Hey all, I was just going through my Mordor forces and thought: is there any real reason to take regular Orcs anymore? I mean, is there a time when the extra strength and defence wouldn't come in handy?

In the Tale of Four Gamers running in the current WD, the Mordor player doesn't have any regular Orcs.

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Gondor: 2339pts
Rohan: 1318pts
Dwarves: 2482pts
Elves: 1091pts
Mordor: 2305pts
Isengard: 1762pts
Moria: 1463pts
Evil Men: 381pts

orcs are defiantly not obsolete, they're the cheapest spears you can get!

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"make me lunch... worthy of Mordor"

They are great for swarming. I don't think anyone would take orc archers, but definetly their spears are useful and the banners.

I'm not much of a "look, Uruk-hai Pikeblocks with squishy Orc insides. It's like an Evil, smelly Oreo!" type player. I know people who support Morannon Orcs with regular ones, Uruk-hai with Orcs in the middle, Easterling phalanxes with Orcs in the middle, etc etc. It just doesn't work, thematically, with me. Even worse is when people use Goblin spearmen...

I have a ton of Orcs, so I use a large body of them as my main Mordor horde. I only ever got one box of Morannons, but I'd get another one if I came across the 24-packed set somewhere.

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Gondor: 2339pts
Rohan: 1318pts
Dwarves: 2482pts
Elves: 1091pts
Mordor: 2305pts
Isengard: 1762pts
Moria: 1463pts
Evil Men: 381pts

I know what you mean.

In my opinion, Orcs have been obsolete (from a competitive perspective) for some time now. If you want a horde, do it properly and take Goblins; if you want a stronger army, take Morannons. It's a shame, and a bit ironic, that the most common soldiers in Middle Earth are so rare in our games.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

I would agree- the common orc has somewhat faded from my army lists, unless Isengard is really, truly marching to war (we're talking 2500+ points here) and then they are usually off somewhere else, taking arrows for the more important uruk-hai.

The average orc, imo, just doesn't have the amount of stamina necessary to keep him going- particularly when he hits someone with a higher defense and fight value- then they wilt like leaves...

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"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

With volley fire they are as good as any other race.
Orcs are also good arrow catchers.

Their speed is as fast as most races, thank goodness, and not as slow as goblins/dwarfs/hobbits.

Use Orc spearmen to support Black Numenoreans and you have a good force. They aren't obselete, there are units far far worse.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

as spears they are useful, however most players i meet only seem to take orc shields or archer so they do not waste them by not using them. if averyone had enough money, sadly i don't think those nice orcs would be used much.

however they arent completely obselete, and i think hordes always look cool.

GothmogtheWerewolf just out of curiosity, which units do you consider far far worse?

Rider of Rohan, Mordor Troll, Isengard Troll, Mahud Warrior (in new rules), Ithilien & Dol Guldor upgrades, a few others I can't remeber.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

I use them simply because they're fluffy, especially in my Angmar army. Though admittedly I rarely play evil.

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My (more regularly updated) painting blog:
https://www.facebook.com/Pindergorn/

I think the sole reason they aren't obsolete is because they're plastic. When you compare their stats to the other plastic warriors, they're still good. It's really only when you compare them to metals that they lose out.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Excellent point, Draugluin- they do have that advantage of being relatively affordable in the buying and are really cheap on the board. But can still be effective, if used properly.

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"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

All I got are Orcs. I'm 2-0 with them so far.

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http://drinkingwotr.blogspot.com/ - Links to my CrAzY House Rules, Games and 'poor man's' terrain.

No they are Not !!!

played two 600 pt battles last night , "high ground" scenario against a Gondor army with Boromir and an Ent, the other "To the death" against a morannon, black numenorean army led by the dark marshall and 2 morannon captains supported with shelob and two castellans, both were hard fought battles.
My army of orcs were led by gothmog, a orc taskmaster another captain and ably supported by a beast of gorgorath. (9 bowmen for the price of one fig)
in the first battle i used my beast to get the opponents away from the hill even though it suffered 3 wounds we kept far enough away from the Ent to allow more orcs up the hill and whittle away gondor till he broke
in the second battle the beast was slain in second round by a castellan after being transfixed by the dark marshall and hit with a morgul blade aagh !!!, amazingly 7 of the riders survived the fall and dead weight roll and continued to play. i didn't win priority that often but with gothmog and whip of master combination and several sixes saving heroic move points , we soon put castellans, and dark marshall to death, the orcs held their own against the black numenoreans, " loved the dice last night" shelob was pitiful, i kept sending a single brave orc into combat with her, never have had such luck with courage, in the end though at break test time it was i who won again, so no the orcs are not obsolete just have lots of them and a good hero to lead them