Armies of Middle Earth SBG: Goblin-Town in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game

Updated May 30, 2023: Thus far, we've been looking at armies with huge heroes and elite troops. Don't get me wrong--it's fun to play armies with beefy stat lines and heavy armor. But sometimes it's good to shake things up with a good ol' fashioned horde and drown your opponent in buckets and buckets of dice. 

Today, we're taking a look at the hordiest of horde armies: Goblin-Town, from the Armies of the Hobbit. Unlike the other armies we've looked at, Goblin-Town has very few profiles, and most of them (Grinnah, Goblin Captains, Gollum, and Goblin Warriors) have nearly identical statlines with just a few different characteristics between them. But don't let that fool you: playing this army demands a lot from you, and dishes a lot at your opponents.

Plus it has its own theme music!  One version is an awesome classic. The other... not so much.

Army Quick(ish) Hits

• Strength: Numbers. What? You were expecting something more profound? Don't get me wrong--there's a lot of strengths (and even some neat tricks) in Goblin-Town, but almost all of them flow from the fact that you have a ton of models (which means a ton of board control when you move, a ton of dice when you fight, and a ton of bodies that your opponent has to chew through. In most games, you should aim to double your opponent's expected army size, and in most games you'll be able to hit that mark without trying too hard. And in competitive tournaments especially (where most scenarios reward you for having lots of models in one/multiple places, and/or being able to break your opponents without breaking yourself), outnumbering your opponent by twice or more is a huge advantage.
• Strength: The cheapest and swarmy-est of cheap swarms. Goblin-Town isn't the only "horde" army in MESBG, but even among hordes its ability to horde stands out, because there's just no other army in the game that can swarm like a pure Goblin-Town army can swarm. There are three primary reasons why: generic Goblin Warriors are an extremely efficient use of points; they have extremely well-costed spammable heroes who can lead lots of those Warriors; and the Goblin Scribe is the only model in the game who allows you to exceed whatever the points-limit is for your game by bring additional models onto the table.
• Strength: Generic Goblin Warriors have an extremely efficient stat line. While doing some homework for our upcoming TMAT Grand Tournament, I stumbled on this podcast by The Chump in the East on Goblin-Town. I'll caveat what I'm about to say next by encouraging you to listen to the podcast, because Evan's guest, Alex Rieger, has a lot of great tips on how to play Goblin-Town (as do most experienced GT players). But I'll confess that I was surprised to hear how much he dislikes the generic Goblin Warrior (or at least vastly prefers the Goblin Mercenary Warriors, who we will definitely discuss in a little bit). In my opinion (and I think most experienced GT players would agree), the generic Goblin Warrior profile is among the most efficient profiles in the game, and a huge part of what makes Goblin Town such a strong horde. Here's some of the highlights:
• For 4 Points each, you get a solid combat profile. No one is going to look at all the various profiles in this game and conclude that the Goblin Warrior is a combat powerhouse. There are three particular eyesore stats in their profile: Fight 2, Defense 3, and Courage 2. We’ll talk about the Defense and Courage a little later (on paper they’re a problem. In games… it depends). But for combat (at least on offense), the only stat that really matters is the Fight 2. Yes, that means you’ll be losing tied duel rolls to even “average” Fight armies (Rohan, Minas Tirith, Angmar/Bard-Dur/Mordor orcs, Easterlings, etc.). And if those are common where you play, and you’re used to having tied (or higher) Fight Value, the transition will hurt. But if you’re already used to playing Fight 3 armies in a spot where Fight 4/5 is common, you’re actually better off dropping from Fight 3 to Fight 2 (and getting 1+ points back per model, for reasons we'll discuss shortly) than you are paying the points for a Fight Value that still won’t win you any tied duels (or at best forces ties). The reason is that those saved points add up, which you can then throw into other low-fight guys (who are saving you points), and inflate your numbers. The thing you have to remember about Goblin Warriors is that if you're playing them right, you'll be using them to fight en masse (not individually)--two-to-one combats, four-on-two combats, three-on-one combats, etc. And en masse, Goblin Warriors have three key tools that, frankly, makes them a bargain at just 4 points: Strength 3 base, the ability to take a pick for free, and the Chittering Hordes special rule.
• It's easy to look at Strength 3 and be underwhelmed--after all, it's probably the most average stat for generic troops in the game: Defense fluctuates a ton, Fight Value is all over the place (sometimes even within the same faction), but all generic line troops have a Strength of 2, 3, 4, or 5, with Strength 3 being the most common by far. Goblin Warriors certainly aren't the only horde army to have Strength 3. But as someone who's dabbled quite a bit with Hobbits (without ever fully taking the plunge), I can tell you that the difference between having Strength 2 and Strength 3 is a real difference when it comes to your sustainable hitting power. Hobbits generally have to (1) pay extra for that stat (5 point Sheriffs, or 5 point Militia upgraded to Battling Brandybucks), or (2) use piercing strike (with axes) to get to Strength 3. But the former really adds up over the course of a warband (+12 points to upgrade a warband to Strength three means -3 extra Hobbits) and army (-3 hobbits per warband, over five warbands, equals -15 hobbits, or a reduced breakpoint of 7 or 7.5). And the latter caps their damage total at just Strength 3, which is sometimes just not good enough (as anyone who's played Minas Tirith against any D6 army knows). Goblin Warriors, on the other hand, start with Strength 3. And for just 4 points, that's huge.
• Free Picks on a 4-point model is also huge. If you take picks on your goblins en masse (as you should), this unlocks your ability to get to Strength 4 basically everywhere, which dramatically increases your ability to deal with the most common "tanky" troops (D6, wound on 5+ instead of 6s), as well as most heroes and monsters (D8 and below, wound on 6s instead of 6/4+). This is a huge difference between Goblin-Town, and say, Moria Goblins. Yes, Moria Goblins are also Strength 3 base. But with no free options for axes or picks, you either accept being capped at Strength 3 (and stall out against D6 shieldwalls) or you need to fork over an extra point to do a weapon-swap (making them 5-points base, and potentially as much as 7 points if you also give them two other weapon upgrades, like a shield and spear or spear and bow). Again, those swaps add up in points, and every 4-5 models you upgrade costs you an extra model (which reduces your model count).
