ARTICLE

Written by: Lard Tub
6th Edition

Before I start I'd like to talk about themed armies. I think it is very important to anyone beginning Orcs and Goblins to pick a theme and stick with that theme (eg. an only Orc hoarde or a Night Goblin army). By doing this, your army immediately takes on much more character and is more enjoyable to play with. You also get more points for your theme at tournaments and such and you have great fun converting little parts of the army that make it seem more like the theme you are trying to achieve.

Lords

Warbosses: Orc Warbosses (be they regular, savage or black) are wonderful killing machines against normal troopers but the savage orc and orc warbosses struggle a bit against more powerful adversaries (saurus oldbloods, chaos lords etc.).   Their T5 will get them through most situations, however.  When tooled up with just a great axe they reach a more that reasonable S6 and when ridding atop a mighty boar or, if you want to go just that little bit further, a wyvern they become mighty killing machines that get into combat fast. However, I must urge you not to do this! Your mob desperately needs the warboss's high LD and they are out of range of it when he is careering down a flank. A great magic item to give your regular orc warboss is Drog's Dead Ard Armour (1+ AS). For only 30 points you get a great AS. When combined with a great axe you get a tough armour encased orc with the strength to fell regular and elite troops with ease; along with the less-strong characters. 

Savage orc warbosses are a different kettle of fish altogether. The additional attack from frenzy is great, but a good opponent will use frenzy against you (ie. they will draw you into traps). For this, and the aforementioned reason, you must not put a Savage orc warboss on a boar. With a 14" charge range, he can be easily drawn away from every one else. Stick him in a unit of biguns' instead. Another bonus for Savage orc warbosses is warpaint. I always upgrade it to magical warpaint (5+ ward save) and often give him Duffa's Club of Duffin' with an enchanted shield. This can be a nasty surprise for your opponents. 

We now move onto the mightiest of warbosses, the horrific Black orc warboss. With Improved WS and S, the ability to ignore greenskin panic and quell animosity this guy is the business. However, all this can't come at only 10 points more than a Savage orc warboss, can it? Sadly no.  Black orc warbosses use up an extra hero choice, but if you have the hero slot spare and are including a Black orc unit in your army then I thoroughly recommend taking one. Black orcs also have the heavy armour option and can become a chariot killer (basically anything with S7) with a humble great axe. 

Now we come to Goblin Warbosses. With lower LD, WS and T he's nowhere near as good as an Orc warboss. He can, however, tear through most normal troopers and heroes with comparative ease. But, I would say, only pick a goblin warboss if you're doing a themed army. 

Finally, we come to the Night Goblin Warboss. Much the same as a Goblin warboss, but with +1 I and -1 LD. The big bonuses about having Goblin or Night Goblin Warbosses are their costs. At 65 and 55 points respectively, you don't have to worry too much about justifying points cost.

Great Shamans: Now we come to my favourite lords choice: great shamans. They have the ability to use the big waaaagh! spell list and this is truly devastating. First of all, I'll take you through that. The first spell on the list is Mork Save Uz! (5+); basically, this is 2nd sign of Amul with a better name. It can be great though, if you cast it at the beginning of the magic phase and then you can use the re-rolls for more crucial spells. Then comes Gork'll fix it (6+). I never liked this spell and preferred the more devastating spells on the list. It gives a unit within 24" of your shaman and that is in close combat a 6+ ward save for that round. My ability to roll sixes is, shall we say, not so good so if I roll this spell I will swap it for Mork Save Uz. Next there is Bash Em' Ladz (7+). Now this really is a good spell. It allows a unit in combat within 18" of the shaman to re-roll misses and strike first in the next round of combat. This can be really useful in the heat of battle when a crucial combat is taking place. After that is The Foot of Gork (9+). I love this spell and I like to use it on heavily armoured foot troops (eg. great swordsmen). It does D6 S6 hits on any enemy unit on the battlefield. Then comes my favourite spell, Gork's Warpath (10+). It potentially allows you to cast The foot of Gork lots of times! That's got to be good. Finally, the last spell on the list is Waaagh! (12+), this is a movement spell and allows all Orc and Goblin units on the table to charge the enemy, provided they could do so. They move 2D6" forwards towards the enemy. This is, in my opinion, one of the best spells in the game and, if I'm lucky enough to roll, I will cast it in the end game when all the units are quite close together to secure victory (hopefully). A thing to mention about shamans is to not be afraid of marching him up with the rest of the Boyz so he generates extra power dice. Of course, the downside to waaagh! magic is the miscast table and I strongly suggest buying some sort of protection in the form of an arcane item (eg. Buzzgobs Knobbly Staff) so you can avoid this catastrophe (believe me, it is a catastrophe when your 200 point great shaman's head blow off). 

