Tuesday, 24 July 2012

Orc thoughts.


In 7th edition my Orc and Goblin army was quite different than what it is now. I used to run a big unit of Boar Boyz with characters in, a unit of savage boar boyz, chariots and a couple of blocks.
It was a good list as the boar boys added the speed and hitting power the army needed. At the start of 8th edition, everyone got rid of their cavalry, thinking they could not compete with the large infantry blocks, step up etc. But now we are seeing a massive resurgence of 1+ armour save knight buses, full of characters smashing the world.



My Orcs feel left out.....

So I have been running through some ideas in my head. The main 2 problems I see with boar boyz, is there low Initiative meaning they strike after a lot of things, and the not so hot armour save.  I think to run boar boyz you have to alter your list massively from the net list Orcs, which I don't mind doing.  Initiative can be solved by running Goblin magic, getting itchy nuisance off to reduce peoples Initiative by D6. But to reliably get the spell you need a lvl 4, which cuts into your level 4 orc and Warboss funds.  The armour save is not really fixable. Standard boar boys can get a 3+, which isn't good enough in my opinion, so you need the savage boar boys. If you take the spear and shields option, they get to a 4+. You miss out on the additional HW, but with characters in the front rank, and the bonus save, I don't think they are worth it. Now 4+ is worse than 3+ obviously, but you put a savage shaman with shrunken head in there, and suddenly you have a cav unit with a 4+ armour 5+ ward save, not too shabby.


Now by putting the head shaman into the cav, you don't get it on the Savage big unz, which kinda sucks, but that is why you have to really change your list around. To run the Orc boar boyz you need multiple heavy hitting, fast moving threats, which the orcs do have in chariots, pumpwagons, giants, arocs and manglers. It will be my "Orc rush list".
Will post a list up tonight. I look foreward to seeing what kind of list I can make, and thoughts you guys have on the concept.





2 comments:

  1. Why do you have to run them as a bus? I'd think units of 5-6 as Flankers would work nicely for the points. As soon as Savage Orcs Boar boyz start hitting the second rank I'm not really sure they are worth the points.

    Happy to be proven wrong though, maybe its just me getting tired of everyone and their dog running buses around...

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  2. As much as Orcs feel left out with the Calv bus, they have some fantastic counters to it. Doomdivers, manglers, fanatics, cheap steadfast buses etc. The power of the bus is in the characters...the BRB has the BEST counter to these lists...the sword of anti heroes + black orc Warboss normal choppyness = what bus? Maybe just having the black orc warboss on a boar so he can solo rush the bus??

    Sword anti heroes, ench. shield, 4++, OTS, HA, Boar seems a reasonable set up for a black orc warboss to counter the calv bus (once it has worn a doom diver/hand of gork fanatic move/mangler if lucky)

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