• Finally, there's Chittering Hordes, which in combination with Strength 3 and free picks really takes your damage up a notch. This special rule (unique to Goblin Warriors, Goblin Mercenaries, their associated Captains, and the always-taken Grinnah) allows each of your Goblin Warriors to support another friendly model with Chittering Hordes as if they had a spear, only they get to use whatever weapon they’re actually packing (including a two-handed weapon). Yes, the models who are doing the supporting don’t get to use special strikes from their weapons (i.e., no Piercing Strikes at S4 from those back models), but that buries the lead: these guys get to support using whatever weapon they got for free, instead of having to buy a spear. In one fell swoop, this special rule gets rid of the two problems that generally plague horde armies: you either can't support at all (Hobbits, Ruffians), in which case you are forced to spread out and fight on multiple fronts (and if you can't, because the enemy is well-entrenched, you just die on the enemy's shieldwall) or you have to pay tons of points to buy spears (Moria, Mordor/Angmar Orcs, Army of Lake-Town) and you have to worry about keeping those spears safe / in the right position (because if they die, you only have a finite number of models with spears). Chittering Hordes, in stark contrast, gives every Goblin Warrior the equivalent of a spear for free. Take 50 Goblins, that's 50 free spears. Take 75 goblins, that's 75 free spears. Take a million goblins, that's a million free spears. And that's efficiency that no other army can match.
• Taken together, these three tools give Goblin-Town a flexibility when it comes to dealing damage that can take inexperienced opponents by surprise. The ability to spam / horde Strength 3 warriors with picks who can support each other allows you to set-up in a standard shieldwall formation (like most other armies), only your shieldwall is 2-3x longer than your opponent’s (because you have 2-3x as many models). Your opponents are immediately put on the back foot. They can stay in two ranks (shields in front, spears behind), at which point you can (and should) envelop and trap them. Or they’re forced to consolidate their separate spear and shield ranks into one single rank (to cut you off from flanking them), in which case they’re fighting you in 1-on-2 battles over a wide portion of the battlefield, probably outside of banner range (which, as a low-fight, high model count army, is exactly what you want: lots of fights where you have 2+ dice while your opponent is rolling a single die that can’t be rerolled). Yes, you'll lose goblins in fights. But because they all have the ability to support, you don't have to worry about which goblins go in front and which ones go in back. You just swarm with whoever's in range. And that level of aggressive flexibility can be really, really scary. 
• Strength: Army Bonus. Goblin-Town's army bonus is the last piece that, at least on paper (and generally in practice), makes Goblin-Town just a cut above this game's other horde factions: every hero in the list gets to take an extra 6 models in their warband. That means 12 warrior slots for your minor hero (the Goblin Scribe), a whopping 18 slots for your lowly heroes of fortitude (Goblin Captains at 35 points each, and Grinnah at 40), and 24 slots for the Goblin King. On this topic, I have a second resource plug, and a second caveat: I have listened to Devin Moreno's break-down of Goblin Town many times on the DC Hobbit League YouTube Channel, and you should, too, if you've never done so. Devin has a lot of great observations (in particular, I think he's right about Goblin Mercenaries, who we will talk about later on), but one observation he has that I am not sure I agree with is his lukewarm take on the Goblin-Town army bonus. To be sure, I don't think this is a "deal-breaker" army bonus, in the sense that you really need the bonus to make the force competitive (like the +1 Attack buff for The Rangers). That's nice because it opens up opportunities for Yellow Allies with Goblin Town (Moria in particular offers some nice quality of life pieces, like trolls, bat swarms, and a Fury shaman; but Dol Guldur and the Denizens of Mirkwood are also cool). But in a pure Goblin-Town list, the numbers game is so integral for everything you want to do, and this bonus really tips the scales in your favor. I grant that Devin's primary point is a good one (you want to have more Might so you can move first and control the Board even more, and the army bonus encourages you to spend those points on troops instead of heroes). But if I already had three warbands of goblin heroes with twelve goblins each (let's say Grinnah and two captains), I'm not sure that I would choose to pay another 35 points for a Captain and 48 points for 12 warriors (83 points, 13 models) when I could spend 72 points for another 18 warriors (save 11 points, for +5 models) and just fill up the extra +6 warband slots in each warband. Put differently, a Goblin Captain with a full-warband of goblins comes in at just under 110 points. That’s a warband of nineteen models, or about 5.6 points per model (and remember, one of those models is a Captain with 2 points of Might). At 450, you can take four of those warbands (76 models). That’s more models than most armies can muster at 1000 points. Insanity.
• Weakness: Low, low, low defense. Not everything in Goblin-Town is peaches and cream. Defense 3 on your standard warriors (and D4 on most heroes) is terribly low. Pretty much everything wounds you on 4s (even certain Hobbits). The good news is that armies who pay a points tax for Strength 4 are also still wounding you on 4s, as are most heroes. 50% odds of dying aren’t great, but it does mean you’re just as likely to survive a 1-on-1 combat you lose as you are to die in it (which is sort of a glass-half-full way of looking at this). The odds get a lot worse the more dice your opponent is rolling to-wound (2-on-2s, 2-on-3s, etc.), which is why getting the enemy to separate their spears from shields by threatening the flanks, peeling off the back row, etc. is so valuable. Leverage the swarm, and roll 2-4 duel dice to the opponent’s 1, and the Defense 3 gets a lot less scary. At least in melee combat…
• Weaknesses: Low, low, low defense + no archery. So gun lines of any stripe (but especially elite ones) are just going to hurt. Elf bows (or other Strength 3 bows) and crossbows will tear through your lines, and while you have access to tons of Heroic Marches (Goblin Captains are cheap, cheap, cheap after all), you still only move 8” if you March (and, if you’re packing a proper swarm, it will be difficult to cram 80-100 goblins within 6” of a Marching Captain, so be prepared to burn Might on multiple Captains if you have to get somewhere in a hurry). And unlike Hobbits, Ruffians, or Moria, you really don't have any archery to fight back, unless of course you count the Goblin King’s Goblin Projectile special rule (I’m not, by the way). There are ways to build out your force to counter archery factions as you close (the Scribe, Mercenary Ambush), but closing on them as fast as possible (so you can bludgeon them to death) should always be your primary strategy.
