Black Orcs

Im building up a Orc Warband and the last time I played Mrodheim was about 12 years ago.
I played my first two games last wednesday and I had some terrible dice rolling and my opponent way to good dice rolling so the first thing that came to mind is Orcs are crap.
But the parts that went good my Orcs were crushing his Dark Elves so I started enjoying them but I can still use some help.

I decided to play Orcs cause I play 40K in a tournament setting and sometimes I get way to eager to win with 40K.
This is something that I did not want to get stuck into when I started Mordheim so that is why I went with the Orcs, a nice hard Warband that is also good fun to play.

Now yesterday I spotted the Black Orcs ruleset and I fell in love with it, my group does not care what you play as long as you like it. Most guys are really open minded about stuff like this.

Now my question is are Black Orcs a good Warband (it looks like they are) and does someone has some tips and tricks for me on how to play them. Ofcourse tips for an Orcs warband are also welcome.

Thanx

Vissah

The Black Orcs are a strong warband. The limited numbers hurts against some warbands (Beastmen, Da Mob, Skaven and Possessed) later in the campaign and I missed the shaman.

What else do you want to know?

Well just some Orc tactics in general.

I just ordered a box of Black Orcs today so I can make two Warbands cause that is always fun.
If you have to choose between da Mob or the Black Orcs wich Warband would be better cause the Shaman is fun but I found out that magic is not something you can rely on and I dont like that.

I would also like some tips from the Orc veterans about somethings like deployment and movement and do you stay and move around as a big mob or do you split up?

Ah, lad, Orcs IZ something you can't rely on! Shaman just adds another level of unreliable!

There's probably more but I see 3 ways to play.
--Combat orcs that start with a troll. This is what I always do. The troll leads when he can be persuaded to, the ladz follow along as quick as they can. Heroes are interspersed with the boyz to keep animosity from causing casualties. Everybody had at least bows when possible (I buy a bow whenever I can.) With bows you can move and shoot if gits need to be shot.
I usually have one promoted boy shoot, if the orcs are pirates then both promoted boyz will shoot. (See shooty orcs)
If I'm playing Black Orcs I skip the shooter and try hard to get a Nutter promoted. If you start with a troll and only nutters for boyz this is not hard.

--Combat orcs that save up for a troll. Orcs what plan, I've never seen how to pull this off. But folks say they do it all the time, not right to my way of thinking.

--Shooty orcs. All orc heroes take crossbows and shooting skills. The boyz and troll protect shooters. (Waste of a troll is what I see here.) If the orcs are my pirates they take Weapons Master to get ahold of pistols and blunderbusses.

To start I usually advance in 2 or 3 groups that can support each other. With Black Orcs staying together is easier since there are fewer of you.

Thanx for all the tips they are really helpfull.
What I like to start doing is going in for a good scrap and when I get the money I buy bows for everyone cause they are really handy.
I really like the looks of the Black Orcs rules and I dont mind if I can only get 12 of them cause playing with small elite armies is what Im used to with my Chaos Marines
But I will try a big mob aswell ofcourse.

I dont mind the unreliability of Orcs that much cause like I said I want to play Mordheim for fun and a couple animosity roles I really dont care about cause when Im in CC the Orcs will own.

I read a lot of stuff about a Troll are they really that good cause the stats they got and rules for them are really looking good.

Also the other question are Nuttaz good cause for 40 points I think they are a bit expensive but hey when they good they good, I will try them for a couple games when I get the money.

We are still building Warbands so next wednesday we will be playing a couple of stand alone games to get into the rules again and maybe in about 2 weeks we will start a campaign.

Wich are the better campaigners Black Orcs or the Mob?

In Da Mob rules the advantage of a Troll is that it can not die. Our group has adopted the Black Orc Troll's rules for all trolls but I have played 3 games and most people don't care about killing the troll so much as avoiding it or mobbing it. Either one works for me, especially if they can't kill it.

Otherwise it will be stupid a bit. In my first game in the most recent campaign that I played orcs I rolled 12, 11 and 10 for my first 3 turns Stupidity rolls.

Ah ok sounds good I might get a Troll one day

Im going for a Black Orc warband cause I always like to play with a small ellite army, I play Chaos Marines in 40K so Im used to that.
Also the look of the Black Orc models are really good

Thanx for all the tips

Mo! and Figgy both run Black Orcs as far as I know, They both have threads in the Painting section.

I've only played one campaign with the Black Orcs, but they did fine. Good Luck!

Thanx

This week was terrain building, next week will be a couple of intro games with the guys that want to join the campaign and never played it and in 2 weeks we are going for it.
I will let you guys know how my Black Orcs do in the campaign and when Im done painting I post them up here ofcourse

I was also thinking of starting Black Orcs as my second warband after Undead. I'd like to know more on how they compare to the normal Orc warband list (sorry if this seems like threadjacking, but I figured since OP brought it up before, it'd be ok).

Pretty much wondering how much the Shaman adds to the warband and having access to cheap shooting in the form of Goblins.

Personally, I wish there was a way to field the two together. Most people seem to think neither of the Orc warbands are overpowered to begin with.. so maybe with more limitations, I can create a warband that is only allowed 2 or so Black Orcs, but Shaman and Gobbos are still allowed.

in my experience the way they stack up against each other is this: black orcs have less members, are more reliable, are less fun to play, but more likely to win a campaign. For flavor reasons, I prefer black orcs, but I still like playing an orc band.

One difference with Black Orcs is that only up to half of your henchmen and three of your heroes can be armed with crossbows, so you can't do a shooting list as with Da Mob. Given the lower maximum warband size, you can't really have a firebase to support the front lines - both will end up too weak.

Armour on the three main heroes is a point of contention. It's expensive and it'll slow you down, but a 3+ save isn't to be sniffed at. Regular orcs only have access to light armour, which isn't much use unless you plump for the Well 'Ard skill, but that's still only a 4+ if you go for a shield, and you'd be better off going for other skills (like the brilliant Da Cunnin' Plan).

/set shameless_plug 1
One issue I've had with the Black Orc list is the lack of Black Orc henchmen. So I've been messing about recently, check the sig.

The Young Uns in the Black Orc list do feel really out of place (to me at least).