# Orcs Tactics - Characters



## Ratvan

After the all important race specific rules the character section of the army is the most important of the 8th Edition Orcs and Goblins Army Book, Firstly I will cover the specific character choices and then will briefly cover the Waaagh Magic. Please note the Orc overview is taken from Bringer of Victories overview, as is the Goblins with some of my insights.

Orcs Tactics - Picking Your Lord
Along with Skaven , O & G can and often do put out an array of cheap and cheerful Lords and Heroes, on the other hand you can also kit 'Da Boss' with a variety of wargear both non and magical that can run his cost up to rival that of Elves or Chaos.

Orc Warboss
The cheapest option for an *ORC *warboss, and also does the least and lends the least amount of killing power and is often taken for the cheap Ledership 9! He can be tooled up as a combat monster, but in all honesty if you want that you really want....

Savage Orc Warboss
He trades light armor for a 6+ ward save. He also gets an extra attack due to Frenzy, which also gives him Immune To Psychology. He benefits from "choppas" so he has 5 strength 6 attacks. My advice: mount him on a warboar (for another str 5 attack) and give him an additional hand weapon for a total of 7 strength 6 attacks. 

Black Orc Warboss
This guy costs the most of the non special characters and you get what you pay for points-wise. Immune To Psychology and Quell Animosity make him the best leadership character in the army. You don't want to give him magical weapons, because the Armed to the Teef rule is pretty useful and you don't want to negate it. If you take this character don't overdo the magic items, give him defensive equipment like a 4+ ward save, and smash big monsters with his strength 8 great weapon. 

Goblin Warboss
Low points cost for a relatively fighty lord. I can see two uses: Goblin-star, and Folding Fortress. Goblin Star is a goblin unit where the first row (or two) are made up entirely of cheap fighty Lords and heroes. It's a pain to kill that unit since attacks have to be allocated individually, and they can hit back pretty strongly for cheap characters. 

Night Goblin Warboss
Trades lower leadership for better initiative. I always take this guy in every army I take (because I'm a Night Gobbo at heart) and give him some cheap equipment, Shrieking Blade and Enchanted Shield and away I go. There is not much point giving him more equipment as for the cost you could get another Night Goblin Lord! The strength 4/5 Attacks are much needed in an all Goblin Force

Savage/Orc Great Shaman
I have not used these guys to be honest and from what I can see there is not much point beyond a fluffy theme or another scroll carrier

Night/Goblin Great Shaman
Ah now this is where things get interesting, at the moment I am trying to decide whether a level 4 Night Goblin Shaman is worth taking over 2 or 3 Level 2 Shamans, as with Magic Mushrooms you stand a 1 in 6 chance of failing your spell and a 10% chance of causing yourself a wound in the process. What are they good for? +4 to dispel.... its a weighty choice and one I have yet to decide on one way or another.

Picking Your Hero's

Orc Big Bosses 
The Vanilla Orc is rather dull and doesn't do as much, the Savage Orc again is better to be put in combat, maybe on a chariot with additional hand weapon and taken in multiples. 6 Strength 5 attacks plus impact hits, plus the boars, plus the crews.

The Black Orc Big Boss is your BSB, the superior defensive equipment and leadership make him ideal, you can always throw him in to a Savage Orc mob with the Crown of Command and let them rip. 

(Night) Goblin Big Bosses
Goblin Star units, 5 of these with Light Armour and Great Weapon costs 180 ish points, if these make the entire front row of the unit they will take some serious damage to shift, depending on who you're facing i'd consider additional hand weapons for the amount of strength 4 attacks you can throw out or great weapons for the S5's. 

Orc & Savage Orc Shamans
Keep these cheap and avoid Savage Orc casters as you really don't want Frenzy on a wizard, if you give them magic items consider feedback scroll to mess with enemy casters.

(Night) Goblin Shamans
Always take the Night Goblin casters, With the Magic Mushroom rule and the Sneaky Stealing lore attribute this is how you can steal the magic phase. Don't give them magic items, just take more of them.


Orc and Goblin Magic

You will never, ever, ever, well.... rarely dominate the magic phase with Orcs and Goblins. The Greenskins have no Teclis or dual Slaans so consider any offensive spells that you get off as a bonus.

Spells of the Little Waaagh!

Lore Attribute: Sneaky Stealing, Whenever a Goblin Shaman successfully casts a spell on a 5 or 6 you steal one of your opponants dispel dice to add to your power pool (it also turns green ) This obviously has some interesting uses for multiple casters, use lots of low level spells to either draw out or steal dispel dice ready to push through some larger spells towards the end of the phase. 

