Three Games Later

I have now played 3 games with the new orc and goblin army book. It's very early days, but I am learning as I go along. I am using most of the models I have painted as a core of my army, with a few additions each game to try new units or adapt from the previous game.

In a 2500 point army I typically have an orc warboss on boar with an Ogre Blade, a Charmed Shield and a Talisman of Preservation. This guy is an absolute beast in combat and so far has not even suffered a scratch, even though he has no real defence against shooting and magic (apart from driving the stone trolls before him as a shield). He has destroyed chaos knights, minotaurs, Empire greatswords and halberdiers.

The obligatory black orc army standard has the Enchanted Shield and Talisman of Endurance and usually leads a mob of 25 orcs with extra choppas. If I am honest he has not really achieved much in combat, but that's not his primary role.

For magical support I am still testing the water, but two level 2 night goblin shaman have given reasonable results at low cost. The Waaargh spells have not been spectacular, though a Curse of Da Bad Moon did take out about 30 Empire troops in the last game.

My main fighting troops are the 25 orcs mentioned above, 20 black orcs and 24 savage orc biguns, the latter two don't seem to need characters to boost them. Support troops are 30 night goblins with spears and nets and one or two fanatics, another unit of 20 night goblins with bows and a couple of fanatics, and a squig herd of between 10 and 20 models. I usually take 3 units of fast cavalry (2 wolf rider, 1 spider rider). Other units available to me are 4 stone trolls, 3 trolls, 2 spear chukkas and an orc chariot. I also have a couple of orc shamen painted I could use. This is pretty much all that I have assembled and painted (for the most part).

The army seems to be reasonably well equipped in combat. The black orcs and savage orcs are highly destructive against most enemy. The orc boyz are fairly average but do well supported by characters and/or chariots. The night goblin spears have surprised me, doing well against average troops like Empire halberdiers but also standing up well to more scary foes like minotaurs. I am planning on making this unit 40 strong.

It's in the support areas that I am likely to make most changes. The squigs and fanatics do as much damage to my army as they do to the enemy, so I really have to learn how to cope with that. Squig herds and manglers on paper look a no-brainer, but once they have gone wild they can (and do) cause as much damage to friends as they do to foes. The obvious thing to do is keep them on the flanks and push them forward as fast as possible, out of harm's way, but that can be easier said than done.

The game that caused me most problems was against Empire, greenskins and black powder are not a good combination. I need something to cause a long range threat from turn one. The magic decks are quite short range really (and magic is too fickle to base strategy on), so artillery is an area I am currently investigating. Spear chukkas are unreliable and cause relatively little damage, so I am going to try out a rock lobba and a doom diver in future games. I am also aware that wolf chariots have a very long reach and could easily charge on turn 2, which might be useful against pesky Empire shooty detachments, elven archers, etc.

So that's a brief overview of the story so far, still a long way to go with many more enemies to fight, but I am enjoying the new army and finding the book to be pretty well balanced and in character. For a casual gamer like myself, it's a good book. My most amusing moment of the battles to date was a charge by a lone troll into a unit of 10 Empire knights, hoping to maybe stall them for a turn or two. The knights failed their fear test, missed all their attacks, the troll vomited over the captain, won the combat by one, the knights fled off the board. A classic against the odds moment!