Nemesis: How to Fight Against the Goblin King

Good morning gamers,

Today is our last post (for now) in this series on how-to-fight-against-those-models-that-are-not-fun-to-fight-against. Our contestant today is a model that I have never used, but have had to face many, many1 times: the Goblin King. Yes, it's the dreaded monster from Goblin-town and all his lovely entourage! While this post will be focusing primarily on the Goblin King himself, there will also be thoughts on the other models that are in his list, since their presence make him MUCH more difficult to deal with. Let's get into the discussion of one of the nastiest profiles around!

What Makes the Goblin King So Hated?

There's a lot to unpack with this guy, but it's probably best to start off with his combat profile. The Goblin King has a pretty mediocre stat line compared to most monsters, but it's a lot of the numbers you want - Fight 6 with Strength 5/3 Attacks is incredibly good for most heroes in the game, and with 3-Might-and-Strike, you're at least on-par with other heroes. This is made even better by his two-handed pick and the Burly special rule, which allows him to be S5-6 with +1 To Wound - at effectively S7-8, he's doing as well or better than most monsters in the game!

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

Many of the monsters who rival him (The Balrog, Smaug, Dragons, the Watcher in the Water, Cave Drakes) have really big bases, but the Goblin King has a 40mm base (on par with Buhrdur, Sauron, and Cave Trolls - the Troll guys are envious of this guy's profile and Sauron is . . . really expensive in comparison). This gives him incredible mobility, especially since he's got the Relentless Advance rule, that allows him to move through his own models and squish/potentially squish them to get where he wants.

The greatest critique of the Goblin King can be based on his defensive stats, but even here, he cheats: he's "only D5" with 3 Wounds/1 Fate, but thanks to his Blubbery Mass rule, any wound he takes that isn't caused by a magical power or an Elven-made weapon can be saved on a 3+ BEFORE he has to spend his Fate point. While there are models out there with 6+ saves (the Bears in their Legion, Durin, Fury/Oblivious to Pain) and even one model who can give out a 5+ save (Malbeth the Seer), getting a 3+ save is not only BETTER than having infinite Fate points, but is only comparable to Thror with the Arkenstone (which will save once on a 3+ and can save multiple times on a 4+) and Goroth's "Look Out, Sir!" rule that allows him to bounce a wound onto a friendly model nearby . . . which is good for Goroth, but not great from his friends. Yep, when it comes to shrugging off punishment, there's no one who does it better than the Goblin King.

The Goblin King has other defensive abilities baked into his profile - his Relentless Advance rule can be used to high-tail it out of danger (even if you'd have models in the way), while his Resistant to Magic special rule and 2 Will points (fine-not-great) allow him to at least have a chance of shutting down magical powers (which is something a lot of monsters don't have - especially those with 40mm bases). The Goblin King also has the Cave Dweller special rule, which is excellent if you happen to be fighting against the Assault on Lothlorien Legendary Legion or playing the Clash by Moonlight scenario (missile weapons won't gain the +1 To Wound from the Legion/scenario rules).

Finally, there are some cheeky rules you can abuse both on the Goblin King's profile, as well as from units in his army that take his dreadfulness to a whole new level. First up, he has his Goblin Projectile rule, which allows him to throw a Goblin that's in base contact with him like a throwing weapon in the Shoot Phase, but unlike other throwing weapons, this one has a 12" range and if the target is hit (5+ shoot value if he stood still, 6+ if the Goblin King moved this turn), the target gets knocked Prone and suffers a S8 hit! Since all you have to do to knock someone prone is hit them, woe betides any mounted hero who wants to save their precious mount (including Fell Beasts, Elks, "Rocket Sausages", or chariots that aren't an Iron Hills Chariot). Unreliable though it be, the Goblin King's towering height (and the shortness of stature for those that follow him) makes it unlikely that he'll have his own blokes in the way, unless the targeted model is engaged in combat.

The Goblin King's team supplements a lot of his weaknesses - the Goblin King isn't fast and (naturally, given his bulk) can't take a mount, but he's got Goblin Mercenary Captains who can arrive on any board edge or within a suitably large piece of terrain (which, if it's a 6-9 model squad, doesn't have to be very big). To augment however many of these warbands you have, the Goblin King also has access to the Goblin Scribe, who has the opportunity to bring on additional Goblins each turn from a board edge of his choosing (passing Courage tests to bring them on isn't a given, but with Courage 3 and 1 Will, he's decent at it). 

If the Goblin King finds himself in a tight spot (or out of position for a big fight), Grinnah can use his Swap With Me at the start of the Shoot Phase (or also at the start of the Fight Phase - or Move Phase, I guess) in order to change places with the Goblin King or any other friendly model to get within range of the Goblin King - this gives the Goblin King some measure of unpredictability for where he'll strike (or yet another means of getting him out of trouble).