• Weakness: Almost no anti-cavalry defense. Mounted armies of any stripe, but especially mounted archers, are a real danger to Goblin-Town. You have very low fight (I’m pretty sure any mounted model in the game will have higher Fight than you). You have no cavalry units of your own (so no way to deprive enemy cavalry of their charge bonuses). You have very bad defense (a Strength 3 cavalry model with four dice to-wound has a 94% chance of rolling at least one “4,” and almost a 70% chance of rolling at least two “4s”; a Strength 3 cavalry model with a lance has a nearly 60% chance of rolling at least three “3s”). Fortunately, your biggest, baddest hero (the Goblin King) can’t be knocked prone by normal cavalry because he’s a Monster model (even though he’s Strength 5, Monster models are immune to knock downs from generic cavalry, see Rules p. 62). But anything with Monstrous Charge and Strength 6 or higher can topple him (Blubber is good, but it’s not completely bullet-proof). With no ranged options, the best you can hope for is to hem cavalry models in with your amazing Board-Control pieces (more on them in a few bullet points), and then charge them head-on, envelop them, and hope to win the ensuing Heroic Move-off (if you do, they're dead). But avoidance cavalry lists are really tough to deal with.
• Weakness: Courage. Goblin-Town’s Courage values are on-par with what you’d expect for most swarm armies (which is to say, poor). The Goblin King maxes out at 3 Courage with 2 Will points (though he is a Hero of Legend, so he auto-passes the first courage test he takes for breaking), and your other Goblin heroes are also Courage 3 with a single Will point, with Courage 2 on the warriors. With no access to Bodyguard, Fury, or a War Horn, charging Terror-causing models will be difficult (and time-consuming, as you take tons of courage tests), and your basic warriors will be wounded on a 3+ by models with Blades of the Dead and Harbinger of Evil nearby. Just remember that if your opponent moves first and charges, you don’t take Terror tests for models that were charged, you don’t take Terror tests for models that support with Chittering Hordes, and you can effectively trap a model that is engaged in combat without needing to charge it (and take a Terror test): since that model has no control zone, just move within 1” of it (but not in base-contact with it), and it won’t be able to Back Away in that direction. Do that from 2 or more sides, and you can effect a trap without ever having to Terror test for charging the model.
• Strength: Break Point. Beyond dealing with Terror armies, low Courage is also a problem if your army breaks. The good news is that if you go full-swarm mode, you can amass so many models on the table that an opponent may just not have enough time in a round to amass the sheer volume of kills they need to break you, especially if you’re keeping the kill count relatively close as the rounds progress. Against armies that have lots of warriors and few heroes, one tactic you can employ is to borrow a page from the play-book that outnumbered armies use against swarms: tie up two enemy warriors with one of yours and one supporting model behind (because you can with Chittering Hordes). If you lose the fight, your model in front is probably going to die, but it means you only suffer one casualty from losing a fight against two models (instead of 2 potential casualties if you engaged those two models one-on-one). While you’re doing that (ideally in the center of the opponent’s formation), the rest of your Goblins (who now have an even bigger numbers advantage) are swarming to the flanks, encircling the opponent, making a B-line for the opponent’s board-edge in Reconnoitre, whatever else they have to do to put you in a winning position. If you fight 20 enemy models in the center with 20 of your models (2-on-2 fights with only 1 potential casualty), and fight the other 20 of your opponent’s models with 60 of your models (3-on-1 fights, preferably with traps), you have a pretty good chance of pulling even on the kill count. Some armies make this harder than others (elf-bow swarms, for instance). But if you can accumulate 20 casualties in roughly the same amount of time as your opponent accumulates 20 casualties, they’ll be broken (and at half-strength) while they’ll need to score an additional 20 casualties (at half-strength) to break you. Traps, position, aggression, and attrition are your best answer to low courage (and if that doesn't appeal to you, you might want to consider playing a different horde with Fury, like Moria).
• Strength: Multiple, unpredictable heroes. We’ve been focused primarily on the basic warriors in Goblin-Town so far, which is both a change from how most factions work (the heroes do a ton of the work) and was also intentional. As I've said before, the primary thing that makes Goblin-Town such a strong army in the game is the fact that you can bring so many warriors, who in turn can punch higher than you think when you spam them. But just because Goblin-Town's heroes don't have to do all the work doesn't mean they aren't important. Beyond the standard captain (cheap 2-Might caddies who open up 18 warrior slots) and Mercenary Captain (who I promise we are getting to), Goblin-Town has four named heroes who each bring some special tools to the list: the Goblin King (beefy beater, a Hero of Legend for an auto-pass Stand Fast! the first turn after your force breaks), Grinnah (cheap 3 Might, and very slippery), the Scribe (what’s better than tons of goblins? MORE GOBLINS!!!), Gollum (and his precious… probably), standard captains (18 warband slots and 2 Might for Heroic Marches, all for 35 points), and Goblin Mercenary Captains (18 warband slots with 2 Might for Heroic Marches that can pop up almost anywhere). They’re all good choices, with some pretty good synergies: the Goblin-King / Grinnah and Goblin-King / Gollum synergies (discussed below) can be particularly lethal, and there’s only so much your opponent can do about either.
• Strength: anything (singular) you need dead, you can probably kill (with some set-up, and as long as it doesn't cause Terror). We discuss the synergy between the Goblin King and Gollum further down in their two profiles, but the gist is this: assuming Gollum has the Ring on (which he usually will, because Ringbearers are few and far between), a Fight 6 Goblin King and Gollum can tag-team pretty much anything in the Game (except a striking Ringwraith) and be virtually guaranteed to have the higher Fight Value (because the Ring halves your opponent's total Fight Value after Striking, and Fight 5--half of the maximum Fight "10"--is less than the Goblin King's Fight 6). Couple that with the Goblin King's Burly special rule, two-handed pick at Strength 5 (effective Strength 8 or better with a two-handed Piercing Strike), the option to Rend as a monster, the ability to get the Goblin King into surprising places thanks to Relentless Advance and Grinnah's Swap With Me! Heroic Action, and Gollum's ability to phase through friendly and enemy models whilst wearing the Ring, and you can pose a real threat to enemies within 5-6" of the two of them together. Granted, the combo only works to take out one model at a time. But your ability to reliably take out one pretty big model per turn means that you can generally deal with your opponent's major threats eventually (and you have plenty of cheap goblins to pin those major threats in place while your tag-team works their way to them). Just watch out for Terror models--the Goblin King's surprisingly hit-and-miss on his Courage tests, and Gollum doesn't have any Will to fix a botch.
