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Hey guys,

Atm I own forty BoSP Night Goblins with spears and shields and thirty archers.

For aesthetic reasons I figured I would buy more boxes until only 50% of my units are the repeating-pose Night Goblins from BoSP, so that would leave me with eighty Spearmen and sixty archers.

I also have twenty normal goblins with a goblin boss that I bought by accident...

With these as a core, what would I want in a Goblin army and how would I play them at 1000 points?

I'll just throw in the fact that I like Spear-Chukkas, Doom-Divers and Pump Wagons... so if they can be included that would be awesome


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm also a fan of that Night Goblin hero in the Army Book, but I imagine one wouldn't field him at 1000 points?

I should also point out that I have not yet learned the rules of WHFB and I am mostly jotting out my understanding from the way 40k works, which I doubt will get me far.

you could start by using the right forum.



For fantesy you want lots of Night Goblins with Spears and Nets. Fanatics for just rippin into the enemy.

For Heros you run a Goblin shamen or boss.

Yeah, you are in the 40k area, best way to find tactics is in the fanasty section!

I would say lots of large units of Night golbins, with shamens to give magic support, and some nets and fanatics for some interesting play.

maybe if you are down to add some war machines with Night goblin conversions you could have some nice units in the rear to really deal some damage to nasty enemy units.

I haven't played WFB in a long time, and i played a orc strong army, and a Night goblin strong army.

i have a 3k all gobbo list in the whfb army list section. I am undefeated with it so i might suggest you take a look at it.

Basically, swamp the enemy with bodies. Some Shamans and the like will help soften the enemy up before you charge. There's a guy at my FLGS who has a Night Goblin army in which there are 400 Gobbos and they alone are less than 1000pts (something like 670pts IIRC).

I play a NG army and they are a lot better in 8th, we can bring more bodies than almost anyone (I think only skaven can out horde goblins).

Some basic tips-
Big units- Blocks of 80 are good, they can beat a lot other units by outlasting them. Make sure you have a few huge units as a base for the army. Use smaller units (20-40) to surround the enemy one they are tied up.

Use a lot of basic goblins. It may seem like a waste of a unit to attack small units like warmachines or lone wizards but goblins are cheap. Even if they don't win they can stop the enemy from firing or casting.

Include a lot of character and warmachines. Spearchukkas and rock lobbas are cheaper than most armies warmachines but aren't much worse. Now that we use percentages we can really spam units. Same idea with characters, a basic goblin hero in each unit can greatly increase the amount of kills meaning you may actually win combat through kills. Our characters are so cheap we can include a lot of fighty characters and wizards.

Use archers- Goblins are bad at combat but they are ok at shooting. They are cheap so can be used in big blocks which can still fight if they get charged.

Make use of fanatics. They can kill your own units but dying is what goblins are best at. Just the idea of fanatics scares people and makes them think before charging you. Nets are also a good idea. They are statistically better than armour and reducing incoming damage is important when you won't kill a lot back.

NG are some of the only troops worth giving spears, make sure you use them. Goblins are about rolling as many dice as possible.

Along with the hording suggestions, all good, above, doom divers and rock lobbas are great for softening up the enemy. Include one, if not two, of each.

Sageheart wrote:Yeah, you are in the 40k area, best way to find tactics is in the fanasty section!

I would say lots of large units of Night golbins, with shamens to give magic support, and some nets and fanatics for some interesting play.

maybe if you are down to add some war machines with Night goblin conversions you could have some nice units in the rear to really deal some damage to nasty enemy units.

I haven't played WFB in a long time, and i played a orc strong army, and a Night goblin strong army.

Force o' habit, hopefully a mod'll move it... at least you have better manners than the naysayer above (Seriously, reserve that sharpness for those who spll like dis please).

Hundreds of gobbos? Well at least I miscounted; I have eighty... still, I regret losing a fingernail cutting up some second-hand gobbos so they would rank properly if I am to be fielding them in such large blobs!

With goblins, I found the key was lots of cheap heroes.
Here's what I took at 2500 points.
Goblin Warboss, Wizard Hat
Night Goblin great shaman (level 4)
4 night goblin big bosses with great weapons
night goblin BSB, banner of discipline
Night Goblin Shaman (level2)
3x60 night goblins (nets, full command, 1 fanatic)
2x35 night goblins (nets, standard/music, 3 fanatics)
2x25 night goblins (standard/music, 3 fanatics)
3x 10man squig herds (in a 6/4 mix)
2 doom divers

The 3 large units would be up front, the blocks of 35 on the flanks (and back a bit) and the blocks of 25 would be in the center (with the wizards, general and BSB).
Out on a flank, I'd have the squigs defend the 2 doom divers.
The 2 goblin heroes would join each of the 60 man units most often; but against really tough opponents, I'd put 3 of them, in each of the 35 man blocks.
I would lock an enemy in combat, then walk up the rear units and release fanatics through my own units, and through the enemy.

