Launching alongside the brand new Ossiarch Bonereapers, Ogor Mawtribes is another “consolidation” book along the lines of Cities of Sigmar or Orruk Warclans. In Warhammer Fantasy these units belonged to the Ogre Kingdoms faction, in Age of Sigmar they struggled to find a real home. Beastclaw Raiders got limited support in the form of a Battletome but the Tome was from the early days of the game, so it lacked a lot of the staple features later armies would see. Even ignoring the age of the codex, the faction never felt quite whole. Beastclaw Raiders had a very high point cost, making them one of the most elite armies in the game. As a faction consisting largely of giants on mounts, it made sense but it made your list options feel constrained.

The rest of the Ogre Kingdoms models that didn’t fit under Beastclaw Raiders went to a faction called Gutbusters. Gutbusters never had any kind of support, either from a battletome or through the General’s Handbook. As a result they never really saw any play, you might catch a few allied in with some Orks, or part of a friendly Destruction Grand Alliance list but without anything to bring the faction together it only existed in name alone.

Now the two are back together again as the Ogor Mawtribes, combining the power of the mounted Beastclaw Raiders and the tough footsoldiers of the Gutbusters. Combined the army is tough, but in a different way that one usually sees. By and large their saves are pretty mediocre compared to equivalent units. They do, however have more wounds than average and access to a lot of healing. So while a Mawtribes player might soak up more wounds than your average unit, they’re going to have a much easier time getting back up unless you put the unit down for good.

Army Abilities

The Ogor Mawtribes book treats Gutbusters and Beastclaw Raiders as one faction, there’s no benefit to running a “pure” list of either, though certain abilities only apply to one or the other.

• Trampling Charge – When an Ogur or Rhinox unit charges, roll a number of dice equal to the unmodified charge roll, adding 2 to this number if your unit had 8 or more models or is a MONSTER, and then for each 6, deal 1 mortal wound. A bit convoluted but in short you get to roll more dice (and get more chances at mortal wounds) if you roll a long charge. You don’t have to actually move that much so rolling an 11 from 4″ away is still 11 dice.
• Grasp of the Everwinter – For every enemy unit locked into melee with a Beastclaw Raiders unit at the start of your hero phase, roll a die. If this die is equal to or less than the current round number, deal D3 mortal wounds. A nice little extra damage that punishes your opponent the further the match drags out.
• Might Makes Right – Ogur models count as 2 for the purposes of controlling objectives. Your unit sizes are pretty small so this helps compensate for this. If a battleplan uses different rules for capturing an objective than the norm, then you just ignore this.
• Ravenous Brutes –  If a unit is more than 3″ from the enemy, it is “hungry” and can move an extra 2″, if it is within 3″ of the enemy it is “eating” and gains 2 bravery. The Hungry/Eating mechanic comes up later in the book and interacts with various warlord traits and relics, hence the naming scheme. It’s a nice little bonus, helps get you up the field faster and makes your units harder to dislodge once they get there.
• Everwinter Prayers – Standard Prayers rule, each PRIEST knows one prayer and each prayer can only be attempted once per turn, even by different models.
• Mawtribes – Standard subfaction rule. These are optional to take.

Command Traits

The Mawtribes get a real host of traits. There are 6 traits for 4 different types of HEROES for a total of 24. The exception is, oddly, Firebelly who has no real home here or in the artefacts section.

Tyrant Command Traits

These traits may ONLY be taken the by new HERO, the Tyrant. For now this model is only available in the Feast of Bones boxset alongside Ossiarch Bonereapers (or kitbash your own)

• Furious Guzzler – If your General is within 3 inches of an enemy model at the beginning of the turn, heal D3 wounds. good for topping off your health especially when you want Tyrants in combat anyway
• Prodigious Girth – +2 wounds, as usual for wound boosting traits its not bad, not great. It does help the Tyrant’s so-so save and gives him a whopping 10 wounds total, which isnt a joke.
• Killer Reputation – Tyrants have a mechanic called names which lets them pick a title for a bonus, sort of like a mini-warlord trait. This allows you to pick two names which is quite good.
• Mighty Bellower – If an enemy fails a battleshock test within 3″ of this General, D3 more models flee. This is really good against hordes and with bravery reducing abilities, though it might not see much against Daemons or Death
• An Eye For Loot – Reroll wounds and hits against enemy Heroes with artefacts. This is situationally useful but if you can exploit it, it can make them an excellent hero hunter.
• Crushing Bulk – Treat this general as MONSTER for purposes of the trampling charge rule. Not so great, Trampling Charge is more of a side benefit and when you have so many Warlord traits as options, this seems like a poor investment

Butcher Command Traits

These are exclusively used by Butchers and Slaughtermasters, your wizards.

