There are a few more Warmaster tournaments being run in the UK at the moment, with resin armies being a great way for players to get back into Warmaster (or to play it for the first time).

Saffron Walden (just south of Cambridge) is a long-running tournament ran by Janners and Jim the Gent and had been growing before COVID interupted the world. Well it was back on Saturday and I planned to take along my Goblins. But what to take…?

For me Goblins need to be a horde army, and Warmaster delivers this option in spades. I’d also recently got some new squigs and painted them up for the tournament (more on those in a future Hobby Update) and so came up with this.

Characters

The army is led by nine (9!) characters because Goblins fail command rolls a lot… and I mean a lot! So I’ve got a general (only command 8), 4 Heroes (2 riding Wyverns) and 4 Shamans (1 with a Scroll of Dispelling). The Wyverns are really the force multipliers here; being able to add 3 attacks to a combat and potentially reduce your opponent’s attacks due to terror is great – and with 100cm move they can wiz from one side of the battle line to the other reasonably easy.

The shamans bring a number of spells not available in most armies (most are limited to 2 wizards) and the fantasic Gerroff (move opponent’s units backwards) and Waaagh (extra attacks for Goblins and characters) can bring some unexpected punch or annoyance for the army.

Units – Goblins and Squig Herds

Warmaster games at Tri-Wiz would be timed or break point only, so I needed to ensure I could afford to lose units – to this end I brought 10 Goblins and 9 Squigs. For 30 points each these are a great way to get the break point to a good high level, and they can do some damage in combat – the Squigs especially are great value although the lack of armour can mean that an opponent rolling well will beat you in combats. Trust to the dice!

Units – Trolls

Although very expensive in a horde army and with -1 command in an army with shockingly low command the Trolls a much needed punch unit. With 5 attacks, 5+ save and a small regeneration ability they will cause a lot of mayhem and still only count as one break point. I’ve learnt with Trolls to only expect them to charge on initative though, so you are often limited in what you can charge – but when you succeeed with an order they will often steam roller anything in the game.

Units – Wolf Riders

I find 6 units of Wolf Riders to be the perfect number – they can harrass and their abilty to evade in any direction and set up more shooting is great – however the recent changes to fast cavalry rules mean that they can now be pursued by other cavalry, and so I would need to be more careful with them than previously.

Units – Pump Wagon

These little terrors don’t count towards break but at 50 points they are expensive… so I take one to cause people to think – Some goblins players take lots of them and do multiple charges into the same unit; however with D6 attacks (+2 for charge in open) they are the epitomy of dice; and I don’t always roll well – 1 is fun though and very Goblin themed.

Units – Spear Chukkas

The Goblin army is also allowed 4 units of Spear Chukkas but I think this is too many for the points, and so I just take 2. This is enough to cause significant damage to units in column (12 attacks) with no armour save allowed and can even scare off cavalry (8 attacks), with a good range (40cm). They suffer that if an opponent can kill my 2; they can easily kill another 2, which is a lot of easy break.

I’ll let you know how I got on later in the week! Happy Warmastering.

— Declan