Hello dear readers, and welcome to another segment of our Army List Spotlight! If you’re just tuning in, every Sunday in September we will pick an army list from competitive events worldwide and get three Dash28 writers’ thoughts on that list. This is a great chance to see a variety of tournament lists from events and to get some expert, or at least relatively informed, opinions on those lists.
Check out the first two articles in this series:
This Week: Goblins!
This week’s list is from the recent Clash of Kings UK in Nottingham, the largest Kings of War tournament to date with 148 players. With so many players from around the world competing, we were truly spoiled for choice of army lists to review, and we settled on a fun Goblins list by Tom King.
Download Tom’s list for yourself, or any of the other 147 lists from the event, here.
Jake’s Thoughts
What Stands Out about This List?
My first thoughts are wow, 20 drops is awesome! Then I look more and think holy crap, that is a TON of Mincers. I think the thing that stands out most to me is how much potential hitting power this list brings to the table.
What are the Core Units?
Mincer and Mincer Mobs are the core of the list for sure. But I think the shooting it has with the Wiz, three War Trombones, Groany Snark, etc. all combine to give enough firepower to take off chaff or put a few important points of damage onto threats.
The most obvious units that define how the list plays are the three Mincer Mobs and three individual Mincers. At close to 1,000 points, these choices really defines what else the army needs. What I really like is how much adding a Mincer to a Mincer Mob charge helps the math for breaking units in one go. Between that and the spattering of shooting, this Goblin list is going to be taking some stuff off the table when it connects!
Additional shoutout to the Magwa’ns — cheap and able to be thrown away in a pinch, I think this unit adds a lot to the list. With Nimble and Wild Charge D3 it can seek flanks, and with all the rest in the list, I don’t think it will draw much fire from enemy shooting. Twelve attacks on 3s is ok, but 24 is great!
Army Strengths
Redudancy has to be this list’s biggest strength. You can’t point to one thing, blast it off, and spoil the army’s chances. Pretty much everything other than the characters is in multiples of three, and the characters all play similar roles.
Between that and the number of drops, I think this list can react to opponents’ deployment when it needs to while still being certain it can get some good charges off.
Between tons of units, Unit Strength, and Nerve, I bet it does very well in most scenarios too!
Army Weaknesses
Sustained combat is going to be a problem. Without Bane Chant in the list, the Brew of Strength unit and Alchemist’s Curse are the list’s main answers to tanky Defense 6 units. If the Mincers go in and flub a roll, while they have Big Shield, -/16 can still go fast, particularly if something can get in the flank.
The list is also slow, and it doesn’t have long-range shooting to make up for it. I could see alpha strike, particularly alpha strike with some decent shooting (Elves for instance) really causing this list problems. Once a horde of Rabble or two is killed, it becomes much harder for the Mincer Mobs to pick their charges.
What Would You Change?
I think I would find a way to work in a Winggit or two; that extra fast chaff could do wonders to help negate some alpha strike. I’d probably drop Magwa & Jo’os as I think the list could do more with that 150 points.
Chris’ Thoughts
Man I hate Goblins. Their lists always seem to just keep going, and going, and going… Facing twenty drops really helps you to think seriously about your deployment though, as the Goblin player is basically just watching you deploy your entire army — don’t bother with any sneaky misdirection, just pick your focus and go.
What Stands Out about This List?
I love the Mincers in this list. Three solos and three mobs are a great commitment to what I’ve often thought is the Snotling Pumpwagon’s spiritual successor. Mincer Mobs are fantastic units, ranking up there with Dwarf Steel Behemoths for incredulous responses to the number of attacks — d6 + what now!?
What are the Core Units?
The Mincers are the defining units, but the Rabble and War Trombones are very much core as well. The Rabble will help ensure the Mincers get into combat where they’re wanted, and sometimes into flanks — d6+21×2, we’re basically doing high school algebra now — and the War Trombones are blasting whatever poor units thought they did a thing by breaking a Rabble horde.
Army Strengths
Drops for certain, followed by the Goblin advantage of everything being cheap enough to be expendable. Mincer Mobs will catch you off guard if you haven’t played against them before, as well; they have a bewildering number of attacks, and Big Shield plus plentiful Rabble keeps them relatively safe from shooting.
