8th Edition Orc & Goblin Armybook Tactics

[decker_cky]

I think squig hoppers are a decent support unit since they no longer have animosity. They're also the perfect unit for hand of gork, since if you push them up a flank, they can take advantage of the 'no charge reactions against them' to kill units that fled from the main line.

[Gork or Possibly Mork]

What sort of builds are people looking at for their Warboss/BigBoss/Shaman's, etc?
Just to give us non-OnG players a heads up on what we should be expecting!

I'm awaiting the arrival of my OnG book, and if things tickle my fancy, I might do a Spider-themed army for small (sub 1500pt-ish) games at club night.

Would you say that the Ward Save from Savage Orc Tattoo's would stack with other generic Ward Save items? Similar to MoT on Chaos Warriors.

Savage Warboss with Armour or Gork, Savage Great Shaman with Shrunken head, Black Orc BSB with Armour of Destiny, 3+ NG bigbosses with great axes and a NG shaman with feedback or a dispel scroll.

Pretty expensive all of that though.

On the wardsave thing some have already said it doesn't stack. Otherwise it would be insane. Start out with 6+ on Savage Shaman add in the talisman of preservation for a 3+ and get it to 2+ for the lucky shrunken head. Not gonna happen!

[Malorian]

I think squig hoppers are a decent support unit since they no longer have animosity. They're also the perfect unit for hand of gork, since if you push them up a flank, they can take advantage of the 'no charge reactions against them' to kill units that fled from the main line.

If you are casting that spell that means the opponent's turn is next, which means they can rally any fleeing troops.

So your tactic has a lot of maybes.

Personally I'd spend the points on a chariot which can support combat and has a better chance of catching a fleeing unit when it breaks.

Savage Warboss with Armour or Gork, Savage Great Shaman with Shrunken head, Black Orc BSB with Armour of Destiny, 3+ NG bigbosses with great axes and a NG shaman with feedback or a dispel scroll.

It's hard to justify anything than a plain orc in the new book.

I told people 5 points was a steal for an extra attack and free ward save and people didn't believe me. Now you have to pay a good amount of points for it.

As it is now I would keep them all plain, and since even a regular orc bsb can take a great weapon I don't even think a black orc is needed there any more.


People I have read over the wording... ward saves do NOT stack.

They never normally stack and that item doesn't improve your ward by 1, it specifically changes it depending on the unit.

[decker_cky]

If you are casting that spell that means the opponent's turn is next, which means they can rally any fleeing troops.

So your tactic has a lot of maybes.

You misunderstand. I was advocating planning at least a turn in advance. As soon as you have any random movement unit up on an opponent's flank, you make it near suicide for them to flee with nearby units. This is best done when pushing up your strong flank on a refused flank deployment.

[Gork or Possibly Mork]

If you are casting that spell that means the opponent's turn is next, which means they can rally any fleeing troops.

So your tactic has a lot of maybes.

Personally I'd spend the points on a chariot which can support combat and has a better chance of catching a fleeing unit when it breaks.




It's hard to justify anything than a plain orc in the new book.

I told people 5 points was a steal for an extra attack and free ward save and people didn't believe me. Now you have to pay a good amount of points for it.

As it is now I would keep them all plain, and since even a regular orc bsb can take a great weapon I don't even think a black orc is needed there any more.


People I have read over the wording... ward saves do NOT stack.

They never normally stack and that item doesn't improve your ward by 1, it specifically changes it depending on the unit.

Maybe so, Im still definitely going to have the savage shaman with shrunken head in a horde of savage big'uns though. I just saw a post about the points difference on characters now and plain orcs are a steal now.

