Ogre Kingdoms Tactics: Lards and Heroes
For appetizers, I'm going to be talking about the Lords and Heroes of the Ogre Kingdoms army. These are the big beefy guys who either will be punching apart half dozen elves a turn, or will be buffing your army to fight at the peak of it's ability.
Lords
Tyrant
First up is the biggest guy in the army, your Tyrant. He boasts a stat line that rivals many full fledged monsters, and that's before you give him magic items! The Tyrant boasts a healthy LD of 9, the highest in the Ogre Kingdoms army, which is important to think about when you're building a list. The tactics for a Tyrant are pretty straight forward, give him a big club, give him some protection, then watch him beat people into paste. Typically, I avoid a Tyrant unless I'm running a 3k list, but I can imagine some builds which he'd still be nice to have in a standard sized game.
Favorite Equipment: Giant Breaker, Sword of Bloodshed, Enchanted Shield, Dragonbane Gem, heavy armor. This makes a Tyrant with 8 attacks, at S6, he has a decent 3+ save, which you can always add Regen to with a Butcher, plus the Dragonbane Gem for when he's fighting the ever popular flaming attacks. He's a vicious brute who will definitely kill a few guys.
Slaughtermaster
Next up we have the most magical fatty in the army. The Slaughtermaster has a stat line that will put a punishing on even many other players Lords. For the points, this is typically my army general. He is expensive as hell, especially once he's a level 4 with a full complement of magic items, but taking him with the Lore of the Great Maw will do wonders to bolster your force. Don't think of him as a scary potent caster like the a High Elf and instead think of him as a force multiplier. Fighting against ogres is tough, fighting against S/T5 Ogres with Regen is a nightmare... I'll have to follow up soon with an Ogre Magic tacitca.
Favorite Equipment: Fencer's Blades, Glittering Scales, Earthing Rod. In combat, most things will need 6's to hit him, and often 6's to wound, so he's not going to be suffering much damage from being picked out like a weedier wizard, plus he's dishing out 5x WS10 S4 attacks, which isn't bad. I didn't used to take the Earthing Rod, but with how often I 6-dice Troll Guts, I wont leave home without it.
Heroes
Bruiser
A Bruiser is just a Tyrant Jr. His stats are still on par, if not better than most Lords, though he costs a considerable amount less. The Bruiser also acts as your BSB, which is great considering he has T5 and W4, plus access to good armor and magic items, when compared to most peoples T4 W2 BSB's, he truly shines. If you have the points to add a Bruiser to a block, then it will dramatically increase the damage output, causing a S5 impact hit, plus his 4x S5 attacks, add on some suitable magic items and not much can stop him. As much as I would like to add a fight Bruiser to most of my blocks, the point cost of the rest of the army frequently prevents this, and he usually relegated to BSB in my army.
Favorite Equipment: Crown of Command, Dragon Helm, Ironcurse Icon, heavy armor, ironfist. Since I don't often have a Tyrant, usually this guy is running with my Crown of Command, which is so very important for Ogres. Also, he has a 3+ armor, 6+ parry and a fair number of wounds, which makes him ideal for defensing the banner.
Butcher
The Butcher is our Level 1/2 mage. Similar to the Slaughtermaster, the Butcher has a respectable stat line, and can survive a great deal of punishment. I always have a second caster in my army, and it mainly depends on if you want to have Lore of Fire or Lore of Beasts. Since Ogres always have to have at least one of their wizards with Lore of the Great Maw, the Butcher can either eat up that requirement for you, or you can use them as a secondary caster with a different lore. Personally, I prefer to keep the Level 4 with Great Maw and stick my level 1/2 with Beasts for Wyssian's Wildform, which will push a unit of ogres to S/T5. Ouch!
Favorite Equipment: Hellheart, great weapon. Since my Butcher is often at the front of my army, casting Wyssian's on his buddies, I like to give him the short ranged, yet very potent Hellheart. You certainly can't go wrong with dimensional cascading someone's frog or elf.
Hunter
With no good reason, the Hunter is one of my favorite Heroes. He is a bit pricy at 130 points, but you essentially get a LD9 Bruiser who can't share his leadership. Since he is such a tough nut to crack, I use my Hunter in the same way that I use my Razorgor in my Beastmen, as a really tough to kill charge redirector who eats the occasional mage. I typically keep him fairly stripped down on equipment, maybe adding an additional hand weapon or great weapon. From time to time though, my Hunter isn't content walking everywhere, so giving him a Stonehorn helps his tender feet. With this character on his mount, you have a tough flank unit that can beat the tar out of nearly anything it feels like, though is a bit steep on the points.
Favorite Equipment: Longstrider, additional hand weapon. That's it, keep him simple! He's going to run 14" a turn and piss off your opponent to no end. If you absolutely must doll him up a bit, go with the Berserker Sword and Shield of Ptolos, that will protect him from ranged attacks, as well as panic.
Firebelly
The last slice of Hero pie is a burnt one. Firebellies are a new addition to the Ogre army, and a very welcome one at that! For 20 more points than a normal Butcher, you're getting a wizard with flaming attacks, a breath weapon and a 4+ ward to flaming attacks, not bad! The big reason I always have a Firebelly around is because I often am without the Banner of Eternal Flame, but when I go against a regenerating opponent, I need something to strip it off, otherwise my ogres will be punching their sausage fingers into trolls and making them giggle. Unfortunately, these guys cap at Level 2, so it is seldom that I ever get the coveted Flaming Sword of Rhuin, but when I do, boy is it nasty! Also, don't forget that ALL of the Firebelly's attacks are flaming, that means flaming impact hits and flaming stomps!
Favorite Equipment: Potion of Speed, Dispel Scroll, great weapon. The potion of speed means that he gets to use his breath attack at initiative 5 in combat, which means it strips off regen BEFORE the rest of your ogres take a swing, this is absolutely massive, and a steal at only 5 points! Alternatively, you can go with the Sword of Swift Slaying or the Gold Sigil Sword, but I prefer the handy flaming great weapon any day.
There you have it! Ogres are an army that are lucky to have an awesome selection of Lords and Heroes to choose from, none of which really come up short (except possibly the Hunter). Enjoy the feast!