this may be little off but orc players can correct me.
always keep heros between your orcs so that fi they fail their anom tests they wont start fights (I think ashton brought this one up)
equip goblins with bows to ping the enemy whilst your hand to hand equipped orcs get stuck in.
use cover as orcs approach and the goblins can ping enemy melee fighters.
a troll can't die and is quite handt to have as a sponge just incase needs arise, but keep an orc hero nearby to stop it being stupid
give your shaman a weapon, dont let him rely on spells, maybe cranged item if he can take one?
Get all 4 heroes.
The next part is taken from Ashton's blog:
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Orc and Goblin Necessities
No matter what direction I go with a Orc and Goblin Warband, I will always get all four heroes (200gc) as that directly affects my income after every game. Only getting four heroes to start is probably the biggest draw-back for the Orcs and Goblins.
Squigs and Goblins and Orcs, Oh My!
This is the warband I am currently playing with, and is probably the most fun of the Orc and Goblin warbands to start with. Squigs are so great at the beginning of a campaign with WS4 and S4, so I wanted to get all 5 of them (warband max). This means I would need to get 5 goblins, of which I would give one or two of them squig prodders and the rest of them get short bows. That’s 10 members in your warband for less than 200gc. These are your cannon fodder, and they are very easy to replace. The four Orc heroes brings the warband total to 14 and leaves 100 gold for equipment for them. I went ahead and got a Orc Boy (henchman) to work on getting another Hero, giving me 75 gold to equip my five Orcs. I would recommend getting more Orc Boyz as soon as you can to get more heroes.
Greenskins Bash’um Good
With 4 toughness, Orcs start out better than most units for Close Combat. Orc Boys armed with a club and dagger only cost 28gc, so you can get 8 of them for 224gc, leaving 76gc to equip your 4 heroes. Thats 12 Orcs in a starting warband! And since they all gain experience, they’ll all be getting better as you continue to play. (This is probably the warband a “power player” would create. It’s very powerful, but not as much fun as the above. =])
Big and Scary Troll
Trolls are a great investment for a Orc and Goblin warband. Yes, they have a 15gc upkeep and they’re stupid, but they will NEVER DIE! There is no chance that the troll will die after being put Out of Action; not to mention the unmodified 4+ armor save, three attacks, three wounds and causing fear. No matter which way you look at them, they are tough adversaries if you can get him into combat. If you get a troll and the four heroes, that only leaves 100gc for equipment and the rest of your warband. I’d try to get up to 9 models if at all possible, but it may have to wait a round or two.
Shooty Orcs
Although a shooty warband doesn’t take advantage of the Orc’s 4 toughness, there is no reason they couldn’t pull it off. I saw one guy arm as many Orcs as possible with Crossbows, which I would not do. Crossbows cost 15gc extra and only give you +1 str, and makes it so you can’t move and fire on the same turn. Bows cost more than 50% less, and is not much worse. If you’re going to go for a shooty Orc warband, I would get a pile of Orcs with bows, and a handful of Goblins with short bows (5 for 100gc). Then get close combat weapons for them as you get GC from games.
There’s my thoughts on starting an Orc and Goblin Warband.
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Next is some tactic info from mordheimer.com
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It’s Hard to Get Good Help These Days…
Experience gaining henchmen: there are various splits available for henchmen, and one of the most obvious is gains experience and does not. The "does not" are routinely cheaper and since most of them are animals do not need equipment, but you should aim to get XP gainers where at all possible. These henchmen will serve well, fighting bravely and doing what you want generally as much as non-gainers, and halfway through the campaign you do not realize everyone is too tough for them now. Besides, as a general rule of thumb, gainers are a damn sight more reliable as they have higher Leadership.
Quantity vs. Quality
Do you max out a chosen few, or do you take loads and loads of men? That is the question. I believe in statistical probability (and loaded dice) so I favor quantity. Statistically speaking, if only by luck, it would be easier for 20 Skaven armed with slings to kill (Out Of Action) a single enemy warrior that is 5” away than for 2 marksmen armed with long bows at 30”. Why? Well the Skaven will get 40 shots, and they could easily get 20 hits, of those get 10 wounds, and the victim could fail at least 2 armor saves. The massive amounts of shots will compensate for the lack of ability.
