[LoreMaster]

Havnt had much time for warhammer lately so for a bit of a fun project im looking at doing a night goblins army, cant see any other army being more wacky than them. I've got a battle for skull pass box knocking around somewhere so i've got a couple of solid blocks of spears and archers as a good base, looking at getting some fanatics and squigs to go with them but goblins are a bit different to my usual 40k area so its a bit of a blind area. Any goblin players with pointers would be greatly appreciated k:

 

[The Son of Horus]

Goblins are an interesting army, purely because the actual units of goblins don't do the heavy lifting of the army. I have an Orcs & Goblins army, and in that instance, the goblins fill a very different role than in a pure goblin army. However, the pure goblin army is actually a bit better, I think, than a mixed army at the moment. Hopefully, GW will fix that shortly with the upcoming new edition, followed quickly by the O&G release.

You'll want to make sure you maximize the number of things like Spear Chukkas, Doom Divers, Fanatics, and Squig Hoppers you bring, because the individual goblin, no matter whether they're a common Goblin or Night Goblin, is -bad-. They win through static combat resolution, so you want to be sure that you've got enough of 'em in each unit. Popular unit sizes for the several Goblin players around here range from 35 to 40 gobbos in a unit with spears. Between the wacky shooting attacks and raw numbers at that point, they do fine. The reason you need 35-40 of 'em in a unit is because WS2 is bad; S3 is strictly average; and anyone who isn't another goblin or Skaven Slave is going to kill a bunch of 'em before they get to strike.

Of course, being one of the few people out there who finds misfires and general mishaps funny is a must for playing Goblins-- there's a lot that can go wrong when you bring three Fanatics per unit. However, those Fanatics are what'll make the army playable.

If you want to bring Trolls, you're going to need to bring either Skarsnik or pick up an Orc character (which isn't necessarily a bad thing-- a Black Orc Warboss leading a huge mob of goblins is actually pretty funny.) As trolls stand, Leadership 4 and Stupidity -really- don't mix, and Night Goblin leadership is only one better. Trolls add a surprising kick to the army though, and make it possible to (more) effectively fight elite infantry that makes it to your lines (Warriors of Chaos come to mind.)

Keep in mind you're not going to win any tournaments with Goblins-- it's a fun army, and they'll even win games-- but any army that Causes Fear is going to have them fleeing for the hills. Cavalry armies and armies that are just as numerous (read: Skaven) are also troublesome.

 

[jimbob1254]

I agree with what horus said
One of my mates at my local GW is doing a night goblin army and he has literally brought 5 battle for skull pass's and sold the dwarfs on and the only orcs he's included and black orcs
and grimgor, he's blocks of goblins are 10x4 and he's archers are 20x2 and he has multiple blocks of these.
what im trying to say is get tons of goblins

Cheers

Jimbob

 

[LoreMaster]

Cheers son of horus I did some browsing of the GW online store and saw they've got some new river trolls out which looked alright so was thinking of picking a box of them up. Never bother with tournaments really just the odd battle here and there as it is so im not overly worried about that side of things so much. Thanks for tip on spear chukkas, doomdivers and black orcs, just need to pile up on the spearman a bit more to give it a good base.
Yeah jimbob the battle for skull pass seems a good way to get night gobbos and i might have to cannibalise the dwarfs a bit so i can make a few additions to the look of my spearman blocks

 

[Skartooth]

I'm mainly a goblin player. They are a great army for friendly games. I would recommend starting of with a solid base of goblins (like you already have done) once you have done that bulk out the force with some special and rare chioces squig hoppers/herds, spear chukka's maybe even a giant.

After a few practice games you'll come to terms with the army. They panic very easily, one check could result in the loss of your entire army. Try to minimise this by taking large blocks of night goblin infantry. This means it will be harder for the enemy to inflict 25% casualties.

With the new edition round the corner it's looking like goblins are going to pack quite a punch. With the new horde rule a unit of 50 Night Goblin Spears (5x10) will get 40 attacks per round. Add nests and a cheap fighty hero (whitch will be easier to fit in with the new edition to) and you have a very tough unit

Hope that helps

Skar