Orcs & Goblins Tier List The Old World

Orcs & Goblins have one of the biggest unit rosters in the game, if not the biggest. But does that mean they have lots of different competitive options? If you look at the lists from the 2026 World Championship, or even the 2025 lists, you’ll notice they’re practically clones of each other. So, if that’s all we have to go on, you could say no.

Either way, I’ve played plenty of Orcs & Goblins, and I think we do have a lot of options if you’re looking for a solid list that can win games without squeezing every last bit of power out of it.

Orcs & Goblins is one of those army books that lets you field a wide variety of troops without feeling like you’re throwing those points straight in the trash and playing with fewer points than your opponent.

It’s probably one of the healthiest armies in the game when it comes to list building, if not the healthiest. You can play almost every unit without feeling like an idiot for taking something useless and wasting your points, which can happen with other armies—for example, when you take K’daai Fireborn in Chaos Dwarfs.

I really like that, and honestly, even though the new magic items from Arcane Journal: The River of Bones are about to change the meta, it doesn’t matter. Orcs will always have good, useful options to adapt their lists. Fun ones, too: Orc units have that random streak we’ve also seen in Skaven, without becoming bad or a nightmare to play.

I wish this were Games Workshop’s general approach, instead of creating units just to fill a slot: names that have to appear on a list of options, even though they aren’t really options at all.

Orc Warboss, Night Goblin, and Squig in a classic Warhammer The Old World illustration

Orcs & Goblins Tier List

Like I said, this happens in plenty of other armies. And I’m not just talking about Legacy armies, but also armies like High Elves, which have lots of units that are absolute garbage in the current meta. They’re not just bad; they’re expensive, too: the elite infantry, Shadow Warriors, or even the Flamespyre Phoenix. You just can’t make them work.

Here’s my tier list, based entirely on my own judgment and focused specifically on competitive play.

Important: this tier list is exclusively for the Orc & Goblin Tribes Grand Army. I’m not talking about the Troll Horde or the Nomadic Waaagh!.

Night Goblin Mob, the best unit in Warhammer Old World

Night Goblins are ridiculously good because they’re cheap and have Warband. Despite their low Leadership, they don’t have too much trouble taking tests: they add their rank bonus, which goes up to +3 thanks to Horde rather than the usual +2.

I’m assuming we’re taking plenty of them, usually 30, so we can put three Fanatics in each unit, since you can only include one for every ten Goblins. Fanatics don’t give your opponent their points when they die unless the entire Night Goblin unit is destroyed. It’s absolutely fantastic.

You can run them with shortbows, but we usually play them with hand weapons and shields to help them last a little longer in combat, especially thanks to Parry. At three points each, they’re a real gem. Also, unlike their daytime cousins, they don’t have Impetuous, and that makes a huge difference.

Doom Diver Catapult, the best non-Cathayan war machine in Old World

The Doom Diver Catapult is a catapult that lets you redirect the shot. Also, if it can’t see the enemy, it scatters less than it normally would.

It’s great for blasting the usual Dragon-mounted characters and other targets on big bases. It’s especially satisfying against Chaos and Khemri Dragons: their bases are practically the size of a paella pan, and you almost always hit them. It’s really hard to miss.

Either way, if the shot scatters too far and you have line of sight to the target, this catapult lets you move the impact point in any direction based on your dice roll.

That same ability to redirect the shot also makes it useful for firing straight at enemy war machines, especially when several of them are clustered together. The center of the template has extremely high Strength and Multiple Wounds, so you’re probably taking something out.

And at 95 points, it’s a steal. It’s much cheaper than a Dwarf cannon, and it’s also cheaper than a Chaos Dwarf rocket launcher, which is far less powerful.

Night Goblin characters, the most commonly fielded characters in Old World

I’m including the following characters here: Night Goblin Warboss, Night Goblin Bigboss, Night Goblin Oddnob, and Night Goblin Oddgit. They’re in A tier simply because they let you include Night Goblins. For each Night Goblin character, you can take a Night Goblin Mob, along with other options from this part of the army, including Mangler Squigs or Squig Hoppers.

