8th Edition Orc & Goblin Armybook Tactics

[Djekar]

Why not just bounce him off of the board edge/units to keep him close by?

[Yowzo]

Yeah but with Random Movement you have to move, so although you might be pacing back and forth, a short or long bounce might cause your Boss to be too far away to be of any help.

Never found that to be a problem. Keep bouncing around the warmachines (and towards whatever's threatening them if you have already identified them) and 90% of the time you'll get the charge.

[Oogie boogie boss]

Surely a unit of, say, 20 NG bowmen with a couple of Fanatics is the best option for warmachine protection? Cheap, the fanatics will hurt things like Gutter Runners or Chameleon Skinks, and even Miners, and their shooting gives them a (slightly) increased damage output capacity.

[Malorian]

If you're taking a bunker anyway then might as well toss a fanatic in there, then all you need to do is deploy the warmachines near the bunker.

Remember that the fanatic hits are done like shooting so feel free to send them through your own war machines (needing 6s to wound) if you need the bounce to get to the enemy.

[Djekar]

Good point on the fanatic through the warmachines Mal. Hadn't even considered it, despite having purposefully thrown fanatics through almost every one of my other units.

Speaking of bunkers, I'm finding it hard to get away from the 20 night goblins with standard and shortbows and a fanatic as a bunker for my naked night goblin bsb. While this set up undoubtedly leaves him safe, I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't start taking for almost exactly the same points my Savage Orc BSB with Armor of Silvered Steel + greataxe again. There are 2 real downsides: 1) he's a lot more open to being killed (though probably about as resilient as the entire bunker + BSB) and 2) None of his points come from core, so he "costs" more since I have to replace what I took out of core with the bunker.

[Malorian]

I keep on wrestling with the same idea, especially when my general is the great shaman with shruken head so I can get even more synergy out of it.

The other drawback is that it's 1 less drop to control deployment plus it's a unit down that could have possibly gone into the watchtower (and yes I've thrown night goblins in to protect a tower, they just need to last one round and then they can be backed by characters).

Another reason to keep the unit is that more units and more varried units tends to lead to better army presentation points and depending on the scenario that extra unit with a banner can really help. These obviously only matter in tournaments though.


I miss my orc bsb though so I may have to go back and try him again...

[Ghremdal]

I went with a wyvern lord general, arachnarok list today (with a base of 5x trolls, 30 BO, 30 SOBU, 45 NG's + chaff) with chaff today against dwarves. I really liked the wyvern /arachanrok synergy, and the huge 18" bubble. Even though the wyvern got shut down by the anvil and shot to death turn 3, this allowed the arachnarok to get into the meaty dwarf center and start chomping them up.

What I am not sure about is my magic. I have a lvl 4 goblin shaman with a dispel scroll and wolf in a unit of 5 wolf riders. It seems he can get into a good position to do everything, but I'm not very happy with the goblin lore; it feels kind of meh. Unfortunately I don't have enough points for a Orc shaman lord, or/and a place to put him. Do you have any suggestions?

[Djekar]

I actually have been running level 2's in my O&G lists for the past few games and haven't missed it much. Level 2 Savage Shaman with the Shrunken Head in with the ubiquitous savage orc big uns and a Night Goblin level 2 with the dispel scroll. If I have points left, I'll often add another level 2, but rarely are there points left.

How are you protecting your shaman on the wolf? He seems like he's a light breeze away from being without his LO,S! roll.

[Ghremdal]

He is hiding behind everything; and he is not a big threat so no one is shooting at him. This army is one game old, and dwarfs didn't have any reason to try and shoot him, since he didn't get off a single spell all game. I will still have to test him against a more shooty army, or one with less dispelling.

[Sexiest_hero]

Are orc Boar-boy Big uns any use? Has anybody tried mass Goblin heroes on wolves, spiders or Cave squigs as a form of Heroic cav units?

Edit: is there a build for an awesome Goblin warlord on foot sorry new Orc player.

[snottlebocket]

Are orc Boar-boy Big uns any use? Has anybody tried mass Goblin heroes on wolves, spiders or Cave squigs as a form of Heroic cav units?

Edit: is there a build for an awesome Goblin warlord on foot sorry new Orc player.

You don't want heroic units. It would mean that killing one hero might panic the rest. Solo giant spider heroes are pretty popular though. I run mine with the crown of command and some extra armor.