• Strength: a cheap ringbearer (Gollum). The Ring is important to your assassination abilities (as described above), but it's got some other nice uses, too. For starters, just the ability to phase in and out of enemy lines can be really handy. And if you draw any missions where an objective has to be moved from place to place, Gollum wearing the Ring isn't a terrible choice to handle the job (since he's immune to all magic except from Ringwraiths, all archery, and can be a real bear to charge). Yes, there's a 1-in-3 chance that he'll go crazy and your opponent will get to move him instead of you. But as long as you're good at rolling a 3+, what can go wrong? ;-) On a serious note, a Strength 4, Fight 4, 2 Attack Ringbearer for 35 points is incredible value, and since he's an Independent Hero, you can tuck him into another warband if you like (Grinnah or the Goblin King usually) if you're worried about Maelstrom of Battle missions. 
• Weakness/Strength: Mobility. Goblin-Town goblins (with the exception of the Goblin King, who moves 6”) have the standard 5” move of other goblins/dwarves, but don’t let that fool you: they can be surprisingly mobile. Part of that is the Goblin Scribe bringing new goblins on from places where they weren’t before (allowing them to get to far-flung objectives on the other side of the board as early as Turn 1). The other part is Cave Dweller, which all of them (sans the Scribe) have. If you’re not up-to-date on your Cave Dweller rule, that’s okay (I wasn’t either). But when you look it up (Rules p. 104), you’ll see that it confers two benefits: (1) goblins never suffer any penalties for fighting the dark (which would be more useful if they had ranged weapons of some kind), and (2) they add +1 to all Jump, Leap, and Climb tests. Usually models taking these tests have to roll a natural “6” to be able to jump/leap/climb the obstacle in front of them, then continue charging. But a +1 bonus means Goblin-Town’s swarms can hurdle an obstacle and continue charging on a roll of a “5” or “6” (that’s a 33% success rate). It also means they never count as having a “1” (because any “1s” they roll can be boosted to 2s), so they’re never going to fall off the obstacle, trip and become prone, etc. Enemies fighting a Goblin-Town swarm still want to make use of defensive terrain like walls and fences wherever possible; just bear in mind that unless you can convert all of that terrain into defended barriers, the mere presence of the barrier itself may not be enough to keep the hordes out.
• Strength: The Goblin Scribe. We’ll discuss his particular ruleset below, but it’s worth noting that he’s one of two answers you have for dealing with ranged and avoidance armies. Enemy siege weapon wreaking havoc on your lines? Spawn some Goblins near it and tie up the crew. Enemy archers letting fly from 24” away? Spawn some Goblins behind them and start tying them up in combat during the Shoot Phase. Enemy cavalry playing keep-away? Deploy more Goblins to box them in. Are these imperfect solutions? Sure. Will it result in goblins dying? Absolutely. Do these reinforcements count towards breaking without increasing your break point? 100 percent. Does the Goblin Scribe summoning repeated reinforcements inflict measurable psychological fatigue on your opponent? You bet it does.
• Strength: Mercenary Ambush. Third community resource plug, and my third disagreement. Estannesse over at Erra Cuin Caladrim knows more about Goblin-Town than most, and you should definitely check out his thoughts. But one position he takes (that I wouldn't share) is that you should never run Goblin Mercenaries and Mercenary Captains over standard Goblin Warriors and Captains. Like with Devin's point about the army bonus being a trap, there's definitely a logic to Estannesse's position: a Merc Captain costs 15 points more than a standard Captain, and Mercs cost 1 point more than a standard goblin. For a full warband (1 captain + 18 goblins), taking standard goblins over mercs will save you 33 points, which is enough to buy 8 more goblins (pushing your break point up 4) or buy yourself almost a whole new captain (35 points). Do that twice, and now you're behind almost a whole warband (66 points = 1 captain + 7.75 goblins). To be clear, Estannesse is right about this numbers game, and he's also right that the Scribe can do a lot of what the Mercs can do. But I'm not sure I would agree that the Scribe does the Merc's job better. The main issue with the Scribe versus the Mercs is two-fold. 
• First, the Scribe is less reliable. Yes, you can have huge swings with the Scribe--roll a 10, 11, or 12 on your Courage test, and you're looking at a base of 3-5 new goblins, plus D3 more on top of that (1-3), meaning you can end up with 6-8 new goblins in one fell swoop that you can place anywhere on a board edge. When this happens, it's awesome. But you can also roll a 7 or an 8, get 1 extra Goblin off the D3, and bring 1-2 goblins on from any board edge (which is still okay, because it's 1-2 goblins you didn't have before), but if your opponent has an elf-bow gunline, 1-2 goblins certainly isn't going to stop them from shooting at the rest of your army (in fact, it may not even distract them). And that's of course assuming that you roll the 7+ to pass the Scribe's Courage test (if you don't you get nothing), and if the Scribe is in range of something like Harbinger of Evil or Ancient Evil, the Scribe can become super unreliable. Mercenaries on the other hand come in a set-number (however many you put in a warband--I prefer 8-12 warriors). So when they come on (and since the Captain isn't on the Board to start, he isn't affected by special rules like Harbinger of Evil or Ancient Evil), you know exactly what you're getting.
• Second, the Scribe is less flexible in the sense that while you can bring on new goblins from any board edge, they do have to come on from an edge. Now there are definitely situations (tying up siege weapons) and scenarios (Storm the Camp, Command the Battlefield) where coming on the edge of the Board is extremely helpful. But the meat of most games doesn't typically take place on the edges of the Board; most of the fighting and maneuvering tends to take place nearer to the center. And if you need more goblins there, the Scribe will get them there eventually, but not immediately. This is where the Mercenaries come in, because while you can drop them on board edges, you will usually need to drop them on an eligible terrain feature somewhere in the interior of the board. And by the way, you usually will want to drop them there, too. A lot of scenarios require you to get to the center of the board (Domination, Hold Ground, Seize the Prize), and guess what a lot of TO's tend to put right in the middle of their boards? Big terrain features. In games where you get to place objectives, putting an objective in or near a terrain feature means you can swoop in from nowhere at any point to claim that objective (or at least contest it). Archers tend to come down in terrain features, too; but if your opponent knows that you could drop as many as 19 Goblins on them in turn 2, maybe they steer clear and set up in the open (or closer to your deployment area). And if you have to stall a cavalry charge, you could do much better than dropping 11-19 goblins behind them (or in charge range next turn) after your opponent has won priority and moved his models.