Either way, these characters are very cheap, they don’t have Impetuous, and the Wizards dispel just like any other Wizard (because they’re Wizards 🙂 ).

The fighting characters can go on foot or ride a Giant Cave Squig, which I find really interesting. I really like using them almost like light cavalry. Since we have to take them to include what we actually want—the Night Goblin Mobs—we might as well give them another job.

The Giant Cave Squig has Random Movement (3D6). That means it never marches. Its rider can therefore use items with Bound Spells, such as the ring that casts Fireball, after completing its full move: since it hasn’t marched, it can still cast Magic Missiles.

You could also use the new 25-point item that casts Doombolt, although that’s less appealing because Doombolt is a crap spell.

As for the Wizards, it depends a bit on how much magic you want. They have Itchy Nuisance as a signature spell, whose main appeal is reducing the enemy unit’s Toughness by D3. A D3 reduction in Toughness is huge. The problem is that a Level 1 Wizard struggles to cast it because the casting value is very high. Still, it’s good to know you’ll have a very strong spell available.

On the other hand, if you want higher-level Wizards, you have access to Waaagh! Magic and Illusion. Personally, a lot of the spells in these lores don’t seem all that appealing for characters on foot.

Orc Weirdnob and Orc Weirdboy, magic spam in the 2026 meta

These guys are here mainly because there’s a list that spams them and uses Elementalism and signature spells to throw out an absurd number of Magic Missiles. They’re very cheap and move around the table using the Elementalism movement spell that teleports the entire unit up to 12 inches from its starting position (all the Wizards have to join the same unit).

Beyond that, I don’t like them.

They do get +1 to cast if they’re in a unit made up entirely of Orcs, without any Goblins, with Unit Strength 10 or higher. That’s very easy to achieve because Orcs are actually pretty cheap.

That list also loads up on magic items. Personally, I find it very boring, but that doesn’t stop it from being useful in certain matchups: it spams lots of Magic Missiles with low casting values, backed up by that +1 to cast.

Goblin Oddnob, one of the most useful and cheapest Wizards in Old World

The Goblin Oddnob gives you access to Elementalism, which has good Magic Missiles and good movement spells.

He’s also a very cheap character, and you can put him on a Goblin Wolf Chariot. That’s interesting because it increases his Toughness, Movement, and Wounds, and the chariot is very cheap as well.

Keep in mind that the chariot has Firing Platform, so he can cast his Magic Missiles with a 360-degree arc of vision.

Black Orc Warboss, the strongest Orcs & Goblins character

The Black Orc Warboss is one of the go-to characters to put on a Wyvern.

He normally has a 3+ armor save, Regeneration (5+), and either a 5+ or 6+ Ward Save, depending on which magic items are still available. If the protective talisman isn’t already taken and you want to give it to him, he can get that 5+. But if another model is using it, people usually take the ten-point shield, which is extremely common and gives a 6+ Ward Save against non-magical attacks.

One advantage is his Weapon Skill 7; he’s the only Orc who gets that high. He also has Leadership 9, which is very nice.

At the same time, though, I think he has some major drawbacks compared with a regular Orc Warboss. The first is that he doesn’t get to reroll charges with Warband. That’s a pretty big limitation when you’re trying a long charge, because without Warband, you probably won’t want to risk it very often.

He also forces you to take a Black Orc unit, even if it’s only five models. That indirectly makes the character more expensive if you weren’t planning to include Black Orcs in the first place.

You can also give him a different mount or, thanks to the new magic items from late 2026 in Arcane Journal: The River of Bones, run him on foot with the 50-point item that gives him Ethereal and Fly.

There’s something to keep in mind whenever you run an Orc character on his own: Waaagh! feels underwhelming, because rerolling 1s to hit only benefits the character rather than a whole unit. That’s the appeal of putting him on a chariot or a boar so he can join a unit of riders, for example, and increase the damage output of the entire unit.

