Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins

"Gork and Mork!"

– Game battle chant for Orcs

"We'z gonna getcha!"

– Game battle chant for Goblins

This is the tactica for the Total War: Warhammer version of the Greenskins.

Why Play Greenskins?

• Because you think the point of war isn't to protect your home, subjugate others, seek glory, gain revenge, burn everything that is civilized or follow a plan nobody knows for what, but something much simpler - having fun.
• Cause you think fantasy-flavoured football riots are hilarious.
• Because you want to paint the map green through the power of ultraviolence.
• You're either brutally cunning or cunningly brutal.
• "WAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!!!"

Pros

• Aggressive Infantry: What? You think Da Boyz are gonna lay about and let those gits come to them. Hell no! Greenskins are a rush faction and their infantry love to run up and smash the hell out of their enemies. Combine this with your battlefield WAAAGH mechanic, and you will either dominate the infantry fight or leave the enemy with damn near nothing left.
• Deceptively Good at Ranged: I mean, OK you aren't going to out shoot the Wood Elves anytime soon, but a lot of players underestimate how good you are at skirmishing. With cheap skirmish cav, surprisingly good archers that can defend themselves and really solid artillery, you are actually pretty damn good at winning fights from afar. Hell, in some matchups this is sometimes your best way to win!
• AP: You are a tank buster faction, with a crap load of AP in both ranged and melee. Factions who rely on heavy armor like Dwarfs or Chaos Warriors hate how well you can punch through their high armor values and delete models.
• Monsters: The Greenskins have some of the most and best monsters to throw at their enemies. Three species of trolls, giant spiders, big stone monuments, hydras, giants, wyverns and giant spiders on fire... and multiple flavors of squigs too, of course.
• Massive unit roster: Because your faction is three races with three subcategories apiece plus monsters, you have an extremely broad pool of unit to draw from. Every unit is fabulously designed and brimming with character. You wil not want for opportunities to play with cool thematic armies.
• Humour: If our favorite merry band of 1970s English football hooligans doesn't earn at least a chuckle at one point, you're playing the wrong game. Paired with amazing voice acting and funny writing (the research tree, for example, is called "Big Thinkin'"), CA has done a perfect job of carrying over the ridiculously funny tone of the Tabletop Greenskins.

Cons

• Low Leadership: Greenskin units tend to have bad Leadership, especially Goblins. The general lack of units that cause Fear or Terror and are Immune to Psychology exacerbates this problem when fighting spooky foes. You have options to mitigate this issue, the Black Orc Big Boss especially, but must still expect your troops to be running fairly often.
• Tricky Heavy Cavalry: Boars are slow movers and tend to lose to most other heavy cav within their price range. As such, you better make sure to support them and work out strategies to get your money's worth from them.
• Lack of Armour: If you aren't a Lord/Hero, a Black Orc or a monster your armor is probably defined as "Tissue Paper"
• Lack of Anti-Large: Your anti large options are extremely limited, especially outside campaign where you can at least try to mitigate these issues. Big 'Uns (both kinds), Boar Big 'Uns (both kinds) and the Arachnarok Spider are the only units with unmodified anti-large bonuses and none of them have charge defenses against cavalry and monsters. As such, well-aimed and -timed cavalry charges can wreck your battle lines.
• Slow Movers: Aside from your gobbo cav, your troops aren't the fastest things around, so expect to be out maneuvered by most good opponents.
• Lack of Air Power: You get exactly two options for flying units: A high-end Wyvern mount for certain Warbosses and a campaign-exclusive Wyvern unit. Between this and merely being decent at ranged, you will learn to hate and despise races with lots of flying options. It also draws attention to how slow your army is to reach the enemy.
• DLC Reliant: As with all Core Races (and soon some DLC ones) a lot of your really good units are behind DLCs. If you want to take your green friends and win somewhat consistently, you may be forced to hand over some extra dough.

Universal Traits

• Expendable: A trait most of your Goblins have. As the name implies, your Orks don't give a rat's ass about using Goblins as cannon-fodder and won't suffer any leadership penalties for watching entire units of them explode in horrible ways. Expendable units themselves aren't so brave and will get scared shitless if they see a Carnosaur rampaging through a neighboring Goblin formation, but that's not really your Warboss' problem, now is it?
• WAAAAGH!: Did anyone really expect it to be called anything else? This is your in battle army ability, used in both campaign and multiplayer. For every second an entity (not a unit, entity) is in melee, it will fill up a bar at the top of the screen. Once that bar is filled, you can call a WAAAGH giving your army a map-wide boost to melee damage and Immune to Psychology. Even the humble Goblin can become a decently scary unit if he is backed up by a WAAAGH. This means you are rewarded for going with a wide melee build, as it will allow you to build up this bar much quicker and get these WAAAAGHs off much faster. In a way, it's very similar to the Dark Elves' Murderous Prowess only it's actually much better for two reasons. One, since you have to push a button to activate it you can use it whenever you want, so you can wait for that perfect moment, and two if you keep the fight going you can use it more than once, though your troops need to be in melee longer and longer to get off successive WAAAGHs. In campaign, your legendary lords have unique WAAAGHs, that can reward going with certain army styles.
• Reputation/Call to Waaagh!: Finally, the dark days of the old, useless Waaagh! mechanic are over! Krumpin' gits, raiding and basically, everything that involves a good scrap earns you reputation, that gives you growth, income, and public order bonuses. When you reach the maximum of 200 reputation, you can make a Call to Waaagh, dedicated to either Mork or Gork, which gives you bonuses for either ranged or melee troops respectively. When the Waaagh is called, Waaagh armies will start to build up at random on all of your armies, that contain as many units as the army had when the Waaagh was started. They work as additional support armies that reinforce your standing army in combat and consist mostly of fodder, but can, depending on the placement of your army on the map, also contain some exotic units that you can't get elsewhere, like Armoured Squig Hoppers or Feral Wyverns. When you start a Waaagh, you also select an enemy factions capital, if you occupy and hold or raze it within 20 turns, you gain a trophy that has permanent effects depending on how strong the enemy was (i.e. killing a rank 89 faction in the middle of nowhere will yield a smaller bonus compared to factions like Reikland, Karaz-a-Karak or Eataine) and what kind of enemy it was. This mechanic makes Greenskins a serious threat on the campaign map because not even High Elves can hope to withstand 40 units at once, not to mention the support the Orcs might bring with them. It's best used to support your bursts of expansion in a truly Orky fashion and as an added benefit, it also feels very close to the Fluff.
• Scrap: The second, and very small mechanic the Greenskins have. Killing enemies in battles and razing settlements earns you the Scrap resource, which can be spent on certain technologies, unit upgrades and, if you play as Grom the Paunch, cooking dishes in his cauldron.

