Black Orc

Da Biggest Ardest Gitz Around!

"We will never be slaves! But we will be conquerors!"

– Grom Hellscream, Warlords of Draenor

The Black Orcs are a sub-faction of the Orcs & Goblins in Warhammer Fantasy, and are quite possibly the hardest front line unit on the south side of Warriors of Chaos. Clad in what amounts to plates of kettle metal, brandishing various weapons of the beating, slashing and crunching variety and with a mean streak at least a few miles wide, Black Orcs are the classic elite unit of the Orcs and Goblins faction, and is comparable to Empire Greatswords, Tomb Guard and Temple Guard as melee-units made for krumpin' without being Blood Dragon-like expensive and killy.

Black Orcs are named after their dark green skin and their black armour, which stands in stark contrast to the usually ragtag look of other Orc units, which are mostly painted by shit and blood. This stems from the very first unit of Black Orcs, which was originally slaves to Chaos Dwarf slavers. Tired of their Orc workforce constantly beating each other up over not having enough fights, the Chaos Dwarfs tried to create the perfect slave, taking the most disciplined and tempered Orc slaves, filling them with dark magics and training them mentally and physically, as to get a worker who'd work hard for their masters. Unfortunately, the Dwarfs forgot that Orcs are Orcs, and this new sub-species banded together and carried out an elaborate escape plan which included copious amounts of dead Chaos Dwarfs. The Black Orcs broke free and joined nearby Orc tribes, but had difficulties fitting in because of their disciplined way of fighting and ability to work as a team. As such, Black Orcs are more like wandering bands of elite warriors who few Orcs particularly like for their un-Orcy ways, but won't mind when they get into a scrap and show how absolutely hardcore they actually are.

Normal Orcs consider Black Orcs as being unintelligent and weird for not wanting to scrap all the time, but on the contrary, Black Orcs have a tendency to sport a much higher ability to plan out strategies and to be able to take more stress in battle than any normal Orc, save for a Warboss. Combined with their increased size and hardy hides, and some of the best-forged Orc weaponry and armour in the entire tribe, few Orcs can match a Black Orc in battle.

On the battlefield, Black Orcs are entirely unlike the regular Orc mobs; they are highly disciplined, well armed with multiple types of weapons at hand and armoured from toe to teef. When a Black Orc unit marches, it's in almost perfect unison, with no bickering and or grumbling going on in the regiment. Where a regular Orc is an opportunistic and barbaric berzerker, Black Orcs are disciplined, professional soldiers, executing orders to the tee(f) and dispatching their foes with both vigour and constraint.

tl:dr - Orc Space Marines made by Chaos.

Oldhammer Black Orcs

The idea of Black Orcs has been around pretty much as long as Warhammer was a thing, and they've always been pictured as the biggest, strongest, nastiest orcish subrace - the basic concept might have been stolen from the Uruk-hai of The Lord of the Rings, but bringing that up is a guaranteed way to cause a fistfight. However, the idea of black orcs as Chaos Dwarf-crafted super slaves turned rebels is relatively young. There was another take on the Black Orc that had no connections to the Chaos Dwarfs at all, and it can be seen on page 225 of the first edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay corebook. In this version, whilst the idea that black orcs might have been selectively bred is an in-universe theory, they are instead presented lagely as the result of tribes of orcs selectively breeding by embracing a practice of cannibalizing their weakest members; centuries of this "fight or be food" approach to breeding rites combined with no small amount of inbreeding had produced a larger, stronger, and thoroughly nastier orc... but, unlike their future incarnations, these black orcs aren't regarded as being smarter or more disciplined. More brawn, no brains.

