Scrapping together Hobgoblin army

[Hobgoblyn]

I want to create a "Hobgoblin" army that should be more or less tournament legal. For now I want to create a small starter army about 500-1000 points and I want to utilize the models I have so far as much as possible.

Since statistically they are closest to humans it seems easiest to work off of one of the human lists - Dogs of War, Empire or Brettonia.

So what do I have so far?
9 Wolfriders (mostly Oglah Khan, but some Darklands ones) armed with shields and spears
1 Wolfriding Hobgoblin Big Boss
16 Sneaky Gitz
7 Blood Bowl style Hobgoblins
5 Archers
1 Warrior Boss and 1 banner waver
Bolt Thrower w/ crew

The closest thing I can find that matches up with these in the human lists is Empire
Sneaky Gitz could become Free Company and I could give the Blood Bowl guys 2 combat weapons and add them to bulk up the numbers
Archers are still archers, no problem there.
Of course, then comes the tricky part. Empire doesn't have bolt throwers or lightly armored calvary or bolt throwers.
I can use the Wolf Riders as Oglah Khan's boyz, but then I am down a commander for my army because I can't very well assign my army leader to a mercenary company (at least to my knowledge). So then I need to buy a new leaders (are there any human commanders that can be converted into hobgoblins easily?)
The bolt thrower might be a complete loss though unless there is some way to work it in.

Now, I can bulk up my basic troops fairly easily. Brettonain Men at Arms and Brettonian archers come with detached heads, so I can buy perhaps 2 boxes of the former and 1 box of the later to create myself a unit of 32 spearmen and 16 archers (with the ones I have that will make 21). They won't really match the guys I have right now, but on the other hand they'd then by properly sized compared to other things in the game.

If I work that out then I will have the following
34 Spearmen with shields + light armor w/boss, musician + banner
23 Free Company with light armor (maybe not necessary) with boss + banner
21 Archers w/ Marksman
Oglah Khan + 9 Boyz
And it will be 845 containing 3 core, 1 rare and no hero which would leave me 155 points for a boss and... what?

But maybe I am overlooking things that I could utilize here. So I'll leave it up to the experts to give me some good advice.

[Catferret]

As a really bizarre idea, try the Dogs of War Light Cannon guys (Galloper Guns I think) as your Bolt Thrower. Just say the guess range is because Hobgoblins are lousy shots. It will bounce through ranks in a similar way to a Bolt Thrower and has a similar Strength because they were really light cannons. Misfire is the tension snapping the bowstring or something.

[Hobgoblyn]

Well, that's not a bad idea. I would need one more crew, but that's not so much of a problem. I just bump someone who'd otherwise be in one of the other units.

However, it would leave me taking 2 rare units in a 1000 point army so it sadly doesn't entirely solve the problem there.

[Catferret]

Yeah... Good point. I hadn't thought much about the army composition. I was mainly considering the funky models!

Would the Dogs of War list serve you better than Empire then?

http://uk.games-workshop.com/dogsofwar/lists/

It's got light cavalry with bow options to represent more wolf riders. Duellists as Sneaky Gits (they would then be skirmishers though...). Lots of cool options overall really. The horrible notion of Hobgoblin Pikemen doesn't bare thinking about!:D

[Hobgoblyn]

Ah, but the problem there is that the only units I can see that expand on what I have would be the spearmen and archers, neither of which Dogs of War (for some insane reason) utilizes.

Of course, when it boils down to it, since the Empire can take a great canon as a Special Unit, anyone who would raise much of a fuss if I wanted to use a Bolt Thrower instead would likely be picky enough that they wouldn't let me use the army in its entirity anyway. The two weapons are fairly equivalent (canon hits a lot harder, but you have to guess a range and it is prone to exploding) so its not like wanting to put seige weapons into an army that normally doesn't have them available.

The other problem though is that I need to have a hero I can convert to a hobgoblin that is going to be on foot... Near as I can tell from the website basically all human or elf heroes are on horses or aren't nearly generic enough to be easily converted...

[Catferret]

More good points! I'm not in full brainstorming mode just now. I should probably try and get some sleep!

I'm wondering if the Necromunda Scavvy Leaders would be convertable. Lotsa robes and slightly hunched looking. May take a lot of work though.

Anyway, good luck with the project. It's always nice to see people thinking a little outside the box for army choices.

[txamil]

What about count as Kislev?

[Hobgoblyn]

Kislev doesn't really have anything that fits into the categories I need...

1) Light Calvary armed with spears & shields (preferably that the army leader can join)
2) Footmen with 2 hand weapons, preferably skirmishing though not necessarilly
3) Bolt Thrower
4) Archers w/ normal bows
5) Footmen with light armor, shields & spears

It seems all generic enough that I should be able to do it. Although now that I look at the RoR chart on the GW website, apparently I am not supposed to take Oglah Khan's boyz with well... any human army. Its the only thing besides the Giants of Albion that the Empire has marked as not available.

[Revlid]

I would go with DoW.

Sneaky Gitz = Duelists with two handweapons
Wolfriders = Light Cavalry
Bolt Thrower = DoW Cannon/Galloper Gun
Archers = Halflings
Spear-Goblins = Pikes
+Oglah Khan's Wolfboys

[Hobgoblyn]

Most things fit. Not very happy about the Halfling thing, but well.. T2, T3 with no armor... either way they die when shot or charged.
I could modify my bolt thrower to look like it is shooting chinese rockets instead of spears, so I could rationalize it as a cannon.
The pikemen instead of spearmen would be a serious point burst.

But this also means taking that horribly stupid Paymaster character (does any other race have a commander who causes the entire army to take break tests if they are ever killed? Undead maybe?) and basically absolutely requires building a bodyguard for him unless I want to lose 1/3rd of the army on turn 2. And still need a normal general on top of this...

Dogs of War doesn't seem to have been built with the intention of having it be a real army list in mind. It seems more like 'here are other concievably normally fielded units that the Empire book doesn't have'...

[Hobgoblyn]

Oh, I figured for my foot-slogging hero I could use either a Dark Elf Corsier
http://store.us.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.us?do=Individual&code=99110212034&orignav=22&ParentID=251186&GameNav=13&ItemNav=301991

or the Direct Exclusive Wood Elf Eternal Guard commander
http://store.us.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.us?do=Individual&code=9947020405507&orignav=301049&ParentID=255875&GameNav=13&ItemNav=305375

Either way it involves simply putting a bigger nose on the model, turning the loin cloth into a robe and then painting it in a eastern-style theme. Which one do you suppose would work better?

I might give up on the army being precisely legal. I imagine anyone I play against wouldn't really mind my particular unit mix. I can't really see how those I've chosen are abusive or broken when combined, it seems it is more a matter that GW focused its human lists towards heavy armor units rather than a light.

[Mad Makz]

Personally I'd do Empire as you have thought to, with Dogs of War to give you the light cavalry/wolf boys as you won't be using the empire Rare choice.

Converting the bolt thrower to a canon (either in Cathayan rocket form, or in captured Chaos Dwarf death rocket form) is not a bad idea.

[Makarion]

Why not use the spanking new (Empire) Helstorm Rocket Launcher? It's even experimental, so the odd appearance is to be expected. Of course, it's a rare choice, but together with your DoW wolf boyz that only fills up the two slots you have; no problems.