Finally, the Goblin King has Gollum in his army, which gives him access to a Ringbearer if there are no other Ringbearers (besides another Gollum) on the board. As I mentioned in an article earlier this year on how the Ring works, having a Ringbearer in your army is a great way for F6 heroes to win fights without having to risk Might points on Heroic Strikes. The Ring also has incredible tactical benefits for pulling models out of the Goblin King's fight or getting to auric models through enemy lines (especially if Gollum has just helped the Goblin King bash through a big hero). Yes, there's a lot to keep track of when you're fighting Goblin-town.

So how DO you fight back? Well, here are a few strategies you can employ.

How Do You Fight Back Against the Goblin King?

Our first stop is to talk about Elven-made weapons - not only because having an Elven-made weapon allows you to win roll-offs a bit more easily against the Goblin King if Gollum is detained elsewhere, but also because if you can beat the Goblin King with an Elven-made weapon, you can bypass his "fat save." While Evil has very limited access to Elven-made weapons (some Easterling heroes and the Abyssal Knights from the Dol Guldur list), Good has access to Elven-made weapons all over the place, particularly in the all-hero armies (the Fellowship, Thorin's Company, and the White Council) and of course the Elven armies (Rivendell, Lothlorien, and the Halls of Thranduil - all of which are or can be historical/convenient allies with every Good faction).

Another useful tool is magical powers that deal damage. The Goblin King's "fat save" is excellent, but magical powers and Elven-made weapons bypass it - and while the list of precision damage and area-of-effect damage spells is pretty limited, the models that have it are readily accessible to all Good and Evil factions (but not a lot of Legendary Legions). While the Goblin King has Resistant to Magic and 2 Will points, most damage spells are cast on a 4+ or a 5+ (occasionally a 3+ or a  6+), which means that a single die to resist is, for the most part, as likely to fail as to succeed (and if the spell isn't just barely successful on a 4, it is more likely to fail than succeed).

An extension to this tool for dealing with the Goblin King is to cast spells like Transfix that will prevent the Goblin King from going where he wants to or dealing Strikes if he's already engaged. A Transfix may not stop the Goblin King from getting the higher FV (even if channeled - a F4 Gollum in the same fight will only be bested by a F9-10 foe), but it will keep him from dealing any wounds should he win. Chances are good if you're a Goblin-town player who brought the Goblin King, you want him thrashing a big hero or two during the course of the game - and if he isn't doing that, the effectiveness of the Goblin King has been reduced. Furthermore, if a Transfix has been cast successfully on a 4 and a damage spell COULD be cast on the current/later turn, the Goblin King needs to choose whether to take the 50/50 risk of failing to block the spell OR spending one of those two Will points to help block the Transfix, which reduces his likelihood of resisting a damage spell (which is probably harder to block anyway). The choices . . .

Another strategy that you can use is to bring a Terror-Harbinger list - Terror isn't available to everyone, but most lists with Terror-causing warriors can also bring a Courage penalty auric rule (and a C3 Goblin King - and a C4 Gollum) can fail quite a few Courage tests in order to charge things. Yes, the Goblin King could rely on Grinnah to pass the Courage test and then have Grinnah "swap places," but Grinnah's courage isn't any better and Grinnah would need to burn a Might point for the swap (so even then, it's not like this is a lasting solution). This has benefits against Goblin-town in general, which doesn't have innate access to war horns or anything that's going to boost their Courage - and with C2 warriors and C3/C4 heroes, it isn't hard to root a swarm in place. Furthermore, many Terror-Harbinger lists have a Ringwraith or two present (something we talked about recently), so running a Terror-Harbinger list might also get you the benefits of Transfix/damage spells AND anti-Ringbearer benefits too!

Probably the most generic response to the Goblin King (and Goblin-town) is to shoot at them - especially with S3+ bows or throwing weapons. Goblin Warriors are D3 (wounded on 4s by all of these missile weapons) AND have 5" movement, which means even a 6" throwing weapon can stay outside of charge range of these little blighters (for more on how to do that, check out this post). With patience and space, you can bring the numbers disparity down - and if you have F3-4 warriors with 2+ dueling dice waiting for them, you can even beat them when they finally catch you! While you might not think that shooting will have that much effectiveness against the Goblin King, a 3+ save is still going to let one-in-three wounds through - and once the Goblin King's Fate point is gone, he's three bad rolls away from dying. Any chip-wounds you get on him early will not only ensure a wounded leader VP in most scenarios, but it will also require him to play a bit more defensively with his army leader (and likely the only threatening killing piece on that side of the table) and could mean that the Goblin King doesn't actually commit to fighting until late in the game (and after his opportunity to shred your army has passed).