• Questionable Hygiene – -1 to hit for enemy units within 6″, this is a nice aura debuff, keep your general properly screened and 6″ is still enough to affect enemy units.
• Herald of the Gulping God – Don’t take battleshock tests within 15″ but only while eating. This is pretty good for a battle wizard, battleshock tests probably arent your main concern but a 15″ aura covers a huge chunk of the field, making sure you wont have to worry the times they come up.
• Growling Stomach – -2 Bravery for enemy units within 12″ while hungry. This one is tricky, it only works when Hungry, so not locked into melee combat.  12″ is getting into charge range, which means the debuff can be nullified pretty easily.
• Gastromancer – Learn all spells from the gutmagic discipline. This seems like a given, as it grants unmatched versatility.
• Rolls of Fat – +2 wounds, as before pretty ok but not great.
• Spell-Eater – This is a nice one. Anytime you dispel an endless spell you can heal 1 wounds, or boost the wound characteristic of the Butcher by 1 if they’re already at max health. It does somewhat rely on your opponent bringing an endless spell, but you can also keep a cheap endless spell in your back pocket for emergencies.

Beastclaw Command Traits

These are used by Frostlords and Huskards

• Nomadic Raider – Reroll wound rolls for melee weapons in enemy territory. This is really great, favors an aggressive playstyle which you should be doing as a Mawtribe player anyway.
• Voice of the Avalanche – Use the Warlord’s command ability once per turn for free. While not quite as good as a free CP per turn, it comes pretty close and they have some pretty good command abilities to boot.
• Frostfell Aura – Enemy’s can’t retreat when within 3″ of the general. Very nice, engage the enemy on your terms and force them to fight you.
• Master of the Mournfangs – All Frostfang models within 18″ ignore battleshock tests. A decent take for a cavalry focused army.
• Skilled Rider – Half the number of wounds when checking the wound degradation table. This is the good stuff, many monsters drop off fast in Age of Sigmar so this lets them remain dangerous for longer, especially combined with the army’s propensity for healing.
• Touched by Everwinter –  Make this general a priest, or if they’re already one, give them an extra prayer. The prayers are pretty good and Beastclaw Raiders models cost a lot of points so it’s hard to stock up on a ton of priests.

Hunter Traits

These are for Icebrow Hunters only:

• Winter Ranger – Get D3 Command points each turn while the Icebrow Hunter is in Ambush, which is a mechanic for the Hero which allows it to be put into reserve. An odd one since it asks you to keep your general off the field as long as possible to get the most out of it, but D3 command points each turn is a mighty tempting proposition.
• Eye of the Blizzard – Subtract 1 from hit rolls targeting this general. Not exciting but gives them some survivability.
• Blood Vulture’s Gaze – Add 1 to hit and wound rolls the General’s ranged attack. The Icebrow has some good ranged attacks so this is good for making him a mobile harasser.
• Frost Maw – The general’s Frost Maw ability can target 3 units instead of 1. A bit too swingy for my tastes, since you can’t target the same unit multiple times.
• Raised by Yhetees – Add 1 to attacks of Yhetees within 12″. If you wanna run a lot of Yhettes, take this
• Skal Packmaster – Normally when you put an Icebrow into ambush you can bring 1 squad of Frost sabres with him, this lets you bring two. You really need to lean into this one, as relying on a deep strike is asking a lot. If you do though, it does help put a lot of units in your enemy’s back field very quickly, which can be a powerful advantage

Artefacts

Artefacts are divided up among the different Hero types the same way command traits are, 6 for each except for the Icebrow Hunters, who get 3 giving a total of 21.

