Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Orcs & Goblins (section)

==Building Your Army==
The important thing to remember when assembling your Waaagh! is to pick a theme and stick with it. A big downfall of having so many options in the army book is that players can get overwhelmed and try to take one of everything. Mixing too many strategies together is generally a bad idea. For example, it'd probably be a bad move to mix a slow unit like black orcs or trolls in with an all mounted army; by the time these squads get there, chances are your cavalry has already done most of the work (or has been slaughtered and can no longer support your big things). Additionally, both Animosity and Panic tends to be a big problem for O&G, so you should try to build your army in a way that maximizes your bosses' Ld range and minimizes Animosity.

===Buying Your Army===
As with any army, start with your core choices and first lord or hero and build from there. Always determine just what army you are trying to build before you start purchasing. Sit down with an experienced player and discuss what units synergize best with each other if you are having trouble figuring things out.

Besides GW you can take a look at the new Goblin line of Mantic Games.

===Army Composition===
You should be judiciously paying for standards, musicians, and characters to boost leadership. In order to lead your greenskins to victory it is absolutely vital to have inspiring presence on as many units as you can. To achieve this there are many types of army composition available to you:

*'''Orc Warboss and BSB:''' Provides leadership 9 and rerolls, a strong default choice. The Warboss is a powerful combat character and his Waaagh ability is a fun bonus, albeit small and easy to forget. You can put him on a wyvern for a bigger leadership bubble but most competitive advice will discourage you from doing so, as it is just begging to get sniped on turn 1. The Warboss does a better job on the front line, sending challenges to enemy characters and providing combat resolution through sheer butchery.

*'''Goblin Warboss with BSB and Banner of Discipline:''' An alternative to the Orc Warboss, this setup provides leadership 9 and rerolls for those who wish to stick to a goblin-only army. Generally you want to put both the General and BSB in a bunker behind the fighting troops. This makes it harder for the opponent to assassinate either the general or BSB, who are vital in this case since goblins have low leadership by themselves. 

*'''Gorbad Ironclaw:''' A special character, this guy provides both leadership 10 and rerolls at the same time! Problem 1: he's a special character and they aren't always allowed. Problem 2: he's expensive as all fuck. Problem 3: he is a standard bearer and is therefore bound by the rules that normally affect standard bearers. That means he cannot run, ever. A standard bearer is automatically removed from play when a unit breaks and the same goes for this guy, regardless of whether he is a legendary badass that just happens to have a flag on his back. All things considered, unless you absolutely want to field this character for fluffy reason then you're better off with a separate Warboss and BSB.

*'''Orc Great Shaman and BSB with Banner of Discipline:''' Provides leadership 9, rerolls and magic support all at the same time. This is a pretty interesting setup since unlike most wizards, this bad dude is T5 and can actually survive in combat. Equipped with Fencer's Blade and buffed by Fist of Gork, he can even dish out a lot of hurt. He can also be made to carry the Shrunken Head in a unit of Savage Orcs Big 'Uns, in which case he will also be protected by a 5+ ward save. As usual, the biggest danger of using a Wizard general is miscasting: if the shaman gets sucked into the warp on turn 1 then you can pretty much pack your things and go home.

Regardless of what you choose, remember to stick with your army theme. Whether you want to use huge blocks of infantry, multiple small units, big scary monsters or swarms of cavalry, you don't want to end up with too many strategies on the field. If you're going to try something then you need to commit to it. An OnG army with no direction will fall apart quickly.

===Magic Items===
Anything that gives ward saves is always handy. Bosses should take magic weapons and Shamans should take things that either boost their own powerdice or fuck up the enemy's magic phase. It's also hilarious to put the one that turns enemy wizards into toads on a low level shaman as well. Lastly, if there is a magic banner that can help with Ld issues in your army, take it.
The problem with magic weapons for O&G is not about effect to price ratio actually and more about price at all and kind of effect. In fact Orcs and Goblins are just an army which don't need pricy weapons which don't let them attack faster (via ASF or Initiative). Weapons giving you more attack or more strenght are mostly ommited as they cost their share (fair) and help you kill with characters which you don't want to do for most of times! Firstly our bosses are vital in providing Leadership. Secondly they are weakly kitted for combat (speaking about base stats). They desperately need some better protection above T5. Firtly focus on making your vital characters protected - which means BSB, General, main Shaman and probably secondary shaman (last one don't have to be protected - scroll caddy should be enough). After that one should think about obvious magic protection and then you see that you either don't have points for making your characters killy or simply other units will do that better. You will end up taking cheapish magic weapons to kill damned banshees and kind. Orcs cannot be blender lords like Vampires, Chaos Lords, High or Dark Elves. They don't make good killy cowboys (partially due to bad kind of transportation). Goblins can be instead cheapish cowboys. Ther is no place for pricy magic weapons and better come to terms with it if you want to play competitively.
The following are the O&G specific magic items:

*'''Battleaxe of the Last Waaagh!:''' Not worth it. Getting d6 additional attacks and strength is one can of serious ass-wooping but it's unreliable and risky, on behalf of having to run a lord character completely naked in order to carry it. 50% lord points in endtimes makes this more fieldable, because you have a general with armor and talismans and stuff, and have a supporting black orc warboss take it to destroy whole units at a time.