Finally, if you really want to threaten the Goblin King, consider running a big hero with a Ringbearer (or better yet, a Ringbearer who IS a big hero). We're doing this for two reasons - first and foremost, taking any Ringbearer that isn't Gollum ensure that we have the Ring and Gollum doesn't (unless he can kill the model with the Ring, of course). If Gollum doesn't have it, the Goblin King needs to avoid anyone big and beefy who's walking near the Ringbearer, or the Goblin King's usual strategy of smashing people by automatically winning a tied fight is gone. Second, without an auto-win of priority, most big heroes can match the Goblin King - especially if they have Elven-made weapons. D5 isn't hard to cut through - though a "fat save" could blunt most of it - and 3 Wounds/1 Fate goes down pretty easily if the Goblin King gets surrounded. Whether your Ringbearer stays in the armpit of someone big, or if he's just skulking around in the back, staying away from Gollum, you've reduced the effectiveness of Goblin-town dramatically by presenting it with a hero (or several heroes) they don't want to deal with and removing access to the Ring.

While Sauron might immediately jump to the front of your mind as the best "big hero with the Ring" (I mean, there are few models in the game that can rival his profile - and he's first in line to have the Ring!), the effectiveness of a 400-point model against a horde army probably requires incredible skill to pull off. You're far more likely to get a better overall package with someone like Isildur (who is the second Ringbearer in line and has a good combat profile) or even fielding Aragorn alongside Old Bilbo from Rivendell/the Shire or Frodo (usually in the Fellowship). Isildur and Sauron may not have Elven-made weapons, but they'll still force him to make those saves - and that's got value. Aragorn can have an Elven-made weapon in any list that can also have a Ringbearer in it and heroes like Glorfindel, Celeborn, or Thranduil can wield Elven-made weapons with killer profiles and be allied with any Ringbearer list either historically or conveniently. Yes, you have some options . . . including a mirror match of the Goblin King and Gollum, I suppose . . .

Okay, so with all this preamble, let's look at my picks for the best models to counter the Goblin King (and Goblin-town while we're at it) . . .

Tiberius's Top 5 Models To Counter to Goblin King

Our honorable and dishonorable mentions basically wrote themselves - though I will admit that both require a LOT of practice in order to beat an "optimized" Goblin-town list at basically any points level.

Honorable Mention: Um . . . Goblin-town . . . but without the Goblin King (or Goblin-town with 1+ of The Three Trolls)

Goblin-town is a horde army - and the last thing it wants to see is a horde army that's bigger than it is. The Goblin King is a nasty bit of work, but he can only be in one place (and if he gets bogged down, he's incredibly hard to shift around your lines without Grinnah calling him over to swap places). If you're playing against a Goblin-town list that's invested 130pts into the Goblin King, that same list COULD have bought two Goblin Captains for 60pts less and picked up (wait for it) FIFTEEN more Goblins for the same number of points! 

If the Goblin King's warband was full (24 models with the army bonus), it's entirely possible that you might not have slots for fifteen more Goblin Warriors (you might be three-slots short), but if you are, just drop Gollum (THE HORROR!) and change him out for another Goblin Captain and you're good to go. Getting 16 extra models for your army might not seem like it's worth the trade, but if you know a mirror match is possible, the Goblin King will be hard pressed to outweigh the pressure you're applying all around the battlefield.

The other option (for those of you who don't think "just taking more Goblins" will be fun) is to ally in one or more of the Three Trolls into your list. Both Bill the Troll and Tom the Troll are Heroes of Valour, so you can pick either an anti-hero model (Bill) or an anti-warrior model (Tom) for 120-150pts OR drop 270pts on both of them in order to bring your list up to three monsters and about 40 supporting models. While you will be VERY outnumbered by a pure Goblin-town army, the Goblin King can't deal with all of the threats in this list, so he'll need to make decisions about which of you to tackle (the guy who can half his Fight Value? Or the guy that can deal wounds to him based on their Strength stats and a D6 roll? Or perhaps the mirror match of Goblin King vs. Goblin King?). There aren't any good options for him . . . but you also won't be a proper Goblin-town horde if you do this, so I have to give this option the honorable mention slot. I will note that it is certainly possible to bring all three of the Trolls in your list, but you're probably not going to do that at anything less than 1000 points, as Bert just isn't bringing enough to the table to justify the warband-and-change that has to be left at home just to get him in the list.

