Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms

Ogres, my Lord! This is the general tactics page on how to play Ogre Kingdoms in Total War: WARHAMMER.

Why Play Ogre Kingdoms?

• You like doomstacking with monsters anyway so why not play a faction that is 95% monsters?
• You love the satisfaction of seeing a unit's health drop heavily from the impact of a massive charge.
• Because you are the one person on the planet who has asked themselves "What if you mix Mongols with Flintstones?"
• Because you love meat. In fact, you are likely eating a pork chop wrapped in bacon as you read this.
• Your enemies will scream and run, but you think that's part of the fun.
• You relate to their body image a little too much.

Pros

• THICC: The vast majority of your troops are composed of monsters and large units. If you only play this game to build up large monster stacks to take over the world with, this is the race for you.
• High Charge: You are the most devastating army off the charge. A lot of armies are going to evaporate once you make contact and not even regular anti-charge tactics work against you that well.
• Quality: Model for model, Ogres are one of the scariest armies in terms of pure stats. Few other factions will be able to compare to you pound for pound.
• Armor? What's that?: Almost everything you have pierces armour. No amount of armour is going to protect your enemies from a 4-meter tall hulk of flesh that swings a hammer the size of a small building.
• Monsters: Monsters, monsters and more monsters, you are the primo monster faction with only 2 infantry units that aren’t monsters. One way or another you will have little trouble winning the monster mash.
• Decent Ranged: For a monster focused faction you are solid at shooting. You got two forms of artillery, a monster with a bolt thrower, Leadbelchers and even Gnoblar Trappers can be useful. Ok, the Wood Elves will probably beat you in a ranged fight but you can put out some serious damage from far away.
• Mobility: For a faction filled with morbidly obese dumbfucks who wouldn't look out of place on R/Incel, you are quick on your feet. Your artillery can move as fast as heavy cav and you do have a variety of cavalry to speak off. Even your basic ogre bulls have good cardio with 54 speed. You actually stand a decent chance at outmaneuvering your opponent aside from a few extreme cases.

Cons

• Lack of Numbers: Your units have a super low model count. Even a single casualty in a unit of anything other than Gnoblars will hurt a lot more than what other factions will suffer.
• Anti Large/Charge Defense: Given how reliant you are on size and charge, factions that have plentiful anti large and charge defence might be a massive pain in your giant, 2-ton ass (grins in Dwarf.) Ogre charge does help with Charge Defense somewhat, though you will still be losing a good chunk of your damage.
• No staying power: With a heavy reliance on charges and fear you will not be winning a sustained fight. If your enemy can outlast your ammo or your charges you will find your inflexible roster will fail you.
• Feet Guts Firmly on the Ground: You've got no air power. Nadda. And your shooting is somewhat limited. The Lore of Manticore Summoning Beasts helps out a bit, but armies with dedicated air power will be a problem.
• Armor? What's that?: I mean, to be fair it's probably hard for them to find armour in their size, but it does mean armour for most ogres units tends to be on the lower side. You can patch this weakness somewhat by going heavy on ironfists/heavy cav/stonehorns, but armor will be a problem in the earlygame and in multiplayer where you'll be filling your armies with ogre bulls.
• Footlords only: None of your generic or legendary lords get mounts, though they do have above average movement speed. Your lords can rip up and eat most other lords for lunch, but you're going to have trouble catching them.
  • Lack of Mounts in General: Honestly, the only Lord or Hero with a mount is the Hunter with a Stonehorn. Granted, you have an army of massive, muscled up monsters who will eat most other lords and heroes for breakfast, but they're going to have to get there on foot.
• DLC?: On launch, the Ogres missed out on Bruisers, Yhetees and Thundertusks. It remains to be seen if these will be added as FLC units later or will be added as DLC.

