Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Ogre Kingdoms (section)

===Magic===
Ogre magic consists primarily of Butchers and Slaughtermasters. They have access to the Lore of the Great Maw, Death, Beasts and Heavens, but one of them must take Great Maw. As with all 8th edition lores, do not forget your lore attribute, as a few casts of low level spells can really help you get the bigger one off later in the phase. Also remember the lore attribute for Great Maw is not optional, even if you have no dice left and full wounds, you still need to roll to see if you take the hit.
For BRB Lores: Death is used less often now that Deathfisting has been nerfed, if you want it put it on a Slaughtermaster since a Butcher can't reliably use the signature. Beasts works well on both either as a general purpose augmenting Butcher or a Slaughtermaster who can more reliably exploit the other great spells in the Lore. Savage Beast of Horos takes Slaughtermasters from good fighters to near greater daemon levels. Heavens is like Beasts, fantastic signature spell which is easy for Lvl 2 wizards to cast and has a nice variety of spells afterwards that a Slaughtermaster can also use (though he'd normally be better with the Lore of the Great Maw). Harmonic Convergence works fantastically with Ironguts and any other unit hitting and wounding on 2's and 3's.
Another option is the Firebelly, who has access to Lore of Fire (duh). Lore of Fire offers decent offensive spells and the Firebelly himself is a useful hero, with some solid combat abilities. If you already have a Slaughtermaster for the Lore of the Great Maw (take it on him if you can, he can make more use out of it than a Butcher) and just want a straight blast-em caster, Firebelly is the way to go, especially if you have some pesky Ethereal models to deal with.

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'''Heads up''' Slaughtermasters or Butchers who are using the Lore of the Great Maw can happily use the Forbidden Rod to gain D6 additional Power dice while suffering D3 wounds. Usually quite a bad item since many Wizards are 2 wound or 3 wound models and some people only give their Wizards basic protection (if any), so in many circumstances it can kill their Wizard outright or leave him on the verge of death... however not for Ogres! They have 4/5 wounds so D3 wounds isn't that bad PLUS with Great Maw they can restore wounds. It's an item worth considering.

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The Ogre Lore is as follows:

* '''Lore Attribute: Bloodgruel''' Whenever you cast a spell, roll a D6. On a 1, take an S6 hit, on a 2+ you get to recover a wound you lost earlier in the game AND get +1 to your next attempt to cast or dispel. This is pretty useful, as it can mean a quick and dirty first spell can make your next bigger spell easier to cast, or a small spell at the end of your magic phase makes your next dispel easier. Plus getting wounds back is useful.

* '''Spell 0: Spinemarrow''' Makes one friendly unit within 12" Stubborn on a 6+. Can be increased to 24" for 9+. Since Ogres rarely have enough ranks to get Steadfast, this is an easy way to keep your units from running (and an easy way to trigger your Lore Attribute).

* '''Spell 1: Bonecrusher:''' A range 18" Magic Missile that 2d6 S2 hits with no armor saves allows on an 8+. Can be beefed up to 36" inches for 11+. Low toughness heavy cavalry (Elves for example) HATE this spell and it's generally a pretty good spell, but not great.

* '''Spell 2: Bullgorger:''' One friendly unit within 12" gets +1 Strength on 7+. Can be increased to ALL friendly units within 12" on a 14+. Good way to make sure your Ogres hit harder than before, but generally overshadowed by the next spell.

* '''Spell 3: Toothcracker:''' One friendly unit within 12" gets +1 Toughness on an 8+. Can hit all friendly units within 12" on a 16+. Fucking awesome. There is almost no situation where casting this is a bad idea.

* '''Spell 4: Braingobbler:''' One enemy unit within 18" has to take a panic check on a 9+. Can be pushed up to 36" inches on a 12+. Can either be fucking amazing (ask those Poisoned Wind Globadiers how they feel about it), mediocre (Elves, Warriors of Chaos and Lizardmen will often shrug it off) or useless (just switch it out if you're up against Daemons, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts or Dwarfs). Still, if you're up against low-medium Ld, it's often a good way to send a chaff unit out of position and can occasionally be used to disrupt your enemy's battle line, so it's usually worth a look.

* '''Spell 5: Trollguts:''' Back to augments, gives one friendly unit within 12" Regeneration 4+ on a 12+. Can be boosted to all friendly within 12" on a 20+. Unlike the others, this one will be hard for a level 2 to cast with less than 3 dice (and even 3 dice can be risky) so if you roll it on them, might as well drop it. Level 4's will get good mileage out of it though, and it's a good spell (since Ward Saves are rare to non-existent in Ogre Kingdoms armies).

* '''Spell 6: The Maw:''' A big direct damage spell (NOT a vortex) that's quite fun. Drop the small blast somewhere within 18" and Scatter it. If misfire is rolled, enemy gets to place and scatter it. Once it lands, everyone under it takes an Initiative test. Pass and you take a S3 hit. Fail and you take a S7 hit with the Multiple Wounds (D6) rule. This casts on a 15+ and can be pushed up to a large blast on a 21+. This one is quite risky, requiring 4 dice for a Level 4 to reliably get off (and 6 for it to reliably get the big version off) and a misfire can cost you dearly with your Ogres' poor Initiative. This spell's not usually worth it; to start it relies on hoping you get it but don't get a miscast that fucks you, hoping that your enemy didn't bring a scroll for this moment (or dispel it themselves), hoping that you don't misfire or scatter off the unit you wanted to hit and hoping at the end that the enemy fails the test (and gets hurt enough to make a difference). On top of all the chances that it might fail (or do nothing), even if it succeeds it's probably not going to justify it's massive cost. This one spell is likely going to drain most to nearly all of your magic dice and waste most of your phase when there are so many buffs you could've been using instead.

Overall Lore of the Great Maw is all round fantastic and should be used on a Level 4 Slaughtermaster! Great Maw allows you to buff your guys to the high heavens, replenish lost wounds on your Slaughtermaster (opening him up to making him a vicious challenger) and just overall beat your opponents into submission. The other Lores are quite good (Beasts, I'm look at you) but Lore of the Great Maw is a very underated Lore. Not as powerful as other unique Lores, but for Ogres it does the job....REALLY well.

While Ogres have some really awesome offensive stuff available to them, it's just as important to remember the opponents magic phase. Since you don't have cheap, cheerful casters or any back line to bunker them in you won't typically have scrolls (or other minor items) to give you a leg up. Combined with this, a general lack of good armor, wards or magic resistance can be bad news for your flabtastic dudes. It's really important that you understand which spells are a major threat to you and focus on dispelling them even if it means eating some damage along the way. Of particular note is Purple Sun of Xereus which is horrendously damaging to Ogres and needs to respected (it'll kill an entire Gutstar in one cast if you don't take care of it). You can certainly play around it, but this is not just any damage spell. Things like this (hyper killy but situationally tricky to use spells) are the perfect reason to take chaff units to ensure your opponent has to deploy his magebunker before you throw down your main combat units. Simply deploying well can make Purple Sun substantially less bothersome because of it's random movement and limited range. Fortunately your Ogres are fucking amazing so even if you do have to let a few other spells go, you are generally less vulnerable than other armies due to high toughness (and strength for Dwellers) and your guys are badass enough to win even against buffed infantry.