Tyrant Artefacts

• Headmasher – Increase the damage on the Tyrant’s Mace from 3 to 4. The Mace is a really good weapon but given the absolute abundance of artefact weapons out there you have such better options than a meager 1 damage increase.
• Grawl’s Gutplate – Increase movement from 2″ to 4″ when hungry. 2 inches can make a difference in some situations but probably not enough to spend an artefact slot on it.
• Gruesome Trophy Rack – Add +1 to hits for all friendly units within 12″. Good aura to buff all your units, definitely worth taking
• Flask of Stonehorn Blood – Once per battle, give the bearer a 4+ Feel no pain save. You need to time this just right but a 4+ FNP save on a tyrant is no joke.
• Sky-Titan Scatter Pistols – Increases Attack of your pistols from 2 to 6(!). 6 attacks from anything is pretty nasty, definitely worth considering.
• The Fang of Ghur – Changes the bearer’s spear’s rend from -1 to -3. This will cut through the armor save of just about everything in the game making them a solid hero killer especially if paired with something like the Eye for Loot Command trait. It might be overkill for most infantry, however.

Butcher Artefacts

• Dracoline Heart – Once per game you can refill the mawpot if you’re within 6″ of it. The Mawpot is your terrain piece and lets you heal d3 wounds for all Ogors within 36″ when its full. Normally to refill it you need to kill an enemy model within 6″ of the pot. It might come in in a pinch but with so many artefact options it seems like you’d prefer something a little more reliable.
• Shrunken Priest Head – 5+ Feel no Pain for the bearer. Not bad, especially for a model with so many wounds.
• Wizardflesh Apron – Cast one additional spell per turn, good solid pick.
• Bloodrock Talisman – +2 to unbind and dispel rolls. Really good, especially for magic using opponents.
• Grease-smeared tusks – +1 to charge rolls for all units within 9″. 9″ is a good solid bubble and given how powerful charging is for ogors, buffs are helpful for this.
• Rotting Dankhold Spores – Once per battle pick an enemy unit within 6″, roll a die for each model in the unit. for each 4+ deal 1 mortal wound. This is great, even once per battle, drop it on a big unit of 40 men and on average do 20 wounds. Let leadership sort out the rest.

Beastclaw Artefacts

• The Rime Shroud – Reroll unmodified 6s for ranged attacks targetting the bearer. Mostly to stick in the craw of abilities with exploding 6s, but given it only applies to missles it’s a little too niche.
• The Blade of All Frost – Pick a melee weapon, if you hit an enemy hero with that weapon and they did not die, they take -1 to hit and wound rolls for the rest of the battle. Mostly aimed at bigger heroes with tons of wounds like Nagash and Archaon, but a solid choice nonetheless, since there are many heroes who can survive more than 1 round of combat if your opponent prepared them right. Of course if they die, this is pretty redundant.
• Carvalox Flank – All Icefall Yhete’s wholly within 12″ move an extra 2″. Too situational to be useful.
• Alvagr Rune-tokens – Pop this once per game and for one turn the bearer can reroll all hits, wounds and saves. Wow. Time this right and whatever you point the bearer at is going to die.
• Skullshard of Dragaar – Once per battle, auto unbind a spell. If you time this right it can ruin your opponents day but it doesn’t seem good enough to take over another artifact.
• Elixir of Frostworm – Once per battle, pick an enemy unit within 9″ and deal D6 mortal wounds, then the bearer takes D3 mortal wounds. I’m not comfortable with how random this is and you might as well take a more reliable artefact.

Hunter Artefacts

• The Pelt of Changar – In the Hero phase, heal D3 mortal wounds. Unlike how these artefacts usually work, its not once per game which means over time it’ll pay for itself. Icebrow Hunters are often running around behind enemy lines, away from the mawpot, so a source of healing is crucial to keep him going.
• Kattanak Browplate – Add 1 to save throws, a solid buff. The command point you recieve on your first turn is a nice bonus.
• Frost-talon shardbolts – For each unmodified 6 with the bearer’s crossbow, deal D3 mortal wounds in addition to normal damage. Likely too unreliable to pick.

Spells

Spells are divided into two schools. Gut magic, which is available to your BUTCHERS and a special 3 spell lore called Lore of the Sun-eater which is exclusive to the Firebelly.