Legendary Lords

• Grimgor Ironhide: The one and only Grimgor is a close-combat beatstick who specialises in cracking lines and peeling tin can infantry. His character-killer abilities also make him ideal for going after enemy Lords and Heroes. Just remember that he's not invincible and will need support to avoid getting crumped by things outside of his jurisdiction. Send chaff units to absorb charges from large single entities, Big 'Uns to help him handle cavalry and monsters, Shamans to boost his stats or obscure his approach where necessary and of course Black Orcs to help him crack heavy infantry lines. His personal skill tree will majorly buff Black Orcs and Big 'Uns in his army, so make sure to go for that as soon as possible. Unfortunately, his biggest weakness is very limited mobility. He gets no mounts and moves at Black Orc speed, making him very vulnerable to kiting from the more mobile factions in the game, so make sure to send fast units like Wolf Riders and Spider Riders to tarpit his targets in case you find him targeting something fast (Elves especially).

Grimgor's faction, Grimgor's 'Ardboyz starts in the middle of the Badlands at Black Crag and in a prime position to become a formidable power. Your immediate enemies are the various Greenskin tribes of the Badlands that need a proper krumpin', some Skaven and the isolated Dwarfs of Karak Azul. The main Dwarfen faction of Karaz-A-Karak will be your main enemy for the majority of the early to late game. If you want a general tutorial on how to deal with Dwarfs and their annoyingly thick armour, you pick Grimgor.

• Azhag the Slaughterer: Azhag is a Hybrid Lord that can do a bit of everything and currently the only Orc LL with access to a flying mount in the form of his trusty Wyvern Skullmuncha. Prior to "The Warden and the Paunch", he was the only character the Greenskins had with access to the Lord of Death, which is a pretty good lore, all things considered. In direct combat, he holds up well enough but is inferior against most Lords and Heroes that are either dedicated melee characters (Like Karl Franz or Grimgor) or are just really tanky; but his utility is pretty good. Too bad that his biggest weakness in MP is his exorbitant price tag; Skullmuncha has to be included because he is too flimsy otherwise.

Azhag got his own faction now! He leads the Bonerattlaz in the very northeastern corner of the Old World, starting in Red Eye Mountain and diplomatic bonusses with Vampire factions (and Arkhan the Black) and at war with the Elector Count of Ostermark. A unique advantage Azhag has over other Greenskin factions is that he makes Temperate climate settlements inhabitable (it's "unpleaseant" to others). Also worthy of note is that Azhag alone gets access to the Great Halls of Nagashizzar Landmark, which is only available to Vampires and Arkhan the Black and provides immunity to all effects of Vampiric Corruption as well as a +50 opinion increase with these factions.

• Skarsnik (DLC): is a Triscky lord having a surprising about of defense and offense despite being a goblin thanks to the squig he is chained to. He is a support lord that will give enemies hell, with Trisksy Traps letting a detachment of your army be invisible until they do a surprise flank. His Waaagh! gives bonuses AP Damage to missile weapons.

As Boss of the Crooked Moon Tribe, Skarsnik's campaign is almost entirely no Orcs allowed, as he needs to take and hold Karak Eight Peaks to recruit most Orc units. Until then, his goals are essentially a race across the Gray Mountains and Badlands towards his old stomping grounds.

• Wurrzag, The Great Green Prophet (FLC): Your obligatory Caster LL, and he is not messing around. As with most caster lords, he shouldn't see combat unless you're absolutely forced to send him into melee. He boosts your spellcasting by a ludicrous degree and is basically the loremaster for the Lore of the big Waaagh!, has Greater Arcane Conduit and great discounts on the best spells his Lore gives him, most notably 'Ere we go! and Foot of Gork. As if that wasn't enough he also makes Savage Orcs almost as tough as Black Orcs and making them cheaper in the process. Can passively give magical attacks to his entire army in campaign which will make them better at krumping everyone except dwarfs due to their innate magic resistance.(until game 3 that is)

Wurrzag starts to the west of Grimgor in the Bloody Handz faction. He has the unique mechanic of being able to build Savage Orc recruitment buildings anywhere on the map instead of merely in the southern portions of the Badlands.

• Grom the Paunch (DLC): Fatter than anyone, Grom is as goofy as he is powerful. Picking Grom unlocks access to his Cauldron, where you can cook food for him and his armies from ingredients that have a mini-quest attached in order to unlock them. Those ingredients come in five categories and their sources are fairly intuitive (Kill a Dragon for dragon wings, kill Dwarfs for Dwarfen Beer etc.). You can also buy them from the Food Merchant which will show up from time to time and can be interacted with by placing a Hero or Army next to her. Diffrent combinations of ingredients give different kinds of food and you need to unlock the recipes themselves first. But what is all this food for, you may now ask? The dishes give factionwide buffs depending on the recipe, and buffs to Grom himself, and nearly all of them are awesome in some form or another (not to mention that the idea that your main quest revolves around finding stuff to eat is just a hilarious contrast to the usual seriousness of the setting). In combat, Grom isn't that bad either. He gives decent buffs to Goblin units and Pump wagons and he himself rides on his big pimp car (Grom does not walk) as a massive chariot. His big mass (pun intended) ensures that he has little trouble punching through enemy lines, although prolonged exposure to enemies with bonusses against large is not something he likes.

Grom has the honour of being the only Greenfaction with access to both Mortal Empires and Eye of the Vortex as well having wildly differing starting positions. He leads the Broken Axe faction and starts the game at war with his eternal enemy, Eltharion the Grim. Your main campaign goal revolves around getting a foothold on Ulthuan and destroying Tor Yvresse, which can take quite some time, but is easily the most fun you can have with any of the Greenskin campaigns, CA did a great job with him. On Mortal Empires, he starts in the middle of Bretonnia in the not-so-creatively named Massif Orcal, on Eye of the Vortex, he starts as far away from Ulthuan as you can get in Karag Orrud, near the southeastern edge of the map. It's important to remember that Eltharion will always send some armies your way.

