u/YoYopuppet

I saw they are getting a new RoR unit (tyrant on mount and two maulerbeasts), that can be used by 13 factions, including Helsmiths. So do you guys think that could be a viable flanker/objective capturer unit paired with a very shooty army?

With the latest loremasters video, it is confirmed (twice), that with the arrival of Redd and the new religious shift in Ogor society, anyone who follows the teachings of the Gulping god (which is just about everyone), are highly urged not to wield firearms or other weapons that may "spoil the meat".

This is enforced by Morga the mighty (being backed by Redd) as the Meatfists are the most powerful tribe around. There are Ogors who dont follow this way, and it is confirmed Maneaters still exist but there are less and less of them. There are still also city Ogors but these are looked at with great disgust by other Ogors and are basically the lowest of the lowest.

Morga is the daugther of Globb Glittermaw, and she is the exact opposit of Globb. Globb introduced mercenary work, "trading" and using money to buy food and weapons. Morga believes in the old way of "take whats yours and eat the rest" and when she defeat Globb, turned the entire tribes way of thinking around.

For the future its hard to judge what will come. With this being the new refresh of the entire roster, I imagine we will have to wait years for the introduction to a return of the Maneaters, if ever.

I personally think its a bit of shame the leadbelchers go and I would have liked a option to field more firearms on my Ogors, but alas... Tomorrow there will be a RoR reveal, so hopefully we'll get something good there.

If I give my bull centaurs the hell-forge upgrade(Bound Barrier Daemon), so they get barrier, do they really only get 800 in total, or is it every model that gets 800?

Thanks!

Greetings my fellow hungry bois,

So with another lovely release, I’ve must admit to having been staring at Grell for a long time. I come to the conclusion that I think her cannon is… abit short. Its very much like a very early mortar or a very early cannon for that matter. It also, and prehaps intended: look like a pot.

The rest of the model, I generally like but I truly hope we get some leadbelchers or similar to fight along side her.

What do you guys think of her model?

So with the “reveal” / rumours that Ghark Ironskin will be among one of the future DLCs, I could not help but take a deep dive into how I would love Ghark to turn out. It should be mentioned that I am a huuuge fan of Ogres and Chaos Dwarfs, and that I have thousands of hours divided among all the Warhammer Total War games, and thousands more reading lore and playing many of the other Warhammer games out there.

But to those unaware of who Ghark Ironskin is, here is a short summary:

Ghark is the Tyrant of the Ironskin Tribe, aptly named after their desire for steel and iron, rather than gold, as most other Ogres crave (along with meat). His tribe is allied with and has opened trade with the Chaos Dwarfs of Zharr Naggrund, which Ghark accomplished by trading a presumably immeasurable amount of slaves and captives. This partnership has earned him a massive fitted suit of Chaos Dwarf forged plate mail and a rather unique mount: a mechanical Rhinox (which may or may not be possessed by a daemonic sentience). Ghark is credited as being the first Ogre to beat a Rhinox into submission, and his tribe has since perfected the art much later and has it as a “coming of age” ritual. Ghark and his tribe have a lot more going on, but I think you should take the time to Google him and read about him yourself.

How he plays:

To me, Ghark should be unique in a way related to him and his faction, but not so much by mechanics. I envision him (and more on this later) as a mix of Nakai, Aislinn and Chaos Dwarfs. To me, Ghark should not just be “the Rhinox lord” or “the cavalry Ogre”. That is part of him, true, but it is not the whole character. His real identity is armour, guns, slaves, trade and his relationship with the Chaos Dwarfs. That gives him a natural campaign identity that no other Ogre lord really has, nor any other faction for that matter.

