An initial review of RH: Orc and Goblin Tribes

Hi, since there's not a thread up for this yet and I've been seeing a lot of conversation for this topic on facebook and the like I thought that I would jot down all my opinions in the new Ravening Hordes army roster for Orcs and Goblins in one place. I have to preface this by saying that I am by no means a master at Warhammer, I like to think that I'm reasonably experienced with older editions but that's all. Further more we don't really know how The Old World plays yet and so to an extent this post is rather speculative. With all that aside please join my as we look at the latest rendition of Orcs and Goblins that GW has presented to us. Just to note I may talk about some particular magic items at the end but for the most part I won't be mentioning them, magic items are generally a personal preference thing and how you want to dole them out is entirely on you.

Special Rules:

Big Unz - A straight nerf from 8th edition, +1 strength in combat and Armour Bane(1) is just not that great, we've lost a point of weapon skill in an edition where weapon skill matters more than ever, the +1 strength only in combat is a niche downgrade but still annoying and the Armour Bane(1) is worse than the AP1 we used to get from the additional strength, to put it bluntly I don't think that we're going to see big blocks of Big Unz anymore like we used to, saying this I don't think the upgrade is totally useless as we'll get to later. One nice change is that Boar Boyz and foot Boyz now have separate Big Unz limitations, although both are still limited to one upgrade per army.

Choppaz - The changes to Choppaz are far more interesting, for a start Choppaz has gone back to applying only on the charge, which will definitely be worse in some situations, however you have to remember that if a unit Falls Back In Good Order due to lost combat then the pursuing unit counts as charging, this means that with the Choppaz rule if you can get some momentum going it'll allow you to take advantage of this rule more often then before. The addition of the AP1 from Choppaz makes up for the extra strength it used to get and makes even regular boyz good at chopping through armour in an edition that seems to be bringing AP down across the board. The last change is that the +1 Strength has been replaced by rerolling natural 1's to wound, just like Delves Murderous Prowess rule from 8th, on the face of it this is a bit of a downgrade and it is but it does have its upsides, it hurts any attack that is 4+ to wound but it's actually a good change for anything that would be wounding on a 2+, with 3+'s to wound mathematically being pretty similar to just a flat +1S. In older editions of Warhammer going from S5 to S6 and from S6 to S7 was mostly a waste, if you're already wounding on a 2+ you're not getting anything out of it apart from the extra AP (which is already accounted for), however now if you're already wounding on a 2+ you now wound with 35/36 attacks, basically guaranteed, which is nice for Boar Boy Big Unz and Black Orcs.

Da Boyz - A new rule, this one is pretty simple, for every Black Orc character you have you also have to have one unit of Black Orcs, this really isn't a problem and I'll explain more once we get to talking about Black Orcs.

Quell Impetuosity - Animosity is gone! Huzzah! 3 cheers! In its place is Impetuosity, not every unit has it but if it had Animosity before it now probably has this rule, the way that it works is that if a unit can declare a charge against an enemy unit it has a 50% of just doing it without you having a say, the positive is that you will no longer have units just squabbling in front of the enemy, the negative is that you'll roll it far more often and you don't get the small chance of an extra movement charge. Quell Impetuosity is pretty simple, whilst within 6 inches of a unit with this special rule, a unit with Impetuosity may ignore it if they wish. Black Orc Characters and Black Orc units have quell impetuosity meaning that Black Orcs will be required if you want to control your WAAAGH.

Tusker Charge - +1 strength and +1 AP for boars on the charge, this one hurts, boars hitting at S5 AP2 in 8th edition was one of the big draws for Boars and Boar Boyz, regardless I don't think it's massively negatively impacted the units this applies to for The Old World.

WAAAGH! - This rule has gone from underwhelming to the point that you might as well forget about it to semi decent, for a start every Orc fighting character now has it including Big Bosses, second it can be used once per turn per character with the rule, third it only applies to the character who used it and any unit they've joined, and fourth they can use it any time rather than immediately after they've declared a charge (Although you won't want to use it unless you're charging). All this combines to create a rule that you'll probably remember to use, the bonus it gives is better now too, as well as giving the unit an additional +1 combat resolution it also allows the unit to reroll natural to hit rolls of 1, not an insignificant bonus.

Fear of Elves, Ignore Goblin Panic, Ignore Panic, Warpaint - These all work identically as they did in 8th edition and for the most part there's not much to talk about for now.

Characters:

Black Orc Warboss - Limited to one in your army, you want to take this guy and you want him to be your general. Statline is more or less the same as 8th except he's gone from initiative 4 to initiative 6 (this is a change you'll see a lot), he's also got Full Plate armour (4+) instead of Heavy Armour, gained Furious Charge (Devastating Charge with a new name) and has a special rule that can allow a fleeing unit to get an extra attempt at rallying, all this and he's dropped down to 135pts. The downside is that he's lost Armed to da Teef and Immune to Psychology, both changes that I don't think will be missed much. I think with Black Orc Warbosses you want to keep them on foot and amongst your boys where he can keep the lads in check by cracking skulls. However if you wanted you could definitely mount him on a Wyvern and go give Chaos Lords on Chaos Dragons a run for their money with the right equipment setup. Additionally if you have a Black Orc Warboss you can take a unit of Black Orcs against the core requirement of the army. I think that the new Black Orc Warboss is fantastic.

