Warhammer Fantasy Battle Tabletop Gaming: Hobgoblins

"The Great Horde cometh, they ride from the East sweeping away all that stand in their path!" the last words of the Empire's Eastern most outpost.

Some of the more silver-haired amongst you might, like me, recall that hobgoblins were one of the first races produced by citadel all those years ago when Warhammer was in it's infancy. For some reason GW discontinued the race, maybe they were just too similar to their goblin brethren and there was just too much green on the tabletop. Whatever the cause of their demise, Mathias of Battle Reporter forum fame has kindly ressurrected the horde in all their 8th edition glory.

Before I continue I'd like to say, once again, that I'm very, very thankful for all the hard work that Mathias has put into these amazing unofficial Warhammer armies. If you enjoy them as much as I do then please join us in the forum and let Mathias know how much you appreciate his creations, his member name is M4cR1II3n.

This army is completely unofficial and is not endorsed by Games Workshop!

Here's a brief summary of what you can expect:-

The Hobgoblins Army book can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF (it's about 12meg and is totally FREE !) It's a 55 page book covering all the usual army background, history, religion (Hashut, the same as the tainted Chaos Dwarfs), their devious, mercenary spirit and the Hobgoblin expansionist ambitions (think Genghis Khan !)

The army is weak in magic but strong in cheap horde-like troops and fast cavalry. Core foot warriors have a slightly better Weapon Skill than your average goblin and the Backstabbers special rule which gives them additional attacks against fleeing enemies. On the flip-side many units suffer from Hobgoblin Animosity which could result in a cowardly panic test or a few man-stikka blades finding purchase in the backs of their fellow troopers.

The army book is, as always from a Mathias creation, crammed full of character. Hobgoblins are devious, sneaky, hit-and-run pillagers and absolutely not to be trusted - ever ! The various special rules make this abundantly clear with rules such as "Backstabbers", "Cowardly Despoilers" (a Wolf Raider characteristic giving an extra bonus for flank or rear charges); "Burn it Down" (a Tarkan unit speciality which enables the unit to set fire to building and war machines); "Fire and Flee" (a Mangudai Wolf cavalry skill that allows a unit to sacrifice some of it's flee move to make a shoot charge reaction before running off !)

I think the Hobgoblins would make an excellent choice for the likes of a noble High Elf General, chivalrous Bretonnian Knight or honourable Dwarf Lord player who would relish the opportunity to be a bit of a sneaky git for a change

In summary, there are 7 Lord and Hero choices, 5 core units, 6 special units (including some very handy cavalry and a War Wagon), 4 rare units (including the superb and extremely deadly Death Worm that can be used like an ambusher and a frenzied (!) Rhinox Battle Fortress), a few cool mounts (like the terrifying Waki'ya flying monster for an extra 4 strength 5 attacks) and about 35 magic items - named "Da Loot" :D

Unlike most other armies Hobgoblin shamans do not practice their own specialist magic but they can use the Lores of Fire, Shadow or Beasts.

All-in-all (following a rather quick review of the rules and units) I would say the army's main strength is it's fast movement, cheap core units and ability to deploy hit and run type tactics. The principal weakness is definitely magic and also the below average profile stats (although this is offset by the points costs).

It's another excellent production and well worth a read. You can probably also find plenty of hobgoblin models out there, if not the old Citadel ones then I'm fairly confident that another miniature company will still be producing some.