Orcs & Goblins
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| Orcs & Goblins | |
 Seventh edition |
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| Author | Matthew Ward, et al. |
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| Cover artist | Alex Boyd |
| Series | Warhammer Armies |
| Genre(s) | Wargaming |
| Publisher | Games Workshop |
| Publication date | 2006 |
| ISBN | 1841547859 |
Orcs & Goblins is a supplemental book for the Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop game. The phrase "orcs & goblins" also refers collectively to all of the races that are described in this book, which includes other "greenskins" as well. The book includes background information, illustrations, and game rules for these races.
Contents |
[edit] Stories
Orcs & Goblins contains a number of short stories that provide an illustrative history of the Orcs. These stories center around the formation of Waaagh!s and the resulting campaigns.
[edit] Gorbad
Gorbad Ironclaw and his tribe, the Ironclaw Orcs, absorb the Broken Tooth tribe along with the local Goblin and Night Goblin tribes, forming Gorbad. The tribe marches through Black Fire Pass to attack the Empire under the Emperor Sigismund. Gorbad's army conquers the territories of Solland and Wissenland, but Gorbad himself is wounded in the fighting. At the fortress of Altdorf, the Waaagh! is kept at bay outside the city walls. Gorbad unleashes Wyverns upon the city, who throw the defenders into disarray but are ultimately repelled without achieving their main function, which was to destroy the city gates. Eventually, the lack of progress and Gorbad's injury take their toll on morale, and the tribe subsides and disbands. The remnants of Gorbad's tribe are ambushed and defeated on their way home by a Dwarf army under the King Karaz-a-Karak. It is not known if Gorbad survived the encounter.
[edit] Orcs
Orcs are large, stupid creatures with long arms and short legs, like gorillas. Huge slabs of muscle move under tough green skin, and their jaws are lined with vicious fangs that jut out from their underbite. They have beady red eyes, a generally foul demeanor, and are naturally bald. Normally six feet tall, they are up to seven feet tall when stretched out of their characteristic stoop. They respect power and strength, and naturally tend towards becoming bigger and stronger as they rise through their society. While they lack the education of more advanced races, Orcs possess immense cunning and are quick learners, but rarely adopt new tactics to replace their fondness for close quarters brutality.
Black Orcs were originally created by the Chaos Dwarves to use as slaves, but have since rebelled and found a place in regular Orc armies. They are even bigger, stronger and meaner than regular Orcs, and so tend towards command roles. They are not above forming their own units though. Though other Orcs tend to look down on Black Orc intelligence, Black Orcs are, if not smarter, at the very least more well-organized. They are above the petty infighting (called Animosity in-game) that happens in most tribes and settle their differences with other Greenskins with orderly head-butting contests. Being the largest of Orcs and having an air of authority, Black Orcs confiscate large amounts of the heaviest armour from the camp and march to battle carrying a variety of weapons (which they call Choppaz).
Savage Orcs are a different culture of orcs; their tribes have a stone-age level of development, and are even more shamanistic and savage than their regular Orc cousins. They are most well known for riding giant boars into combat, and paint their bodies with magical tribal designs which provide them with some level of supernatural protection. In game, this gives them a 6+ Ward saving throw on a six sided die.
[edit] Goblins
Goblins are much smaller and skinnier than the Orcs and have long, pointed noses. They are between 4 and 5 feet high, seldom reaching the height of a man. Goblins are more common than orcs, and deceitful to a fault. They prefer attacking their opponents in the back or from a safe distance. When pressed into battle Goblins seek safety in numbers, attacking in large mobs. They are afraid of Elves because they "stink funny."
Goblins tend to be bossed around by orcs because they are smaller and weaker, but the Goblins outsmart their larger cousins when trading scavenged goods.
- Common Goblins - are, like the common Orcs, the most numerous of the Goblin kind
- Night Goblins - inhabit underground places and hate to go out during the day
- Forest Goblins - are a goblinoid group at a primitive level like Savage Orcs, living in the Southlands
Hobgoblins are a race of large goblins living out on the Eastern Steppes where they are ruled by Khans and fight in huge wolf-mounted hordes. They are so underhanded that normal Greenskins refuse to have dealings with them but are used by the Chaos Dwarfs.
[edit] Snotlings
Snotlings are smaller and weaker than goblins; about half their height, although there is no set point where a large snotling becomes a small goblin, or vice versa. They are far less intelligent than goblins and can do little except in imitation of others. They congregate on the edges of greenskin villages,hunting(and being hunted by) squigs, although they are often too terrified to approach these strange creatures. In battle, they usually gather in large swarms that are too stupid to know when they're beaten. Sometimes they manage to cobble together examples of the infamous snotling pump wagon; a gigantic, uncontrollable wrecking machine. To Orcs, as long as they're smaller than themselves, they're all just weedy little "grotz" to be bossed around.
[edit] Gnoblars
Gnoblars were not well known to the Old World until expeditions from the Ogre Kingdoms became commonplace. They serve as "pets" who are used to scavenge battlefields and carry luggage. Gnoblars are between normal goblins and snotlings in size and hence hierarchy.
[edit] Reproduction
Little is known about how orcs and goblins reproduce. No females are mentioned in the main orc background texts; though this is not uncommon across the armies described in Warhammer, there are no female orc models in the current range of miniatures. In the Blood Bowl game, Orc cheerleaders appear to be female, but Blood Bowl's style is a largely tongue-in-cheek and the game is considerred non-canonical[citation needed].
One possibility is that the Orcs and Goblins reproduce in the same way as the Orks in Warhammer 40,000- this hypothesis is supported by the description in the Warhammer Rulebook of the Orcs and Goblins coming to the Warhammer World by means of their "insidious spores". However, since they only inhabit certain regions of the Warhammer Fantasy world the spore theory is lacking.
Games Workshop has refused to comment on any speculation about similarities between Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000. The ambiguity surrounding greenskin reproduction can therefore be considered the "official" position, and any speculation remains simply that.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official Orcs & Goblins site
- Orc and Goblin Warpath site (Including Thriving Community)
- Interview with author Mat Ward
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