Black Orc Big Boss - Pretty much the same changes as with the Warboss level character and at 75pts this guy might be one of the most cost effective bruisers in the entire game, good as BSB carriers and to Quell Animosity throughout your army there's not much more to say.

Orc Warboss - More or less identical to his 8th counterpart the regular Orc Warboss loses a point of Leadership for a point of Initiative and gets only 5pts cheaper, pretty lame. To put it bluntly it bluntly I don't see why you'd take this guy over a Black Orc Warboss unless you REALLY don't want to run Black Orcs for any reason. I guess if you already have a Black Orc Warboss to hold the line then maybe this guy would be good as a Wyvern character but that's about it.

Orc Big Boss - Exactly what you'd expect given the changes to the Orc Warboss but without even a points reduction, this guy sucks compared to his Black Orc counterpart, maybe you would take him if you already had your Black Orc Warboss and core unit of Black Orcs and wanted a BSB without taking another unit of Black Orcs in special.

Orc Great Shaman (Weirdnob) - Decent statline increases, an extra weapon skill, two extra initiative and another attack, this guy can dish out a bit of hurt too instead of just being a big green punching bag, as well as that he also gets Mob Rule, a special rule that allows him to add an extra +1 to any casting attempt if he's within a unit of orcs with a unit strength of 10 or more, he's also 25pts cheaper which makes him a point efficient, strong spellcaster who can hold his own in combat which isn't bad at all. I think that with the way The Old World works you want to be taking a level 4 wizard (upgrading a wizard level is 30 points) every time and so it's a good job this guy is so great, I'll cover Orc and Goblin magic at the end and give an overview of what lores, and specifically what spells, I think would work well.

Orc Shaman (Weirdboy) - Nowhere near the glowup that the Great Shaman got, this guy got the same Mob Rule rule, and extra Initiative and 5pts cheaper and that's it, I think maybe this guy would make a good backup caster but his impact is going to be somewhat limited, I would be tempted to put him on a boar on a flank somewhere outside of the dispell range of enemy wizards and just go for opportunistic spells, he doesn't have impetuous so the risk of him getting too carried away is low too.

Goblin Warboss & Big Boss - An extra Initiative, one less leadership, 10 and 5pts cheaper respectively, useful changes I guess but not exactly game changing. 60pts for four WS5 attacks is rather good however so maybe it's worth taking a Goblin Warboss with great weapon in any unit of Goblins for some extra punch. Goblin Big Bosses on Wolves are also going to be invaluable this edition, most armies have at least one unit with Impetuous and Frenzy can no longer be restrained again so having something to bait these units into failed charges will literally win games.

Goblin Great Shaman (Oddnob) and Shaman (Oddgit) - Slightly fightier than they used to be in line with the changes to Orc Shamans, however if your Goblin wizard is in combat you've probably messed up. The Great Shaman has gotten cheaper by 10pts but the Shaman got more expensive by 5pts, odd. Whilst I'm waiting to talk about mounts until after I cover all the characters I'll quickly mention Arachnarok Spiders here, I don't think it's worth mounting your Great Shaman on an Arachnarok spiders anymore, not only did the monster on its own get worse in my opinion but you can't even take a Catchweb Spidershrine anymore, so all you end up with is a caster that wants to stay out of combat on an expensive monster that wants to be in combat, it's just not great anymore.

Night Goblin Warboss and Big Boss - Night Goblins no longer get the additional +1I over their common brethren that they did in 8th but still get the -1Ld, to make up for this they don't have the Impetuous special rule, Night Goblins are just less keen I guess, for the characters I don't think this makes much of a difference however. Night Goblin fighter characters are 5 points less than their common counterpart with the only major appreciable difference being the mount options so if you're just taking a Goblin on foot I don't think it really makes a huge difference which flavour of goblin you take.

Night Goblin Great Shaman (Oddnob) and Shaman (Oddgit) - You can probably guess the difference between these guys and common Goblin Shamans, needless to say the difference in stats and points won't really matter, especially as Night Goblins no longer get an inbuilt Magic Mushroom special rule. Where the two options do differ is that Night Goblins can take Waaagh magic or Illusion magic whereas common Goblin Shamans can take Waaagh magic or Elementalism magic, Once I get to talking about Magic I'll cover what difference this makes.