The Ironskin Tribe should be the Ogre Kingdoms’ answer to what happens (and perhaps this is just my own fever dream) when you cover an army of 10 foot tall Ogres in plate mail, give them a really big pistol in one hand (forged by small bearded evil men with tall hats), and let them ride woolly rhinos into battle. The Ironskins should be the kings of suppliers, the Ogres who fill your mines with fresh labour and bring you that small pack of eggs you wanted for your lunch. They should embody the darkest sides of the Ogres and then sprinkle a bunch of hell forged equipment, courtesy of the Chaos Dwarfs, on top, which leads me to his faction mechanics and gameplay:

His campaign would be about fighting battles, capturing slaves, dragging them back toward Chaos Dwarf territory, and deciding what to do with them. You can eat them for Meat, donate them to a Chaos Dwarf faction for influence, use them to upgrade units, or keep them with the army for replenishment at the cost of campaign movement. At the same time, you can capture settlements and decide whether to keep them for the Ironskins or donate them to one of the Chaos Dwarf legendary lords, leaving behind an Ogre Outpost that slowly grows into a useful supplier foothold. This also ties into his major mechanic:

’Ood favor (wordplay on good favor…)

This mechanic is intentionally close to the Chaos Dwarf seat system, but with different flavour and goals. Where the Chaos Dwarfs have seats etc., Ghark has supplier contracts and useful violence.

’Ood favor is gained through Ogre Outposts, dilemmas and mission rewards. It should be slower than the Chaos Dwarf seat system, because Ghark is an outsider forcing his way in, but basically built up in the exact same way. Three levels, mostly campaign related buffs, but themed around fighting for favor against off map factions and existing factions (more on that down the line).

The first level is small supplier contracts, an example being:

Looted Relics: The Chaos Dwarfs always seek to corrupt and gain power from magical artifacts from the lesser races, especially those from their hated cousins. Most relics the Ogres bring are worthless scrap, but occasionally a rare find occurs and is greatly rewarded.

When controlled, gain a 25 percent chance to acquire a magical item after battle and a 5 percent chance to steal an item from an enemy.

Bruisers: While Chaos Dwarfs prefer to overlook everything themselves, less important jobs and far reaching mining expeditions often lack proper overseers. These places benefit from an extra pair of eyes, and especially an extra pair of strong arms to discourage anyone mistakenly believing they can escape.

When controlled, gain control plus 5 in all settlements.

The second level gives stronger contracts, but also more risk. Taking these contracts can spawn off map armies from rival suppliers such as Hobgoblins, marauders, pirates or rival Ogre tribes.

Refill on Demand: Replacing lost labour can be time consuming and expensive, so having a reliable supplier ready to replace any losses on quick notice is highly valued and highly rewarded. When controlled, gain access to an experimental Dreadquake bombardment when in or near Chaos Dwarf territory.

Overseers: Having gained the trust and acceptance of non Dawi overseers in rare remote cases, these new overseers live up to their masters’ reputation for cruelty and quota keeping.

When controlled, gain buffs to the Ogre Outpost building chain in Chaos Dwarf donated settlements, including better morale when fighting in own territory, replenishment, extra income and reduced recruitment cost for low tier units.

Patrols: Sending out regular patrols allows for the capture of escapees, the acquisition of new labour and the chance to spot unwanted guests.

When controlled, gain increased movement in own territory, reveal hidden armies and units in battle when in own territory, and increase settlement vision range.

The third level has no normal seats. Instead, Ghark removes rival supplier groups completely.

Eliminate the Khans: The Hobgoblin Khanates have long been the main supplier of labour, soldiers and assistants to Chaos Dwarf overseers due to their natural backstabbing nature and large numbers, but no more. When defeated, the Hobgoblins can no longer take seats or spawn invading armies. In settlements with Ogre Outposts, the Hobgoblin recruitment chain is replaced with the tier 1 building: Gnoblar Pens, and upgraded into Black Road Auxiliaries.

Tier 1: Gnoblar Pens. Allows Gnoblars, Gnoblar Trappers, Gnoblar Slingers and standard Ogre Bulls.

