Edumacate me!

[The Other Dave]

So as many of you know, I'm taking the WFB plunge with an "ironically" themed Goblin force - night goblins, spider riders, trolls, goblin-crewed war machines, a giant, whatever, but no orcs allowed!

And at the moment, I'm finding myself a bit beflustered by the magic items lists. Namely, there are a whole mess of them! I'm having trouble seeing if there are any obvious choices or newbie traps that I should / should not (respectively) take. I'm imagining that my main weaknesses with the goblins themselves are going to be low strength, low WS and low leadership, but I'm still inflicted with analysis paralysis. So school me! For (relatively) numerous, cheap, and fairly weedy night goblin hero types, what kind of magic items do I want to take?

If it's important, the heroes I'll probably be going with for 2000 points will be:
(Probably) either a re-skinned Skarsnik or a night goblin warboss on a giant squig as my lord choice,
3 night goblin big bosses, including a battle standard bearer, as my fighty hero choices,
2 night goblin shamans as my magic-y hero choices.

[Colonel Voss]

well my first question is, no grom the paunch for your goblin army? I'm curious as to why.

[The Other Dave]

Eh, I'm not doing a lot of things that would be "optimal." My main reason is just that I don't really like the model, frankly.

[Colonel Voss]

Fair enough. It is an ancient model from 4th Ed.

I'm no pro at the little green runts, but looking through the list, I don't see anything really dangerous, just as long as you put it in the right unit. The Rowdy Grotts big red banner looks a bit redundant under 8th edition though. I wouldn't invest too many points into one gobbo though. Like all things goblins, quantity is the key and more goblin bosses the better.

Beyond that, i can't see much advice I can give until I know what your core units are going to be.

[The Other Dave]

Well, the basic core I'm painting up now is based heavily on having gotten hold of a couple Skull Pass goblin sets for cheap:

3 blocks of 30 spear-wielding night goblins, with full command, nets and 2 fanatics each - these are going to be open to some wiggle, both in number of units and number of gobbos per unit, as I get some games in, but it's a starting point anyway

2 blocks of 10 spider riders

maybe a block or two of 20 bow-wielding night goblins, depending on how points shake out - I've got the models, and the units are dirt cheap

That comes to a bit more than 1100-some-odd points for the core, plus a few hundred for the various bosses and shamans - the rest will be some combination of spear chukkas, stone throwers, squig herds, and trolls.

[Colonel Voss]

As soon as you can, I'd block up a bit more. 30 is great for empire but for gobbos, I'd double that. Remember if you face elves (and there are a lot of pointy ears in these parts) you have to out number by a 2-1 or you suffer from fear of them.

Looking at those spiders, I think the back stabber blade might come in handy if you put a boss in them. should help to keep him alive to boot. amulet of protectiness would work well for a line goblin expecting to face a heavily armored unit. the pipes of doom could be very effective after you've neutralized the enemy standard bearer. mad cap mushrooms are a must for the fanatics (try to sneak three in that one, if your gobbos can count that high). the banner of butchery might be useful with a fully mobbed up goblin spear regiment which also has the horde rule (50 plus gobbos).

[The Other Dave]

Hmm! So, say, 2 blocks of 45-50 pigstickers rather than 3 blocks of 30? I should actually have enough warm bodies to do that right off the bat.

How about weaponry / armor for the big bosses? My first thought was that magic armor is hardly worth spending the points on, and the vast array of only-slightly-different-on-the-face-of-it weapons is what started me thinking. I mean, I expect that I probably don't want to spend 40 points for +2 strength for a 30-point boss, but I know little enough about how things work on the ground that it's hard for me to judge.

[Colonel Voss]

It depends, goblins come in either three styles, expendable, need to survive (i.e. your general and BSB), and loony surprise.

expendable get the least amount of points spent on them, some armor and a great weapon and shove them out the door, no magic items what so ever. I've heard of some players who will bulk out an entire front rank full of these cheap guys. Expendable shamans may get a one use only items such as dispel scrolls then they are free to blow themselves up casting one shocking spell.

Need to survive are just that, they've got to survive or your army is in a world of hurt. For the general, magic armor is pretty much mandatory as well as anything else that can make his survival rate higher. A solid magic weapon would also be good as well, though don't expect him to kill any really touch enemies (avoid chaos lords at all cost). Battle standard bearer is harder to do if you want to use a magic banner, but putting him in a unit is definitely for the best idea. A great shaman would counts as almost need to survive but if he dies, hopefully you have a few shaman who can pick up his slack some.

Loony surprises are the unique magic items that help catch your opponent off guard. The stabber blade would work well with this, same strength bonus if you charge from the rear as a great weapon but none of the strike last. Pipes of Doom and mad cap mushrooms would also count for this.

Mostly, your gobbos should be expendable with a few loony surprises in the mix plus your two or three need to survive guys.

[The Other Dave]

Excellent, just the kind of thing I was looking for. That gives me some guidelines to get started, at any rate. Thanks!

[Primarch]

Giving a hero some of the cheaper magic items from the basic rulebook might not be a bad idea.
As for your sacrificial lambs try the following combos:
Wollopa's One Hit Wonder with Potion of Speed and maybe Bigged's Kickin Boots. Against anything except Elves/Slaanesh you're likely to hit first, with 4 attacks at S10.
The Brimstone Bauble is always worthwhile for gobbos, a hero on a wolf will do nicely. They can rush forward and block enemy marching, threaten warmachine crews, and when they get attacked...kaBLOOEy.

Dont go overboard on magic items as it means you'll be unable to field as many heroes. Take some cheap bits and pieces on all but your General and BSB.