Forest Goblins - Boss weapons advice?

So, as is typical, my initial "Oh, I can use these old Forest Goblins with this and that and make an Orc warband, cool" has turned into "OK, so if I get that and this and the other, plus those, and more of them, I can have Orcs, Orc Pirates, AND Forest Goblins! Muahahaoh bugger I forgot to buy food..."

But I'm a bit hesitant on how to arm the Boss heroes in said Forest Goblin band. Dual-wielding wouldn't be much use until they get a skill advance(due to house rules and inherently low WS) so my first thought was to give them Halberds(so when they do hit things with their rubbish WS, they at least have a decent chance of hurting it), but my instinct now is to give them Spear & Shield since it makes them a touch more survivable with the save & Strike First plus gives them a bonus when riding spiders.

The rest of the band will consist of a small group of Red Toofs with Club & Shield and normal Tribals with Shortbows & Hatchets(dagger or axe, depending on funds).

Just to make sure we are on the same page, I assume you are using this list: right here?

Legally, there is no reason you can't do both. You can arm them with spears and halberds and shields and just use whichever weapon is the better for the situation. Sword and shield is also a very defensive combination good for survivability. Of curiosity, are you using the house-rule that lets shields adds +1 to armor saves in melee? It is one my group has been using and I can definitely recommend it for helping reduce dual-wielding. What dual-wielding house rules are you using?

Also, consider having at least one person armed with a DHW and either spear or sword. The DHW will be handy for charging knocked down opponents.

Personally, I would lean to spears and swords for the leader and shaman because defensibility is paramount for them (the leader because he is irreplaceable, the shaman because he cannot wear armor) and spears and halberds for the Braves, except for 1 or 2 braves that have a DHW instead of a halberd.

For starting weapons I would probably go spears over anything else just because they are 5 gold instead of 10 gold, so get them now and any secondary weapons after the second game. Pity you can't *start* with ithilmar weapons .

That poison looks fantastic (+1 to the injury roll? That doesn't go away? Yes, please). Poison as many weapons as you can, over time.
In my group we have house-ruled Ithilmar armor to be a kind of light armor. This may or may not be acceptable to your group

Just by-the-by, do you have any idea what the special goblin skills are? The braves seem to have access to them, but I can't find what they actually are.

Disclaimer: I have never played with or against Forest Goblins, so this is all theoryheim. YMMV. A lot.

Almost the same, the list I have was written/adapted for Lustria - "Braves" are named "Bosses", mounts are cheaper, the one you linked seems more balanced actually although it kills my plan for clubs & axes on henchmen :/ I'll probably go with dual-wield on my Chieftain, 2HW on the Shaman, Spear & Shield on the Braves, Bow & Dagger on regular gobbos, and Sword & Shield for the Red Toof Boyz. EDIT: Hmm, I might try and find room for some Boss Poles in there too.

For house rules any group I run goes with; -2 offhand penalty(Combat skill to remove), shields provide an additional +1as in melee, armour price reduction, Clubs cost 5gc, and Parry is D6-add-WS-highest-wins with a second Parry item giving a reroll of the D6.

As for the skills, I'm not sure there are any, I think the author just meant that "Special" bit to refer to the comment under the skill table that states a Brave can choose to remove Animosity rather than take a skill, maybe without realising the convention is for "Special" to refer to warband-specific skill lists.

+1 allow a hero to become immune to animosity=Special Skill

I always give the Leader and Shaman the Boss Poles. Mainly because I figure most the warband is going to hang around the Leader anyway. The shaman is usually pretty independent anyway (plus it sort of fit the models I was using.)

The odd henchman weapon choices for the warband were a source of bemusement for me. The 'primitive' forest goblins only have access to swords, spears and daggers for henchmen. Heroes have access to halberds...awfully primitive these goblins. No clubs, no axes for henchmen (I find this to be true of both versions of the list by the way.)

Aye I might just do a wee rewrite of the equipment section - that's the issue with trying to make a warband feel "unique" with weapon selection, it's really difficult to justify most warbands not having access to most weapons(I mean seriously, your chap is genetically incapable of picking up a big stick and hitting folk on the noggin with it? ).