Universal Traits

• Ogre Charge: If an ogre unit charges a braced unit with charge defence, they will only lose half of their charge bonus. This is very important for a faction that is so reliant on getting the charge for their damage it's nice that they have a way to not get completely cockblocked because the enemy is just standing still. That said most opponents, even the AI usually don't just sit there and let you charge them and even if they do you're probably better of circumnavigating their frontline and going for their skirmishers in the rear. So while not the most practical trait in the game it's still nice for the Ogres to have.

• Captives: During a battle the Ogres slowly fill a meter for each unit they kill that is broken or shattered. As the meter fills special army abilities are unlocked, including Dismember (an AoE slow and charge debuff), Massacre (AoE buff for AP damage and gives affected units Terror), and Butcher (basically Regrowth from the Lore of Life). This will be a very useful army mechanic against chaff-filled armies like Skaven or Beastmen, but will be hard to use against armies with a lot of unbreakable units (like daemons or undead) or a lot of low-model counts (like other ogres).

• Mercenaries: Ogre Camps allow other factions to purchase Ogre Mercenaries if they are nearby. They're limited to regular Ogre Bulls and also have limits on how many they can have in their army at a time.

Lords

Legendary Lords

• Greasus Goldtooth: Overtyrant of all ogres, in his beautiful and shockingly obese glory. Greasus inflicts a leadership debuff on enemy units due to how stinking rich he is and a damage resistance aura based on how impressive his shiny crown is. He may or may not be slower due to being pushed by gnoblars instead of being carried by them, but either way he's big as hell and might want to be careful about ranged units.
• Skrag the Slaughterer: Skrag is a legendary caster lord, using Lore of the Great Maw. Skrag is still an ogre (and has big swords instead of arms), so he is capable of holding is own in melee unless against anti-large or duelists. On top of that, Skrag has the ability to summon Gorgers during battle, and his cooking pot can make any gorgers in his army stronger the more kills he gets. Which he can rack up very quickly by using the AOE spells from the lore of the great maw.

Generic Lords

• Tyrant: Standard melee lord, well armored and does decent armor piercing. His really nice benefit is the "Snacks" ability which lets him heal while in melee.

• Slaughtermaster: Generic caster lord, supporting the ogres through the power of either the Lore of the Great Maw or Lore of Beasts. As an added bonus gets the "Extra Ingredients" ability, which is the ogre version of Arcane Conduit, increasing your Winds of Magic while you're in melee.

Generic Heroes

• Butcher: A hero version of the Slaughtermaster, in case you want a melee lord but still want magic. Like their lord counterpart, Butchers come with Lore of the Great Maw or Lore of Beasts. Also gets the "Extra Ingredients" ability.

• Firebelly: A caster hero, cooking the army's next meal during the battle with the Lore of Fire. Also has a number of bound abilities, including an explosion for getting out of melee, breath attacks, and a damage reflection buff. Generally a good fighter in melee and a reliable source of magic damage, but with zero armor he can be quite squishy.

• Hunter: A hybrid character with throwing spears, provides buffs to Sabretusks (SP only) and the only character on launch able to use a mount, a massive Stonehorn. His ranged attacks are anti-large on or off the Stonehorn, so he's effective at both sniping and demolishing infantry with his mount. If you play multiplayer, bringing one or two of these guys on a Stonehorn is an auto include. If you bring a Stonehorn as a mount you get stalk, a missile resist, a ward save, and AP Anti Large missiles. Oh, and did we mention this is all while only being 100 gold more expensive than a standard Stonehorn?
  • A couple Hunters with the "Lower Sabretusk Upkeep" skill can make them essentially free. Throw in the rest of the buffs they give to sabretusks and take the red line buffs from your lord and you can make an extremely cost effective doomstack.

Units

Infantry

• Gnoblar Fighters: Your chaff unit. Surprisingly tanky compared to what you might expect, having the same statline as Goblins. However that lack of shield really hurts them in the long run. Use them as even more fragile goblins to absorb charges, tarpit units for a small while, and to plug gaps whilst your chungus boys get into position. They're expendable so none of your other troops really care what happens to them.