Now, I will talk about the types of great shaman available to you. Once again, my advice would be to go with the shaman that suits your theme best. Orc shamans are pretty standard, their T4 is great too. Goblin shamans are the worst technically of the shamans with lower stats than the Orc great shaman and no additional bonuses. Savage Orc shamans you have to be careful with as frenzy can draw them into combat. Night Goblin shamans are great because they get D3 additional dice to add to the casting roll (magic mushrooms).

Big Bosses: As with all armies, this is your standard fight hero for Orcs and Goblins. Each type of hero is basically a small downgrade from their lord equivalent. If you're really low on points then a big boss can make an OK general but always keep a theme in mind. I always include a battle standard bearer in my army because of the re-roll it gives me. I put him in a nice big unit and he often gets Nogg's Banner of Butchery. Another good tactic with big bosses or any other fighty hero you have is to put him in a chariot. This is great and it makes him a terror on the battlefield. However, this is not such a good thing to do with your general because if a nasty S7 character comes along and destroys your character's chariot he can look very venerable indeed. Finally it is also worth mentioning that in all-Goblin armies you get an extra big boss per 1000 points in your army. I suggest that if you have an all-Goblin horde you take full advantage of this even if you only give him a great axe and light armour.

Shamans: The shamans available to Orcs and Goblins vary greatly in type but not much in ability (Night Goblin shaman get 1 magic mushroom). The lore they use is the little waaagh!, which is not as devastating as the big waaagh! but potent none the less. The spells in the little waaagh! are as follows: First on the list is Gaze of Mork (5+). This is a nice and offensive spell and all my shamans take it. It has a range of 24" and does D6 S4 hits. This is a great spell against elves because they all have T3 and Dark elves especially because they are lightly armoured. Secondly comes Fist's of Gork (7+). I don't like this spell because of its short range and the fact that it does't hit automatically. However, your opponent not getting a 'look out, sir' roll is undeniably useful but it is the range of 8" that makes me swap it for Gaze of Mork when I can. After that is Eadbutt' (7+). This spell causes one model within 24" of the caster to take a S4 hit with no armour saves allowed. I really like this spell because it is great against heavy cavalry (especially Elvish and Human heavy cavalry). Then it is Brain Bursta (8+). This is just Gaze of Mork but it does 2D6 hits instead of D6. The penultimate spell is 'Ere we go! (9+). It makes one Orc and Goblin unit within 18" that is in combat fight a round of combat without their opponents attacking back. In my opinion this is the best spell on the list. Finally, there is The Hand of Gork (9+) which is a version of Waagh! but toned down a bit. So, that concludes the characters section of the tactics.

When I think of Orc and Goblin troops, one thing springs to mind: numbers. If you're going to use greenskins properly you have to understand that their LD isn't that good. OK, its average for Orcs but for Goblins even a Goblin warboss only has LD 8. So, your opponent will know this and will try to use this to his advantage. How? By shooting your units and reducing them by 25%. Now, with big units it's very hard to do this. If T4 Orcs come in units of 30 then your opponent has to kill 7.5 Orcs to force a panic test. Gobbos should go in units of 40 (they are T3). When you combine this with how many infantry units you'll want to have on the table, this makes for a very frightening sight for your opponent as well . Large units are great in close combat too with the outnumbering bonus and if you stack up the ranks with a standard bearer they get a combat resolution of 5 before the fighting has even started (1 for the standard bearer, 3 for the rank bonuses and 1 for outnumbering). 