• Just to be clear, the point of this is not to knock the Scribe (who's awesome, and can single-handedly win you certain scenarios as long as you roll average on his courage tests). It's rather to illustrate how the Scribe plus a warband or two of Mercenaries really gives you tools to deal with a ton of different threats (archers, siege weapons, mobile cavalry) or accomplish goals (objective capture, screening models carrying relics, pressuring banners or spellcasters behind enemy lines, etc.). The Scribe is a bit more manic (higher highs, lower lows) and a source of constant pressure when he's feeling very courageous. The Mercenaries are an immediate jolt in the arm, and more of a precision tool to go after 1-2 concrete objectives in a particular area of the board. And both are really important for an army that is generally slow (5" move), poses almost no ranged threat, has really low defense, and is at its best when it can box-in, surround, and trap its opponents.
• Strength: Board Control. By Board Control, I'm largely thinking about scenarios with objectives, and there are a ton of those: get to a certain place (Hold Ground), find stuff (Heirlooms of Ages Past), be in lots of places at once (Domination), threaten things (Destroy the Supplies, Retrieval), and get across the board (Reconnoitre, Storm the Camp). But it also entails being able to dictate where your opponent goes / doesn't go, and being able to get to advantageous spots on the board quickly and safely. The secret to board control for Goblin Town comes down to (1) having huge numbers (so your opponent just physically can't get to where they want to get to without being bogged down), (2) the Scribe playing the board edges to either box the enemy in or forcing them to spread out (by attacking far-flung objectives or important back-line support models that your opponent thought were safe); and (3) the Mercenaries changing the board by coming on in a disadvantageous position out of nowhere. The ability to get where you want to go without having to actually travel there is huge, and can really put the opponent on the back foot quickly.  
• Strength: Heroic Resources. This is part-and-parcel with having lots of cheap heroes, but if you do the full-swarm (19-25 models in a warband), you should have upwards of 10 Might (to go with 70+ models) at the 500 point level and beyond. If you go with more conventional-sized warbands to up your captain counts (cheap captains + 12 warriors, or about 80 points for a 13-model warband), you can get 9 warbands at 750 points (that’s almost 110 models and 19 Might if you swap a generic Captain with Grinnah). Hero-heavy armies may have as much Might as you do (or more), but they will be badly outnumbered when it comes to their model count (sometimes as high as 10-to-1 in your favor, which are generally odds you can live with--plus, hero-heavy armies tend to not have banners, unless you take a banner hero, which eats into points even more). Heroic Combats are great and all, but even a full Fellowship army (with ~22* Might) will be hard-pressed to rack up the 40-60 kills they’ll need to break you, even if they’re calling Heroic Combats every turn (which only Aragorn can do indefinitely). Since your core troops are expendable (and largely identical), moving first is less important (you’re generally fine moving second because you almost always outnumber your opponent, and once an enemy model charges 1-2 of yours, they become stationary targets to trap). So you can afford better than most armies to let your opponent burn Might for Heroic Moves without challenging, so you have your Might for later (to win fights, Heroic Strike, call Swap with Me! with Grinnah, boost a duel roll against a burned-out hero, etc.). And of course, once the enemy starts sustaining casualties, elite heavy-hero armies can fold quickly.
• Weakness: Play Time / Mental Fatigue. I usually don’t play swarm armies, so my first few games with Goblin-Town were… different. There are so many models to keep track of, move in and out of position, etc. I ended up building cheap movement trays out of magnets (gluing a metal washer to the bottom of my bases so they’d hold) just so I could move them around in groups of 6 during the early game (when they’re almost always rushing forward or marching somewhere). Once you get into combat, the tray system breaks down and you have to move models individually. The good news is that apart from your heroes (and 2H goblins, if you take any) they’re all exactly the same, apart from special strikes (which only impact goblins in the front rank). My advice is keep it simple: if you get to move first, you want as many models as possible swarming for flanks (then for spear supports once you get to the flanks) with as many Chittering Hordes combats and as many 3-on-1 or more combats as possible, and then you take on the center with whatever’s left (again, preferably with Chittering Hordes combats where you can get them, if possible basing 1 goblin and 1 supporting goblin into 2 enemy models, at least until you get the full surround). If your opponent moves first, you take whoever’s unengaged (there will be a lot of those) and essentially do the same strategy (keep threatening to wrap around the flanks as far as possible, then as many multiple combats as possible), peeling off unfavorable multiple combats and swarming heroes wherever possible. Remember, your Goblin King can only be in one place at once (and while Grinnah can call Heroic Strike, at just Fight 3 he’s not great at winning Strike-offs with other enemy heroes), so peeling an enemy hero off one of yours and into combat with just a single warrior backed up by another warrior, is a great way to blunt their effectiveness (or force them to burn Might on Heroic Combats early).
• Strength: Start-up Cost. As far as initial investments go, Goblin-Town is among the cheaper armies to acquire. I got mine started by picking up the Escape from Goblin-Town starter box (which is no longer in print, but you can still find copies floating around ebay and other secondary sellers for about $100), which is nice because you also pick up Gandalf, Bilbo, Thorin’s Company, and Radagast on foot (plus some dice, an out-of-date rule book, some scenery, etc.) for about what you’d pay for the Goblin Heroes and 36 goblins if you bought those models separately. If you’re not interested in all of that, the four core Goblin-Town heroes (Goblin King, Grinnah, the Scribe, and a Captain who’s extremely short) come in a single pack, and you can also pick up 36 goblin warriors in a boxed set. A couple boxes of warriors and the heroes will get you to around 700 points depending on how many 2H weapons you take, and how many extra Goblin Warriors you convert to Goblin Captains. It’s an investment, but not an enormous one. And finally...
• Strength: Once again, You have your own theme music. So good, it deserves two highlights instead of one. EVERYBODY!!!

