The Workbook of Orcs of Moria - Design (Fellowship A)

[caps]

Originally Posted by Chris Perkins

How about having Orc heroes give an aura that is a mix of good & bad abilities instead of bonding?

So a hero like Lurtz would have a power like this:
Intimidate
All friendly orc figures within 4 clear sight spaces of Lurtz get +1 to attack but roll 1 less defense die.

So heroes give their squads a boost, but it is only useful in some circumstances. Seems more thematic to me (orc leaders were always bossing their squad members around and pushing them to the brink) and makes them play much differently than classic 'scape orcs.

You could add a movement bonding potentially as well, but that might make them too powerful. I think having to invest one or two OMs on the hero (like Raelin) is good, and then the hero is set up as a strong end-game figure (at least Lurtz would be, with likely 5 range and a decent attack).

I do agree with Archie thought that bonding in the classic sense would be bad for these guys. I think when we do bonding, it makes more sense for HoME figures to bond with classic figures and operate as more stand-alone OM guys in Middle-Earth only battles.

Just want to say I like this idea a lot.

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I see a pretty strong swing against bonding. I'm definitely on board with that.

The book doesn't give us a whole lot to go on for the Orcs of Moria. At Balin's tomb, after Frodo's sting drove the troll back, it says a host of orcs came in and the Fellowship slew thirteen of them before they fled. Then a chieftan attacked them, knocking Boromir to the ground and stabbing Frodo before Aragorn split his head open.

Common squads don't need lots of powers, so what about something like

NAME = ORCS OF MORIA

GENERAL = UTGAR
UNIQUENESS = COMMON SQUAD
CLASS = WARRIOR
PERSONALITY = VIOLENT
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM/5?

LIFE = 1 (4 figures)
MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 2
DEFENSE = 2
POINTS = 35

CAVE DWELLER
When attacking a figure on a dungeon or shadow tile, add 1 to an Orc of Moria's attack.

ORCISH VIOLENCE
After taking a turn with the Orcs of Moria, you must roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 1-4, destroy an Orc of Moria you control adjacent to another Orc of Moria you control. If you roll an 18 or higher, inflict one wound on an opponent's figure adjacent to an Orc of Moria you control.

[Shiftrex]

The Orcish Violence feature almost never comes into play which makes me like it a lot more, it's a cool bonus for the guy playing them if it does trigger but the worst it'll do for me as the opponent is put me down a figure that only had 1 life to begin with (squad figure or as good as dead wounded hero). It also reminds me of a conversation in the Return of the King, I think it was between Sam and Frodo? Where they talk about how Orcs fight amongst themselves more than they fight against humans and elves, they just seem to hate non-orcs the smallest margin more than orcs.

Movement of 6 is good here, Orcs are twisted elves and they seem to be pretty agile and mobile creatures in whatever form of our source material we look at. Cave Dweller is nice to see here as well, is this going to be our kind of "staple" when we make things that live deep underground and hate the sunlight? *Is on board*

The other stats look good, after all, most of the smaller types of Orcs are only supposed to be dangerous when massed. Swarm mechanics are nice, now if I can move a butt-ton of these guys at once through some leader unit (Azog?) then they'll really shine.

[Chris Perkins]

I like the notion of "orcish violence" a lot. Makes them play like the inverse of Roman's, which seems both thematic to me & a niche that doesn't completely exist yet.

I also like the idea of each different orc hero having some different, non-bonding effect. Although for a movement boost I'd probably use Ugluk because of how fast the Uruk-hai ran across Rohan. These different abilities combining is a cool effect but high point cost for non binding cheerleaders, which seems right to me.

For Ugluk, how about this:
Haste of Sauroman
All friendly orc & uruk-hai figures that begin their turn within 6 clear sight spaces of Ugluk may add 2 to their movement. Haste of Sauroman does not affect Ugluk.

maybe a different hero can let you move 4 additional units 6 spaces without attacks, but I'd rather it not be Azog. Bolg maybe. Jacksons use of Azog out of cannon the whole trilogy was a terrible decision.

[caps]

I had a couple more thoughts about Orcish Conference Violence after I went to bed. It would be neat to have Orc Captains give a bonus to the roll. So the more orc Captains there are the more likely it is to be effective. And as you kill off the Captains the orcs become more unruly. Maybe make the bonus dependent on the orc Captains having clear sight on an enemy figure within so many spaces so they have to stay in the action. Then my other thought was require there be *two* orcs adjacent to an enemy to deal damage to them, so you may want to spread them out but you can't spread them out too much.

[Splash]

Love that Orcish Violence power I can just imagine them straight up eating each other.

[Chris Perkins]

I like each orc hero giving them better odds at the roll

[Splash]

Yeah, without oversight they are very chaotic.

[caps]

Does anyone have any ideas for what we can do for the archers?

[Shiftrex]

NAME = ARCHER ORCS OF MORIA

GENERAL = UTGAR
UNIQUENESS = COMMON SQUAD
CLASS = WARRIOR
PERSONALITY = RESILIENT
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM/5?

LIFE = 1 (3 figures)
MOVE = 5
RANGE = 6
ATTACK = 2
DEFENSE = 1
POINTS = 35

CAVE DWELLER
When attacking a figure on a dungeon or shadow tile, add 1 to an Orc of Moria's attack.

ORCISH RESILIENCE
If an Archer Orc of Moria is attacked by a non-adjacent figure and at least 1 skull is rolled, roll the 20-sided die. If that Archer is on a dungeon or shadow tile, add 3 to your die roll. If you roll 1-15, roll defense dice normally. If you roll a 16 or higher, ignore all wounds that would be received.

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This idea aims to make them slightly different than other archer units but giving them our running theme of Cave Dweller that we see on the other Moria Orcs and cave troll but we make them harder to kill at range. They are still squishy and easy to kill if you roll up on them.

Wording comes from Durgeth Ravagers because I've been playing them a lot and they might be able to benefit from it but I only gave their d-20 roll a small boost because I don't know what commander units will look like for the Orcs.

[caps]

I'm not feeling Orcish Resilience.

I think it makes sense to reuse cave dweller, but then I might start their base attack at 1. Attack of 4 from height against figures on dungeon and shadow seems pretty strong for range

[Shiftrex]

Welp...

We have Arubuen Archers that can take extra turns, we have roman archers that have a volley, we have arrow grunts that have Disengage and bonding. Ive heard multiple people say that we should avoid bonding so we dont have a Glad/Blast relationship though I wouldnt mind it here.

Would it be wrong to just leave cave dweller on those stats? Dropping their attack to 1 of course. Or we could put Disengage of them to make the similar to arrow gruts but have different utility.

[Chris Perkins]

Personally I'd like to stay away from disengage on any of our orcs. I don't think it's especially thematic and it makes our orcs play too much like classic 'scape's orcs.