Gut Magic

A nice mix of buffs and debuffs that make your melee phase extra terrifying

• Fleshcrave Curse – Casting value 6, deal D6 mortal wounds to an enemy unit within 12″, but they gain +1 attack to melee weapons. D6 mortal wounds is tempting, but naturally, don’t use this on something that will really get a lot out of bonus attacks. Use this on a smaller unit or a hero who’s not well suited for melee combat. As it is though, it’s a real risk to take this.
• Blood Feast – Casting Value 7, pick a friendly unit wholly within 18″ that is not a monster and add +1 to attacks characteristics for melee weapons. Simple and straightforward buff that you should probably always have, given ogors rather low model count.
• Ribcracker – Casting Value 7, pick an enemy unit within 18″, subtract 1 from all saves by that unit for one turn. Practically an autotake, make your opponent’s tough as nails units collapse before you.
• Blubbergrub Stench – Casting Value 5, treat all RHINOX within 18″ as being monsters for the purposes of the Trampling Charge trait. OK if you have a lot of Rhinoxes? You have much better spells.
• Molten Entrails – Casting Value 7, pick a Friendly Monster within 18″, add 1 to the damage characteristics of the Mount’s attacks. A nice buff if your list leans more towards the beastclaw raiders side of the book.
• Greasy Deluge – Casting Value 7, pick an enemy unit within 18″, that unit suffers -1 to hit rolls. Another auto take with Ribcracker and Bloodfeast. With all 3 combined you will just trounce anything that gets into melee with you.

Lore of the Sun-Eater

• Fiery Whirlwind – Casting Value 6, pick an enemy unit, roll a die for each model within 1″ of the caster, on a 4+ deal 1 mortal wound. This spell has a few quirks that make it work differently from similar abilities. First it only affects models within 12″, not the entire unit, so Firebelly needs to get in close to get the most of it. A nice side benefit is if the unit only has one model, e.g. is a Hero, you roll 3 dice. So it’s a bit more flexible in its application.
• Billowing Ash – Casting Value 8, all friendly units wholly within 12″ are -1 to hit. This spell alone is worth taking Firebelly, the only tricky part being the relatively high cost to cast. It combos well with greasy deluge making an enemy unit basically blind.
• Tongue of Flames – Casting Value 6, pick an enemy unit within 18″ with 5 or more models. If that unit moves within the next turn, deal D3 Mortal wounds. The fact you don’t need to roll to see if the mortal wounds work isn’t bad, and will make an opponent second guess their move but it has its limits. Too small of a unit and it can’t target them, if the unit is large they can afford to lose a few models. So around 5-10 is the perfect target.

Prayers

Each Beastclaw Raiders priest can choose 1 of these prayers to learn and can attempt to “Cast” it each hero phase. All of these prayers are answered on a 4+

• Pulverizing Hailstorm – Pick a point within 18″, for each unit within 3″ of this point, roll a die. on a 3+ deal D3 mortal wounds. 3+ is very reliable and 18″ is a good distance, just note it does aim at all units, so be careful not to strike your own guys!
• Keening Gale – Pick 1 MONSTER or Mournfang Pack within 18″ and add 3″ to their move. Really good, given prayers are “free” to cast.
• Call of the Blizzard – Pick a Yheetes unit within 18″ and revive one model. If you’re going heavy on a hunter with his Yheetes, you might as well throw this in too.

Mount Traits

These are divided into 2 tables, one for Stonehorns and one for Thundertusks. As is usual for mount traits at this point, you can take one of these traits if you have the required mount in your list, and for each battalion you may take an another, but only one per mount and never the same one twice.

Stonehorn Traits

• Black Clatterhorn – Add 1 to hit your Rockhard Horns. A solid choice, at full health you have 6 attacks with this and with the trait it’s a very respectable 3+ to hit.
• Metalcrucher – At the start of the combat phase, pick an enemy unit you’re locked into combat with and if it has the WAR MACHINE keyword or has a save of 4+, 3+ or 2+ you can deal d6 Mortal wounds. The amount of units this can potentially target is wide enough that this is very worth considering, free d6 mortal wounds is hard to say no to.
• Belligerent Charger – Always treat charge rolls under 7 as a 7 for purposes of the Trampling Charge trait. Not awful, 7 is the “Average” roll so it makes you more likely to get those mortal wounds, but a bit luck reliant.
• Frosthoof Bull – Improve your mount’s hooves attack rend by 1. Maybe not as good as Clatterhorn but still good.
• Rockmane Eldar – +1 wound. Meh, I don’t care for these because 1 wound likely won’t save you when it counts.
• Old Granitetooth – Add 1 to charge rolls for Stonehorns and Mournfang packs within 12″. Not bad if you run a lot of these units.