Now if we want to get dishonorable, we look at tackling Goblin-town and its cruel master with a very different approach . . .

Dishonorable Mention: The Black Riders Legendary Legion

Most of the time, I think a Black Riders list is going to feel pretty terrified going up against Goblin-town - I mean, you're a 9-model army at best against who knows how many Goblins . . . but you also have tricks up your sleeve that can give you a distinct advantage.

First and foremost, Goblin-town is almost always run as a pure list (so they can maximize on the benefits of their army bonus which turns their already impressive model count into something absolutely bonkers). Because they're often run pure, they have Courage 2 across all of their warriors and Courage 3 for their heroes (including the Goblin King). When this is reduced to Courage 1 by Harbinger of Evil (or stackable Harbingers of Evil as part of their Legion rules), this makes charging the Ringwraiths incredibly hard and a broken Goblin-town list becomes a very unreliable thing in the late game.

Second, Goblin-town units aren't fast unless they're Marching and the Ringwraiths here are all on horses. Horses give them 10" movement - and unlike models that want to fire bows and move in the same turn, casting spells doesn't get harder because you're moving and doesn't reduce your maximum speed. If charging you was already a difficult challenge, physically REACHING the Ringwraiths will be hard as well (and possibly harder to do if the board is open). Goblin-town has shenanigans for getting models to far-off places with the Scribe and Goblin Mercenary Captains, but once these units are on the board, they'll need to walk 5-8" a turn in order to pursue the wraiths.

Third, you can usually outlast Ringwraiths by charging them to death or just waiting for them to fight you and lose all their Will, but the Ringwraiths in this Legion don't spend Will points for being in combat each turn - which means they can keep riding over Goblins with their F5/S4/2A and kill 2 Goblins/turn per rider if there are no Heroic Combats being called.

Fourth, oh yeah, they're Ringwraiths - they can cast magic against the Goblin heroes (Drain Courage on the Scribe if they don't just cast Black Dart to delete him) and once per game each Ringwraith can cast Transfix that goes off on a 6 and gets channelled for free - with such limited Will on the Goblin King, it's quite likely that he won't be fighting (or moving) much in the game. Gollum will have the Ring in this game, but the Ringwraiths will ignore the benefits of the Ring and in the Legion can even call free Heroic Combats in order to charge the Ringbearer . . . yeah, that'd bite.

While I think this Legion would also have a hard time in some scenarios against Goblin-town (Recon comes to mind), they're not that worried about the Goblin King himself - he'd need to chuck a Goblin at them, hit them, and knock them off their horses (and could wound on a 4+) in order to be at all dangerous, but if he's Transfixed, he doesn't even have that as an option. A handful of Black Darts could see him going down quickly and then it's just surviving a wave of Goblins for the wraiths.

Still, like the last list idea, this requires a lot of player skill and patience on the part of the Ringwraith player, so I couldn't put it in the actual rankings. With both of them out of the way, let's look at some more reasonable options for countering the Goblin King and the rest of Goblin-town . . .

Pick #5: Armies that can spam throwing weapons and S3+ bows

Goblin Warriors are the primary tools for making sure the Goblin King gets where he wants to go - he can even step on them to charge the models he wants to! So what do most Goblin-town players fear (and the Goblin King himself fears sometimes)? Strength 3-4 shooting en masse. When my son started playing Goblin-town, it wasn't long before I tried my D3 horde list against him - his Goblins found that a Wood Elf-heavy Lothlorien build (with every model carrying a S3 Elf bow or S3 throwing daggers) to be an absolute SLOG to have to fight. While many players question the survivability of Wood Elf Warriors, I can tell you for a fact that when protected by Galadriel from shooting and if they're facing models with less than 6" of movement, a horde of throwing daggers backed by Elf bows is a nasty combination and not at all fun to fight.

This is particularly true for Goblin-town, since their warriors are wounded on 4s and all of their heroes are wounded on 5s - and if you're packing Galadriel, Haldir, and 30 Elves at 500pts . . . I mean, come on - Goblins are going to die left and right! When the Elves have the advantage in numbers on a flank, in they charge and those throwing weapons do still more damage to their foes - it's a nightmare to have to fight and it works beautifully.

But Wood Elves are not the only one who can play this game - in fact, there are other factions who do it much better! Corsairs of Umbar with no gear (or your choice of shield or spear) can get S3 throwing weapons with a 4+ shoot value for only 7-8pts per model - which is 2-3 points fewer per model than the Wood Elf Warriors from Lothlorien and only 3-4 points more than the Goblins themselves! With F4 standard and the ability to wound the Goblins on 4s in melee (possibly 3s with their army bonus), these guys are CRAZY at killing low-defense troops - especially Goblin-town Goblins. Like the Wood Elves, though, they're still D3 (D4 with shields), so the Goblins will be able to wound them on 4s as well (with Piercing Strike if the Corsair in the front has a shield).

