"Yunno what they say, Tarka. Lucky at dice, unlucky at gettin' back to your own tent without 'aving a nasty accident"
- —Gorduz Backstabber, Hobgoblin Cutthroat[2a]
A Hobgoblin Cutthroat armed with sword and shield as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.
Hobgoblin Cutthroats, or "Sneaky Gits" as they are sometimes called, are the stealthy assassins and ambushers of the Chaos Dwarf military. Arguably the vilest and most treacherous of all the Goblin and Orc kin, Hobgoblins are taller and leaner than ordinary Goblins, yet nowhere near as burly and brutal as Orcs. In fact, their whole appearance is emaciated and vicious -- with narrow eyes and sneering mouths full of pointed teeth that smile moon-wide in an idiotic grin at the merest suggestion of sadistic violence in the offing.[1a]
The Chaos Dwarfs long ago realised the Hobgoblins were a servile, craven, malevolent and generally despised race, and so adopted the Hobgoblins of the Dark Lands as eminently suitable lackeys and disposable minions -- in particular as slave masters, overseers, tribute-collectors, and even when pressed, as warriors. Hobgoblins are universally loathed by other Greenskins, and only their relentless, twitchy vigilance and the protective shadow of their Dawi-Zharr masters stops the other Orc and Goblin slaves from tearing them apart.[1a]
Role
"The vilest and most treacherous of all their horrible kin, Hobgoblin Cutthroats delight in the unleashing of unnecessarily-vicious violence in battle."
- —Description of Hobgoblin Cutthroats in Total War: Warhammer III.[3a]
"The sneakiest of the sneaky, you might say. The finest assassins and ambushers of the Chaos Dwarf military."
- —Description of Hobgoblin Cutthroats in Total War: Warhammer III.[3a]
Most Hobgoblin Cutthroats fight with a pair of daggers, the signature melee weapon of the Hobgoblin.
The Hobgoblins are a distinctive sub-species of steppe-dwelling Goblins found only within the lands of the Far East, in the rolling, untamed plains of the Eastern Steppes. The Hobgoblin race are considered traitors by all of their Greenskin cousins, not because of their unbelievably treacherous nature, but by their specific betrayal of the Greenskin uprising that once rocked Zharr-Naggrund when the Chaos Dwarfs' Greenskin slaves sought their freedom, led by their Black Orc commanders.[3a]
A Hobgoblin Cutthroat armed with daggers as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.
This betrayal of their entire race and their inability to even trust each other has ensured that the Hobgoblins have become utterly enthralled to the brutal protection and patronage of the Chaos Dwarfs. Though hated by their kin, the Hobgoblins are nonetheless the scourge of the steppes; feared, hated and powerful in almost equal measure, and also widely abhorred for their cruelty, wickedness and appalling standards of hygiene.[3a]
Whilst far from the best troops -- in fact generally varying wildly between feverish violence and debased cowardice -- Hobgoblins are too weak-willed and untrusting even of each other to mount any kind of cohesive rebellion and are so hated by other races -- including their own -- their loyalty to the Chaos Dwarfs is assured -- after a fashion. The Dwarfs of Zharr-Naggrund don't make much of an effort to equip their Hobgoblin troops on the basis that they are little more than battle fodder, and can be relied on to largely look after themselves (in other words, pilfer loot from the battlefield and each other).[1a]
Hobgoblins, given the choice, which they rarely have, favour razor-sharp curved blades -- all the better to stab their foes in the back with and watch the blood flow, but if pressed into direct battle, they prefer whenever possible to fight from a distance using crude bows and then to pounce on an unwary or crippled foe.[1a]
Disreputable and fractious, Hobgoblins, like most Greenskins, have a tendency to fight among themselves even in the midst of battle. This is a problem, which given a Hobgoblin's propensity for murderous spite and self-serving cowardice it is only their deep-seated fear of their Chaos Dwarf masters that can enforce them back into some semblance of order.[1a]
Of all Goblinkind, Hobgoblins are regarded as the most devious, cowardly, treacherous and outright murderous, and are utterly distrusted even by their fellow Greenskins. These backstabbers and cutthroats habitually go around armed with all manner of man-stikkas, swords, curved daggers and razors, and for every knife they wear openly, it can be wagered there's at least a few more you can't see concealed about their person, just ready to be plunged into an unsuspecting foe's back.[1a]
Miniatures
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