# Orcs + Goobers in 8th edition. Some thoughts.



## Whizzwang (Dec 31, 2008)

I pretty much exclusively play Orcs/Orks and have done now for some 20 years. Gorkamorka for me was like greenskinned heaven in a box.

I've managed to play a fair few games in 8th edition and here are my thoughts so far.

*New army composition:* 
We're back to the days where we can buy multiple Black Orc heroes to help with animosity. Before the change in 5th? (was it 5th? I dunno, it was years ago now and I'm going senile so it's hard to remember) we used to be able to stick a Black Orc in every unit to make them immune to animosity. Then we were limited to 1 lord and 3 heroes, 1 or 2 of which pretty much HAD to be a Shaman to stand a chance in the magic phase so we became animosity's bitch. Now while black orcs don't make you immune to animosity anymore, they're certainly useful to have in your key units that you need to get in position.

I'm not an advocate of slapping a B.Orc in EVERY unit. 
a) it's not very characterful to have B.Orcs leading gobbos, they'd never lower themselves to such a level
b) it's a dangerous tactic in boar boys for example, as you don't have many and a tooled up B.Orc will happily munch 6 of them given a chance

That being said, we can now take our 2 or 3 Shammies AND a B.orc Warboss as our general, 1 as a BSB and an extra hero to lay down some smack on some unruly units. This actually gives us a little more reliability as an army. 5th to 8th I can't count the number of games I've lost because one of my units has sat on it's arse at exactly the wrong moment. So far, those days seem to be behind us.

*Magic:*
The new magic system seems to bring lots of cool new toys, but at the cost of some awesome old tactics. We get more wizards, but we only get each spell once. Pre 8th we could take a level 4 and 3 level 2's in a magic heavy army and on a good day get 4 copies of our power spells. Foot, Hand, Warpath or Waaagh for example. Some will argue that we've been hit with a nerf bat with this change. I disagree. We were rather OP if we could throw 4 copies of Foot about with gay abandon. Given that we can now field 10+ wizards in an army, we'd be broken beyond belief if we could throw 10 Feet.

Why would you take so many wizards if you can't multiple up on spells?

Simple. Armies with their own spell lists count any spell they can substitute to as a signature spell, and signature spells can be copied all day long. So, in our greenskin army, we can have as many Gaze of Gorks as we like for 50 points. With the ability to add magic level to casting, a dinky little Goober can cast Gaze on a 4+ on 1 dice. if he fails he can't cast anything else. Damn, what a shame, he only has 1 spell. Yeh on it's own this is not the greatest spell in the world, but it doesn't allow armour saves and throwing 10D6 hits at something like Chaos Warriors or even Knights will mince them.

Channeling: This is a fantastic rule. For 5 points you get a chance to add power dice to your pool. An average magic phase should give you 7 power dice. so you can add 5 more to hit your max. A few level 1's running around can give you the dice advantage in your magic phase easily.

Scrolls: Multiple wizards = more scrolls. The new scrolls are some nice little toys to play with and since we can cheaply get all them on the field, why wouldn't we.

Miscasting: We have traditionally had a much more painful miscast table than any other army (with the exception of ogres, but they use a different casting system). In 8th we find ourselves in the strange position of actually having a BETTER miscast table to roll on. I expect we get that changed if/when we get a new book whenever that may be. However, until then, this is a rather pleasant side effect of the new system.

*Horde / Steadfast*
Horde: We get a bonus for taking SHITLOADS of troops.... and our troops are dirt cheap? BONUS. We probably benefit from the Horde rule better than any other army out there. Yes there's an argument that Skaven can horde too, however I'd argue that they would be better opting for steadfast since mass ranks is crucial to their leadership. As such, we can go 10+ wide fairly easily. Gobbos with spears are 4 points each, we can field 100 of them for little expense. 100 is probably going a bit too far, but you get the idea. There's really no reason why any unit of spear Goblins would be any less than 50 models. that's 40..... FORTY attacks. Throw a Goblin BSB in there with Spider Banner and all of a sudden you're chucking 40 POISONED attacks. That should scare anything into thinking about charging you twice. Though why stop at a horde of spears? Try archers. With volley enabling lots of extra shots from rear ranks, goblin archers become awesome (field these in 100 and depending how wide you deploy you're firing 60-70 shots) put your spider banner here and show those damn skinks how posion shooting REALLY works.

Steadfast: Cheap unit costs enable us to field units 7, 8, 9 ranks deep with ease. With a BSB in the area it makes Orcs really hard to shift. T4 basic troops are hard enough to wound for most equivalent units in most armies, and now if they do win, the orcs are not going anywhere.




Just a few musings from what I've discovered from playing these last few weeks. Obviously there's LOADS more still to learn and play with, for example:
Vanguard moves for fast cavalry, you can't charge if you use it, but you can cast Waaagh or Hand of Gork to get them into combat. This should make wolf riders very cheap and useful warmachine killers. Haven't had a chance to play with this yet, but I intend to as soon as I get 3 or 4 more units of woofs.


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## Helvron (Jan 4, 2010)

O_O i am glad i chose to play Orcs and gobbo's now. the possiblities are almost endless.
thanks for your run down of the 8th edition


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

I'd like to suggest the Combat Gobbo Lord - which is surprisingly effective.

Night Goblin Warboss, Lucky's Dirk, Spiteful Shield, Warboss Um's Best Boss At, and Talisman which stops the enemies taking Ward Save.

With the number of Magical Weapons they're in combat with, they're around S6-8, ignoring Ward Saves, with a 5+ Ward Save. You can always change it to the one which grants the user the opponents Armour and Ward. Worst thing is I5, though.


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## neilbatte (Jan 2, 2008)

Shagga's screaming sword (The one that gives you extra attacks is awesome against the really cheap characterspam armies) I came up against a gobbo unit that was a front rank of heroes and happily munched through the lot.
The suicide goblin hero is now more viable as it's a cheap investment and their is no character allowance to worry about, the brimstone bauble and spear that gives st boost when side or rear charging are great on a wolf riding hero.


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## Cheese meister (Jun 5, 2010)

at whizzwang channeling doesn't cost any points it's just an ability wizards have where if they roll a 6 then they add a power dice to the pool


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