Kings of War/Tactics/Riftforged Orcs

Why Play Riftforged Orcs

• You love the Green Tide and everything it is to be an Orc, but are still found wanting..
• Fluff-wise, Kings of War Orcs are much darker than their comic-relief cousins. Less lovable Cockney; more tortured-into-insanity, Tolkienesque killing machine. On the upside this allows for a darker tone/theme to the modelling. On the downside it has less comedy gold. The Riftforged Orcs are even darker, having spent time in the Rift where they could fight, die, and be reborn over and over honing their skills.
• Riftforged Orc armies tend to a medium to low amount of models, as Riftforged units tend to be more elite versions of regular Orcs.
• Riftforged Orcs have a lot of the simplicity of regular Orcs baked-in but bring some twists.
• Stormcast but for Orcs, and Azyr is actually hell.

Army Special Rules

• Stormstrike: Any 6s to hit are resolved with the Blast(2) special rule, ranged or melee. Note that this is only on one special character and as an upgrade for two heroes, so don't expect it to come up much.

All units in this army have Crushing Strength (1) unless otherwise noted.

Unit Analysis

Note that a lot of units in this list are basically "like X unit from the Orc list but with Y buff for Z points more"

Hero

• Flagger: The basic Inspiring hero for the army. Take him for all your inspirational needs.

• Stormcaller: The blasty caster, has Lightning (4), can swap for free or pay for Icy Breath (8), can be given Bane Chant (2), Blizzard (3), Veil of Shadows (3). The last two being limited to one per army. Also can be mounted on Manticore for Fly and Speed 8".

• Riftforger: The support caster, comes with CS2, Inspiring, optional Stormstrike, and can be given Bane Chant (2), and/or Host Shadowbeast (3). What makes them unique is that they can still cast either spell in melee combat targeting either themselves or another Riftforged unit that is also in melee combat with the unit they are fighting.

• Stormbringer: Your slashy hero. Has Crushing Strength (2) and Inspiring by default, but can also take Stormstrike for more pain. He can be put on a regular (not flying) Manticore for 8" move and height 3.

• Stormbringer on Helstrike Manticore: Nice

• Stormbringer on Winged Slasher: Basically the standard CS3 'combat lord on a dragon' character for Riftforged Orcs.

Infantry

• Unforged Orcs: Analogous to Youngax in the master list, same price, same stats, same keywords. Use them as cheap unlocking units.

• Riftforged Legionnaires: These guys are the middle-weight infantry. Think regular Ax units but no Legion size and you're paying 15/20/35 more points for 3+ Melee and +1/+1 Nerve. Seems like a good deal.

• Reborn Legionnaires*: The super-elite storm-orcs, these guys have Crushing Strength (2) and Inspiring. Making them Greatax but with better Nerve, armour and supporting friendly units. The addition of Inspiring on these can openers means you're able to extend a bit further away from your Flaggers.

• Riftwalkers*: A flying infantry unit with Nimble, Strider, and no Wavering value.

• Morax: A bucket of CS1 attacks that will hurt whatever they charge. Very nasty against screening chaff, and hurts even larger units when flanking.

• Skulks*: Just like the master list, they're somewhat underwhelming and best used in Troop size.

Swarms

• Orclings*: Cheapish swarms of little orcs, they don't unlock other units, and won't control objectives, but are more cost efficient for just flooding the board with bases to block movement. One of only two units to lack CS1.

Large Infantry

• Riftseers: Crushing Strength (1) and Spellward on these big Cyclops. You can pay 10 points for a unit, to a maximum of 2 units, to redeploy after all scout moves have been made, but before rolling for first turn. Probably not worth it if you're not taking the redeploy upgrade and trying to bait your opponent or something. Its not a typo, but CS1 feels a little pillowfisted when almost the rest of the army has CS1 too.

Cavalry

• Tundra Wolves*: Taken straight from the Northern Alliance list, these are fast moving irregular chaff units to block charges and screw over Troop sized ranged infantry or warmachines with their Thunderous Charge 1. Not Riftforged and no CS1, pairing it with the Orclings.

• Gore Riders: Your only basic cavalry unit, Orc boar riders. They have speed of 8, melee on a 3+, and defence of 5+. All of this is really nice, plus they get the standard Thunderous Charge (1) for cavalry. They're also not too expensive, although they cannot be taken over regiment size. A must include for most any Orc army, giving you mobility and hitting hard.

Large Cavalry

• Helstrikers: A Manticore flying cavalry unit. CS1 plus Thunderous Charge 1, Brutal and Lifeleech(2)

• Fight Wagons: More expensive than a Gore Chariot, but with almost double the attacks. They fill the same role in your army, so it's going to come down to personal taste. The complete loss of Thunderous Charge hurts the unit, so your extra attacks aren't going to be hitting nearly as hard on the charge. Gore Chariots are better with the charge, but these are better in the inverse.

Monsters

• Stormslayer: Its a CS2, nimble Troll with no regeneration. One less attack than a regiment of Trolls and no waver value. Its best to think of it as a precision flanking than a straight up hammer unit like regular trolls as it can weave between units with its lesser frontage than a regiment of large infantry. Downside is little synergy exists with the rest of the army, maybe some kind of Stormslayer hero in the future or an upgrade that grants Inspiring.

• Ambarox: The Riftforged Orcs made friends in the rift and are bringing their buggy mates home to play. Ambarox is straight up just a mobile insectoid artillery piece for the army. It does not have the attacks, nerve, or special rules to do anything in melee. What it does have is a 24" Blast (D3), Piercing (1), 4+ range attack with Steady Aim, giving it an effective 29" threat range. In terms of role, its basically the Riftforged version of a Skulks Troop; provides slightly better, more accurate fire support, but costs 30 points more.

Titans

• Storm Giant: Differs from the standard giant with the addition of Cloak of Death and Windblast (6). Can be upgraded to have either Slayer(D6) or Rampage(D6) depending on whether you need anti-infantry or anti-large.

• Stormforged Shrine: Big support piece that can cast Bane Chant(1), Host Shadowbeast(2), and Lightning (3). What makes it sexy is that for every other Riftforged unit within 6", roll an extra D6 when casting a spell, to a max of +3. So that means we're looking at Bane Chant (4), Host Shadowbeast (5), and Lightning (6) if its being escorted. On top of this after successfully casting either buff spell, it can cast another buff spell again for one less dice on any Riftforged unit within 12" ignoring line of sight. This continues until it fails to cast or has run out of units to target, it can target the same unit but you can't stack the same buff on a unit. It also has Aura (Fury) and Inspiring.

War Engines

None.

Tactics

Orcs can run a pretty good sledgehammer.

Strengths

• Crushing Strenth 1 for all. When combined with Me3+, things you hit will stay hit.

Weaknesses

• Huge footprint. The Orc army is big. Things that can ignore terrain are invaluable. Giants, the Caterpillar, etc.
• Gun-lines. Terrain, an infantry backbone, and little shooting can lead to trouble against gun-lines. Keep a couple of cruise missiles and disruption characters around if you have the points. Or take a pig farmer army.