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Goblin force
2500 Pts - Orcs & Goblins Army

This is the list for which i would like to get your opinion and suggestions.
Tactics and explanation is at the end


Characters

GENERAL
1 Goblin Warboss General Light Armour Charmed Shield Opal Amulet @ 88.0 Pts
1 Goblin Big Boss Light Armour Battle Standard Standard of Discipline @ 77.0 Pts

1 Night Goblin Big Boss Great Weapon Ruby Ring of Ruin [25.0] @ 59.0 Pts
1 Night Goblin Big Boss Great Weapon@ 34.0 Pts

1 Goblin Great Shaman Magic Level 4 Staff of Sorcery [35.0] Talisman of Endurance [30.0] @ 245.0 Pts
1 Night Goblin Shaman Magic Level 1 Dispel Scroll @ 75.0 Pts

Main fighting units static CR

15 Squig Herd, 25 Night Goblin Herders @ 195.0 Pts
40 Night Goblins Netters Shortbow Standard Musician 2 FanaticPts@ 235.0 Pts
20 Night Goblins Shortbow Musician 2 Fanatic @ 120.0 Pts
27 Night Goblins shortbow Standard Musician 1 Fanatic @ 126.0 Pts
40 Goblins Shortbow Light Armour Shields Standard Musician 3 Nasty Skulker @ 210.0 Pts my HEAVY infantry, with some highly trained assassins. well... assasins...ok...at least they are nasty... for a goblin

support

5 Goblin Wolf Riders @ 65.0 Pts Spear Short Bow Light Armour Shield
5 Goblin Wolf Riders @ 65.0 Pts Spear Short Bow Light Armour Shield
5 Forest Goblin Spider Riders @ 65.0 Pts Spear Shield

1 Mangler Squig @ 65.0 Pts
1 Mangler Squig @ 65.0 Pts

Elite killing power?

2 Wolf Chariot(s) @ 100.0 Pts
2 Wolf Chariot(s) @ 100.0 Pts
2 Wolf Chariot(s) @ 100.0 Pts
5 Trolls @ 175.0 Pts

Artilery

1 Rock Lobber @ 85.0 Pts
1 Doom Diver @ 80.0 Pts
1 Spear Chukka @ 35.0 Pts
1 Spear Chukka @ 35.0 Pts

Models in Army: 213
Total Army Cost: 2499.0


First of all, its supposed to be all goblin army. The trolls and mangler squigs are as far as i will go with other types of ''greenskins''.
Not intendet to win but to have a competitive fun game in some tournaments.

Also warmachines, 3 night goblin units are at AC, as is 40 models cap, so no big changes are possible.


General and BSB goes to 20 unit of NG, to provide leadership bubble for 2 biggest units (40 block of Night goblins and regular goblins)
General has the saves just vs some surprise attacks, cause he will try never to join the main battle line.
This is the simple anvil.

For hammer, i have 5 regular trolls, 3 teams of 2 chariots, and possibly squig herders (they are actually supposed
to guard a flank -their immunity to psychology gives me
option to put it further away from general, which has already enough work, keeping other big units together.

Other NG unit is there to host a great shaman.
Great shaman (should i take some risk and take a night goblin one, just for some funny 'shroomey effects?.
i feel that even if its funny its too much point and magic defense to risk on some mushroom bad rolls)
and his lvl 1 lackey are mainly there to protect and maybe give some buffs. I also expect to get all the spells except the one that i really need.
Cause playing goblins i cant really depend on anything except the : it will go wrong rule.

Other character are there to give some small punch to the unit and because they are cheap. Should i put rubby ring on night goblin shaman?

The artillery main purpose is to soften big blocks or eliminate some strong targets. Just fulfilling regular roles.
Fast cavalry for protecting from similar units, maybe guarding warmachines or suicide missions, redirecting charges. Regular stuff.

Mangler squig, in my experience, are there to soak some shooting and dmg. Not depending on them cause they are to fragile and unpredictable.
But they are potential strong suiciders or even hammer unit.


Also all my gobbos have bows. That is to prevent drawing fanatics with cheap units. Or would some HW/SH or even spear prove to be a better choice of equipment?


I know a have to much units so i could have problems with deployment. How do i adEpt to this?

What am i lacking?
Which part of turn will i get owned?
Which part (except for the fun one) can i own?

anything to add, suggest?
Changes to composition? Tactics advices?


tnx

Give your heroes some magic weapons. You have none. Also some flaming weapons of some sort to strip regen.