If you want more resilience, your best bet is to look to the Dwarf lists, where you can find 9-point Dwarf Rangers or 15-16pt Iron Guard in the Kingdom of Khazad-Dum list or 12-13pt Grimhammers in the Army of Thror - these include a mix of 9-point D5 warriors with a 3+ shoot value (1pt less than Wood Elf Warriors with +2 Defense and -1" of movement as well as -1 FV/C) and 12-16pt D6-7 warriors with a 4+ shoot value. All of these units CAN be spammed in large enough numbers to be threatening (and the Rangers/Iron Guard can be supplemented by Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows that will wound on a 4+ from longer range). Unless you're spamming Rangers with throwing axes/Warriors with Dwarf bows, you're paying a LOT of points per model, so Goblin-town is likely to have a model-count advantage over you from the start. Still, with good resilience on their more expensive options and loads of firepower, these guys can cut right through a Goblin-town list - and even their warriors aren't that worried about taking on the biggest of the Goblin's big heroes.

Theoretically, you could get similar shooting benefits out of a Mirkwood Ranger spam list (either from the Halls of Thranduil or the Rangers of Mirkwood Legendary Legion), but these Elves are 14pts/model and you only get a D3 model with a bow. Yes, you can get more attacks if you're swarmed, but a single Goblin with a single supporting model will have a better than 50% chance of winning a fight against a Mirkwood Ranger - and that means the other Goblins can just stand next to you without charging in order to trap the Ranger . . . that's gonna end poorly, I imagine. Rivendell lists can certainly pile on the punishment with as well, but unless you're running Noldorin Exiles or Erestor in your list (max of 13 throwing weapons), all you'll have is one-third of your army shooting bows (possibly more if you have Rivendell Knights and Elrond in your list, but your total number of missile weapons is going to be . . . small . . . in that situation).

If shooting is your friend, you can really decimate a Goblin-town army - but since shooting is such a fickle mistress, I had to put this strategy in last place. If you want a bit more oomph out of your shooting and really smash through the enemy, might I recommend . . .

Pick #4: Any Area Effect Siege Engine, but particularly Mordor War Catapult with severed heads (and ideally with Sauron or a Ringwraith of some kind)

There are few things on earth quite as fun as smashing a bunch of poor, unfortunate Goblins with a siege weapon. I mean, those blighters deserve any punishment they get - and when you can wound a 2.5" radius of them with S8-10/S5 hits (wounding everyone on 3s, probably), it just feels good. Whether you're doing this with a Minas Tirith trebuchet or an Iron Hills Ballista, clearing out a whole patch of Goblins is a good feeling.

But the trick is always keeping the Goblins off the siege engine - if the Goblin Scribe is alive and active, you've probably got Goblins swarming the back of your ranks trying to tie up the siege crew or disable the siege engine entirely. These guys can be a real mess to deal with and a royal pain if you get 2+ turns of new Goblins assaulting your rear. This is why my favorite option amongst these siege engines is the Mordor War Catapult - not only do you get a very impressive siege weapon to hurl death and destruction at the enemy, but you also get a Troll to escort the catapult (perfect for getting Barges in to shove the Goblins away from the engine itself, but he can also reliably tear multiple Goblins apart - and can be very difficult to tie down thanks to his Terror).

But the Mordor War Catapult has another trick up its sleeve - it can take the Severed Heads upgrade for 5pts. While wounding everyone on 3s is nice and all, the severed heads will wound the Goblins on 4s and anyone who survives needs to pass a Courage test or flee the field. For an army of C2 guys, this means anyone who's lucky enough to not be killed by the falling heads STILL needs to pass a Courage test in order to survive . . . and that includes the Goblin King, who probably shrugged off whatever wound he suffered from the initial shot (regardless of which type of ammunition was being fired). Since Gollum has no Will points and only a single Might point, it's also very effective against him - though with C4, he's more likely than not going to pass his Courage test . . .

. . . unless there's a Ringwraith or Sauron around who's casting Drain Courage on him. Yes, Sauron with a Mordor War Catapult is probably limited to the upper echelons of points levels (and even then, I'm not sure you'd ever see it), but a utility wraith with a Mordor War Catapult is certainly doable - and a named Ringwraith with a Catapult is more expensive, but if the utility is good, is certainly worth the investment. Any time you can statically reduce someone's Courage (with a spell or for just being nearby), it's going to pay dividends if you've got Severed Heads - and since it's a 5-point upgrade, it's not a hard ask for any commander.

