Tactics Against All Goblin Army Needed

Discuss your tactics for the 8th Ed army book here.

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Scarlet
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:46 am

Tactics Against All Goblin Army Needed

#1 Post by Scarlet »

Hey guys, I am playing an all Goblin army and need help devising some tactics on how to beat them. It is a 2500pt battle with pre-end time rules except 50% Lords and Lore of Undeath is allowed. I have faced the army before but have trouble dealing with the sheer numbers. It is a friend of mines list he is practicing to use for a competition.

Goblin Lord, on Spider (2+,5++): Leadership Bubble that hides all game.

Goblin Lord, Wizarding Hat (3+): Unpredictable but not that worrying.

BSB, Potion of Toughness: Potion generally means a need for two rounds of combat.
49x Night Goblins, nets, short bows, full command

Goblin Shaman lvl 1, lore of undeath, hex scroll: Guy summons skeleton units as redirects or for additional standards.
34x Night Goblins, nets, spears, standard/musician

Goblin Shaman lvl 1, lore of goblins, feedback scroll: Feedback scroll is scary, otherwise nothing much.
34x Night Goblins, nets, spears, standard/musician

15x Spider Riders, Musician: Tend to run to archers or war machines.

Squig Herd (30 squigs, 20 goblins): This thing hurts in horde formation.

Arach Spider: Great against troops but not much else.

3x Wolf Chariots: These are in three separate units and if I can shoot at them fine, but then I can't shoot at other stuff.

6x Squig Hoppers: They tend to bounce into units trying to war machine hunt.

3x Bolt Throwers
Stone Thrower
Doom Diver

Typically the squig herd and the chariots charge one flank, the spiders vanguard on the other with the arach spider, blocks in the middle. My problem tends to be dealing with the sheer numbers. My archers love shooting at many of the units (Squig Herd, Chariots, Spider Riders) but I can never shoot enough to make a dent in all these things meaning either my war machines get hunted, my elite units get impact hits or the squig her shreds everything (seriously, a horde of them hurts). The Arach spider requires me to deal with it with elite infantry, not a huge issue and due to the number of war machines I have to charge forward with something fast. This leaves me with very little to actually fight the three (potentially 4 including the squigs) block units which equal roughly half the army. If I don't address the other things they do the damage to my army.

The magic phase is interesting as I can and have can easily out magic the army. However typically one spell a turn is devastating (which always has max dispel dice thrown at it). So while I get to cast the other less powerful spells it doesn't seem to deal enough damage. I typically get off an irresistible force spell which does massive damage but the two scrolls actually manage on average to cause far more problems than I would have initially thought.

Any advice on tactics on how to beat the army or really just dealing with hordes in general?
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Prince of Spires
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Re: Tactics Against All Goblin Army Needed

#2 Post by Prince of Spires »

Just to check if you're playing the scrolls correctly, but if the scroll is used, your opponent can't dispell the spell. So whatever they are used on gets cast. feedback scroll should do 2 wounds on average for a 6 diced spell. And hex scroll only does something 1 in 3 times vs a lvl4 (and then you have a decent chance of recovering next phase). I wouldn't be too worried about them... Also, you can get a 2+ ward vs the feedback hits if your mage is in a BoTWD unit.

Other things:
Phoenix guard. These things will probably make your opponent cry. They are relatively safe from impact hits with their ward save. And they hit a lot and wound good enough vs t3 goblins. Give them the razor banner and you're probably denying them armour saves.

Redirect the horde. Put a unit of reavers or an eagle 1'' in front of it, angle it to the side and the horde has been kept busy for a turn.

High magic is a pretty nice lore vs goblins. Walk between worlds is strong vs fanatics (there are bound to be some in that list) since it denies them the possibility of doing damage. Soul quench for the smaller units, Tempest is actually pretty good against t3 horde armies. You're bound to hit something. And convocation will put some real hurt on the big units. It basically reduces them to minor annoyances.

LD is an issue. LD 8 is not amazing by any means. And if you can catch units outside general / BSB range then you should be able to force some scary LD tests. Even on steadfast units. So try to force as many as possible.

Rod
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John Rainbow
Posts: 3550
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:47 am
Location: PA, USA

Re: Tactics Against All Goblin Army Needed

#3 Post by John Rainbow »

I think your deployment is key here. You can easily get swamped by O&G armies so a refused flank or castle of some sort is almost mandatory. What list are you taking?
Scarlet
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:46 am

Re: Tactics Against All Goblin Army Needed

#4 Post by Scarlet »

I usually play with a Caledor theme with a wizard lord general and a fair amount of ranged. Not many elite infantry units. I almost never field sword masters or white lions. My phoenix guard are so few in numbers (the models I have) they only get used for character guarding. My armies typically are small in numbers but highly mobile and focus on dominating the movement phase, deal enough damage in the shooting and magic phase and having only 1 or 2 turns in the game with combat which I do the elf trick of 3 on 1 being a fair fight.
Saurus Oldblood, Eldar Farseer, Asrai Highborn, Asur Prince, Goblin Warboss
jonboyo
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:45 pm

Re: Tactics Against All Goblin Army Needed

#5 Post by jonboyo »

Well without sword masters, PG or WL's I don't really see how you can win. Ranged is good for clearing chaff and thinning units so your infantry can get to where they want and hammer down. I don't think you can beat hordes with just ranged troops without some serious luck.

If your friend is practising for a competition then you need to play him with a competitive build really.
Timharper
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2014 1:07 pm

Re: Tactics Against All Goblin Army Needed

#6 Post by Timharper »

I would think that small units of swordmasters (take advantage of the 2 attacks for those in the front row) supporting blocks of spear-elves (6x4 would get 25 re-rolling attacks) would be a good way to go perhaps? Most your troops, man for man, will beat most of his; its about finding those that do it most effectively for the cheapest cost.
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