By David Kuijt
Elements I've got (painted):
The major enemies of the orcs are the elves, dwarves, and the human armies of Westernesse and its allies -- Dol Amroth, Gondor, Harlond, Rohan, and the like.
A complete DBA army listing for the orc armies, and all their allies and enemies during the War of the Ring, is available as a separate document here
Click here to see the epic poem describing a battle against the orcs; or here to see the text description as well as the epic poem.
Orcs commonly fight in loose-order hordes. Although relatively fierce, and certainly vicious, their equipment varies widely and is often mediocre or poorly kept. Their training is often poor, and they are kept in line more by fear of their officers and hatred of the enemy than by anything that could be described as discipline.
Most orcs equipped with bows fight as skirmishers, rather than shooting in volleys from a dense formation. The only exception is the hardy Uruk-hai, who are described later. Orcs and goblins make very effective psiloi due to the combination of their viciousness and cowardice when faced with a fair fight.
The orcish hordes have very little in the way of cavalry, probably because orcs like the taste of horseflesh. Their main mounted troops are goblins riding wargs. Wargs are large, intelligent, vicious wolves. They fight alongside the goblins and orcs, and are the size of small ponies.
Warg rider elements fight as Light Horse, except that they treat Woods and Marsh as good going (exactly as 2Cm treat Dunes or Oasis as good going), and they are impetuous. Like Knights or Warband, they follow up one base depth after enemy that retreat, withdraw, or are destroyed.
Very rarely, orcish forces may be found using heavy chariots in battle. This is usually attempted as a reinforcement to their warg-riding goblins, to add more punch to their mounted force.
Treat orcish heavy chariots as any other heavy chariots in DBA. The chariot pictured is too large to fit on a 40mmx40mm base, so it has been mounted on a base 60mm deep. This makes the stand more awkward in movement, which seems reasonable and `realistic'.
Trolls are rare but powerful combatants, akin in shape to orcs or goblins but often as tall as a mounted warrior. They are tough, very difficult to control, huge and immensely strong. In DBA terms, a unit of trolls is well represented with the rules and combat factors for Elephants.
Treat every element of trolls as per the Elephant rules in all respects. This includes paying an extra pip to move any group that includes trolls.
It is lucky for the forces of the West that trolls are so rare.
The strongest, toughest, and meanest orcs and goblins are the Uruk-hai. Some believe that these large vicious orcs represent a successful crossbreeding between orcs and humans. Regardless, they are much braver and tougher than most orcs; they are also well-supplied with armour and weapons, although they substitute ferocity and individual combat skill for group training. Uruk-hai serving in missile units are represented as bow in DBA, not psiloi. Luckily for the forces of the West, Uruk-hai are uncommon. Excepting only for trolls, the Uruk-hai are the most feared of the orcish forces.
Orcs often use catapults in sieges, either to attempt to breach walls, or to throw fireballs or the severed heads of captured enemies into enemy cities to cause destruction and despair. Some of their catapults are small enough to be used against enemy troops in the field, although this is fairly rare.
Orcish catapults function in all ways as Artillery in DBA.
The majority of the figures shown are by Black Raven Foundry. BRFoundry makes large bags of excellent fantasy figurines, moderately priced. I've been very pleased with all their figures so far. All the orc foot (auxilia and warband) and leaders come from their "Orc Melee Troops" pack; the bow-goblins from their "Orc Bowmen" pack, and the trolls, orc wolf-riders, and orc war chariot from packs of the same names.
The orcish catapult is from Ral Partha (part of their 15mm Battlesystem range, the "Orc War Machine"). It mixes very well with the Black Raven Foundry figurines; the barrel-carrying orc in the camp is from the catapult crew.
The camp is based upon a piece of sole leather contact-cemented to metal sheeting for stability. That gives sufficient depth to drill holes for the palisade timbers in the leather. The palisade and tower are built of toothpicks. The camp gate has hinges made of brass wire; the gate opens and closes.
For some other camps I've made, take a look here.
Last Updated: April 5, 2002. Modified the rules to synchronize with the DBA 2.0 modifications to the Tolkein DBA page. Previous update was mid 1998.
The author may be contacted at kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu Please do not use any pictures or text from this page without permission.