Human Ogre Overview:
Ogres provide Humans with some much needed strength and higher armour, which they need to compete in the bashing side of the game. They are however prone to being somewhat unreliable so it is best to be careful with regards to how you use him on the pitch. I also recommend you start your teams with one from the start. This gives them more games to try and get a MVP and start to skill up as they can be quite slow to do so. You can speed their development up by being a bit more proactive with them, though this strategy can often come back to bite you due to their unreliability.
As they come with the Loner skill you need to be careful about when you use them. A failed roll can result in a turnover and also wasting a reroll as well. This means it is best to try and use them at the end of your turn, or when failing something will not leave your team exposed. Bonehead also may mean that sometimes you want to just leave him where he is as keeping his tackle zone may be more important than trying a two dice block.
If you are going to use your Ogre in a more passive and supportive role in order to minimise the risks, then it is best to give him skills which complement this roll. If he is stuck in the thick of it, he is high strength and coupled with high armour and Thick Skull, he is the hardest player on your team to remove from the pitch. It is better that he is in there than one of your blitzers for example.
Ogre Road Block:
The first skill you should be looking at giving him is Guard, unless you roll doubles. Humans need all the Guard they can get and a ST5 player with Guard can be hard to just push out of the way, even more so if you follow that up with Stand Firm. Break Tackle is also a good second option so you can move him to where he is needed the most. For doubles, Block is the obvious choice, getting more knock downs helps with getting him more SPP as well as keeping him on his feet more. If you get a second one then Pro can be helpful for when you need to reroll anything, it is the same chances as using a team reroll on him, except you don’t lose a reroll when you fail and you can also use it to reroll push results when blocking as well. Piling On is also an option to increase development, though I really don’t like putting him on the ground as he is more useful to your team when standing.
Stat increases +ST is the most useful, can get easier three dice blocks, even harder for the other team to block you and also gives you the edge against other teams big guys. Agility increases aren’t really that useful as he won’t really be handling the ball and should have Break Tackle for dodging. Movement or +AV I would pass up if you rolled double five, Block and Pro are more useful. For six four rolls you may consider either, the movement lets him keep up in a cage and cover the pitch better and the armour helps more if you tend to leave him getting stuck into the thick of it. It wouldn’t be a mistake if you took a normal skill instead though, especially if it is his first one.
Human Ogre Summary:
This is the best way to use the Ogre to complement the rest of the Human team in my opinion. If you want to go more offensive with him then by all means start off with Piling On. It is just worth bearing in mind that he will be exposed to fouls more often and he can’t support the surrounding team mates while he is on the floor. It will be easier for the opposing team to move around him when he is on the floor as you don’t have any other strong “road block” players on the Human team.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Hey Coach, great work on the site. I haven’t found a lot of great info for the new LRB5 ruleset.
I would consider diving tackle on a doubles roll for an Ogre, definitely after block but maybe before pro. With the new loner system, pro isn’t as necessary as it was previously. And while you don’t want your ogre prone on the pitch, if you can cause a turnover it’s probably worthwhile. Also, just the threat of the DT can give your Ogre more influence on the pitch. Tackle would also be an option – while more specific, it also increases your block effectiveness and doesn’t have the downside of going prone.
Because of their high strength and mighty blow, new players tend to throw BGs at everything that moves, looking at them to be the main damage dealer. However, as you pointed out, often times it’s more important for them just to be standing there, occupying as much space an as many of the opponent’s players as possible, and also threatening the big punch to the face. Picking up guard means they can’t be ignored when in the thick of things, and break tackle prevents them from being occupied by a single lino. The other big way to deal with BGs is to dodge away and avoid them, which is why I’d consider getting an anti-dodge skill on all of them (diving tackle, tackle, prehensile tail, tentacles).
July 8th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
It could work, though I still prefer Pro, the fact you will Bonehead less combined with the better blocking ability it gives would get more use than diving tackle would. It’s not that often that players dodge away from them compared to the amount of times you will be blocking with them. It would combine well with Stand Firm though as you can’t be pushed away instead, not that it is easy for teams to do that considering the ST5 anyway.
July 22nd, 2009 at 9:22 am
It it just me or are Ogres the least powerful of all Big Guys?
Rat Ogres and Kroxigors come with Prehensile Tail, Minotaurs with Horns/Frenzy, Trolls have Throw Teammate, Treemen are that bit stronger, etc.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Ogres have AV 9.
So i would say Kroxigor is superior but not the others with AV 8.
Really stupid and Take root are bad bad bad imo.
June 14th, 2010 at 12:23 am
I think the Yhetee is by far the best he starts with claws
January 29th, 2011 at 11:31 am
Hey Coach,
isn’t there an argument for giving an Ogre Frenzy on doubles? I mean I know you’re going to continue to get him into trouble 10% of the time on a two dice block, but if one of the arguments for Block is that you’ll get more knock-downs then surely that applies more so to Frenzy?
I mean Block actually decreases in value over the course of a league as more players pick up Block/Wrestle. Whereas Frenzy can stack nicely with natural strength skills such as Break Tackle, Pilin-on and most of all Juggernaut.
Also if you’re just going to use him as a road block then it only becomes a negative not to have block when you’re getting hit by stronger opponents. Whereas if you’re just going to park him then it doesn’t matter.
I’d be interested to hear what you think, but sometimes I think internet forums seem to advise very cautious play without giving credit to the possibilities of slightly riskier tactics. I guess what I’m saying is it would have been nice if you’d given a non-road block option.
January 31st, 2011 at 2:35 pm
You could do that though Block lets you be more aggressive as it greatly lowers the risk of turnover. That is the more important factor in play for a Human Ogre rather than increased knockdowns. When you consider their Loner disability cutting out the easy option to reroll, Frenzy will just create more changes that they mess up, 1/9 chance perhaps twice each time you use them makes them far more unreliable than 10%. Sure they won’t always take two blocks if the first succeeds but you also have the ~17% chance they will fail Bonehead first as well. Not having Block also makes two dice against hits from weaker opponents more successful as well.
Frenzy is a great skill to have, though I personally leave to a Human Blitzer who is far more mobile and more reliable. That is an acceptable slightly riskier tactic (imo) than Frenzy on an Ogre, especially as it requires a double skill choice.