Goblin Warlord

Overview

Goblin warlords are all about numbers. With abilities from both class and race that reduce unit cost and upkeep, no other leader can pump out troops in such sheer volume. However, the synergy here goes far deeper than just cheap units.

Strengths

• Goblin 10% unit discount stacks with Training Regimen
• Strong racial irregular
• T3 Cavalry
• Racial Infantry, Pikeman, and Cavalry gain Volunteer at bronze
• Powerful variations of class units, such as Phalanx with Life Steal, Warbreeds with Disgusting Stench(Ability) and Manticore Riders with Inflict Weakened.

Weaknesses

• Units have low survivability in auto-combat in early game
• Only have access to physical and blight damage (mitigated by Goblin Blight Doctor)
• No racial healing outside of wetlands (see Wetland Foraging)

Strategy Tips

• The high number of blight resistant/immune monsters can make clearing treasure sites difficult, especially with low HP units. Choose your battles carefully and don't get overconfident. Against sites with a lot of monsters or undead you will have to rely mostly on melee units. Recruiting a theocrat or sorcerer hero early can help quite a lot.
• Don't expect Goblin Blight Doctors to totally solve the blight immunity problem for you. A single Blight Doctor can only debuff a single unit, and massing blight doctors isn't really a feasible way to deal with the situation. You will need to rely on melee units from time to time and choose specializations that cover this weakness.
• If you're playing with the shadowborn specialization, try to outnumber the treasure guardians as much as possible in order to increase the odds of defenders trying to run. If you're playing peacekeeper you want to do the opposite so that you can gain experience without taking evil points.
• In manual combat you can make the most out of your Untouchables by moving them next to an enemy unit to give them the "disgusted" debuff, doing damage via your Swarm Darters or other elemental damage sources (stylite butchers, spells, etc.) and then sprinting away.
• Don't neglect medal buildings - the quicker you get your Marauders, Swarm Darters, Warg Riders, and Butchers to bronze medal the stronger your economy will be.

Specializations

Water

Rot allows you to easily deal with undead and machines, who are otherwise blight immune, and Vengeful Frost provides a nuke that warlords otherwise lack, which is not powerful but is highly mana efficient.

Drench the Land allows you to spread wetlands outside of your domain, which slows your enemies, boosts morale, and provides healing.

Destruction

Hasty Plunder and Scorched Earth are invaluable for any warlord. Goblins also have a chance of spawning in blighted terrain, in which case Domain of Corruption can be a huge boost to your economy.

Wreck can devastate any undead or machine which poses a threat, while Blight Empire can make your empire extremely difficult to invade, as most enemies will suffer severe morale penalties.

Shadowborn

The 5% unit cost reduction of Karissa's Rally and Shadowborn Army stacks with both the Goblin discount and the Training Regiment discount, for a whopping 35% total discount on all your pikemen, infantry, cavalry, and archers.

Embrace Darkness can provide your Butchers and {{unit|Phalanx} with Greater Life Steal

All goblin abilities which lower resistance Disgusting Stench, Weakening, and Inflict Noxious Vulnerability) serve to maximize the multi-channel elemental damage of Entwined by Shadows and the Fallen Angel.

Fire

Fire adept is useful for any Warlord as it offers a powerful nuke Fireball) a T2 summon ( Summon Hell Hound) and a strong debuff ( Skin of Oil). Domain of the Sun is also useful for goblins as it can make them at home in Tropical and Volcanic environments without taking the Racial Governance upgrade.

Wild Magic

Summon Lesser Elemental provides both a good summon and a wider range of elemental damage sources. Degenerate is helpful for dealing with tough units that resist blight or physical. Warp Equipment can level the playing field against superior melee units.

Racial Governance

Patron

• The military upgrade is strongly recommended. Raise Militia will give you a lot of Untouchables, who are powerful debuffers but are easily killed in combat. Sprint and Projectile Resistance will vastly improve their utility and minimize losses.
• The economic upgrade is also quite good for expansionist strategies, and unlike the Tigran/Human cheaper settlers this upgrade can also benefit newly migrated outposts and towns. If you start in an area with lots of wetlands and places to expand or independant outposts to conquer this upgrade may be difficult to turn down.

Protector

• The military upgrade is again strongly recommended. Swarm Darters are extremely powerful and one of the goblin's greatest asset, but they are also glass cannons and can be one-shot by some direct-damage spells. With only 27 base HP, this upgrade amounts to a 37% boost in health. Furthermore, the bonus HP for irregulars further increases the longevity of your Untouchables.
• The economic upgrade is only recommended if your empire has a fair number of Great Farms and you don't intend to rely much on irregulars or Swarm Darters.

Champion

• The military upgrade can be quite valuable. {{unit|Goblin Big Beetle|name=Big Beetles]] with Thoroughbred Mounts and this upgrade have a total of 85 hp at recruit, 10 more than the Goblin Warbreed, while being significantly cheaper and benefiting from other cavalry upgrades such as Rider's Hall and Stables of Vigor. Disgusting stench also boosts the Big Beetles blight damage by lowering enemy resistance.
• The economic upgrade allows your goblins to be well at home just about anywhere, only disliking arctic. This makes goblins the unrivaled kings of monocultural play as you can place goblin cities just about anywhere without worrying about climate penalties.

Prophet

• The military upgrade is not recommended, as it comes too late and the Tame Troll is simply a weaker Warbreed.
• The economic upgrade is not particularly amazing as far as Prophet level upgrades go, but bonus production is certainly quite valuable, as is being able to tech through class buildings quickly.

Deity

• The military upgrade is extraordinarily powerful. Being able to Inflict Weakened from nearly every unit, accompanied by additional blight damage, will allow your units to chew through anything like paper. The fact that this upgrade doesn't effect cavalry should be particularly painful to warlords, except that goblin Manticore Riders essentially have it by default.
• Most likely if your cities are surrounded by wetlands they're already at max happiness, which makes this upgrade more or less pointless.