In a previous post I noted at the guys at Dreamlike (Now Slayer Gaming) piqued my interest in Warhammer Fantasy battles.  I watched two battle reports, one was their very first one, where Tom’s Ogre army took on Dwarves in one and High Elves in another.  Since then I have started both Skaven and Beatmen armies.  I admit I really like Skaven, but both were begun because I was able to get near complete armies on and off the sprue at very cheap prices.

Several weeks ago, while cruising a used bookstore I found a pile of army books.  Empire, Ogres, Tomb Kings, Orcs and Goblins, all “current” hardback.  All ten dollars a piece.  (They also had a stack of Forge World Imperial Armour books for 15 a piece…it was a good day at the used bookstore…)

Looking through the books I became very interested in one army in particular: Ogres.  The very first army I ever saw played.  They’re very different from any force I’ve seen, Monstrous Infantry, big brutes, no alignment, and a “SMASH and EAT” philosophy.  Also relatively cheap to start.

My local Games Workshop store has started a Fantasy escalation league and, though I had Skaven and Beastmen armies, I decided to give Ogres a shot.  I got the regiment starter box and away I went.

The league starts at a miniscule 250 points, which if I included even my cheapest general option left me only 150 points for troops.

Because of this point restriction, the standard troop structure is waived and only core units have to be fielded with extra points given for fully-painted armies.  With that in mind (and being completely trapped in the house for days due to ice and snow) I started my Ogres.  This was the result:

I went all ironfists, due to the extra save.  They’ve already got 3 attacks plus impact hits and stomps, so I went for a parry/increased armor save instead of an additional weapon.

At the time I thought I had to have an HQ.  I got the maneater on the right to proxy a bruiser or butcher since my actual models were on order.

These guys are a blast to build an paint, and the regiment box gives you so many bits, with some crafty purchases I was able to nearly double the number of ogre bulls I can field by spending about 25 dollars.

 I’ll be playing my first escalation game this week and as I’ve never played a REAL game (only here’s how this works games) and never done anything with ogres I’m gonna lose.  It’ll be a BLAST.  I’m looking forward to it!