Orcs & Goblin Tactics : Greenskin Artillery

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Warhammer Fantasy forum experts speak their minds

This is a new series of master class Warhammer tactica tips and advice from the Warhammer Battle Reporter Fantasy forum experts. Expect plenty more.

This article is by Sever14, a great player and a great forum member. Thanks Sever14.

Orc and Goblin Artillery Tactics

"'What is the most important unit in a greenskin army?' Well, it’s the artillery units. Doom Divers, Spear Chukkas, and even Rock Lobbas. But this isn’t a unit, its several different units. Yes that is true, but together they are the most important aspect in a greenskin army. If you hold on I’ll explain.

When you fight against greenskin armies, what do you generally face? Lots of models, units, and just well a mob of green. How do you deal with this mob? Well your gonna be up against orcs with a toughness of 4, measly goblins with crazed fanatics, several units of fast cavalry. That’s pretty much a staple of all greenskin armies, so how do you beat these armies? Cause panic/terror tests and have units that strength 4 models can not hurt or beat. Also you need a sacrificial unit or two to “pop” fanatics out of night gobbo units. So lets see here, basic blocks of infantry are not going to cut it. They might win against gobbo’s, but anything that can shake a stick wins against gobbos. But against big blocks of orcs, it’s a different matter. You need elite troops, heavy cavalry, or monsters.

Elite troops and heavy cavalry give orcs nightmares
since they hit hard enough to do a good number of wounds against toughness 4 and the orcs have a hard time wounding in return. Monsters that cause terror are wonderful against greenskins since they hit hard, are hard to hurt, and make the enemy take terror tests with low leadership. Since most greenskin units are quite large, its hard to make then take panic tests from shooting, so spells or weapons which force panic tests also work well.

Hmmm, as a greenskin, those units make me almost wet myself in battle. Nasty fighting characters in large units helps, but against strength 5 or 6 hits, even they fall quite a bit. Artillery to the rescue. Artillery provides what the rest of the army lacks, high strength, multiple wounds, ignoring armor save attacks. Whats even better, well for 300 pts you get 2 doom diver, 2 spear chukkas, and a rock lobba. Personally I prefer 2 doom divers and 4 spear chukkas for 300 pts. So now we have an answer to monsters and knights and elite expensive infantry.

Where do I place my artillery?

Well, you want to be able to shoot every turn of course and not lose your artillery. So hills are always nice, and the edge of woods as well. I mean if the enemy spends a lot of effort shooting at 35 pts spear chukkas, well I really don’t care since I have several more, and 35 pts is almost a waste to shoot at. One trick I have used is to place these guys far in the rear of my army behind my units. You have 48” to 60” range, so they can be placed a long way from the enemy. I place them in the gaps so they can see just a sliver of the enemy or his large targets. All you need is a small line of sight, so the 1” in-between your own units works, but when you do this, it’s a good idea to make sure he has large targets as well or something on a hill so you can always shoot at something worth while.

What do I shoot at?

Well, what cant your blocks of infantry handle? Doom Divers are great for knights and elite infantry since D6 strength 5 hits cause a hurting to these often small and expensive units. Bolt throwers should shoot at high toughness, multiple wound models, such as dragons, steam tanks, hydras, or if you can a flank shot at knights. Now we are green and everything counts in numbers, so if you want to be sure to put a dent in the enemy’s chaos knights, shoot both doom divers at it, 2d6 str 5 hits that ignore armor should eliminate that threat. I cant tell you how many times my doom divers have made up for their pts by sending mad goblins with wings crashing into knights. Also elite infantry such as High Elf Swordmasters or Chaos warriors are good targets.

Bolt throwers are wonderful against monsters. Four bolts to the face of any dragon will keep him hiding quite a while. Sending multiple bolts at stegadons also does wonders for greenskin morale. What happens when I cant shoot at monsters or knights in the flank? Take a shot a lone characters, you have a 19% chance killing a 2 wound hero at short range and about 9% at long range. Again several bolts are better than one. Now if your only targets are units equivalent to rat slaves or other gobbos, move your machine to shoot at something tasty for the next round. Its hard to even justify picking up the dice to shoot at rat slaves.

How do I protect my artillery?

Your general will probably move down the field with the main bulk of the army leaving these guys by themselves. Fast cavalry protect war machines quite well. They can redirect charges and slow down the enemy from eating your war machines. Lets face it, a gobbo crew will win a combat…never, so be prepared to high tail it in a combat. Which leads to my next point, set up your machines so that they cannot be overrun into. Try to make it where your opponent has to spend a turn setting up a charge instead of machine hopping.

It has been my experience, that my 300 pts of artillery has always made up its points and had won quite a few battle for me as well. So after reading this article, I hope as a greenskin general you will never leave on a WAAAGH with out a handy selection of artillery. No go and eat some ‘umies."

If you have any comments you'd like to share with Sever14 and everyone else on this Greenskin Tactica please post them in Orcs and Goblins forum at Warhammer Battle Reporter.

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