If you're looking at the Character options and thinking something is missing you might be asking...
Where are the Savage Orcs???:

Savage Orcs are no longer separate profiles in the same way that they were in 8th, now they're an upgrade option for your regular Warboss/Big Boss/Great Shaman/Shaman/Boyz/Boar Boyz/Boar Chariot to have Frenzy instead of armour and if they are frenzied they can take the Warpaint special rule. These upgrades vary in cost with Warbosses and BigBosses paying 5 points a piece for each rule, Great Shamans and Shamans getting the frenzy for free but having to pay 5 points for the Warpaint, Boyz and Boar Boyz pay 1 point a piece for each rule and Chariots pay 2 points per crew member for Frenzy and then 10 points for Warpaint. Ok so what's the catch I hear you ask, well taking the upgrade is limited to 1 per 1k points, so at a regular 2k points game you're limited to 2 of each, this isn't too bad but might make running pure Savage Orc lists difficult, especially if you were planning on going MSU Orc Boyz. I also don't know how effective Savage Orcs are, you're generally paying more per model but you don't have access to the Lucky Shrunken head which really made the list work in 8th. Also as previously stated Frenzy is a huge liability this edition where baiting frenzied units into failed charges is easier than ever. I think if you do want to run Savage Orcs then the way to go is with Boar Boyz and Boar Chariots, as I'll get to later you want these guys charging regularly and so the downside of the Frenzy isn't too bad. Personally I think this is a pretty elegant way to do Savage Orcs without bloating an already full Orc roster, the limitation is weird but I fully expect we'll get some sort of proper Savage Orc army when Orcs and Goblins eventually get their Arcane Journal.

Mounts:

Wyvern - 130pts to give a Warboss Fly(9), +1T, +4W, +2Armour with 3 WS5 S6 attacks, 2 of which are 2AP and one of which is Strikes First and Poison and then D3 stomp attacks to round it all off. Wyverns are now disgustingly cost effective mounts and with war machines being toned down across the board I can see Wyvern Warbosses, both regular and Black, being run regularly, I'm sure somebody will find some disgusting combination of magic items to make them truly unstoppable too. Also you can mount a Great Shaman on one too but with the fact you can't march and cast magic it doesn't seem worth it.

Boar Chariot - I actually don't know how I feel about Chariots as a character mount and probably won't until I can actually play the game and try it out, I like Boar Chariots and think they're a good unit but I'm not sure if putting a character on them almost becomes overkill, alternatively you might not actually gain much over just putting your character on a much cheaper Boar mount, this is just something I'm going to have to try out. As an aside Orc Great Shamans have lost the ability to be mounted in Chariots, not that many people actually took advantage of that in 8th.

Wolf Chariot - Sort of a similar situation as the Boar Chariot, testing is required, I'm less inclined to think that this will be good though, Wolf Chariots hit far less hard on the charge, even if there's more of them and generally you're putting your relatively squishy goblin character into harms way for not much benefit, might be good.

Wolves and Boars - I don't really need to explain these do I? If you want your character on a cheap mount take these. Boars hit slightly less hard on the charge than they used to but get Countercharge to make up for it, a great rule that allows the rider to move to meet the enemy when receiving a charge and gaining any charge bonus', this works fantastically with both Choppaz and Tusker Charge. A Black Orc or Orc character on Boar can really put down the hurt either alone as a mobile and cost effective lighting bolt or leading a charge of Boar Boyz for a huge knockout blow on a key unit. Wolves confer Fire and Flee to their owner which is a fantastic special rule that allows the rider to stand and shoot and flee at the same time, combine this with Swiftstride and you're still fleeing 2d6 discarding the lowest+1d6, unfortunately Goblin Bosses can't take bows which ruins this somewhat. As said previously I think that cheap as chips Goblin Big Bosses on Wolves will be invaluable this edition for Frenzy and Impetuous baiting.

Gigantic Spiders - Pretty similar to how they were before but slightly cheaper. Still a good way to add some extra damage and defence to your goblin characters without breaking the bank.

Giant Cave Squigs - I love Great Cave Squigs now and frankly I think we'll see them in every OnG list, compared to 8th they've gained Killing blow, Impact Hits(D3) and Hate Dwarves and they've literally halved in points. The downside is that they lost Immune to psychology and traded 1AP for Armour Bane (1) but these are both trade offs I'm willing to take, I think that if you're taking a Night Goblin Character in order to fit in some Night Goblin units then you'll be doing yourself a disservice not to take this mount.

Infantry:

Black Orc Mobs - Black Orcs are fantastic now, they've stayed at the same price per model but have gained a point of initiative, Full Plate armour, Furious Charge and Motley Crew, in fairness they have lost Immune to psychology and Armed to da Teef though so it's not all upsides. Between Furious Charge and Full Plate armour these guys both hit like trucks on the charge and are tough to boot, 2 attacks is great for obvious reasons and a 3+ save in this edition will go further than ever before. You don't even need to trade off all your great weapon attacks to get a 3+ save, Motley Crew allows the unit to be upgraded with, and use in combat, a mixture of weapons. The exact way Motley Crew works is quite interesting, since you can't target specific rank and file troops in combat any save made by Black Orcs in close combat will use the armour save that the majority of the models in the front rank have, so this means that if you had 3 choppa and shield Blorcs and 2 great weapon Blorcs in the front rank then the entire unit would make a 3+ save. Casualties are also removed from the majority equipped model in the front rank, this means that as long as your great weapon Blorcs never make up the majority of the front rank then they are effectively immortal, unless all your choppa and shield wielders die first, taking a shield is also 1 point cheaper than a great weapon (you do have to pay for your great weapons now). Oh also you can upgrade one unit in your army to have Stubborn and/or Veterans for 1 extra point a model, Stubborn isn't anywhere near as good as it used to be, it only allows a unit to make one Fall Back in Good Order automatically instead of rolling a break test, this is a bit lame as your Black Orcs have a good chance of rolling FBIGO naturally anyway even before you consider you probably have them around your general and/or BSB. Veterans is way better, a unit with this rule can re-roll any leadership test, which passes onto any characters in this unit, this is a must take in my opinion. Black Orcs will also be key for keeping your troops in check with Quell Impetuosity so if you're planning on playing Orcs and Goblins you probably want at least one of these units painted up.

Orc Mobs - Orcs, they're big, they're mean and they're damn cheap, they've dropped a point of leadership on your rank and file boyz but they've gained an initiative and are 1 point cheaper each, at this point you get an absolutely ridiculous statline for the price and with the fact that your unit champion is still Ld7 and they get Skavens old Strength in Numbers rule (now called Warband) means that your unit of boyz will be Leadership 9 anyway. There are some interesting wargear options available for the lads now, shields are still one point but additionally they can also take either an additional hand weapon, a thrusting spear or a throwing spear for one point or bows for free, for clarification a throwing spear is a spear that gives an additional rank of attack on the charge rather than an actual ranged weapon. As I see it there's two decent options, bows, shields and hand weapons or throwing spear and shield depending on what you want the unit to do. Having a hybrid bow shield infantry option with an orc statline at 6ppm is absolutely nuts, you can put these guys in the centre of your line and pelt anything with arrows and then bash them up in melee too, for context a Lothern Sea Guard is over double the points for a worse unit, however I wouldn't put Big Unz on this unit, they don't get any strength bonus to their bow shots because the strength bonus is only in combat and their melee output doesn't justify the additional +2points per model. Personally I think that throwing spears are better than an additional hand weapon, they're less prone to losing attacks when they lose models in combat and they're tougher to boot as they can take a shield, since on this unit it makes sense to take the Big Unz upgrade as you'll be wanting them moving around and in combat and the shield is worth it to protect the pricier models. I don't think that the thrusting spear is worth it as all, you'll never get the additional rank of attack with the Choppaz rule and that just makes it a weak option. Other than the previously talked about Savage Orc upgrade the final option is that one unit in your army can Skirmish, this is pretty awesome in my opinion and I think that you should use it on your unit of Big Unz to give them a 360 threat arc and more mobility, alternatively you could take a unit of skirmishing arrer boyz to take advantage of the 360 fire arc, either way this is a cool upgrade that give standard Orcs some extra utility.

Goblin Mobs - I won't beat around the bush I think that Goblins are bad now, they've had some minor stat changes (I think they should be I3 and them still being I2 seems like a mistake) and equipment changes that don't really matter but basically it boils down to the fact that Orcs are just too god damn good, Orcs are tougher, flightier, braver, have more utility and are only 2 more points per model, you can't even get 2 goblins for the price of an Orc these days. There's also other issues with them, they lost half point upgrades so if you want a thrusting spear and light armour it's a full 2 extra points and whilst you can also take a unit of skirmishing Goblins they also suffer from Impetuous, which hurts Goblins much more than Orcs as they won't fair anywhere near as well in combat and the additional +1 rank bonus they can get from Horde just won't help them win combats. Although they can take Nasty Skulkers which might save them...

Nasty Skulkers - Nasty Skulkers are worse than they were in 8th edition, although this doesn't make them bad, mainly they've lost an attack and their AP1 has been turned into Armour Bane(2). Personally I think that Nasty Skulkers were slept on in 8th edition, I think that 10pts for 3 surprisingly effective attacks allowed Goblin units to win combats they shouldn't have and at a cheap price point, whilst I think that they will still get kills, and those kills will matter more as it reduces the amount of attacks coming into the unit I still don't think it's enough to warrant taking Goblins over Orcs, although if you're hell bent on taking Goblins I would recommend maxing out on these guys for the extra punch.

Night Goblin Mobs - On the face of it these guys are just straight up worse than regular Goblins given the fact that they lose a point of leadership and are still 3ppm, however Night Goblins actually rock and are way better, chiefly because they don't suffer from Impetuous, this means that they can relied upon to stay in formation or provide ranged fire without being baited in to die, this gives them way more utility than a regular Goblin, Netters are also identical and are now only 20 points. I don't think that it's worth taking Night Goblins in big hordes, they still have the same point efficiency problem that regular Goblins have, however they can now be used as effective screeners, ranged support, MSU netters to charge open flanks and swing combat, etc. It is worth noting that you have to have a Night Goblin Character to take a unit of these guys but frankly it's not an issue, Night Goblin Shamans have access to a lore no other Shaman can use and the combat characters are cheap enough that you can easily slot them in. Fanatics are obviously still also an option...