Workshop Boyz

These lads are not leaders of factions, instead being unlockable by any faction through research in the Big Thinkin' techtree. They are both semi-Legendary in that they are Immortal and have specific army-buffing gimmicks but don't have unique voice actors or lines. Also you can change their names.

• Raknik Spiderclaw: Raknik is a Great Goblin Shaman who gives buffs to all kinds of spider-related units in his army, has the ability to summon Spider Hatchlings up to five times as a bound summon spell and can ride a Catchweb Spidershrine.

• Oglok the 'Orrible: Oglok is an Orc Warboss who gives decent bonuses to Orc infantry, Boar Boyz and Boar Chariots.

Units

Generic Lords

• Orc Warboss: The simple and cheaper beatstick lord. He's not nearly as tricksy as the other two Lords, but he makes up for it with great melee stats. He's also the only other lord besides Azhag to have a Wyvern mount, and he's a pretty good fighter while mounted. If you just want a fighting lord to fly around the enemy and wreck their backline, the Warboss does the job just as well as Azhag for considerably cheaper.
• Goblin Great Shaman: Your Little Waaagh! caster lord. He was orignally a cheap but fragile debuffing caster, but he got a lot tougher and more dangerous once the Warden and the Paunch DLC added the option to ride a Spidershrine. Also has an ability that increase an enemy targets recharge time for extra obnoxiousness if you know how recharge-time works.
• Night Goblin Warboss (DLC): A cheaper, enemy controller type of lord. Annoying as hell with conjuring wrecking ball Loons, which causes enemies to rampage, and then Tormentor Sword to lock them in place so they get dogpiled. He's a surprisingly decent duelist especially with a giant cave squig mount, although his low armour means he has to be careful who he goes up against. On the campaign he also unlocks the Goblin-buffing perks Grom and Skarnik have in their skilltrees, making pure Goblin Armies viable in the first place.

Heroes

• Goblin Big Boss: Low cost and surprisingly decent stats. Take 2-3 of them and have them roam around gooning enemy lords + heroes. Always give them a mount. The wolf is faster + cheaper, the spider gives poison attacks to cripple high-value targets.
• Orc Shaman: Your damage-dealing and buffing wizard. Even on a Warboar, is relatively slower than his contemporary mages on their own faction mount. He is easy to catch but has decent melee offense by virtue of being part of the Orc race but less melee defense than a contemporary old-magic-man so will his hp pool will quickly drain to zero.
• Night Goblin Shaman: The sneaky debuffing caster, and he needs to be sneaky because he's just a night goblin with no mount options. He's an excellent ambusher with both Vanguard and Stalk for quickly unleashing his spells (likely before getting trampled), and he even gets some magic 'shrooms so he can cast the same spell several times in quick secession.
• Black Orc Big Boss: Big tough guy that holds the line in addition to or while the lord is the way. Has the best overall melee stats and highest armor value of your Heroes. He's a pretty great fighter, but seriously hampered by his lack of a decent mount. He also provides an aura granting allied units Immune to Psychology, shoring up the low leadership that plagues most greenskins.
• River Troll Hag (DLC): Your Death caster outside Azhag, while also being very tanky with high ap weapon damage like all swamp trolls. She has the ability to snipe and debuff important enemies while brawling it out in the front lines, but her slow speed and large size makes her easy pickings for fire arrows. Consider taking her against factions with lots of ethereal units. Aspect of the dreadknight is the only way for greenskins to get magical attacks to cut down units with physical resistance.

Melee Infantry

• Goblins: Ah, the humble Goblin. One of the few units in the game to match the numbers of Skaven and being a decent option for tarpits for that very reason. All but the most aggressive factions (Think Darks Elves or Norscans) will need quite some time to chew through 160 bodies, and if you combine them with Grom or Skarsnik, they become decent core troops on their own, thanks to the bonusses on Physical Resist and Melee Attack the Goblin Bosses can stack on them. Don't come with a bonus vs. large outside of campaign buffs and even then don't rely on it, since their weapon strength is rather poor.
• Night Goblins: Crazed Gobbos that are high as a kite and bring poisoned attacks to the table. Night Goblins are really just Goblins +1, gaining Vanguard Deployment poisoned attacks, stalk and better Melee attack. You might not use the base version in the campaign all that much, since Fanatics are superior in almost any way. As with regular Goblins, picking the right Lord can also elevate them to decent Frontline-level.
  • Da Warlord's Boyz (ROR, DLC): Night goblin warriors that trade poison for Armor rending. These nuts are a great way to patch up your lack of armour-piercing damage in the early game. They also have a place in multi-player as a cheap way to give your mobs an edge against armoured foes.
• Night Goblins (Fanatics): Identical to regular Night Goblins except for having an ability that can clear entire units if used right. Ignore the game telling you it's a vortex with unpredictable release, it's actually identical to Breath-type spells and release exactly where you tell it to.
  • Da Eight Peak Loonies (ROR, DLC): Unbreakable gobbo tarpits. Just don't wait till the last moment to use their ability since it's disabled below 25% HP.
• Orc Boyz: Da Boyz! They are no slouch and have a lot going for them. While a bit on the pricey side for an early game unit, Boyz love smashing stuff in melee and dominate early game melee encounters with ease and can even hold their ground against some of the more elite units the AI will use. Sturdy, reliable, dead killy.
• Nasty Skulkers: Glass cannon kan-openers. Stalk allows you to get them to exactly where your opponent least wants them while their smoke bomb keeps victims from getting away by slowing their movement speed by 76% for 21 seconds. Extremely effective for their cost while still coming with Goblin numbers of entities in each unit. They're also a good counter against armored heavy cav that other greenskin units struggle against. Smoke bombs + large model numbers swamps cavalry and keeps them from cycle charging while stalk means an inattentive enemy might blunder his cav into your skulkers without noticing them.
• Savage Orcs: Savage Orcs differ from regular Boyz in that they can only be built on Orc pilgrimage sites and have no armour. They make up for it by having physical resistance, a small ward save that can be buffed through research and Wurrzag. Generally speaking, more of a glass cannon.
• Orc Big Uns: Even killier than regular boys, Big 'Uns love smashing stuff and do it in a truly great fashion. Notable downsides to them are their relatively high price and their lack of a shield; missile units love shooting at them.
• Savage Orc Big Uns: The equivalent on the Savage side of the Orcs, but these guys are absurdly deadly and only Black Orcs surpass them, Wurrzag makes them arguably even stronger.
• Black Orcs: Da big Boyz. By the time they show up, the enemy frontline might as well just pack up and leave. If they do leave, you might be in a bit of trouble, since Black Orcs move very slowly (a base speed of 34 when running is considerably slower than standard infantry speed, which is in the 40-45 range for most factions) and are more than other similar elite units in the game dependent on tarpits to tie their targets down. Once they are in melee, you're in for a treat though. Base leadership of 87 means that there is practically nothing in the game they will run from, an abundance of AP damage and an obscene base weapon strength of 70 (for comparison: Swordmasters of Hoeth have 45 WS) turn every enemy unit into a fine red mist within minutes. Just beware artillery and gunners.
  • Da Krimson Killas (ROR, DLC): Have two axes and can just exterminate any other Melee infantry in the game. Has a unique (for infantry units) cleave attack where each unit will swing their two axes hitting multiple enemies at once with each swing. This makes them unparalleled infantry killers, and the single best infantry unit in the entire game. Slap Grimgor's Immortulz banner on them, stick them in a chokepoint and watch them beat entire armies by themselves.