The argument behind quality is that eventually you catch up and your superior armaments start to win you battles. To me this is hard to believe. After all, at the end… this is a game ruled by chance and dice. So it seems logical to have as many dice as you could. This is not to say that you should just ignore weapons: everybody should have the weapon that they need for their job. But extravagances should be avoided. Armor is a common one - anything with Blackpowder, an axe or high S can generally make a mockery of armor and even when this does not occur, it still rarely does the trick. The most, I ever go to at first is armor for my leader, and even that is not common for me.
Rout Tests: Stay and Fight!
With careful planning, you can dampen the effects of rout tests. The first and most obvious is inclusion of as many high leadership types as possible. The next is to try to bolster your warband where possible to 9 rather than 8, 13 rather than 12. In short, get over the limit to how many go out before you start looking like breaking.
Hired Swords: Be Your Own Accountant
Before considering any Hired Sword, check you cash flow. You must think more about the future well being of your party than the next battle. If you hire many mercenaries, and your warband becomes extremely dependent of them, one day you will find unable to pay their upkeep and your warband will rapidly become parts of Mordheim’s furniture.
Do not hire any of them at the beginning of the campaign. Wait until your warband is close to its maximum, because hiring regular warband characters do not have any upkeep. Once your roster is full, then the Hired Sword’s characteristic of not counting towards your warband’s size limit can come handy. Also at this point you may not be too concerned about money (not many expenses and have most of the gear you want) so you can spare some to maintain the mercenaries.
Of all the Hired Swords, I strongly recommend the Halfling Scouts and the Pit Fighters. The Scouts are very cheap and will increase the warband’s size limit by one. The Pit Fighters are of average cost, but they are savage and efficient fighters.
Large Monsters: Expensive Targets?
Some believe it is hard to win with large monsters in a starting warband, and they are right. They are often temperamental with generally low leadership and suffer from Stupidity. Large are expensive, and buying them when starting your warband will leave you under powered in many areas, such as fewer henchmen (low rout test) and extremely basic equipment. As you start to rely on this monster for your edge in combat, enemy warbands will focus their attacks on to these creatures and by sheer number of attacks will take them Out Of Action swiftly. This leaves your under-powered warband against a well balanced enemy. This is not a good situation.
The best recommendation is to purchase them as a backup, and not as a primary fighting force. Once you have won several games, and your rosters is almost full and well equipped, and then get one of these juggernauts. Now you are forcing your opponent to pick between big evil brute and nasty evil hero, then kill them with which one they fail to go for.
Flexibility: No Longer Something You Do Before Exercising.
Try to make certain your warband can deal with as many situations as possible. This is the key for your warband’s success. A warband may have to face many different foes in many different scenarios. It is okay to build the close combat monster of them all, but it will suffer in breakouts and other missions giving ranged combat opponents a good chance to sweep the streets of Mordheim with your corpses. Defensive warbands will tend to loose at Wyrdstone Hunt (or any other situation that requires speed) and ranged combat warbands tend to have a hard time if an enemy manages to close the gap and enter close combat. Try to cover all your bases: a few tough defenders, supported by hand-to-hand warriors, watch from above by some snipers.
Balance: Ying-Yang Your Way Towards Victory.
All warbands have strengths and weaknesses. You must learn these fairly quickly and remember to play around them! For example, a Skaven warband is strong in mobility, numbers and combat power and may try to build a powerful quick combat machine. An Undead player may counter this with fear causing models exploiting the Skaven's weak Ld. Next battle; the Skaven may attempt to use the Undead's lack of mobility to run rings around them. When playing, try to pick out a weak point of the enemy where you are strong, and combine it with another strong point of yours or weak point of his. In the above example, the Skaven may very well decide to run around the Undead pelting them at close range with missiles. Shooting and Mobility are two notorious weaknesses of Undead, while Skaven have good mobility and powerful short ranged shooting.
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Lots of info, but the tactics one will hopefully help the guy figure out in conjunction with the fluff and background of orcs what needs to be done.
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Subject: A New player 
Wed 14 Jan 2009 - 12:46