[russellmoo]

Here's what my thoughts are-

I plan on taking a Black orc warboss, tooled up- by which I mean a talisman of preservation, enchanted shield, and the sword of antiheroes (mainly for fluff reasons)
Next to him is a Blorc BSB- here is why- he is carrying Mork's war banner, as such I want the heavy armor, his blorc abilities gives him weapon options, and the slightly higher weapon skill will also help keep him safe-

If you are not running a magical banner then the clear winner is a regular Orc BSB-

This combo is simple- I take my general and BSB have them make way into contact with say- an unkillable dwarf lord- the dwarf lord now has to fight my tooled up warboss with just his stat line- or do the same thing and put the pair next to a wizard- who is easy prey without a ward save- or better still we'll see how long a screaming bell holds up-

The possible downsides are- bloodthirsters, or high initiative units/characters could go after the BSB first, but still they are fighting a blorc big boss-

[Avian]

Next to him is a Blorc BSB- here is why- he is carrying Mork's war banner, as such I want the heavy armor, his blorc abilities gives him weapon options, and the slightly higher weapon skill will also help keep him safe-

No, it won't. Take it from me. Ever since riding a boar became stupid last summer, my BSB on foot with nothing but heavy armour has been getting splatted left, right and center. No magic banner is the way to go. And the one you suggest is points out the window anyway.

[Rogzor87]

Please don't... it really is a complete waste of points in most cases.

In fact I am finding it hard to see why I would want any spiders at all when for 3 more points per model I could have a tougher boar boy, or save 3 points and get a faster wolf rider...

Well I have 30 Wolf Riders aswell. But I really like to use my 50 spider riders and 3 bosses on gigantic spiders. I am just doing it because its my army and I want to have fun with it. I won't do it every game but i will do it because i can.

I was more thinking picking up Mangler Squigs (or fanatics) and popping them between enemy units, or other nasty situations where they're most likely to do damage to enemies, or not do damage to me. Eg. dropping them in front of a unit that is about to get charged, so that if the enemy charges they have to land on it.
Risky though because if they don't charge it might scatter towards your unit.

Well yeah that would work too. I just want to see how my opponent will react when they get 3 fanatics run right through there warmachines or through the flank of there army. And if they place there units to close together then it will just shoot down and hit multiple ones till it has a space large enough to be 1" away. Then you get the NG's Bow shots aswell... Since they should be landing on the flank of there army there shouldn't be to much that can hit them because of LoS issues without moving/reforming just to shoot/magic them.

I just don't see using that spell on just 1 fanatic or mangler squig just to stop someone from charging because they will probly do it regardless.

[Malorian]

Maybe so, Im still definitely going to have the savage shaman with shrunken head in a horde of savage big'uns though. I just saw a post about the points difference on characters now and plain orcs are a steal now.

Absolutely, the shrunken head trick is good. That's about the only savage character I would take now.

Well I have 30 Wolf Riders aswell. But I really like to use my 50 spider riders and 3 bosses on gigantic spiders. I am just doing it because its my army and I want to have fun with it. I won't do it every game but i will do it because i can.

Fair enough, and fun is fun.

Maybe one game try it with wolves instead (with 2 big bosses on wolves) and see how it goes. Remember that once you fill the front rank with characters that it really doesn't matter what is following behind to you might as well keep it cheap.


For my army I think I'm going to be going from an or guy to a night goblin guy.

I'm even looking to have a squig herd horde replace my black orc horde.

[Morkash]

There really is an immense point difference between the thre orc Warbosses. I mean, you can almost afford another Big Boss for the points saved from the downgrade from Black Orc Warboss to Common Orc Warboss! Savage bosses are too expensive now, as well.

Savage Shaman with Shrunken head is awesome, though...
Do you guys put the Great Shaman into the Savage horde? I'm afraid somehow that he is going to IF something and then blows up the unit he is in...or do you not bother with such banalities?

[Malorian]

Do you guys put the Great Shaman into the Savage horde? I'm afraid somehow that he is going to IF something and then blows up the unit he is in...or do you not bother with such banalities?

Put him in the corner of the unit to reduce the damage.

And actually 5+ ward savages are good at taking the blast damage anyway.