Hero Profiles: Heroes of Legend(ish) for Cheap, Cheap, Cheap

Photo Credit: speculativefaith.lorehaven.com

• The Goblin King. He’s an actual Hero of Legend, who can bring 24 warriors with him if you have the Army Bonus active. He’s also the closest thing Goblin-Town has to an answer for other big heroes. 
• His statline is pretty beefy overall: Fight 6, and 3 Attacks at Strength 5 with a 2-handed Pick and Burly makes him effectively Strength 7 if you 2-hand all the time (which you should do all the time, as there’s no downside). He can also get to effective Strength 8 if you Piercing Strike with your Pick, which you can do with relatively low risk against most enemies. 
• Although he’s only Defense 5 with three Wounds and a single Fate point, his Blubbery Mass special rule basically gives him a free 3+ Fate save against most archery and melee attacks (that you can use before you spend his Fate point), which means going from Defense 5 to Defense 2 (if you Piercing Strike) is potentially not an issue (if you’re good at rolling 3+s). It also means he can reliably tank most big heroes, because he’s got the offensive stats to win duels (Fight 6, 3 Attacks) and the blubber to thwart opponents who do manage to beat him in combat. Just bear in mind that his blubber doesn’t work against magical damage (Chill Soul, Sorcerous Blast, etc.) and also doesn’t work against any elven-made weapons (so your standard High Elf or Wood Elf warrior wounds him normally, to say nothing of their heroes). 
• He’s also a Monster (so he causes Terror and has access to Hurl, Barge, and Rend—though with Strength 5 and a 2-handed pick, he’s the rare monster who will usually get the same or better to-wound odds with normal strikes than Rend), has Resistant to Magic and 2 Will to help shrug off spells, and he has 3 Might with the ability to Heroic Strike if needed (plus Heroic Strength and Heroic Challenge). 
• Finally, don’t sleep on Relentless Advance. Opponents tend to forget that during any given move phase, the Goblin King can traverse or occupy any space within 6” of him that is occupied by Goblin Warriors. Sure, he may kill his own guys, but that’s okay. Troops are expendable after all, especially if it means surprising a mid-tier hero, who thought he was only fighting a couple of plebs and suddenly finds himself face-to-face with the Great Goblin. Fair warning: he can do it during Heroic Combats, too…
• Gollum. A sneaky inclusion in the Goblin-Town list, and a major pain for opponents when used effectively. He’s not a Goblin Hero (he’s a Hobbit Hero, actually), so he doesn’t benefit from the Army Bonus, although as an Independent Hero you can put him in one of your other warbands (the Goblin King’s makes a lot of sense). As one of six models who can have the One Ring, he can be extremely dangerous, especially when paired with the Goblin King: at Fight 6, the Goblin King and Gollum with the One Ring are guaranteed to have higher Fight than any model (other than the Dark Marshall or a Striking Witch-King/Khamul), with the beater stats to inflict serious damage if/when they win. Gollum is pretty good in a scrap, too, with Fight 4, two Attacks, and Strength 4, plus strangling fingers (he’s never unarmed, ever). He’s only Defense 4, so he’s vulnerable to damage from melee, ranged, and magic attacks. The One Ring will help with all three: whilst wearing the ring, he’s entirely immune to direct damage from ranged weapons and magic (though indirect damage, like a trebuchet’s splash damage, can still injure him) and melee opponents who want to charge him have to take a courage test (which isn’t auto-passed by Fury, Bodyguard, or any other special rules that counteract Terror) before they can charge him, with a -1 penalty for every inch between them and Gollum. Even a 2” gap between Gollum and an enemy warrior can result in a lot of failed tests, and if Gollum is a full 5” or 6” away, it will be impossible for some warriors to charge him at all. Finally, while Gollum is at the bottom of the One Ring hierarchy, he’s still going to have the Ring unless your opponent has one of a handful of models (Sauron from Barad-Dur, Isildur, Hobbit Bilbo, Frodo, or old Bilbo), and even if they do, Gollum’s Strangler rule allows him to recover the One Ring if he slays the opponent’s ringbearer. That’s harder to do for some ring bearers (Sauron, Isildur, and surprisingly young Bilbo from a Lake-Town list) than it is for others. But it’s very rewarding when you do. PRECIOUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSS!!!
• Grinnah. He’s a Goblin Captain with one extra point of Might. He’s Fight 3, Strength 4, Defense 4, with 2 Wounds and 1 Fate, but has the option to call Heroic Strike (which isn’t super-reliable for winning Strike-offs at just Fight 3, but better than nothing). As with the Goblin Scribe, the real reason you want Grinnah (apart from a 3 Might hero who can lead 18 dudes) is Swap with Me, a unique Heroic Action (so it costs 1 Might to use) that allows Grinnah to trade places at the start of any phase (Priority, Move, Shoot, Fight, End) with any friendly Goblin model within 3” of him (except the Scribe). You can play it defensively to get Grinnah out of situations where he’s outnumbered, but or aggressively to get the Goblin King (who is a friendly Goblin) into a combat where he wasn’t before (say, against a burned-out Hero model). Just remember this swap doesn’t count as moving (Armies of the Hobbit p. 120), so the Goblin King can’t squash goblins with Relentless Advance in order to make room for his larger base (and if he can’t fit where Grinnah was, the swap doesn’t happen and the Might point spent on Swap with Me is wasted). He also has a whip (2” throwing weapon at Strength 2). It’s not fantastic, but it does mean he gets a free chance for a kill when charging, so don’t forget to use it (just in case). If you’re charging a hero mounted on a generic horse, it might actually do something valuable…
• Goblin Captain. Grinnah without the extra Might or Swap with Me (Fight 3, Strength 4, Defense 4, 2 Attacks, 2 Wounds, 1 Fate, 2 Might). They’re the cheapest 2-Might heroes who can lead 18 dudes that you’ll find anywhere, so that’s their primary purpose. They also have Heroic March, which is great, since that’s one of the few options you have against mass ranged attacks, cavalry models, siege weapons, kiting avoidance armies, etc., and since you have so many of them (3-4 captains, plus Grinnah, plus the Scribe, plus the Goblin King, isn’t an unreasonable number of models at 700 points) you can afford to burn the Might to March when other armies might be worried about it. Once engaged in combat, I generally prefer to save their Might for boosting dice rolls, but if you can get a captain into a target with multiple other goblins (or the goblin king) and can launch 4-6 goblins into other fights with a well-timed Heroic Combat, it can be devastating.