Orc Warboss, underrated for how good he is

Unlike his Black Orc counterpart, this guy has Warband. So even on a Wyvern, he can reroll charges. With Swiftstride, even on a maximum-range charge, you have a decent chance of making it because you roll three dice and discard one. It gets much more reliable when you can reroll a failed charge, too.

Keep in mind that he has Weapon Skill 6, one point lower than the Black Orc Warboss, and one less point of Leadership as well. That last part bothers me the most. Leadership 8 affects Impetuous, but also things like restraining pursuit after winning combat so you can reform.

I’m not including march tests here because a Wyvern flies, and you don’t need to take them when flying.

In many situations, that Leadership 8 might not lose you the entire game, but it could cost you the Wyvern, and that’s a serious problem. Especially if the character is your General, since you’re also handing your opponent another hundred points for killing him.

Another big advantage is that you don’t need to include a Black Orc unit to take him.

Mangler Squigs, the perfect mix of monster and chariot

Mangler Squigs cost just 95 points. I think of them more as a chariot than a monster. They have Impact Hits, and absolutely everything about them is random: movement, Impact Hits, attacks, and Stomp Attacks.

They’re a serious threat because Random Movement means that if they reach the enemy, the enemy can’t flee as a charge reaction.

They do have very poor synergy with units that don’t have Random Movement, though, which I already covered in the post about Random Movement. Normally, we’re using them to support those units, probably blocks of Night Goblins, Orcs, or something similar.

For 95 points, their 5+ armor save barely counts for anything, but also four Wounds and Toughness 5. They’re not too easy to kill if you get them into combat quickly. Obviously, they’ll often end up dying if the enemy rolls well to wound or focuses enough damage on them. The idea is for them to go down fighting: destroy more points than they cost.

Night Goblin Squig Hopper Mob, the army’s glass cannon

They’re very similar to Mangler Squigs in damage output and points cost, but they work differently. Their damage is less random, more consistent, and more reliable. I’m not saying it’s necessarily higher or lower, but you’ll see fewer extreme results. That doesn’t mean they’re better. It depends on what you want to play.

Remember that both Squig Hoppers and Mangler Squigs require one of the Night Goblin characters mentioned earlier for each unit you want to include.

If I’ve already said the Mangler Squigs are going to die, just imagine the Squig Hoppers: they have Toughness 3 and no armor. They’re going to die. Also, although they’re Skirmishers, being cavalry and having Unit Strength means they don’t get the -1 to hit with shooting that skirmishers usually receive.

So how do we keep them alive? Put them behind other units. Unlike Mangler Squigs, which are Large Targets and are almost impossible to hide behind anything other than another Large Target, Squig Hoppers are cavalry and can hide behind infantry, cavalry, or any Large Target. That can be very useful.

If you want to include one of these two options, look at which one works better with the rest of your list.

Also, you can’t Stand & Shoot against them when they reach the enemy because they never actually charge. Their Random Movement simply determines whether or not they reach the enemy.

Goblin Wolf Rider Mob, seriously underrated

I love these guys. I know you don’t see them much because they’re Impetuous and die if you look at them funny, but here’s the thing: they’re very cheap, and they’re Core.

Normally, we’re going to spam Night Goblins as Core, and I know perfectly well that plenty of people think we therefore don’t need any more Core units to hold objectives. But in some games, I don’t want a Night Goblin unit worth almost 200 points sitting on an objective the enemy isn’t going to contest, without ever releasing its Fanatics.

We can put some Wolf Riders on that objective and send the Night Goblin units straight toward combat, keeping them closer together and using their Fanatics against the enemy. Personally, I really like them.

You can even give them a unit champion and have them charge alongside a Wyvern at the right moment, letting the champion take the challenge while the Wyvern gets on with killing enemies.

We can also stop them from charging by screening them. Skirmishers now need more than half the unit to see the enemy to charge. So you can use two models as a little screen and put more than half the unit behind them, keeping them from being forced to charge and letting them keep holding the objective.