Ranged Infantry

• Goblin Archers: Your first foot archer option and... uh... there's not much to say about them, really. They slightly out-damage Skavenslave Slingers (Hint: that's not really all that good) and can get upgrades to increase their Armour-Piercing damage from 1 damage to a whopping 4. They have their use as counters to skirmishers and cavalry archers, but get rid of them as soon as something better arrives on the scene.
• Night Goblin Archers/Night Goblin Archer Fanatics: The much preferable alternative to either of the Orc Archers and basic Goblin Archers. They share the comparatively low base damage of their arrows with similar bow infantry, but get poisoned shots - invaluable to whittle down big beasts or elite units. In a pinch you can also build them as Fanatics, that gives them a good answer to crowds - but that's really something you better leave to melee Night Goblins.
  • Da Rusty Arrers (ROR): Night gobbo archers with armor sundering. These guys make a great center for your shooting line: use them to open the enemy armour before the rest of your army finishes them off.
• Orc Arrer Boyz: A very, very two-sided sword. They gain much needed range and missile strength over Goblins, but at the cost of low accuracy and a low model count of just 80. Not all that good considering that they often lose even against mid-tier Missile Cavalry.
• Savage Orc Arrer Boyz: The same deal as Arrer Boyz, minus the armour. Yay. Only use them when no other options are available.

Cavalry and Beasts

• Goblin Wolf Riders: Cheap and quick. Has a similar stat line as generic goblins and a much lower unit count, so they don't do well against anything that can actually fight back. Low cost + high speed makes them well suited for killing weapon teams and harassing broken units off the map, similar to chaos warhounds.
  • Moon-howlers: (RoR) Gives them fear. If you need to chase low leadership enemies off the field, these are the ones to do it.
• Goblin Wolf Rider Archers: Very fast, meek skirmisher unit. Can be used to annoy the shit out of everything on foot and particularly dwarfs, but not much else.
• Forest Goblin Spider Riders: Straight upgrade from Wolf Riders, except now they actually stand a chance of killing something reliably, due to poison. Their cheapness combined with their speed make them excellent expendable throwaway units to put the enemy backline into serious disarray, while anything short of Dark Elven Dark Riders is completely unable to catch them.
• Forest Goblin Spider Rider Archers: Ranged poison delivery system. Much like the spear variety, these are a straight upgrade to wolf-riders and will accomplish more against any foe they fight.
  • Deff Creepers: (RoR) Spider rider archers with Regeneration. Quite a boon for an army that doesn't have any healing, but at the end of the day, they're still just spider riders. A decent pick, but not always worth the cost.
• Orc Boar Boyz: Your anti-infantry heavy cav. They're only have 60 speed, so don't overextend them. They can't outrun fast monsters + most enemy cav so it's pretty much game over for them if they get caught out of position.
• Orc Boar Big 'Unz: Your anti-large heavy cav. They have similar speed problems as vanilla boar boys so you'll primarily use them to deter enemy cav from charging your boyz.
  • Broken Tusks Mob: Bigger and stronger Boar Big 'Unz. There's no gimmick with this unit; they're just Orc Boar Big 'Unz with more health, armour, and damage. Simple but pretty damn effective.
• Savage Orc Boar Boyz: Actually better than regular Boar Boyz, especially when Wurrzag is leading your army. They might lose missle resistance and armour in exchange for raw Physical resist (which Wurrzag can buff up to 56%!) but gain a substantial amount of weapon strength, melee attack, AP and Frenzy.
• Savage Orc Boar Big 'Unz: Good lord, here is a proppa heavy cav for da boyz. As with the standard boar boyz, much better than their "civilized" counterparts, due to their raw damage output and a bonus vs. Infantry, especially when used with Wurrzag as your leader. Compared with regular Boar Big 'Unz, they lose their ability to fight cavalry as efficiently, so you need to look out for anything on horse or bigger.
• Squig Herd (DLC): Cheap armor piercing infantry blenders with immune to psychology and rampage. These little balls of teeth and fury are as unsubtle as they are effective; just point them at the biggest infantry the enemy has and let them go. They'll all die, but they'll take quite a few enemies down with them. Rampage is more of a benefit than a drawback for these guys; they're so disposable that blindly attacking whatever is in front of them is a better value than if they ran away. And at only 350g each, they'll trade upwards into almost everything in multiplayer. Won't win any battles on their own, but they will soften up enemies before the propa gits finish the job.
• Night Goblin Squig Hoppers (DLC): Similar to spider riders, these guys are a fast poison delivery system. Squig Hoppers are fragile and cheap but extremely quick backline harasser units that make mincemeat out of a plethora of missle units, as well as elite infantry, thanks to a bonus vs. infantry and AP attacks. The downside is that they are very squishy and vulnerable to intercepting cavalry, to which they have no answers to.
  • Durkit's Squigs: (RoR): Squig Hoppers with added missile resistance. Hoppers are pretty squishy, so anything to keep them alive helps.