• Gnoblar Trappers: Gnoblars, but they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and a ranged attack. Also come with the ability to slow down enemies in an area around them, making them surprisingly good support skirmishers. Still Expendable. Very useful for sneaky caps in Domination Mode.

Monstrous Infantry

• Ogre Bulls: Your "standard" infantry, they come in the usual monstrous infantry size and a tremendous charge bonus to batter the enemy with. They will cause fear and come with siege-attacker to help get past those city walls so you don't have to wait out in a siege. Come in three varieties: a cheaper, single mace version, dual weapons for anti-infantry and an ironfist for bonus melee defence and missile block. None of the variants have very good armor piercing, however.
  • In Campaign, the Ironfist variant is a cost-effective early-game stack against other Ogres, the additional armor being pretty helpful since none of the Bull variants have AP or Anti-Large anyway.

• Ironguts: Your thiccest bois. Comes with armour-piercing melee and are also one of the only armoured units in your entire roster. Expect them to be able to throw down with the best elite units the other factions have to offer. Notably lack an ironfist variant, meaning that they can only rely on that extra armor to survive missiles.

• Maneaters: The well-travelled mercenaries of your army, they are far more flexible than your standard unit of ogres. They come in a pistol, ironfist and a great weapon variant. The pistol for helping them pepper the enemy before the battle itself is joined, the ironfist for extra survivability and the great weapon for increased charge and a bonus vs large. They also come with Immune to Psych so don't expect to see these guys running away any time soon. Note that Maneaters are basically superior to Ironguts in all stats except for armour, and are priced accordingly.
  • Powder Guts: A pistol variant that is pretty much the normal pistols with better range, accuracy and damage. They do get an ability that gives them buff when they're losing, but overall they're just the normal pistol unit but better.

• Leadbelchers: Hybrid missile/melee unit with good range + armour-piercing damage + fire on the move. These guys are one of the best units available, their cannon salvos deal enormous damage. They can do okay in melee but don't leave them in it for too long. Consider keeping some Gnoblar Trappers or Gorgers nearby to screen for them.

Beasts & Monsters

• Sabretusks: Similar to high elf war lions, except they have more models, more melee attack, more weapon strength, and run as fast as chaos warhounds with 95(!) speed; great for hunting ranged weapons or chasing down routing units when your monstrous cavalry have better things to trample. Try to keep them away from hard targets, zero armour-piercing damage and rampage means they won't survive if they tangle with an enemy that can properly fight back. A hunter hero can make them incredibly scary in single-player by giving them frenzy, stalk, and vanguard deployment, but they don't get those bonuses in MP.
  • Pretty good when following in the wake of a Stonehorn. Smaller war beasts don't normally fare very well when the enemy is braced, but formations are nothing to the Stonehorn.
  • Their rampage can also be an asset. Warhounds are generally very fragile and can be routed easily. Sabertusks however are very stick and if they rampage then it'll be even harder for the enemy to get rid of them. Just make sure they get on the right targets.

• Gorgers: Come in groups of eight, unbreakable, stalk, frenzy, and vanguard deployment. Use them like Mournguls, sneaky flankers to rip apart tasty and tender backlines. Were broken as fuck at launch since they could beat Bloodcrushers and Celestial Dragon Guard in a head on fight despite costing less and being sneaky backline skirmishers instead of frontline bruisers. CA has since slapped them with the nerf bat, sending them back to the sneaky skirmisher role where they should have been the whole time. Extra dangerous if you bring Skrag due to his unique item's ability to buff Gorgers.

• Slavegiant: Your normal giant unit, except this time cajoled and beaten into battle by the very people who destroyed their race rather than bribed with booze. Sometimes the Ogres are the absolute worst. Ironically, this is one of the only giants that can regain health thanks to the Trollguts spell, making it a lot more tanky if you bring a gut magic caster.

