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

==Tactics==

'''How Does The Army Play?'''

The Orc and Goblin army plays a little differently than you'd expect.  The main thing that you'll see across almost all O&G armies is 2-3 pretty big blocks of troops backed up by lots of chaff units and war machines.  The army works best by softening up the opponent with shooting and magic while using chaff units to hold up/redirect big units and assassinate war machine hunters.  Once the opponent's war machine hunters are dead, the O&G player picks his/her combats by using redirectors (wolf riders, heroes on wolves), board denial units (pumpwagons, manglers), and countercharging the units that were weakened with shooting and magic.  This changes depending on the opponent's army, but you'll usually see variations on this strategy.

'''Typical Things You'll Usually See in a Competitive List'''

*  Savage Orc Big 'Uns (30+) with Savage Shaman (and Lucky Shrunken Head)
*  Big troll blocks, usually 8 or more
*  Rock Lobbas and Doom Divers
*  Maxed Mangler Squigs
*  Big Night Goblin Units (50+) with netters, sometimes with several cheap night goblin heroes toting great weapons
*  Goblin bigbosses on wolves as chaff units and war machine hunters
*  Multiple magic levels (usually a mix of big and little waaagh! lores)
*  Black orc giving quell animosity to the magic user's unit and a BSB giving rerolls
*  Pump wagons and wolf chariots

'''Tips for Playing Orcs & Goblins'''

'''1.'''  Orcs & Goblins is one of the only armies where their special rule is a ''drawback.''  Elves get always strikes first, daemons get ward saves, and O&G get...animosity.  Thanks, Mat Ward.  We also fear elves, which is just icing on the cake.  It's almost like they want O&G to be a mid-tier army.  Oh, wait...they do. (Well to be fair, the orcs do have choppas, which is extremely good against armies with good armor.) Somehow this is also Mat Ward's fault.  Anyway, most competitive orcs and goblins lists mitigate animosity and take a combination of units and gear that minimize it.  Here are things you can do to mitigate animosity:

*  Put a black orc character in a unit,especially in a unit with a level 4 caster.  You don't want your unit squabbling and wasting a valuable turn not stomping the opponent into goo with the Foot of Gork.
*  Take units that don't suffer from animosity (trolls, black orcs, pumpwagons, manglers, etc.).
*  Use cheap goblin heroes on giant wolves instead of wolf riders for your war machine hunters.

'''2.'''  Manglers and Pumpwagons are NOT throwaway chaff units.  One thing I see time and time again (and used to do) is throwing the pumpwagons and mangler squigs forward.  Opponents love moving a fast cavalry into the mangler to kill it.  That is not a good use of the mighty mangler squig.  Instead, the mangler works best as an area denial unit or a countercharge unit.  To do this well, you have to shoot and magic the enemy's chaff units before they get to the mangler and step on it.  After you kill the opponent's chaff, you have two great options:

*  Area Denial-  You move the mangler in front of their expensive unit.  They can either stop (giving you more time to Doom Diver/Rock Lobba/Magic/Foot/Curse/Throw Rocks at the unit and soften it up.  Alternately, they can walk through it, taking the 3D6 hits and likely decimating the unit. 

*  Countercharge-  Orcs and Goblins aren't a super fast army.  Almost every army (unless it's Tomb Kings) is going to be faster than you.  Orcs and Goblins excel at taking charges and countercharging in the flank.  With mangler squigs, you can hide them behind your lines and throw them against the side of the table (they stay still this way, but you take a dangerous terrain test).  When the enemy charges you, you can throw the mangler through the enemy units.  Usually by this point they're all lined up for you because they've charged your Savage Orc horde or Night Goblin horde.

Pumpwagons are similar, but have a few slightly different uses.  With outriggas, the pumpwagon has a huge threat range.  They work great in the early game by protecting your war machines on the edges of the table.  You can throw them into the side of the table to stop their movement and then turn and charge when the enemy gets near.  After that, they work great as countercharge units (throwing them into the flanks of enemies trying to charge you).