3rd Edition: Thoughts on Ogres

My Ogre collection was cobbled together from the Chaos Ogres I had been running back in the day; they loyally followed all my GW Chaos stuff over into Kings of War, where the Berserkers have had (I think) one battle cameo. While they're not much of a force on their own... the Ogres are one of the only armies I have that are in the new main rule book, so I might as talk a bit about them.

Irregular Units

More units are Irregular in Third; it seems to be Mantic's non-invasive way to try and guide the army metas a bit. A lot of ranged units received this status in Third, along with some unique but powerful units that were showing up in a lot of lists, like the Abyssal's Tortured Souls or the Varangur Fallen, or the Undead Wights (for me at least, not sure how popular they were elsewhere). The former "must-have" allied unit of Ogre Shooters is now similarly afflicted. My collection is not impacted.

List Building & Unlocks

List building has also changed a bit in Third, and is now a bit more complex. Gone is the slick, simple Regiment/Horde arrangement; it's gotten more granular, with the Large Infantry/Cavalry getting tweaked. Their Regiments no longer unlock things; only Hordes and Legions do.

So with the Large-bodied choices, Troop unlocks are a far harder to get. Hordes only get you two (Legions get you four). However, with each, you get TWO unlocks for any combination of Hero, Monster, Titan, or War Engine, where the more "regular" unlocking cavalry/infantry/heavy infantry units are limited to one (or one of each, with a Horde).

It's a weird arrangement.

Part of me just doesn't like it. A big personal selling point for me with Kings of War is the rules. There were balance concerns (as they are in any game), but the rules were always easy to read and understand. Now, unlocks are not as simple or straightforward as they were previously, and unlocks and list building is a little clunkier.

That said, I don't have a better solution in mind. I think this is the "least bad" option Mantic could take to get where they want to be. And overall, I do like the unlocking change.

I think Large-bodied hordes definitely needed a nerf coming into Third. They had a small footprint, and generally had very desirable stats (high Nerve, lots of attacks, bountiful Crushing Strength and usually good defense too), so you ended up with a very potent, very compact unit. Couple that with the old Horde unlocks and they were very strong in their own right and insanely desirable. Large-bodied unit would have different tactics than human-sized soldiers, and I do like that they get different supporting unlocks to kinda reflect that.

My Collection

... fortunately for me, my small collection doesn't care about either of the big changes impacting more serious Ogre lists! My collection sits a bit above 1000 points, about a 5% decrease from where they were at the end of Second Edition.

I do have an edition casualty. I did up a large two-headed ogre for the odd Nomagarok, a legendary ogre spell caster and mediocre combat guy. I haven't read the fluff, but am not seeing him here in the new army list. The mini is larger than a typical ogre, but not large enough to really be a monster or something... I'll retire him for now and see what the future brings.

My Warlord got a points decrease, but remains a strong, smashy leader. I'm actually quite impressed with the selection of Ogre heroes. If my collection grows at all, I'll definitely need to pick up some more heroes! The Sergeant has so many options, and the Berserker Bully just looks incredible to me.

My two hordes of Siege Breakers got some tweaks, but are still looking very strong to me! They lost their Thunderous Charge and a point of Crushing Strength (down to CS2 now), but gained Defense 5 and kept their Big Shield. They don't hit as hard any more, but are going to be quite dangerous to try and fight.

The three regiments of Slaaneshi-style Braves were the first to cross over into Kings of War. In Third they look largely same, but with a minor points decrease and Wild Charge 3, which I'm looking forward to seeing in action.

Wild Charge is neat, and I'm quite interested to see it in action. I have some wandering thoughts on the ability, but can't quite seem to nail them down succinctly right now. In short, I think it's going to make positioning way more interesting in games. I'm intrigued!