Hello friends, Owen here I am back with another deep dive into one of the classic army books from the past. But before I start, can I thank you very much for all the kind words you have sent my way regarding my deep dive into the Dwarf book. It seems like many of you hold it just as close to your hearts as I do. Special thanks to Cam of Warwick who sent me a copy all the way from the USA, flying through the air across the Atlantic to once
again sit proudly on my shelf. Thank you Cam, that means an awful lot. Today we're going to talk about the Orcs and Goblins army list again from the 4th edition. Now, I can't remember the exact time I bought this book. I can't remember the exact time I opened its hallowed covers, but what I can tell you is exactly how it made me feel. This is quite a bittersweet book for me to look at.
You see, as a child I got into Warhammer probably about 1984, which put me at 11 years old and 11 years old. Me, who had just read The Hobbit, saw Goblins as something totally different. They were sinister, sneaky, horrible creatures. I imagined them in my head just like they were on the cover of the Ravening Hordes book or the classic Middle Earth role-playing game with Chris Achilius. I think it was all those years ago. Those to me were goblins.
But at this point, when we came to 4th edition, things started to change. And that evil, sneaky, snidy, horrible goblin of the past became a much more comedic beast. A beast who was still horrible, a beast who was still nasty, a beast who could still rip your head off, but with a horrible gurning smile as he did it. And this was featured fully in this book. You see with 4th edition and the army books, Warhammer and the Warhammer World, the old world was starting to find its feet.
They had the Chaos warriors, they had the Dark Elves, they had the Scaven, although comedic in their own way, which were all a darkness sort of species. And then we had the orcs and Goblins who could be brilliant and who could be Dan Wright horrible. Now up to this point around 1993, I had always played. My armies had been Orc and Goblin armies, I had played through Bloodbath at Orcs Drift, I had been in the second edition, I had been the 3rd edition Raven in Hordes Warhammer armies.
And here we are in a far more colourful world. So I'm going to work my way through the book. I'm coming to a totally blind, so everything I say here I am uncovering for the first time in as many years. The same as you. But what I'd recommend, if you have it, why not bring the book in front of you? Why not discover it at the same time as I am?
Although I have another E copy here, not a real one sadly, but let's go. Warhammer Armies, Orcs and Goblins, a Warhammer supplement by Games Workshop. The cover is excellent, isn't it? Bull riding orcs rampaging through the mountains followed by a cloud of giant bats flapping through the sky. The orc in front is holding a huge axe with a look of total Glee in his face. Next to him, an orc with a giant two handed axe. He must be a good bull rider.
And the one next to him with a morning star and an axe itself. Now not long before this point, both orcs and goblins rode wolves like they did in the Lord of the Rings Wags. But now we are seeing the emergence of the difference of the species really. The goblins riding wolves, the orcs riding boars. When we turn the page here, we have some scenes of battle very much like the Orcs, 1 Savage Orc boys and Goblin Wolf Riders on the warpath.
Look at this scene. There's a unit of goblin wolf riders emerging from the trees, rampaging in between an old inn and a hilltop. On top of that hilltop, a unit of Orc Archers, already with their bows. Terrible Archers, really. They probably couldn't hit the Ale House, but there they are. And some savage Hawks in front of them, wielding their red clubs with Glee. And under that an assemblance of an orc and goblin. Woah, that is second to none really.
The old plastic spear wielding goblins. The title says orc bull riders and goblins with trolls and snottlings in support. There we have some bull riders. There we have some night goblin nectars along with the squig herders, the snottling bases, the snottling pump wagon, and three river trolls and a goblin doom diver. Amazing stuff. Orca Goblins by Rick Priestley, cover art by Dave Gallagher, story by Bill King, Black and white art by John Blanche, Wayne England and Mark Gibbons.
Again, a top tier team of creatives putting this together and there is a picture of perhaps my favorite character from the Orc and Goblin Canon. Two characters actually, Skarsnik and Gobbler. I loved Skarsnik, I had a finely painted model of that double bass with both Gobbler and Skarsnik on it for many years, but sadly it has been lost to time and the vagaries of eBay. In some weak moment I think I sold it. He led my armies in later years. The 6th edition, Skarsnik at the four.
I'm sorry, Skarsnick, I let you go. The contents are here again, pages and pages of background. The history of the orcs, a calendar, the deadly subject of animosity, and many other things. Black and white banners. It takes a similar format to the Dwarf book. Again, so much in it we get to the introduction. Now this is an almost breaking the 4th wall introduction. Great picture of an orc wading forward with the the red sun on his shield and a wolf rider.
A goblin wolf rider who looks almost from the old school, a little bit serious and sinister in his aspect. Let me read it to you. This is a book about Orcs and goblins and their armies in the Warhammer game. Well, thank God for that, otherwise I'd have bought the wrong book, wouldn't I? Within its pages you will find background information explaining much about orcs and their smaller cousins, Where they come from, how they live and fight, how they wars have helped to shape the Warhammer
world. In addition, you will find all the rules you need to use an Orc and Goblin army in the Warhammer game, including rules for new creatures and troop types not covered in the Warhammer Battle Book itself. Unfortunately, we didn't have room to include the complete rules for War Machines and Chariots as they appear in the Warhammer Rule book, but you will find a summary for them at the end of the War Machines section.
The heart of this book is the Army List section, which provides a full list and points values for the Orc and Goblin army. By means of the army list, you can choose your own orc and Goblin force, equip your warlord and his entourage of shamans and bosses, and descend upon your quaking foes with the awesome power of the wah behind you. Orcs and Goblins one of the most popular and effective armies in
the Warhammer game. One of the reasons for this popularity is the tremendous degree of choice. For example, although we generally refer to orcs and goblins, you can perfectly well feel the force that is all orcs or all goblins. You could go further and have an army made-up entirely of Night Goblins, Savage Orcs, or Forest Goblins if you wanted. We know of at least one person whose army consists entirely of Goblin Wolf riders.
However such extreme examples are exceptional and most players use a wide variety available to create an effective mix of different troops. You should wisely decide to abandon any attempt to out shoot your enemies in favour of a fast, hard hitting attack force combined with long range artillery. These options are available in abundance with Bull riders, trolls and Chariots for attack and Rock Lobbers or Doom divers for long range destruction.
On the other hand, a player faced with an Empire army would probably adopt A different strategy altogether. With its Knights and cannons, the Empire Army would soon sweep aside an army based around ball boys, while orc artillery and large creatures such as trolls would present excellent targets for cannons and hell blaster volley guns.
In this case, the Orc general might choose night goblin units, with fanatics backed up by units of orcs to provide some backbone and either doom divers or flying monsters to take out cannons from the air. Woe betide those Empire Nights when they tangle with a Night Goblin fanatics. The options are many and varied, and part of the challenge of the Orc army is to discover the combination of troops and equipment that works best for you.
In writing this book, we have assumed that the reader either owns or has access to copies of both Warhammer and Warhammer Magic. As far as possible, we've attempted to provide references within the Warhammer Rule Book, the Battle Book, or the Warhammer Magic Rule Book so that you can find relevant sections more easily. Where practical, we've chosen to repeat information or at least summarize pertinent details within this volume. Shouldn't you need to keep swapping from one book to the
other? That's an honest introduction, isn't it? And something we don't see anymore. Just the author introducing you to how this army works. Not talking about the character, not talking about story, not talking about the background, just talking to you, reader to reader. Well, like I'm talking to you now, but with far better grasp of the English language for sure. The first page turns to the dominion of the Orcs. Here we have a description of where the orcs live, where the
orcs come from. Here we have talks about the orc tribes, the different ways that they meet and many, many different parts of background. Followed by a page with a map of the old world. Again. There it is, my friends, something from all our pasts, the one which has the winding rivers of the Empire, followed by the world's Edge Mountains, taking us into a nicely written piece on Orc history, starting with the Battle of Black Fire Pass. That's a great one, and a long
one. There it talks about all the things that happened in that Great War, that great battle, and then it tells us a little bit about Gorbard Iron Claw, one of the great orc heroes. Let's read a bit about him, shall we? Gorbard Ironclaw was one of the most successful orc leaders of all time.
His campaign of destruction raged across the Empire and left the region of Sol, and so devastated that it has never fully recovered, he arose to power deep in the Badlands, where his tribe, the Iron Claws, held the fortress known as the Iron Rock. The Iron Rock is a core of molten iron vomited from the bowels of the earth during some
incalculably ancient upheaval. It lies in the western shadows of Thunder Mountain. There it is again, and was discovered by the dwarves who mined into it, creating a labyrinth of tunnels and caverns and partially completed workings. The orcs found the Iron Rock when they overran the World's Edge Mountains, establishing their over domain over all the peaks between Mad Dog Pass and Fire Mountain. Look how evocative all this text is bringing to us backgrounds away from the beaten track.
We are looking at different aspects of the orc, different characters, different places, different tribes. It doesn't need to do this, but still it does. We have pages and pages of Gorbad Ironclaw.
I'll read a bit more. By the time Gorbad Ironclaw's reputation had spread amongst all the orc and goblin tribes of the Great Forest, and many more great green skinned warriors flocked southwards to join him, the orcs began to loot and pillage in their usual fashion, but Gorebad had other plans. On his orders, the Iron Claw Biggins prowled the burning streets, gathering up half the drunken orcs and dragging the goblins back to their battle lines.
This caused much grumbling and many heads were knocked together just to remind everyone who was boss. Nun was next to feel the power of the Wah Gourbard advanced towards the city from the east, roughly following the line of the River Ava. Nun was already clammed with halfling refugees and people from eastern Avaland who had taken shelter from the OR Cord. The orcs barely slowed their pace at the town walls, but poured over the gates, destroying and killing in a repetition of slaughter.
At Aberheim, Brutus laid off the Count of Avaland, ordered the retreat over the Great Bridge, and rallied his troops in the western half of the city. It's like some epic myth, some great battle from history's past, and here it is. Great writing, I should say, lost in a Warhammer army book.
But I don't think it is lost. It lives in our hearts for many of us remember this, these stirring words that took us to the table, which put the paintbrush in our hand and caused us all to walk forth and buy orcs and goblins in their hundreds. I still have many locked away in small boxes. Tool boxes. Sometimes I feel when all is dark and all the lights are out, that I can hear them chittering and chatting in that box, hoping one day to once again take to the field to do battle to March
forth. I wonder if they ever will. Anyway, I'm getting carried away. After pages and pages of Gourbad Ironclaw, we head on to Azhag the Slaughterer. We have some history about him as well. Again, it seems like more battles, more of them put out. And then we get to a character I can't leave behind, a character I hold in my heart greatly. And I am looking at one of his earliest inclinations. In fact, yes, his earliest incarnation. I am talking of Grom, the Paunch of the Misty Mountain.
I was lucky only scant few years ago to take to the field against a load of high Elves in an online game with Marcel commanding Grom the Paunch. But before he was Grom the Paunch, it was Grom's goblin guard. But here he is now, fully formed. Let's read a bit about him, shall we? Most of the warlords whose campaigns of destruction have shaken the world and threatened the destruction of the realms of men had been Hawks rather than goblins.
Orcs are bigger than goblins, more dangerous and more brutally ambitious. Grom was to prove the exception, a goblin who was not only as dangerous and ambitious as the best orc, but vastly bigger as well. It was not that Grom was especially tall, certainly not as tall as an orc, but he was enormously and infamously fat. In fact, he was so huge that he became known as the Pawnsh of Misty Mountain, or simply Grom the Fat.
If tails are to be believed, his Improbable Habulk was due to him eating raw troll meat for a wager. Apart from being enormously tough, troll fresh troll flesh even has the unusual property of being able to regenerate itself quite quickly. If a troll suffers harm, his flesh will almost instantly regrow. It is this muscle that takes and makes trolls very hard to fight. It also makes troll flesh virtually impossible to eat.
Let it is thoroughly cooked. Determined to out eat his challenger, Grom consumed a plate of raw troll steaks only to discover the meat regenerating inside his stomach. As the churning mass swelled within him, his resilient goblin digestive system got to work on the overabundance of raw material. For days Grom lay moaning and groaning as the first of the trolls regenerative abilities outpaced his own ability to digest it, and then his stomach
gradually gained ground. Eventually equilibrium was reached, and although the troll flesh was still there, Grom was digesting it as fast as it was regrowing. It's gross, really, isn't it, when you look at it? Of the several weeks of fevered indigestion and almost terminal flatulence, Grom emerged triumphant. He was also quite a bit fatter, although he ain't nothing afterwards, he continued to gain weight thanks to the presence of
the troll flesh. He was to suffer from bouts of explosive flatulence for the rest of his life. The The balance between evil and nastiness and genuine threat and comedy is well kept in this book, is it not? We have pages about Grom and his invasion of Othrin, the the high health capital that go on for ages. And then we go to Washington. Skarsnik, you know, of course, in later years, a great favorite of mine, Skarsnik.
After the collapse of the Dwarf Empire almost 3 1/2 thousand years ago, the Dwarf stronghold of Carrick, Eight Peaks, lay in ruins. It's steep caverns and tunnels were taken over by Night Goblins, and Scaven deeper with the Nameless Horrors, crawled into the Dwarf mines and settled
in long abandoned depths. Within a few years of Carrick Eight Peaks Fall, the Night Goblins had settled permanently into the ruins and split into many tribes based around the adjoining mountains and tunnels that ran beneath them. Although the dwarves tried to recapture Carrick Eight Peaks, they did not succeed until the Imperial year 2470, when Belagard established a fortified bridgehead in the old Citadel.
Though the dwarves were forced to live in a virtual state of siege, they gradually managed to clear the Night Goblins and other evil creatures out of the upper levels. Today, Pelegar and his King's Folk live amongst the ruins of Carrick Eight Peaks, and hope one day to reconquer the whole realm of their ancestors. Look at this again. Many, many pages of background. We haven't even introduced Skarsnik yet, and yet we talk about him. We talk about the background which lead to his story.
We talk about what he gains, what he has, and where he goes. Even just reading this now, I feel the need to break out to my orcs and goblins. The writing in these books was so inspiring, made you want to take to the field, genuinely made you feel that you could be the difference for this army, that you could March them forth the fight, you could do battle. We've got some important events in orc history leading up.
I'll just read a couple for you. 1250 The Troll Wars The trolls were driven north by fresh eruptions of Thunder Mountain and drawn to it again, attacking dwarf miners and prospectors and over running several dwarf settlements South of Karasa. Karak -469, the York warlord Dork Unfortunate, leads a huge army of orcs and goblins to take the dwarf hold of Karak Azaga Karak Asghar even, which he destroys and abandons, leaving the secrets of its depths unexplored.
Three years later, he attacks and captures the dwarf hole of Karak Dras, which is occupied and renamed Karak Black. Within 50 years of the fall of Karak Eight Peaks, the Dwarves have lost all the major holes South of Karasa Karak, with the exception of Kalakazoole, which is under constant siege. All the mountains between Mad Dog Pass and Carrigate Peaks are controlled by the Orcs or goblins. 2488 The Battle of Death Pass, a Bretonian army is defeated by Morglum Necksnapper.
The Bretonian King declares the Errantry Wars at an end. Momentous event in the history of Britonia. There now, even though we are on page 16 of the book, only now do we start to talk about rules. And the first one is one that all Orkin goblin players both love and hate in equal measure. Just like Gollum loves and hates the ring. The rule of animosity. The amount of times that this would rear its ugly head and cause me to lose many a battle
was unbelievable. In early fiction with orcs and goblins, mainly Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, they are often found losing battles because of their inability to get along with one another, and this played out a lot in the rules of Warhammer. They changed it with nearly every edition. I think sometimes it was worse than others, but it was always there. But without it, the orc and goblin army was probably too powerful, with it, it could be too weak.
When I started to play many tournament games back in the early 2000s, there were very few orc and goblin armies, and this was mainly due to the unpredictability of the animosity rule. But here it is. Orcs and goblins argue and fight amongst themselves continually. Even at the best of times, fighting in the ranks can cause disarray and confusion in the army. The behaviour of orcan goblin units mobs can be rather
unpredictable. One moment a mob is striding purposely towards the enemy and the next it is suddenly brought to a halt while two warriors settle their difference. This wayward tendency is a great drawback to the Orc warlord. Inevitably you will hear the cries of squabbling amongst your forces and realize that once again your best laid plans have been laid low by some dispute in the ranks.
A good orc warlord takes such things into account when he draws up his battle lines, but even the best commander will be lucky to avoid the effects of animosity all together. The authors of the book seem almost apologetic about the rule, telling you that some days it will lead to your downfall through no fault of your own. There's even a section here saying living with animosity. Animosity is just one of those
things. If you command a horde of Orkin goblins, you will suffer from its effects now and again, and sometimes it will be a real pain in the neck. There are few things you can do to make sure there are sorry. A few things you can do to make sure that when animosity strikes, the effect is minimal. When you choose your army, remember that the more mobs you have, the more likely you are to fall. Fail an animosity test? You have 6 mobs which are subject to animosity.
For example. On average, one unit will fail each turn. It's almost telling you to get less troops. I wonder if the bosses at Games Workshop read this before it was published. I'll lead you to the next page, the Orkin Goblin Animosity table. If you roll A1, that was the worst. Get them if you roll A1, because every orc or gobbling unit would fail an animosity test on A1. If you rolled a second one, you would attack your nearest army.
Your nearest unit, 2 to five was a squabble that just caused your unit not to move, whereas 6 could be beneficial where your unit would charge forward with an extra move. I used to hate animosity. It was such a wild thing. Let's move on from it. Shaman's. Yes. Shaman's had different rules, didn't they? Different magic. Shaman's heads could explode. The magic was extremely powerful
and yet extremely dangerous. Night goblins, Forest goblin shamans, Orc shamans, All of these are chronicled here in the next few pages. Yes, and the night goblin shamans could consume mushrooms, forest goblin shamans could plant plus one to their dice when rolling on the head bangers chart, you know, were their heads more likely to blow up? I don't know. There's lots of special rules here that I'm not going to go into. But look, there were there were many types of shaman.
You could have ork shamans, savage ork shamans, forest goblin shamans, night goblin shamans, just goblin shamans, all of them. Such a variety and a great great figure range to go with it. The next page takes us to the Goblin Doom Diver catapult. Now this is one of the things I really didn't like, although a lot of people did. The Goblin Doom diver catapult where you would catapult a goblin into the sky, causing it to land into a unit and cause carnage. I always thought these guys were
tiny. They would probably cause a headache at the most, but no. I can remember taking off reams and reams of troops when one of these hit. I'm not going to linger at the Doom Diver, such is its disappointment. But then again, the Snotling pump wagon is next and that was the same. What a model this was. I've still got the little Snotling who is to stand at the front hosting his middle finger in a rude gesture to all who would look at it.
You could have the double layer one and the half layer one. Silly thing. Pump wagon making its way through the landscape in order to attack. Rock lobbers, boat throwers, chariot rules. We've got plenty of that. And then we have a page on tactics written by Mr. Rick Priestley, with a very young looking Rick glaring out at us with his huge glasses in a black and white photo taken straight from the early 90s.
Top button done up, of course. Rick stares at us ominously, almost apologetically, but somewhat wondrously as he talks about Ork and goblin tactics. The Ork and Goblin army is a real gamblers army. An army with many, many different choices, but ultimately an army that favours aggressive play. Your troops are not completely predictable. When they're good, they're brilliant, but when they're bad they are the worst.
Even the best generals sometimes lose with this army just because that's the way it is. On the other hand, if the dice roll lives in your favour, you'll thrash your opponent no matter how good he might be. That's not to say it's just a question of luck whether you win. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like any good gambler, you have to understand how the odds work and how to stack things in your favour.
When you start to put your army together, you'll be confronted with a bewildering amount of choice. Because there are so many kinds of troops. At first, the very quantity and variety of the troops can be confusing. It's important to realise that you can't hope to include every type of warrior and machine in your army. There are just too many. Instead, build your army around a core of reliable troops, such as black orcs, big guns, or ball boys.
This core doesn't have to be very large, it could be a single mob, but it's necessary to give some solid solidity to the army. Once you have decided on your core force, you can elaborate upon it by adding more troops, war machines, and monsters. When choosing your army, bear in mind that some types of character model war machines or special troops are only available if your army includes mobs of corresponding orcs or
goblin types. For example, you need at least one goblin mob to include Doom Divers. If you want to include specific troops or machines, you have to tailor your army appropriately. Arrange your units as deeply as possible. The more ranks a unit has, the better its combat results. If your unit has four ranks deep, you receive a + 3 bonus, the maximum.
If your units are 5 ranked deep, you receive the maximum bonus and you can afford to take some casualties before you start to deplete the all important fourth rank. Remember, if you have relatively few models in your frontage compared to your depth, the advantage of the rank bonus is accentuated because neither you nor your enemy can inflict many casualties. Rick taken advantage of the 4th
edition rules very much here. It is therefore to the advantage of poor troops goblins to have as much depth and as little frontage as possible. Oh Rick, this is disappointing. Give all your units bosses and standards whenever you can afford it. You cannot afford it? Consider dropping the unit altogether. Goblin units must be led by big bosses, or else you'll find some other way to improve their leadership or combat resilience
with magic items or standards. The reason for this is that goblins, with their leadership of only five, are very fragile, which means they are virtually certain to fail any break or psychology psychology tests that they have to take. Remember, an Orc big boss can be placed with a goblin unit to lead it. By including bosses you will be improving your chances of inflicting casualties and reducing the number of casualties sustained.
By including a standard, you add +1 to your combat results score. All these are important to any unit and vital to goblins attack. Your enemy contains troops which are very good in hand. Your army, sorry, contains troops which are very good in hand to hand combat. Use them to spearhead your advance. Your army also contains troops which are good at pinning or delaying the enemy. For example, large gobbling units, fanatics pump wagons, snotlings, etcetera.
If you can bog down one of your enemy's top units with snotlings or keep him pinned down by landing fanatics in front of him, you are free to win the game with your core units. I like the innocence in which this is written. It basically tells you to min Max your army. It's basically telling you in a tournament head in the army book. But there we go. They would never write that these days, would they?
But it's good. There are some pages then looking at tactics for different types of orcs and goblins different. The cavalry, the wolf riders, the snotlings, the spider riders, all these things. We have the Chariots and supporting troops. The war machines was such a big army with such a big choice and range of troops that you could get characters, monsters, pump wagons, bull riders, magic items, animosity and tactics.
We then have a couple of pages of the black and white banners so favoured at this point in history. Banners that look great on the page, but you try painting them, especially when you're a painter like me, which is not the best of painters. A great John Blanche picture follows of night goblins causing absolute chaos, herding their squigs into battle and drizzly eyed fanatics whirring around with their great balls and chains.
That's an amazing picture. We come to the heavy metal section at the front of the middle of the book. Look at that red orc lock rock lobber. I think that there no, it was a variant of the skull crusher, which was an early old hammer stone thrower that I once had. That was the gobbling skull cutter. It was the man mangler. They were all these old things. But here we have the Wyvern rider. What an iconic model that was, gobbling green base and foot
raised in triumph. Pages of metal ork boys with swords and Shields. Here in a mix of that comedic look and yet still something sinister about them, their great gaping Moors opening, that grinning smile. Both evil and yet extremely funny. Forest goblins. There they are, those little beauties followed by spider riders with the spiders really erect on the base to try and fit them into the small space that
they had Forest goblin regiment. And then we move to the Battle of Iron Peak by Jervis Johnson and Bill King. The goblins and the dwarves do in battle once again. Here we basically have a White Dwarf battle report in an army book. But I'm looking at this army book 30 years later. This battle, this force, this battle fought between Bill King and whoever else. It was Jervis Johnson. His battle still rages.
This is an eternal war. We have some pages of 90s graphics and arrows as these battle out. Yeah, wow. To have this in an army book and not just have it in the army book, it lasts about 15 pages. That's incredible, isn't it? Anyway, let's move on. Some goblin figures follow next. Oh, these were great. We have a metal version of what was the spear holding goblin of the day that came with the box set and other variants that fit in beautifully with that unit. Some great goblin fanatics.
The doomed liver. There it is, one of the greatest weapons of the day, on one of the smallest bases, a selection of cave squigs and then night goblins. Cave squigs, night goblins, river trolls. They were good, weren't they? Look at them, but my favorite. Then follow the stone trolls. Such iconic figures. They've brought out a newer plastic range of these in the Age of Sigma in order to recap the greatness of these sculpts. I don't think they ever will. Look at them.
The one with the stone above his head, the one with the two handed hammer. All of them with that gawky ugly looking face. Great days, great memories. We then come across some more battle pictures, a fearsome band of orcs and stone trolls, and then a large unit of night goblins which has just crossed a bridge, which it would never have done in that formation because the bridge is only about half as wide as the unit, but still they come. An orc war band lines up for battle.
Then we have some pages of orcs, then a painting guide showing us how to paint those great goblin arches from years gone by. Until at last we get to the beastry orcs. Orcs vary in height and their physical appearance more than humans. Some are no taller than a man, but most are substantially larger, and the biggest orcs stand well over 7 feet tall. They are also much broader than humans, with big deep chests, massive shoulders, and long,
powerfully muscled arms. Orcs have large heads with huge jaws, but tiny foreheads, behind which lurk a thick skull and not very much brain. Despite their apparent lack of intelligence, orcs are not stupid, although they are rather limited in the way they think and act. They are not the deepest thinkers in the world, but neither are they doubtful or divided. When an orc wants to do something, he simply does it.
Where a human might spend untold time weighing the alternatives, the orcs single mindedness is one of their greatest strengths, especially as they are fighting more than anything else. When they're not actually at war, orcs spend their time fighting each other to establish rights of leadership. Orc leaders are known as Boss Orcs, but even Boss orcs fight amongst themselves. Decide which of them is the
overall leader. This means there are innumerable layers in the orc pecking order, from boss to big boss, war boss and warlord. A warlord is an orc who has established total supremacy over his rivals, having either killed them or driven them away, and now leads all the tribes in glorious conquest over their puny races such as Men, Elves
and dwarves. Orcs call elves skinnies and dwarves stunties and Orcs life is therefore spent in constant battle, either with his fellow orcs or against some worthy opponent. This is regarded as a good thing by Orcs, who are universally content with their lot, being ultimately happy to meet their end in battle so long as they get a chance of a good fight. The Orcs start line is next.
Movement 4. Wepescal 3 both skill three, Strength 3, Toughness 4, Wounds 1, Initiative 21 Attack, Leadership 7 the big Boss, the boss Orc next, followed by the big boss and then the War Box, the war boss who maxes out at movement 4 Weapons Skill 6 both skill 6, Strength 4, Toughness 5, Wounds 3, Initiative 5, attacks four and Leadership nine. We have a bit on Savage Orcs next, then Black Hawks. Black Hawks tended to be the leaders in these days and in all days.
Powerful characters. Starting off with Movement 4, weapons, skill 4, Strength 4, Toughness 4, the war boss, Movement 4 weapons, Skill 7, both skill 6, Strength 5, Toughness 5, Three wounds, Initiative 5, four attacks and leadership. 10A. Good general for any York army. We then go on to talk about Biggins, then goblins, then night goblins, then night goblin fanatics. Now the goblin stat line was terrible. Movement 4. Weapons skill 2 bow skill three, strength 3. Toughness 3.
Wounds 1. Initiative 21. Attack and leadership 5. Boo shaman stats or goblin fanatics Night goblin squig hunters, Night goblin squig hoppers, Night goblin netters, Forest goblins. We then have snotlings. Then we have giant spiders and goblin wolf riders. The giant or great wolf of the warhammer Whirl is a fearsome monster with slavering fangs and
huge claws. They are a great menace to humans and have been haunted to an extent at huge wolf packs that terrorize the whole provinces are now a thing of the past. Only in the vast wastes of Kislev is it still common for entire villages to be raided and destroyed by marauding wolf packs, for children to be stolen away or herds of domestic animals to be destroyed in a single night. Attacked and driven out by men, the giant wolves of allied themselves with goblin tribes.
This partnership of goblin and wolf have proved to be very successful. The goblins protect and feed the wolves. In turn, Goblins are small enough to ride giant wolves and hitch them to Chariots and carts in place of horses who detest the smell of goblins and won't be have anything to do with them. Wolves and goblins seem to get along very well, and the two
races have thrived together. Goblin wolf riders raid and pillage far afield, while outriders scour the surrounding countryside for any sign of enemy armies. The giant wolf movement nine that gladdens my heart. Weapons Skill 4 both skilled 0 Strength 3 Toughness 3 Wounds 1 Initiative 3 one Attack Leadership three. And there's that picture that like Hun, like goblin wolf rider. Do you know folks?
But I've talked about this before, but in the first game of Warhammer I ever played, I commanded an army of goblin wolf, a unit of goblin wolf riders who rode through a river to emerge on the other side. And it was on that day in Swansea War Games Club, I'd say circa 1984, the my love for fantasy battles was awakened. I can still see those wolves riding through the river. I can still feel the water on their pelts. I can still hear the noises as
they emerged on the other side. And since that day, I think of all days, and of all creatures and all armies, the gobbling wolf rider is still my favorite troop type in all of fantasy. Next to me as I speak here, I have a cupboard full. There must be 1000 figures in there at least. I'd say the most numerous of them all are different units from different ages and different manufacturers of wolf Rider. My favorite troop type. I love a goblin wolf rider. There, I've said it.
Not in a strange way. They've just awakened my imagination. They'd thought of them riding across the table whooping and howling into war. Makes me love fantasy all the more. I'm sure you have a favorite troop type. Giant spiders and spider riders. Never really liked them. I did have a few war boars. I preferred it when they used to ride wolves. Trolls. Then we have the army list. Of course there were different ways in which you could build the army, but this give you a
lot of freedom. Characters. Your warlord, Black Orc, 140 points, an orc 110. Did anyone ever take a savage orc warlord, I wonder? Battle standards, they were important. And then we have the shamans, we have the mobs. Orc ball boys, 27 points per model. So a lot of points, wasn't it? Savage orkbo boys Gobble. I liked savage orks. Goblin wolf riders. Great drawing there on this page.
I can't see the number at the bottom, but the ork Arab boy, hooded ork with a checkered black and white rim on his hood firing a bow. Reminds me of the Harbath Archers from years gone by. Arrows stuck in the ground. Yeah, great drawing that. I like that. Terrible Archers though. Savage Yorks, Night goblins. Not to one mob of squig hunters. Squig hoppers, netters, trolls, giants. Of course, paired with this army is the fantastic Marauder giant. There was never a better giant
was there to go with this. Snotlings. I can remember in this age people used to have a lot of snotlings. 15 points per base, like 10 bases in front of the army. Horrible Doom, Diver, Caterpills, Boo Monsters, Manticores, Cockatrice, Griffin, Hippogriff, they're all here. Then we've got the special characters, all the ones mentioned earlier on in the background, including our friend Grom the Paunch. Let's have a look at him. Grom, Web movement 4.
Weapon Skill 5, Bow Skill 6. Strange strength 4. Toughness 4. Wounds 3. Initiative 5. Attacks 4. Leadership 7. Of course, he had regeneration as well, didn't he? And the Axe of Grom and his standard bearer, Niblet, a chariot drawn by wolves. Is there anything better? Nauglem neck snapper? Oglok the Horrible? Did anyone ever take him?
And then of course Skarsnik, Warlord of the Eight Peaks at a mere 80 points, 50 points extra if you want to include gobbler and 70 points 75 points for the prodder. The prodder was deadly wasn't it used to do a lot of damage that did. Then we have the magic item cards, Gorks war banner, the evil sun banner. A unit carrying this standard may re roll any failed animosity test points value 10. The Sword of Bork, the Spider Banner, the Collar of Zorga Morga the Mangler.
Scarsnick's prodder of course fights in combat like a normal sprig prodder, but it unleashes why energy 75 points. Wowsers said wowsers a lot in this one, haven't I Right then. Then we have just pages of story pages and pages of Bill King's text telling us all about the orcs and goblins. A story about Azhag. Too long to read right now, but I'll give you the first couple of paragraphs and perhaps you could re explore this below. Azhag.
The great green horde advanced as the shadow of his Wiven fell upon his troops. They looked up, gazing skyward with a mixture of awe, fear, and brute stupidity in their red eyes. On the left of the column were the mighty orc warriors of Gore's renders, each a towering giant whose yellow tusks gleamed proudly in the sunlight. To the right were Jog's trolls, huge blue skinned monsters eating the miles with their long loping strides.
Behind them, stretching for mile upon mile, came gobbling tribe after goblin tribe and orc mob after orc mob. The enormous bulks of stone throwers towered over the Moss, each drawn by a sweating team of gobbo slaves, spider riding chieftains led by clans of stunted forest gobblins. Across the open plain they came black garb.
Night Goblin shuffled and limped along in the bright sunlight, here and there amid the lines as I could be seen sweating gobbles, carrying the great ball and chains of their fanatic brethren. At the head of the army rode the Bull Riders, controlling their sorely bristle, snouted mounts with blows and grunts. And far off in the distance, as I could see the long Gray line of the Wolf Rider scouts who spearheaded the hordes advance into man territory.
That's beautiful, isn't it? Again, if you were the sort of player who would take the time to read these stories, there was no better companion to get you into the hobby than to have one of these army books in your hand. To reach up and pick Warhammer armies, Orcs and goblins off the shelf was a treat and I don't think we rightly got that at the time. I can remember I used to moan and I still speak with my friends because Games Workshops
release schedule is now bonkers. There are new books, new games, new figures coming out every week. Back in that day we were lucky to have three army books a year and if your army wasn't one of those army books, it could be a long wait and I would wonder what were they doing? But I tell you what they were doing, they were creating works of fiction which stand up as some of the greatest war games and role-playing supplements there have ever been.
I truly think that this this age in the early 939495 was probably the zenith of the Warhammer world. It was when the twin sons, or those the twin sons of Satuen and maybe the twin grinning moons of Morris Leb and Morris Webb or whatever it was, shined more brightly than they ever did
before or ever did since. My time here, my friends, is now scant and I must scarper, but I hope you've enjoyed this little dive, if not the deepest of dives, at least it's been a dive where at least put my head under the water of the Orc and Goblin army book from back in the day. I've really enjoyed exploring it and I hope you've enjoyed listening to it.
My name is Owen Stanton, you can find out more about me at welshstoryteller.com but also follow my podcast Time Between Times where I explore Welsh myths, legends, ghost stories, not just Welsh from all around the world. I even have a little gaming channel on YouTube called Adventures at the time Between Times. Have a look at that or my other YouTube channel which gives you some slumber stories. Some people like to listen to my
voice and fall asleep. I don't know if that upsets me or not, but I've tried to make some videos to get people happy at it. Anyway, I thank Josh for giving me the time and the place to be able to do this for you. Wherever you are, my friends, whatever you're doing, the hobby is a great thing. It's quite easy to get caught up in their hate and the horrible and the nastiness of the net.
It's not a horrible place. There is always war in Warhammer, but it's done with a wink of the eye and a smile in the face and the thought that you, however old you are, whoever you were at that time, could lose yourself in a place of pure fantasy. I hope you've enjoyed it. Take care, my friends. No star.