Guide To Fighting The Empire (8th Ed Book), Book from April 2012

[Gradolt]

I have some goblins that I find very useful against empire. With a shield, they can go well against core block like swordmans, even halberdiers.

Usually, my opponent put mages or low armored characters in big infantry block like this and my skulkers love this Try it, you'll see...

[Warboss Gorbolg]

On paper it looks like a decent strategy, although I'm also in the camp that thinks the common goblins with shield and shortbow look like a decent choice for any O&G list.

A lot of VC lists are also pretty character heavy, and although they're generally tougher to kill, they're also especially critical to their army. I see a lot of vampire heroes (not lords) alone who are ~250 points, not to mention all the little necros running around. Quite a few VC lists that I see have 4+ characters (although some just have 2 as well).

For 250 points, you can get a unit of 50 common goblins HW/shield, shortbow, standard, musician and 3 skulkers. Probably not going to be successful all that often, but seems like it may be worth the chance.

Alternatively, you can probably get a couple of decent sized common goblins units (30ish) with skulkers and just use them as suicide units. In that context, it's probably not all that hard for gobbos to earn their points back against character heavy armies.

I'll stop rambling now...

[Warboss Kolgar the Brute]

Try to pull his units away from his leadership bubble. Also units with priests and detachments can be dangerous. Only engage if you can force the detachment into a position where it can't move to get a counter charge into your flank.

[sgu97bjd]

So to echo a few of the points already raised and add a few of my own, this would be my 4 step guide to taking on the empire.

Step 1: Army selection, A lot of the combat blocks you will be facing will be stubborn or have 3D6 on break tests, therefore build your army to cope with long combats. They also rely on combat buffs to be effective so I would definitely take aL4 for the bonus to dispel.

Step 2: Ranged combat, as has already been discussed the main targets are the artillery and buff wagons. Which ones depends on your army and deployment but I would focus on the chariots if you are going to be into combat quickly, cannons if you have monsters and HVG if you are going to have any of your key units in range of one. Doom divers are obviously great against knights.

Step 3: Close combat:, Get some trolls in against their knights and demigryphs and they will be in all sorts of trouble. Manglers and fanatics will also do the trick if they don't get shot first. For the infantry blocks target as many attacks as possible against the characters, e specially the wizards and the warrior priests, use nasty skulkers if you can.

Step 4: Waaagh, by now all they should have left are a lot of puny 'ummies. Without all of the buffs they should now be easy pickings for your far superior orcs. Realistically O&G armies are very well equipped to deal with empire armies thanks to our ability to field lots of things that can penetrate armour.

This post has been edited by sgu97bjd on Aug 16 2012, 07:06 AM