OLD:Goblins Tactics

Goblins
File:Goblins.webp
Setting:	Age of Fantasy
Games:	Age of Fantasy, Age of Fantasy: Skirmish, Age of Fantasy: Regiments
Species:	Goblin

Note: as v2.50 is in constant development the following might not be accurate.

Why Play Goblins

The Humans are pretty much bodies in numbers. You'll usually have lots of bodies and heroes capable of bolstering them.

Pros:

• An insane lot of activations, with a good load of Furious to improve your attack pools
• Clan options provide an additional degree of customization to the army.
• Your troops tend to be cheaper

Cons:

• Your troops are very puny
• Poor Quality means that your squads will break very easily
• A lack of long-ranged shooting without artillery

Army Special Rules

• Boing: Given to anything on a cave-beast for a random version of Fast. Normal moves add +d3" to their movement while rush and charge actions add +2d3" to their movement.
• Bombard: Whenever this model moves over enemy units, pick one of them and roll 2d6. For each 2+, the enemy takes three AP(1) hits.
• Camouflage: The hero and its unit gain Stealth.
• Destructive: Essentially a foot-based Bombard. Whenever model moves through enemy units, pick one of them and roll 1 die. On a 2+ it takes three AP(1) hits.
• Instigator: Once per activation, one friendly unit within 12” of this model can move up to 6".
• Magic Potions: The hero and its unit get +1 to AP in melee.
• Power Shrooms: Once per activation, pick one friendly unit within 6”. They get +1 to hit rolls next time it fights in melee.
• Surprise: This model counts as having Ambush and may be deployed up to 1” away from enemy units. Once deployed roll one die, on 2+ it deals two AP(1) hits to one enemy unit within 3”.
• Takedown: When this model is in melee, may pick one model from the target and roll one die. On a 2+ it takes one AP(1) Deadly(3) hit.

Wizard Spells

• Glare (4+): One enemy unit within 6" takes an AP(2) Deadly(3) hit. While it can't target heroes, it can deal damage to Tough units and chariots.
• Spider's Might (4+): Two friendly unit within 6" gain Poison in melee. Absolutely useful since you'll chiefly be relying and critfishing on melee.
• Death Shroud (5+): One enemy model within 6" takes four AP(2) hits. Excellent for nailing heroes and monsters.
• Nuisance (5+): Two friendly units within 12" gain +1 to Defense when they next get hit. Quite handy considering how easily you can lose goblins.
• Curse (6+): Enemy unit within 6" rolls a number of d6s equal to the number of models in the unit. Every 2+ you roll deals a hit, making it a nightmare for mobs.
• Sneaky (6+): Two friendly unit within 6" get +3" to Advance moves and +6" to Rushes/Charges. This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Goblin Leader: Your go-to leader for the goblins. They're cheap as chips and offer a decent selection of loadouts with all the melee weapons available (including an optional Cave-Beast Companion for extra attacks)
  • Upgrades: The Goblin Leader has two differing upgrade lists, with one being more focused than the other.
    • The choice between clans might not influence their role, but it will affect how they work. Wolf-Clan provides Fearless if you are worried about morale affecting your mobs. Cave-Clan provides Furious for the obvious charging benefits. Forest-Clan provides Strider for extra mobility.
    • The Army Standard Bearer provides Fear if you need the leader for extra unit-breaking. Brewer gives Magic Potions, an incredible buff in melee and obviously helps with Cave-Clan squads. Shaman provides you the casting ability of a Wizard. Pathfinder gives Camouflage if you need a bit of extra defense. Big Boss has Instigator, which is vital in shoving your many units around, especially if you want to outmaneuver the enemy.
  • Mounts: Your cheapest mount is the Wolf, a nimble mount with its own AP(1) attack. Slightly above that is the Spider, providing Poison to its attack and Strider to overcome obstacles. The Cave-Beast gives you an unconventional steed, boosting its speed with Boing for an even faster leader. The Great Cave-Beast one-ups that with extra Tough and more attacks. The Great Spider also improves upon the Spider, providing +3 to the boss' Tough value on top of more Poison attacks.

• Troll Boss: The bigger hero of the army and beefier with a 4+ to Quality and Defense as well as Regeneration and AP(2) attacks. However, this power comes at the cost of points and the fact that they have no support power, so you can only kit them out as beatsticks. Fortunately, you can bolster that by going for the AP(4) Great Weapon or exchange it to become a walking grapeshot cannon with Throw Stones.
  • As with the goblins, the trolls also have their own breeds to differentiate each other. Stone Breed boosts the boss' defense and gives Fearless for extra sticking power. Cave Breed grants Poison to all melee attacks (useless on the stones, but not to the backup Bash they also provide) as well as Furious for added aggression. Forest Breed gives the most mobility with both Scout and Strider.

Infantry

• Warriors: Your basic troops are quite flimsy but filling out your list with them is easy. Provided the right weapons, they can be incredibly handy, especially when given the right clan. Spears give you some cheap roadblocks for any charging hordes and Halberds can help maximize effectiveness with Rending.

• Cave-Beast Herd: A pack of angry cave-beasts, each with some dangerous AP(1) bites and Fearless as well as Boing to provide a sort-of answer to Fast. Buying Goblin Herders helps improve their aggressiveness with Fearless and Furious.

