So I wrote an email to a friend asking for a critique on this all orc list. I would like to hear your input below. For any suggestions I would ask to keep it orc, not troll, not castellans, not Uruk-hai to keep with the theme.

The first part is less important, an introduction. It is followed by the list. Finally my general battle plan. Thank you for any help or input.

Email....

It seems that some despair at the sight of the Nazgûl. Fear is, after all, their chief weapon. It came to me that, as a servant of the Dark Lord I should seek to instill the fear of the Orc as well.

In this endeavor I called upon several orcs of some renown and organized a force with troops levied from the plains of Gorgoroth and was even able to secure some elite troops form the garrison of the Black Gate of Morannon.

I submit to you a company of orcs with 750pts of resources for your keen eye to inspect.

750 Mordor

Morannon Orc Captain, Shield
4 Morannon Orcs, Shields
1 Morannon Orc, Banner
2 Orcs Shields
4Orcs Spears

Taskmaster
4 Morannon Orcs, Shields
2 Orc Shields Shields
4Orcs Spears

Orc Shaman
4 Morannon Orcs, Shields
2 Orc Shields
4Orcs Spears

Orc Shaman
4 Morannon Orcs, Shields
2 Orc Shields
4Orcs Spears

Orc Captain, Warg, shield
11 Warg Riders

My battle plan is to be laid like this...
Each warband is relatively independent though I do want them to move together to form a sort of wall when I can. The shield bearing orcs shall be going in front as a sort of buffer. They will give their lives to The Eye. Can can also move to a flank or an area to hold them up with shielding.

After them come my real troops. The elite Morannon orcs with simple spearman backing them up. I hope to crush the servants of the accursed Valar with them. They have a defense of 6 and a strength of 4. Though the spearman have a strength of 3 and they both have a fight of 3.

While this wall hits the enemy my Warg riders move around and engage the supporting troops to prevent them from lending support to those in front. I can also use them to assault any bowmen who hide and seek to pepper the Dark Lord's glorious troops with arrow from afar.

The deployment of the captains will be somewhat simple. The captain will be on a Warg and will be taking the riders out flank. He will also be ready to rally the troops away from the enemy if it looks like they have priority. If this is. After a charge he may be close to the taskmaster when he calls 'To me!' And if he is within 6" of the taskmaster this heroic action is free on a 4+.

The Morannon captain will also hopefully be close enough to the taskmaster and in the front line to engage anybody that needs it and call heroic actions. He is perfectly willing and able to trade his shield for a large two handed scythe...

The shamans shall be spreading the word of His Dark Majesty and inciting a Fury to put strength in them that would keep them fighting after others would die.

This is the basic battle plan. I am awaiting orders from The Mouth to move on to our enemies. The ancient enemy, the elves are slowly moving, the men of Gondor are mobilizing, and there are even signs of dwarven activity. Your advice will surely be helpful.

In the Dark Lord's service,
The Red Captain

I would like to face and do well against anybody. That being said, my usual enemies are Gondor. A lot of Def6/7 and some spears and pikes. The dead men as well...the forces of evil have rather poor courage... I also face elves and dwarves.

I apologize for the length...

I like the theme, but I think you're missing a few ingredients. Maxing your warbands is a good idea, especially as the strength of orcs is in their numbers. Since you don't have any bows, you need something to get into combat quickly, and a drummer could be more effective than a taskmaster. And you need some way of controlling enemy heroes...even a generic budget wraith is very effective. Give him a couple of Might and he becomes a decent leader as well, providing excellent standfast.

For the warg riders: that's a lot for one captain, and a lousy bog captain at that. In general, named heroes are better, and Sharku is a better choice. You need the Might, otherwise half the time (or more) your warg riders are just very expensive single-attack warriors. I wouldn't take more than 8, since a hero's Might umbrella isn't really big enough to handle more. This frees up some points for other uses, such as replacing a Morannon Orc captain with a named captain.

