I thought I would talk about my Orcs and Goblins list. I got into the hobby at the time Storm of
Chaos came out and immediately jumped onto Orcs and the Grimgor Ironhide
army. While WoC is my favorite army,
Orcs and their destructive nature are a close second. I thought I would share my thoughts about how
I came up with the list, why I made certain choices, and what I try to make
sure I have in a tournament army.
I have played it in three tournaments with this list, the
BAO where I went 3-2, WCGT, where I went 3-0-2, and finally SAWS where it went
5-0. This is typical trajectory for a
new list, with the first tournament winning about half my games and rapidly
improving from there.
The list.
Orc Warboss, Wyvern Sword of Might, ToP, Charmed Shield,
Other Tricksters Shard
Savage Orc Great Shaman, L3, Fencers Blades, Lucky Shrunken
Head, PoT of Swiftness
Black Orc BSB, Spell Shield, Tal of Endurance
Night Goblin Shaman, L2, Dispel Scroll
Goblin Big Boss, Giant Wolf, LA, Shield, Shrieking Blade,
Dragon Helm
33 Savage Orc Big’uns, FC, XHW
20 Night Goblins, Std, Mus, Nets, 2xfanatics
5 Goblin Wolf Riders, Mus, spear, sh, bow
5 Goblin Wolf Riders, Mus, spear, sh, bow
Troll
Troll
Wolf Chariot
Wolf Chariot
Wolf Chariot
Spear Chukka
Spear Chukka
Doom Diver
Rock Lobba
Mangler Squig
Arachnarok Spider
- Take models I like.
As competitive as I am, I like the hobby. There are models I love. The Chaos Sorcerer, Old Blood on a Carno,
Witch Hunters, Orc Warboss on a Wyvern.
They can appeal to me for any number of reasons, I feel the model is bad
ass, I love the fluff behind it, what ever.
So I try to incorporate them into the list.
- Take lists that compete strongly in the movement phase. This does not necessarily mean a bunch of
fast units (though that is helpful) but rather lots of them. I love the movement phase, I believe it
emphasizes generalship and gives you options on how to approach a match up.
- Chaff. This goes hand
in hand with number 2. What I am looking
for is a mix of chaff. Fast and
maneuverable has to be a given. However I also like a mix of other traits. Some
that are just dirt cheap, some that can tackle other chaff, some that can act
as missile troops, ability to act as mage assassins, some that are just plain
durable, etc. Hopefully each unit can
fill at least two of these traits.
- Solutions too many of the common challenges presented by
opposing tournament armies. Do I have flaming? Can I deal with high Armor Saves? Can I cope
with Death Magic? Hordes and tarpits? Warmachines? Etheral’s? Specific units
like the pendant lord or K’Dai. I try to
cover as many of these bases as I can and certainly have thought hard about
specific tactics to counter these units.
- Units that can fill multiple rolls. I love it when they can provide some
flexibility.
- Can I write a back story for the list? Yeah, I still do that. They are horrible but what the hell.
One thing that is low on the priority list is
redundancy. This is a powerful concept
in tournament builds but I am willing to give some of this up. My lists can be a bit unforgiving. I make a mistake in the movement phase, a
good player can jump on it or I don’t have the redundancy to make it through a
run of bad luck.
Let’s run through the list, talk about why I took them and
how they have performed.
Wyvern- I love the Orc on a Wyvern. The model is bad ass and it screams ORC!!! to
me. I first started having success a
number of years back when I put one in to that first army. It is a total emotional choice and I don’t
regret it. As far as tournaments, it
provides a great center piece model to the army for presentation. Interestingly enough, it was not the combat
power, which is rather mediocre, that helped the list, but the 18” Inspiring
Presence bubble. The army suffers from
low leadership and has a large number of chaff units that get flung around. Having that extra distance really helped me
be more aggressive with the chaff, pushing it farther out.
Lvl 3 Orc Great
Shaman – Only being level 3 hurt, often times leaving me with a suboptimal
set of spells. I choose the Fencers
Blades to make him a bit more survivable given he was meant to go in a unit
that needed to go in harm’s way. He has
the added advantage of being able to turn into a combat monster fairly easily
with fists of gork. Yes, he has become a
WS 10, ST 7, To 5, In 5, 6 Attack beast (with a 5+ ward) on occasion. I even got ‘ere we go off once with him spun
up!