They work with bows and can also use Reserve Move. For example, that lets you put the Goblin Oddnob I mentioned earlier on a wolf, move forward, cast his spell, and then pull back with Reserve Move. There’s a lot you can do with this unit.

The problem with Orcs & Goblins is that you only see Night Goblins because, although the other options are playable, Night Goblin Mobs are just too good. If they’re not the best infantry in the game, they’re certainly among the best.

Goblin Rock Lobber, good and cheap

It’s the classic catapult, and it costs twenty points less than the Doom Diver Catapult. For 75 points, you get a regular catapult, and I think it’s good.

But those extra twenty points you pay to redirect the shot with the Doom Diver are worth their weight in gold. That’s why I rate the Rock Lobber lower.

Is it playable? Very much so. In fact, taking two of each type is very easy and cheap. They all fit into your Rare allowance, with points left over.

I love this model.

Orc Boar Boy Mob

Orc Boar Boyz are really cheap, and you can also upgrade them to Big ‘Uns so they hit pretty hard.

I’m not a big fan of running them as Savage Orcs with Frenzy, because of the problem with its new version: you only get that extra attack when charging. Also, Savage Orcs can’t wear armor and only get shields, so they’re a little too fragile. Even if you give them Warpaint, which you also have to pay for, all you get is that 6+ Ward Save. I don’t think it’s worth it.

Either way, they’re very cheap, hit hard on the charge, and have Counter Charge.

You can also give them a magic banner that grants Frenzy for that extra attack, although it only affects the riders, not the mounts.

Another option is a banner that gives them +1 Strength when charging. So Big ‘Uns with spears and that banner charge at Strength 6. That’s nothing to sneeze at, especially since the boars also hit harder when charging.

Black Orc Mob, the forgotten troops of the Old World

I think they’re playable, but very expensive, especially within an Orcs & Goblins army.

I find them more interesting in Chaos Dwarfs because you can combine them with Daemonology and turn them into a very powerful unit. But Orcs & Goblins don’t have access to Daemonology. So unless you use the Elementalism spell to move them around the table, they struggle to get where they need to be.

Also, I find their equipment setup a pain in the ass: shields, great weapons, additional hand weapons… When you mix all that together, playing them becomes a complete nightmare because you end up losing track of who died, which equipment you’ve removed, and what’s still in the unit.

Still, I think they’re playable.

They have another major issue: if you want to play a Black Orc Warboss, you have to include a Black Orc unit. So instead of taking 15 or 20 Black Orcs, lots of people just take five bare-bones models and call it a day. You try to keep them alive because otherwise you’re giving away about 60 points. Some people even give them shields, since they only cost one point and give them a 3+ armor save against both shooting and close combat attacks.

Orc Mob, overshadowed in The Old World

Core Orc units are interesting. But like so many other units in this army, they get left out because Night Goblin Mobs take their place.

Still, they’re cheap troops. You can give them shields for just one point, and they also come with free bows. So they can shoot, and in combat they have a 4+ save along with Toughness 4. That’s very good.

They do have Weapon Skill 3. It might sound like a small thing, but you really feel that WS 3 because you never hit on a 3+.

You can upgrade them to Big ‘Uns to fight at Strength 4 in close combat. They have Choppas and can cut through quite a bit of armor, especially on the charge.

They also have Furious Charge, which was added recently. I’m not sure exactly which version added it, because they’re constantly updating mobility and adding or removing unit rules, but Furious Charge makes them pretty interesting.

What they don’t have is access to great weapons. If they did, they’d be an absolute powerhouse. Even so, I like playing them.

Black Orc Bigboss and Orc Bigboss

They’re basically a cheap Waaagh! If you don’t want the Wyvern but want Black Orcs because you like them or for any other reason, you can take a Black Orc Bigboss, who has Waaagh!

If he’s in a unit rather than riding around alone, the whole unit benefits from Waaagh! That lets you increase the unit’s damage output in whichever combat round you choose. The Orc Bigboss works in a very similar way.