Hey man If i were you I would try and fit as many named orcs in there as possible the likes of sharku, gorbag and grishnak come to mind, especially when equiped with shields and near enough a task master you can pull off an awful lot of heroic strikes at that point

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http://grungehog.blogspot.co.uk/

No Gothmog/Bolg/Azog? That's a mistake.

they are very good options however, they might significantly reduce the numbers aspect of this army list which IS it's main strength

_________________
http://grungehog.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for the advice, I'm looking at a few revisions and then a field test. I'm going o stay away from the budget Wraith simply because of theme. Generally I won't be seen without at least one...so awesome.

That is a lot of Warg Riders, ill try 6-8 and see how they do. What are the thoughts on Sharku? I don't have my book on me. Is he exceptionally better than a regular orc captain? These two would be about my only option for somebody to accompany the riders. Gothmog is awesome but expensive for this list I think.

As I have both Grishnâk and Gorbag I do believe I shall replace my Morannon Captain with one. For the same points (I'll give whomever I choose a shield) I get an extra might, though at the cost of some combat ability. Worth it, I think.

I'll come back with a revised list.

He has extra Might, and I think if you compare his stats + warg with other heroes, he's getting a bit of a discount on his warg. Otherwise, he has no special rule, so it's really just about the Might.

Alright, gents!

I have taken your advice and weighed it. I decreased the number of wargs to 6 and added in some axe wielding orcs as a suicide bunch to hit the flank and score a lucky score or two. I'll hold them back a bit until the lines meet.

I left in a some of the orc swordsmen to use as a buffer and/tie up some men with shielding. The rest of my force moves as planned. Move up and rely on masses of orcs and high strength and defense. I might even be able to win a few fights with two banners.

I now now 3 might with the riders and 6 amongst my line. If I am lucky and am careful with how I move I should be able to save a few points of might with the help of the taskmaster.

I didn't really consider the drums on account of how expensive they are. If I do need to move I can try for heroic marches and hopefully I can some might there with the taskmaster. My survivability should be decent with my high defense and the Fury. I will try for the channeled Fury and as channeling is a heroic action the Taskmaster can try and save the might.

I did decide against the Nazgûl as it goes against the all orc theme. Most of my other lists will feature the Ringwraiths though.

Here's the lists, let me know what you think!

Sharku w/ shield and warg
-6 warg riders
-5 orcs w/two handed axes
162

Grishnáhk w/shield
-5 Morannon orcs w/ shields
-5 orcs w/ spears
-2 orcs w/ shields
132

Taskmaster
-6 Morannon orcs w/ shields
-5 orcs w/ spears
-1'orcs w/ shields
144

Shaman
-5 Morannon orcs w/ shields
-5 orcs w/ spears
-1 orc w/ shields
-1 orc w/banner
166


Shaman
-5 Morannon orcs w/ shields
-5 orcs w/ spears
-1 orc w/ shields
-1 orc w/banner
166

64 models and 10 might Great list there man

_________________
http://grungehog.blogspot.co.uk/

Remember you got more options around :P

I like gothmog to hold the front line, his special rule can be effective oon the horde to counter enemy heroes, although hes pretty deadly on warg.
Another curious orc despite expensive its the morgul stalkers, a bit mutated orc by the dark powers, morgul stalkers offer 3 good things, higher strength like a morannon orc, more attacks (2 a piece) and their rule of shadow which is a similar effect to elven cloaks, which in the mid of an entire orc army they can pass unnoticed and attack where you see its more effective :)

I've looked at the Stalkers as I have 3 of them. They have a few strengths which are nice. I had largely written them off on account of their cost despite their strengths though. I wonder about using them as assassins who take advantage of a Nazgûl's Transfix though. Their lighter defense isn't as much of a liability then.

I have Gothmog's foot model but haven't made much use of him. I do admit I love messing with the enemy's Might usage, I'm mean like that. It is also the reason why the Dwimmerlaik is one of my favourite, if not my favourite of the Wraiths.

Despite I may not be fond of shooting for orcs, orc trackers can be curious, and giving them wargs maybe some nice sacrificial scouts to kill enemy horses and dismount them combining speed and bow skill matching a RoR moving and shooting.

With the changes to shooting and orcs being rather poor at it to begin with I haven't made much use of shooting. The trackers are rather nice though, even if I don't have the models.