Monsters and Chariots

• Trolls: Good stats and regeneration, but terrible leadership. Their purpose is cycle charging, taking breaks to recover. Completely outclassed by their DLC troll cousins.
• Stone Trolls (DLC): Like regular trolls, but 'arder. They pack more punch and are very durable with built in magic and missile resistance. Less regen though.
• River Trolls (DLC): An improvement on vanilla trolls with better melee defense and reduce enemy DPS around them. Not as good as Stone Trolls in a straight up fight, but useful as support trolls.
  • Da Swamp Fingz (RoR, DLC): Swamp Trolls with terror and poison. Causing terror is all well and good, but more importantly the ability makes Da Swamp Fings immune to fear and terror, an invaluable trait for such an expensive unit that normally struggles with leadership.
• Arachnarok Spider: Your big iconic monster. This bad girl has everything you could hope for: speed, armour, anti-large damage, and poison attacks. It even has some goblin archers on top for a bit of ranged damage. One often-overlooked factor is that the Arachnarok Spider has the strider ability, allowing it to move through forests and other terrain with no cost in speed.
  • The Arachnarok Queen: Even better at slaying monsters that the normal Arachnarok, and the queen has the unique ability to summon units of spider hatchlings to absorb enemy charges, help pin down the foe, or clear out enemy chaff.
• Rogue Idol (DLC): If you want to pummel the enemy front line with the biggest, bluntest object you can find, accept no substitutes. Rogue Idols are scary frontline beatsticks with a crapload of armour and HP that start falling apart when they run low on health, damaging everything around them. It's one crucial weakness is being the slowest unit in the game, making it vulnerable to kiting and fairly easy even for basic infantry to avoid them. Pinning the enemy down with goblins isn't very effective for this monster; the idol is so damn slow that any enemy worth attacking will kill the chaff before you get to them. These guys are absolute monsters when laying siege to an enemy; walls and towers are about the only thing a rogue idol can consistently outrun.
  • Da big 'Un (RoR, DLC): A Rogue Idol that doubles as an Artillery piece can replenish its ammo at the cost of HP. The addition of a ranged attack goes a long way for making up for the Idol's lack of speed.
• Giant: No. Just no. Giants are far too frail and far too vulnerable to getting tarpitted to be even worth considering, not to mention their price. You could get an Anachnarok Spider for the same money that does the same things a Giant does, with some added missile support and much more durability and mobility. Starting a campaign with Wurrzag gets you one for free, and Azahg needs to get one as part of his legendary armour quest. Aside from those two circumstances you should never bother to get them.
• Goblin Wolf Chariots: A fast hybrid chariot that can shoot with bows and charge into melee. Most of the time, a unit of wolf archers or a boar chariot will do the job better; but there is something to be said for versatility. Skarsnik and Grom can both get more use out of them in the campaign, but in multi-player it's usually better to leave them out.
  • Teef Robbers (ROR): Wolf chariots with vanguard deployment, allowing them to set up right beside the ordinary wolf riders.
• Orc Boar Chariot: The big heavy chariot. Like everything orc it's slow, tough, and hits like a ton of bricks. The armour and melee defense mean it won't immediately crumble if it gets stuck in combat, which is good because it's so dang slow that it can't always escape from the enemy. This thing works best as the spear-tip for a larger boar charge; the chariot can put a hole in the enemy lines, and the boar cavalry can keep it open for the chariot to escape. The boar chariot is also great for beginner players to learn the basics of cycle charging; it's armour makes it more forgiving of mistakes and the slower speed makes it easier to see when to hit and when to run. The closest equivalent is the spiky rollaz pump wagon; both cost about the same points and the same tier in the campaign, but the spiky pump wagon does more charge damage, while the boar chariot is better for sustained combats.
• Snotling Pump Wagons (Regular/Flappas/Spikey Rollaz) (DLC): The snotling pumpwagons are fragile little chariots that come in 3 varieties: the cheap one (regular), the fast one (flappas), and the heavy one (spikey rollas). In all three cases they are flimsy little lawnmowers who need to rely on cycle charging to do any real damage. They're good if you can micro them effectively, but they'll fall apart if they get trapped in combat.
  • Logey Bogey's Spore 'Sploda's: (RoR): This is a weird one. Each chariot has a cache of explosive spores on the front that burst out when it charges into combat, causing some decent damage in a very large area. The spores take 60 seconds to regrow and the cooldown only begins once the wagon is out of combat. Best used to destroy enemy chaff very quickly; but whilst the spores are on cooldown they pump-wagons are basically identical to the normal variety. They need good micro to be useful, even more than normal pump-wagons.

Artillery

• Goblin Rock Lobbers: Generic catapult with decent damage and armor piercing. Cheaper than the Doom-Diver catapult with slightly less damage and much less accuracy. Still a decent weapon, and cheap enough to be fit into most armies. Keep in mind the crew is just a bunch of goblins and they're even more helpless than most artillery crews. Can be useful on harder campaign difficulties that make AI dwarf warriors all but unbreakable.
  • Hammer of Gork: (RoR) Rock Lobbers that blind whatever they hit, making them great for debuffing an enemy before you smash them in melee.
• Doom Diver Catapults: More damage than the Rock Lobber, shockingly accurate, and utterly hilarious. Their projectiles home in on the enemy, a distinction they share only with Hellcannons. Best used for eliminating key units in the enemy army before they can cause you any problems. If you got the attention to spare taking manual control of them allows you to fly the projectile.

WAAAAAGH Units/Campaign Only

• Lava Goblin Spider Rider Archers: Now that's a mouthful. Trade the poisoned shots for Fire Damage, which makes them infinitely more viable as a harassing skirmisher unit.
• Spider Hatchlings: Essentially smaller, cheaper spider riders. A cheap way to bring fast poison to the battlefield, but not much else. You can recruit these early in game as Grom during the vortex campaign, but you should phase them out for true spider cavalry ASAP.
• Armoured Squig Hoppers: Just what it says on the tin: squig hoppers, but with armour. Ordinary squig hoppers are pretty squishy, so anything to increase their survivability helps.
• Soopa Squig: A squig that explodes when it charges into an enemy in the same way a Bloated Corpse does. Make sure it actually gets to its destination as the enemy will focus fire on it the moment it gets into range.
• Lava Arachnarok Spider: Arachnarok Spider with 50% fire resistance and three uses of free fire barrage that lays waste to targets with low armour in its vicinity. Pretty great, but very rare.
• Feral Wyvern: It's your only air unit outside of the warboss, and not a terrible one at that. Flying poison is always useful, and air support is always a good thing.
• Feral Hydra: It's a hydra, but on the side of the Greenskins. Stat-wise it's identical to the Dark Elf War Hydra.

