Like a green tide flowing over the Warhammer World, the Orc and Goblin tribes rampage through the Badlands, drawing Trolls and Giants into their wake. Meanwhile, Normadic Warbosses assemble a force of mounted riders to pillage and burn the Border Princes.

Warhammer The Old World exploded onto the scene this January, and with it came the first two Arcane Journals – Today the Arcane Journal Orc & Goblin Tribes is up for pre order, offering new play styles, units and characters to Old World players.

In this review we’ll be taking a look at everything that is included in the new book, how the new Armies of Infamy work and if this book is worth picking up if you are looking to put together your own Orc Waaagh!

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a free early review copy to have a look at on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not order your Old World supplies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

So before we jump into the book, what is an Arcane Journal?

Essentially, this is a tome that expands upon the content in Ravening Hordes in order to add new units, new magic items and new characters in addition to offering two new Armies of Infamy – these are alternate army construction options that change what units sit in which “slot” and offer new ways of playing the army. In addition to this the first half of the book contains lore about the Orcs and Goblins.

Is it essential? Nope – you can play Orcs & Goblins just fine by using the standard army list, but you do miss out on a lot of cool extras if you do skip on the book!

So let’s dive into the book and take a look at what is included.

The Lore

Much like the old Warhammer Armies books, the first section of the Arcane Journal covers the lore of the Orcs and Goblins – now as this is only a 48 page softback we dont quite get as much info as we did in those old books, but what is included is great!

We learn about the Badlands during the time of the setting of The Old World and what is found there, with locations touched on that will probably get discussed more in the Dwarf Arcane Journal as I suspect that will quickly follow this one.

We also get some gorgeous artwork and illustrations that capture some of that Old World charm (A lot of this is reused from previous editions, but it all still stands up today)

The bulk of the Lore section however is some new information about Goblin Warboss Kilnik Toofscratcha and his Waaagh across the Border Princes. This is accompanied with a nice double page map showing the tribes attacks, and also a really nice narrative scenario that recreases the Ambush at Winter’s Teeth Pass.

As a narrative player I love to see this kind of content, especially when it captures the vibe of the lore. In this scenario a Dwarfen trade caravan is trying to move 3 Goods Carts off the board while the Normadic Waaagh Army of Infamy tries to destroy them. What’s cool here is that the defender takes a core force of 1000 points of Dwarfs accompanied by 1500 points of Empire to represent their mercenary escort company. The Orcs and Goblins take 2500 points from the new Army of Infamy led by Kilnik himself. There’s some nice touches to the scenario too, such as the fact that the battlefield is snow covered other than the road that runs across the board from east to west, unless infantry are on the road they cannot march

After the usual miniatures showcase (featuring most of the returning and new models) we get to the rules content, starting off with the Armies of Infamy

Armies of Infamy

Normadic Waaagh!

The first of two sub lists in the book is the Normadic Waaagh – this is a fully mounted army that benefits big blocks of wolf riders and boars supported by other fast units such as Black Orc Chariots (New to this book) and mounted characters.

With the focus on mounted units you are not able to take anything on foot (Except mercenary Badlands Ogres and a Bonegrinder – more on these later), but your mounted units get a lot of benefits in return. Firstly, wolf rider units and characters get access to Ambushers, which is great for getting them behind other units.

In addition, Wolf Riders can choose to gain Close Order and Horde which when combined with the above can put a big rank bonus and combat resolution in a key place

It’s not just the Wolves that get all the fun however, all models on War Boars gain impact hits with AP -1, and a single unit can be given vanguard too, giving them a decent push up the board at the start of the game.

