Hi I just got started, and I can't help but feel I'm doing something wrong with archers. At least moria goblin archers, they seem to do absolutely nothing. I used volley a couple times and did nothing, and then shot normally at rohirrim... and did nothing. Should I try to use prowler archers instead? Are archers even worth it for Moria?

That happens sometimes, it's just luck. My son's goblins seem to hit anything they want . Prowlers are certainly better archers, but you're also paying points for features you might not use...although in the case of prowlers, they are probably of the most underpriced models in the game, so it's hard to go wrong with them regardless of what war gear you give them.

Orcs are just as poor archers, but you can get around this by taking a drummer and getting your swarm into combat sooner. Goblins don't have that option, unfortunately.

Usually I just laugh when people use Goblin archers. It take so many shots to get a kill that it isn't worth it, especially if the target has decent armour and your opponent knows how to use terrain to screen his troops. I'd say take the archers for the tactical aspect, fire off one maybe two salvos of arrows and then just charge them in with their brethren to swamp the enemy troops.

@whafrog, yeah, I've had that happen too. Lucky Goblin Archer passed two In-the-Way rolls before both hitting and killing an important model at maximum range for the Orc Bow.

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Thats just bad luck, picking the wrong targets or you are not taking enough. Take the full 1/3 allowed, you might as well as they fight the same as other normal Goblins.

60 shots it took my archers before they got a hit volleying..

Best thing for Moria archers to do is shoot other archers who are volleying. Might involve moving forward for a turn or two, but archers are usually softer and will cause damage.

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Alright thanks for the insight. I will play a couple matches without any ranged support and see how it works out.

I really wouldn't use a force without range support. Goblin archers are nothing more than annoying to your opponent, but at least he/she will have to deal with them. If your opponent uses archers (which, I am assuming, are more skilled than goblins) he will just keep moving away from you and get quite alot of shots before you can even reach them.

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You are doomed if you don't take goblin archers. Face off against a WE army and you could win a volley duel forcing him to close, if not, he will just keep retiring until you are dead. It cost no more points to take an archer than any other goblin and fight just as well - so take them, as many as possible.

The problem with any army that has no archers is that an army with just mediocre army will have a huge advantage for the first few turns until you reach him.

Considering you can usually have 1-2 goblin archers for every enemy archer (unless going up against hobbits, Rohirrim, or other evil armies), you'll have the advantage of having twice as many shot, but the disadvantage of hitting with only 1/3 of them. That rate of fire might not have the immediate effect that you want, especially compared to elves, but over the course of a game, a group of 10-12 goblins can more than pay for themselves. 50-60 points of goblin archers will kill around 1 enemy a turn, 2 if they have especially low defense but maybe only 1 every other turn if they're dwarves. In a 6-8 turn game, they'll have killed roughly 60 points of enemies (this is only on average, I've had a group of 8 goblins kill 16 dwarf rangers, 8 with bow and 8 with throwing weapons, so they killed 4 times their number of points). This does not include the number of units who will be forced to attack them, weakening their own shield wall while the rest of your army swarms over them.

In short, they are always worth taking, sometimes just to annoy your opponent, but sometimes they can accomplish more than you think

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Now who's laughing.

LoL thats funny because last week I was playing a FotR campaign with some people and a small volley of 8 Goblin Archers managed to slay Legolas and both Pippin and Merry the turn after (we were playing the Bridge of Khazad-Dum scenario).

But thats probably just uncanny luck

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