Help a Newbie

[MongrelFish]

Righteo, Im new to the world of Warhammer Fantasy, and I am in need of help.

Basically I decided I'd get into this after purchasing a box of Goblin wolf riders to use the hounds for my 40k army, and was left with about 20 foot mounted goblins.

Not wanting to waste them, I decided I'd start collecting Orks and Goblins.

Now for my dilemma - being completely new to WHFB, what best to arm my goblins with? Spears and shields or bows? And what about full command?

I really should read the rule/army books, but I'll get around to it at some point.

Anyone can help me, Id much appreciate it

[dustand]

its important to get a mix of the two. as a horde player Iwould look at a 2-1 ratio of spears to bows, I wouldnt worry about sheilds for the archers (if its an option). deffinately take a full command with spears and archers I would would say at least take a musician. Use your gobos to pin your opponents in place for your orcs to get the charge. Take night goblins cause they can get fanatics. I would take a wider frontage on gobos, maybe 7 wide with 4 or 5 ranks. that will make them a serious issue for anything short of 'kill everything' units. alternatively you have all your goblins as archers and all your dedicated H2H as orks... thats what they suit best =]

[Aaron]

I would definately go with spears or hand weapons and shields initially and look at adding some bows down the track.

Having said that I think greenskin players tend to use gobbos with bows as they have the same BS as orcs but are much cheaper & if you are thinking about an overall army plan then arming them with bows might be the go. But in smaller games whilst the idea of some bow armed troops seems good the reality is a Goblin has BS3 with a short bow (range 16') which isn't really that effective.

Command? well considering how cheap it is I'd probably throw them in anyway. Definately an essential for spear armed troops but as gobbos have to be bought in blocks of 20+ the bow armed troops can reform into a 5*4 block of troops and easily take down an enemy unit with a flank charge or small units/skirmishers. At which point the command is excellent as you start with +4 combat resolution from ranks & standard.

Muso's are pretty essential for gobbos for the +1Ld bonus when attempting to rally.

[aamche]

The Green Skin Horde is exactly that. Chances are with Goblins you will outnumber your opponents 2 to 1. With that in mind you should have plenty of room for both. But I usually err towards lots of hand weapons or spears, it's the orcy way.

I agree with Aaron that, yes goblins are cheaper archers but their range is terrible and will most likey spend the first 1-2 turns marching them across the board. Against a shooty army like highelves you may not have any goblins left after two turns. So I would either go full tilt with spears and shields or use them as cannon fodder to take missile shots infront of your orc units (when the goblins flee the orcs won't care).

Take fanatics most of the time. I've seen players spend so much of the game trying to get the fanatics out into a cheap skirmish unit and forget about the rest of the army. There are two things worth while about them, they can cause huge damage to units or you can shock your enemy when they don't pop out and you just get to charge/attack/kill x points with under 75 points of losses. (e.g. cost of unfortunatly launched fanatics).

A unit of archers would best be consider at the base of a hill to protect warmachines or to hold a flank.

But I still think lots of models and charge/attack/kill. Some day I may just win a game with that strategy. I have 130 orcs in my army and plan to have as many goblins.