Lore Attribute: Bloodgruel
Every time a butcher successfully casts a spell you roll a D6, on 2+ you get a wound back and a +1 to your next cast or dispel attempt. On a 1 you take a strength 6 hit, which in most cases wounds on a 3+ and then if you are like me and run a 4+ ward you only take a wound 33% of the time. This is a great little rule which can keep your slaughtermaster alive long after he should have died and when combined with defensive items and the crown of command he isn't going anywhere fast. The +1 to cast is also a great rule really helping you cast more spells and regenerate more wounds. Also if you end the phase with this buff active you also stand a better chance of dispelling the first spell your opponent attempts! The other benefit of this attribute is ability to regain wounds caused by miscast which really become a lot less of a worry for ogres (although you still don't want to be rolling a cascade if you can help it!!!). I hinge my army around my slaughtermaster and anything which makes him more resilient is a big bonus to me.
Signature Spell: Spinemarrow
With a 12" range you can make a unit stubborn on a really low casting value. You can boost the spell to a 24" range if needs be. I really like this spell and it is a cheeky way to get around the Swedish Comp system, avoiding the 35pt penalty for taking the crown of command. I often cast this early in a phase to gain the blood gruel buff and sometimes draw out a few dispel. If you are like me and use 3 bull units as redirectors or flank charge anchors then you can make them stubborn, holding an enemy unit in place while you set up a flank or rear charge. Use in conjunction with the +1 toughness or regen spell you can make these units very difficult to shift. Another nice use for this spell is making large leadbelcher units stubborn and therefore very effective at holding up large enemy units. As Ogres are often fighting enemies which have many more ranks and are therefore steadfast (and stubborn) it can take a while before you are able to break an opponent. More often than not Ogres will win the war of attrition being able to put out a lot of hurt and absorb alot of punish via wounds and high toughness. Being able to weather the storm of the first few rounds of combat by being stubborn can allow you to win the marathon in the long run!
1. Bonecrusher
This spell is a magic missile with a range of 18" (36" when boosted) which causes 2D6 Str 2 hits with no armour save. This is a great spell for clearing chaff (especially units like chameleons, gutter runners, shades and way watchers) or killing off knights. Its also quite good at causing some wounds on monsters or war machines where you would normally wound on 6s anyway.
2. Bull Gorger
Bull Gorger is an augments spell which increases the strength of a unit by 1 within in 12" or all units within 12" when boosted. This is probably my favourite spell in the lore as it can massively swing combat in your favour. The thing to bear in mind is that it also increases the strength of your stomps and impacts making standard ogres str 5 (str 6 maneaters!) which will wound most infantry on 2s and also inflict further armour save penalties. Its a really easy spell to cast on one unit and is also easy to cast in the bubble form making it a very reliable way of buffing units, more often than not opponents will blow their dispell dice on trollguts leaving you free to get this off.
3. Toothcracker
This spell is an augment which increases the target toughness by 1 and can be boosted to all units within 12 of the caster. Its a great spell and really easy to cast on one unit which is often all you need! It can be used to buff your large combat blocks or even just a small road block/redirector making your units of 3 bulls even harder to shift. The Ogres really benefit from working as a unit all within 12" of the general, BSB and spell caster to maximise your bubble buffs and make your army rock solid and horrendously damaging in combat!
4. Brain Gobbler
Brain gobbler is a hex spell which forces a unit to take a panic test and can be boosted to increase range and has a relatively low casting value. This spell is a bit more situational and less useful against opponents with high leadership and with a nearby BSB. However since it is a hex it does not require Line of sight and can be chucked out behind your lines to panic off pesky scouts or flyers like terradons or gutter runners. Its also useful in a mirror match to panic off flanking mournfang who are out of range of the general/bsb. Its also very useful used on chaff units like sabretusks and warhounds. A nice combo would be to also cast doom and darkness and panic off an important combat unit turn 1. Just thinking about it I wonder if there is a place for a double LvL 4 or 3 Slaughtermaster list? It works really well for Lizards and might work for Ogres too with their inherent resilience and number of wounds. Watch this space I might work up a list with them!