Troll Horde

The other list in the book is the Troll Horde, which unsurprisingly allows you to put together an army of Trolls! This unlocks Troll Hags as a Character choice (Non Troll Horde armies take them as rare) You also get 1 unit of Trolls as a core choice per 1000 points, and can take an additional unit as core for each Troll Hag you take. Any more trolls you want after that come out of your Special allowance – which allows for a heck of a lot of trolls in an army! You’re not limited to just them though, and to allow for any Stupidity mishaps it’s probably worth taking some other units too – Orcs, Goblins, Spider Riders and wolf Riders can all be taken as core, with Chariots, and Boar Boys filling special and Giants in rare giving you a lot of options – like the other list they can also take Badlands Ogres and Bonegrinders as Mercs.

For characters Warbosses, bosses and casters of all flavours can be taken and here’s some decent perks to be had for taking the Troll Horde – firstly regeneration Saves against non-magical sources can be rerolled, which is very poweful, and secondly Trolls can use the leadership of Orc Shamans, Goblin Shamans or Troll Hags that they are within command range of. This makes it a pretty good idea to have a few blocks of Orcs with a Shamen hanging nearby to make your Trolls much more reliable. In adition, all your casters also get access to a new spell lore – the Lore of Troll Magic

Lore of Troll Magic

Whats exciting is that this is a full Lore with 6 spells and a signature spell, and these spells really compliment the play style of the Troll Horde, The signature for example allows you to reroll failed stupidly tests within command distance, another gives units with Stupidity +2 movement. In order to give your non Troll units some defense, Rapid Regeneration gives a target unit Flammable and Regen 5+ which is really nice to stick on your Shamen bunker of Orcs. Theres also a couple of offensive spells that work really well at thining out larger units that may give you a problem with rank bonus too – a template based magic missile, a flame spell and a vortex that all hit at AP-2

New Units

As with the previous Arcane Journals, the Orcs and Goblins get access to a number of new units and characters in the new book. In addition we also get our first two Dogs of War units for The Old World that can be taken as mercenaries in other armies!

Kiknik Toofsnatcha

First up we have the character introduced in the lore earlier, Kiknik Toofsnatcha. Kiknik is a Goblin warboss mounted on his trusty giant wolf Chompa, and he’s pretty good for a cheap character – as you would imagine he synergises quite well with wolf based armies, giving one unit Ambushers for free and can choose to apply a +1/-1 modifier for when they arrive too, giving him a lot of control to when they show up.

If he joins a unit of Wolf Riders he gives them Fear and +1 combat result in the first round of combat, and also after winning a round of combat can opt to fall back in good order that than following up, stopping him from being drawn into fights he doesnt want to be involved with yet.

He also hits pretty hard in combat with his weapon Da Skull Smasha which he can use for in one of two ways – Hammer, which is S+2 (6), -1 AP, Armour Bane 2 and magical attacks, or Pick with is S (4), -2 AP, Multiple Wounds (2) Armour Bane 2 and magical attacks. The high AP from a lowly Goblin may throw some people off who arent expecting him to hit quite as hard as that.

Ogdruz Swampdigga

Next we have a character that fits nicely into your Troll Horde, an Orc Weirdnob who is disguised as a Troll! Wearing a really convincing outfit consisting of a Troll’s carcass draped over him, Ogdruz has managed to convince the Trolls that he is one of them, and has started to draw upon their inate magic and regenerative abilities.

He’s a level 3 Wizard with access to Elementism and Troll Magic, and get’s a +1 to cast if he is near a unit of Trolls with a unit strength of 6+

He also has the same rule seem in the Troll Horde where he allows Trolls within his command range to use his leadership for stupidity, and making that a little easier he can’t be targeted while he is within 3″ of a troll unit.

Due to his time with the Trolls he gains Regeneration (And Flammable) and every wound he causes in combat he restores a wound – S6 at AP1 (And Choppas) makes him pretty good in combat if someone does try to take him out that way

I really like this guy, as you get some of the benefits of making Trolls better in a normal army, and is a decent choice as your caster in the army of infamy too.

Troll Hag

Returning to the Arcane Journal is the Troll Hag, who can be taken as a character in a Troll Horde, or as a 0-1 rare choice in a normal army.

Shes a level 1 caster who can take Battle Magic or Troll Magic, and can be boosted to level 2.

