Warhammer Army building tactics for Orcs and Goblins

The following is information on how to build an effective warhammer army of orcs and goblins. You’ll find some recommendations on unit size, magic items to buy, and other good info. We also soon will be adding several armies of different point values. OK, before getting into it we also want to add that we are looking for your input. We would like to add articles and advice from as many people as possible so that our visitors have a wide variety of opinions and information to use. We don’t pretend to even come close to being experts in all areas. Like many of you we simple have a lot of experience with some warhammer armies, and not as much with others, so any input would be greatly appreciated. You can send us tactics, battle reports, articles, armies you’ve made, etc to the following: info@jacgames.com It can be about a specific warhammer army, or just general advice on strategy and tactics. We’ll put your article and name right on the site if your OK with it. Or we can just take your advice and add it were appropriate if you’d like.

OK, let’s get to it. First off let me say that some of this information may be basic to some of you, while unknown to others, so if you’re a veteran of many orc armies you may not get as much from this. However, hopefully you will find something of value, and perhaps you will even share your own valuable insight with us so that we can add it to the website. OK, let’s really get started now:

Goblin units: Absolute basic rule number one is to have large units of goblins. Of course with a minimum unit size of 20, you can’t really get too small. However, 20 is probably not enough for the following reason. If you rank them up 5 across (which we recommend), and 4 ranks deep a small missile barrage from your enemy will reduce your rank bonus. You absolutely must have maximum rank bonus when you engage in combat with the enemy to have a chance. As far as having a front rank of 5 across we recommend this because of the small base size (20mm) of the goblin model. You will be able to get 5 models against an enemy that might only have 4 wide in their front rank. The exception to this would be if you had to cut out some goblin numbers to reduce your points (say if you were slightly over on your armies total point cost), and you decided to go with 20 goblins. If you do this I’d rather have a unit 4 wide, and 5 ranks deep. Having that extra rank bonus in combat far outweighs one extra attack from a wimpy goblin. However, what I really like to do is have a unit of 30 goblins, 5 wide, and 6 ranks deep. This will almost always ensure that you have max ranks when getting into hand to hand combat. OK, another exception to having the minimum unit size would be for night goblin units that you are hiding one or more fanatics in. You may want to go real cheap with this unit and not even get a champion, standard, and musician. I like to go with a straight 20 night goblins, because your primary use for this unit is to simply deploy your fanatics at a powerful enemy. In fact if things go well this unit won’t even get into hand to hand combat, so why waste the points on champion, standard, and musician. However, you may want more than 20 to help avoid making panic rolls if your enemy targets them with missile fire. Overall for goblins the more the better, and being so cheap it’s usually easy to do.

Orc Units: 4 toughness gives you some solid infantry units in hand to hand that can also absorb missile fire without taking to many casualties. I like unit sizes of 20 for my orcs. I rank them up 4 wide, and 5 ranks deep. This means you can take 4 casualties from missile fire and still have the maximum rank bonus when getting stuck in. I would much rather have an extra plus one combat modifier then an extra attack by going 5 wide and 4 deep. Even though you start out with the plus 3 for rank bonus it’s to easy to lose a couple orcs from missile fire. On another note, I usually try to make my orc units equal in number and as similar as possible. This makes it difficult for an opponent with ranged weapons and artillery to cripple your army. For example if you have a super powerful and costly unit of black orcs with an expensive banner, unit champion, maybe a hero, or your battle standard bearer, etc. an opponent can target the unit with everything he has and wipe out half or more of your unit before you even get engaged. I’d rather try to equal out say 3 orc units so that losing any one of them from missile fire will not be that devastating. As far as black orc units go, I love them. They are extremely tough and not having to worry about animosity is a huge plus. I usually will include a unit of black orcs in my army. However, as mentioned above they are almost always the target of missile fire and artillery, so I usually get kind of cheap with them. I’ll definitely give them a standard and musician, but sometimes I leave out a unit champion, and many times don’t even give them a magic banner. I’ll spend the points on other orc units to try to make them as good or even better then the black orc unit. So, when your expensive black orcs do get shredded by missile fire and artillery you’ll be smiling inside because your opponent didn’t target your other orc unit.

Missile troops – What missile troops? Orc bowmen with only 24 inch range, and 3 ballistic skill is usually not a good choice. Also, goblins with 16 inches is even worse. All and all this obviously is not a strength of the orcs and goblins, and accordingly I rarely take any missile troops at all. Playing with an orc almost always means you will be on the attack. So, if you have missile troops you’ll probably have to move them forward to even get a shot. This means they won’t be on a hill, so you’ll have to string out a long line of them to get in a decent number of shots. Of course if you move and shoot you probably won’t hit and wound anything. Another draw back to a long line of them is that it reduces the room you have for all your infantry blocks that are moving forward. Being that an orc and goblin army is usually very large, it’s difficult enough moving all your infantry forward in coordinated order, let alone if you are trying to get in a few shots with your worthless orc archers. Same goes for the goblins. Leave the bows at home, and go get stuck in.