Multiplayer Strategies

In most fantasy games, Orcs are usually tied to brute force and smashing your enemy until there is nothing left to smash. And... yeah in this game that's pretty much the case. With the WAAAAGH! battle ability and your great melee stats few factions can really put up a fight with you in melee. However, what most people don't expect is that your army is surprisingly versatile. You got good skirmishing, monsters, magic and artillery allowing you to employ numerous tactics and be pretty sneaky. What really screws the Greenskins over is their poor leadership, and most of your losses won't come from the enemy out fighting you, but from them exploiting your boyz lack of morale. You also aren't exactly the Empire in terms of versatility, as WAAAGH still encourages you to be aggressive. As long as you can keep the boyz in the fight though, Gork and Mork will be plenty pleased. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!!!"

• Beastmen: You need to be aggressive with Beastmen; they do a lot of damage on the charge but you do your best damage in prolonged fights to build up your WAAAAAGH!. An interesting strategy here can be leaving the goblins at home entirely; the enemies considerable speed will be neutralized if everything in your army is a strong fighter that wants to be in melee anyway, and their ranged game is nowhere near strong enough to avoid melee. Just keep your eyes peeled for their monsters; you don't have many options to deal with them and they can cause all manner of problems if you leave them unchecked.

• Bretonnia: You know how greenskins have a distinct lack of anti-large and anti-air weaponry? You will after fighting Bretonnia. Your best bet is to bring a ton of cheap chaff units to surround their knights and lock them into combat; you benifit from prolonged combat and they suffer in it. Squig Herds and Sneaky Gits are your friend here; they're numerous enough to keep enemy knights in place and do enough anti-armour damage to put the hurt on them. Some skirmishing cavalry is also useful, peasants are one of the only infantry units that your goblins can reliably push around on their own.

• Chaos Dwarfs:

• Dark Elves: It's always interesting to fight an enemy that's as aggressive as you are, and who benefit from a long scrap as much as you do. Dark Elves hit hard and can chase down even your fastest units, so need to be a bit more sneaky to deal with them. Night Goblins can be remarkably useful here; bringing poison and numbers to the fight. Poison is a wonderful tool for whittling Dark Elves down and taking the sting out of their assault. Stone Trolls are great for this battle as they bring magic and missile resistance. And unlike the High Elves, the Dark Elves don't have enough fire damage to reliably counter your trolls. However, they DO have plenty of sources of anti-large, and their Scourgerunners and ap missiles can be very dangerous for your big Arachnaroks and Rogue Idols, so leave them at home unless you're sure you can protect them. Dark Elves have great heavy infantry, but it's expensive for them to bring so you can usually bet on the infantry grind going slightly in your favor. All-in-all Dark Elves are formidable enemies, and make for a very interesting matchup.

• Dwarfs: An iconic matchup; but also a difficult one for you. The good news is that Dwarfs are too slow and too brave to run from combat, so once you get into melee your WAAAAGH! bar will fill almost constantly. The bad news is actually getting into melee in the first place will blow. You're going to need some fast harassers to disrupt the enemy artillery but most dwarfs will bunker up hard and your wolf and spider riders will struggle to break through. Enter the pump-wagon; cheap enough to be spammed, swift enough to get into combat before being shot to death, and with enough mass to disrupt the enemy's formations with repeated cycle charges. The flapping variety is probably best for this; the increased speed is essential to tying the enemy down ASAP. After that, you gotta bring in your big guys; Black Orcs, Big 'Uns, and Boar cavalry will all wreak havoc on dwarfen lines, especially if you bring some night goblins for the poison debuff. If you really want to bring Grimgor Ironhide in multiplayer this is the matchup to do it; even his mount-less ass can catch a Dwarf, and he's enough of a badass to take whatever they can throw at him and come out on top.

• Empire: Fighting the Empire can be a hassle because you can never be certain what the enemy is going to bring. One match they could have a solid gunline, next match it's a Bretonnian-style cavalry army. You need to be ready for just about anything; fortunately greenskins have a large and diverse army to choose from. Units like Goblin Spider Archers and Wolf Chariots can fill a large variety of roles and should be strongly considered against the humans, as well as your generalist units like Orc Boyz and Stone Trolls. Regardless of the individual play-style, virtually every Empire army will have a few wizards and artillery in support, so some fast flanking units will always come in handy. Tip: Don't underestimate the worth a unit or two of Nasty Skulkers can bring to the table. Sending out a suicide screen of the little critters to take out the Empire's artillery will seriously hurt them - without having all that much counterplay because of Stalk.

• Grand Cathay: This is going to be pretty similar to playing against Dwarfs or the Empire, falling somewhere between the two in terms of versatility. Bring Wolf or Spider riders once again to screen for your main army and tangle up the enemy gunline. Chariots and monsters may not be the best option for cracking this nut though, given Cathay's plentiful halberd units. Big Un's and Black Orcs will be valuable here, as will goblins with Stalk. Boar Boyz might also be a good investment, as Cathay lacks much in the way of cavalry and is vulnerable to flanking. Your biggest problem are likely to be their large and flying units. Terracotta Sentinels, dragon characters, and Sky Lanterns are all going to be difficult to deal with as you lack both good anti-large and flying units of your own.

• Greenskins: Greenskin internal battles are both interesting and fluffy; and have a surprising amount of nuance simply due to the varieties of units you can bring. In the most generalist terms greenskins counter each other like a game of rock-paper-scissors: goblins can outmaneuver and poison orcs, orcs have the armor piercing damage to bring down monsters, and monsters can trample goblins with impunity. Obviously there is a little more nuance than that, but as a good rule of thumb everything the greenskins have can be hard countered by a different greenskins unit. Mind your positioning and play your strengths against their weaknesses.

• High Elves: First things first: leave the savage orcs at home. High Elves have so much magic and fire damage that any savage orcs you bring will crumble in short order. Try to to be aggressive (even more than usual, if possible) because you cannot survive high elf archery for very long. If you're good with micro and map-presence you can do amazing things with Stone Trolls, they can run rampage through any lines as long as you stay away from fire. You don't have any easy way to deal with Dragons or Dragon Princes aside from pinning them down and chewing through them with black orcs and Arachnarok Spiders, so keep them surrounded as soon as you can. Don't let fancy units like Pheonix Guard or Swordmasters of Hoeth intimidate you; if you can get close enough to krump'em, the elves will collapse like a house of cards. But getting close is easier said then done.

