Sigvatr wrote:
First of all: welcome to the forums!

I can only comment on the Goblins part as I rock a full Goblin army myself, but here ya go:

First of all, I would re-consider only taking Forest Goblins as you do not have many choices to pick if going down that route. Would an all-Goblin theme appeal to you? You'd open up a lot more possibilities along with being able to put a semi-decent list out there.

In regards to being competitive - meh. If you play a Goblin army, first of all, you will most likely be playing it for fun. And boy, it is a LOT of fun! No other army is as random as Goblins and that's where the fun comes from. Winning is mostly decided by your dice, but even if you lose, you definitely had a great time - even if it means taking 50+ models from the field at once. Or seeing a Fanatic crash through your own ranks.

Strength-wise, they can do a decent job. They sure can't compete with current top tier armies, but for games against friends, they are a lot of fun.

Of all three choices you gave us, Dwarfs would be the most competitive pick, as gunlines are extremely effective (specifically "corner castles"). On the other hand, as you already stated, they are extremely boring to play. You can, however, play a very different Dwarf army as well - why not take a lot of Dwarf Miners and play a very offensive army that surprises your enemies by suddenly appearing on the battlefield? It sure is a lot less effective than a gunline but after all, it's your army and you want to have fun with it. A gunline definitely isn't much fun (to most players) and it certainly is even less fun for your opponent.

 Brotherjanus wrote:
I have considered a forest goblin army and my list contains lots of spider riders, several araknaroks, a goblin big boss on giant spider in a unit of trolls. Then whatever else looks fun. I think it would be a fun list and look cool on the table (plus scare away any small children or those afraid of spiders) as well as present some fun challenges.

Dwarfs are very static as they have low movement plus lots of ranged weapons. Goblins have lots of fun/silly warmachines and have good movement so you can sort of do the same things with them as your dwarfs.

 Sigvatr wrote:
The new Dwarf book is basically the same, but with a few extras on top. Their main playstyle did not change.

Goblins excel at taking out heavily armored units, especially small ones. Fanatics, Mangler Squigs, Doom Divers, Spear Chukkaz are just a few examples of their armor-melting arsenal. War machines are where Goblins kick ass.

Goblins and Dwarfs are two very different armies although the playstyle isn't too different.

If you want to play competitive Goblins, you will play a gunline-ish army. Goblins suck in battles. It's not a question of winning or losing, it's about trying to lose as late as possible. Furthermore, animosity is bad-bad. You do not want your Goblins in charge range of the enemy. Competitive-ish Goblins = full arsenal of war machines and a few 50+ blocks of NG with shortbows, 2 Manglers, Goblin Wolf Chariots and a general bunker just behind your lines to keep moral up. Literally. Special Goblin characters suck hard, Skarsnik is cool and has an awesome model, but it WAY overpowered and unusuable due to his high cost.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Night Goblins are definitely the better choice as they got superior stats and have much more viable options such as netters and fanatics.

Snotlings should only be used as drivers on Snotling Wagons, but then rock. Goblins excel at taking out armored enemies as they got a lot of stuff that downright ignores or drastically weakens enemy armor.

Deployment-wise, I usually deploy my regular blocks (shortbows, 50+ NG) wide to cover my war machines and have 1 leader block in the back, i.e. a block of 30-40 NG with the general (a regular Goblin general for the bonus LD!) and the BSB (Banner of Discipline for re-rollable LD 9) in it. Targetting it with 6th would be awesome for the enemy, but if you carefully deploy the unit, i.e. have your other troops ~11" in front of it, its hard to reach and a suicide mission, more or less. Plus they get LOS! against 6th anyway, allowing for an even saver place behind my boys