Of course, only two factions and one Legendary Legion can take these catapults (and only a handful of lists have access to other kinds of catapults that don't force courage tests), so we'll turn to something slightly more accessible with . . .

Pick #3: Floi Stonehand (especially with Dwarf Ballistas - or Thorin Oakenshield)

If you've followed this series for any amount of time, you've probably seen Floi already - and if you aren't a Dwarf player, you're probably tired of seeing him. But here's the thing - Floi can shut down several of the mechanics that make the Goblin King good (both in his own profile and in his helpers). If you don't want the Goblin King to be able to two-hand without a penalty, remove his Burly for a turn. If you don't want him stepping through friendly models to reach whatever hero he wants to assassinate, take that rule away instead. If you don't want him to be able to make a 3+ "fat save", then all you have to do is be able to see him . . . it's really not that hard.

But Floi also works against the Goblin King's helpers - if you don't want Grinnah to swap with the Goblin King so the Goblin King gets into an unexpected fight in 1-2 phases, you can remove Grinnah's Swap With Me rule. You can also remove the Goblin Reinforcements rule from the Goblin Scribe if you can see him, which would be a pain for them. You unfortunately cannot make Gollum unarmed and you can't negate the Ring either, but still, you're in a pretty good place if you can keep any of those other rules from coming up.

The removal of the "fat save" is also really useful if you have Dwarf Ballistas - ideally more than one, but even if there's a single ballista, you should be fine. Since a single wound from the ballista will kill the Goblin King, and since he only has 1 actual Fate point, hitting on a 4+, passing any in-the-ways, and then wounding on a 3+ makes the Goblin King one Fate point away from being removed from the board. Chances are good that your Dwarf horde isn't that worried about the heroes on the other side if your foe was running pure Goblin-town, which means we've got Heroic Combats for days . . .

. . . especially if Thorin Oakenshield is around (the Erebor Reclaimed version especially, though the Thorin's Company one is good too). While Floi will be impossible allies with either of these versions of Thorin, bringing along just Thorin and Bombur (160-195pts, depending on the list and your gear configuration) gives you a much stronger army leader than you had before (usually Balin, but you can have Floi alongside a Dwarf King instead). With Orcrist to deal D3 wounds to the Goblin King (and an Elven-made weapon to ignore the "fat save") and Bombur to return Will points to Floi, you're in a really strong position to deal death and carnage to the Goblin King and his friends.

But like any application of Floi, this is probably a niche way of dealing with the Goblin King - and while I wouldn't mind if the meta skewed more towards Khazad-Dum than the Evil Legendary Legions that are currently plaguing the top tables, facing Floi every game wouldn't be much fun. As such, I'm going to put him at third today behind something a bit more universal . . .

Pick #2: The Dead of Dunharrow and Angmar (and any other horde-style, Terror-Harbinger army)

I won't belabor this point - Terror-Harbinger lists have been seen in this series before - but it bears repeating: C2 armies that become C1 armies don't charge very reliably. Yes, there will be some days when those pesky Goblins are getting natural 10-12 rolls to pass their Courage tests, but sometimes they'll struggle to lock anything down. When that happens, you can charge into a handful of guys with overwhelming force, crush them, and slowly draw the numbers game back to a reasonable level.

Angmar is particularly good at this - the Witch-King and any Barrow-Wights in tow are going to make life absolutely MISERABLE for the Goblin King (and Gollum) if they choose to get close enough to engage, while the Orcs are not too much more expensive than the Goblins on the other side (and get the boost to F3 to gain the edge on ties - and the boost to D4 to force the Goblins to Piercing Strike to wound them on 4s . . . which could cause the Orcs to wound on 3s if they win). With Gulavhar or Warg Riders/Wild Wargs able to threaten tucked-away units as well, Goblin-town needs to be able to get an advantage early against most Angmar armies or they're in for a long, hard game.

The other army that you wouldn't think would do well against Goblin-town is a pure Dunharrow army. The Warriors of the Dead are also F3 (barely good enough - but also very efficient that way), and if they were equipped with shields to be D8, they're unlikely to be wounded easily by the Goblins (who should Piercing Strike every fight if they have axes/picks). Since the Warriors of the Dead wound against the Courage of the Goblins (hence why the Goblins should Piercing Strike in every fight - there's literally no penalty for doing so), you'll either wound on 4s if you're out of Harbinger range or 3s if you're within Harbinger range.