I like the list overall but there are a few tweaks here and there that I would advise that you consider which I'll get on to at the end.

Your BSB, give him a shield for the Parry save in close combat, i know that you don't want him in there but if it happens that 6++ save can be usefull occassionally.

Your core units, in my opinion are the wrong way round. I would prefer to see two units of 40 Night Goblins with Hand Weapons, Shields and Nets (plus Musician, Standard) as they will better be able to tarpit a unit. Also the shortbows are not all that great as they're very short ranged, you're likely to get off 1 round of shooting plus and stand and shoot before they're in combat. As they are they're not set up to be able to contribute CR through numbers as they don't have the ability to inflict wounds (even with characters) are have enough numbers and saves to mitigate successive losses.

Bunker unit, this is where I would have the common goblins with short bows, shields and hand weapons and the skulkers. They're better protected being behind the tarpit units and can be used as an utility unit clearing chaff and being able to hold in combat for a little while.

I'm personally not a fan of Fanatics so its nice to see someone not dropping a load of points into them. If you're wanting to make changes this will where to get the points if you need them.

Wolf riders, I prefer just to use a unit of 5 with Shields and no other upgrades, feigned flight doesn't have much use in 8th edition so they're there to march block and to be a diverter for something big to set up a favourable flank charge with one of your supporting units,

I love the Squig herd, as a flank guard unit it has ranks and enough S5 attacks to put a dent into most things, however be careful although they're immune to psychology you still need to test for animosity as you have over 5 greenskins in the unit. A unit of Squigs infighting is not all that fun especially when they decide to run off at the wrong moment.

I'd like to see the Trolls as either a unit of 6, or a unit of 4 (2x2) and two single trolls as they do make very good diverting units and a decent flanking unit.

Great Shaman - No keep him Goblin, the mushrooms are great on low level shamans but on your main magical offense and defense it is far too risky, you're already running a risk by going all Goblin I wouldn't take too many more. I'd keep Ruby Ring seperate from the Shamans myself and where you have it is good for me.

I go Hw/Sh with my Goblins with the exception of my Goblin bunker unit as S3 18" shooting is pretty uneffective unless you're paying serious point sfor a large horde of goblins with the posion banner and casting the poison spell on them, even then its not all that effective.

Too many units? Never, the strength of the all Goblin force is that you out deploy your opponent and have the option to get in flank charges (with Gels nicely with Sneaky Stabbing spell from Little Waaagh) I'd practise with your deployment, look into a checkerboard patternw ith your units to try and utilise as many flank charges as possible.

What are you lacking? Cheap Diverting Characters, look into Goblin Bosses on Giant Wolf, Light Armour, Shield and a cheap magic weapons and 2++ to fire items

First thanks for all the advices.
Still need some things cleared out so...

Carpe_Jugular wrote:

Your BSB, give him a shield for the Parry save in close combat, i know that you don't want him in there but if it happens that 6++ save can be usefull occassionally.

Thanks for pointing this one. it will be easily done.

Your core units, in my opinion are the wrong way round. I would prefer to see two units of 40 Night Goblins with Hand Weapons, Shields and Nets (plus Musician, Standard) as they will better be able to tarpit a unit. Also the shortbows are not all that great as they're very short ranged, you're likely to get off 1 round of shooting plus and stand and shoot before they're in combat. As they are they're not set up to be able to contribute CR through numbers as they don't have the ability to inflict wounds (even with characters) are have enough numbers and saves to mitigate successive losses.

Bunker unit, this is where I would have the common goblins with short bows, shields and hand weapons and the skulkers. They're better protected being behind the tarpit units and can be used as an utility unit clearing chaff and being able to hold in combat for a little while

I'm personally not a fan of Fanatics so its nice to see someone not dropping a load of points into them. If you're wanting to make changes this will where to get the points if you need them. .

I was usually using bunker unit to launch my fanatics through my main fighting unit. that way i could almost ensure extra 4d6 hits one enemy (and 2d6 on my unit) just from my bunker unit, that is, not counting the fanatics in charged unit. I know that they are pointsink but finishing off treeman and necrosphinx with this tactics when they charged my main unitgives them some bonuses in my eyes.
don't know hot to get rid of that kind of monsters with my gobbos. Artilery usually softens them, so i need a finisher

I still need to hide my great shaman in some kind of unit. any suggestions here?

