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Written by: Lard Tub
6th Edition

Most people picture Warhammer as huge-scale 2000 point-plus battles.  The image of 2 or 3 regiments fighting it out for a vital piece of information much needed for the main attack rarely comes to mind when the word Warhammer is mentioned. Fair enough, but we shouldn't forget how fun the smaller battles can be.  Games Workshop has developed a set of sub-rules for playing games 500 points in size.  These 500 point games are called "Border Patrol" battles but also go under the nicknames of "Warhammer in a  Flash" or "Lunch-hammer".  They are designed to be fast and furious tactical games which can be set up, played and cleaned up in under an hour.  I will take you through my standard 500 point Orc and Goblin force, which will hopefully encourage you (if you haven't already done so) to try out Border Patrol. The rules for the game can be found on the Games Workshop website.

My Orc and Goblin army is centered around a theme of 'the bigger the better', i.e. the biggest greenskins boss around the smaller ones and the smaller ones boss around the smallest ones. At the top of the chain is my Warboss/Big Boss Bludskull.  He likes to be in the thick of the action, so he is my first choice. Armed with a trusty great axe and his lucky armour (Drog's Dead 'Ard Armour) he should cause some carnage. However, tough as he is he can't take on regiments on his own.  So a nice big unit of Orc Boyz will act as his bodyguard. I take some spears for them as well as shields and full command. Including Bludskull this unit comes to 269 points and it's tough enough to withstand most things in a small game.

So I've got a nice, solid center.  What should be my next choice? Something for the Orcs to boss around...some Gobbos! Night Gobbos to be precise.  Their fanatics can cause much carnage in 500 points games. I usually take them in nice, big units of 30+ but it says in the Border Patrol rules that I'm only allowed a unit to be a maximum of 25.  So 25 will have to do. 25 Night Goblins with spears, full command and 2 fanatics costs a mere 145 points. Not bad. It gives my opponent more things to worry about. I think I'll stick this unit opposite any nasty heavily armoured opposition that I might find myself facing. 

I'm allowed 1 special or rare choice and my initial feeling was to go for 2 Spear Chukkas, but I'm only allowed 1 war machine (according to the Border Patrol rules) and 1 spear chukka is worthless in my opinion.   So a Rock Lobba will take it's place instead. I'll take a bully to stick with the them too so this comes to 75 points. A great all-rounder, it'll aim for the big regiments that I'm bound to come across in the heat of battle.

Adding it all up, I come to 489 points. Quite good, but I'm allowed 1 more unit and I'd like some Snotlings for the Night Goblins to boss around. 2 bases should be very ample and prove to be yet another distraction for my opponents.  They cost 50 points, bringing the total up to 539. Hmmm...what to drop. Well, the spears on the Night Gobbos can go, so I save 25 points with that. I've still got to lose 14 points. Well, the champion and standard bearer can go from the same unit leaving me with 498 points, enough for 1 more Night Goblin. Perfect! 500 points exactly! So, my army looks like this:

Bludskull: Orc Big Boss Great Weapon, Drog's Dead 'Ard Armour 99 Points
19 Orc Boyz Spears, Shields, Full Command Group 170 Points
26 Night Goblins Musician, 2 Fanatics 106 Points
Goblin Rock Lobba Bully 75 Points
2 Snotling Bases 50 points
TOTAL 500 Points

All in all I'm very happy with the army list and it should (and does) do well on the table top. I hope this has helped.

WAAAAAGH!

Warboss Lard Tub.

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