• Shroom-Sniffers: A small pack of pets for AP(1) attacks. They're not much on their own, but they do provide Power Shrooms, which gives a lot to an army with primarily 5+ Quality.

• Pester Swarms: The chaff among an army made of chaff. Their Tough(3) lets them throw off any Blast templates while Fearless lets them hold their ground. Unique to them is the addition of Scout and Strider so they can be thrown first before the Warriors.
• Nasty Assassins: A gang of clanless goblins with Ambush improved with their special rule, Surprise, which allows your assassins to pop up within 3" of an enemy unit and then score a cheap shot before they can fight, where they can make use of Takedown. All of this does come at the cost of survivability, so it's vital that you guarantee your kills before they get killed off.

• Fanatics: A small pack of crazy goblins packing some devastating swings at AP(1) and a surprise Boing boost. Their central feature is Destructive, which lets them walk through enemies and hits them. This alone can make them an extremely wild force that annoys the enemy and draws fire while your other forces make their moves.

• Shooters: A gang of Goblins of any clan with Shortbows that can be traded up for long-range Crossbows. While they're essentially the same as base gobbos, you'll be better served by keeping them at range so they can pepper the enemy with arrows.
• Trolls: Giant walking walls, all carrying a 4+ Defense on top or Regeneration and Tough(3). As with the boss, you can select a breed for the squad, but do note that the considerable price hike doesn't make it as pivotal as it may be for the goblins. Of course, you can also buy a new weapon for each Troll, whether it's an AP(3) Great Weapon or Throw Stones so you have some firepower.

Cavalry

• Beast Riders: The various sorts of beasts the Goblins can ride are lumped into a singular unit you can upgrade as you wish. Depending on your preferences, you can either give the squad either Lances to improve their charges or Shortbows to provide ranged skirmishers.
  • Each breed not only provides a special rule, but also an additional attack suiting the type of mount being used. For example, Wolf Riders provide not only Fearless but also an AP(1) bite. Spider Riders naturally get Strider as well as a Poison strike. Cave-Beast Riders not only get both Boing and Furious for longer charges, but also a Rending bite attack.

Vehicles & Monsters

• Giant Cave-Beast: Fear acts as a complement for its many bites and potentially break an enemy while protected by its 2+ save. Like other cave-beasts, it has Boing, giving it the mobility boost. These are likely the monsters to be sent first, shrugging off most fire before they close in with the closest menace they can find.
• Troll Giant: What's worse than a meaty wall? An even bigger wall with Tough(12) and a 3+ Defense that can also smash anything, and that's what the Troll Giant serves. This will be even less likely to take a Breed due to the considerable cost, but each of them is just as effective on the giant as it is on any other Troll. Also like any other Troll, you can exchange its barrage of attacks for a monster-hunting Great Hammer or Throw Boulder if you intend on making a walking catapult.
• Giant Spider: Monsters are already a lot to handle, so having one that can also traverse terrain with Strider and pepper enemies from afar with a Goblin Crew throwing stuff is a whole other mess, especially with a bunch of Poison bites up close. If you're more prone to face monsters, then it's advisable to replace those bites with the Poison Stinger for Deadly.
  • Though the spider lacks any transport capacity, you can replace the Goblin Crew with either a Spider Shrine if you need a monstrous wizard with a discount or a Web Catapult if you need monstrous artillery.
• Pump Plane: A giant flying ram. While it has Bombard to hit anything it flies over, it has no real ranged weapons, instead relying on ramming into things to fight. Because of this very chaotic playstyle, this makes the plane something more preferable to sacrifice when you throw it at a desired enemy only for a better-equipped unit to finish up the job.

Chariots

• Wolf Chariot: A direct and violent unit, given both Fast and plenty of impact both from being a chariot and from its crew's spears. It's primarily based in melee, though you can also buy the crew some Shortbows so you can have a mobile firing platform.

• Pump Wagon: A roving steamroller with a lot of Impact hits as well as Boing for a speed boost. By default, it has a bundle of hits on top of the AP(1) Steamroller, you can purchase Crew Shortbows if you want to emphasize the shooting over charging so much.

Artillery

• Goblin Artillery: While you have several ad hoc artillery units, most of them are shorter-ranged weapons on monsters that are better suited getting up close and personal. For something truly long-ranged artillery, you'll be needing this.
  • Scrap Shooter: Your stock weapon isn't very long-ranged, but this will provide you with a decent amount of AP(1) fire that can thin crowds before your gobbos come rushing in.
  • Bolt Thrower: With AP(2) and Deadly(3), it can easily harm most monsters and tanks from an exceptional distance. Expect to use this to soften up anything that might try to throw themselves at your forces.
  • Stone Thrower: YSpecifically for crowds of all sizes. Blast(6) allows you to cover a decent number of squads with a good hit and AP(2) lets you flatten them with ease.
  • Goblin Slingshot: Curiously enough, this is your only artillery piece with Sniper to pick out enemy heroes. Though it's only one AP(1) shot, it may prove to be enough to nail an already-wounded hero or sergeant.

List Building & Tactics

General Advice

Note: This section needs more content. You can help the wiki by expanding it.

Tactics

Note: This section needs more content. You can help the wiki by expanding it.

See Also

• Goblins
• Goblins Quickplay Armies
• Age of Fantasy

Goblins
Overview - Tactics - Skirmish Tactics - Miniatures - Quickplay Armies - Skirmish Quickplay Armies