What? You want proof? Alright, this is a transcript of the "ORC, Black" bestiary entry:

Black Orcs are the largest and most terrible of all the goblinoid races. Their awesome size and strength is reputed to be the result of age-old tribal cannibalism whereby the smaller and weaker Orcs are eaten - often alive. This violent method of selective breeding - known in Orcish terms as 'runt noshing' - has a produced a breed of Orc that carries the evil traits of its race to the very worst excesses. Mercifully, it has not increased the race's low intelligence. Powerful creatures as they are, living only for warfare and destruction, it is almost as though they were deliberately bred by some twisted intelligence, intent on creating a master warrior. Their strength and size suits them admirably for this, but their violent, unthinking nature precludes the discipline required by such a design.

Black Orcs normally dress in filthy and tattered furs, with pieces of armour scavenged from the battlefield. Helmets are worn by those who can obtain (and keep) them. The larger and more elaborate a helmet, the greater the prowess of its wearer.

Physique: Black Orcs are by far the largest of the goblinoid races. Their squat powerfully-muscled bodies range from 6 to 8 feet in height, and they are almost as broad as they are tall. Long centuries of inbreeding have led to certain Orcish features being exaggerated in the Black Orcs, and their broad, protruding lower jaws have earned them the nickname 'bulldog heads'. As their name suggests, Black Orcs are invariably dark skinned; dark brown and grey are the commonest colours.

Alignment: Evil

Psychological Traits: Black Orcs naturally victimize (and occasionally eat) members of the other goblinoid races, and are subject to animosity with an extra 10% penalty on the dice roll.

Special Rules: Black Orcs have Night Vision with a range of 10 yards.

Basic Profile: Movement 4, Weapon Skill 33, Ballistic Skill 25, Strength 4, Toughness 4, Wounds 7, Initiative 30, Attacks 1, Dexterity 18, Leadership 29, Intelligence 18, Cool 29, Willpower 29, Fellowship 14

For comparison in profiles, the Black Orc has gained +1 Strength, +1 Toughness, and +10 Initiative to its lesser orcy cousin, but it's lost -11 Dexterity and -4 Fellowship, whilst its Intelligence, Willpower and Cool stats remain identical! Quite a different beast to the strong-but-smart, disciplined and sharp-witted black orcs of "Truehammer", as you can see!

Black Orcs in AoS

Black Orcs specifically do not exist in the Mortal Realms of Age of Sigmar, but particularly large veteran Orcs (equal to Big Un's in Fantasy) with plate armor called 'Ardboys follow the Ironjawz around as their basic troops, attempting to emulate them and keep up by being fairly regimented and well-trained - something the surly Brutes find to be 380% Muckin' About. One can imagine they exist on their own as well as regular, armored Big Un's around the Realms.

Ruleswise, they're essentially like Chaos Warriors and Stormcasts with two Wounds and a 4+ Save and a slew of decent attacks.

40k Black Orks

Despite the fact that they are never explicitly mentioned in 40k, there are two examples that seem to be rough equivalents to Black Orcs.

Firstly, during the 11th Black Crusade, Abaddon went to a planet called Relorria. He encountered some Orks that were looting the planet, which Abaddon took as his opportunity to pull a fast one on them and do some experiments. The result of these Daemon-Ork hybrids is never explicitly mentioned, but it is apparently a success. Whether these Black Orks will end up serving the Black Legion or return to their Klans (or both) is unknown.

The second example are the Orks from Ullanor. During The War of The Beast the Imperium encountered a type of Ork that was not only much bigger than your average Ork boy, but better organised and far more intelligent as well. These Orks wiped the Imperial Fists down to a single man and were later seen wearing bits of old Space Marine armour from the Great Crusade making them better defended as well. This can be seen as part of the way between Ork and a restored Krork.

In terms of existing units though, the most immediate counterpart of the Black Orcs as 'the orks who do displine' are the Stormboyz who while not 'arder' then a standard ork, are more trained.

Hilariously, the Black Templars could be considered as the Space Marines' equivalent of Black Orks. They have black color scheme, specialize in melee combat, high in numbers, conquer planets from planets in hordes of super warriors with blades, and are extremely obedient, so loyal to their boss (aka Big Emps) that not even the inquisition would dare tell them what to do.

On the Tabletop

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