• Khorne: A fairly even matchup since Khorne tends to favor a core of heavily armoured elite units supported by more fragile Demons, similar to how your own faction works. Problems with Khorne come in regards to their big monsters and monstrous cavalry which can be a major pain in your green butt to deal with, but their expensiveness makes it possible to tarpit and isolate them. Nasty Skulkers and other varieties of Goblins will really shine here, as their poison will take the edge off their beefy melee line and tip the scales in your favor.

• Kislev:

• Lizardmen: This matchup is where your general lack of anti-large options and leadership issues tend to become rather apparent. With a multitude of large, armored dinosaurs that bowl through your unarmored infantry and scare the shit out of the survivors in the process, you will have issues if the Lizardmen monsters have free reign over the battlefield. Have an Arachnarok Spider supported by some Orc Boar Big 'Unz to focus down the bigger beasties while you use Goblin Spider Riders to run circles around any skink skirmishers trying to poke and prod your flanks. Aside said skinks, Lizardmen have a noted lack of ranged firepower, so regular archers won't go amiss against the scaly rank and file on their slow approach. Trolls, if you can ensure any Salamanders the lizards may have brought are thoroughly shut down, can often shoulder their way through most of the infantry the Lizardmen have on tap, but you'll need to keep them away from anything bigger than they are.

• Norsca: An important factor in this matchup is how Norscan Rage compares to greenskin WAAAAAGH! Norscan want to stay in melee combat up to a point, then they start to lose steam and need to break away and recuperate. You pretty much never want to leave melee once your there, and benefit from longer engagements. Pile on the pressure with flanking units and nasty skulkers to keep the enemy locked in combat and grind them out. Your goblins can have a lot of fun against these unarmoured northerners; sneak, skulk and skirmish your way to victory with your brutal cunning and archer cavalry. Keep an eye out for mammoths, though. Your best bet to deal with them are your own monsters, but Norscans are quite good at killing monsters so you'll want to hang back until you've softened their lines up a bit.

• Nurgle: Nurgle is slow, wants to stay in a prolonged fight, has no anti-large at all, has weak fliers, is poorly armoured, has mediocre artillery, and has very little defence against missile attacks. Basically, they're completely fucked. The Waaaagh! is powerful enough to overcome Nurgle's progressively growing debuffs and they have basically no way of dealing with your various methods of skirmishing them. Once you swat down any rotflies, drones, or furies; plague toads and pox riders are pretty easy pickings for the likes of stone trolls and boar boy big 'unz, while the Nurglite main line simply isn't killy enough to win before you krump them.

• Ogre Kingdoms: If the Dwarfs are the immovable object to your irresistble force then the Ogres are the equally irresistible force. Except you're vulnerable to terror routing and bad at stopping charges and the Ogres are nearly all monsters who can cause terror and charge like run-away freight trains. This is one of those match-ups where you just don't have a lot of good options. Ogre leadbelchers and ironblasters will reduce your monsters to mush, basic ogres can simply plough through just about any number of infantry you throw in their way, and Ogres are disturbingly fast for such fat lads. Skirmishing them may be your best bet since Ogres generally have poor armour and bad shields.

• Skaven: Two words: goblin cavalry. Your orcs will be shot to bits before they can reach the skaven lines, so you'll need to tie them down first. Even the humble wolf riders can reliably beat skaven in melee. But pinning down the enemy line isn't enough to win a battle; bring some orcs (or ideally orc cavalry) to finish the rats off once you've got them trapped. Rock lobbas will also do good in this battle, just make sure they're firing at the right targets.

• Slaanesh:

• Tomb Kings: Tomb Kings have a lot of big scary constructs, and you aren't that good against anything big or scary. A Black Orc Warboss or two is a must for the immune to psychology bubble, and some ordinary black orcs wouldn't hurt either. You'll need some fast cavalry to intercept enemy artillery, the screaming skull catapult does even more leadership penalties than other catapults and can quickly shatter your lines. You should be very careful with your monsters in this matchup; Tomb King Necrosphinxs can tear your big beasts apart. The one bit of good news is that you don't have to worry about enemy infantry; skellingtons are trash and even your goblins have a decent chance of beating them in combat.

• Tzeentch:

• Vampire Coast: This is a strange one, because most of your best units struggle whilst your often-forgotten units thrive. Black Orcs and monsters will get shot to pieces before they can get into combat, but your humbler ranged cavalry can cause all manner of headaches for the enemy. This is also one of the few circumstances where you'll want orc archers instead of the cheaper goblins; the increased range is really important when fighting a gunpowder army. Despite the aforementioned flaws with Black Orcs, you will probably want to keep a squad or two around to shore up your frontlines, Immune to Psychology is just too valuable against an undead army. Just keep some chaff in front of them; most guns can't arc their shots and will have to deal with whatever's in front of them first. Leave the Arachnorak Spiders and Rogue Idols at home, though; those two are just to easy to shoot to be worth the cost.

• Vampire Counts: This is where your low leadership really becomes a problem; you can easily outfight basic Vampire Counts units, but your boyz will often rout anyway from fear. Black Orcs, Squig Herds, and Squig Hoppers are all immune to psychology, and should form the core of your army. This is the match to bring a Rogue Idol, the vampires have to deal with it in melee and that thing gets more dangerous as it gets hurt. Doom Diver catapults are useful here; all artillery is useful against Vampire Counts, but the doom diver is especially good at singling out individual targets. Nothing is more satisfying than watching a VC army crumble because an idiot goblin squished their lord.

• Warriors of Chaos: There aren't many armies that can reliably beat you in melee. Unfortunately, Chaos Warriors can. Bring plenty of artillery and some spider riders to deal with their hellcannons. You're going to need to soften up the Chaos lines before they reach you, but you can't outrun them forever. Chaos Warriors are a hassle for some, but you've got anti-infantry and anti-armour aplenty, which helps out. Black Orcs are one of the only infantry units that can go toe-to-toe with Chaos Chosen and survive; so be sure to bring some of them. Rogue Idols are also pretty great in this matchup, provided you can keep them safe from hellcannons.