• Stonehorn: Give the Norscan War Mammoth more armor, missile resistance, have it ridden to battle by a hungry Shrek rather than an angry viking, and you've got the Stonehorn. As expected outclasses the Giant in every way and has some of the best armor in your roster. Like an unholy merging of the Mammoth and the Khemrian Warsphinx its bounding animations let it run straight through infantry formations to deliver absolute hell.
  • By the Maw, Stonehorns are so ridiculously good you can expect them to be nerfed by the next balance patch. Stonehorns have practically zero weaknesses besides getting locked in combat with an anti-large monster/monstrous infantry. Its attack animations make it practically immune to being tarpitted by anti-large infantry, it has high armour and missile resistance to cover the usual weakness of monsters vs ranged, and its monstrous charge bonus will flatten any frontline it rams into, letting it get straight into the ranged units cowering behind the enemy shieldwall. It's a little on the slow side compared to the newer monsters of other factions, but it's fast enough to completely scramble the enemy's frontline before the rest of your chungus boys arrive. Stonehorns are your best monster, use them well and often.
  • See those Cathayans huddled around their cannons, providing "Harmony"? Sure would be a shame if someone ran them over and wrecked their shit.
  • The Snowhorn of Mourn: The RoR of the Stonehorn is a funny unit. He has better stats like most RoRs but also gets frostbite and a special ability called "Glacial Shield" that provides substantial missile resistance for a short period, at the cost of slowing the Snowhorn down. Stonehorns are pretty good at tanking missile fire already but this ability makes the Snowhorn almost immune to anything but the heaviest AP missiles. Because the ability has a short duration and decent length cooldown you have to pick when to deploy it very carefully. It might be best to rely on the Snowhorn's regular armor and missile resistance on the approach, as Glacial Shield's slow effect means you'll just be in the line of fire for longer if you pop it too early. However, if you can get into the enemy's back lines and then pop it they will fine you very hard to remove.

Monstrous Cavalry

• Mournfang Cavalry: One of the most powerful cavalry units from the tabletop game and their Total War counterparts don't disappoint. Their statline is scary, they have about the same mass as a Carnosaur, and their lack of armour actually works in their favour too, since the things enemies would normally roll out to counter monstrous cavalry usually have lower base damage, making them even beefier than they already appear on paper. They don't have Ogre Charge for some reason, but their speed and heavy mass will usually make up for it. Comes with standard, ironfist, and great weapon variants. The only cavalry that can beat Mournfang Cavalry with great weapons are Crushers with Great Weapons.

• Crushers: Rhinox cavalry. I know. We’re surprised they’ve shown up in the base game too. Essentially an even better version of Mournfangs, they come in two variants, ironfists and great weapons. Does basically everything the Mournfangs do but better. Pound for pound the best heavy cav in Immortal Empires. No other cavalry even comes close to being able to take on crushers with great weapons. War Bear riders are a pretty distant second and everyone else gets absolutely dumpstered. Multiplayer cost efficiency is a problem though. A 1800-1900 point cost means you can buy a squad of mournfangs and an additional squad of ogre bulls or sabertusks for the same price as one crusher cav squad.
  • The Sky-Striders: Meet the strongest cavalry unit in the game to-date, courtesy of stolen Sky-Titan weapons. These guys hit harder than their great weapon cousins, have missile resistance, and frostbite. The enemy ranged won't be able to focus them down as fast and any enemy cavalry they encounter will take massive damage on the charge and be unable to escape. A must-take against cavalry-heavy factions like Bretonnia and still pretty useful against monster heavy factions as well.

