Unhuman War

Ok, now that silliness is over, I do want to ask a serious question. 
The first Unhuman war was a fight between the elves and goblin-kin,
right?  Well, the question is: exactly how was it that the goblin-kin
ever became so dangerous that a war was needed to fight them? Before you
answer, please consider these points:

*Goblin-kin are weak.  The stardard goblin, orc, and kobold is less than
1 HD.  I've found that they are too pitiful to send against any party of
higher level than 6th (I believe that most spelljamming officers would
be a minimum of 8th, just to afford the finances of the game).  So thus,
unless a crew parked they're ship next to the Citadel of Many Arrows,
goblins would be unable to take the ship by force.

*Goblin-kin are poor.  Spelljamming costs money.  Big money.  I once
calculated a good hammership out to 1 million gp, w/out magic weapons. 
Only the most massive tribe could afford such finances, and I would
imagine they would be more likely to spend that money to buy allies to
attack ground-based targets (such as hiring ogre mercs to lead the
attack on an elvish outpost).  In addition, would the Arcane, whom are
cowards in the extreme, put their lives on the line by visiting such a
"backwater and barbaric" people, just to sell a single minor helm?  (the
goblins would most likely decide the Arcane would make a good dinner).

*Goblin-kin magic is weak.  The highest level of spellcaster that they
have is what, 7th?  That means that the REALLY deadly spells and magic
is wll out of their reach (ever think of what a well-placed Cloudkill
could do to even an ogre ship (remember, no save unless you have more
than 4 HD)).  Their ships would be slow and weak on magic, easy pickings
for a group of adventurers or a well-equiped elvish ship (I'd imagine
that their ships would have to be roughly equal to really good
adventurers, otherwise the fleet would be extinct by now).

*The psycological barrier.  Spelljamming is a concept that is very hard
to grasp, at least as far as ordinary people go.  Going into space (the
great unknown) can make one feel meek and frighten even the bravest soul
(for this effect, I refer to Into the Void, where Telden was reduced to
a near-child-like state at least once).  Space is a very dangerous
enviroment.  Given the already weak magic of the goblins, they would
have a very hard time compensating for any disasters that may strike. 
In all likelyhood, they would keep any ships that they would aquire
close to home, to use as battle platforms to attack enemy targets.

	These are all the obsicles that I can think of right now, but I'm sure
there are many more.  I post this only out of couriosity.  I want to see
what you guys can come up with, as I've already developed some ideas of
my own, which I'll post later.  

Night Druid.