Goblin Warboss and Goblin Bigboss

They’re basically the same as their Night Goblin equivalents, except they don’t unlock any troop choices. In return, they can ride a chariot rather than a Giant Cave Squig.

But they don’t have a clear role. And on top of that, they’re Impetuous.

It simply feels like Games Workshop had to include them, even though they’re missing something that would make them good or interesting in any way. So they’re just there.

Goblin Mob, the dregs of Old World

They’re an embarrassing unit with low Leadership, no hitting power, and no durability either. You could say that light armor and shields make them tougher than Night Goblins, but these guys can’t take Fanatics.

They fall somewhere between Orcs and Night Goblins, without the strengths of either: they get the worst of both worlds. They don’t hit hard, they don’t take hits well, and if you want them to hold objectives, Impetuous can send them running off at any moment.

The answer is to never take them. End of story.

Snotling Mob

I don’t find the way swarms work in this edition particularly interesting. Games Workshop needs to rethink how they work, because swarms really aren’t good in any army. They don’t move much, and even though they’re Unbreakable, they end up dying very quickly.

There’s also a drawback to being Unbreakable that wasn’t there before. In sixth edition and similar editions, they could keep you locked in combat until you killed every last one, and you couldn’t do anything else. Now it’s very different.

They Give Ground as soon as they lose combat. After that, an enemy who doesn’t want to stay engaged simply won’t follow up or charge them again. They’ll charge another unit if there’s one nearby, or otherwise try to get out of there however they can.

Remember that when you win a combat, you can take a test to reform. So you can turn to face a new target after beating them in their turn, then charge something else in yours.

Worst case, you turn around, can’t charge anything, and on the following turn you expose your flank so they can charge you again. They aren’t going to kill anything because they have no hitting power. You’ll do much more damage, even with them attacking your flank; they’ll lose combat again and Give Ground again. So you’re free once more.

I don’t like them. I’ve looked at them from every possible angle, trying to figure out how to use them or what options they offer, and personally, I can’t come up with anything.

Common Troll Mob, River Troll Mob, and Stone Troll Mob

I’m going to cover all three types of Trolls together. Common Trolls, River Trolls, and Stone Trolls are all garbage. They’re unplayable. The only thing they’re really useful for is the Troll Horde Army of Infamy list.

Obviously, Games Workshop wasn’t going to leave us without the option to include them in a regular Orcs & Goblins army either, because they’re such iconic models with so much character.

Night Goblin Squig Herd

It’s an infantry unit with a short, random move. It’s not cheap for its Toughness, either. Low movement, low Toughness, and not enough hitting power. Honestly, just like Common Goblins, I don’t think they’re a good idea. They don’t bring anything to the table.

If we want those Strength 5 Squig attacks, it’s better to take Squig Hoppers, which have Random Movement (3D6) and therefore a better chance of reaching combat. They’re about as durable, and the price is very similar.

They’re garbage. Absolute garbage. On top of that, their rules can cause damage to your own troops when they lose combat.

They’re not even particularly useful as a suicide unit that you deliberately lose a combat with near the enemy to trigger that rule and wreck everything: the damage they do that way isn’t enough either. There’s just no saving them.

Goblin Spider Rider Mob

They’re another mounted unit, but they move 2 inches less than Goblin Wolf Riders, making them less appealing. At least they’re Core, but you have to pay for their spears, they’re also Impetuous, and they can’t be Skirmishers… Honestly, since the Poisoned Attacks nerf, I think whatever chance this unit had of seeing play is gone.

Orc Boar Chariot

It’s not bad. In fact, it’s good. A Toughness 5 chariot with four Wounds and good armor for about 90 points is fine.

The problem comes when you compare it with Mangler Squigs. A Mangler’s armor save is one point worse—5+ instead of 4+, but costs practically the same and does far more damage. Once you put them side by side, the chariot starts looking hard to justify.

Also, Random Movement is a very important and very good rule in this game, and taking the chariot means losing that advantage. It would rank higher in many other armies that don’t have units as strong as the Orcs & Goblins options.