Thundertusk Traits

• Fleet of Hoof – Reroll one or both dice when charging with this model. This is really good, being able to reroll 1 or both dice is a game changer.
• Fleshgreed – While eating, gain 1 wound per turn. If you forgot, eating is being in melee range so it’s basically free healing when locked into melee. Not great alone but every little bit of healing adds up.
• Rimefrost Hide – Make enemy rend worse by 1 when targetting this model. Rend can be terrifying to deal with so this is highly recommended.
• Gvarnak – +1 wound. My mind has not changed on these.
• Matriarch – +1 to charges of Thundertusks within 12″. If you have a couple Thundertusks in your list, this is useful.
• Alvagr Ancient – If this model has not made a charge this turn, all enemy units within 3″ have to attack last in the attack phase. This is risky because it requires you remain stuck in melee combat for more than one turn but with proper exploitation you can make that “Attack last” as punishing as possible.

Mawtribes

Ogor mawtribes contains 6 mawtribes, which are subfactions. As has become standard each subfaction gives a new army ability and command ability in exchange for requiring you to take a unique command trait and relic before any others. Thematically these seem meant to be split up between the gutbusters and beastclaw raiders of the past but mechanically you can still mix them to your hearts content.

Meatfist

Meatfist are a very straightforward choice. Their features come together to make an army that charges fast and early, it accents the thing that makes the Ogor army and makes it even better.

• Army Ability: Fleshy Stampede – Roll an additional die for the Trampling Charge battle trait. Not great on its own but you can combine it with other similar traits to hopefully stack up more dice to roll with.
• Command Ability: The Unstoppable Feast – Pick a hero unit and all Gluttons within 18″ gain +1 attack. Gluttons are your battleline by default so you can stack up a ton of these guys easily and get the most out of it.
• Command Trait: Food for Thought – If your general is eating (i.e. locked into combat) at the beginning of the hero phase, gain 1 CP. This encourages you to play aggressively with your general, just make sure he’s protected.
• Artefact: Gut plate of Ghur – Reroll saves of 1 for the bearer. A decent artefact for survivability, especially on a general with the command trait.

Bloodgullet

This mawtribe is a powerful pick, it helps improve a lot of different units making it a good catch-all and makes them incredibly threatening with a focus on magic.

• Army Ability: Heralds of the Gulping God – Butchers know an extra spell and can cast an extra spell. The Ogor magic list is very good all around so this is an extremely good trait.
• Command Ability: Bloodbath – Only butchers can use this, when you pop this, reroll wound rolls for all gluttons within 12″. This is an insanely good ability, wound rerolls can be hard to come by, let alone rerolling all rolls.
• Command Trait: ‘Nice Drop of the Red Stuff!’ – Friendly units within 12″ of the general can pile in an additional 3″. This is OK, it can help for better positioning if nothing else.
• Artefact: Splatter-cleaver –  Pick a melee weapon, at the end of the combat phase, when you successfully deal damage with this weapon heal D3 wounds for each friendly unit within 12″. An insanely powerful artifact to round this out, healing is plentiful in the army but you want to have as much to spread around the field as you can.

Underguts

In stark contrast to the first two “gutbuster” mawtribes this mawtribe plays with a more ranged build, focusing largely on Leadbelchers and Ironblasters.

• Army Ability: Gunmasters – Leadbelchers can shoot 18″ instead of 12″ now. 18″ is phenomenal in AoS so stock up on leadbelchers
• Command Ability: Thunderous Salvo – Add 1 to attack characteristic for ranged attacks for Ironblasters within 12″, the other half of your ranged game. These are your artillery and can help soften enemies up before they get close.
• Command Trait: Mass of Scars – -1 to wound rolls against the general with ranged attacks. Since you’ll ideally be trying to keep your distance, your opponent might try and use ranged attacks against you, so this has use.
• Artefact: Gnoblar Blast Keg – Rounding out the ranged game, this once per game artifact lets you pick an enemy unit within 9″, you roll 6 dice, for every 6, deal d3 mortal wounds. On average it’ll hit once, dealing 2 mortal wounds but that’s not what you’re using it for, you’re going to use this sucker on a nice juicy 40 man, in which case you’ll hit on a 2+ and deal an average of 2 mortal wounds, so on average it’s more like 10. The scaling effect is nice and this isn’t a bad artefact to round out the list.