Now at 15pts/model when equipped with a shield, you wouldn't think the Dead of Dunharrow would have much of a chance against a Goblin-town army. If the Dead of Dunharrow have chosen to rank-up, you're certainly right - but if they've left most of the spears at home, you can get 40 models at 700pts with these guys - that's a lot of dead guys! Yes, there's probably 90+ models on the other side (I built a 94-model Goblin-town list at 700pts for comparison), but if you're "only" outnumbered 2:1 and you've got Terror/Harbinger affecting most of the Goblins that come at you, I think you could focus your efforts on strategic parts of the battlefield and keep the Goblins at bay. It would be hard, but you could do it.

If you really want to fight the Goblin King, however, we'd best present someone he doesn't want to face, and for that, we have a short list of really good models who fit the category of . . .

Pick #1: Any big hero with an Elven-made weapon and a ringbearer

I think the best place to begin this discussion is with Aragorn - if fielded from the Fellowship, he's got Frodo innately in his list (and picks up Fearless, which is great) but could ally historically with Rivendell and take his friend Old Bilbo Baggins (who is actually 20pts cheaper than Frodo). Aragorn could also be fielded as part of the Breaking of the Fellowship LL, which probably only stands a good chance of beating Goblin-town in the 550pt realm (I almost did it once - in Command the Battlefield, of all scenarios!).

If you want to play with Hobbit lists, many Hobbit-era armies can ally historically or conveniently with Young Bilbo Baggins from Thorin's Company or the "Master Burlgar" Bilbo from Lake-town - the best heroes to do this include Thorin (as discussed above with Floi), Thranduil (who could benefit greatly from cheaper troops - though burlgar Bilbo isn't cheap), and Bard (who has no Elven-made weapon, but otherwise would benefit from the Ring NOT being on the other side of the board). Whether you're running these guys in a Battle of Fives Armies list with a Lake-town contingent or if you're running these with Thorin's Company (probably Lake-town, but you could also do some kind of Impossible Soup alliance)

The all-in-one package is, of course, Isildur, but he comes with a highly restrictive number of lists that he can bring along historically (Rivendell only) or conveniently (the other Elves, the Trees, the Birds, and Tom/Goldberry). Thankfully, Elves of any stripe provide most of what the Numenoreans are lacking (F5-6/D5-6 warriors, stronger bows, warrior cavalry options, big hero to distract from Isildur) and can provide really unique ways to make a Numenorean army better (archery protection/Fate restoration from Galadriel, archery protection/Terror from Cirdan, lethal shooting from Legolas).

Speaking of Elves, running Elrond or Glorfindel with Old Bilbo is a neat trick too - both models have easily-accessible mounted versions (both have two versions, actually) and both can absolutely wreck a battle line. Elrond allows you to bring Rivendell Knights without them counting towards your bow limit (which is an expensive way to get extra bows, but it's still extra bows - on lancer cavalry, no less), while Glorfindel has quite a bit of resilience against archery, magic, and brutal power attacks (and thanks to having Horselord, that immunity extends to Asfaloth as well). Old Bilbo, without any upgrades, is also the cheapest Ringbearer in the game and since he can be run as an Independent Hero in a Rivendell list, you can slot him into a warband full of Elves to make sure he's near the hero he wants to support and protected from being ambushed in a maelstrom mission.

While thematically not canonical, you CAN run Old Bilbo with Gil-Galad - you just won't have your army bonus or your normal historical/convenient alliance options. In a pure Rivendell list that isn't focused on shooting . . . you're not losing anything. While I personally would opt for Glorfindel or Elrond, you can certainly run Gil-Galad with Bilbo if you want (though conversion work for a mounted Gil-Galad model will be required).

Finally, let's talk about Sauron. As I said above in the how-to-fight-back section, I'm not sure that Sauron is the best choice of Ringbearer to counter the Goblin King and Goblin-town (400pts in a single model is pretty steep - and is likely to cut into your numbers quite a bit), but I will say that he is checking a lot of the boxes we want to keep the Goblin King from being effective. With Ancient Evil and the ability to bring Black Numenoreans (9pts/model is a bit of a luxury, but will pay dividends over Orcs), you've got the Terror/Harbinger thing. You've also got the Ring, regardless of who you face - but is particularly good against Goblin-town since charging into Sauron is unlikely to happen (though chucking a Goblin at him is probably a good idea). You've got Chill Soul to slowly grind down the Goblin King's Will/Fate point (no "fat save" for you, bucko) - which is the best spell you can cast against him, since it's a guaranteed wound instead of a Strength X hit. And finally, you've got 24 warriors lots in his warband, so if you're spitting out 5pt Orc Trackers and 6pt Orcs (along with some 9pt Numenoreans), you can get pretty decent numbers if your supporting hero is cheap. You won't be getting Goblin-town numbers (that would be crazy), but you will be getting pretty good numbers, which will hopefully give you the edge if you've leaned hard enough into Terror with your warriors.