Fanatics - Fanatics are cheaper by 10 points and just as deadly but they are slightly more difficult to use, you now "launch" Fanatics at the start of your turn instead of as an immediate reaction. This means that a canny opponent can either bait them out too early and just avoid them or hit you unexpectantly and kill the unit before it can launch them. I still think Fanatics are good I just think they require a bit more finesse to use now.

Snotlings - Finally back in core where they belong, Snotling have gone from maybe one of OnG's worst units in 8th to maybe good(?).They're slightly faster at M5 now and can also Vanguard but I don't think it's these small buffs that fix them, The Old World seems to be much less lethal than 8th, a unit of 3 Snotlings can now probably be relied upon to hold down a unit for 2 turns or so instead of getting pasted in one round of combat and blasted through, however we won't really know this for sure until people are actually playing the game. I am going to try these guys out but I cannot guarantee that they're going to be good.

Squig Herds - Another addition to core but they're still reliant on having a Night Goblin character in order to take them just like Night Goblin Mobs. These seem ok, they're still pretty scary putting out 2 S5 attacks with AP1 Armour Bane(1) but they did get more expensive with a squig going from 8ppm to 10ppm. Squig Herds were cracking in 8th, you could take a huge horde of them for very cheap thanks to the fact you could bulk out numbers with cheap Squig Herders and if you had a horde you could be putting out 40 S5 attacks, however I just don't think that they're going to work in mass numbers anymore and they're just as susceptible at getting shot to death as before. They're still your main punch unit if you're running a Night Goblin army but I just don't think they're quite as good as they were. If I were to run them it would definitely be as MSU, 5 Squigs, 5 Herders (herders can now take spears for 1ppm) and screen them with something.

Troll Mobs - Trolls are still looking strong, all your troll options are now specials and they all have slightly different stats, Common Trolls got I2, Stone Trolls got Ld5 and River Trolls got W4, their regeneration also got worse now only working on a 5+ and they're now 41pts (common), 45pts (Stone) and 49pts (River) respectively. This would suggest that Trolls have gotten worse since you were mainly taking them for their 4+ regen and Monstrous Supporting attacks which they lost both of, however now they can take Great Weapons for S7 and the fact that they're still on 40mm bases means that they're got a very efficient damage output for their frontage. The loss of stomp doesn't even hurt as much either as their vomit attack has been reworked to happen every combat phase and is S3 AP2 hitting automatically. Imo Stone Trolls are the best out of the lot, against non AP attacks the scaly skin(2) will keep them alive just as long as the extra wound on the River Troll and as the Great Weapon is a must on Trolls now you won't get any advantage out of the I2 of Common Trolls, combine that all with the fact that they get inbuilt Magic resistance and a better leadership and are cheaper than River Trolls and it seems like a no brainer. Trolls are probably best run in 3-4 units as a line since most units in tOW are going to be 120mm minimum.

Cavalry:

Orc Boar Boy Mobz - Oh boy this unit is crazy now. Boar Boyz have gained Warband (which allows them to re-roll charge rolls), Counter Charge (making it trivial to take advantage of Choppaz) and Furious Charge and got CHEAPER sitting pretty at 15ppm base. All the upgrades are also good, with each costing 1 point per model, cavalry spears giving +1S on the charge and +1 rank of attack not on the charge is an auto-take and if they take Heavy armour and Shields they get bumped up to a 3+ armour save. Big Unz is also only +2 points and so has halved in cost for tOW and is another auto include since S5 (base+Choppaz+Spear) means that they hit the threshold where they wound 35/36 attacks made against T3 targets. Frenzy and Warpaint might even be good on these guys as they're more difficult to bait than foot Boyz, they can still get a 5+AS to go with the 6++, it saves them points from having to buy Heavy Armour and they'd hit with 3 attacks a piece on the charge. Boar Boyz are very simple, take all the upgrades and you get a unit that's almost comparable to most factions elite cavalry for half to two thirds the price.

Forest Goblin Spider Riders - Still meh, their stats are basically the same and whilst the they've nominally gotten a point cheaper once you add back the cavalry spear that they lost they come to exactly the same overpriced price. Hey, at least the Goblin gets poison attacks now.

Wolf Riders - More of an interesting unit to talk about, wolf riders are almost identical to how they were before with some equipment shuffled around, but now you can't mix and match your equipment upgrades, now you either take a cavalry spear or swap your shield for a bow, this is somewhat disappointing and makes them less of a fast cav swiss army knife. In return however they get Fire and Flee and you get the choice to upgrade them with reserve move and/or feigned flight for +2ppm and +1ppm model respectively, Reserve Move allows them to move again at the end of the shooting phase if they didn't march and Feigned Flight means that they automatically rally if they chose to flee from a charge, both are incredibly powerful rules and Fire and Flee and Feigned Flight work together and will allow units of Wolf Riders to bait Frenzied/Impetuous units, get off a stand and shoot, run away and then automatically rally. They can also Skirmish which makes the whole unit even better. Unfortunately this is ruined by the fact that they themselves are impetuous, so unless you waste the points to babysit them with a Black Orc on Boar there's a 50% chance of your missile cav unit yeeting itself into combat and getting merced.