You also have to remember that the chariot relies much more on its Impact Hits. If the enemy gets too close, you can lose them when you charge because you need to move more than three inches to generate them. That’s another drawback.

Snotling Pump Wagon

They’re cheap, that’s true. But they’re not appealing because they move so little. Given that they don’t do much damage either, I don’t like them in small units or big ones. If they moved 3D6, it might be a different story, but with 2D6 they usually fall way behind.

There are also better things to spend those points on. It’s a bit like Goblin Bolt Throwas. You see a cheap unit and think taking one or two probably won’t hurt. But when you compare those points with everything else you could buy in the Orcs & Goblins book, you realize they aren’t worth including.

Arachnarok Spider

The Arachnarok Spider tries to do everything, and units that try to do everything usually don’t do anything well.

The main reason I don’t like it is that I want to get it into combat as quickly as possible. It’s a creature with high Toughness, lots of Wounds, and what should be good damage output. But if I march, I can’t shoot with it. That’s why I don’t want it in my army.

It costs too many points for me to keep feeling that, whenever I push it into combat, I’m paying for shooting I’m not using. And if you want to use it as a durable catapult, you’re paying for a ridiculously expensive catapult.

I’d rather take several regular catapults or Doom Divers. So the Arachnarok ends up staying home.

Giant

Personally, I’ve always liked the Giant. It’s such an iconic unit, and its random attacks are a lot of fun.

It’s true that in reasonably competitive lists, you need to run it alongside other Large Targets. Otherwise, the enemy focuses all their shooting on it and brings it down.

The update bumped it up to Toughness 7, which has definitely helped. It can work in a list with several Large Targets: a Wyvern, more Giants, or even a Bonegrinder Giant.

The problem with Giants, aside from their limited mobility, is that they struggle to keep their points safe. We’re playing in a meta where we try to include units that are hard to kill and keep our points safe, denying the opponent easy victory points and helping us win that way.

Even with lots of Wounds and extremely high Toughness, these units can go down in several ways. One is through sheer volume of attacks. Unlike other Large Targets that combine high Toughness and lots of Wounds with good armor saves, Regeneration, and other defenses, the Giant lacks many of those defensive layers. That’s why the Large Targets we usually see are characters on monstrous mounts.

You also have to remember that a Giant costs around 200 points. Toughness 7 or not, we can’t expect the same from it as from a 300-, 400-, or even 500-point model, like the usual Elf characters riding Dragons.

Maybe that’s why people realize it doesn’t fill quite the same role, get frustrated, and stop using it. Personally, though, I think it’s a perfectly playable unit. I find both types of Giants playable and fun.

Goblin Wolf Chariot

The Goblin chariot is very cheap. The problem is that it dies if you look at it funny and generates very few Impact Hits, so its damage output is pretty limited. It also takes up a fair amount of space, and an Orc army often doesn’t have much room to spare during deployment.

I mainly like it as a mount for a Level 4 Goblin Oddnob with Elementalism.

Troll Hag

She’s similar to a Giant. She’s mainly useful in Troll armies, where she unlocks plenty of options and you can build some interesting combos around her. I don’t like her in the regular Grand Army, but generally speaking, she’s quite similar to a Giant in both cost and what she does.

Goblin Bolt Throwa

I’m only putting it here because it costs 45 points. If it weren’t so cheap, I’d rank it even lower, because its damage output is absolute crap. It does nothing because it almost never hits.

All it really does is scare Large Targets a little. It might make one hesitate before moving out, or encourage it to stay hidden. But they’re not good. They’re very bad.

The moment you take two in a list, you start wondering why you’re taking two Bolt Throwas instead of a Doom Diver Catapult or even a Rock Lobber. I don’t find them appealing. They aren’t even useful for sitting still and holding an objective, because war machines can’t do that job.

More Warhammer The Old World tier lists

high elves tier list warhammer the old world theoldwarrior

Orcs & Goblins Tier List. The WORST UNITS in Warhammer The Old World