With the Goblins covered, we move on to the heart and muscle of the team, the Black Orcs themselves, which you get 6 of! 6 Black Orcs! What more could you ask for?

For them, Characteristic Improvements are somewhat riskier, since you’ll ideally only be interested in Movement, Agility and Strength, with Movement being pretty easy to get (being on 14 of 16 possible results), but Agility and Strength being very rare (Roll of 14, 15 and 16 for Agility, or 15 and 16 for Strength). You will have to decide for yourself if it’s worth it to pursue, or if it is just wasted SPP and time – for the sake of this article, I assume no Characteristic Improvements have taken place.

Black Orcs have primary access to General and Strength skills and secondary access to Agility and Passing skills. With their low Movement and Agility, they will probably not score too many touchdowns, so they will have to focus on getting their SPP through pummeling their opponents into the ground.

Damage Dealer

Primary: Mighty Blow, Tackle, Stand Firm, Guard, (Block)
Secondary: Dodge/Jump Up

Since you start out with Brawler, you do not necessarily need Block to make the Black Orcs reliable blockers, you can go straight to Mighty Blow to accelerate their SPP gain. Tackle will put all those players with Dodge down anyway. Stand Firm will help you not lose ground – since these Orcs are not the fastest players on the pitch, they benefit greatly from not being moved involuntarily. Later on, you can grab Guard to better assist your other Black Orcs, and, if you want to, Block, mainly to help them stay on their feet. Dodge and Jump up are in the same vein: Dodge to help you stay on your feet, Jump Up to not lose any movement if you have been knocked down.

Blocker

Primary: Guard, Block, Stand Firm, Mighty Blow
Secondary: Defensive, Dodge

The primary objective of the Blockers is to block your opponent’s movement. Starting with Grab, you already have great control over their movement, plus in the new edition, it has the added benefit of negating Side Step. With the Black Orcs being Strength 4, most of your opponents already need to invest quite some resources into making reliable blocks on them, adding Guard and Defensive to the mix makes that even harder. Stand Firm also makes them very reliable pillars in a cage, since they can’t be pushed away, except with a Juggernaut Blitz.

Tacklers

Primary: Guard, Block
Secondary: Diving Tackle, Jump Up, Dodge

I have to mention this first, before it gets lost in the shuffle: Use this at your own risk! Yes, Diving Tackle is a great skill that can lead to amazing results, but you are also putting a movement 4 player on the floor – without Jump Up, this means a movement of one square on your next turn. Even with Jump Up, you are putting a very valuable player on the floor, who can now be fouled.

That said, if you put one of these guys next to a cage, and give the opponent no other avenue of movement, they can be amazing at breaking a pillar and giving you a way inside. Keen eyes will notice that this is very similar to the Goblin Tackler build, and if you are unsure if you want to invest in this on your Black Orc, I’d suggest trying it out on a Goblin first, since they’re much cheaper to replace if something goes wrong!

The Undertaker

Primary: Pile Driver, Dirty Player, Stand Firm
Secondary: Sneaky Git, Jump Up

Piling On is dead, long live Pile Driver! Now involving a lot more risk (your player can get send off for this), but equally as rewarding when it works. This Black Orc is all about sending your opponent’s player to the injury box, any means necessary. His Guard team-mates will assist on the fouling, and will probably have grabbed the victim into place, and then The Undertaker will do their job, and if they can’t get it right on the first try, they damn sure (well, maybe) will do it on the second round.

Dirty Player is Mighty Blow, but for fouling, Sneaky Git makes this whole ordeal a bit safer (and I’d personally suggest to grab that early) and saves you some of your bribes. Jump Up means, player positioning permitting, they will do the same thing again next turn, without using up the Blitz Action.

These Black Orcs should cover the roles they can fill in the team – I do not think they will ever be reliable scorers because of their Movement and Agility, but if you figure out a way to make it work, let me know!

Dont forget to check out the Goblin Bruiser Linemen or the Trained Troll!