Return to the Mahou – In 2018 the Trolls travelled to Madrid to participate in the Spanish Clash of Kings Tournament. While the BeerTroll was winning the Wooden Spoon for the event he played the Ogre army of Nacho , a Spanish player of no mean ability that even has a wargames club named after him “ Los Violentos De Nacho”. Whilst he was trouncing my Brotherhood Army he was telling me all about how to improve my game and get the most from my Army, a thoroughly nice Hombre.
After we came back from Spain we had signed up to play at the UK Clash of Kings a couple of weeks later, as my Brotherhood Army had been soundly defeated as had the Kingdoms of Men army it evolved from, I decided to try my hand at something else. As Nacho had given me a copy of his army list in Spain and I had seen it working I decided to build and paint the same Army in a week. I ordered the Models from my FLGS and when they arrived I set to. I managed to paint the entire 2000 point list in 7 Days and came 72nd out of 80 at the Clash of Kings having never played a practise game with the force. Not withstanding this poor showing ( although it was better than dead last ) The Ogres then embarked on my Army of choice for most of the following year until they were supplanted by the burgeoning Free Dwarfs that have then continued to be my Main army to this date.
The Ogres were named the Mahou Ogres after the Mahou Beer that we drank in Madrid whilst there ( lots and lots of Mahou Beer) and this is why they have the Red and White Colour scheme they so proudly display.
The Mahou even took part in this Years Clash of Kings under the command of Walter, an Australian Gentleman that came all the way to the UK to play Toy Soldiers but needed an Army to play and So the Mahou Tribe Ogres went to Nottingham to take part coming in 130th out of 147. But having the Army out on the Weekend and looking at some of the Ogre armies at the event made me think about giving the Mahou some table action myself.
As I looked at Army lists from 3rd Ed results it struck me that my Poor Mahou were a bit dated in their Army composition, the vast majority of Ogre forces running at least two if not three Hordes of SiegeBreakers and here was the Mahou with just a single Horde. Luckily I have a large box of unbuilt Ogre parts sitting in a cupboard ( which exact cupboard I was unsure of but with the help of Trollette the Ogre Part box was located and suitable parts were extracted. There then followed the semi remembered ritual of the “Ogre Boilings” the heating of the ogre arms with hot water in order to make the damn things fit the bodies, this being accompanied but a lot of rude Troll Words due to burned fingers and reluctant Ogre parts, but eventually the requisite four Ogres were completed.
There then followed the amusing efforts of the BeerTroll to replicate a colour scheme and painting style from five years previous, this was also accompanied by Trollish rude words and a lot of head scratching. Mostly from the construction of the large pavises that gave the ShieldBreakers their difference from the rest of the Ogre Warriors. Bear in mind that when these Siegebreakers were made there was no dedicated model for them and lots of conversions abounded, people even going so far as to design and print 3D parts for them. However at the time I was on a tight budget and starved for time and so hit upon the idea of giving normal Ogres with double handed weapons large immobile Siege Shields called Pavises. This served two purposes, it made the Horde stand out from the rest of the army as visibly different and simulated the , at the time, lower movement rate and higher defence of the SiegeBreakers compared to normal Ogres. It was also fun to make and paint. They are simply oblongs of balsa wood scored with a pen and having notches cut out to simulate planks, then a couple of thinner cross pieces are glued on and an angled support affixed at the rear, lovely and simple to do (although a fellow Club Member who wishes to remain anonymous, we shall call him Barry for the sake of this Blogpost, tried to duplicate this effect by gluing individual coffee stirrers together , nightmare !) These were then Painted in close approximation of the existing unit. The new horde need the base finishing , but as can be seen from the pictures, it is already a close match for the existing horde in colour and composition. As I further explore the return of the Mahou I will expand with more articles and , hopefully an article on how the New Clash of Kings 24 updates will affect the performance of my New(Old) Ogre Army in a couple of up coming events.
On the Left - the Original Horde from 2018 and on the Right - the New Horde from 2023 - Just needs the basing finishing but already looks pretty much the same
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