• The Goblin Scribe. He’s a Minor Hero, but can take 12 warriors in a pure Goblin-Town force thanks to their army bonus. He may be the worst model in the game in straight-up combat (unarmed with 1 Attack at Fight 1, Strength 2, Defense 2, and 1 Wound with 1 Fate, plus he automatically counts as trapped if he loses a duel) so don’t put him anywhere near combat or in a spot where he can be shot out (or keep lots and lots of in-the-ways between him and the enemy). 
• You want him for one reason and one reason only: Always more where they came from. He gets to take a voluntary courage test with no penalties (he doesn’t flee if he fails). If he passes, he gets to roll a D3 and bring that many Goblin Warriors on from a board edge (the edge is usually chosen by the Goblin-Town player, except in certain scenarios like Reconnoitre), plus he gets to bring an additional Goblin for each additional point he passed his courage test. With base Courage of 3, you’ll need a score of 7+ to pass (which you’ll get 58% of the time), so it happens pretty often. You’ll usually only get 2-3 goblins each turn, but even so, that’s an additional 10-20 goblins most games, if you get 6-7 successes (which is not unreasonable). The odds are also that sometimes you’ll get lucky and bring 5 or 6 on at a time, and it can max out at 8 if you roll a 12 on the courage test and score a 5 or 6 on the d3 (it’s only happened once for me, but when it happens, it’s devastating). 
• You also get to choose the reinforcement’s  weapon options, so if you wanted to be “that guy (or gal),” you could opt not to bring any 2H goblins in your main list to save on points, and start importing them over with the Scribe for free (remember the 2-handed axe is an add-on, not a gear swap, so your two-handers can still use regular hand-weapons if they don’t want that -1 duel penalty). 
• Adding goblin reinforcements doesn’t push your break point any higher (although reinforcements that are slain count towards you reaching break point, so make sure you bring extra models for your reinforcements instead of pulling them out of your “slain” pile), so you don’t want to bring them on in a spot where they can be pointlessly slaughtered. But they’re great a pressuring enemy archers or siege engines, swarming far-flung objectives in Domination or Capture and Control, and sapping your opponent’s resources (and mental fortitude). By the time the second and third wave arrive to pressure the enemy’s buckling battle line, it starts to wear on your opponent. Don’t forget you also have 1 Will point. I usually throw it early to pass a courage test where I got a “6” instead of a “7” (to bring more Goblins on quickly), but if you're concerned about breaking, you could hold it in reserve for when the Scribe has to take real courage tests.
• Goblin Mercenary Captains. The profile for these guys is found in Azog's Legion, but you can also field them as part of a Goblin-Town Faction. And you really should. Stat-wise, they're not amazing (although Defense 5 is as high as you get in a pure Goblin-Town list), so you're really taking them for the 2 Might with the option for Heroic March, the warband slots (up to 18 with the army bonus active), and of course Mercenary Ambush. A few thoughts on this rule, which can be game-breaking:
• For starters, you have the option during deployment to keep your Mercenary warbands off the table. You'll usually opt to do this, but the fact that you actually get to choose and also don't have to choose until the game starts is great.
• From turn 2 onwards, you get to start playing mind-games with your opponent. If you pass your courage test, you get to decide if they come on the board or not. If you fail the test, your opponent decides if they come on or not (note, that's if they come on, not where they come on). Once they're coming on, you get to deploy the whole warband on any eligible terrain feature (as long as the whole warband fits, without going into any enemy model's control zone). Given that terrain features tend to be placed in important parts of the board, this almost always creates an objective-based advantage for you. And even in games where there's no objective to capture, the ability to spawn behind the enemy's lines is almost always an advantage, too. Be aware of the timing of this rule, too. While the Scribe always tests at the end of your move phase, you can test for the Mercenary Captain at any point during your move phase. And that can open up some more shenanigans.
• Because you are limited to deploying in eligible terrain features (but the whole warband has to come down), be careful of how many models you put in this warband. While it's tempting to think about dropping 19 models out of nowhere onto the enemy's back objective, 19 models has a pretty big footprint, especially since you're not allowed to place your models in an enemy's control zone. And if you can't get your models into an eligible terrain feature, you have to deploy them on a board edge instead (in which case, they're giving up that positional advantage they enjoy over the Scribe). 
• Lastly, the Merc Captain has some interesting interactions with the Reconnoitre scenario. The Recon scenario's rules specifically state that in a situation where a rule requires that models reinforce from a board edge, they must come on from the controlling player's board edge. That clarification specifically references the Goblin Mercenary Captain, which is strange because unlike the Scribe (whose special rule clearly fits), Mercenaries generally don't come on from a board edge unless something's gone wrong (they can't fit on any eligible terrain feature). As far as I can tell, there's no official FAQ or ruling on this, so don't shoot the messenger. But the way we play it at TMAT (and the way the DCHL plays it, and the way it was played at Throne of Skulls a couple years back) is that as long as the Mercenaries spawn on a terrain feature (and not a board edge), they can spawn anywhere, which includes very near the edge you're trying to walk off. And if that's the case, that's... well, that's obviously good for you. ;-)

