents
Army list entries
Other stuff
General changes
Armour options
It seems to be a new trend with recent army books to do away with options for
body armour and only allow shield upgrades. I have reflected this by removing
these options in all the below entries.
Champions
I feel that Ogre champions are quite overpriced for what they do and to rectify
this I suggest increasing ogre and yhetee champions to WS4. This follows the
trend with Orcs and Beastmen and also provides a link to the Maneaters.
Army list entries
Characters
Tyrant
- Basic equipment includes heavy armour instead of light for no cost increase
Comment: See comment on armour upgrades above.
Slaughtermaster
Fine as they are
Bruiser
- Basic equipment includes heavy armour instead of light for no cost increase
Comment: See comment on armour upgrades above.
Butcher
Fine as they are
Hunter
- Basic equipment includes throwing spears (count as javelins) for no cost
increase
Comment: Apparently, the option to move and fire the harpoon launcher is out
of the question, but the Hunter comes with spears on the model and would
benefit from a BS4 S5 thrown weapon.
Units
Bulls
- Basic equipment includes light armour for no cost increase
- Ironfist option increased to +6 pts
- Crusher gains WS4 for no cost increase
Comment: See comment on armour upgrades and champions above. Over all, I
don't think the armour justifies an increase in the basic cost, as unless you
also buy an Ironfist, light armour is not particularly good.
Ironguts
- Gutlord gains WS4 for no cost increase
Comment: See comment on champions above. Overall, Ironguts are a decent unit
and don't require much work.
Gnoblar Fighters
Fine as they are
Gnoblar Trappers
Fine as they are
Leadbelchers
- Thunderfist gains WS4 for no cost increase.
- A Misfire only inflicts D3 hits on the unit, rather than D6
Comment: See comment on champions above. It's rather sad, but with the
chance to cause Panic on themselves due to a Misfire in 7th edition, I feel
that firing the cannon is a bit more risky than it deserves to be.
Yhetees
- Gain +1 Attack for no cost increase OR base cost reduced from 65 to 55 pts
- Greyback gains WS4
Comment: See comment on champions above. The main problem with Yhetees is
that while they can get places rather quickly, they struggle to achieve much
when they get there and suffer from being horrendously expensive
Scraplauncher
- Counts as a monster which causes D6 impact hits when it charges, rather than
a chariot. Note added that enemy attacks are resolved against the Rhinox's WS
of 3. No cost increase.
Comment: Good overall unit, but completely waste against anything with S7+
war machines. These weapons inflict multiple wounds for a purpose and don't
need to kill a Scraplauncher easier than a Goblin Big Boss!
Maneaters
- Comes with heavy armour instead of light. Base cost increased from 80 to 84
pts
- Add option for additional hand weapons (+4 pts), flail (+4 pts) and halberd
(+6 pts)
Comment: See comment on armour upgrades above. Maneaters are a nice unit,
but could do with more options.
Slavegiant
- Throttle with chain attack swapped for Smash with chain attack,
which relies on a failed Initiative test rather than a Toughness test (i.e. the
same as other Giants get). No cost increase.
Comment: Lack of Stubborn fits with the background and everything, but the
unique special attack makes him worthless against bigger foes.
Gorger
Fine as they are
Other stuff
Since there is a lot of other stuff, I shall only list the ones I think require improvement.
Gnoblar attendants
Sword gnoblar
- Attacks from a Sword gnoblar are Armour piercing for no cost increase
Comment: These are currently pretty much useless. A slight increase to
reflect that a gnoblar often has a chance to stab from below, where it hurts
the most, makes them slightly better.
Big names
Mountaineater
- Change minimum roll needed to wound from 3+ to 4+ for no cost increase
Comment: Nobody ever takes this, because it only works against things with
S7 or more, of which there are very few. At least now it also has an effect on
S6 attacks.
Deathcheater
- Change it from only affecting one model in base contact once per game to
all models in base contact once per game for no cost increase
Comment: I was stuck with this crappy Big name for an entire campaign
season, giving me ample time to find out how useless it is.
Magic weapons
Sword of Striking
- Cost reduced from 30 to 25 pts
Comment: As a rule, the common weapons are way more expensive than they are
worth.
Sword of Battle
- Cost reduced from 25 to 20 pts
Comment: As a rule, the common weapons are way more expensive than they are
worth.
Sword of Might
- Cost reduced from 20 to 15 pts
Comment: As a rule, the common weapons are way more expensive than they are
worth.
Biting Blade
- Cost reduced from 10 to 5 pts
Comment: As a rule, the common weapons are way more expensive than they are
worth. Considering that an Ogre club does the same, this is especially true for
the Biting Blade.
Skullplucker
- Cost reduced from 30 to 15 pts
Comment: For a weapon that is worse than a basic club against almost
everything, this is way too expensive. Even at 15 pts this may be
overpriced.
Talismans
Cathayan Jet
- Cost reduced from 30 to 20 pts
Comment: Seriously overpriced as it was.
Spangleshard
- Cost reduced from 30 to 15 pts OR to 25 pts and change the required roll to
equal to or hgiher than the to wound roll, rather than just higher
Comment: Rediculously bad item. Is in no way worth the cost as it is
Talisman of Protection
- Cost reduced from 15 to 10 pts
Comment: As with a lot of other common items, this one is not worth the
cost.
Arcane items
Grut's sickle
- Cost reduced from 35 to 15 pts
Comment: Paying 35 pts to transform wounds (which you have already paid a
lot for!) to Power dice just isn't worth. Not by a long shot.
Enchanted items
Brahmir Statue
- Change to giving everyone -2 to psychology tests, rahter than -3 against
Chaos and Skaven for no cost change
Comment: Crutch items against specific armies are stupid, they just
encourage players to tool their armies against specific opponents.
Rock Eye
- Cost reduced from 20 pts to 10 pts
Comment: Pretty worthless and in no way worth 20 pts. Ruleswise it falls
into the category of stuff you spend spare points on, since it doesn't actually
do anything, and I think the price should reflect this.
Magic standards
Ragbanner
- Cost reduced from 35 to 25 pts
Comment: For the same cost, the Kineater Big name is far better, even if it
eats out of your General's magic item quota. I don't think I have actually seen
anyone take this banner.
Of course, the trend in army book rewrites is equally to drop items that don't work at all and introduce new ones instead of reducing the cost, but I will not go into this here.
Other related articles
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