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?

[Empukris]

They are the most cost efficient unit in greenskin roster, they are not your doomstack but fully buffed goblin they can be really scary. For light infantry they are one of the best when fully buff.

[Sкiткj3ll]

Basically the only Goblin units I use is a couple of spearmen to basically hold up the enemy troops for a while while I run my real killers (aka Boyz, Sneaky Stabbaz, or whatever teir name is, and ofc, Black Orcs) into flanking positions and whatnot. Also I prefer the Goblin archers before the Orc Arrer Boyz. Simply because I feel they are better. Honestly. Other than that... I rarely use Goblins. Fanatics for the fun-factor of exploding your own units maybe... xD

[Gamefever]

Night Goblin Squig Hopper
Cause it needs a mention, these are really stupid fast, have a stupid high charge value, and dont get tired as fast as say other cavalry options available to greenskins like Boarboyz.
They get the charge where you need it when you need it so fast. Another crazy thing....There is an armored version that can be aquired through Waaaaaaagggghhh. Which then means you have a super fast heavy armored hammer charger......Yes with turbo charge and high octane with nitrious oxide booster built in.

Also no one has brought up spells yet....Spells for Greenskins get insane since they really help you boost your units while nerfing the opponents ability to pummel your gobbo's, its also very cost effective on WOM.

[Raider]

Lorewise, Goblins are weak.

[Cuthalion]

Goblins are definitely worth using when you play Skarsnik and Grom - this is already 2 of 5 LLs.
As Skarsnik, you have goblins at ridiculously low price, it helps much faster advancement: more money, earlier second army means a lot, etc.
Skarsnik himself has nice enhancements to goblin army so his goblins do not suck by any means. Squig Hoppers are just insanely fast, have cool charge, armor piercing, and armored squig hoppers are relatively tough. Nasty Skulkers are cheap and have armor piercing. I do not substitute Hoppers+Skulkers for Black Orcs and Boar Boyz even when I can.

Also, I try to research spiderish Great Goblin Shaman for second army. As any Goblin Shaman, he has Arachnarok mount, he has nice boost to gobilns+squig hoppers too, so you can use nasty skulkers or night goblins, and the price for them is very low faction-wide. Also, his arachnaroks just destroy everything that's moving, helped by fast lava spider riders with armor-piercing.

For third army I usually try to confederate Wuzzag before he gets confederated by Grimgor. His savage army is very worthy, despite being only tier 3.

All that combined, I hardly ever have orcs (apart from savage ones) at all, until late endgame after turn 150, where I usually get bored and abandon campaigns :p

[Honor Guard]

Goblins are actually great fodder for missiles to be honest (I always like one in the army to simply absorb enemy missile fire)

[pascal.difolco]

Gobbo basic melee inf is cheap fodder like skavenslaves or clanrats.
But their archers are okay, better than orcs (more figures).
Night gobbos are cool, as they can mostly avoid arty
Nasty Skulkers are VERY strong, they can wreck any elite unit in no time (incl big Brtonnains knights, Dwarfs Hammerers...)
Gobbo cav is super fast, very good at chasing routers, flanking arty ...
All of this means a tad of micro though, more than say Doom Divers + Black orcs + Arachnaroks, sure ...

[Defiant Dan]

Take some time,go into Custom Battle,and take a look at the Unit Stats.
Goblins are far weaker then Orks,even weaker then a Human.
You can not expect a frontline of Goblin Spearmen to hold a Line.

Their best Role in your Army is as Archer. Goblin Archer are far more accurate then Orc Archers.
Make your Army (at early Game) like this.... have 6 Ork Meele Units as your front line.
Put 4-6 Goblin Archers behind those Orks,then put Goblin Spearmen left and right of the Archers to cover their Flanks from Horsemen.
Best is to put the Units on a Hill,with the Meele Units at the Bottom,and the Archers like 20 meters behind them on higher Terrain,then they can shoot over the Heads of your Units into the Enemy and he will route in a minute
Sometimes its better to enforce the Enemy to attack you instead of attacking them in order to use this Hilltop Formation and force the enemy to run into it.
You can do that by hungering out a City or by plundering close to enemy Army

PS: Specially with the Orks its important to make good use of the legendary Lords,some of them are an Army of themself. Grimgork is an amazing Fighter who can take on and "bind" many enemy Units in Meele without fear,and Grom is strong too
Btw Grom makes all Goblins cheaper and better,and you can play Grom in Warhammer 2 campaign as only Ork Unit.And the Elven Leader Eltharion is pretty nice too,when you like Orks or High Elves you should think about the DLC .You can capture enemy Lords,torture them in your Special Dungeon and then release them back to their Faction as your Spy and Thief (you get 5% of that Factions income)

[Sn3z]

Originally posted by Lex Looper:

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.

This is a natural progression of the tiering though... The problem is the AI's bonus to growth on higher difficulties which at its current levels its really not needed anymore but it forces you into having to get better units asap.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Its all about being cost efficient. Goblins are much cheaper then Orcs and can be buffed to decent levels. Depending on what you are using them for you might not need a better unit (If you don't need it then having a better unit would just be a unnecessary extra cost).

That said, since supply lines are also a thing you are likely going to want a low number of elite armies rather then a bunch of decent armies.

How the player chooses to balance single unit upkeep versus the number of armies with ever increasing supply lines penalty is up to the player.

[Big Moustache]

Fanatics throwing ability is very powerful. They clean up blobs as easy as expensive wizards. Goblin lords with nightgoblins and many doomdivers is powerful enough to win any battle vs ai. Add a couple mages for sneaky stabbin and the stealth spell, and a giant for the enemy to blob around. The lords need to lvl skills first but than it is cheap moneymaking. Half the time there is a waagh attached too, allowing your gobbos to sack capitals with few losses

[ignomike]

I completely agree with Sn3z and Garatgh though I personally find supply lines to be less impactful than it seems as each new army equals faster economy growth due to faster expansion and battle money.

Basically Gobbos are weaker but more efficient than any other GS unit so it goes down to how much risk/reward you can handle. I always use 2-4 units and there's plenty of useful variety.

Gobbo spears - Chaff to absorb charges and hold at least a few seconds.
Fanatics - Great in any army, really nice active but no more than 2.
Skulkers - Great counter to ai cav, always flank if you can.
Wolf rider archers - Counter skirmishers nicely but also a great distraction. Ai always chase.
Spider riders - Poison, Flank infantry lines. Suprisingly tanky.
Archers - Cheap, worth taking a couple vs unarmoured factions.
Wolf riders - Vanguard if possible, kill artillery. It always works, don't expect them to survive.
Wolf chariots - All chariots are OP with good micro but need a lot of it. Put them in guard mode so they fire while charging.

[Duke Leto Atreides]

Seems like I'm missing 2 DLCs to truly enjoy Goblin battlefield supremacy then.

[Fendelphi]

Goblins are supposed to be weak. Look at their stats and pricetag.
On the flipside, the are great at absorbing ranged fire, can be buffed to overwhelming stats(for their cost) and are great for generating Waaaagh in battle, due to being so numerous.

[JeffreyFo]

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

Goblins are supposed to be weak. Look at their stats and pricetag.
On the flipside, the are great at absorbing ranged fire, can be buffed to overwhelming stats(for their cost) and are great for generating Waaaagh in battle, due to being so numerous.

This is a good point. IIRC Waaagh is generated by the number of entities engaged in melee, so fewer models=less Waaagh accumulation. So lots of melee goblins generate waaagh very quickly. Anyone can feel free to correct me if im mistaken.