Tier 2: Black Road Auxiliaries. Allows all Ogre Bull variants and Scraplaunchers.

Crush the Marauders: Chaos warbands and marauders have long held grudges against the Chaos Dwarfs for enslaving their kin, but many have also traded willingly with them for powerful artifacts and assistance in war. Now these artifacts go to Ghark and his Ogres. When defeated, the Marauders can no longer take seats or spawn invading armies. Ghark gains very late game rewards themed around existing Hell Forge upgrades, such as Bound Resilience Daemon, Rune of Frenzy, Extra Powder, Magical Imbuement and similar effects.

Capturing settlements and donating settlements:

As mentioned before, when capturing a settlement as the Ironskins, you get the option to donate the settlement to one of three existing Chaos Dwarf lords or keep it yourself. When donated, the settlement automatically gets an Ogre Outpost. Outposts give a small garrison and income, with tier 3 giving around 75 to 150 gold to Ghark depending on bonuses, and around half to the settlement owner. From tier 2 onward, they also give ’Ood favor and replenishment. They automatically upgrade every ten turns, encouraging you to protect the donated settlements and reducing the speed at which you can snowball the ’Ood favor system. Donating settlements also ties into Ironskin Infamy.

Ironskin Infamy represents Ghark’s relationship with the Ogre Clans, Zhatan, Astragoth and Drazhoath. It is gained through donating slaves, donating settlements, fighting common enemies and occasional dilemmas. The Ogre Clans bar works differently. It increases more from keeping settlements, dealing with other Ogres and confederating Ogre legendary lords. This represents the more traditional Ogres inside Ghark’s faction. If you donate too many settlements to Chaos Dwarfs and keep too little for yourself, you can trigger negative dilemmas because your own tribe starts wondering why the stunties are getting all the loot. This way, you could essentially play as an ordinary Ogre faction and ignore the Chaos Dwarf aspect.

Each bar has 4 “points of no return”, where each point or level unlocks unit based rewards based on the faction. For example, improving Ogre relations reduces the upkeep of Bulls and improves public order, while increasing relations with Drazhoath gives buffs to ranged units and better melee attack.

If Ghark fights an enemy of Zhatan, Zhatan’s bar increases. If the same enemy is also at war with Drazhoath, both bars increase. The idea is that Ghark benefits from fighting Chaos Dwarf enemies on multiple fronts. Once a bar is maxed, it unlocks a repeatable reward bar. This bar is cheap to fill and can fill multiple times in one turn. Rewards are random. Most should be small, such as green items or above, ancillaries and temporary buffs, but also access to Chaos Dwarf units (similar to Bhasiva). Here, a reward may be that you can recruit two units of Chaos Dwarf Blunderbusses, or any other Chaos Dwarf unit that is not tied to any religious status or magic, such as Bull Centaurs or K’daai units.

Ghark should not have normal allied recruitment with Chaos Dwarfs, because that would make this reward system less important.

Slaves

Ghark does not use the Chaos Dwarf labour system. Instead, slaves are tied to individual armies. Armies gain slaves after battles and physically drag them around.

A medium number of slaves gives replenishment and allows replenishment in all territory, but reduces movement. High or extreme numbers give more replenishment, but heavily reduce movement as the Ogres are busy keeping slaves from escaping. Slaves decrease every turn because some escape, die or get eaten.

Ghark’s faction effect is that he also gains less Meat from normal sources, forcing the player to choose between eating slaves, donating them, keeping them for replenishment or using them for unit upgrades.

Unit upgrades

Ogre Kingdoms pretty much already have a completed roster, and instead I want to introduce an upgrade system, which upgrades existing units into different variants. To upgrade a unit, you need the base version and enough slaves to make the trade. To upgrade, you need to be in Chaos Dwarf territory and have a tier 3 Ogre Outpost. When a unit is upgraded, it is reduced to a low model count, so you need to wait and replenish before heading back out. The variants are:

Ironskin Ironguts are heavily armoured Ironguts with more armour, better leadership, magical attacks, fire attacks and ironfist shielding (but still using great weapons). They are slower and more expensive. With enough late game bonuses, they can almost rival Golgfag’s Maneaters, but not quite.

