Latest Orc build

[gull2112]

Here is my latest Orc faction build.
1 x Trolls
5 x Crazed Goblins

1 x Wolf Riders
1 x Goblin Bowmen

1 x Marauders
3 x Goblin Spearmen

1999 points

This is basically a two pronged army with the wolf riders and gobbows positioned in between to mess with any attempt at lateral reinforcement and to provide general support. The Trolls herd moves at 5" and so races across the board and is a very good element to deal with pesky missile troops. The marauders and pointy stick boys are great for tanking. Resist the urge to face the trolls off against a monster unit on the other side as the most likely out come is you cancel each other out. Let the Marauders and co. take on the big boy and leave the Trolls to make quick work of the rest of the army. That's in an ideal situation. Often times the opponent will guess your set up and the actual battle will be the opposite matchup. This army is still strong and will work.

There are two points to understand about this build and they both involve the Crazed Goblins. The first is that you will get to set up the Crazed Goblins first so that by the time you have to start placing the heavies your opponent will have commited many of his units already (I call this Orcish Foresight). The second is that you can't play command cards or even spend command actions on almost half your army, effectively doubling your available command actions for the rest. Games that I have played with this basic build (of which this is the latest iteration) have always seen me end the game with almost my whole command deck expended (lots o' command cards played = much devastation inflicted).

CG Tr CG   WR   Gsp Ma Gsp
CG CGCG   Gb    Gsp

[ajax98]

Interesting. I think I will start planning now.

[gull2112]

This is definitely a build where you feel the pressure of core minimums. The trickiest part is to provide an adequate number of core troops while maintaining the feel of the build. I could replace the goblin spears with orc swords if I get rid of the wolfriders, but I actually find the wolfriders to be much more useful than the help gained by orc swords over goblin spears. Earlier versions of this build had no marauders, just Orc swords on the flank, but then it was too dependent on the trolls to make everything happen.

Oh, and it is tempting when tweaking this to fish for a few extra points by reducing the goblin fanatics. Whenever I have done this I have regretted it because fewer than five seems to be too few and the trolls find themselves alone and pinched too soon.

[RushAss]

You should call that build the "Flood of fun".

[gull2112]

You should call that build the "Flood of fun".

   

[gull2112]

 I must comment  on the Mighty crazed Goblins and last night's session seen here http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,1572.0.html

The Crazed goblins, of which there were five, double pinched and pinned down a hydra, charged head on and held their own against a unit of wild men, and with a troll, triple pinched and two shotted an earth elemental!

These little guys did this with out any help from me since they are on permanent Close and can't have command cards played on them and are unaffected by any green cards played.

They may not always be able to do this, but they did do it last night and it was not because of any freaky die rolls. They just worked.

From now on all my orc armies will have at least five crazed goblin units!

[RushAss]

Crazed Goblins are an incredible unit to bring to the table if you suspect your opponent will have large, fearsome dudes (or even colossal/terrifying).  You mentioned them never routing or failing a fear check, which is huge.  This means you have to kill the things outright, which is easy to do.  However, it's almost impossible to one-shot them because you need at least 8 attack dice to even have a chance and the only large/colossal guy that can do that without command card help is a Hydra that has already taken damage.  So they are pretty much guaranteed to stick around for two attack rounds, which is incredible for an 83 point unit.  I once used a Crazed goblin unit to tie down an Ancient Red Dragon for a couple of attack rounds and it worked beautifully.  They are also pretty zippy at MC5.  I've always been a believer in those guys.

[Hannibal]

I just picked up the Orc deck a couple months ago (now I own all but Lizzies and Deadies) and yeah, the Crazed Gobbos are just awesome.  I like using them as a back up unit, seeing as how the Orcs are vulnerable to Short Battle Line Syndrone.

Take a unit of Goblin Raiders, back them up with Crazed Gobbos.  The Indirect Path rule keeps them behind the Raiders and for 11 points cheaper than Orc Swordsmen you have a unit that at the very least will get 12-14 boxes of damage, depending on the Yellow check on those Raiders, before going away.

An even more economical use is two Raiders backed up by 1 unit of Crazed Gobbos.

[elgin_j]

You should call that build the "Flood of fun".

That just makes me think of Halo.

[gull2112]

Lest someone think that Crazed Goblins can't fail, I feel I should add that they are an 83 point unit for a reason. If not used correctly they can just whither away and disappear. Although they worked beautifully, and as intended, in the last game I used them in, it was remarkable for that very fact.

[Niko White]

Hannibal's hit my favorite Crazed Goblin use, they're great backup units, though I tend not to like Goblin line units even with that.  But the Orc line units sometimes need a bit of backup and the Crazed Goblins will hold a gap for quite a while.

[gull2112]

If you have them behind another unit won't they just drift around? At speed 5" they aren't going to sit behind an orc unit for very long, or am I misunderstanding the Indirect path rule? Assume, for the purposes of this question, that you are on a void and featureless plain with an enemy faction before you with a lone orc swordmen in front of a goblin fanatics unit.

[ajax98]

If you have them behind another unit won't they just drift around? At speed 5" they aren't going to sit behind an orc unit for very long, or am I misunderstanding the Indirect path rule? Assume, for the purposes of this question, that you are on a void and featureless plain with an enemy faction before you with a lone orc swordmen in front of a goblin fanatics unit.

IMO, as it now stands, the 'Indirect Path' rule allows the player two choices: If Blocked by a friendly unit, stay put; or move the unit on a path that will be the best in turns/time to do so.


Rules beta3.0, p13, 1.1.2 Close Order  C
The unit will move toward the nearest enemy unit. If possible, it will final rush (1.4.6) the nearest enemy unit.

p37, 1.4.7.2 Indirect Path
Sometimes the direct path to an enemy unit isn’t the fastest. This can happen because of other units (friendly or enemy) in the way, or because of difficult terrain that would slow the unit’s movement if it moved straight ahead. In this case, without spending a command action, you can choose whether the unit moves along the direct route (as far as possible, stopping at obstructing units) or the current fastest route.

The key issue is the unit in question 'if moving'. Presently you may choose to have the unit stay put, "stopping at obstructing units" (of necessity, a friendly unit). This would of course be calculated from the front red line center point. If the shortest line drawn line to the nearest enemy (at the moment, I choose not to get into the problem of the '1.4.1.2 Clearly Visible & 1.4.1.4 Nearest Enemy' paradox, as it is currently written) passes through a Friendly unit then that 'qualifies' this unit for a choice.

This set of rules also allows a unit to be moving directly towards an enemy unit and with player calculation, encounter every piece of blocking and obstructing terrain possible, using up the requisite amount of time, for what it's worth.

Even for a unit that is pre-printed with a 'C', it does not loose absolute control to the player; it is just proscribed from alternative Standing Orders. These units can be "managed".

To address your question directly above, the CG unit may stay in position behind the OS indefinitely; or you may choose to have it use the Indirect Path.

Since the question is posed in such a fashion, I would say that you have misunderstood the Indirect Path rule.

It would be essentially the same for the current R2.4.

[gull2112]

I agree with you. It is interesting because I had just read the rule myself and did not come to that conclusion unitl I reread it on your post. My what powerful juju you have.

[ajax98]

I credit my pseudo-rabbinical training.