Warhammer Escalation League: Thoughts on Fantasy, Small Games and making 500pt Ogres work!

Alright, so we gave a pretty large Fantasy league developing here in Lansing and with 17 people on the board, we even have some good representation from most of the races.

Getting involved with Fantasy in my local scene in really exciting, but that first game has been a knot in my stomach for some time. After all, what the Hell can Ogres do with just 500pts. (and I finally fixed this post, sorry for those of you who saw the crap my phone spewed last night!)



My thoughts as a new jack Fantasy player were simple: strip the army down to what works best and support it ... And now that I say it, I wager this is the trick to any Fantasy game or army.
So what did I come up with? Well I came up with a "Niceguys" list and a "Oh Hell no, you are not taking my daughter to the prom" list.

Niceguys:

Firebelly w/ potion of speed

Six Ogres w/ banner and crusher

Four leadbelchers


The "Hell no" list:

Firebelly with potion of speed

Six Ogres

Three mornfang cavalry

So you can see that the basics work best: Ogres! They are cheap per wound when you think about it and do quite a bit of damage with impact, two rows with all their attacks, dollars by a stomp.

Add the firebelly in and you have added flame attacks from the breath weapon. The reason I took the near naked firebelly instead of a butcher or bruiser is simple. Between one or two successful fireballs and even just one average breath weapon, the firebelly is way more killy than the bruiser. Add the potion of speed and I can maybe kill second rank guys before they swing and save some potential wounds from happening.
The butcher is obviously not up to snuff with the belly at this points cost due to him having to take gut magic and gut not being very good for a Lvl 1 caster.

With that said, we have what works and a hero who makes it work better, but what about support? I thought of three leadbelchers and a pair of sabretusks, but I doubt I will need the tusks and the shooting seems to support the Ogres well.

I also think that mournfangs work well to either kill units at 500 pts or hold them for the Ogres to wipe out. Honestly, my opinion is that mournfangs might be a little too nasty for a friendly league, especially since at 2500 I only take four.

What it will really come down to, is what I have painted. I want to do this right and only run painted models and right now, the fangs are bare plastic. I also have to paint the firebelly, so it may just be the Niceguys list after all ... But in any case, the league should be fun and as long as I cover the basic "support what works" tenet, then tactics should see me through.

Are any of you new to fantasy of have thoughts or experiences with small games, Ogres or all of the above? Let's hear your experiences, your thoughts or your feedback. This old Maneater is all ears.