Upgraded Leadbelchers (I do not have a name for them yet) gain slightly more armour, better leadership, a stronger cannon, explosive solid shot and a scrap shot mode. Ghark could also get a Regiment of Renown version where the shots leave a Magma Cannon style burning effect.

Mournfang Cavalry with Brace of Ogre Pistols are upgraded from basic Mournfangs. They gain pistols, more armour, better leadership and a small mass increase, but lose speed and gain higher upkeep. They are basically the Ogre version of Empire Pistoliers or mounted Maneaters with Ogre pistols.

Crushers with Brace of Ogre Pistols work the same way, but with stronger pistols and much less ammunition, enough for around 4 or 5 charges (as a precursor missile in this case). Both the Mournfang and Crusher versions are just plain versions, so no great weapons or ironfist shield. However, because of their new equipment, they become harder to kill and to stop.

New generic lord, hero and legendary hero:

Generic Lord: Ironskin Warlord. A more armoured Tyrant variant with a spear, Ogre pistol and anti large focus. He can eventually gain a Mournfang, Rhinox and Ironskin Thundertusk mount. He has a unique skill line buffing mounted units and the upgraded variants. He is not as good a fighter as a Tyrant, but has a ranged attack and mount options.

Generic Hero: Ironhide Taskmaster. An Ironskin exclusive support hero with a heavy club and a bound ability called Biggest Boom, where he throws a short ranged explosive made from looted explosives, scrap and built around a core of Chaos Dwarf made grenades. He helps with slave handling, gives better effects from carrying many slaves, reduces the punishment for having too many, and supports ranged units with ammo, missile damage, reload and leadership buffs. He also gains small buffs to allied units embedded into the army, but mostly serves as a sort of “engineer” hero with the ranged attacks and is more defensive focused compared to the Bruiser. He is heavily armoured, as he is themed around essentially being a Chaos Dwarf Maneater.

Legendary Hero: Zhorgrath Blackfurnace. Nicknamed “The Little Maw” by Ghark, Zhorgrath is a Chaos Dwarf looking for fame and influence. He is the head of his minor clan, but has fallen on hard times through too many bad investments. His rivals see him as desperate, but he sees Ghark as a way back into the higher circles of Chaos Dwarf society and has forged a “friendship” with the Ogre. Zhorgrath unlocks when Ghark reaches level 3 of ’Ood favor. He has two Chaos Dwarf pistols and a great axe, but he is not meant to be a strong fighter. His real strength is his skill tree, where he gives Chaos Dwarf units in his army Hell Forge style upgrades.

Why I think this works

The Ironskin Tribe will essentially be an “Ogre version of Chaos Dwarfs”, it is true. But so what? The Chaos Dwarfs are well fleshed out and will not be getting any more updates, yet Ghark allows the player to, and excuse my Miley Cyrus quote, be “the beeest of both wooorlds”, without creating a completely broken new faction. I have a lot more envisioned and a lot more planned, but it would take forever to write it all down. I think this gives Ghark a different campaign identity. You can still play him like a normal Ogre faction, smashing everything with mass, monsters and cavalry. But you can also build toward a more armoured and ranged playstyle with Leadbelchers, Ironskin Ironguts, pistol cavalry, slave logistics and keeping the Chaos Dwarfs happy.

The strong rewards are late game, limited often and, more importantly, random. Chaos Dwarf units are rare as an Infamy reward, so fielding an army of Chaos Dwarfs as Ghark is possible, but will take time and luck. You will essentially spend most of the game maxing out the Infamy bars, keeping the Chaos Dwarf lords alive, and then when they eventually confederate each other, have maxed out the bars and gained a powerful and active ally.