Artillery

• Gnoblar Scraplauncher: A single entity catapult, with surprising speed and charge stats. They shoot a spread of three projectiles which explode in a fairly wide radius of shrapnel on impact. The downside is they have very poor AP. When they run out of ammo use them as a back-up chariot. Otherwise they're best to bring against factions with a lot of unarmored chaff.
• Ironblaster: Mobile cannon pulled by a rhinox and firing spreadshot cannonballs that sunder armor. In other words, it's an artillery piece with none of the weaknesses. This is one of the best units on the roster as it can snipe out large monsters while running over infantry that gets its hands on it. If left alone this thing will demolish armies. Cavalry will be its biggest weakness, as they're fast enough to catch up and tear it down. Also since it only has one model it may lose in shootouts with other dedicated cannon units.
• Stonehorn Harpoon Launcher: All the benefits of a regular Stonehorn but with a ranged attack to boot, though with a price increase to match. A big armoured monster with a fire on the move ballista that can outrange Vampire Coast Deck Gunners. Capable of throwing down with an Ancient Stegadon in melee, though you'll much rather throw it at infantry.

Multiplayer Strategies

You are THE monster faction of the trilogy. You have a grand total of 2 normal infantry units, neither of which is going to carry the day for you, and a bunch of big fat boys in all manners of flavours. You are going to be a scary force on the charge and have some of the scariest units in the entire game. Mournfangs make elite cav from other factions cry and they're your lowest tier cavalry unit. Of course, your reliance on monsters comes with an obvious weakness as you will struggle against... well, pretty much anyone who can bring a decent amount of Anti-Large to the field. You may also struggle since your army tends to be predictable, and I imagine veterans will learn how to counter you fast. Still, if you want to grab a monster horde to feast on your enemies this is the race for you. Here's how to win glory for The Maw:

• Beastmen: If Ogres are high-mass, anti-Charge Defense, Beastmen are high-Charge, low-Mass; basically, you do well on braced guys, they do well flooding flanks, so keep yours protected and use your mass/chaff to keep them stuck-in when they make contact. Your Monstrous Infantry are no match for charging Minotaurs with Great Weapons, but your Monstrous Cav will do a lot of damage on most of the Beastmen's roster. Hunters on Stonehorns and Leadbelchers can deal with Ghorgons, and because Beastmen have low Armor, feel free to leave the Great Weapons at home.

• Bretonnia: Bretonnian cavalry being essentially immune to your greatest strength is going to hurt badly. knights of the realm will break through 90% of your roster and will be able to outspeed all of your roster 'even sabertusks'. prepare for pain

• Chaos Dwarfs:

• Daemons of Chaos: An extremely good matchup for your ogres, other than khorne warriors with halberds 'who can be knocked over anyway' the low-mass hordes of chaos will be mulched. Do bring a leadbelcher or two in case the daemons break out the greater daemons

• Warriors of Chaos: Your plentiful AP will be enough to crack open the evil refrigerators a WoC player will call a frontline. Mournfangs and Crushers with Great Weapons will destroy Chaos Knights as well. Dragon Ogres will be a definite concern, and should be dealt with using Leadbelchers and Ironblasters.

• Dark Elves: Scourgerunners. Scourgerunners, Scourgerunners, Scourgerunners. If they were a standout unit in the Dark Elf roster before, they are a rockstar in this matchup, and victory will come down to in a large part how you deal with them. They'll outrun your cav, stay out of range of your missiles and can dodge your artillery if they're micro'd well enough. Sabretusks seem like a good way to get them off your back with their insane speed, but can they reach the chariots without being shot half to hell? Other than that, Dark Elves can bring a pretty good amount of anti-large to the field with their infantry, but they have a hard time building wide because their army is pretty expensive. While they're not exactly a slow faction, you should generally have the mobility advantage, since their cavalry just won't be able to stack up to yours. Make sure you're using it to get those charges in, especially against elite units like Black Guard. Some artillery could be a good idea in case they bring a Kharibdyss. You're fast enough to maul any unprotected missile infantry, and your own missiles should be a good way to shoot any lords/heroes they bring full of holes.

• Dwarfs: If you can reach the Dwarfs you're going to do a lot of damage; they've always had trouble fending off lots of large entities at once. However, that "if" is nothing to sneeze at. You will be eating cannonballs from the beginning of the match. Be sure to bring ironfist variants on most of your Ogre troops to get some survivability against dwarf ranged play. Bring Leadbelchers and Ironblasters as well; dwarfs often have trouble against the artillery of other armies, and while they'll probably focus down your ranged units before you do theirs at least if they're doing that they're not shooting your advancing ogres. If by some miracle your Ironblasters survive they can still serve as chariots, something else dwarf players hate. Gorgers might be a worthwhile investment for stealthily getting into the back lines. Watch out for Trollhammer torpedoes!

