No Black Orcs, No Brakes: Testing an Impetuous Orcs & Goblins List
We love those little hobby experiments that start with a single sentence and instantly paint a whole game plan in our heads. This time, Stas dropped exactly that kind of idea into our chat: an experimental list for tomorrow, and the key rule was simple:
not a single Black Orc
For anyone who has spent time building Orcs & Goblins lists in Warhammer: The Old World, that immediately changes the character of the army.
The idea
The whole concept revolves around leaning fully into the army’s wild side instead of trying to keep it under control.
As Stas reminded us, the context here is important:
- basically all Orcs & Goblins have Impetuous,
- if they have an enemy in range, they need to pass a Leadership test to avoid charging,
- Black Orcs are the exception,
- and within 6” of Black Orcs, other units also don’t have to take those tests.
So Black Orcs are not just a strong unit on their own — they are also one of the main tools for putting the brakes on the rest of the army.
And this list does the exact opposite.
What happens if we remove the brakes?
Stas wants to try an army that is practically desperate to get into a fight. Not disciplined. Not restrained. Not carefully staged for perfect charges three turns later.
Just an army that keeps looking at the enemy and going:
“yeah, let’s go now.”
There is something very Orcy about that, and honestly, we are big fans of the premise already.
Without Black Orcs, there is no built-in safety valve for nearby units. No reliable bubble of calm. No elite babysitters making everyone behave. If something is in range, a lot of the army may simply try to launch itself forward unless the Leadership test says otherwise.
That creates a very different list-building challenge.
Army-building angle
This is why we liked this idea immediately as an army-building experiment, not just a one-off joke list.
Usually, when building around Orcs & Goblins, there is a temptation to smooth out the chaos. Take the units that reduce the risk. Add the pieces that make the battleline more predictable. Build in control.
Here, the question becomes:
What if we build around the lack of control instead?
That means thinking less in terms of preventing Impetuous behaviour and more in terms of benefiting from it — or at least surviving it.
A list like this probably wants:
- units that don’t mind getting stuck in early,
- battle plans that accept the line moving forward unevenly,
- support pieces that can keep up with the chaos,
- and a general mindset of embracing momentum instead of resisting it.
It is a fun reminder that sometimes list-building is not about solving a faction’s weakness. Sometimes it is about turning that weakness into the main event.
Why we like this so much
There is a special kind of joy in taking a rule that most players treat as a problem and saying: actually, what if this is the whole point?
That is exactly what this list sounds like.
No Black Orcs means no calming influence. No safety net. Just a force full of units that may surge forward because that is what they were born to do.
Will it be optimal? Maybe not.
Will it be memorable? Almost certainly.
And in an army like Orcs & Goblins, that counts for a lot.
Before the game
At the time of writing, this is still very much a “let’s see what happens tomorrow” kind of project. We do not have battle results yet — just the spark of an idea and the kind of list concept that makes us want to see models hit the table immediately.
Honestly, that is one of our favourite parts of the hobby: those moments when a rules interaction stops being just a note in the army list and suddenly becomes a whole personality for the force.
This one definitely has personality.
If the plan works, the army will hit like a green avalanche. If it doesn’t, at least it should fail in an extremely on-brand way.
Either way, we respect the commitment.
And yes — we absolutely want to hear how tomorrow’s experiment goes.