Playing as Orcs for the first time...is it me or goblin units are useless?

[Duke Leto Atreides]

They should have free upkeep or something. Even the night goblins which are invisible get mowed down as soon as they are revealed. What's the point?

[Donut Steel]

Greenskins simply exemplify a problem that all races have: only a few turns in, units start becoming obsolete and you need to replace them with 'better' ones.

It's not essential, you don't strictly 'need' to as I stated it, but there is an opportunity-cost to not doing so: slower progress, longer recovery after battles, battles need more micro, penalties to leadership for any non-expendable units routing or dying etc.

There's a lot to commend the Total War Warhammer series for, but the unit and battle designer are not pulling their weight like the artists and animators are.

[M4tt]

The point is that you have to properly use them.
Goblins can easily rack up kills and play a crucial role in battle if you use them as they should be used.
The only infantry that should be free are those who are basically useless and will get very little done even with massive numbers, aka skeletons and zombies.

[mercus]

If you play as Grom, goblins are the best units for Greenskins thanks to the food buffs. Otherwise, they're generally not that great.

[dev]

Goblins get ridiculous good stats if you select all the goblin boosting skills for your lords.

[lPaladinl]

They're cheap and having an extra stack of goblins to help your main army is better than having a main army with better orcs.

[Next_Xeneration]

Don't charge them in head on, they aren't meant to win the straight grind.
Use them like cavalry that can use stalk, especially with the viciousness of nasty skulkers.

[Mr Robert House]

I actually like that goblins are ♥♥♥♥, but good if you use them as grom. It means you have a reason to use them after the early game.

[Zeek]

For orc leaders, in general, goblins are useless except for the night archers.

The exception is grom and skarsnik to an extent as theu have buffs that make them good.

Fanatics are ok but as a non goblin leader there are bwtter choices.

[Mactalon]

My night goblin armies have been wrecking everything they run into in my campaign. The Auto Resolve assumes I'm going to lose since I'm up against Greatswords, knights, artillery etc. but the looneys decimate entire units and having 90% of your army deployed via vanguard with stalk means you can position yourself for swift victory.

Also recommend using the Ambush stance when circumstance allows. It's not necessary but it helps in the early game.

[Kapika96]

Yeah, goblins are kinda trash. They can be kinda not terrible with skills/tech, but even then you're better off with something better.

Their only real use is that they're cheap so you can have a lot of them. Or as archers I guess, night goblin archers can do a job at least.

[JeffreyFo]

A variety of different buffs(lord buffs, grom mechanics, scrap, etc) can make goblins very cost efficient. Furthermore, cheapness matters- if you have extra width, you have extra capacity to set up flanking, distract, etc.

[KOS]

You are so wrong, i did a greenskin campaign not a long time ago, more than half of my armies were goblin, any of my legendary and any of my orc lord had a goblin army following them for support, canceling siege reinforcement, bait or ambush.
they are two different goblin army : one with night goblin lord and an other with shaman goblin, both give HUGE bonuses to goblin unit but not to the same one, also techno give a lot of bonuses to goblin units.
Goblins are quite micro intensive to manage so less easy to play, but very cheap and very fun to play.

[Z-hog]

virgin goblin, chad ork

[Testikles]

Use lots of 'em. Buff 'em. Slow down all the annoying enemy units while your better units do their job. And get creative with hiding, surrounding, backstabbing, fake retreats and the like. Use them like a swarm of flies basically.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by Duke Leto Atreides:

They should have free upkeep or something. Even the night goblins which are invisible get mowed down as soon as they are revealed. What's the point?

Grom would like a word with you, using those useless goblins to woop yo behind