Warrior Profile

Photo Credit: LOTR Fandom

• Goblin Warriors. What, you were expecting options? In a swarm list? There’s a lot Goblins don’t have access to (mounts, banners, shields, war horns, armor of any kind), but they are Strength 3 (an advantage they have over most Hobbits) with a choice of four hand-weapons: swords (Stab), picks (Piercing Strike), maces (Bash), and flails (Whirl), any of which they can take for free (and which can be used as pseudo-spears, thanks to Chittering Hordes). There is something to be said for the simplicity of their profile: the only points-sink pitfall you have to navigate with Goblin Warriors is whether to pay an extra point to give anyone a two-handed weapon (which very few players would be tempted to spam en-mass). Compare that to their Moria Goblin cousins, who have the same base points cost but have the option to take a spear (increasing their cost by 25%), a bow (another +25% points increase), and a shield (another +25% cost, or +50% if you go with the spear-shield combination). Each of those weapon upgrade choices (which are real choices—I’m not knocking them) shaves off points, and if you take a standard Moria warband (12 models) with various wargear options, those options add up pretty quickly. Trading 4 basic models for a warband with upgraded equipment sounds fine in the abstract, but if you do that with 4-5 warbands, that’s 16-20 models worth of points you’re sinking into equipment. And for any “swarm” army, losing out on 16-20 models is huge. Goblin-Town eliminates that sink by not giving you any options. Its both a curse and a blessing (but frankly, probably more of a blessing).
• Goblin Mercenaries. The extra point adds up, and the jump from Defense 3 to Defense 4 is only situationally useful. Unlike some players, I don't feel a need to go exclusively with these guys, or really to spam them in huge numbers. But I always take at least one warband of these in a pure Goblin-Town force (and prefer two if I can swing the points), in combination with the Scribe to amp up my board control. Try not to take too many of these in a single warband. They're infinitely more threatening to your opponent if he/she has no idea where they're coming down, and if the group is too larger, they may only fit in one place. Alternatively, if you take two groups (say, 2 Merc Captains and 20 Mercs), consider building one large group (say, 1 Captain and 14 mercs) and one smaller one (1 Captain and 6 mercs) so you have multiple tools at your disposal. Want to deploy right on that small wood around an objective? Drop 7 guys. Need to tie down a large block of archers or horses next turn? 15 goblins will probably do the job (especially if the Scribe gets hot). 

For Further Reading

Thanks for checking out our summary of Goblin-Town in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. As always, please let us know in the comments if we’ve missed anything, what your experiences have been with Goblin-Town, and if this looks like a force you’d be interested in running in the future. And don’t forget to check out our recommended resources for more of this swarmiest of swarms/hordiest of hordes!

More from the TMAT Team:

• It has come to me (again): Thoughts on the One Ring, Revisited (September 2021) 
• The Bare Necessities, Part XXXVII: Goblin-Town (August 2021)
• A Pocket Full Of Power, Revisited (June 2019)
• I Saw Three Trolls (and I’m tired of fighting them) (April 2019)
• The Armies of the Hobbit, Part II: The Other Evil Armies (March 2019)
• Weapon Swaps: When is it Worth It? (February 2019)

Support your hobby!

• Goblin King & Retinue (Games Workshop)
• Goblin Warriors (Games Workshop)
• Riddles in the Dark (Games Workshop)
• Goblin Mercenaries (Forge World)

Recommended Resources:

• VIDEO: Armies of Middle Earth: Goblintown [Erra Cuin Caladrim]
• VIDEO: How to Play and Buy Goblin-Town [DC Hobbit League]
• VIDEO: Shadow Wraith Reviews: Goblin-Town MESBG Competitive Review [Shadow Wraith]
• VIDEO: Getting Started with the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game: Goblin-Town [Cinderfall Gaming]
• VIDEO: Review of The Middle-Earth SBG: Armies of the Hobbit – Part 5 Goblin-Town [STF Wargaming Studio]
• VIDEO Battle Report: Middle-Earth SBG Battle Report – Thranduil’s Halls vs. Goblin Town [Realms of Sigmar]
• VIDEO Battle Report: Iron Hills v. Goblin Town 800 pts to the Death Narrative [The Lotr SBG Team]
• VIDEO Battle Report: Play testing ‘Down, Down in Goblin Town’ for Canadian Shire Battle Report LOTR [OSBGL]
• PODCAST: Episode #24: Goblin-Town Army Special [Chump In the East, July 2021]
• PODCAST: Mustering an Army Episode 10: Goblin-Town [The Green Dragon Podcast, pre-MESBG*]
• VIDEO Battle Report: Lord of the Rings SBG Battle Report: Goblintown vs. Durin’s Folk 300 Points [Venomous War Gaming, pre-MESBG*]
• VIDEO Battle Report: Tales of Middle Earth Ep. 8 – Goblin Town vs. Thranduil’s Hall (500 Points) [Blackfyre Productions, pre-MESBG*]
• VIDEO Battle Report: NOVA Bat-Rep: All Infantry Rohan vs. Goblin Town [GBHL Podcast, pre-MESBG*]
• VIDEO Battle Report: Middle Earth World Cup: Goblin Town vs. the Fiefdoms [GBHL Podcast, pre-MESBG*]
• VIDEO: How to Paint Goblin Warriors from the Escape from Goblin Town Set [The Apathetic Fish]
• VIDEO: How to Paint Goblins from the Hobbit [Mr. Watching Paint Dry]
• VIDEO: Ol’ Barney’s H.H. Ep 8 – Building a Goblin Town terrain Board [OSBGL]