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As he title states I'm looking into starting an all Gobbo army (night goblins, forest goblins incl) and I was wondering what the general concensus on how effective of an army this is is. Realistically I am going to start them whether they suck or not cause i just love the models and think it would be fun and chaotic, but im just curious what im really getting myself into.

A goblin army got 2nd in the last tourney we had around here with night goblins, 3 trolls, a giant, and some squigs

I play High Elves, and I encounter them every now and again. I've face rolled them everytime.

I can't say how they will work against other armies, but the hidden suprises they have just don't work when I send my two great eagles to run a line straight down there army in turn 1 and 2 getting them all deployed on their half of the table.

High Elves are always going to be a tough match-up for an all Goblin Army. I think how well you do will depend on how committed you are to "all Goblin". I'd argue that the inclusion of trolls is pretty much mandatory to have a hammer unit. Squig Herds are also pretty effective. Another cheat that can really help the army out is using an Orc Level 4 Shaman so you can get the Big Waagh.

It'll never be a top tier army but I reckon it can hold its own.

I planned on using trolls and possibly a giant in the army, and obviously lots of squigs because in my book they fit under night goblins. The big waaagh is super tempting as well but I will have to wait and see later on how commited to all goblins I want to stay.

Elves are tough for goblins, they have the fear elves rule and they generally don't have good leadership it's a bad combo.

I run a pure Night goblin army for 1k points. They are not going to win alot. They can be devastating, or they can get face rolled.

The main issue you will face is poor leadership. Yes, a unit has a hundred goblins. But at LD 5 they will flee the first panic test they take. This is not helped by poor character leadership (7 for a night goblin lord). That means that even with a lord choice you still have the LD of basic humans. Also, goblins are poor fighters at ws2.

With that in mind, they can work. Heres my advice:

- Non night goblin chars have slightly higher LD

- Squigs are effective hammers. I once had a unit of 10 squig hoppers eat a unit of 30 sea guard that were bunkering a wizard. At STR 5 and WS 4 with 2 attacks each they are awesome. They are squishy however.

- Warmachines. Take them. Doom Divers will give consistent average kills, rock lobbers will give maybe 2 Glorious hits a a game and miss alot. Spear chukkas suck.

- Pump wagons are like the wrath if the gods. Only smaller.

- Mangler squigs are worth the 65 points purely for the psychological effects they cause opponents to suffer. It's something they cant ignore, and if they hit something good they will destroy it. For Example, my last game one killed 3 skull crushers out of 4. Just keep them away from your'e core, as they DO caused panic tests when they die. Which they do. Alot.

- Fanatics sound better than they are. At 25 points each, don't go too crazy with them.

I wish we ere in the same room and had half an hour to rave about gobbos.

I have run a Night Goblin army since the start of 7th ed, winning and placing at numerous tourneys and winning 4 out of 7 games at Adepticon last year with an Australian tourney composition restricted army vs 'anything goes' US armies.

Far and away the biggest weakness is animosity because invariably no roll helps, unlike orcs you almost never want to get into combat.

I take by 'all gobbo' you mean no orcs, and that is how I roll, any more restriictions and you really are needlessly crippling your force.

ALWAYS take a regular gobbo general or Skarsnik for Ld8.
ALWAYS take a BSB with the standard of discipline to give your general Ld9
Mangler Squigs are awesome if only to frustrate and distract your opponent
I have had immense success with 2 giants running down 1 flank, almost always they will both make it into combat, Ld10 stubborn and terror means they can run free wherever they want
I am about to work on my first arachnarok spider so cannot say how well they go.
Gobbo chariots are great if for no other reason than they make great redirecters and can really sting when 2 or more get a charge.
Run NG units in depth, a unit in horde formation out the front, then the rest of the NG units behind. The enemy lt unit runs forward and only 1 units fanatics are released.
A snotling pump wagon sucks, Make it St 5 and 4d6 mvt and times by 4 and you have the most awesome flanking force in the game - 8 d6 St 5 hits and then the (crappy) snotlings get to attack.
The artillery is fantastic - doom divers are only pipped by upgraded dwarven artillery for effectiveness, but are much cheaper.
At my games club we call my massive unit of squigs 'the lawnmower' because they lay down a hell of alot of hurt. Also ITP.
I really struggle with the squig hoppers thanks to the rules for skirmishers with random movement (check it out, it sucks for larger units) and that they are cav makes any 2nd rank useless, however they are ITP and do not suffer from animosit making the unit with the most unreliable movement the only unit guaranteed to not do something you don't want them to do.

I prefer wolf riders over spider riders as they are cheaper in smaller units, but forest strider can certainly help on the spiders.


Here are the 3 gobbo armies from the 3000 point adepticon tourney.

My favorite to play is the cav army (and yes, that is a unit of 40 wolf riders), the most effective the one with the mass of artillery, mine has the giants.

I have a 3k Nightgoblin list I will be building over the course of the year (roughly at a rate of a box of nightgoblins every 2 weeks).

It has 500 Night goblins and 60 Squigs.

That's pretty much it. All the units are 100 strong (except the Squig Herder unit which is 60 Squigs and 20 Gobbos) and each unit gets a NG Warboss with shield and light armor. The front rank of each unit has around 4 NG BigBosses with Great Weapons to actually kill stuff, the rest of their regiment is Nets and Spears.

I'm not even planning on many Fanatics.

The leadership problem is solved as said above: Warboss in a unit with a BSB with Standard of Discipline. With a NG warboss that's Ld8 Inspiring Presence and with a Goblin one or Skarsnik it's Ld9!

Put the Warlord and L4 Shaman in a big unit of Bow armed gobbos and sit at the back of the army buffing units with Da Little Waaagh (I love this lore for force multipliers), loosing arrers at units and just dishing out leadership and rerolls with the BSB.

The entire army has almost no magic items unless it's things that buff the entire unit rather than a single character.

Lastly don't forget to get yourself an "El Gobbo" - A NG BigBoss with no upgrades but the most extravagant model you can make. He needs to be heroically posed with a cape and mask pref. No upgrades. Put him right out in front of your army and don't tell your opponent what he has (nothing) and act very elusive when they ask "You'll have to see when he gets in combat. Ooooh just you wait *wink*". If your opponent has any shooting units they will make sure El Gobbo dies on turn one potentially wasting a dozen or so excess wounds on killing a single character that would have taken a rank of one of your units.

When your characters are this cheap you can play some great mind games with them - Cruise Missile Squig Big Bosses for example. Big Boss on a Big Squig. Aim it at an enemy unit and watch them try to cut it down before he gets there. If your opponents get wise to your tactics and start to ignore your Heroic Gobbos start kitting them out with some potions or nasty weapons and make them scared again.

My 3k Night Gobbos walked all over 2 WoC armies. Haven't really gotten to take it against any other army. The are so much fun to play. Can't help with regular goblins, don't use them or orks.