War Trombones are super cheap, super deadly units that are difficult to deal with — not many armies have the spare units available to deal with all three in a turn, and each one you don’t kill will be torching your units and blocking charges the following turn.
Army Weaknesses
This list is relatively low on Unit Strength (for Goblins!). Twenty-six US is manageable, especially when more than half of it is Rabble. It’s also a bit light on shooting for a Goblin list, making it potentially susceptible to long-range shooting or alpha strike lists, depending on the Rabbles’ use.
What Would You Change?
I feel that this list would benefit greatly from one or two Slashers with the Trombone upgrade. Not only are you adding some range to the list, but the Nerve and Unit Strength of Slashers are tough to deal with combined with the general trashiness of Goblins. Their relatively small footprint also seems a great fit for the Mincers here, and they bring a small, but heavy-hitting, terrain mitigation element. I’d drop Magwa’ns and some items, probably the Knowledgable upgrade, to get at least one, and I’d look hard at how to fit a second in I think.
Tom’s Thoughts
What Stands Out about This List?
I can tell this player is trying to doing something with Goblins other than the hyper-efficient Rabble hordes plus tasty unlocks that has been a thorn in the side of many opponents. Leaning into Mincer Mobs and Mincers is certainly unique and I am sure super cool looking on the table. I also do not think I have ever seen anyone run the Magwa pair together in the same list. Love it.
What are the Core Units?
The Rabble hordes plus the six Mincer units are the first core battlegroup. I imagine this player puts the Rabble on the front line and then runs the Mincer Mobs as a devastating second wave, with the Mincers in the gaps between the Rabble hordes. That group plus the horrifying short range shooting battery (three War Trombones and an Inspiring Banggit AND an Alchemist’s Curse wizard, all run together if this player is smart) forms the core of this list.
Army Strengths
This is a very defensive army. Rabble are the most points-efficient defensive unit in the game with their extremely cheap Defense 4 combined with horde-level nerve. And even if you chew through the Rabble, you are faced with the prospect of attempting to damage Defense 6 to the front Mincer units. This is not an easy army to fight head on because of the combination of these two types of great defensive units.
There is also the traditional Goblin strength of the short range killbox, which is built well in this list.
Army Weaknesses
The army is extremely slow and not very maneuverable. Sure, it’s difficult to punch this list efficiently in the face, but at least the opponent will (almost) always be punching first. Scenarios such as Invade could be difficult to win if the first point of contact is on the Goblins’ side of the board, and this list is never challenging your ‘home’ objectives sitting in or near your deployment zone. It just is not fast enough to do that.
Another big issue in the list is the complete lack of long-range shooting to force opposing armies to engage with the Mincer or Trombone killboxes. Opponents will happily sit back plinking wounds unmolested for multiple turns, or maneuver to game-winning positions or get devastating charge angles, with only Groany Snark available to attempt to prevent this.
Finally, I respect the Mincer theme but the support pieces are wrong. The AC wiz is unnecessary. The points would be better spent to get two Bane Chants to buff the Mincer Mobs when needed — one on the Wiz and the other via the Flagger with the Lute of Insatiable Darkness.
What Would You Change?
Every army could really use a speed element to contest objectives or zones on the opponent’s side of the board. This army has nothing to do that — adding in some Winggits or the Goblin cavalry formation would do wonders for this list’s scenario potential.
Two bane chants added as discussed above is necessary.
Finally, the list would be much better balanced by swapping the War Trombones for longer range War Engines like Mawpup Launchers or Big Rocks Throwers. This list has all the short-range killing power you could ever want between the Mincer units and the War Trombone and friends battery, but it feels like the list almost leans too much into that.
A few faster units to play scenarios better and a few longer range shooting options would help this Mincer-themed list win a lot more games.
Wrap Up
Tom placed 66/148 players with this list at Clash of Kings UK with three wins and losses each and killed 9,520 out of the total 13,800 points he faced over the weekend. What do you think of the list, and what would you like to see changed?
If you have suggestions for future army list reviews, please feel free to comment below — we’d love to hear from you!