Uncommon is the enemy that is worse less than a gobin. So 6D6 S5 armor piercing hits on me and him usually pays off. If you get the space right, you can launch 1 fanatic through the charging enemy, then have 3 land under him. Nothing likes 7D6 S5 armor piercing hits.
The goblin heroes toss out 3 S6 attacks each, and T4 + nets gives them a decent shot at surviving to attack. Typically units that could slaughter 2 (or 3) of these heroes too so much damage from fanatics, that they largely lost their hitting power.
The biggest weakness is that the General and BSB need to be in the same unit (or you're only Ld8), and you are a prime target for nuke spells. Goblin magic lacks the nuke ability, and I ended up giving my general the wizard hat, just for some diversity of spells.
For smaller games, I'd drop one block of 60, and a block of 25, along with the hat (that brings it into the 2,000 point range).
I never had much luck with spears, and always took shields or bows. 6+ armor + Parry, with -1 to the opponents strength adds up. Typically, I'd put the shooters on the outsides, when I took any at all.

The biggest downside to the army is, goblins die in droves, and you have over 300 of them. You'll be spending a lot of time putting units back into trays. Also, so much of the hitting power is fanatic based, it doesn't really seem sporting.
I tried making squig herds work, but you just have to pay too much for too little gain. T3 no save means you really need a ton of them win and survive combat. I didn't see solid performance until I hit a block of 70 (42 squigs, 28 handlers). That super block (420 points) would do ~20 S5 hits. For 75 points, I could do the same with 3 well placed fanatics, and armor pierce to boot. (smaller units of squigs lost too much hitting power, because of the T3 and init 3).

-Matt

CommissarCandlestick wrote:Basically, swamp the enemy with bodies. Some Shamans and the like will help soften the enemy up before you charge. There's a guy at my FLGS who has a Night Goblin army in which there are 400 Gobbos and they alone are less than 1000pts (something like 670pts IIRC).

Agreed that you main strength for all gobbos is attrition. Plus lots of lobbers and doom divers helps. Also fielding multiple greatweapon heros in your infantry blocks will make them far more able to score some wounds toward combat res. Plus you have some of the cheapest lvl 4 wizards in the game to help curb your enemies magic phase. And if your fancy takes it some trolls would fit well in such an army.

Goblin armies can be really effective if you run them correctly. Obviously the suffer from weak leadership, armor, and not the greatest shots and tend to squabble over ridiculous things but they have numbers and can brring some really nasty units such as fanatics but some hiliarious ones as well such as the Doom Diver catapult. I have always have fun when playing against any orcs and goblins with my Empire due to the fact that can be really unpredictable, whenever its the whole army squabbling for two turns or a bunch of fanatics going the wrong way and wiping out a unit of black orcs and there BSB ( priceless to watch btw ). Also, have you considered maybe some trolls? The guy who runsa pure goblin army for the most part has if I recall 2x units of these guys to give him some hitting power and they've done pretty good for him and they still fit really easily into a goblin army.

I have a friend who has become quite adept at an all goblin list, and from his victories over other armies I'd have to say the advice here so far is generaly good. Hordes of gobbo's can be crazy thick, and hard to get rid of. The BEST reason to take Doomdivas is to use your cheap warmachine with correction to destroy expensive enemy War Machines or Characters, so having at least one never hurts and 2 is better. The Spear chucka's are terrible, but so cheap you can bring quite a few, and hey! it's still a bolt thrower... basicly... You should cheer when you manage to kill some expensive shiny knights with an errant shot.
Fanatics are just pure awsome. Nothing like watching an elite unit ripped to shreds by a cheap fanatic! A small unit of night goblins can be a suicide squad whose only point is to get fanatics out into some knights, or ironbreakers, or warriors of chaos etc. Put just one in a unit writing it down, and set him to the side of the table in plain deliberate sight of your adversary ready-to-go and keep your opponent guessing where he'll pop up, leary of commiting his better forces... use a suicide squad as a fient to hide your real fanatic, or put fanatics in every unit! the possible uses for them are quite adaptable.

One thing i will mention is Cavalry Goblins. While they don't shine bright, a fast group, or multiple small groups of mounted gobbos can hunt war machines, or just be used to threaten flanks.

Units Decidedly gobllin-y

Forest Goblins, Night Goblins, Squigs, Squig hoppers, Spider Riders, Wolf Riders, Goblin Chariots, Pump Wagons, all warmachines that don't include an orc bully.

Units Decidedly un-goblin-y.
Orcs of all shapes and sizes.

Units decidedly green-skinny
Trolls, Giants

So it looks to me like if you choose goblins, you actually get the lion's share of choices.

My biggest reccommendation is find the exact 12 range in both directions for your trolls from your Goblin Lord and have 2 units of 6 trolls just BARELY inside that 12 inch range (use your units as a measuring guide) That way you Keep Your giant(s) and chariots/pumpwagons/squigs to your flanks along with tons of fire support and you've got an army that is fun, and actually kinda scary.

Goblin bosses, Goblin bosses EVERYWHERE!

Forest Goblins > Night Goblins IMO. A fanatic or two here or there mixed up in your battle line is OK. But if you're dropping 300+ points on Fanatics, you're doing it wrong.
You become exploitable in that scenario.