[ihavetoomuchminis]

I am not going to say that you take your theme too seriosly because there is nothing wrong with that but I am going to say that you're probably not being very flexible or imaginative as to the theme behind your army construction. Orc's and goblins have very flexible themes and it doesn't take anymore more than 'A Big Un Cames along and stuck our boss and say we gotta leaves da muntain n' fight who 'e says.' That is how epic hordes of green become a problem, the biggest one just starts combining what ever smaller bands of greens that they encounter on thier war to fightin' someone. Just saying, think outside the box and don't be so stiff. Don't let Theme constrain your army, the great thing about the theme of your army is that it's only constrained by your imagination.

i guess you are right! I'm too unflexible with that, taking in account that in my 40k daemons army i mix 3 of the 4 gods ^^.

[Dead Man Walking]

In the last edition I ran into an opponent who had a 30 man unit of blackorcs with Gorbad and I played defensive behind some trees as far from this unit as possible on the board edge. My opponent would move, roll all of his dice to infinite force the blork block with the Big waagh to move forward in the magic phase. He survived the miscast and did it again in turn 2. So by Turn 2 he ran through trees (lost 3 blocks to terrain test) and charged me and crushed my unit of saurus and rolled into my slaan flank.

I was hoping with the new edition that would be the last time I saw that combo but with the new spell to teleport a unit 3d6" and decide the facing I see I will be dealing with the same tactic all over again.

[Malorian]

I was hoping with the new edition that would be the last time I saw that combo but with the new spell to teleport a unit 3d6" and decide the facing I see I will be dealing with the same tactic all over again.

The waaagh banner is almost overkill in 8th anyway.


Units teleporting to your flank will be ab issue for an elite army like lizardmen, but as long as you have T8 saurus* you'll do just fine

*Flesh to stone

[ihavetoomuchminis]

The waaagh banner is almost overkill in 8th anyway.


Units teleporting to your flank will be ab issue for an elite army like lizardmen, but as long as you have T8 saurus* you'll do just fine

*Flesh to stone

and magic resistance is not that good, since the really powerful spells are those with no saves of any kinds allowed and the some curses. The good thing about this banner is that nullifies any magic item in BtB, but not worth 100 points.

[Malorian]

and magic resistance is not that good, since the really powerful spells are those with no saves of any kinds allowed and the some curses. The good thing about this banner is that nullifies any magic item in BtB, but not worth 100 points.

(I assume you were trying to quote someone else.)


That banner is pretty expensive but there will be times when it could be game winning.

Probably would take it in large games but not in 2500 or less unless the metagame called for it.

[FluidSpace]

Now I myself haven't actually seen the new book yet, But for tactics I'm looking at the spell that moves a friendly unit 2d6"(well teleports) and using it on a unit of NG bowmen with fanatics and plop them by a warmachine or on the enemy's flanks. then you get to release the fanatics and then blast some bow fire into them.

I though the spell moved them 3D6 and you could extend it to 4D6. Though I could be wrong.

I definitely think that I am going to drop squigs from my list all together. They just make me sad. Instead Im going to add a Pump Wagon or two, maybe a few more trolls, some manglers and another doom diver.

Im also really excited about the idea of building an all wolf rider/chariot army with Grom and the SC. Probably won't do all that well but it will be lots of fun and look awesome!

[Malorian]

As I remember it it's 3D6 that can be extended to 5D6...

(So an average of 10.5 or 17.5)

[Ghazbad_Facestompa]

There really is an immense point difference between the thre orc Warbosses. I mean, you can almost afford another Big Boss for the points saved from the downgrade from Black Orc Warboss to Common Orc Warboss! Savage bosses are too expensive now, as well.

Screw efficiency, I've got a theme! Besides, WS7 is still useful, and Armed to da Teef is still rather nice. Worth the point difference? Unlikely, but I still like black orcs more.
On Hand of Gork: Even with the limited range, I'd still say it's the best spell we have. The ability to teleport an entire unit is extremely powerful. Use it to get to a flank or rear, to get out of an unpleasant situation, and so on.
It also makes a nice combo with the Little WAAAGH! signature spell. Potential black orcs (or another nasty combat unit) with Armor Piercing and who reroll misses and failures to wound attacking the flank? Hell yes.

[Turtleking]

I think Wolf Riders and boar boys are both better choices now then spiders. I just don't find building climbing to be more useful then toughness or speed...