• Empire: If you didn't like the Empire before then you'll definitely hate them now. With Markus Wulfheart, Huntsmen, artillery aplenty, and skirmish cavalry running circles around you, fighting the Empire is going to suck. However, With what we know about ogres so far some good advice would be bringing Gnoblar Trappers to ambush, ensnare, and destroy skirmish cav. You can also get good mileage out of sabretusks, they're speedy enough to catch outriders and mean enough to eat artillery crews along with their weaksauce empire infantry bodyguards. The Empire's frontline for the most part will crumple the moment you get in melee, but watch out for halberdiers and try to soften them with your leadbelchers and artillery. Bring Maneaters with great weapons to handle their Demigryphs with halberds, and shut down their artillery as soon as you can because great cannons, steam tanks, and luminarks will blast your ogres and monsters to pieces. As for enemy lords, the primary threat is Markus Wulfheart. He's squishy, but the trouble is catching him before he kills your lord, heroes, your monsters, and your ogre infantry. Try to tie him down with your gnoblar trappers and speedy units, then close in on the bastard and use his bow as a spick to roast him on.

• Grand Cathay: Guts out boys! Cathay is going to bring halberds and plenty of ranged against you. Your best bet is to plow a Gutbus of Ogre Bulls and right through their front line and into the chewy center. For all of Cathay's strong defensive tactics a mass of ogres and other monsters can overwhelm them. Bring some Sabertusks or Gorgers as well though, because you will want to shut down their long ranged firepower, especially Grand Cannons and Crane Gunners, so your ogres don't get too shot up on the approach. Consider bringing an Ironblaster or two keep them preoccupied with an artillery duel. Leadbelchers will be helpful for gunning down the dragons and Stonehorn will really maximize your bunkerbusting ability, but at this point you're going to have to make some tradeoffs as ogres don't come cheap.

• Greenskins: Arachnarok spiders will be your bane here if your opponent brings them otherwise this matchup could go either way as both your armies will end up in a slugging match.

• High Elves: Helves basic tier 0 spearmen and archers will shred through anything you can bring. In campaign either go for autoresolves or bring 3 armies against their 1. In multiplayer just give up.

• Khorne: Khorne Warriors and calvary will be squished before your counterparts. Better yet most won't gain their Hellblade bonuses unless you've brought Gnoblars. Bloodthirsters could be a problem due to their anti-large power, and they could fly over your lard-line for any juicy artillery beasts you've been keeping.

• Kislev: An extremely painful matchup. kislev has missile units out of the ass and your low-armor ogres will have a poor time against them. kislev's other 'premier' unit are anti-large war bears that can't be knocked over. prepare for death

• Lizardmen: Though Saurus won't seem too daunting a proposition, Skink Skirmishers and Chameleon Skinks are going to be a literal pain in the ass due to their speed and your relative lack of armor. The abundance of poison weaponry generally sucks and Lizardmen aren't exactly hurting for Anti-Large in the form of Saurus Spears, Temple Guard, Salamander Hunting Packs and Carnosaurs. Lastly, their Terradon Riders will be a rather annoying nuisance due to your very limited anti-air options. The good news is that your cavalry will generally bowl right through theirs and with proper positioning, you'll likely be able to shoulder check your way through most defensive lines. Leadbelchers can make short work of Saurus and Kroxigors in general if you can get flanking shots onto them. Just make sure you have some Sabretusks and Mournfang Cavalry screen any Skinks or Cav trying to tie them down.

• Norsca: This will probably be a tough match-up considering Norsca's anti-large. Consider bringing artillery to destroy them from afar before you charge in.

