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I decided to go with a desert-themed Orc army. I sometimes call them my Fremen Orcs (see the eyes). Orcs are cheap, mean and fun to play. My army is currently a cavalry-based force (until I paint more infantry) with many different supporting elements. Most of the figures are Reaper Shadow Corps. It took me two months to paint this army, my second, for Armies of Arcana.

 ORC STRATEGY:

Orcs are great for numbers. They are not as cheap as goblins, but they are still a mass army whose troops are better that your average humans. As my cavalry wing is huge, I use them as my main troops. The Beast-Riders are awesome in large units. They can ram, overrun, swarm, whatever you need. The infantry is cheap, so they can be marched up-field, looking for a fight. With the Orcs-with-two-weapons, you get lots of attacks on the cheap. The 7x4 block of Orc Warriors is a great unit. As soon as I paint more, they will become my main troops, supported by Trolls and Harpies. Lots of wounds and lots of attacks for not-a-lot of points is the Orcs' strength.

Here is the backbone of this army: 16 Orc Beast-Riders with Sword accompanied by two mounted Orc Heroes. I have two such units. The unit has 54 wounds to begin with, needs to take 15 wounds to test, can apply a large morale penalty and has good armor and many attacks. These units are not too expensive and they look cool, too. I use them either as shock troops or as flankers. If the unit is in RaF, it gives a severe morale penalty, and if it is skirmished, it can have nearly 60 attacks!

This is my Command Unit. It consists of ten Orc Beast-Riders with Lances led by a mounted Orc Chieftain and a mounted Orc Earth Shaman. It is an expensive unit and almost always an objective. Between the Chieftain, lances and rams, this unit has a lot of First Strike. I use it to support the advance of other units, casting sorceries and filling gaps.

This is a block of 27 Orc Warriors and an Orc Hero. It is simply cheap mass with an above-average melee attack - very multi-purpose. I hope to have three such units eventually painted!

These are Orcs with two weapons plus a Chieftain and a Greater-Orc Hero. They are very cheap and have two strong attacks - great skirmishers. I run the unit as a whole (38 of 'em plus the heroes), or as two units of 19 each in support of other units.

Here we have 20 Orcs with Scimitar. They have no armor and a strength 2 attack. They are being led by a Hero with a cool standard (who could also be a wizard). I use them to hold terrain or to screen missile troops. They are also a good candidate for Aura of Chaos. My Dream is to have one hundred of these painted up and flood the field with Orc!

Why do Orcs use longbows? Because they would break anything else! These are my favorite models. I have 20 of them with an Orc Air Shaman. (I have another 40, unpainted.) Their capacity as missile troops is limited as they are too expensive to use hordes of them, and they are just as good at hand-to-hand as they are at shooting arrows! They do have very good range, though.

Here are all of my characters. From the left, Earth Shaman on Beast, Greater-Orc Hero, Chaos Shaman on Scorpion, Hero with Standard, Orc Chieftain (a five-wound character with Str 4 magic!), Orc Hero on Wyvern, Air Shaman, Greater-Orc on Scorpion, Hero, Hero on Beast. Orc heroes have more wounds and greater strength than any other race, though their morale is unimpressive.

This is a GW WarMaster model. The rider can be a Hero, Greater-Orc Hero, or Chieftain, and the mount can be a Young, Adult or Elder Wyvern, depending on how many points you have. Very flexible.

Desert Trolls! (by Black Raven Foundry) I use my Trolls to hold the line. They do not deal out many wounds, but with fixed armor, regenerate and fearlessness, they don't run away, either. I can buy them as Troops.

A good GW deal - WarMaster Chaos Harpies. Harpies are great. They fly, have two wounds, two attacks and are fearless. I use them to combat my opponent's air corps, to scare broken troops, or to support a charge. They are very versatile and not too expensive. I can buy them as Troops.

I have two Giant-Spider allies and ten Huge-Spider Allies. As the Orcs have no infiltrators, I always take a couple of infiltrating Spiders (as Troops) to support an attack, take terrain or pop up and chase off broken troops. The Giant-Spiders are great at attacking bow-troops.

I have two Fire-Elementals simply as elite melee support.

This is my Scorpion Corps! Orc Scorpion-Riders have good armor, many wounds and lots of attacks with high strength. I use them to attack archers (they have good missile armor), attack heavily armored troops (the claws have great strength), or as cavalry. I have a Greater-Orc Hero and a Chaos Shaman mounted on Scorpions as leaders.

All Hail the Dark Lord! This is the GW LotR 25mm Sauron model. I currently use the Titan stats for him, though I have written up stats that still need to be playtested. As a Titan, his armor and attacks are ok. He is best at fighting normal troops or lesser heroes, not dragons and such. I usually make him an objective. His base is sand colored because he is using the Desert Orcs to try and reclaim his lost power.