The second thing to keep in mind is, unfortunately, animosity. I know it's bad but just live with it. If the Orcs and Goblins didn't have then the points cost would be dramatically increased so it does serve some good. So, if one of your units is unlucky enough to fail an animosity test then the most likely result is they just won't move. If you get a 'Get 'em' result, however, things can turn a lot more serious. There are ways to counter animosity, though. One of them is Black Orcs. They allow anyone within 6" of them to re-roll a failed animosity test, use them if you wish, but only take Black Orc characters if you've got a unit of Black Orcs in your army (theme); better yet, forget the black orc characters and just go with a nice big 20+ strong unit. There is a banner that for only 10 points allows the the unit to automatically pass it's first failed animosity test (The Bashin' Falg of Bork). What? Only 1 failed animosity test? What if I fail 2? Live with it. Think about. In a usual game there are around 6 turns and you only fail an animosity test on a roll of a 1 which make it a 1 in 6 chance that you'll fail. Not so scary now is it. This banner often gets given to my Boar Boyz who careen down the flanks out of range of my Black Orcs. Now, we'll go on to the actual troops available to Orcs and Goblins. Finally, a general note about Orc and Goblin infantry regiments: always give them a full command.

First on the list are the humble but brilliant Orc Boyz. For only 5 points you get a T4 killing machine and for 2 more points they can be upgraded to Biguns'. Biguns' are truly terrifying prospect for an opponent. Not many 7 point core units come with WS, S and T 4. In my army I have 2 units of Orc Boyz (2 units of 25), one upgraded to Biguns'. Quite often my General will accompany my Biguns' and my Battle standard will go with the Orc Boyz. When deciding what to equip them with I go for the good old choppa, light armour and shield for my normal Orc Boyz and spears, light armour, and shields for my Biguns'.

Next on the list are the Orc Arrer Boyz. Now if you've got the Orc Battalion you'll probably be wanting to use these. I've tried and tested this unit and have decided they not worth it. With an average/lousy BS of 3, with the champion not even having BS 4 they are not suited for lining up in one rank at the top of the hill and shooting. Instead, treat them as regular Orc Boyz and rank them up normally. Better yet, don't use them.

Then come the loony Savage Orcs. Yeah, I prefer the old models too but they really are excellent fighters. They're basically normal Orc Boyz (which are a fairly frightening prospect anyway) with a ward save and frenzy. The key to using Savage Orcs is to be careful of frenzy; watch out for clever traps lain by your opponents.

You can also upgrade Savage Orcs to Biguns', when armed with an additional hand weapon; Savage Orc Biguns' get 3 attacks on the charge! Always give them warpaint too.

After that comes normal goblins. With WS2, I2, and LD6 should you take them? Of course you should, in abundance. My gobbos never get light armour and they have more of a chance of killing a dragon than getting spears or shortbows. Common goblins are great distracters and if I've got 60 points spare I'll go for a unit of 20 gobbos with command. I know they'll be fleeing on turn 1 but it gives my opponents one more large unit to worry about. Even though I said earlier that gobbos should come in units of about 40 it doesn't matter if there is one (but only 1, mind) "smaller" unit of gobbos.

Another gobbo unit are the gobbo wolf riders. They fill the much needed fast cavalry slot of the Orcs and Goblins. I take a unit of 6 with a musician and if points are plentiful then they get short bows. When pondering the choice of whether to give your wolf riders light armour the answer that should spring to mind is NO! They won't be fast cavalry and will lose all those brilliant bonuses. On the battlefield, wolf riders go for those  nasty war machine crews.

Then come my favourite unit: Night gobbos! Essentially they are common gobbos with -1LD and +1I but they do have fanatics. These whirling goblins of death are not to be messed with and often opponents will go out of their way to avoid Night goblin units. It is for this reason that I always try to include 2 units of Night goblins (both big blocks of 40) with hand weapons and shields. They both have a full command and only one of the units contains fanatics (3). If I put the unit with out the fanatics in the center at the beginning of deployment, most opponents will put there units on the flanks. If I put my hard hitting units on either side of the fanatic free Night goblins then when I reach my opponents I can push away from my harmless Night goblins and into the inside flanks of my opponents. The other unit with fanatics goes on the flank, opposite some heavily armoured knights with a Night gobln shaman with mad cap mushrooms in the front rank.