I'd like to see the Trolls as either a unit of 6, or a unit of 4 (2x2) and two single trolls as they do make very good diverting units and a decent flanking unit.

I was aiming at one unit because that's max that i can fit into leadership bubble.

I go Hw/Sh with my Goblins with the exception of my Goblin bunker unit as S3 18" shooting is pretty uneffective unless you're paying serious point sfor a large horde of goblins with the posion banner and casting the poison spell on them, even then its not all that effective.

With just goblins there is room for just one magic banner, and i prefer standard of discipline for the effect/stability and poinwise. so dropping bows it definitely an option.

What are you lacking? Cheap Diverting Characters, look into Goblin Bosses on Giant Wolf, Light Armour, Shield and a cheap magic weapons and 2++ to fire items

What did you mean with 2++ fire items?



Automatically Appended Next Post:

DukeRustfield wrote:
Give your heroes some magic weapons. You have none. Also some flaming weapons of some sort to strip regen.

I don't know how to get flaming. Except for that flimsy ring. Any suggestions?

I was usually using bunker unit to launch my fanatics through my main fighting unit. that way i could almost ensure extra 4d6 hits one enemy (and 2d6 on my unit) just from my bunker unit, that is, not counting the fanatics in charged unit. I know that they are pointsink but finishing off treeman and necrosphinx with this tactics when they charged my main unitgives them some bonuses in my eyes. don't know hot to get rid of that kind of monsters with my gobbos. Artilery usually softens them, so i need a finisher

I typically just keep hitting these targets with Doom Divers and Rock Lobba's before I can hit them with Chariots, Pump Wagons and Manglers (if the Manglers aren't shot up) basically hit them with Impact hits and negate the stomp attacks

I still need to hide my great shaman in some kind of unit. any suggestions here?

i was suggesting your core to something like;

5 Wolf Riders, shield
5 Wolf Riders, shield
40 NG, Nets, Hw/S, Mus, Std
40 NG, Nets, Hw/S, Mus, Std
28(ish) Goblins, Short bows, Shields, Mus, Std (place all characters in here in horde formation to negate miscasts as much as possible, if it looks like your tarpits are going to die/run reform to 5 wide and place all important characters in 2nd rank, pop out skulkers and hope the game finishes before you lose your ranks/important characters)

What did you mean with 2++ fire items?

Dragonhelm and Dragonbane Gem gives a 2++ ward versus fire and flaming attacks, these 70odd point heroes can (and have for me) hold up bloodthirsters, k'daii destroyers, seaguard hordes ect ect as you need to fail a 2+ ward to suffer a wound to flaming attacks, they're good protection for Trolls as well.

I don't know how to get flaming. Except for that flimsy ring. Any suggestions?

The only other way is dropping Leadership banner for Flaming which isn't really advised. I don't worry too much about regneration when I play although it really can hurt in some games

Ok, so some few changes.

Characters
1 Goblin Big Boss @ 79.0 Pts Light Armour Shield Battle Standard Standard of Discipline @ 79.0 Pts
1 Goblin Warboss General Light Armour Charmed Shield Opal Amulet [15.0]@ 88.0 Pts
1 Night Goblin Shaman Magic Level 1 Little Waagh Dispel Scroll @ 75.0 Pts
1 Goblin Great Shaman Magic Level 4 Little Waagh Staff of Sorcery [35.0] Talisman of Endurance [30.0]@ 245.0 Pts
1 Night Goblin Big Boss Great Weapon Light Armour Ruby Ring of Ruin @ 61.0 Pts
1 Night Goblin Big Boss Light Armour Shield Warrior Bane [5.0] @ 39.0 Pts
1 Goblin Big Boss on Wolf Light Armour Shield Dragonhelm [10.0] Tormentor Sword [5.0]@ 66.0 Pts
1 Goblin Big Boss on wolf Light Armour Shield Dragonbane Gem [5.0] Relic Sword [10.0] @ 66.0 Pts

Artilery
1 Rock Lobber @ 85.0 Pts
1 Doom Diver @ 80.0 Pts
1 Spear Chukka @ 35.0 Pts
1 Spear Chukka @ 35.0 Pts


Main fighting units (anvil)
40 Night Goblins Netters Shield Standard Musician 1 Fanatic @ 210.0 Pts
40 Night Goblins Netters Shield Standard Musician 1 Fanatic @ 210.0 Pts
27 Goblins Shortbow Light Armour Shields Standard Musician 3 Nasty Skulker @ 158.0 Pts
14 Squig Herd 23 Night Goblin Herders @ 181.0 Pts (37 models)

