From 2E

“Hobgoblins have their own language and often speak with orcs, goblins, and carnivorous apes.”

“Underground complexes may be guarded by 2-12 carnivorous apes (60%).

“

I just felt this should be noted

edit: Also the freaking Varag,    https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Varag  Honestly would probably reflavor them to actually be smarter and less monstrously hungry, but don’t do well in with the hobgoblin education system

Now looking at some homebrew ideas, I rembered this gem for the goblins

edit

Pathfinder gave them battle yaks

An yzobu is a herd animal found in cold hills, plains, and mountains. It stands roughly the height of a horse, but has a bulkier frame. Its head is more bovine, with a pair of thick, slightly curved horns protruding from the sides of its flat forehead and four smaller prongs jutting from the top. The fur of an yzobu is long and shaggy, protecting it from the harsh winters of its habitat. This pelt accumulates a pungent secretion from the yzobu’s body that gives it a strong odor that those unaccustomed to the creatures find sickening.

Like the hobgoblins who use them as mounts and beasts of burden, yzobus (called “battle yaks” by their war-mongering handlers) live in complex social groups. These immense herds can number in the thousands, and present quite a problem to ranchers, explorers, and pioneers who encounter them while traversing the open plains and hills where the yzobus graze. A single herd can range over a spread of tens of thousands of square miles in a year, devouring all the grass and small vegetation in the region, trampling what they can’t eat, and forcing other creatures—including humanoids—to move elsewhere or suffer the same fate.

Yzobus are extremely aggressive, and fight ruthlessly to defend even the weakest member of their herd, making them difficult pests to deal with, and even more difficult to train for service or war. Hobgoblins have grown skilled at the process, and keep a fair number of tamed yzobus. They breed these with wild yzobus every few generations to keep them fierce.

Races of war

“You weren’t hired to think. You were hired because you have opposable thumbs.”

Goblins are the weakest and smallest of the Goblinoid races, and that means that in society in general they get a really crap deal. But that’s not really important for a Player Character, because player characters get access to classes like Rogue, Knight, and Wizard for whom being small is not a huge problem. Indeed, Goblins have a number of saving graces that in the wild barely keep them alive that when used by a player character can make them very effective. Naturally adept at stealth, Goblins are virtually made to be a Rogue or Wizard, and indeed most Goblins who have class levels are one or the other.

But the Goblins are also extremely gifted mounted combatants. And why is that? Because they are the smallest and weakest of the Goblinoids, the Worgs long ago enslaved the Goblin people. That’s right, the Worgs came in and imposed their dominion upon Goblins, not the other way around. But time does funny things… Worgs are pretty stupid, and they don’t have thumbs. So while they are individually powerful, eventually they were forced to have the Goblins do all the important stuff – like keep records and make decisions.

So now, the Worgs have gone many generations doing pretty much whatever it is that their “servants” tell them to do. Which means that really the Goblins are totally in control. And because of this, Goblin children are practically born into the saddle. Those rich enough to afford a wolf to ride (like well, player characters) can be devastatingly effective lancers.