Boulderhead

The first of the Beastclaw Raiders themed tribes focuses on what the beastclaws are known for, namely their huge mounts.

• Army Ability: Fearsome Breed – +1 wound to all monsters, which normally I don’t care for but given it’s free and applies across the army, isn’t actually bad here. The real prize though is all thundertusk and stonehorns get a mount now instead of 1.
• Army Ability: Deadly Hail –  Turns the pulverizing Hailstorm into a 3+ instead of a 4+. That’s right, two command abilities and this ones pretty sweet too. Pulverising Hailstorm is a damn good prayer
• Command Ability: Dig in your heels! – Have a Hero on a mount use this and for the rest of the phase, always use the top wound counter. This can make or break you when you’re down to your last few wounds and are locked in melee, giving you a bit more pep in your step to win the fight.
• Command Trait: Lord of Beasts – All monsters that start within 12″ of your general move an extra 1″ when making a normal move so no running. Not bad when setting up a charge.
• Artefact: Brand of Svard – Add 1 to hit rolls for the bearer’s mount attacks. Your mount attacks are better than most so not a bad little perk for a faction dedicated to running giant mounts.

Thunderbellies

The thunderbellies rely on Mournfangs, the smaller mounted baby brothers of the beastclaw raiders.

• Army Ability: Swift Outflank – Mournfangs can charge even if they ran this turn if they begin their charge within 12″ of the edge of the board. This encourages some clever positioning to get yourself into a good place for an effective charge.
• Army Ability: Ride the Hurricane – Keening Gale prayer casts on a 3+ instead of a 4+. Helps those Mournfangs you’re packing.
• Command Ability: Rip and Tear – An interesting one, pick an enemy unit within 6″ of a Hero that has a wound allocated to it, you may reroll all wounds for mournfang packs attacking it. Good for dispatching multi wound units though you have to time it so there is a wound allocated, not just dead models.
• Command Trait: Storm Chaser – Add 1″ charge rolls for all friendly units within 18″. Solid
• Artefact: Shatterstone – All terrain within 12″ of the bearer is treated as Deadly in addition to other scenery rules. This is an interesting one, you can manipulate your opponent so they would have to end their turn near the scenery and possibly take damage, but it also might do nothing.

Winterbite

The final subfaction is a bit of a mixed bag. Its buffs are all over the place but seems to favor an Icebrow Hunter with Yheetes in tow. This is pretty niche it probably won’t see a ton of play.

• Army Ability: Ghosts in the Blizzard – -1 to ranged attacks to hit your units within your territory. Help keep them alive as they close the gap.
• Army Ability: Call of the Endless White – Predictably, this makes Call of the Endless Blizzard a 3+. Probably the least useful of the prayers but hey it’s free.
• Command Ability: Call of the Wild – Choose a Frost Saber and Yhetes unit with 12″ of the hero, they fight first the fight phase. While fighting first is powerful in Age of Sigmar, you will need to lean hard into this to get much use out of it.
• Command Trait: Wintertouched – Add 1 to wound rolls for Yheetes and Frostsabers within 12″ of the General. Pretty alright if you got these units which if youre playing winterbite, I assume you do.
• Artefact: Frostfang – Pick a bearer’s melee weapon, each turn roll a die and on a 5+ add 1 to the damage, this effect is cumulative. Pretty meh, on average you’ll get +2 damage per game but it might not kick in until its too late to help.

Battalions

Finally, the battalions are broken up between Gutbuster and Beastclaw Raider types, with a super battalion for each.