Elite
2 Wolf Chariot(s) @ 100.0 Pts
2 Wolf Chariot(s) @ 100.0 Pts
2 Wolf Chariot(s) @ 100.0 Pts
1 Mangler Squig @ 65.0 Pts
1 Mangler Squig @ 65.0 Pts


Support
5 Goblin Wolf Riders Spear Light Armour Shield @ 60.0 Pts
5 Goblin Wolf Riders Spear Light Armour Shield @ 60.0 Pts
5 Goblin Wolf Riders Spear Light Armour Shield @ 60.0 Pts
4 Trolls @ 140.0 Pts
1 Trolls @ 35.0 Pts


Models in Army: 189
Total Army Cost: 2498.0

Now i have 13% in lord and 15% in heroes. 28% in characters. I am afradi that is too much points in flimsy goblin characters.
8 characters. Did i overreach here? I could easily dump one Wolfboy gobo or even night goblin boss.

the main units are as suggested, 2 large night gobos (max size) for survivability and 27 bunker regular goblins.
I droped i squig and 2 herders so release some few points They will still guard flank. dont know where so squize those points.
. There are only 2 fanatics in this army which i find a bit to little for my liking.

I realised i have only 5 trolls, so i made them in unit of 4 and unit of 1. i can drop one and add fanatic and increase squigs back to normal.
Dropped bows also on wolf and exchanged one spider unit with wolf unit.

I am still considering putting blocks of 40 NG and 40 regular goblins in front and making bunker out of night goblins.
Fanatics from behind front line can really help.

What i lost is a unit of 40 goblins and 3 fanatics. What i a gained are 2 Gobbo heroes with magic weapons and additional magic weapon for existing hero.
general and one boss are still missing magic weapon though.
I have almost no bows to speak of but my infantry is more resilient. (for gobbos).





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Some thinking on my magic.

My great shaman is the biggest pointsink (in goblin terms).
Should i go for cabal of night goblin shamans? to spread my magic?
Less chance to dispell, lot of shroomeys, more channeling...
the problem is where to put them, though.

I don't plan to do a lot with magic, main purpose of lvl4 is to give some defense.

Now i have 13% in lord and 15% in heroes. 28% in characters. I am afradi that is too much points in flimsy goblin characters.
8 characters. Did i overreach here? I could easily dump one Wolfboy gobo or even night goblin boss.

I personally don't think that you have invested that much in characters, comparing my army to yours, you're still lighter on characters than I am. Your strength now is that you have enough characters to act as cheap diverters (wolf boys) and you can deploy as a goblin wall on a 5 wide unit making them last longer in combat, the characters do a small amount of damage to the attackers (hopefully) and the unit provides your characters with CR.

the main units are as suggested, 2 large night gobos (max size) for survivability and 27 bunker regular goblins.

Its how I like it, try it out in a few games and see if you like how it plays

I droped i squig and 2 herders so release some few points They will still guard flank. dont know where so squize those points.There are only 2 fanatics in this army which i find a bit to little for my liking.

Its how I like my army to be honest, Fanatics for me are just too unreliable for me.

I realised i have only 5 trolls, so i made them in unit of 4 and unit of 1. i can drop one and add fanatic and increase squigs back to normal.

I like single trolls as cheap drops and additional diverters

Dropped bows also on wolf and exchanged one spider unit with wolf unit.

Good!

I am still considering putting blocks of 40 NG and 40 regular goblins in front and making bunker out of night goblins. Fanatics from behind front line can really help.

If you do this make sure that the common goblins have skulkers and enough characters to make the entire front rank characters (inc skulkers) so that you deny CR due to allocating hits against the character wall

What i lost is a unit of 40 goblins and 3 fanatics. What i a gained are 2 Gobbo heroes with magic weapons and additional magic weapon for existing hero.
general and one boss are still missing magic weapon though. I have almost no bows to speak of but my infantry is more resilient. (for gobbos).

It really does sound good, I personally think that just GW are the best option for Goblins but it depends on what you face

Some thinking on my magic.
My great shaman is the biggest pointsink (in goblin terms).
Should i go for cabal of night goblin shamans? to spread my magic? Less chance to dispell, lot of shroomeys, more channeling... the problem is where to put them, though.

I don't plan to do a lot with magic, main purpose of lvl4 is to give some defense.

