I'd say Gorbad is the most worthwhile of the Lords, for his points, and the Forest Goblin's the best per-points of Heroes.
Grimgor's nice, yes, but he's still too expensive. Looking at his statlines, he's about 100pts for his special rules (WS8, ASF, WS+1 and Hatred to a unit he joins). You need to take him with a large block of BOrcs to make his "upgrades" a cost-effective one (At least a good 25 to make it 4pts / model for +1WS and Hatred), and at this point you're looking at a 700pt-ish unit that is going to be hard pressed to make its points up in a game (assuming you're playing points, and not something like Break Points).
Azhag, well, see above "Doesn't make up points". He's nice statlined and ruled and all that, but being essentially 500pts (or about 340-ish points for himself when you discount his Wyvern) is a bit much. His main effects really are access to Lore of Death, and his Animosity Re-Roll over an 18" Bubble. He's essentially the cost of a pimped out Slaan, and he doesn't really excel in either combat or magic.
Gorbad? 18" BSB and General at Ld10 who also makes it so, at least as long as he's alive, that you can always at least charge, even if rolling a 1 on Animosity. He can also do some hurt in close combat against multi-wound enemies, getting 4 S6 (for the first round) attacks at ASF (and I5, so he might get re-rolls) that ignore armor saves then cause D3 wounds. He also allows you to take more Big 'Uns, which at essentially two points less / model can be more readily taken (A unit of 30 now is 60pts less than one of thirty last edition, and those sixty points saved can be a lot).
Gorbad knows what he wants to do, which is provide your army leadership buffs and keep it together. And he does it well.
Of the two Hero Goblins? The Wolf Rider one doesn't know what he wants to do. He buffs shooting, but not enough to make Wolf Riders come close to matching Dark Riders (Wow, a unit of seven and him can put out a terrifying ten shots a turn at S3 regular saves, all for the price of only 200pts!), and he has bonus' to pursuit and flee rolls, but in the former he's not using any of his shooting bonus and the later he's being used improperly as he set himself up to be charged and flee instead of shooting turn after turn.
The Spider Rider, meanwhile? He knows what he wants to do: Get you behind the enemy's lines with Ambush, then hit them in the flank / rear. Devastating Charge and Ambush work well for that, then if you combine with a Sneaky Stabbin' spell you can pretty much promise his unit will make up their points (Seeing as how five spider riders and him get a total of 6 Poisoned attacks re-rolling everything, followed by 14 S4 attacks re-rolling everything, both with armor piercing, in that combo). Don't want to hunt units? Hunt War Machines instead, as you can practically make up a small unit's point cost by killing 2-3 war machines with him, and even on his own (his unit shot out underneath him) that should be a possibility (due to 4 WS4 S4 attacks on the charge from him alone).
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