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A friend of mine has recently started an Orcs & Goblins army (he has played Warhammer Fantasy before using Wood Elves). Since I have not played against Orcs & Goblins before, and am fairly scared of their warmachines (Rock Lobbers and Doom Divers mainly) I was wondering what kind of units the Orcs & Goblins typically use to defend their warmachines from units like Great Eagles, Shades, Chameleon Skinks, Gutter Runners etc.

I figured they might use a minimum size Night Goblin unit with short bows and a couple of Fanatics near their warmachines, defending the warmachines through shooting and releasing of Fanatics. However, this would release the Fanatics behind their own battle lines, which I am not sure if Orcs & Goblin players like. Alternatively, they could use Fast Cavalry (Goblin Wolf Riders), though I think they would get stand and shot to pieces by most of the warmachine hunters. A third option could be Goblin Wolf Chariots, though I think it might be hard to actually get the charge on a warmachine hunting unit (before it has taken care of at least one of your warmachines). Finally, I considered Orcs & Goblins players to use Mangler Squigs to protect their warmachines, however this suffers from the same issues as the Fanatics strategy.

Are there any possible warmachine defense strategies I may have overlooked, or do Orcs & Goblins really have a hard time protecting their warmachines?

I used to put a 20 night gobbo unit with bows and a single fanatic with the old codex where rock lobbas were cheap and special and chukkas couldn't misfire. A small squig herd did the trick as well.

Now a single doom diver is all I field, so I don't bother much to protect it. It pains me every time I fight empire and see they get mortars 10pt cheaper than we get lobbas, plus the ability to take engineers as well, so I try to focus in getting to combat quick rather than shooting back.

Fanatics is the best answer. They'll beat down those sneaky ambushing units that just pop up on your own edge.
Just make sure to put enough space between the fanatics and the rest of your army.

-Matt

Orcs and Goblins work best as a defensive army, pump wagons (especially with the +D6 movement) and manglers are very very good at defending your flanks.

tmarichards wrote:Orcs and Goblins work best as a defensive army, pump wagons (especially with the +D6 movement) and manglers are very very good at defending your flanks.

with your tournament play experience how do Orcs & Goblins usually play to be competitive?

From what I've seen, successful O&G lists tend to sit back a bit and use Foot of Gork and war machines to whittle away any bad match-ups before engagin with the blocks.

I've also seen people repeatedly bounce Manglers off the back of the board until they're ready to commit them. All in all, the army looks (to me at least) to tend to be better as a counter-attacking force instead of an all out zerg rush army.

@tmarichards
So tournament players with Orcs & Goblins armies actually use Mangler Squigs to defend their warmachines? If so, have your ever seen this work against the Orcs & Goblins player (Mangler Squig going wild near his own battle line)?

tmarichards wrote:From what I've seen, successful O&G lists tend to sit back a bit and use Foot of Gork and war machines to whittle away any bad match-ups before engagin with the blocks.

I've also seen people repeatedly bounce Manglers off the back of the board until they're ready to commit them. All in all, the army looks (to me at least) to tend to be better as a counter-attacking force instead of an all out zerg rush army.

which is why i seem to be getting eaten...i try the zerg rush. witch elves ate me up last night....poor savage boys.
the bouncing manglers of the back of the board sounds bent but heh thats tourny play, ill try it

The Manglers tend to go the most direct route to getting rid of harassment- go and kill the stuff before it can get close to the war machines!

Also, something that I think is massively used is firing Doomdiver etc at chaff units that would otherwise worry war machines- harpies etc will usually panic after taking just 2 casualties, and then that's the threat gone for a few more turns.

I've only played one recent game against a really good O&G player, but I'll include the link here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmJ8ebgWKfU