The only way I can see of making a cabal work is having your Level 4 on a A-Rok and hoping against hope he doesn't get a cannon ball to the face... I just don't see it working. If you want to try it give it a go and just keep anything important away from each other

One more thing...

I am thinking of a changing a small element.
Swapping 2 of my chariots for 2 snotling pump wagons.
One of them would have exploding spores. It adds some funny and unpredictable elements to my army.

I would gain 2 units that are immune to panic.
Instead of 2 times D6+1 S5 i would get 2 times 2D6 S4 hits, one of those ignoring armour saves.
The crew attacks will be weaker but to be honest, i never count on those.

Not to mention that i have to scratch build either those 2 chariots or pump wagons and i might as well try with snotlings.


Any insight on this?

Pump Wagons give you more impact hits/point, so they're actually quite awesome.
The most competitive Pump Wagon is probably with a Spikey Roller and a...what's it called, a Rigga? +1S on impact hits and +d6 movement, for 70pts. The Flappa is an option too, what with costing 5pts.

Really, the best thing about them is their ability to charge in any direction; makes it really hard for small, light units to sneak past into your back field.

Two comments on the list in general:

- I've seen many goblin-lists with great weapon-wielding Big Bosses by the handful, and it usually comes with mixed results. On one hand, they can actually kill stuff. On the other, they give up their points when they die, instead of when the unit does. I've seen games lost because one too many 34pt gobbos were slain, even when the unit survived.
At WS4 S4, it takes about 8 attacks to kill a Big Boss. Those same attacks would kill 3-4 regular gobbos. 34pts versus 9-12pts.
That said, they take up very little space and have 3 S6 attacks, which can be just the thing.;
My point: goblin hero-spam is a viable tactic, but it has just as many weaknesses as strengths.

- shortbows versus shields. I'm kind of leaning towards dropping any kind of protection on my Night Goblins and giving them all bows. The 6+/6+ is okay and all, but I've run some numbers, and sometimes those 2-3 extra wounds they needle into the enemy make the difference.
Some people will tell you that Nets + shields is a good combo, and I'll agree. I just think that shields add very little, and shortbows seem a little more versatile. Also: Blessing of the Spider God.

Tnx fo comment
I will only upgrade one pump wagon with exploding sporesr.
Don't want to impoverish other units with removing point from them and adding it to pump wagons.
Pump wagon is 45points, if i upgrade it to S5, +d6 move and No AS, it comes to 85 points. That's almost doubling my points in whimsy snotling chariot.

As for the bow and shield dilemma, i will use one unit with shields and another unit with shields and bows (one NG and one regular unit). So i will see what works out better

The only issue with Giant 'Sploding Spores is that you only disallow armour saves on the first set of Impact hits. I mean, odds are good it won't survive the combat to make that 2nd charge, but even beyond that, a Spikey Roller makes it more likely to wound and gives a further -1 to armour.

This list simply didn't work. I played 5 games in tournament. I didn't expect big results but it was even worse (not counting the fun and funny moments)
Mainly because of my rusty skills and because i used to play high elves.
But also some basic shortcomings of the list that i will point out.

LVL 4 mage for the defense. well, i did work a bit, but other little waagh just isn't that usefull. Didn't do squat in magic phase. Although i managed to block a few with lvl4 with +1 to dispell and dispell scroll.
And i was putting 320 magic points (actually 345 with Ruby ring of ruin).

Also cheap heroes were just the thing you warned me about. easy victory points for my enemy. Not a single one was any use form me. A winner was a unit that managed to fail animosity on all 5 turns. At least opponent didn't get any points for it.
And i had way too many units. My deployment was so crowded i couldn't even move my random movement units. Nor the chariots. a unit of two had serious problem with inch rule in my already crowded field.
Mangler squigs (with pump wagons) did manage to draw a lot of fire and magic usually absorbing 2 magic and shooting phases. But after those units (and maybe a chariot) were destroyed, i didn't have anything to kill the enemies.

so i realized i need few units and something big. I can only see 3 options, to be honest. Giant, the BIG spider or trolls. I don't have the giant model, but i do own the BIG spider. Stathammer says that enemy needs 3 successful hits with cannon. that means that maybe one mangler can get there unharmed. The spider is a big point sink, yes, and to keep the artillery i had to dump the pump wagons.
The trolls will go in one unit of 6.

Less bosses and i will try to use night gobbo shamans.
Total lack of fanatics. They did manage to kill unlucky wood elf hero on eagle, but that was it. 6 hits is average for 50 points -2 fanatics. That's what? 5 wounds on basic trooper?