[Darnok]

Another noobish question: what is the range for "useful" common Orc units? I have about 60 of them, with varying weapon loadouts.

Related to this: do people generally model the exact weapon options they choose? I plan to mix all options in my units, and denote the one taken for the army list by a) arming the first rank correctly and b) putting a marker for that option next to the unit (e.g. a base with sword and shield, or one with spear and shield, etc.).

[russellmoo]

To count as WYSIWYG in Fantasy half of the models of a unit need to be using the correct weapons- personally I would be fine as long as the front rank is armed appropriately-

Not sure what you mean by range- unless you are thinking about arrer boyz- however, for regular boyz (which few players take as there seem to be better options) you can go sword and shield for durability, dual choppas for killing stuff, and spear shield if you like how it looks-

Unit size you might want to go around 50 strong-

[Darnok]

With "range" I mean opinions on different units sizes and their benefits. I think nothing below 30 is "good", but I'd appreciate input about different numbers. From 20 (minimum?) to 60+ (is there a maximum?). Thus: the range.

[djpringle]

The smallest goblin infantry unit I use is 40 but usually I go for 49 including characters, the 7x7 square looks good Nice balance between ranks and killability if such things can be said about gobbos. I don't go above 70, 7x10 formation just because I feel the footprint is too big.

Orc wise, Savages are 30 for me just because that's all I have at the moment but in the future I can see me going to 40 max, 4x10 just to maximise attacks. Black Orcs, they don't seem to be making the list these days but in the past it was 25 to 40. I do like using regular boyz, as big uns only, purely because I have more of them than savages, 40 minimum and the maximum on the day would be based on how many points were free and the number needed to make nice neat ranks, be it 7 or 8 wide

[bad dice]

With "range" I mean opinions on different units sizes and their benefits. I think nothing below 30 is "good", but I'd appreciate input about different numbers. From 20 (minimum?) to 60+ (is there a maximum?). Thus: the range.

Ok so here is what I think.
1) bunkers: these are just here to hide you bsb behind your lines so a minimum is good enough AKA 10 orcs or 20 goblins
2) Drops/ redirectors: These are just to get a deployment advantage and annoy your opponents movement. Again minimum will do so 5 cav 10 orcs or 20 goblins
3) Combat blocks: These are here to do the fighting so they need to be able to soak some damage before they get there. I would not go below 30 for savage orcs or black orcs and not below 30/10 for squigherds I would also not go above 50 and 40/20 respectively. Also if you realy want to 100 NG whit spears and nets make half a decent combat block.
4) Busses: These are here to hold the enemy up so they need to be big to stay steadfast. So i go 50+ for goblins and 30+ for orcs. (altoug NG are by far the best tarpits.
There is no need to go bigger then about 80 imho cause nothing is going to kill them fast enough before help get there.

[Shimmergloom]

Pit of shades killed 24 ng just yesterday. And I've lost over 50ng in one shooting round to skaven and chaos dwarfs and there's the time that I lost 60ng to one combat round vs Ogres. So yes, more than 80 ng are often needed.

[Darnok]

Ok so here is what I think.
1) bunkers: these are just here to hide you bsb behind your lines so a minimum is good enough AKA 10 orcs or 20 goblins
2) Drops/ redirectors: These are just to get a deployment advantage and annoy your opponents movement. Again minimum will do so 5 cav 10 orcs or 20 goblins
3) Combat blocks: These are here to do the fighting so they need to be able to soak some damage before they get there. I would not go below 30 for savage orcs or black orcs and not below 30/10 for squigherds I would also not go above 50 and 40/20 respectively. Also if you realy want to 100 NG whit spears and nets make half a decent combat block.
4) Busses: These are here to hold the enemy up so they need to be big to stay steadfast. So i go 50+ for goblins and 30+ for orcs. (altoug NG are by far the best tarpits.
There is no need to go bigger then about 80 imho cause nothing is going to kill them fast enough before help get there.

That is very helpful, thank you!

[bad dice]

That is very helpful, thank you!

Your welcome but keep in mind its just my opinion and its based on my meta.
So I would still experiment a bit whit it till it feels right to you

[Stained_Steel]

i've tried to search multiple forums, but havent gotten any real answer yet:

can you play 10 squig handlers (without squigs) you run them in front as redirecters, once they loose you get w6 S 5 hits on all enamies near for less points than a spear chukka...

is this allowed?