Note this was written originally a few months ago it’s still relavent, it was a little bit more restrained about the problems of Orc’s than I’d probably have liked as my target forum was warseer.

Mine (and Nork’s performance)

Well my minor loss, draw and solid victory was enough to see me do better than ‘average’ finishing 20th out of 48. My total VP’s were very low though, 5th lowest or something, one guy got more VP’s in a single game than I did in all 3 (mind he tabled someone) but I’ll speak more of that later.
I’m fairly happy with my performance for my first tournament my finish was good considering my lack of experience and my army choice/selection.

Army selection

My army (and you could argue orc’s as a whole) lacked hittyness and the ability to deal with a deathstar/bunker whilst that may be a problem with the Army rather than the choices I made there’s things I could have done.

Heros

Hero wise Nork should have been a black orc, there’s no game reason nor rules justification otherwise- it was just me clinging onto my army background, but normal orcs are inferior to black orc’s all-round and to savage orc’s for hittyness. Originally Nork was going to be a savage orc (his original name was Nork frenzytooth) but I decided against it fearing it a bit unpredictable and ofc you really have to run him on foot.
Nork being a black orc would have seen him racking up more hit’s (lots of ws 5-6 enemies there) and if I’d had a suitable unit for him as savage version then he’d have been able to spend more points on bashing items and had an extra attack. There’s really, alas, no reason to use normal orc heroes and thats a real shame.
My other 2 hero’s did there jobs admirably (gobblit never got killed) and I suffered very little magic, because they were defensive I really suffered from having Nork be a normal orc with a mix of defensive and offensive items.

Conclusion- if I did it again Gobblit and Banna Basha would be exactly the same, Nork however would either be a black orc or savage orc.

War machine’s/ shooting

I’m fairly happy with these and they did what they should do, allowing me to fend off the harder unit’s. I probably had one more unit of shooting that was appropriate especially as all 3 tables did not lack terrain.

Infantry
One problem I had is my troop’s really lacked raw hitting power, combat res and T4/4+ save is all I had and it really didn’t cut the mustard against some armies, or wouldn’t of in the case of the dwarfs.

Conclusion- I’d exchange the 2 armed choppa boyz for a unit of savage orcs and possibly drop a unit of shooting.

Army choice- Orc’s

Measures words carefully There’s no doubt that you can take Orcs to a tournament and get an above average position, indeed I with better play and a slightly better armylist I could probably have added a few tourny point’s. You might even be able to get a high (top 10) position in a field of 50. A lot of the tourny final positions depend on the draw (for those 3 game events) and with the length of most games it seems you need 2 days to do 5-7 games.

I’m honestly not sure what you can do against some of the super hitty unit’s out there except avoid them. I didn’t have a counter to the graveguard/ longbeards and that would have been the same with Black guard etc. By no means will you lose to these armies guaranteed (though DE frighten the pants of me) but you’re playing for a draw/small win it seems (as there’s so many points in one or 2 unit’s)

I guess one of my few complaints with orcs is that it seems that you’re playing for a small win against most competive tournament builds and whilst that’s no great tragedy (I believe that there’s no unbeatable army) it does affect your chance of getting the very high rankings as generally you need very good win’s to get there. (I bet I get a flood of people posting Orc massacres now and or linking top 5 finishes in large tournaments. :D)
Please note this is is as much a fault of Warhammer, the direction it’s going, the state it’s in and of tournament play/structure as it is of the Orc book.

My second complaint has to be about animosity, this is probably old ground for some but my complaint isn’t the standard one- that it’s too bad/random (of which you can argue it’s both) but it’s that it’s time consuming (5 mins extra a turn- 30 mins a game) and counter intuitive (an unit can squabble as easily if it is within an inch of no enemy than if it can’t see one, and the same with ‘lets show ‘em)
As a related point I never called a waagh in any of the 3 games.

My last complaint is a funny one- the army’s too popular. I know this may suprise/bewilder some but for an army that is a fairly average army to me both in its format and ability, boy do you get a lot of people playing them. I can understand this if you like their background or find them fun, but am I the only one who thinks their background was greatly reduced in the army book and the fun, random, whacky part of the army has been greatly watered down. The character and unpredictability of the army seem’s to have been replaced by a fairly standard, mediocre army where occasionally a unit doesn’t move.

I will still continue to use Orcs and goblins and maybe even take them to more tournaments, Nork shall ride on, but I’m now looking for a second army (which don’t worry won’t be one of the big 3)

Conclusion

Cry havoc was a great tournament, I had a great time and I’m happy with my finish, I’m likely to go back again, whether it’s with Nork at it’s head is no guaranteed thing (if he is back he’ll have gone feral). Was a great night at the watering hole too