Squig Hopper Mobz - Squig Hoppers are another unit that has come well out of tOW. Squig Hoppers were somewhat of a lame duck in 8th, the big problem with them was that they were very squishy and only hit at I3 meaning that they would either die before they got to attack or died when the enemy stepped up. With the changes to initiative on the charge and stepping up in tOW this immediately makes them far better, add to this that each model now get the impact hits (1) special rule and they can take cavalry spears and light armour for a point each and you have a unit that hits with 3 S5 attacks and a S4 attack per model at I6 or higher on the charge, to put this into context this is better than a Regular Boar Boy. Squig Hoppers are now cheap and cheerful shock cavalry that can take advantage of their random movement to wipe out enemy cavalry or missile troops without giving them a chance to react. I would recommend taking a Night Goblin Warboss/Big Boss on a Great Cave Squig, sticking them in a unit of 6 of these guys and wrecking havoc.

Chariots:

Orc Boar Chariot - This unit can be summed up with one special rule, First Charge. First charge means that the first successful charge of a game made by a unit with this rule disrupts the unit it is charging so that they cannot take their rank bonus, this is fantastic, combine this with the fact that Chariots hit just as hard as they always have and you basically have an unstoppable juggernaut that will be able to beat just about anything on the charge. They also got 5 points cheaper so now that extra crew member is basically free and the fact that they have Warband means they can even re-roll charge rolls. Additionally you can upgrade this unit with Frenzy and Warpaint without losing any armour, this is a must as it means that on the charge your chariot will be hitting with D6+1 S5 AP2 impact hits, 4 S4 AP1 attacks from the boars and 6 S5 AP2 attacks from the riders, the chariot will negate 1/6 of all wounds and thanks to the way that Lumbering works the downside of always having to charge can be mitigated.

Goblin Wolf Chariots - Wolf Chariots are pretty familiar to how they were before, they gain the Swiftstride rule which helps a lot and that pretty much sums up what they do. They're not face wreckers like Boar Chariots is, instead I think the best way to use these are as ranged harassers that can charge and destroy enemy flanking elements, these level of flexibility means that it probably wouldn't hurt to have a few knocking around but I can't see them soloing enemy formations even if you take a few of them.

Snotling Pump Wagon - For 10 points less than in 8th you get something that is almost infinitely worse, seriously these suck now. They no longer have the option to pump harder so the 2d6 random movement makes them slow, they now hit with D3+1 impact hits instead of 2D6 and they no longer have access to any of the upgrades they used to, so they're stuck hitting at S4. On the upside you can now take units of 6 of them and each model has a crew of 6 snotlings each with throwing weapons, meaning each pump wagon can put out 12 throwing weapon attacks and a unit of 6 can put out 72 ranged attacks. However bare in mind that these will be hitting on at least 6's and will be S2 with no AP, I think that for the points you'd get more effective shooting out of Goblin Chariots whilst also having a unit that can still do damage in close combat if needed, and is much faster. Yeah I can't see the point in Snotling Pump Wagons anymore.

Monsters:

Arachnarok Spiders - Arachnarok Spiders still seem ok as an individual monster, they've lost a wound and a couple of attacks but this isn't too bad as attacks are down across the entire game and it'll still be hitting with 14 attacks between it and the goblin crew and then D6 stomp attacks. The Venom Surge attack now also has Strike First which allows the spider to try and down enemy monsters before they get to have a go and the Flinger (now called a Spidersilk Lobber) has gone up a point in strength but no longer debuffs any target it hits, not that you really got any value out of that before. The real issue with Arachnarok spiders now is that they have no natural AP (although the Goblins hit at AP1 on the charge and the stomp attacks are AP2), presumably an oversight but still one that hurts its ability to put out damage and might be the nail in the coffin for this unit combined with the 20 point increase. Using Arachnarok Spiders as a mount for Great Shamans is now also a bit of a mixed bag, on the one hand the way that the profiles combine make it a very survivable model since it uses the Spiders toughness and armour save as well as any ward save the Shaman has and the wounds are combined to give a total of 10 wounds, much better than the Shaman being able to be targeted and destroyed like in 8th. However you can't take a Catchweb Spidershrine now which is the real reason you mounted your Shaman before. Saying that I think that if you want to take an Arachnarok Spider then as a Mount will be the way to go.

