Fixing the Orc Fight Value Problem

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the TMAT blog! In today's post I'm going to address my overall annoyance at how good some of the Hobbit era orcs are at fighting, because it seems like in their haste to make the microcosm of the Hobbit line work thematically they inadvertently snubbed a lot of the best heroes across the three ages of Tolkien's primary history of Middle Earth. And today I'm going to recommend a simple fix that would solve this issue.

First we're going to build the case for a change, because I hate recommending changes to stats in profiles if I don't have to. Once we establish that, thematically within the world, the Fight Value of specific models is too high (and it won't just be orcs - we'll address some Forces of Good models as well), we will present a simple, semi-elegant way to fix this problem that is consistent with current rules in the game that will allow for those thematic battles between orcs and dwarves without encroaching on the territory of the likes of Elessar, Glorfindel, and some of the greatest elf lords in all of Tolkien's legendarium.

I.  The Problem: Why High Fight Values?

Let's start with the biggest perpetrators of "Fight Value Bloat," which is Azog and Bolg. First off, in Tolkien's world, Bolg is a scary dude (as is Azog in his day, to be fair): these guys are good fighters. But we have no indication that it would have taken a heroic feat involving one of the best elven lords of all time tying either of these guys in their fighting prowess, which is the current state of the models in our game.

Both Azog and Bolg are Fight 7, which makes them better than Imrahil (a half-elven descendant of both the Quendi and the Numenoreans, and among the strongest three warriors of his time), Elrond (herald of the Faithful and among their best warriors in the Second Age), Celeborn (another of the strongest elf lords that ever lived), and Aragorn (the best warrior of his time) to name a few. That...doesn't seem right to me, any which way you look at it.

It also means that they are on-par with Elendil (one of the greatest Numenoreans who ever lived), Glorfindel (a slayer of a BALROG among other things), Elessar (again, the best warrior of his time), massive trolls - you get where we're going with this.

As great as Bolg is portrayed in The Hobbit book and as good a treatment as Azog gets in the various stories of the fall of Khazad Dum in Tolkien's works (and his portrayal in the movies), they are not at this level. So in my opinion they shouldn't be at this level. Full stop.

Of course, the reason why they are at this level is because they need to be able to beat Thorin and his boys, and that makes perfect sense thematically. And I love this: this should totally be the case. So what we need is a simple way to insure that guys like Azog and Bolg can beat dwarven heroes for thematic reasons without also wrecking the whole Fight Value system. And we recommend a simple change to bring this about.

Now, before we move into the quick fix, it's also worth noting that I tend to find dwarves might have too high a Fight Value in general as well, which exacerbates the issue. I'm not sold on Thorin being qualitatively better in his fighting prowess than Eomer, Faramir, or other F5 heroes (especially since none of those guys got put in sacks, captured by spiders, etc. in their quests), and I'm not sure why a random Dwarf King is F6 when these named heroes are F5. So to be fair it's not just an "orc problem": it probably extends further into the game than we'd like to admit. But the fix also works for this as well, which is where we turn next.

II.  The Solution: Preferred Enemy

I recommend a new special rule to fix the issue, which we will call Preferred Enemy (Race):

Preferred Enemy (Race): When fighting [RACE], the Fight Value of this model increases by +1.

Do you have any idea how useful this special rule would be? You can use this to make specific models better at fighting specific people, allowing you to thematically get the benefits you want and fit the story that is found in Tolkien's legendarium, but you also don't have, "Pale Orc better than Aragorn, hur hur" shenanigans.

It also means that, for example, specific orcs could be better at killing men, or Rohirrim could be better at killing Dunlendings, or Dunlendings could be better at killing Rohirrim, or whatever. You could make it so that thematically a warrior or hero choice would be better in some fights than in others, allowing them to perform at a higher level when confronting that race.

In terms of points and profile changes, the changes are simple: you reduce the Fight Value by X, and then you reduce the cost of the model by 10 points for each reduction in Fight Value. You then add Preferred Enemy (Race) any number of times to a model for 5pts each. If you add it more than once for the same race, the Fight Value bonus goes up by 1 for each application you make, to a maximum of 2 (as I don't see a person's effectiveness going up by more than 1-2 "levels" just because they are that skilled at fighting those guys).

So you could reduce Azog and Bolg to F5 (which sounds about right to me - equal with Eomer, Faramir, Gothmog, etc.), give them two applications of Preferred Enemy (Dwarf) for -10 points to their cost, and have them be F7 against dwarves (which is good enough to do the job) without encroaching on the turf of Elrond, Glorfindel, Aragorn, etc. in the process. And it means Bolg will still lose to Legolas who is still F6, so that works out.

Similarly you could take, say, Dwarf Kings (which are currently F6) and make them F5, but make them F6 against Orcs and Goblins, keeping their cost the same. 

You see what you can do with this? We can make people better against specific foes so that we can get the thematic, "My dude will crush his nemesis" feel, without compromising the already delicate balance of the game as regards Fight Value. And all with a small change.

Conclusion

A simple special rule like this allows you to get bonuses to your stats, whereas rules like Ancient Enemies and Hatred help you with your rolls. Mix these two together, and you've got a winning combo.

Do you like this fix? Too complicated (or simplistic) for your taste? Let us know below! 

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix