Tuesday, March 8, 2011

First Thoughts on the New Orcs & Goblins

Sat down last night and had my first serious read through the new Orc and Goblin book with a few to seeing what sort of lists it will generate.

My initial thoughts are that we are likely to see “Pick ‘N Mix” armies in the first instance. What I mean by that is I think people will be taking units from across the spectrum of the book rather than following any tight theme.

This means we’ll potentially see a variety of characters rather than just Orcs, just Goblins, just Night Goblins etc. Similarly armies will have a hodge-podge of units from the book to build a list that ticks the boxes on conventional 8th Edition list building.



So things we’ll see:

Single characters built to hold up units similar to the Scar Vets in Lizardmen armies. Boar-mounted, stubborn crown, defensive items.

Single Trolls as cheap redirectors.

Multiple pump wagons

Very few Orc boys….Savage Orcs look a better buy

Night Goblins over other Goblins – nets, fanatics trump skulkers

Giant Spiders only in fluff bunny lists….points better spent elsewhere

Night Goblin Shamans – who doesn’t like free “non” Power Dice

Doom Divers – can I get away with two?

Mangler Squigs

Clearly Rare points are going to be under pressure but you’re definitely going to see 4-5 units all sub-100 points coming from that section.

So there you are…..a Skaven’s thoughts on what the new “black” will be!

3 comments:

  1. Pretty much my thoughts exactly. My very first reaction was "wow, I can't believe they've turned OnG into an msu army".
    I'm thinking you'll see as many units in the 80-120pt category as can be fit (both from special and rare) and a unit of savage orc big uns for the watchtower. The book feels a bit like the beastmen book, which is fitting I think.

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  2. I think it is quite strong.....certainly much stronger than the previous book. The "magic" Beastmen are a strong build so I guess you can call them equivalent. However overall I think it is a better option than just being "green" beastmen

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  3. I think you're right simply because OnG can don't necessarily have to rely on using their WS with so many impact hits and impact style hits. And they can throw down so many fast and cheap redirection units they should (dice willing) be able to control the board better than they did before. I think that's the real area of improvement.

    Moving trolls to special, lowering their price AND keeping their minimum unit size at 1+ is very nice.

    The changes to goblin chariots, pump wagons and heavily lowering the prices of cav also play into the strength of the book.

    As it is I think they play to the rules/strengths of 8th pretty well. I just would have liked to have seen some more magic items that were useful (and cheaper). With just that it'd have been a really great start to 8th and probably would have quieted most of the criticism thrown its way.

    Without having seen the army play yet I don't really know how their magic phase is going to play out. At first glance I think it's nice, but I don't think it's as good as what beastmen can put out. If they had left the waagh spell and a few of the better items in there I think they could have been up there with skaven ;)

    It's almost enough to push me into buying some.

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