Mangler Squig - This model has had a total rework, instead of just being a super Fanatic like it was in 8th it is now more like a conventional monster with 3D6 random movement and D6 AP2 random attacks with Killing Blow D6 AP3 impact hits. I suppose in a sense this is very similar to the way that Snotling Pump Wagons used to be, it moves the same way and its D6 S6 AP3 impact hits are pretty comparable to SPW's old 2D6 S4(5) impact hits. It's also quite survivable at T5 W4 with a 5+ armour save but its main downside is its rather awful Ld4 and no Stubborn, which means that if you low roll your impact hits, attacks and stomps then you run a very real risk of losing combat and getting run down. I think this model will require testing in order to determine how good it is, and how useful it is may boil down to how lucky you are.

Giants - Good now? They've been improved somewhat with an extra point of toughness, a 6+AS and unbreakable but in return they've lost a point of Initiative and their attack table has been reworked, but generally for the better. Giants can now actually put out a lot of damage in melee and you're not going to get punished by rolling Yell and Bawl like you used to, 'Eadbutt autohitting a singled out model with D3+1 S6 with no armour or regeneration saves allowed is going to be especially excellent for killing characters. The optional Pick up and... attacks however seem totally pointless, unless you're comboing it with an initiative reducing debuff at best it'll still only grab a regular dwarf 2/3 of the time and anything that you do actually want to trade all your attacks to try and insta-kill (characters) will probably be testing on I5 or better, saying that Goblin Shamans do have access to a spell that reduces initiative by D3 so maybe this rule does have situational use. Just like the Mangler Squig I think you're going to have to try Giants out and decide for yourself if they're good, at least they shouldn't die to bowfire anymore.

War Machines:

Goblin Spear Chukka (Goblin Bolt Throwa) - 45pts now but still the same Spear Chukkas you know and love but it's lost Slipshod. Bolt Throwers are now AP3 rather than ignoring armour, they have Multiple Wounds (2) rather than (D3) and hit every model that it penetrates to until it reaches S0 rather than stopping if it fails to kill a model. All in all I think that Spear Chukkas are still just as good as before and should be your go to option for killing enemy monsters, personally I'll be maxing out on them for my armies.

Goblin Rock Lobber - It's a 75pt Stone Thrower, Stone Throwers function more or less the same this edition however due to the larger bases and clipped models needing a 4+ to hit you'll be hitting far less models for each shot, however Stone Throwers are now S4(8) AP1(3) with Multiple Wounds (D3+1) over the central hole by default now, this means that what you do hit has a better chance of dying so will be perfect for whaling away at more elite blocks of infantry. Definitely worth the points.

Goblin Doom Diver Catapult - It's a Stone Thrower that can redirect D3" and is worse if you're indirect firing? For 20 points more? Yeah nah. Honestly what a shame, it's an awesome model that used to have so much fun to the rules, why did they make it so bad.

Orc Bullies - Still not worth it.

And that's it, that's the whole roster, some winners and some losers. I think that's it's interesting that a lot of units that were good in 8th edition are bad now and vice versa. SPW's are now the worst chariots, Squig Hoppers and Squig Riders have swapped place in terms of effectiveness, Boar Boys and Black Orcs will now be the central part of your army instead of big units of foot big unz, Night Goblins ARE actually better than Common Goblins now, etc. Obviously this isn't a universally true rule, Spear Chukkas are still good and I think that Trolls still have a place in the army but it is an interesting thing to note, now I'm not saying that the tow team did it on purpose but it is a bit of a coincidence. 

Magic Items:

I'm not going to go through all the magic items in the game, that would take too long and would get very boring very fast, I'm just going to go through the racial magic items I find particularly interesting and the generic magic items that I see as working strongly on an Orc or Goblin character/unit. If I don't mention a particular magic item here just assume that I think it's somewhat underwhelming for the cost or bad, unless I just forgot about it.

Porko's Pigstikka - We'll have to wait and see how the "meta" of tOW develops before we can decide if this is really good but just on the face of it I think we'll be seeing this a lot, since it counts every rank it's always going to be giving at least one extra attack, I think it's also likely you can expect to get two or three extra attacks out of it, all this and it also counts as a spear and it's only 40pts, yeah this one seems like a good one.

Wollopa’s One Hit Wunda - 15pts for a single use S10 AP3 weapon, stick it on a cheap big boss and try and beat down your opponents beatstick.

Trollhide Trousers* - We'll see this one a lot, even in the same army since it's a common item. It's just a good cost effective way to add more survivability to your characters and putting this on a character on a Wyvern will be a must.

The Big Red Raggedy Flag - Weapon skill is more important than ever and the additional +1 to combat res makes this a very cost effective banner. Best used on a unit of Blorcs where at WS5 they'll hit WS2 on 2+'s and be hit on 5+'s.

Da Banner of Butchery - 35pts for +1S on the charge, remember how I was saying that the Choppaz reroll of 1's to wound benefit attacks being made at S5 or more, well this is your way of getting Big Unz to S5 now.

’Eadbuttin’ ’At* - A cheap way to get a guaranteed hit at the wielders strength, I think this might be an auto-take on all your non wizard characters, interestingly I don't see anything that says that you can't stack impact hits and the strength of the impact hit is probably affected by the Choppaz rule.

