Not That I Am, But If I Were...

Well, the registration for Warhammer Fantasy Battle at the NOVA Open is finally up. The grand total to attend is $70, and I've already made my stance on the price point of the event clear. The thread on DakkaDakka got me thinking, though. What if I were to scrape together the time and money to attend, and were I to change my mind about plunking down that much money on a tournament?

What army would I bring?

Well, since i'm pretty sure your army list needs to be approved beforehand, that rules out double-Hell Pit Abominations. With that in mind I got to thinking. My Skaven army would need some more stuff to get into competitive shape, and even then it may get too low a comp score (also, I'm done painting Skaven for a good, long while).

This brought me to my back-up army, the Ogre Kingdoms. They wouldn't require too much to be purchased in order to get them to the tournament's 2,500 point limit. In fact, I could get away with just two additional boxes of Orges (or a single battalion, and get some more Ironguts, too). I'm not too adverse to slapping a bit of paint on a few more Ogres, either...

With that I went about firing up my netbook, pulling up my "army construction software", and brainstorming a possible Ogre Kingdoms army. Lemme tell you, even at 2,500 points, you don't really get a lot of ogres. My final list came out to be:

Lords
1x Tyrant general w/ The Tenderiser, Glittering Scales, The Other Trickster's Shard, & Mawseeker Big Name (300 pts.)
1x Slaughtermaster w/ Bloodcleaver, Wyrdstone Necklace, & Ironcurse Icon (250 pts.)

Heroes
1x Bruiser battle standard bearer w/ heavy armor, Charmed Shield, & Talisman of Preservation (209 pts.)

Core
11x Bulls w/ standard, bellower, & ironfists (470 pts.)
12x Bulls w/ standard, bellower, & ironfists (510 pts.)
10x Ironguts w/ standard, bellower, Banner of Eternal Flame (520 pts.)

Special
2x Leadbelchers w/ Bellower (120 pts.)
2x Leadbelchers w/ Bellower (120 pts.)

Total: 2,499 pts.

This army is lot like my 2,250 point army, it's just not as top-heavy feeling. I've done away with all the gnoblar upgrades, as I really like the idea of an ogre army consisting of nothing but, well, ogres. I feel I should probably have a Butcher in the second bull unit as back-up magical support (replacing one of the Bulls and a unit of Leadbelchers, but Gut-Magic has kind of underwhealmed me in my last few games, and that's with a lord-level caster behind it!

My Tyrant remains the same offensive powerhouse he's always been, looking to clobber the snot out of big monsters and characters. He's very good at it, so don't fix what ain't broke I say.

The Butcher loses his tooth gnoblar and luck gnoblar, making him a bit more vulnerable, so he'll need to lean on his bloodcleaver fairly heavily, and get straight into combat. I sometimes wonder if I could run my Ogres with no magical backup, but that'd probably just leave me too open to spells like the Purple Sun of Xereus or the Dwellers Below, which can decimate my army without even trying. Of course, they'd probably just be Power Scrolled through my magical defense any way (assuming the item is allowed).

My Bruiser battle standard bearer loses a fair amount of his kit as well. He's reduced to his basic ogre club instead of his previous fancy-pants Cathayan longsword. No luck gnoblar for him, either. He'll just have to rely on his 2+ to ignore the first hit he takes, and his 4+ ward save.

The Bulls are bulked up to a total of 12 models each (once the Slaughtermaster joins the eleven-strong unit). This should give them a bit more staying power against dedicated big guy killers. Should they get into combat unmolested, that's all she wrote for most enemy units. Note that these units have been stripped of their light armor. I figure more warm bodies is probably better than a 6+ armor save. They still have ironfists, however. I just like the versatility of having either a fourth attack or a 6+ ward save depending on what their opponent merits.

The Ironguts. They're unchanged from the 2,250 point list, even though they're a gigantic fire-magnet. I think I should probably have bulked them up, but that would eliminate target priority issues for my opponents. Still, a few more bodies (three or so) would make the unit that much more of a threat...

My Leadbelchers are there almost to keep me from having to buy another battalion. I can't help but think that there's nothing they can do that Ironguts couldn't do better. Maybe I should re-tweak my army to not include these dudes and see how it looks? Then again, they are mainly there to thin out flanking units...

In the end this is all just wishlisting, though. Maybe if another tournament set the point cap at 2,500 points, I'd have to ponder this army more deeply, but as long as I'm not willing to shell out for the NOVA Open (and that won't be for a while, if ever) this is all just speculation any way.