The final core choice are the pathetic Snotlings. They are the cannon fodder of the Orcs and Goblins. Even though they are pathetic I still love them! The are subjected to the harshest of tortures (eg. Albion weather) and they cower next to my war machines ready to hold up any Dark Riders that dare come along.

Onto the Special choices, first and foremost of which are the mighty Black Orcs. With stats of a Bigun' but with an extra point of Ld and the boss at S7 with a great axe these guys are the business. I like to use a big unit of 20 with great axes (I know they are hard to convert, I suggest delving deep into the archive minitures). They provide a number of roles, from quelling animosity to dealling with the toughest and most heavily armoured of adversaries.

Then come the Boar Boyz. Fast and hard hitting, I find them devastating in a unit of 8-10. They get a full command and the Bashin' flag of Bork, because of the reasons in the section about animosity. You must however remember that Boar Boyz are very good medium cavalry and are not heavy cavalry. They excel at duffing up 10-15 strong, lightly armoured units. If upgraded to Biguns' then they can be considered heavy cavalry.

Following this are the Savage Orc Boar Boyz. They don't actually come with spears as standard so you have to buy them separately. I have never used Savage Orc Boar Boyz on the grounds that frenzy is too much of a problem at such a long range. However, I think they would be good in units of around 5 because they would have 2 attacks and so would be good at dealing with most things when supported by something (eg. a chariot).

After those come Squig Herds. I have never actually used Squig Herds as I find my special slots are far better used with Black Orcs, Boar Boyz and chariots. 

Now its time to settle the age old question of Wolf Chariots vs. Boar Chariots. Both do the same impact hits and the gobbo chariot is 20 points less, has a better models than the Orc chariot, you have the option of having more crew and an extra wolf and you can take 2 for a single special choice. Sure, the boar chariot has a bit more survivability but all chariots are matchwood when hit by something like a cannon. So, for me it's the gobbo chariot.

Then come the trusty gobbo rock lobba. For only 70 points you get a warmachine that is ideal for dealing with skirmishers and big regiments. I manage to find room for one most of the time and they always get an orc bully who gives them that vital extra point of LD. Besides he's a cool model.

The final special unit choice are spear chukkas. They have BS 3 which means they will be hitting not an awful lot when you take into consideration modifiers etc. You can also take 2 for a single special choice, so I do. I don't give any spear chukkas bullies because the are not as valuable as rock lobba's and I don't mind if they flee. After all the spear chukka is only 35 points.

Moving onto rare choices, we first encounter Trolls. I never really liked trolls, preferring to use my valuable rare choices else where. I really like the stone trolls models however, but River trolls are better in game terms. being able to regenerate is great but unfortunately trolls are stupid and with LD 4 they have to be babysat by your general. They cause fear, but that isn't going to help much unless you go for a huge unit. Against heavily armoured troops, use the trolls ability to vomit; it's great.

Then comes the gobbo Doom Diver Catapault. The mere image of a suicidal gobbo careering over the battle field is enough to make me take one of these beauties. I ain't half good on the table too, you get to re-roll the scatter dice and D6 S5 with no armour save is enough to assure it a place in my army. Aimed at nasty, armour encased troops, it's well worth its points.

Finally we come to the most entertaining thing in the army, the Giant. It causes terror, has LD 10, is stubborn and it ignores greenskin panic, and if that isn't enough it has some funky special attacks, he's great for dealing with characters as his ability to eat or squash things is so entertaining. Wouldn't it be great if the downfall of Tyrion was being eaten by a giant! And it only costs 205 points! What a bargain.

So, in conclusion, the Orc and Goblin army is one of the most entertain and versatile armies in the Old World. Go get em ladz!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Warboss Lard Tub.

I hope you enjoyed this article.  If you have any comments or suggestions give me an email or visit our forums in our Community section.