Artillery – I usually don’t take a rock lobber. Using a scatter die to hit makes it difficult for this war machine to be effective. It’s very easy to go the entire battle and not cause many casualties. Also, since you should be moving your army to engage quickly you won’t get many shots on your opponent’s tough infantry before getting stuck in. If you do take a rock lobber then you should usually target cavalry or tough infantry units. If you get lucky enough to score a direct hit it will be devastating. Doom divers can be an effective war machine. Since they can somewhat direct their scatter they are much more accurate. I usually will take one and will always go after an enemy war machine with it. If going against the empire I’ll try to take two and go all out at his hell blaster cannon. Of course they are a rare choice, so it’s always tough deciding what rare to take. I’d recommend taking them against certain armies with powerful artillery like the Empire and Dwarves. As you’ll see when you read below about the giant, he is usually not my rare choice against these two armies.

The Giant – Playing with the giant is so much fun that it’s hard not to take him when making an army. However, if your looking for victory then you might not want to take him against an opponent who is controlling either the Empire, or Dwarves. Of course this is because of the cannons they can use to wipe out your precious 200 pt behemoth. It’s simply to easy to hit and wound a giant, especially with an Empire great cannon. Two hits is usually all it takes, and if you are playing against one of these armies they could easily have more then one cannon, being that they count as a special choice, and are not rare. Also, these two opponents will probably be using a castle strategy against you, meaning they will have lots of missile troops and artillery. They will sit back on and around their hills and try to weaken your army as much as possible before engaging into hand to hand. If they do this and are smart they will not start their troops the full 24 inches out from the table edge, but might keep them a half inch or so back, so that something like a giant with 12 inches movement, will not be able to charge on it’s 2nd turn. This means that they will get 2 rounds of cannon fire against your poor giant if you get first turn, and 3 rounds if they get first turn. Of course you could try to hide him behind trees, rocks or other terrain features, but that may be difficult. If your playing a scenario where you know the terrain lay out before making your army, and it looks advantageous you may want to take a giant, however overall against Empire and Dwarves you may want to think twice. Be careful against High Elves and Dark Elves as well. Their highly accurate bolt throwers can be scary, although one shot at strength 7 for d3 wounds is not nearly as bad. I usually still would take a giant hoping to draw the bolt thrower fire away from my units and hope they don’t do much against the giant, which is often the case. OK, against most other armies the giant can be extremely effective. Being stubborn, and difficult to damage you usually should get him engaged as soon as possible with tough units that may cause your own infantry trouble. He is great for tying down a unit for many rounds even if you lose the combat round, because of his unmodified break roll. However be careful against troops with double handed weapons and high strength obviously. I would much rather tie down say a unit of High Elf Swordmasters with a big unit of goblins, while the giant jumps up and down on a unit that has only strength 3 attacks. All in all, I love the giant. Just remember to think twice about what opponent you are facing when deciding to buy him.

Chariots: These units can be extremely effective if used properly. I almost always include at least one and many times more when building an army and if I do I give it scythed wheels. Goblin chariots are excellent due to their cheap cost and 18 inch charge. Sometimes just the threat of a chariot charge is enough to keep enemy cavalry at bay. The orc boar chariot is much slower with 7 inches of movement, and is somewhat vulnerable to enemy cavalry that will probably have a longer charge. However, their high toughness makes them hard to destroy with missile fire. I try to keep the boar chariot away from enemy cavalry and front and center to actually invite enemy missile fire. Often an opponent may expend valuable shots at your chariot and not bring it down before you get in your charge. These shots could have been used against your infantry to reduce rank bonus before hand to hand combat. The most important thing to do with a chariot is get in your charge. So, if it gets wounded and you still charge, it did the job and your opponent wasted missile fire. Remember, the charge is critical. 1D6 plus 2 strength 7, or strength 5 hits can be absolutely devastating. You obviously need to be more careful with the goblin chariot against missile fire due to it’s lower toughness and wounds. I usually take 2 goblin chariots instead of just one. They are cheap enough, and if you can charge both on the same unit you’ll have 2d6 plus 4 strength 5 hits which is enough to absolutely ravage whatever you hit. If the enemy has enough missile troops to take them out I’ll start them on a flank and try to move them forward at an angle to stay out of the fire arc of the enemy. Remember the number one goal is to get in your charge, so don’t be too concerned with losing the combat round, or getting your chariot destroyed in hand to hand. If you can coordinate your charge with a unit all the better, you’ll most likely break them. Obviously you should definitely try for a charge with a unit so you can get rank and standard bonuses. However, don’t hold off a charge waiting for the perfect moment, and then end up getting your chariot charged by the enemy. To reiterate this point one final time: get your charge in, don’t get charged.

Side note: sorry, not done with this page yet. More info coming soon.