[Ostlanders] Advice Welcome

Alrighty, well I've been sifting through the Ostlander Rules and they sound like a fantastic oppertunity for both gaming and modeling. A family of pissed up woodsmen, what's not to like?

I think I'm going to go with the mandatory Elder with a brace of pistols, a sword and dagger for close combat too.

I have the old Rieklander model with the great weapon, it's too good to pass up so I'll most likely field a Blood Brother with heavy armour and great weapon.

I'd love to have a good bit of mid range firepower and a little core of hand to hand fighters to finish the job. I'm also very interested in good modeling opportunities. I can't pass up the chance to have an Ogre right off the bat, the conversion ideas for one driving me crazy.

So if anyone has some sound advice of weapons combos and troop choices I'm all ears!

Heavy armour is a complete waste of money, I mean really: a complete waste. It's 10% off your warband so that one one-wound model can ignor one in three wounds.
Similarly, great weapons aren't worth it without the strongman skill.
if you're going for an ogre, try to save points elsewhere (so buy maces (which are better anyway) not axes and swords, buy one weapon and make the most of the free dagger, get longbows and bows not crossbows, etc.).

I suppose I could try and play the Rieklander with light armour, sword and dagger. Sound like a plan?

I think I could go for some Jaegers with bows and daggers, maybe a couple of ruffians with maces and daggers (broken bottles).

First off, hopefully you have the most recent rules for Ostalanders. The Nouveau Riche rule has officially been removed (yay!).

I agree with chad, heavy armor is not worth it to start with, especially when you already have to pinch money to fit in the ogre. Getting a jaeger with a blunderbuss is a lot of fun though. I'd highly recommend one (or more!).

I've been meaning to make a couple Ruffian conversions with broken bottles for quite some time. I never seem to get around to it though. You should do it and perhaps it'll motivate me to follow suit

Eventually I like giving one of my blood brothers the Bull Rush skill and the other one a 2 hander without strongman. If I can get them to both charge the same model, it's usually 2+ to knock it down, then 2+ to take it OOA. Even if the combo doesn't work, it's lots of fun.

Identity wrote:

First off, hopefully you have the most recent rules for Ostalanders. The Nouveau Riche rule has officially been removed (yay!)

Ah great! It looked like a fun rule, but then again being told how to spend your hard earned gold would suck.

I like your idea of the little brother combo attack, I think I'll give that one a shot if possible. The blunderbuss is a nice bit of gear, I used to field one with my Reiklander warband many years ago. It has a priceless phycological effect on your opponent.

As for the ruffians, yeah a couple of conversions are in order. I'm thinking drunken staggers and a handful of bottles.

Would I be right to assume the standard bow is the way forward for my Jaegers? Are longbows worth it? And what about light armour?

PS. Ogres, GW or combo?

Longbows are definetly good value for money, but they can suffer against high toughness opponents. Light armour's a waste of cash, just get some TLs as soon as possible.

I hire my ogre with a 2-hander. He'd probably be better with 2 weapons to start as 6 str is a bit overkill, but I figure he can take a few hits.

Sadly you cannot get longbows. Since handguns are awful, that leaves you with bows and blunderbusses (yes, truly great psychological effect).

Chad is correct. Light armor is a waste until much later in a campaign. Toughened leathers are great though.

Cheers Chad and Identity, I'll e sure to take those tips on board!

Make sure you replace Nouveau Riche with the Self Sufficient rule. It's in the Annual. Basically you can't hire any hired sword except other ogres.

If i ever do an Empire themed warband it would be either Ostlanders or Averlanders... just can't decide!!

Funnily enough my WFB Army were Averlanders, yellow and black are two nightmare colours, but then again so is white and black...

Anyways, I guess there are both quite shooty, just comes down to a choice between three halflings or two Ogres.