• Wood Elves: Ouch. Not a very fun matchup; a good Wood Elves player will kite you across the battlefield while whittling you down with shooting. Your goblin cavalry is almost as fast as the wood elven kind, but struggles to keep the bastards pinned down for long enough to let your other guys catch up. Sneaky Skulkers can be useful here to lock the enemy in place with smoke-bombs, but again; you have to get close to use them. A good bet is to focus on goblins over orcs; goblins are faster, have better missile resistance, and have the numbers to overwhelm the enemy and hold them in place. Just watch out for flanking attacks and cavalry charges.

Campaign Strategies

General tips

The Greenskin campaign is probably the one most determined by your legendary lord. If you're Grom or Skarsnik you can get your goblins good or cheap enough to make most orcs obsolete; Wurzzag will also want to skip normal orcs in favor of the savage kind. Skarsnik can't recruit normal orcs anywhere but Eight Peaks, but he can recruit savage orcs in the southern badlands so he'll probably use of lot of those as well. Grimgor Ironhide is the polar opposite, he is best with elite units of Black Orcs and normal Orc Big 'Uns, with no goblins aside from chaff and disruption. Azhag the Slaughterer is probably the most generalized lord with a focus on magic, which slots nicely into any army you care to bring. Azhag, Grimgor, Skarsnik and Wurzzag all get unique scrap upgrades for certain units, whilst Grom uses his scrap for the cauldron. Aquiring scrap is so easy as to almost be incidental; all your favorite things to do (fighting, raiding, and wrecking towns) all provide scrap, so it will build up pretty well without much trouble. On the other hand, if you need extra scrap it can be hard to get it quickly; in a good greenskin campaign you'll be fighting and raiding as much as you can all the time, so you can't exactly pick up the pace for quick scrap. Plan ahead and keep your priorities straight; Big Thinkin' is more beneficial than upgrades for individual units. The most important mechanic to learn in the Call to WAAAAGH!, which is already explained in the Universal Traits section. The only thing to mention about that ability is that when your WAAAAGH! reputation goes up you get bonuses to public order and growth. Therefore, it can be beneficial to sit on a full WAAAAGH! bar whilst you gather your forces and tighten your grip on your holdings. It should also be mentioned that Calling a WAAAAGH! isn't really worth it unless your targeting an enemy with strength rating of at least 30; if you don't think your strong enough to take such an enemy, feel free to wait until you're strong enough to go big!

Specific Campaign Tips

Azhag

• Be 'very' careful with your movements and who you declare war to. It' s very easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed fighting the Empire and Elector Counts, so they should always be on your mind.
• Your victory conditions tell you to destroy Kislev, but Throt/Chaos usually does that for you anyway (and even if they don't Kislev is a somewhat passive faction (For now)).
• Alliances with the Von Carstiens (ideally both Vlad and Manfred) are quite useful in the early game, and your bonus diplomacy with vampires helps a great deal. Just keep in mind that you and they are competing for the same territories, so you will probably end up at war sooner or later. Manfred especially has an annoying habit of constantly breaking treaties for no reason, and there isn't much you can do about it.

Grimgor

• Try to rush the dwarfs as fast as you can; the longer you let Thorgrim fortify the Silver Road the worse things get for you.
• Form an alliance with Wurzzag as soon as you can to keep your eastern flank safe; you can declare war and beat him in combat to force him into a confederation once you have your other sides secured.
• You don't need to ally with Queek to your south, but you shouldn't provoke him either; you want to focus on expanding north and east to take care of the dwarfs. Do consider intervening if it looks like he is going to kill Wurzzag; you want to keep Wurzzag alive to ensure you can snatch him up later.
• You can also push east and meet with Malus Darkblade; eliminating him gives you several nice ports, while the rest of the Dark Elves and their allies are too far away to stop you.
• Once you've pushed up through the dwarf lines you'll run into Azhag. Just like Wurrzag, ally with him for as long as you need to, then force him into confederacy.
• You can also try to confederate with Grom and Skarsnik if you really want to collect every LL, but they are both pretty out of the way for you and don't give your army much benefit.
• Eight Peaks has a unique structure that boosts Black Orcs, so try to grab it as soon as you can.

Grom

• (Eye of the Vortex only) Do be aware that at any point, Eltharion may send an army to come and give you a shit day. Due to your relations with high elves, the rest of Ulthuan and the Knights of Caledor will join suit in his war with you. Be prepared for the Elves to come hunt you down.
• (Mortal Empires only) Don't be fooled by the climate, it's much better to take care of Bretonnia before trying to get to Ulthuan. Letting the knights tech up is a really bad idea, as Greenskins suck at Anti-Large, and you'll need a solid power base before attacking the Donut anyway.

Skarsnik

• Obviously, you want to rush Eight Peaks as soon as possible. Feel free to abandon your starting area once you've crossed the river into the badlands; you don't want to spread your armies out too thin.
• Try to kill (or at least cripple) Belegar Ironhammer on your way to Eight Peaks; he'll try to take it from you and you have to kill him anyway as part of your win condition.
• On your path to Eight Peaks you'll run into Wurzzag, try to force him into a confederacy as soon as you can. Not only is he a powerful Legendary Lord, but he controls most of the southern badlands where you can recruit savage orcs, which you'll need to take Eight Peaks.

Wurzzag

• Form an alliance with Grimgor ASAP. Your armies consider frozen territory inhospitable, so you don't want to expand north. Having Grimgor as an ally takes the pressure of the northern flanks and lets you focus on the south and west.
• Take out Queek Headtaker as soon as you can; you'll both be fighting for the badlands and he can be very difficult to destroy in the late game.
• You'll be fighting a lot of Tomb Kings and Lizardmen in the south, so consider investing in Black Orc bosses for their leadership bonus.

Total War: Warhammer Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Magic Banner Immortal Empires
Total War: Warhammer	The Empire Dwarfs Greenskins Vampire Counts Bretonnia Warriors of Chaos Beastmen Wood Elves Norsca
Total War: Warhammer 2	High Elves Dark Elves Lizardmen Skaven Tomb Kings Vampire Coast
Total War: Warhammer 3	Kislev Khorne Tzeentch Nurgle Slaanesh Grand Cathay Ogre Kingdoms Daemons of Chaos Chaos Dwarfs