Idol of Gork Army Lists: 'Da Snatch' (Goblins)

So after we figured out the Empire guards deployed to guard the Idols of Gork and Mork, we moved on to plan out the force of goblins which sets out under cover of darkness to steal the Crown of Gork from under their very noses (silly ‘umies).  The Idol of Gork campaign makes only one restriction on the list: goblins only.  What fun!  There are so many crazy options to use with a goblin-only force, which so often don’t get picked when you are looking to build that ‘ultimate’ army.  Our thinking went something like this:

The army was under the command of the Ironclaw orcs’ Night-goblin shaman – the nefarious Oddgit.  We eventually settled on making him a shaman lord since he is the tribe’s premier magic user but kept him at level 3 – the tribe is not at its peak after all!  Oddgit’s plan was to use the cover of darkness to launch a lightning raid, giving his forces the benefit of surprise as well as the added advantage of the Night-goblins’ night vision.  So obviously lots of Night-goblins were required, along with the fun stuff like fanatics, netters, and squigs.  We also used the opportunity to add some Night-goblin archers because it is fitting (snipers with night-vision in the darkness!) and we’ve never taken the opportunity to use them before.  Something else we had never used before (EVER) were a unit of the bog-standard, ‘normal’ goblins on foot and we were excited to bring these out… isn’t it funny when the ‘vanilla’ becomes the exotic?

Given the goblin army and ‘lightning raid’ theme war-machines (read goblin doom-divers) were ruled out, but cavalry was a must: goblin wolf-riders are a classic and we popped in both wolf-chariots as well.  It was the goblin wolf-riders who scouted out the Empire’s occupation of the Idols in the first place.  The Idols are located near some forest, from which some goblin-spider riders have emerged to take part in the blood-letting at Oddgit’s beckoning.  We toyed with the Araknarok given the all goblin theme but decided it limited some of the more unusual options by taking too many of the 1000 pts.

Finally, we decided to put in the goblins’ even smaller cousins, the snotlings!  We’d used the pump wagon once or twice before… I have this hilarious image of twisted little fellows pumping furiously away and it bouncing along crazily through the night, ruining any chance of a completely catching the Empire completely unaware.  But we ran out of points.  We’d never used the snotling swarm bases before though… so those were popped in for added flavour.

And here it is:

1000 point army
Heroes
Oddgit
Night Goblin Great Shaman	140
level 3
Core
40 Night Goblins	120
Standard & Musician	20
Netters and Spears	45
2 fanatics	50
28 Night Goblins	84
Standard & Musician	20
Short bows
2 fanatics	50
20 Goblins	60
Standard & Musician	20
5 Forest Goblin Spider Riders	65
Musician	10
5 Goblin Wolf Riders	50
Musician	10
Spears, short bows & shields	15
Special
2 Goblin Wolf Chariots	100
2 Snotling Swarms	60
Night Goblin Squig Hoppers
3 herders	9
9 Squigs	72
Total	1000

Idol of Gork Army Lists: 'Da Snatch' (Empire)

On Thursday night my uncle and I got together (with the rulebooks!  I’ve been running off memory up till now) to figure out the armies for ‘Da Snatch.’  Remember, our goal here was NOT about building the most effective, or even the most balanced lists (though we’d like the battle not to be a boring walk-over) – we want to have fun playing out a story!

For the Empire all we get to go on from the campaign pack is that the Idols are left under the protection of Manfred von Bock, ‘a reliable captain’, and a band of ‘picked guards.’  Also there were no knights (knights on guard duty? Surely you jest), wizards (none available – they’re sending to the Empire for one to fix the Idols!), or war-machines (too valuable for guard duty) allowed.

For us, guard duty suggested state troops who do what they’re told (like sleep beneath terrifying idols in foul weather) – especially spears and halberds so we started with big units of those.  Handgunners also made sense even though their effectiveness will be limited given the battle takes place at night – THEY don’t know that!

The detachment are just for flavour – gallant young bravos who are full of strut and song and are humoured by the halberdiers even though they tend to monopolize the prettiest girls and the most wine.

What next?  We’ve never really used hunters so we stuck them in – I have this imagining of a hard-bitten, grumbling tracker captain who thinks it’s complete madness to be lying out in the open around accursed idols but whole do his best to make sure there are no nasty surprises out in the wilderness.  It is probably due to his hunters – scouting out in the darkness – that the guarding force manages to get themselves into any sort of ranked defence before the goblins are upon them!

Finally the pistoliers!  Now the young men of the Pistolkorps tend to be nobles either serving some time in the military before taking up family responsibilities or ‘earning their spurs’ before entering a knightly order.  So this lot are entitled, hot-headed, untried in battle, and not keen on the tedium of guard duty.  Unlike the other troops, their interpretation of Von Bock’s orders are ‘flexible’ at best, but they are loyal, and when the enemy turns up they will do their bit (albeit with a lot less swagger).

So: here is (the more or less final - might make a couple of changes) Captain Manfred von Bock’s guard force. 

1000 point army
Heroes
Captain von Bock	60
Full plate armour	6
Shield	2
Pistol	5
Core
29 Halberdiers	174
Full command	30
Shields	29
5 Swordsmen (Detachment)	35
30 Spearmen	150
Full command	30
Shields	30
10 Handgunners	90
Marksman with Hochland long rifle	30
10 Handgunners	90
Marksman with Repeater handgun	20
Special
10 Huntsmen	80
Tracker	10
Musician	10
5 Pistoliers	90
Outrider with repeater pistol	20
Musician	10
Total	1001
	1001