This is less of an army help and more of an army discussion, I took the following army to a tournament a few days back:

Warband 1
Shagrat Warleader
5 Morannon Orcs - Shield
5 Morannon Orcs - Spear
2 Spectres

Warband 2
Orc Shaman
12 Morannon Orcs - Shield and Spear

Warband 3
Hunter Orc Captain - Warg and Two-Handed Weapon
12 Hunter Orcs

Warband 4
Spider Queen


Total: 40 models, 8 might, 649 points

The idea of the army is to kill things as quickly as possible. That A3 S4 line, with a Shaman there to reduce losses because Hunter Orcs do like to die. Spectres give me some ability to control my surroundings, relocating banners and such (I mainly took them because I knew that a few people were bringing Shades). Shagrat and the SQ were there to mulch through warriors quickly.

Overall, I never used the army to its full potential, so I wanted to open up the discussion and see what the community would have done with the army/what changes you would have made to suit your goals better.

That depends on what you goals are I suppose. In terms of combat effectiveness I'd wager its alright but there are some major weakness that can be exploited in most game types. You have a low fight, no banners, no archers, are venerable to shooting armies with mobility, and you deployment options are limited by needing two warbands together to maximize their usefulness. I don't know that they could be countered while keeping the general outline of the army the same either so you might have to play in such a way as to mitigate exposure to them on the field.

The main counter you have to your weak areas is the shaman but he forces you to play a certain way to get the most use out of him. That is you have to play in a V or convex line to keep as many people in range of the fury as possible. Not a huge imposition but it will make you predictable and thus can be exploited.

In my opinion the way to to get the most out of the army as it stand at this points level would be to play it straight. Use Shagrat and his company as the spear head of your wedge while your other warbands form the wings with the shaman and captain in the center for might and as a reserve. The spider Queen can either operate in tandem with the capt on each flank or go solo to get behind your enemies lines. That's about all you can do with this kind of highly combat focused army, fight. After all you have no way of making anyone come to you and you cant out wait for them if they have even a few bows. You just have to fight. I could think of only a few other deployment schemes for a force like this but they would be for taking on line battles more then anything. That all I got I'm afraid.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

I know you like the spider queen and her power is good but I think the high points cost takes away from what makes Hunter armies successful and thats a lot of troops.

When I spam them or send a lot of troops, they do well. On the other hand when I include a huge monster or hero with them, it seems to limit me tactically. Overall, I do like your army.

Overall though, Id usually flop what you've done....though I dont play at 650 much.

I more than likely would take TWO hunter warbands with Fimbul and Yazneg(at lower points) for 6 might, a shaman with morannons, and hunter orcs.

Here's a quick two I wrote up. VERY quick mind you:

1-Big hero

Bolg on warg
12 Hunters
Fimbul on warg
12 Hunters
Shaman on warg
4 warg riders with shield
8 morannons shield and spear

4 points left over

OR

Fimbul on warg
12 Hunters
Yazneg on warg lance
12 Hunters
Shaman on Warg
6 morons spear
6 morons shield
Shagrat, War Leader
7 morons spear, some w shield


Idk but thats my two ideas.

Spectres have never done much in our events or the things I saw others do with them. Most tournaments have fury, elves, dwarves, fearless troops, bodyguard etc. Almost always not worth their points. Just imo.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Yeah, the purpose of the army is its main limitation: it's pure offense with only one way to play it.

I got excited about it when I ran some statistical magic to find out which Mordor/Sauron-controlled unit has the most offensive output and/or best defenses. Hunter Orcs came out on top by a long way for attack power, Black Guard coming second. Defensively Hunters were quite poop, but the Shaman brings them to a respectable point.

Building the army, my thinking was that anything that doesn't lend itself directly to this attacking mentality detracts from the army's effectiveness. The only exceptions are the Shaman and the Spectres. The purpose of the Spectres was to give me a counter against Shades or Banners.

My main counter to bowfire was simply that I deployed as far forward as I could. I faced a number of shooting-intensive armies and, between that and the Spectres, never struggled with that specifically.

The main thing I struggled with was, yes, FV. I thought about taking a banner, but it doesn't seem to pay off too much for low FV armies. All I could do was set the numbers in my favour and use my heroes well. Sometimes I made mistakes with deployment that gave me a hard time doing everything I needed to do, all my games were incredibly close when I could have overpowered my opponents without much trouble.

I wanted to answer you guys more specifically but I'm doing this from my phone, if I get a couple of minutes to myself these coming few days, I'll get on a computer and answer properly.