I have yet to beat my friend who plays OK. For awhile I was building an all comers list because I didn't want to tailor my list to beat his specific army, however after another loss last night I made one small change in order to get a few more hits on him. (I swapped out sally's for razorbacks) The problem is that come turn two he is in CC with very few, if any, causalities. Once CC happens OK just walks through my TG and Saurus. The employee's at the game store we play at have said that they've seen OK win the majority of the battle's played their but there has to be a way to beat them. I've lost at 1K, 1.5K and now at 2K.
A bit more information may be needed but to beat ogres you should try to not fight in CC so much, small skink units are a bane to their low armor saves. For mournfags you just need sacrifical redirectors to keep them off your main battle units.
Slaan Cupped hands, rumination, becalming cogitation, lore master and life 20 TG, 30 Saurus, 10 Skink Skirms w/ Skink priest (dispell scroll) and 11 Skink Skirms, 2 X 6 Chamelleons, 1 Ancient Stegadon and 2 Salamanders (I changed the salamanders to razordon's for game 2) I kill 2 or 3 Ogre's prior to CC and usually a Sabertusk. But then it's typically all CC after that. I'm trying to redirect with skinks but the terrain usually causes a funnel which limits my room to divert him away. Once CC hits I really have nothing to stop him. I'm lucky if my Saurus don't flee after one round of CC and I usually have 5 or less TG left.
Against OK the saurus & razor dons/sallies will not do you any great favours. You would be better off dropping them to beef up the TG to 30 and then using the extra points to field more skinks and perhaps a choppy scar vet on a cold one with the dawnstone, dragonhelm, voff & halberd/GW (1+ re-roll AS & 4 x S6/7 poisoned attacks). The extra skinks can help kill big targets or kill a few ogres in a big block while the TG (with life buffs) will eventually grind down the ogres. The scar vet can take on the mournfang cavalry if he is within 12" of the slaan (just in case of bad luck). I might even consider a skrox unit since it cannot be stomped and would be very good at taking out monsters.
They are a bad match for ogres, maybe if you try to spam up iceshard blizzard you can win combats but that takes multiple priests, could get unreliable.
In the initial description, the problem described was twofold: 1) insufficient wounds inflicted prior to CC and 2) walking through TG/saurus. By changing the core troops to skinks and skrox, a lot of shooting is added to the army while a reinforced TG unit is better able to win the war of attrition. Against OK, the TG are quite good as they hit on 3s and wound on 3s and can act as an anvil against the main block. With any life buff, they will do extremely well since they will be far tougher to kill and the OK cannot replace their losses.
Hello, I personally have little experience with OK, But I suggest A Slann with lore of Shadow. Mainly for the Pit of shades spell, but also to lower his movement of 6(or 7 if he takes an apropreate banner!!;/). Especially when You can use Cupped hands Also lowering WS or T is very god vs Ogres. So here is my advice in short: Use Shadow! Cheers, SS
I've found that multiple small units is actually quite useful against OK, 4 units of 10 skinks is better than 1 unit of 40. They blow through 1 unit, and then you end up with 3 units shooting that unit as they sit there un-engaged. Oldblood on a Carnosaur can hurt them pretty bad, but you have to pick and choose your targets. Don't fight the GW guys, don't fight the guy with the hardened skull. De-buffing their units (i think it's shadow?) before they hit combat is good, make them Str1, T1, WS1 and watch them swing and miss and fail to wound. If you get the -WS and Iceshard on them, they're looking at 6's to hit your saurus/TG and 5's for skinks. Razrodons, not salamanders, Leave the poor stegadon at home (though I imagine, the war spear + stegadon could hurt them on the charge, but w/o the stomp, he's not quite as good) And stop him from buffing his units. Especially the regen one.
Thanks for all the tips. I was hoping to not have to tailor my list around beating my friend but it looks like I don't have a choice. You've given me alot options to try out.
a "standard" army works just fine. yes salamanders are not very good against them, but they are insanely overpowered against all other armies, so they will have to take one for the team. they can be used to remove regen from a successfully buffed unit though. you can still get in ~6 hits on most units and that means ~2 wounds. ogres will kill saurus point-for-point, so you cant give him a fair fight. you must either buff your units (or hex his) or you must have the umbers advantage. use skinks to redirect him, and pounce on whatever you can isolate. chameleons arent as great as normal here either, so they may have to serve more as redirectors. They are still good at taking down his huge monsters though. buffed TG will tear apart anything he fields, just like against every other unit. the trick is to not let the rest of his army demolish the rest of your army meanwhile. if you have magic superiority (and there is no reason why you shouldnt) you can buff/debuff (with any school imo) so that you have the upper hand in 1-2 combats. make sure there are no more than that many combats going on at once. use the salamanders for bait if needed.
Actually no tailoring is really needed, just use more small units of skinks those are a fine all comers option that is usefull from deployment all the way to game's end. Especially considering all the sabertusk drops ogres can get to try and outdeploy you.
It sounds like most of OP problems stem from trying to fight Ogres in close-combat with Core blocks versus Core. Don't, Orges literally eat other infantry. Shadow is (like usual) perfect for you. 'Miasma' will slow down his blobs o' death, and then hit them with 'Pit' to nuke them into hell. The best part is, because he has such small units (6-9 man usually, except for his Ironguard blob which have Rune Maw anyway), you can cast the small blast and not scatter as bad (anyone touched is being vapourised on a 2+). If you're running Life Slann (yawn, it works but boring), then of course 'Dwellers' is your way to go. Unlike 'Pit', you're not at the mercy of scatter, as it just goes 'yep every model must test'. Ogres have S4, so they only pop on a 5-6, but if you have Double Slann (possible at 2,250 or more), you can use the Shadow spell 'Enfeeble' to reduce it down to S2 (tehehehe). If combat is unavoidable, AOE cast 'Speed of Light' and 'Birona's Timewarp' from a Light Slann. Your Temple Guard become unstoppable killing machines, and even Saurus start to rack up some kills before succumbing. 'Burning Gaze' is handy for denying Regn if he casts that off. 'Net of Amyntok' can slow that Irongut Deathstar or any of the big monsters ('Enfeeble' once again helps to keep them from breaking free) So yeah, just magic the hell out of him. If he brings Rune Maw, you'll have to take Death and Purple Sun the Irongut unit he takes it on (as it technically doesn't target the unit itself, it's a vortex you make, so he can't 2+ it onto another unit).
Instead of tailoring your list, first try keeping it almost the same and going with Lore of Light. The Augments are great for swinging CC. Ogres hit Saurus on 5s instead of 4s, extra attacks, I10, ect.... Plus, the Magic Missiles help against things like the Mournfangs and their cannons early on...
Not going to work very well. They still hit with a bunch of attacks in combat, so hitting on 5's doesn't overly worry them (they also get Impact Hits with certain units). You'll never outfight his units in one on one combat, he just has too many wounds to chew through. 'Burning Gaze' isn't going to do much to Mournfangs, they have 6 wounds each. Neither is 'Banishment' S4 doesn't overly worry most Ogre units.
Nah, because you take the wounds on the Mournfang (6), and then when it dies, the Ogre just hops off with his 3 wounds and keeps killing you.
you are thinking about a stonehorn with a hunter on top mournfangs are the monstrous cavalry, and they indeed have a total of 3 wounds (but with a nice armour save)