*'''Basha's Axe of Stunty Smashin':''' Interesting item but not that appealing. Getting +1S and +1A and armor piercing for 50 points is about right but it's nothing to write home about. Skip it unless you happen to be fighting Dwarfs a lot and really hate their guts. This axe actually cost the exact same amount of points as the 3 different magic weapons with the same effects in the main book and work as a 3 in one package with the added benefit against dwarves. Is actually worth it at times, but still little pricy. It's funny to see Night Goblin wielding that weapon into scrap with stunties as he is perfectly suited for that with high enough initiative to strike first and hatred to make those attack hit the target despite inferior weapon skill (at least vs. characters and elites).

*'''Armour of Gork:''' How about no. The +D3 toughness and impact hits are nice but the 100 points price tag is completely ridiculous.

*'''Lucky Shrunken Head:''' Best magic item in the book. The Shrunken Head upgrades the ward save granted by Warpaint from 6+ to 5+ for both the bearer and his unit. It costs 50 points and can only be carried by a Savage Orc Shaman or Great Shaman so you need to be ok with sending your wizard into battle. This is not only the strongest magic item in the whole book but also the most popular, appearing often in competitive lists to support a horde of Savage Orc Big 'Uns. This item also causes the ward save of one character (Wurrzag) to become 4+ if he happens to be in the unit.

*'''Mork's War Banner:''' <strike>Horrible item.</strike> Gives magic resistance (d6) and turns magic items into mundane items when in base contact with the bearer. Woopee doo. Horribly expensive at 100pts but seems to be useful for players from top of the world on Savage BSB. If one can place characters in suitable position then it can turn off some precious magic items letting you unleash some torment of Savage Big'Uns attacks upon unprotected character. Also let you to turn off magic banners (could be funny). A lot of people find it overpriced as MR(3) can be bought for 45 points but still used by some who can use those tricky abilities.

*'''Spider Banner:''' <strike>Somewhat ok.</strike> The Spider Banner grants poisoned attacks to a unit, while attacks that are already poisoned will now take effect on a 5+. This has synergy with the spell Gift of the Spider God from the Lore of the Little Waaargh. Sadly, the 85 points price tag and the specific rules mean that this banner can only be taken by a defenseless goblin BSB. The Spider Banner is typically used to deliver a ridiculous amount of poison shots with a horde of Goblins, Arrer Boyz or Savage Orcs with bows. In the later cases, it means you have a goblin character standing next to a Orc unit which just doesn't look right. It should be noted that a list utilizing 100 night goblin archers and the Spider Banner has been having quite a lot of tournament success. Even snatching up FIRST PLACE. For an Orcs & Goblins list that's extremely impressive.

*'''Bad Moon Banner:''' Crap version of Gnoblar Trappers. Can only be taken by a Night Goblin Battle Standard Bearer and makes his unit Stubborn. Dangerous terrain tests are only taken by models that charge into base to base contact with the unit with the BSB, so only the front rank of a charging unit gets hit. Told you it's crap. Stubborn is great but goblins rarely loses steadfast and you have crown of command cheaper and in more flexible way than as magic banner on goblin BSB. Being in soft cover really doesn't change much as you just can add more bodies.

*'''Skull Wand of Kaloth:''' Situational item at best. The Skull Wand grants the bearer Terror and can unleash a curse at the start of every round of close combat, forcing one model in contact with the bearer to pass a Leadership test or automatically die. Can only be taken by a Shaman. Interesting item but made useless due to costing a whooping 75 points. Nobody wants to send an unprotected wizard lord into combat, even if it has a cool magic wand. If only our shamans could be better protected and could buy that protection with Wand it would make tricky, nasty item. Also Ld test are nowadays pretty easy to pass.

===Magic===
As mentioned previously, O&G Shamans get access to two unique lores: the Big Waaagh! (orcs), and the Little Waaagh! (goblins). Where most of your damage spells will be coming from the Big Waaagh!, Little Waaagh! spells focus on debuffs for your opponent and buffs for you. Often times you may want to take one of each type so you can access both lores, and generally this is what you should do. Additionally, sometimes greater numbers of lesser shamans can be more effective than a single great shaman, as with the typical greenskin Ld they will be miscasting at least once a game. It's always nice to have backup casters when your main one's head explodes in a shower of magical gore and brains (and it WILL).

The best magic combo is usually a level 4 Savage Orc Shaman and a level 1 (or 2) night goblin shaman.  The Savage Orc usually totes the lucky shrunken head and the night goblin totes a dispel scroll.  The night goblin is either a level 1 with the ruby ring of ruin or a level 2.  

With this combo, you have plenty of options to choose from. 


As far as spells go:

Instead of writing about them, there's an article by a member of Da Warpath (Orc & Goblin website) about our magic.  It's written better than anything else I could say.  Plus, I'm lazy.  Go here to read and be amazed by what our magic can do for you.


http://z3.invisionfree.com/Orc__Goblin_Warpath/index.php?showtopic=33291