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So I'm looking to maybe field a night goblin army, mostly for laughs, but I'd like it to be at least passably effective

What is the best unit size for standard, non archer infantry? 

I'm tempted to go with units of 40 so they can take beating, but I'm partial to units of 20 so i can gang up on units....

some thoughts?

35 or 40 is best.
They are dirt cheap, can take hits & still get rank bonus, and when you have 4 or 5 units, your opponent knows to stay away.

Mi Amego plays an all night goblin army with asorted trolls and hoppers. He takes skarsnik of couse and puts him in a unit of thirty, the other non archer units are 20-25. If your not going to go with hoppers and BTs then 30+ is best cause combat res is so important and gobbos go down easy, netters can save few lives though.

Yeah, I'd say 30-35 is good.

You could probably get away with 25 if you don't face a lot of magic or gunlines.

At 40 I don't really think the extra bodies contribute much - the combat will be won or lost without them being a factor.

The Goblin army which beat me in the final round to win the Colonial GT this year used big square blocks. 36, 36, 36, and 49, IIRC. Big enough to absorb shooting casualties if they had to (or in my case to discourage me from bothering in the first place), and nice squares for about facing and such.

I'll dig up the list and post it later.

EDIT: List and discussion here:

 

http://warhammer.org.uk/PhP/viewtopic.php?t=28567

 

I have nothing useful to add, but I'm going to chime in anyway.

For units you expect to get into melee, bigger is better, but too big is not good. My feelings are that 25 is too few and 40 is too many, 30-35 is about right. (Actully, I run them in units of 32.) I also give them spears, which gives me more options but also makes them more expensive.

For shooty units, I never take more than 20. They are going to get destroyed in HtH, and deploying them so they can all shoot is problematic at best.

What's the down side of "too many"?

Does it come down to the fact that if you lose, excess points are wasted?

ZF-
(Building my Skaven army)

Posted By Zad Fnark on 06/04/2007 8:42 AM

What's the down side of "too many"?

Does it come down to the fact that if you lose, excess points are wasted?

ZF-
(Building my Skaven army)

Yep, plus less units to stick Fanatics into.

6 units of 50 is the same points as 10 of 30. The army with the 10 units though have more elements, can outflank better and can fit 30 Fanatics rather than 18 (though obviously these cost additional points).

It's pretty much a balancing act. You want it to be large enough to outnumber, absorb hits and keep its bonuses while not being too expensive. No matter how many points you spend on Goblins, you'll never end up with a super-unit like a Blood Dragon + Black Knights or Chaos Lord + Chosen Knights of Khorne.

I go for 36 (6x6). It's nice, squares please me visually and tactically, can take a beating and also dish one out, especially to smaller units. Fanatics make it very, very good.
Archer units I make 20-21 (21 with a mage for the extra blammo), and they generally get ignored to my opponents detriment.

For the average goblin unit in my army, I go 6x5 (30 models). Decent amount of wounds, can be shifted to 5xsomething if need be, etc.

Only unit I have larger is 40 with only Hand Weapons and Command. They're used to bog down swarms, basic regiments, etc.

Then again I stuck a unit of 80 night gobbos into ranks of 5 and head on charged a unit of chosen knights, they wrecked my entire first line but the combat resolution from 16 ranks made them lose ridicously...

Ratbarf wrote:Then again I stuck a unit of 80 night gobbos into ranks of 5 and head on charged a unit of chosen knights, they wrecked my entire first line but the combat resolution from 16 ranks made them lose ridicously...

Ermm, maximum rank bonus one can get is +3... :S

Indeed, the maximum rank bonus a unit can benefit from is +3 (unless it has the griffon banner, then it can go up to +6).

That's why you need enough bodies in a unit to take some casualties and still be strong but too many is just points wasted on models that will not contribute to combat and only make your unit more unwieldy and presents larger flanks (for the enemy to charge into).

Oh... really? Darn... lol, it was fun though. (We are both beginnners anyways.)