5. Trollguts
Arguably the real power behind combat ogre lists and one of the reasons I think a Level 4 maw is the probably the best general choice. Trollguts is an augment spell which gives the target regeneration (4+) and can be boosted to effect every unit within 12". This regen bubble instantly makes your army massively resilient to incoming damage ranged and combat. Especially against cannon lists where because Ogres are monstrous infantry if it fails to kill a model the cannon stops dead. This can let you do some neat tricks using units of 3 bulls as meat shields 1" infront of ironblasters. Presuming that you got regen off on both and the cannonball bounce would hit both there is only a 11% chance of wounding the Ironblaster and only a 4% chance of killing it with one shot! Compare this to just shooting the ironblaster on its own with a 27% of killing it with one shot with no regen or bull shield. This spell and other bubble buffs are one of the reasons I am now using units of 3 bulls with extra hand weapons (or more recently units of 3 leadbelchers) as (albeit expensive) chaff and re-directors. These units can be amazingly good when buffed up, wiping out opposing chaff with ease (4 strength 5 attacks each plus stomps and impacts when buffed) and very resilient and reliable when buffed with stubborn, tooth cracker and/or trollguts. Even elite combat units will struggle to deal 9 wounds to a toughness 5 regenerating unit!
Regen is a great combat buff too, allowing you half the incoming damage and can massively swing combats in your favour. Naturally flaming attacks negate all this but with ogres being monstrous infantry and therefore immune to killing blow (although not heroic alas!) you can chuck on a dragonbane gem or a dragonhelm to give you a 2+ ward against anything which negates your regen! The power of this is spell is also a weakness, everyone knows about it and will throw all their dice at dispelling it, you can use this to your advantage however and plan for actually getting off bull gorger or tooth cracker. Against gunline armies bubble this early on to primarily protect you from the worst of their shooting and they may get jumpy and pull out a dispell scroll. Its difficult to cast the bubble version however and I would recommend 5 dice (when you have the +1 bonus from blood gruel) or even 6 when casting it. The spell is also really easy to cast on a single unit and quite often that is all you need later in the game when your main unit/gutstar is in combat. If you roll well in the magic phase you can start to get off 2-3 spells quite reliably if you 2-4 dice each spell.
6. The Maw
The final spell in the deck is actually one of the worst spells in the book, its a direct damage spell which is similar to pit of shades but when you pass the initiative test you only take a strength 3 hit (which is nice), fail it and you take a strength 8 hit causing D6 wounds. It can be place anywhere within 24" and scatters like a stone thrower, it is really easy to cast and can be boosted to use the large round template. All sounds amazing so far but here is where it goes horribly wrong (for me in particular more often than not!). If you roll a missfire on the scatter then your opponent can place the template, anywhere.... Which means your initiative 2/3 gutstar with multi wound models and characters is about to be flattened! This has (and will Im sure again in the future) made me lose me games. The risk is monstrous and even if it does go off safely it still scatters and can potentially miss. I would only ever cast this spell if I was in dire straits and this was my only chance of winning but even then odds are I would have swapped this spell for something more useful!
Casting Dice Guide
Below is a handy wee cheat sheet for casting Spells from the Lore of the Great Maw
| Casting Bonus | |||||||||
| Spell Castings | Cast On | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Spinemarrow 12” | 6 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Spinemarrow 24” | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Bonecrusher 18” | 8 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Bonecrusher 36” | 11 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Bull Gorger 12” | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Bull Gorger Bubble | 14 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| Toothcracker 12” | 8 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Toothcracker Bubble | 16 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| Brain Gobbler 18” | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Brain Gobbler 36” | 12 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Trollguts 12” | 12 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Trollguts Bublle | 20 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| Maw Small | 15 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| Maw Big | 21 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| Ruby Ring Fire Ball | 3 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | 3 |
| Recommended Dice | |||
| Required | Roll | Average | Chance |
| 1 | 1 | 3.5 | Fail |
| 2 | 1 | 3.5 | Fail |
| 3 | 1 | 3.5 | 97.00% |
| 4 | 2 | 7 | 92.00% |
| 5 | 2 | 7 | 83.00% |
| 6 | 2 | 7 | 72.00% |
| 7 | 3 | 10.5 | 91.00% |
| 8 | 3 | 10.5 | 84.00% |
| 9 | 3 | 10.5 | 74.00% |
| 10 | 4 | 14 | 90.00% |
| 11 | 4 | 14 | 84.00% |
| 12 | 4 | 14 | 76.00% |
| 13 | 5 | 17.5 | 90.00% |
| 14 | 5 | 17.5 | 84.00% |
| 15 | 5 | 17.5 | 78.00% |
| 16 | 6 | 21 | 90.00% |
| 17 | 6 | 21 | 84.00% |
| 18 | 6 | 21 | 76.00% |
| 19 | 6 | 21 | 60.00% |
| 20 | 6 | 21 | 54.00% |
| 21 | 6 | 21 | 50.00% |
I hope you liked the review, let me know your thoughts and if you have anything to add please let me know :)