Ogre Strategy

Summary

The most frustrating roster in Blood Bowl.

Strengths

Can potentially put together a roster of 12 ST 5 AV 9 Thick Skull Guards, which no other roster (except perhaps highly-mutated Chaos) could reasonably hope to outbash.

The best team at TTM.

Weaknesses

Incredibly expensive players and incredibly expensive re-rolls. Along with the fact that they can only buy 6 Goblins, this means that starting Ogre line-ups are a messy, barely workable compromise and most teams never get past this opening stage to approach their potential development peak.

Bone Head across an entire team leads to turns where everything stops functioning and gaping holes are left in otherwise brilliantly conceived formations.

Lack of access to General skills leaves the team vulnerable to Blodgers, Strip Ball and fouling-based strategies.

A Guide to Ogres

trow da gobbo wit ball to make udder teem turn 'round den punch dem in da backs of der 'eads -Unknown Ogre coach

Ogres are, first and foremost, a bashy team with a lot of flavour. I don't profess to be an expert, but I will share what I've learned.

Your ogres are expensive, dumb, and not as invincible as you would like them to be. As pretty much everyone under the sun knows, the Block skill is bread-and-butter to an effective bashy team, and your ogres can only get it on a double. This means that you will suffer turnovers aplenty, as your monstrous beefcakes bounce off pretty much any player with Block (and some without... but at least you take them down with you!). Added to that, an AG of 2 means they are going to be tied up with whatever drek your opponent wishes to hold them up with. If you've got a 30k zombie in front of you, your rookie ogre is pretty much stuck with Option A: Thump the bugger until he's out for the count. Meanwhile, the expense of your ogres means you'll have five to start with, along with 6 Gobbos. So while your ogres get sucked into a swirling melee with unskilled linemen, the opponent's positional players dart round the scuffle and target your small, fragile little Gobbos. And they will suffer terribly.

So, let's face it. Your best ballhandler is going to have a fair chance of spending a TRR to even pick up the ball successfully, let alone pass it off to another player. Your muscle is going to randomly become completely useless. And you will, barring some major luck and/or lack of skill on your opponent's part, lose your first few games.

But it's not all bad. Your ogres have a good chance of taking a few knocks and coming out fine. AV9 combined with Thick Skull and topped off with ST5 gives you possibly the most survivable player outside of a Troll. (And inside of a Troll, no player can survive. --pac) Your opponent (assuming ST3 players, the majority of players in the game) is going to have to pile up the assists to get a 2d-block against you. Your Gobbos can run through tacklezones aplenty with a decent chance of success. And you've got plentiful access to a one-turn touchdown with your Gobbos and TTM, which will win you games, even if it is somewhat risky.

So, how do we go about starting a rookie ogre team and turning it into a force to be reckoned with?

Like I said earlier, your first few games will be hard, as it is all too easy to lose a few gobbos and have you sitting on a numerical disadvantage. When you are 2-3 gobbos down and your ogres are boneheading left and right, you will be hard-pressed to exert any influence on the pitch. Sometimes you will have to suck it up, accept you are not going to be able to win, and use the opportunity to throw your blocks and hope for some casualties. The most important thing you can do for your ogres is to get them some SPPs and develop their skills. Gobbos will get kicked around, but try to keep them safe (at worst you want to limit attacks on your Gobbos to a single blitz a turn, so keep them out of blocking range). Since they should be kept away from any mid-pitch smashup, gang up with your Gobbos to take down enemy ballcarriers if they're open. If not, keep them safe and put some blocks on your opponent's cage. Block, block, and block some more, learn to live with the turnovers, and eventually you will get casualties. And cardinal rule of Ogres: Don't let them get sucked away from support. Four consecutive blocks can mean you have an Ogre all on his lonesome and ready to be ganged up on, which will mean he'll spend an awful amount of time getting intimate with the pitch. Keep your Ogres together. This will become doubly important once you start advancing your Ogres, thanks to the wonders of the Guard skill.

Scoring

I also have a personal preference to save one team reroll every half in order to improve the odds on a TTM TD if I can, especially if you're facing a bashy team who go for the late score. This can keep you in the ballgame a decent amount of the time. Stick your designated thrower on the end of your scrimmage line, bash off as many players as he has on him with your other ogres, have a gobbo standing next to him ready to receive a handoff from the ball-fetching gobbos, launch him (this is where you'll most likely need the reroll, so try and save it for this bit), and then run him into the endzone. Be sure not to baby any particular Gobbo. Let them all have a turn of being thrown to the endzone, or you'll suffer the pain of watching your Star Gobbo being turned into a big red smear on the pitch, leaving you with a bunch of deadbeat rookie Gobbos. And for heaven's sake, don't go for the Long Bomb at every opportunity. Land your Gobbos where they can run into the endzone in one movement, which from the LoS can usually be done with a Long Pass.

Development

Ogres: I cannot recommend Guard enough. With a few Ogres with Guard, you make it harder for your opponent to lay on the pressure with multiple assists, and that means more often than not you'll be making the choice of what die to use, which means your Ogres will stay on their feet more. Be sure to have at least one Ogre with Break Tackle as his first skill; that way you can pretend you have AG5 for one square of movement, and an ogre with BT can work wonders at getting past any opponents on the LoS and working into the backfield. My suggestion for a second skill would be Piling On, which will hopefully result in more casualties and thus, faster advancement. This will make you vulnerable to DPs, so target them first if possible. I see Multiple Block as being reliant on having lots of Guard, so I'd take this after I have 3-4 Guard Ogres in my team. I'd rather take the other three skills first, as I feel it's more important to throw blocks/blitzes where you want (thanks to BT) and putting your opponents on the ground (or in the ground, thanks to PO). Multiple Block will do you good once you can count on having a lot of assists. Doubles? Take Block, dammit! With Block you will boost the reliability of your blocks and more importantly, limit your turnovers thanks to dud blocking rolls. I'd probably suggest Tackle after that to combat agile teams (there's nothing worse than throwing 3d-block after 3d-block at a Blodger and having them still standing despite it all). If by chance you get an AG3 Ogre and happen to get lucky with your doubles, you should take Pass and increase the odds on your TTM play.

Goblins: Gobbos are your ballcarriers, and most likely the only players on your team that will get touchdowns. Give them Sure Feet and Sprint so that when they land from being thrown, they can reliably make it into the endzone I would suggest Sure Feet first, as making 8 squares is better than stacking it while going for 9. For doubles, you can either give them Block, which I have mixed feelings about (Block gives Gobbos some protection, but let's face it, they're AV7, ST2, Stunty and will get injured a lot!), or Sure Hands so that you're not continually frustrated by continually failing to scoop up the ball in your backfield with a bunch of Blitzers gunning for you. On defense, Gobbos should be looking to gang up on the ballcarrier, so Diving Tackle will help in that respect. (Edit: Sidestep is valuable on all stunty players - I would take it before sidestep. With it you can prevent your gobbos from being blocked/blitzed into other players, you can place them on the sidelines and most importanlty prevent players from blocking you out of the way so you can't diving tackle them). If you like the idea of Gobbos with DP, go for it, but... eh. Ogres can punish people without resorting to a technique that is not widely viewed as sporting. But, if you're the type who likes rubbing salt into a wound, feel free.