So this is the list for the following games.

I still have 130 points to put somewhere, but not in rare section.
For trolls? maybe one more tarpit unit?





1 Goblin Warboss PtsGeneral LA Charmed ShieldOpal Amulet @ 88.0

1 Night Goblin Big Boss Light Armour Shield Battle StandardStandard of Discipline @ 74.0 Pts

1 Goblin Big Boss on Wolf Spear Light Armour Shield Dragonhelm Potion of Foolhardiness @ 68.0 Pts


1 Night Goblin Shaman LVL2 Staff of Sorcery @ 120.0 Pts
1 Night Goblin Shaman LVL1 Dispel Scroll @ 75.0 Pts
1 Night Goblin Shaman LVL1 Ruby Ring of Ruin @ 75.0 Pts


50 Night Goblins Netters Shield Standard Musician @ 215.0 Pts
50 Night Goblins Netters Shield Standard Musician @ 215.0 Pts
25 Goblins Shortbow Light Armour Shields Musician 3 Nasty Skulker @ 140.0 Pts


5 Goblin Wolf Riders Spear Light Armour Shield @ 60.0 Pts
5 Goblin Wolf Riders Spear Light Armour Shield @ 60.0 Pts


1 Wolf Chariot(s) @ 50.0 Pts
1 Wolf Chariot(s) @ 50.0 Pts
1 Wolf Chariot(s) @ 50.0 Pts

1 Spear Chukka @ 35.0 Pts
1 Spear Chukka @ 35.0 Pts

6 Trolls @ 210.0 Pts

1 Arachnarok Spider @ 290.0 Pts

1 Doom Diver @ 80.0 Pts

1 Rock Lobber @ 85.0 Pts

1 Mangler Squig @ 65.0 Pts
1 Mangler Squig @ 65.0 Pts

15 Squig Herd 15 Night Goblin Herders @ 165.0 Pts


Total Army Cost: 2370.0

Edit: removed some extra info ftom roster

The Spells of the Little Waaagh! are a bit tricky. Few of them are straight-up bad, but they're all rather situational. Night Goblin shamans are pretty rough, since the FAQ said rolling a 1 on a Mushroom die counted towards Loss of Concentration. Pretty much means your lvl3/4 is always better off non-Night.

Sounds like you had some pretty bad luck (five Animosity tests in a row?), but that multiple unit thing can be a fairly big problem when you count in terrain.
The Spider is a solid monster, honestly. Though one or two big ol' units of Trolls is hard to beat.

Fanatics can be great, but you gotta use 'em right. I use lone Trolls, Wolf Riders, and the like to protect my Fanatics from being drawn out too soon, or by the wrong units. Two fanatics will average 7 hits passing through a unit, or 14 if you, say, release them from the right corner of a 10-wide unit, sending them ever-so-slightly-diagonally towards your left corner. Either way, you'll get a handful of casualties, which isn't much against normal guys. That's why you try to aim them into the enemies Elites, and keep the commoners 9"+ away until you've done so. But yes, it can certainly be tricky.
Now that I think of it, I really wish Hand of Gork was a Goblin spell...

If i add another Troll unit i will have a big problem keeping them in range with Generals leadership.

I could live with increasing the one unit i already have.

The animosity was not really a problem. I had way to many units so one out of a play was not a game breaker.

I did have some luck with insane long range charges due to animosity test (like rolling 3 sixes for forced charge, rolling 6 on the table): Bad luck was not an issue.
It was me being unable to come even close to using all of my units because i couldn't find a place for them to deploy and/or move.

Well, that'd be...5 units? It's not an absurd number. Especially considering that a big unit of Trolls (9+) does not often need to be within the general's bubble, once the enemy is close enough. They do not often lose combat.
Still, if you like the Spider, use the Spider.

Getting everyone into combat can be problem for Goblins and Skaven, since they favor a "Big Blocks of Crap and Lots of Little Hard Hitters" sort of layout, but I've only rarely found it to be a huge problem.
I've been to several tournaments, though, where the terrain was ludicrous (a dozen pieces of impassible and the like). Oddly enough, the biggest Horde armies in the game are the armies most hurt by that sort of thing. We need to get two or three units into a combat to win the day, while our opponents can just march in with one block.

Basically, I can see how it's a problem, but maybe just give it a few more tries? Sorry to hear things didn't go so well for the first few games.