If Mork and Gork had wanted the Orcs to shoot he would have given them high ballistic skill. Instead they gave them toughness and frenzied troops, the perfect keys to an attacking army. WFB is won or lost in hand-to-hand, not by shooting. Archers need 5s to wound your troops--laugh at them. In this scenario I will examine the precepts of an attacking Orc army, its strength and its weaknesses. The choices I discuss are for about 2000 points but can be applied to any situation.
Every Orc and Goblin Army must have a general, or warlord. This is a good first model to buy, as you will not be able to start gaming without him. The best option is a Savage Orc or Black Orc Warlord on a War Boar. Don't put him on a Wyvern or other creature--especially with Orcs the General needs to be with the troops. At 180 points the Wyvern is a horrible deal. Low WS, A, Ld and W mean it can't hold a stick to the Manticore and is barely on par with the 150 point Griffon. Sadly this flying dingbat is the only "in character" Orc mount. The solution is a cavalry mount. A boar gives your general good mobility and makes him hard hitting. If Savage he gets eight frenzied attacks, plus a savage boar attack. His boar, shield and tattoos give him a save of 3+, which can never be modified past 6+. If he is accompanied by a Savage Orc Shaman Lord on a boar, his save improves to 2+ and 5+ unmodified. Needless to say, always have a Savage Orc Wizard accompany a Savage Orc General. The Shaman should definitely be level four, as he will be a perfect dead ‘ard fighter to beef up your boyz. The Savage Orc Shaman Lord also rolls six dice in hand-to-hand, plus his boar may strike. His toughness of five makes him very difficult to injure. And when he is with a unit of Savage Orcs their saves are 2+!! Dead ‘Ard, innit?? Try your best to insure you end up with the Hand of Gork spell as this is a game winner.
If you chose the "reliable" (when are Orcs ever reliable...) option of the Black Orc you gain the benefits of immunity to animosity and higher S and Ld. He also forces you to field a unit of Black Orcs, which is definitely not a bad thing. Should you select this laudable option it becomes doubly important to beef up the unit's hitting power with Savage Orc characters. A favorite option is a Savage Orc hero with the Executioner's Axe. With 6 attacks when frenzied he is bound to lop off a couple heads...
Now that you have purchased your two biggest points investments, you can shell out some more cash for your core regiments. If one goes down, then the other is there to pick up the slack. Since you already have your Savage Orc General and Shaman Lord(wicked model) on boars, go whole hog(please excuse the pun) and purchase eight more models. Include a standard. Have two ranks of five boar riders. You now have hard hitting cavalry. Your front ling can dish out 20 attacks from the riders and five attacks from the boars(at STR 5). Your save of 2+(5+ unmodified) and your toughness of four means your regiment can take a lot of punishment. You are also immune to panic, fear and terror when in combat or preparing to charge.
Your next core regiment should be either a unit of 20(or more) Savage Orc Boyz or 20(or more) Black Orc Boyz. Orcs are second best since they have no specialties(ie. tattoos & frenzy, or immunity to animosity). The Savage Orcs must be accompanied by a Shaman to turn them into a core unit. This gives them a 4+ save, 5+ unmodified! Imagine your delight when that cannonball bounces off the savage one's tattoos!! They also get two attacks each. Make sure they have a Big Boss to lead them. The Black Orcs are harder hitting and more reliable. Unaffected by animosity and with extra strength and leadership, Black Orcs make deadly foes. If facing high toughness opponents go for double handed weapons and versus things like humans whose I is on par with the Orcs go for 2 hand weapons. Black Orcs will also not panic if they see anyone else flee. This means that you can count on Black Orcs to do what you want, when you want. Their problem is that they struggle defensively, and are liable to be mowed down like grass with 6+ armor saves. The standard of shielding is a good investment. Black Orcs are also available in plastics, making them an inexpensive regiment to collect. Leader and standard are, as usual, mandatory.
Goblins are shorter than their Orc cousins, but nevertheless very useful. Sadly, they must fight in regiments of at least 20 models to be effective. This means a lot of painting time for a new general who probably wants to start playing soon. My advice: don't touch Goblins until you have three core units painted.
Then, start with a unit of wolf riders. At just nine points a model they're cheap, plus they can do tons. They can be set up in a long line across the table to protect your troops against missile fire, they can act as fast cavalry to hit the flanks of your opponents army, attack enemy war machines....the list is endless. But, like all goblins: they will die horribly unless you have about 20 of them. That includes the mandatory big boss and standard. Once you have that unit painted up, you're almost finished a 2000 point army.
The Orc army was in chaos. It was the morning before the battle with the Empire and the ladz were anxious for battle. The ruckus started when Meegit, one of Snapped- Arm's ladz, went an ate one of Hoark-spitter's goblin boyz. The normally passive and cowardly goblins were getting ready to gang up on the Orcs they vastly outnumbered and fighting was breaking out. The Shaman staggered out of his hut clutching his head as sparks shot out of his ears. Something had to be done. Fargit da ElfStomppa, Warlord of the army, put on his magical crown and stood up on a pile of fighting goblins and began to speak. At the sound of his voice all the commotion drew to a close and the boyz drew round holdin arms...
Magic items are especially vital to an Orc and Goblin army. Since Orcs have notoriously low leadership the Crown of Command is essential. Buy it now and figure out who will wear it later. The Black Amulet is an excellent protective device for your wizard and goes a long way to boosting your combat results. A magic weapon is almost essential as the Warlord will be expected to lend his weight to the combat. My personal favorite is the Sword of Justice. At only 50 points it allows you a reroll on missed hits and slices through knights by disallowing any armor saves at all.
Goblin Doom divers are great fun. If they work. When they work. Seriously, though, doom divers are a worthwhile investment. To increase their effectiveness take a couple. Use it to put the fear of Mork into your opponents as you target his chariots and characters. There's nothing quite as satisfying as impaling a gobbo on Eltharion the Grim--instant Elf-Kabob!! Rock Lobbers are less dangerous to character models but are the bane of every Empire and High Elf knight. One last thing: don't take doomdivers unless you are good at guessing ranges. D6 inches correction on a doom diver makes no difference if you were off to begin with....