The Gudhered Tribe:
Strategy: Combined Arms
Strengths:
Good combined arms. Strong light infantry, excellent heavy infantry including troll shock troops. Fair amount of light cavalry, good reconnaissance. Excels in pitched battles.
Weaknesses:
Lack of plentiful fire weapons. Most units are poor in skirmish combat.
Lore:
The Gudhered tribe commands a violent expansionist kingdom seated in the dells and dales of the great Forbidden Mountains, a land of vast mineral wealth. In their heyday, their empire was much greater, encompassing many lands won by the sword, including the fertile lands of the Vale. They spread fear far and wide by raiding deep into the Westerlands – past glories they dream of reclaiming.
They are the wealthiest and most prideful of all goblins. They claim to have descended from Queen Kallara and her son and successor, Mage King Ragorrun, who (in)famously created the race of hobgoblins and conquered their present homeland by defeating and subjugating the ancestors of the Gothrang.
The Gudhered are highly organized, and extremely militaristic, even by goblin standards. Their society is bifurcated between ordinary goblin descendants of those they subjugated so many generations ago and the purpose-bred, hobgoblin warrior aristocracy who are fanatically convinced of their intrinsic right to rule. At the pinnacle of this hobgoblin aristocracy stands the Supreme Overlord, an absolute monarch who exercises total power over political and spiritual life throughout the tribe. The shaman caste of the Gudhered, so influential in other tribes, has been reduced to a cult of mere ceremonial functionaries and long contact with the kingdoms of men, and dwarves have caused them to adopt many of the trappings of these more settled societies. In battle, training, discipline and the quality of their arms set them apart from other goblins. They are ruthless, deceitful and feared by their foes.
The Gudhered In Battle:
The Gudhered are by far the best rounded of the goblin tribes. They lack the sheer numbers of the Gothrang, or the mobility of the Werchered, but they are exceptionally flexible. Most Gudhered clans come fully equipped with a stout line of light and heavy infantry, complimented by cavalry and a small number of fire troops to round out their combined arms. With skillful use of unit groups, you can create self-contained battle groups, each with guaranteed combined arms, granting you an automatic +50% combat bonus.
In total, the Gudhered Tribe is composed of 7,483 goblins, divided into 8 clans. No two clans are exactly the same, even when units look the same (share the same graphic), the companies inside often differ. Going through every clan and every single horde variation would take pages and pages, so I'll cover a few notable examples.
Line Clans:
The Bradwian clan pictured above is a classic example of the flexibility of Gudhered forces. They have strong infantry, but they also possess supporting cavalry, trolls and a small number of fire troops.
The Brimstone Horde of the Bradwian Clan is a good example that looks can be deceiving. Goblin units are rarely homogenous, they typically have a mixture of different company types inside a horde. The Brimstone Horde is no exception. Their graphic is a slinger, but the horde has 4 different companies inside of it. 2 are slingers, 1 are bows and the final company are spears for melee defense.
The Sceadan Clan continues the trend, they possess a strong combined arms force, but also field an immensely powerful heavy infantry horde, the Doombringers. These hobgoblin assault troops are the equal or better of any infantry their human adversaries possess.
Finally we have the Dydan Clan, who are notable for two things. 1) They possess more fire capability than the average Gudhered clan, but this comes at a price. 2) Their overall melee is somewhat weaker and their cavalry in particular is less capable.
Specialist Clans:
In addition to their 'normal' clans The Gudhered also possess a set of three specialist clans. Two of which are small but entirely wolf mounted, making them ideal raiders or decisive cavalry support for major battles. The third specialist clan, the Breotan Troll Clan, are super heavy shock troops. Though, few in number, a single company of 25 Battle Trolls fights with the ferocity of an entire horde of 200 Shield Bearers. These trolls are ideal components for custom unit groups.
Custon Unit Groups:
With such a flexible set of units, the possible number of custom unit group combinations for the Gudhered is staggering. Just about any combination you can imagine can be achieved. Here are a couple examples to sate your curiosity.:
Tying it all together:
The Gudhered are undeniably powerful in battle. If properly played they can go head to head with vaunted Helsatian Knights and still emerge victorious. But they are not invincible. Most of their units are very vulnerable in skirmish combat, and skillful employment of skirmish orders using Rangers or Jagers by their human adversaries can wreak havoc on Gudhered forces. Moreover, like all goblins, the fire protection of their line infantry units are poor. Making them vulnerable to the huge volume of fire possessed by their Westadlian adversaries.
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Original post on the forums: http://www.ns2games.com/node/213277