Despite only having 3 attacks, she’s got some interesting combat abilities. In the Command Phase if anything in combat with her the unit has to pass an initiative test or lose a wound, and then in combat she works a bit like a giant- she can opt to give up all her attacks to roll on a chart to do one of three effects – 1) place a large blast template over the target unit and hitting everything covered at S6 and Ap-2, which is insanely good, 2) Pick a model and deal D3+1 wounds with no saves or regen allowed, or 3)Deal D6+1 hits at S6 to the target with no saves or regen allowed, and reduce the unit’s leadership by 1.

I can see her being really nasty to face, especially in a Troll Horde where you can take multiple Hags!

Black Orc Boar Chariots

Introduced for the Nomadic army are Black Orc Chariots – These take everything that is good about a standard chariot and make it better, better WS, better S , better save, furious charge and the option for Great Weapons or two hand weapons – They cant be taken in units, but do get the option of a banner for some combat res bonus. While they are a rare choice for Nomadic armies, you also unlock one as core if you take a Black Orc general, and your Black Orc characters can take one as a mount too

Badlands Ogre Bulls

Our first Dogs of War unit is introduced in this book – something that I believe is not only getting expanded in future books, but also bundled with some of the returning units. This is really cool and leaves the door open for a lot of old favourites coming back, even if they are not in the Arcane Tome.
The Ogres can be taken by any Grand Army as part of their Merc allowence, and they basically mirror the profile for the legacy Ogre Bulls, with the exception that the Merc ones get Motley Crew, so can have a mixed loadout of weapons.

Bonegrinder Giants

The second Dogs of War unit, and one that can be taken by Orcs & Goblins, Warriors of Chaos and Beastmen. These are basically a standard giant dialed up to 11 with S7 and 8 wounds, but coming in at 100 points more than a vanilla one.

Just like the normal giant the attacks are random, but the chart changes depending on if it is facing “little things”, “big things” or “bigger things” which is a nice way of making sure that infantry are hit with the horde killers, while bigger things take big spikes of damage. A lot of these are variations on the attacks that the regular giant has, but hitting a lot stronger. For example “Crush Underfoot” which can hit everything smaller than a heavy chariot, monstrous creature or behemoth placed a large blast template over the unit and deals everything hit at Strength 7 and AP 2, while Wallop (which only hits heavy chariots, monstrous creatures and behemoths) does a single attach at Strength 10 and AP4 dealing 2D3 wounds – yes, some of these are very swingy, and yes you have the random element of the chart, but when the stars align these Bonegrinders are going to hurt!

Magic Items

Like with the Bretonnian and Tomb Kings books, the new Arcane Journal also has a host of Magic Items available for every Orc army. There’s a range of gear at different price points from the Backstabber’s Blade which allows rerolls of hits and wounds if you’re in the rear arc of the enemy, to the Bigger Choppier Ace which is S+2, AP2 and Killing Blow

For those that want to make a Black Orc general really hard to kill you could give them the Dead ‘Ard Armour which is a suit of Plate that increases their toughness by 1, or if you want to turn off the downsides to Impetuous then you can take Da Think’ Orc’s ‘At which increases Initiative by 1 and makes any unit they join not subject to Imperuous

There’s lots of stuff here, and like with the other Arcane Journals so far it really opens up the magic item options for your armies.

Summary

The Old World is going from strength to strength, and with the new Orc and Goblin Tribes Arcane Journal (And associated model releases) another whole faction is now available to hit the battlefields of the Warhammer World.

While we’d all like the releases to come out quicker and stay in stock longer, this is a good sign that the game has been well received and will be getting decent support going forwards. there’s a large number of factions to have books and model releases, and it was never going to be feasible for Games Workshop to be able to re-release everything at once.

I’m already excitedly scribbling down new army lists, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the next few releases

Orcs & Goblins Arcane Journal is up for pre order today and is released on Saturday 6th April

games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free copy for review purposes,

Published by Matt Crowther

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