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An arachnarok with spider shrine still carries regular goblins.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Bleh, I was hoping I could keep those goblins fer something else

Nothing stopping you. Many orc players back in the day would just use the spider on its own, the spider looks awesome, the howdah less so. Some like the model, others do not.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
I may model the spider with the Shrine on it and just the gobbo shaman. The bareback spider looks weird to me since the sculptor clearly posed the spider to balance the Howdah, so without it, the spider looks like it's doing a bad Miley Cyrus impression.

What is a Miley Cyrus impression? Dont know that one.

Bareback the spider looks ok to me, it also looks sort of realistic. There are lots of images of 'arachnarok without howdah' or 'arachnarok without goblins', google-fu some up. You will see that many gamers run/ran the 'Rakky bareback.



A tip, dont glue on any howdah, especially the spider shrine, it wont take much to dry pin or magnetise and have the shaman an optional add on on a case by case basis.

Another tip: The eight goblin ranged attacks could just as easily be spitting or quill throwing spider attacks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urticating_hair

This means you can model on the extra spiders from the kit on the base as 'counts as' forest goblin crew.

'Rakky can flick its own hairs then.

Good idea with mixing goblins and spiders to make infantry, trouble is you will need a lot of kits to make one viable unit. You might consider converting grots, they are near naked.

 MagicJuggler wrote:
What's really a shame is that for all the potential variety that could have been done with Spider armies, they currently boil down to Spider, Bigger Spider, and Even Bigger Spider. One of my favorite B-movies (or sendups of B-Movies) is Eight-Legged Freaks, which had Spitting Spiders, Orb-Weaving Spiders, Jumping Spiders, and Trapdoor Spiders, all jumped up. And for all the talk about an Arachnarok being able to trap a village hamlet in webs and start leisurely snacking on its inhabitants, such abilities aren't actually an in-game option...

1.
Well you can have very fast wolf spiders, aka wolves. But I think thats a boring gimic.

2.
Trapdoor spiders could be summoned by magic, foot of gork in reverse. Spiderising your spell choices will add flavour without changing gameplay. A spectral ghost spider would make a decent 'curse of da bad moon'. You can get transluscent 'scary' spiders in joke shops.

3.
What you need is a vector for poison attacks for savage orcs . The spider banner solves one, 'boar spiders' will otherwise have to deliver dry bites. The next problem is base size, you need 50x50 for the big spiders, therefore each one carries two savage orcs and counts as two boar boy models.
They cant climb walls because they are 'porting two orcs each.

Between the official models, savage orc spider riders, spear chukkas which you can field as it), forest goblin infantry and spell effects you can have a pretty decent spider army.

Heresy miniatures do a very nice giant spider, resin body with metal legs and fangs.
I have this kit (admittedly unassembled) and highly recommend it.




http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=64

++ Just add goblin! ++*




* I won't though, mine is for RPG use - when I get around to it.

Its not much to look at:

http://www.solegends.com/citcat1995-6/cat19956p253-01.htm

I don't think it ever was. The 90's spider persisted a long time, officially at least. Dont remember people bothering with it much, until Skull Pass everyone just took wolves, post Skull Pass they converted or still took wolves.

Things never really took off until the Arachnarok was released, though old school forest goblins did include a range of infantry models.

Well its on buy it now, are you mad for it enough for £45?

Frankly I would prefer the resin, its too spindly for a workable metal model IMHO.

Finecast deserved its rep, but has improved over time. Past initial teething I find it is a more than adequate resin product, and GW will handle miscasts in store. Though do you have store access in Canada?

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:

1 Goblin Great Shaman on Arachnarok Spider with Shine
5 Goblin Big Bosses on Giant Spider with light armor and shield. One is a BSB
3 units of 15 Spider Riders
1 unit of 30 Gobbos with spears and shields
2 Spear Chukkas
1 Arachnarok Spider.

1 Goblin Great Shaman on Arachnarok Spider with Shine

Vulnerable but forgivable for the theme. He needs points spare for a 4++.

5 Goblin Big Bosses on Giant Spider with light armor and shield. One is a BSB

that is overdoing it in my opinion. You need some level 1's to back up the great shaman.

3 units of 15 Spider Riders

Spider riders are eight legged infantry, use them as fighting blocks, so take units of 20+ for full rank bonus. Add a couple of characters and this will work.

1 unit of 30 Gobbos with spears and shields

You need this deeper, but material appears to be your problem. The answer are 40K grots which are mostly loinclothed, convert the weapons and give them feathers (high elf and empire sets have those).

2 Spear Chukkas

This is ok, if anything get more and dont upgrade them to rock lobbers. Lobbers are for dealing with units, your spiders can handle those, you need to handle monsterous infantry and big stuff. Spear chukkas are insanely good at this, some of the best artillery in the game because of their disgustingly low price for a bolt thrower shot.

1 Arachnarok Spider

You have to. IMHO you should up the army size enough to fit in a third 'rakky in your army. This will also make room for the a goblin warlord for much needed ld8, ld9 if you can fit in discipline somehow.

At this juncture you should consider 9th age. Your army will fit in fine.

I use 1.1 rules so it keeps its WHFB roots, all I have to do is rename the units and spells back where they were.

The Arachnarok was overpriced in 8th, its still good at 290pts but it costs more than equivalent monsters. 9th Age fixes that and the O&G army list has full rules for Forest goblin infantry, shamen on normal spiders and spider archers. Great shamen can still use the arachnarok, but lose loremaster, and IIRC there is no flinger option.

9th Age has fuelled a collecting spree in me, but in my rush to collect armies I also buy the 8th edition WHFB army books for them all, or the most recent as appropriate.