Gutbuster Battalions

• Gutbuster Warglutt – One of Each Battalion Below (not counting Bully Boys) – At the start of the Hero Phase on the first turn, move all units D6″ (roll for each troop). Unlike most Super Battalions this one is fairly reasonable to pull off in price but the benefit is probably not worth trying to organize a list around it.
• Tyrants Gutguard – 1 Tyrant, 0-2 Ironblasters, 1-3 Units of Ironguts – Gives the Ironguts a 4+ Look Out Sir! when targetting the Tyrant. Not a bad perk to keep him alive.
• Goremand – 1 Slaughtermaster, 1-3 units of Gluttons, 1-3 units of Leadbelchers, 1 unit of Iron Guts – Lets you use the Slaughtermaster’s Great Cauldron ability twice per turn. While the chance of rolling two 1s might scare you, the odds are in your favor and these are probably units you want to bring anyway
• Butcher’s band – 1 Butcher, 1-3 units of Gluttons, 1-3 units of Leadbelchers, 1 Unit of Ironguts – An alternative to Goremand, heal 1 wound to each unit within 12″ of the butcher. While maybe not a ton, you add that up with your other healing sources and this can help over the long term.
• Junkmob – 1-3 Units of Gnoblars, 1-2 Scraplaunchers – Add 1 to attacks for scraplaunchers while within 3″ of a Gnoblar unit of 20 or more. If you wanna bring scraplaunchers, this is almost an auto take. You need a lot of Gnoblars to use it, but hey, they’re cheap.
• Kin-Eater’s Bully Boys – 1 Tyrant, 1 unit of Ogor Gluttons, 1 unit of Leadbelchers, 1 Ironblaster – A special battalion only found in the Feast of Bones box, it lets you reroll charge rolls for units within 12″ of the tyrant. Not a bad little perk, even though the unit choices are all over the place (It was for a starter box after all)

Beastclaw Raiders Battalions

• Alfrostun – 1 Frostlord on a Mount, 1 of each Battalion below – When using the Grasp of the Everwinter ability, subtract 1 from the roll. This is damned powerful but like most Super Battalions, I can;t imagine when you’d be in a game big enough to use this, let alone use it without a lot of compromise on unit composition.
• Jorlbad – 1 Huskard on Stonehorn, 2-4 Mournfang Units, 1-3 Stonehorn Beastriders – At the start of the first battle round, move each unit in the Battalion D6″. Not bad except Eurlbad has the same unit composition and a better ability.
• Eurlbad – 1 Huskard on Stonehorn, 2-4 Mournfang Units, 1-3 Stonehorn Beastriders – For each unmodified 6 to attack, deal a mortal wound in addition to normal damage. I’m not sure what’s going on here, it’s like GW ran out of ideas. The unit composition is the same as Jorlbad, so you’re just choosing which ability you like more. Personally, this is better.
• Torrbad – 1 Huskard on Thundertusk, 3-9 Thundertusk Beastriders, 0-3 Icefall Yhetees – Every hero phase, roll a die for each unit locked into melee combat with a unit from this battalion, on a 2+ deal a mortal wound. Really solid since its practically guaranteed.
• Skal – 1-6 Icebrow Hunter, 2-10 Frost Sabres – Add 1 to charge rolls for units from this battalion while within 12″ of another unit from this battalion. An outlier for the Beastclaw raiders in terms of unit composition, if you really like the Icebrow Hunters, might as well.

Closing Thoughts

Going into this book I wasn’t sure what to expect. Age of Sigmar has seen a lot of battletomes lately, while the rules team works to clean up a lot of old tomes and launch new model lines, and the Ogors were an outlier. They were never a terribly popular army, even back in Fantasy. Within Age of Sigmar they always seemed like forced playmates to keep Orcs from being the only army in the Deustrction Grand Alliance. The army only saw one new model for this release, not counting the terrain piece, which while not unusual wasn’t terribly encouraging.

When I actually got to see the book I was impressed by the depth of options. For such a limited model line the book has so many different options going on from warlord traits, to artefacts, to spells. It’s more than most books get and lets you play the army in a lot of different ways, even if you only have a couple of models to choose from. It’s some of the best example of Age of Sigmar rules, where even armies with limited model ranges can be approached with a lot of flexibility and customization.

I don’t usually talk much about this, as fluff can be very subjective but the fluff is really well done here. For a “joke” army, the book approaches it with the same sort of love and caring they do for their more famous armies like Nagash or Sigmar. The book is full of stories of great dark humor that would fit in well with old Fantasy and for those that like that sort of thing I really suggest checking it out for that alone.

Recommending these books is hard because you tend to know if you like the army or not already, but if you’re at all interested I’d say this book succeeds. It’s an easy army to get into, given its low model count and offers a lot of flexible options that mean you won’t get bored, even with only a few models to start.

Got any feedback, questions, or comments? Shoot us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.