• Nurgle: Nurgle hates enemies he can't tarpit and is bad against large numbers of monsters, powerful ranged weapons, and fire damage. Given that you can bring all of these to the table if you can't win this match-up you should probably turn off the computer and go play hop-skotch or something.

• Ogre Kingdoms:

• Skaven: Weapons teams and enough chaff to hold even your THICC mass off. you're fucked

• Slaanesh: You can't flank ogres enough said

• Tomb Kings: Skelly infantry won't last long against you, especially if you bring a Firebelly for lore of fire. What you really got to watch out for are their constructs, especially dedicated anti-large ones like Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinxes. Load up with anti-large and try not to cluster your units too closely together. Your army is highly highly dependent on getting the charge and you don't want your entire strategy to get ruined by a single Net of Amyntok.

• Tzeentch: Bring sabretusks and gorgers, if you're not able to chase down tzeench he's going to abuse his barriers and whittle you down.

• Vampire Coast: While you are vulnerable to missiles, the coast is also going to struggle like hell to keep you at range given how incredibly fast you are and how easily you can shove them around with your charges. Prometheans are really their only means of stopping you from getting where you want to go and Crushers or Mournfangs with great weapons should annihilate the crabs in short order.

• Vampire Counts: A very tough matchup. bring firebellies and gnoblar scraplaunchers because as ogres you have a lot of difficulty dealing with swarms of infantry and the vampire counts WILL bring a truckload of anti-large skeleton spears and ethereal units. Do your best to protect the firebelly as you flame storm the counts.

• Wood Elves: Forests give a 80% penalty to large units speed and melee attack, and any good welf is going to sit in that fucking treeline and mulch you to death with his no-collision arrows. your best bet is to bring stonehorns and leadbelchers and get into a quasi-artillery duel to force him out into the open.

Campaign Strategies

Use and abuse your camps; settlements can only hit tier 3 and shouldn't be your primary method of generating revenue, food, or armies.

If you're playing as Greasus, it may make sense to migrate west and confederate Skrag ASAP because Greasus is shit. Otherwise, while Cathay will be rich and easily-held territory once you defeat Meow Ying, Zhao Ming, and Nakai the Wanderer, it will be a slog to conquer it all and you'll be trapped in a hell of siege battle after siege battle after siege battle against the same units for 100 turns. On the other hand, as Skrag you'll have you pick of targets but no real defensible territory, so be ready for lots and lots of battles with pretty much everyone. Unfortunately, the Ogre Kingdoms are half-baked and the fantasy of being a wandering merc army eating the land as you amass riches isn't really playable in Immortal Empires, a sort of Hoard mechanic might have been a fit for that playstyle but alas we don't have that. Ogre contracts are absolute shit compared to Eshin contracts or Oxyotl missions, so you have no real good source of supplementary income besides sacking or razing everyone around you or attacking Cathay caravans, so be prepared to have no allies to shore up the weaknesses in the ogre roster unless you focus hard on diplomacy. If you do, factions with armor-piercing missile units (Handgonners, Hand Cannoneers, Crane Gunners) or splash damage artillery (Helstorms, Globardiers) may be your best options.

On the plus side, ogres are much more powerful than other faction's early-game units and you can expand quite quickly. Keep up the momentum with your camps and you should have an easy mid-game where Leadbelchers and Crushers will shine. Ironblasters and Stonehorns are going to be your late-game army, though there aren't many traits, if any, that improve them. Your mages will be fairly mediocre.

Total War: Warhammer Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Magic Banner Immortal Empires
Total War: Warhammer	The Empire Dwarfs Greenskins Vampire Counts Bretonnia Warriors of Chaos Beastmen Wood Elves Norsca
Total War: Warhammer 2	High Elves Dark Elves Lizardmen Skaven Tomb Kings Vampire Coast
Total War: Warhammer 3	Kislev Khorne Tzeentch Nurgle Slaanesh Grand Cathay Ogre Kingdoms Daemons of Chaos Chaos Dwarfs