BSB- Clearly his big roll is to knock the Savages
back into place if they get unruly.
Losing both casting and control of my primary combat block for a turn
just hurts. The Spell Shield was my
first attempt at dealing with both Death Snipes and my own foot smashing into
the Savages, an extremely common occurrence.
I will drop it in favor of a goblin hero with an MR item. Yeah he hangs out the side but if MR 1 worked
well, MR 2 will work better.
Night Gobbo Shaman- Scroll caddy and magic redundancy for
when my SO Shaman’s head explodes.
People often forget his lore attribute, so I like to throw one dice
(plus mushroom) to get Sneaky off. They
usually let it go and if I can steal 1 of their Dispel dice, it throws them off
a bit.
Goblin Wolf Hero- One
of my favorite builds. He has 2 K’dais
to his name and he is primarily there to deal with them. However, at 71 points, he is also a great
chaff unit. Expendable if I need a
diverter. He gets ignored and can work
his way to warmachines or get flank charges on chariots. Heck, he even held up a unit of 5 Maneaters
with the Flaming Banner for 6 rounds of combat, allowing my army to deal with
the rest of his. There is no end of uses
with this model and I am seriously thinking of putting a second one in.
Savage Orcs- What
can you say about this mad creatures!
They hit like a ton of bricks. I
have found I need to get them in combat, even combats that are not ideal. When I hold them back or allow them to be
diverted, I am usually in trouble.
Night Goblins – This
is a combat unit and works in partnership with the SO. Ideally they come in on a subsequent round to
lend their nets and ranks to the combat.
On the topic of fanatics, good generals are very, very good at pulling
them. I keep them in there because even
the best generals have to deal with them.
Those units that don’t care if they get hit by a couple of fanatics I
find the SO can deal with. The unit also
gives me another point of fortitude.
Goblin Wolf Riders – Cheap
redirecting chaff. I plan on dropping
bows off of them as they rarely kill anything and there are times I will turn
them around to face away from the enemy to avoid animosity charges. I also often run them through forests early
to see if I can lose one to a dangerous terrain test.
Trolls- Again, cheap redirectors. They stay near the SO unit to help with redirecting
and anti chaff. They can also be used as
a flank unit to bring a little extra combat rez. 2 are a necessary redundancy.
Wolf Chariots - Anti chaff primarily. They have a huge threat range, so I can use
them in pairs to create a zone where smaller elite units or monsters may not
want to go. I also like to park one near
the NG unit. Any disposable unit that
wants to move close in anticipation of pulling the fanatics the next turn can
usually be chased off.
Artillery - This is
a strength of O&G lists. My
artillery train is not maxed out, certainly Double Doom Divers would be much
more useful. However, it is enough to
bring threats to the things I need them to and often forces the opponent to
come to me. I love putting the bolt
throwers way out on flanks. They are
cheap so that if someone wants to spend the time hunting them down, I don’t
mind. If you don’t, they get a nice
enfilade shot and who knows, they may hit something. I also think that a larger artillery park
would lead me to sit back and pummel opponents.
Boring.
Mangler- Again, 2
would be better, but I find players view two of these as obnoxious. One is enough that once again my opponent
must expend resources to deal with it.
If you are seeing a theme, you are correct. Individually, many of these units are not
that impressive and can be dealt with.
However, any opponent has finite resources and can only deal with so many. All the while I am chipping away at those
resources. Ignore the Mangler and
fanatics in favor of sending the fast chaff to hunt warmachines, and you risk
the random movers doing critical damage.
Use magic missiles to kill the mangler and the wolf chariots are chasing
your chaff off and the Trolls are limiting you charge options. So on and so on.
Arock - I have to say I have been impressed with this
model. While overpriced, it is fast and
has the unique ability to charge over buildings. It also pumps out a good number of decent
attacks. I know I can find a better use
for the points but it has been fun to play with. While stubborn, the leadership value is substandard. Another reason for the importance of the 18”
IP bubble.
So there it is. Now I am trying to decide to keep running
the list or change it up.
