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I know orcs and goblins are often seen as the comic relief of armies, but I was wondering how competitive they are? I love the model range.

Any advice or tips will be great. Cheers

In a word, yes. Exactly how competitive will depend on what edition of the game you are playing.
In TOW they have some exceptionally low-costed units for their capabilities. In particular Boar Boys, Black Orcs and humble Night Goblins are power units.
In WFB they've been far less consistent and if power is a concern, you'll want to read up on the relevant edition.

Boarboyz are great for their cost IMO, but at times blackorcs feel a touch pillowfisted for elites due to relying on furious charge to get their damage out. I want to experiment with a block of shielded ones to just be this brick of armour that don't shift

A lot of orc stuff does feel like cheaper versions of other people's stuff, not quite as good but you get your value in volume. Meaning you can clog up the board with disposable units easily for the control aspect.

Our magic is fairly good, only spell I think is a dud would be foot of gork due to how uncontrollable it is and . But it has a fantastic mix of damage

Our damaging magic items are a little meh imo, though i'd never leave home without Trollhide Trousers, staff of Baduuuum or Knobbley staff. Great, reliable options.

A blackorc boss is a damn scarey combatant, solid statline with options for chariot or a temu brand dragon.

And the most accurate artillery piece of the game: the goblin doom diver!!!

It all depends on what you armylist looks.
I do like a lots of goblins and fanatics but they are not so good at melee, so i wil always include a unit of blackorcs for that. the shooting stuff is average if its comming from your warmachines not so good from bow shooting gits. Its not a top army but i like them a lot

Isn't it that monsters rule the game now and O&G can take a lot of monsters in the same list (Wyvern+Arachnoroks+Giants+Manglers)? Or has anything changed in the last few months?

An example:
https://youtu.be/XuPb2EUZaMI?si=HKJqLd9zix8EZhCm

So far I have found:

Snotling pump wagons are woeful, 2d6 random movement is not enough, should be 3d6.

Spider riders and wolf riders have been good flanking units.

Wolf chariots are exceptional value at both single models and units of 3

Anything infantry is rubbish unless you are fighting non-elite infantry.
And I have a sea of orcs and night goblins from 8th ed days.
Cav, chaos infantry absolutely smashes my front rank and I am left to stand around doing nothing turn after turn.
It has gotten so bad in my local meta I have dropped out of the slow grow league.

The FAQ that means if you roll the target on the dice for random direction rolls, your fanatic stands still (as it is random direction) is absolute rubbish and made them worthless.

For fun times and excitement I plop 4 stands of snotlings down and tie the biggest enemy up for 4-5 combat phases.

Hmmmm black orcs can go toe to toe with Chosen I'd say especially if they get the charge

Back in the day

in WFB 2nd, 3rd & 4th editions

i played orcs & goblins
(being a teen way back then, must of had 100s of games)

massive goblin units spiting out 3 fanatics
orc stone throwers of multiple sizes
orc bolt throwers
goblin skull crushers
black orcs
big un's
orc units in large numbers

but then GW decided they needed to had some comic element in WFB.
over the editions slowly striped out older models & changed the back bone of the army into more tribe based themes

Now they've launched WoW

i thought id revisit the orc & goblin army.
i was very disappointed that the bones of this once great army have no teeth now.

goblin units need to be large. assassin's instead of fanatics (night goblin only)
next to no war machines & the ones left are goblin only.
goblin war machines are weaker compared to other similar machines of other races.
the core troops are still there but you need to rely on hero to heavily sure them up.

just like ww1 you could soften them up with war machines & fanatics before mass ranked hordes get close enough to engage in combat.
that's all gone
you have to rely on wolves riders to out flank them now

so with my couple of hundred pounds burning in my pocket ready to pull the trigger on my next major project.

I'm sorry to say im going to pass on the Orc & Goblin army

they are not the army of 30 years ago I'm sorry to say

The Orc & Goblin army just isn't competitive any more.


.

They are competitive, I know don't what the meta is like in UK but here in the US (Texas), they are well represented at all the major tournaments around the state i've attended. And I'm going to LVO and Adepticon in 2025 and I'm sure they will be there too.

They don't play like they use to, sure, but to say they can't compete is nonsense. I've had my tail whipped enough times by them to say that's simply not true.

I do not play competitively, but they are a powerfull army.

The most accurate artillery: doom divers.

Good light cavalry, and the damn broken fanatics (no way to get rid of them).

I really don't know what rockgod2304 is talking about, Orcs and Goblins are an extremely strong army. The only reason they're not dominating at the most competitive end is because they don't have quite as broken a dragon as a few other armies. But it is, to me, maybe the best book in terms of having a really wide range of really strong, well costed units.

Black Orcs are point for point a match for any other infantry in the game. Orc mobs, especially the savage orc version are great value for their points. Night goblins with shortbows can deliver a lot of damage for almost no points, and of course fanatics are insanely effective in this edition, being able to be released in either player's turns. Snotlings are really useful, and it never stops being funny fighting them for the first time, realizing how long their deathstar unit is going to be stuck grinding through 18 wounds of Unbreakable snotlings. And of course orc boar boys are given a crazy list of special rules - furious charge, warband and counter charge. Chaos Knights get none of these rules, and an orc boar boy can be given heavy armour, a shield and be a big 'un, to have the same save almost the same stats as a chaos knight, and be 7 points cheaper. Wolf rider mobs are really solid, performing a harassing role for dirt cheap. The only unit in the list that is probably just bad is the snotling pump wagon, but even then at 35 points its so cheap that it can still play a role.

The characters are the same as they've always been, really good stat lines for not too many points. The magic is solid to strong, and Itchy Nuisance is among the best signature spells in the game, and synergizes works so well with so many other units in the list.

Do O&G still have the fun units and random elements? (Animosity etc?)

That was one of the main things that always appealed to me about them. I never owned the army myself, but they would be hilarious to play against, and also tremendously destructive if things fell the right way.

Not really, which is one of the reasons Greenskins are suddenly a lot stronger in TOW than previous editions. The only notable lack of control is that many units have Impetuous. Even then it's not applicable to every unit and its very easy to get Black Orcs to turn it off anyway.
There's a bit of Stupidity and Random Movement but in general they are more reliable than ever.