Okay, let's wrap this up and look at some lists!

Sample Lists

We're going to start off with a Floi list because I can't help myself. So far in this series, we've seen Floi/Dwarf King allied conveniently with Arnor and Floi/Dwarf King allied impossibly with Balin/Bombur from Thorin's Company (and I tested a list with Balin/Floi/King's Champion allied with Radagast, Thorin's Company Thorin/Bombur), but today, we're looking at an impossible alliance between Erebor Reclaimed and Khazad-Dum. It's a 46-model list at 800pts, which might have problems in the breaking department, since we don't have any banners and we have more than two Erebor Reclaimed units, but know that you could drop in a Dwarf Captain and 12 more 9-point Khazad-Dum Dwarves if you don't want the 14 Iron Hills Dwarves in your list (you'd lose 1 model, get more Might, but lose all the spears):

• Balin the Dwarf, King of Moria
• 6 Dwarf Warriors with shields
  
• 6 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes
• 5 Dwarf Rangers with bows
  
• Floi Stonehand
• 6 Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 5 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows
  
• IMPOSSIBLE ALLY - Erebor Reclaimed: Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain on war goat with Orcrist [AL]
• 7 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
  
• IMPOSSIBLE ALLY - Bombur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 7 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
  

800 points, 46 models, 5 Dwarf bows hitting on a 4+ AND 5 bows hitting on a 3+ AND 5 throwing axes hitting on a 3+, 35 D6+ models, 1 cavalry and 3 Might for Heroic March, 9 Might

For our second list, I wanted to probe what you could do by leaning into the shooting game hard - and while there are lots of lists I could have looked at (such as a 71-model Druadan list, a 54-model Corsair list, and a 44-model Rangers of Ithilien list), I opted to show off one of my favorite lists - and one that requires a lot of skill-cap to use well: a Wood Elf Warrior-heavy Lothlorien-Rivendell alliance! Yep, this list has throwing weapons everywhere and tons of S3 bows and Elven-made weapons to go around! We've got some armored guys (most of our bowmen), so if we need to hide behind someone, we can just spear-support these guys (or spread out to force the Goblins to spread their diminished ranks as well)! I'm not going to say that this list is going to have an easier time than other lists at beating Goblin-town, but I will say that if 2-4 Goblins straggle onto the board edge behind you, they're likely to die to any throwing daggers you have on your spearmen . . . so ambushing behind is very unlikely to work out well for the Goblin player.

• Galadriel [ARMY LEADER]
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• 6 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
• 5 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
• 1 Wood Elf Warrior with throwing daggers, Wood Elf spear, and banner
  
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 2 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
  
• 2 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
  
• 2 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows
  
• HISTORICAL ALLY - Rivendell: Gildor Inglorion
• 4 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• 4 Noldorin Exiles with throwing daggers
• 4 Noldorin Exiles with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
  

700 points, 39 models, 13+1 Elf bows hitting on a 3+ AND 24 throwing daggers hitting on a 3+, 1 D6+ model, 9 fast infantry and 1 Might for Heroic March, 7 Might

Our final list is a Sauron list at 700 points and it has a rather impressive 32 models (considering it has Sauron in it and all). As I said above, this army ticks off a lot of the boxes we had in our wishlist - magical damage from not one but two casters, Terror-Harbinger to make charging our ranks difficult, and lots of archery (though we've only got S2 bows). 32 models will likely be outnumbered somewhere between 2:1 and 3:1, but if we hedge up our army somewhere behind Sauron (not leaving our flanks exposed to new Goblins that will invariably arrive), we can force our opponent to have to deal with Sauron in order to break us (assuming they can chop through the Black Numenoreans we've brought).

• The Dark Lord Sauron [ARMY LEADER]
• 6 Black Numenoreans
• 5 Orc Warriors with spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with spear and banner
• 6 Orc Trackers
  
• Ringwraith with 2M/7W/1F
• 5 Black Numenoreans
• 5 Orc Warriors with spears
• 2 Orc Trackers
  

700 points, 32 models, 8 Orc bows hitting on a 4+, 13 D6+ models, no fast models but 2 Might for Heroic March, 5 Might

Conclusion

Well, that wraps up this series - for now. Rest assured, we'll return to this series in the new year after we've revisited some of our other series. In December, we're abandoning our usual programming in order to do something fun - I can't WAIT to reveal it to you guys! Be watching this space on Friday, December 1^st for the big reveal, and until next time, happy hobbying!

1 many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, <takes breath> many, many, many, many, many, many, many, . . .