Signiture Spell: Sneaky Stabbing (6+) Targetted unit receives the Armour Piercing special rule, if the unit is attacking the flanks or rear you also can re roll all to hit and to wound. I like to have 2 shamans that can utilise this spell as the re roll ability on a unit of wolf or spider riders is great to have and since my Night Gobbos have such mighty strength (not) the Armour Piercing is a great bonus. This has good synergy with Magic Mushrooms. Throw 1 dice at it, getting a freebie with the shrooms and you have an easy way to use Sneaky Stealing and get a respectable buff to your units. 

1.) Vindictive Glare (5+) 24" Magic Missile dealing 2D6 Strength 3 hits, can be buffed to 3D6 Stregnth 3 hits. To be honest I am always disappointed when I roll this spell as warmachines and fanatics often do far more damage, although when boosted it does have its uses against skaven and T3 Elves and Empire.

2.) Gift of the Spider God (8+) Augmented Unit gains posioned attacks, which combined with cheap Night Goblin shooting units can cause some issues for the opponent, especially if they are also armour piercing...

3.) Itchy Nuisance (8+) Hexed units Movement and Iniative is reduced by D6. This is how I deal with Death Star units. Every turn of -d6 movement is essentially another turn of getting pounded by spear chukkas, doom divers and posioned armour piercing shooting. When they do get to combat they will be highly likely to be I1 which means that the Greenies attack first!!!

4.) Gork'll Fix It (8+) Hexed unit re rolls all successful rolls of 6 on to hit, to wound and armour saves. This isn't bad but hardly a game changer, it does however work well against things like skinks, goblars, goblins and dark elf crossbowmen who usually need a 5 or 6 to hit anyway.

5.) Night Shroud (9+) The Shaman's unit gains soft cover against shooting and all chargers take a difficult terrain test, can be buffed to 15+ which'll affect every unit within 12". This is the reason I no longer take the Bad Moon Banner as this spell does not cost me the points, the dangerous terrain test is useful and can be used as anti-horde defnse as on overage a unit of 40 charges your unit, 6-7 will fail on average before they get into combat, which is less opponants that my Gobbo's need to club down..

6.) Curse of da Bad Moon (15+) Small Template that moves 4D6" any models passed over by the template must take a random characteristic test or die! The buffed version costs 25+ and you can choose the characteristic to test on. Although this CAN be powerful its definately not a Green Sun of Xerus, a Level 2 with Power Scroll can push this through but you'd be foolish to try and create a game plan around it. 


Spells of the Big Waaagh!

Lore Attribute: If there are more friendly unit sin combat then fleeing increase all spell strengths by 1! This is fairly situational you probably wont see this bonus much beyond turn 2-4.

Signiture Spell: Gaze of Mork (7+) Draw a line 4D6" from Shaman, anything under the line takes Strength 4 hit, can be buffed to 8D^. At first glance this looks amazing, sniping BSB's, Wizards, Lords, ect but it short range and only strength 4. Also 50% of the time it'll do bugger all...

1.) Brain Bursta (6+) 18" Strength 5 Snipe Spell, can be buffed to 36" on a 9+. Much, much better, almost makes me want an Orc Shaman. Since the spell has the sniper special rule you can target musicians and unit champions.... why musicians? Well they're pretty good in 8th plus the enemy not often can see the issue sof this until its too late

2.) Fist of Gork (8+) Remains in Play, the shaman gets +3 Strength and +3 Attacks and a 6+ Ward. I can see this as purely a defensive measure as why would you want your shaman in combat? Although most people's ways of killing a wizard is in CC this could stop you from being charged!

3.) Hand of Gork (9+) Pick up and move a unit 3D6" away, can be buffed to be 5D6" away. Repositioning your units mid game can be game winning, that horde of Wood Elf archers has just repositioned across the table? No problem. One of the Best in the Book

4.) 'Eadbutt (9+) Direct Damage Spell with 4D6" that does strength 4 D3 wounds, can only be done to a wizard. Powerful but short ranged, probably a one shot thing on heros level casters.

5.) 'Ere We Go (11+) All Orc units within 2D6" get re-rolls to hit in combat until next turn. This is nasty. The ONLY drawback is that it only affects Orcs, so not goblins, trolls, giants ect. If you run Orc heavy and IF you can get this off for multiple charges you can take down a lot of the enemy.

6.) Foot of Gork (15+). Direct Damage Foot Template 36" and Scatters D6". All models take multiple Strength 6 hits. Can be buffed to 18+ which means on a 1 the spell hits your own unit, 2-3 Ends, and 4+ resolved again on another opponants unit.


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