I have had some success in allying a couple of warbands of Haradrim in. The Serpent Guard lend a Fight 4 attack to my Morannon which is poisoned! Then I have a dozen archers shooting poisoned arrows at a greater range and with a better shoot value than orcs with bows.

What would you suggest? I could remove those 5 orcs with axes and put in 6 trackers....

not sure if that would be wise... well they shot at 4+( 5+) at worst chance..

I´ve used 5 once just to shot at highly armoured knights just to dismount

Here is what I would go for:

Warband 1: Mordor
Leader- Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul, mounted on a Warg

6 Warg Riders, with 2 Orc bows and 2 throwing spears

6 Morannon Orcs, with shields and spears

Warband 2: Isengard
Sharku

12 Warg Riders, with 4 bows and 4 throwing spears

Warband 3: Mordor
Orc Shaman, mounted on a Warg

Mordor War Catapult, with 2 extra orcs

Mordor Siege Bow, with 1 extra Orc

Warband 4: Mordor
Morannon Orc Captain, with two-handed weapon

12 Morannon Orcs, with banner, 11 spears and 11 shields

Seriously?! 2 Siege Engines? They are next to useless in standard skirmishes, especially the catapult. Sometimes the enemy can deploy within its minimum range and nullify a 100pt investment instantly.
Also, you can only have 1 siege engine per warband.
Further, too many warg riders. 18 will hurt you more than your opponent. I've always found with that many riders I struggle to get them all in combat when they charge. Also, bows are useless on orcs now and to a certain extent, so are throwing spears. The -1 to hit really hurts orcs now.

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12th GBHL 2013.
13th GBHL 2014
9th GBHL 2015


Mid Sussex Wargamers

So I finally got to test this list out against one of my friends. He is quite good and brought Gondor. I made a few changes, Kardûsh replaces one shaman and the 5 orc axemen are replaced by Orc Trackers. I also moved the orc swordsmen to Sharku's warband and split the archers between the remaining warbands. This is because while both Mordor and Isengard (of which Sharku is a part) get basic orcs, only Mordor gets the trackers.

He had a pretty elite list. Gondor swordsmen backed by Fountain Court and a captain (who has slain many an orc) and King Ellasar. The infantry were backed by an avenger bolt thrower and a warband of rangers led by Faramir.

We rolled up Lords of Battle and deployed. He found a nice little niche between two pieces of terrain to deploy his line as well as some for his bolt thrower and a hill on the opposite site to put his rangers and Faramir. I deploy up close (rolled a 1-3 for each warband) which is what I want anyway.

Long story short I sent the orcs with swords to harass the archers and they did their job well. I sent a warband around one piece of terrain while another attacked his his other flank and hit the bolt thrower first. The centre two warbands moved right up the middle to hit his line. A lot of blood but they were well and I feel the end would have really started when the flankers hit him on the sides and rear. Sadly the wargs took arrow fire and didn't do much.

The heroes did well, though I didn't use my Might aggressively enough, especially as the scenario rules allowed me to regain might upon the death of an enemy hero. The taskmaster ensured I didn't spend any might at all , lucky and I can't always depend on it. The shamans both got Channeled Fury, the regular shaman on the second try, but the taskmaster did his job.

The King with Anduríl broke though my lines but between some less than stellar rolls and a 5+ Fury he only killed one orc a turn.

We did call the game as it was getting late and the writing on the wall was pretty clear. He simply didn't know what to do against me. Of course, right before then he steamrolled me with the new Eldar for 40k so we each got a game to destroy the other.

I will try against his High Elves next, though I reminded him that Fury allows orcs to pass courage tests as well as getting a save. Impressions from the list? It doesn't seem to be too fun to play against and he requested that unless I were playing to test something out to not bring it. As I wrote this list as an experiment on pure orcs and I enjoy both monsters and Nazgûl I probably won't bring this list that much. I do need a bit more play testing but it appears to be solid. Feel free to use and make tweaks, but fair warning: as you may know Channeled Fury combined with some luck may cause some distress for your opponent.

Next up: High Elves! Then another Gondor player and dwarves!