Beating The 1000pt Ogre Deathstar, with Savages?

Ok, so a 1000pt tourney that I went to recently featured one particular Ogre army that was basically made from one huge unit of bulls + 2 units of 1 sabre tusk to make up the minimum unit number allowance. Naturally it pretty much stomped everything it got into combat with.

I've been trying to brainstorm and come up with something that could compete.

Do you think it could?

Savage Orc Great Shaman 220pts
Lucky Shrunken Head
Savage Orc Battle Standard 200pts
Morks War Banner
35 Savage Orc Big Uns 440pts
Savage Orc Boss, Additional Choppa, Warpaint, Standard, Musician, Big Stabba
2 Trolls 70pts
2 Trolls 70pts

1000pts

I would take 2 doom divers and a bunch of small units so you can see where he deploys that big unit. Just play keep away the whole game. Kill the 2 sabres early and pepper the horde with diver attacks while running away, maybe try and snipe characters with magic. Keep the divers far apart so the most he gets is one. Maybe a character killing Bigboss mounted to snipe out his general or bsb for the extra points (probably not). Or just use your normal list and run away from that unit all game and take the draw (lets him know his list is no fun).

That's the tactic that most of the other guys there facing him tried. I did the same myself against a chaos opponent. I just wondered what the viability of fighting Ogres head on with Savages was. The units of 2 trolls are to stop flank attacks on the savages, and to get them themselves when they can. +1 bonus for flanking, and if it's the second round they also give +1 for the charge in addition to any wounds that they might cause.

The problem with fighting a list like that in a tournament is that you either stay away from it or they nail you. It's hard to score any points against it at all which is going to put you way down the leaderboard

Don't go down the same route with the deathstar as that Ogre guy is doing.

Instead, spam things. Much more fun and much more original! 4 Pumpwagons, with Spiky Rollas is just 240p, IIRC...

Theo

pumpwagons should really help getting the ogres down to managable numbers.
The bad thing is that you need to kill it completely.

240 pts is not much but considering they are suiciding those 240 points will in the end cost you the battle.

So even with the pumpwagons you need to be able to hit the unit in 1 turn from all sides and with every thing you got!

You will need the points from charging, flanks, rears, ranks (with his ranks disrupted), and then hope for good rolls on the impact hits etc.

Yes, none of that matters, because you can only gain 42 vps, because of his tusks, while he gains points for any small unit that you throw at it and he only has to win by 100.

This is why I believe the vp system is the biggest culprit along with the super spells for creating these types of death stars.

Otherwise, you could capture 3 table quarters and gain 300vps that way. And if draws were still up to 300pts, you could play him to a draw very often and ruin his chances at winning the tournament, so that next time he wouldn't want to try that again.

Instead the rules all favor him. Even blood and glory, since you have to still deal with that unit or his general in that unit somehow to break him.

Savage horde will beat an unbuffed ogre horde any day of the week. Stop his buffs, and you win.

indeed, half points for half units should be brought back.

Bring a couple of manglers then and watch his face after putting them on his front . I would also try to add some wolf riders, they are always handy against any opponent.

This post has been edited by mickkk666 on Mar 2 2012, 10:10 AM

indeed, half points for half units should be brought back.

Agreed 100%. That is probably one of the most glaring bad ideas of 8th ed. Death-stars would be a fair bit less popular if they gave up VPs from killing half of the unit.

And I think I may suggest that we start doing that here in our local tournaments and leagues. I will certainly be doing that in friendly games.

This post has been edited by Cannibalbob on Mar 2 2012, 05:33 PM