Skrag the Slaughterer

THE GREAT MAW IS HUNGRY!

Skrag the Slaughterer, also known as the Gore-Harvester and the Maw-that-Walks, is an Ogre Kingdoms special character who debuted in the 6th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. He is Ogres' main magic user in crunch and the embodiment/prophet of their god in fluff.

Proto-Hammer Skrag

In earlier editions of Warhammer Fantasy, Skrag was a worshipper of Malal.

History

Many, many years ago Skrag was just a regular Slaughtermaster of some minor Tyrant Bron Rockgrinder. His life was nice and all until the moment he accidentally cooked Bron's favorite Gnoblar (it's also implied that he did this on purpose, as that gnoblar regularly pissed him off) and served him to Bron at a feast (likely not intended). His Tyrant, who was already known as That guy, punished him by hacking his hands off and eating them, and then banished Skrag to under-caves while also attaching a giant cauldron to his back. What a dick.

Having nowhere to go, the former Slaughtermaster shoved his carving implements into his wrist-stumps as makeshift weapons and ventured deeper and deeper until he encountered a pack of feral and degenerate offshoot of Ogres named Gorgers. The fight for him went pretty easy. After killing at least a dozen Gorgers, he managed to rip the throat of their leader with his teeth, and was recognized by the surviving Gorgers as one of them. Driven by revenge, Skrag managed to escape from the underground labyrinth with his brand new army of Gorgers, and after that he returned home and killed everyone there, sacrificing the Tyrant to the Great Maw.

This sacrifice gave him the power of the Maw itself and raised him above all other Ogres, as the Maw chose him as it's prophet, imbuing him with visons of battle, slaughter and most importantly, the chance to make some good food. Skrag is now revered by even the nastiest of Ogre rulers and constantly spends time travelling from battle to battle, guided by his visons. Once he arrives at a battlefield he starts carving up foes into bloody ribbons and dropping them into his cauldron for his signature "ogre potluck stew" (ogres only make up between 15-70% of the stew at any one time). Followed around by a band of Gorgers that have figured out that following skrag leads them to food, and a group of amateur gnoblar chefs who scurry around the battlefield picking up random bodily detritus and throwing it into the pot, Skrag marches from battle to battle, consuming and sacrificing everything for his beloved God.

Tabletop

Grubs up!

Skrag is a pretty interesting character as he's a wizard you want to get into combat (although you want almost all Ogres to get into combat so pretty standard for the army), and he is also a bit like a Warrior Priest for Gorgers. A beefed up Slaughter Master, he's a level 4 Wizard that uses the Lore of the Great Maw. Skrag has a plethora of extra rules as he has Frenzy, Killing blow, is Immune to poison (like other Butchers/Slaughter masters) and causes Terror, since seeing some fucked up cross between a Cenobite, Edward Scissorhands, and a fat, greasy fry cook would scare most people. He also allows Gorgers to be taken in units of two and ignore normal duplicate units rules. Armed with two hand weapons (*Ba-Dum Tss*) he can throw out quiet a lot of hurt since he'll be getting (at least) 6 attacks at S5 with killing blow, which on top of that he can get the impact hit(s) from ogre charge if he gets the charge. All of this means he has little problem blending through your opponents toughest units and will give even fully kitted out Chaos Lords a pause before they get into combat with him.

His main gimmick however is the Cauldron of the Great Maw, his giant stew pot that gives Skrag and all Gorgers in the army a bonus when Skrag kills someone in close combat (and only close combat), with the bonuses increasing with the more models killed by Skrag.

• 1+ models gives Skrag regeneration, and all Gorgers that are not on the table are brought onto the table.
• 5+ models gives Skrag and all Gorgers +1 attack
• 10+ models gives Skrag and all Gorgers Hatred
• 15+ models gives Skrag unbreakable and all Gorgers regeneration.

Obviously this makes Skrag even deadlier as the game progresses and it makes taking Gorgers almost worth it. Almost. The big problem with Skrag is, like so many other WHFB characters, is his price. He's 425 smackaroos (A full 140 points more expensive than a level 4 wizard slaughter master) and he buffs one of the most meh/over costed units in the Ogre kingdoms army (90 points for one Gorger that starts off the board, with 4 attacks, 4 wounds at Stregnth 5 vs 90 points for 3 bulls that start on the board with a total of 9 wounds, 9 attacks at Strength 4). He can be a good addition to an Ogre army and if you want to run a Gorger heavy army (because you're mad as hell and you don't care Gorgers are failcast) he's pretty much essential, but if you just want a strong magic user with lore of The Great Maw, a Slaughter Master is usually the better call.

Total War: WARHAMMER

Chonky boi, now in digital.

Skrag is one of the two starting lords of the Ogre Kingdoms faction, but, quite surprisingly, he starts very far from home in the Grey Mountains, putting him right at the doorstep of Mr. Emperor himself. Skrag buffs Gorgers (who actually aren't useless in this game) in his army with reduced upkeep and extra replenishment. His faction has extra movement range coupled with increased recruitment rank and capacity for Butchers. Very simple buffs but it makes for a very opened ended style campaign that allows you to move across the map quickly and build armies in whatever fashion you desire.