Glittering Wotnots - A 50% chance to make a unit immune to any spells cast on it, and that's if your opponent wants to risk taking their own spell and miscasting whilst trying to dispel it. If magical hexes turn out to be awesome in tOW then this will probably be a must take.

Buzgob’s Knobbly Staff - Re-roll any casting attempt, become basically immune to miscasts when casting and significantly increase your chance of getting spells off, yes it really is that good.

Idol of Mork - Significantly increase your chance of successfully shutting down enemy magic, simple as.

Rampaging Banner, Waaagh! Banner - For Orcs it's very important to be getting the charge off, lots of your key units either benefit from impact hits, furious charge or other bonus' on the charge, as such any banner that will help you get that initial charge and then to keep that momentum is going to be extremely valuable. 

Flying Carpet - Black Orcs are cost effective beatsticks, allowing them to fly for 40pts seems like something that might be useful.

Wand Of Jet - Orc Great Shamans are already potent casters with their mob rule rule, with this item the +2 bonus they get on top of their wizard level modifier will not only make most spells a guarantee but it'll also make them almost impossible to dispel. 

Magic: 

Orc and Goblin Tribes have access to 4 different lores of magic; Battle, Elementalism, Illusion and Waaagh as well as 2 sub-lores; Gork and Mork. Orc Shamans have 3 lores to choose from; Battle, Elementalism and Waaagh as well as Gork, Common Goblin Shamans get Elementalism and Waaagh and Mork and Night Goblin Shamans get Waaagh, Illusion and Mork too. I don't think you ever want to take a Common Goblin Shaman, they don't get any lores that aren't covered by an Orc and an Orc will always be a better caster thanks to Mob Rule. I think the optimum wizard combo would be a level 4 Orc caster and a level 2 Night Goblin caster. I will go through the lores and explain why I think this, a lot of this is rather speculatory though, magic has totally changed from previous editions and so it's difficult to say with confidence anything for sure .

Battle Magic - Personally I find this lore a bit anemic, it seems like a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none lore and that hurts it, although it's not an awful lore by any means. The signature spell being an assailment spell doesn't matter as much for Orcs are you generally don't mind your Shaman being in combat but an Orc will have access to a better assailment spell so you'll rarely actually want to take Hammerhands. Oakenshield is just generally a great spell but otherwise as an OnG player a lot of spells in this lore don't do much for you.

Elementalism Magic - This lore just doesn't work with OnG, the 2 best spells, Plague of Rust and Earthen Ramparts help orcs to punch through armour, which they don't really need help with or require Orcs to be standing still when they want to be moving constantly. Personally I quite like Wind Blast but things like the lack-lustre signature spell really drag down this lore for Orc and Goblin casters. I would recommend taking Battle Magic over this lore any day of the week. 

Illusion Magic - I don't really like this lore either, I just think that it's too reliant on going up against low leadership enemies to actually be effective. However when you put it in the context of being a lore for Night Goblins it actually looks a lot better, the lore seems to be themed around avoiding combat you don't want which suits Night Goblins perfectly. Special mention to Spectral Doppelganger which allows your 50pt Night Goblin Shaman to kill the enemy general with a single spell and the signature spell, Glittering Robe which works well with netters to give enemies a malus' in both combat phases. 

Waaagh! Magic - Now this lore suits OnG just as it should. Fist of Gork as a signature spell is a tremendously destructive spell to grind your opponents unit into the dust whilst it doesn't matter if a few of your models get hit. The rest of the lore is also great with Bad Moon Risin' and Evil Sun Shinin' comboing together perfectly to potentially allow a unit to hit on 2+ rerolling 1's.

Lore of Gork - Brain Bursta is fantastic, it's amazing at blasting down enemy characters without them being able to do anything, an average roll will kill any hero level character without even through armour and regen saves. Gaze of Gork is a bit more curious, it's got a good AP but I feel like the chance of it rolling slightly below the range you actually want is quite high, idk I can't see myself taking it.

Lore of Mork - Mork's curse is alright, it combos well with your Orcs natural ability to penetrate armour so that the enemy is probably saving on a 6+ which they have to reroll, it would combo very nicely with Plague of Rust from Elementalism and if you're running an all goblin list that would be a very effective way to deal with enemy armour. Itchy Nuisance is incredible though, it modifies enemy toughness and initiative down by D3, modifying the Initiative is a bit niche and will probably only be seriously useful when fighting Elves but being able to drop an opponent's toughness is incredible and combos with Choppaz perfectly so that even a basic Orc can be wounding on 2+ whilst re-rolling 1's.

Well I hope you find this useful, I'll be honest I mostly did this as an exercise for myself to really dig into the nitty gritty of the new Orc and Goblin roster but if anybody can glean any information that helps them from this post that would be awesome. Oh also a lot of this stuff is just my own opinion and really more of a thought exercise, obviously feel free to do and play with your army any way you want. Anyway I'm off to paint up some Black Orcs.