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So tax return should be here in 2 weeks, I'm trying to plan out my next army. What I need to know is how to build an orc only list.

The only goblins allowed in the army will be war machines.

So what works well? I need to know how characters work in the army, which core units perform well with what gear etc.

Halp!

Unupgraded orcs. Tons of them. Black Orcs are good too, if a bit expensive.

Cerebrium wrote:Unupgraded orcs. Tons of them.

seriously?!
In a 2k game I have my orcs in groups of 30 so I have lots of ranks, also in my opinion the upgrades for normal orc boyz goes like this:
1-shield
2-additional choppa
3-spear-no point in this one to expensive for a extra rank to attack.

Upgrading them to big 'uns with additional choppa is effective.

Black orcs are okay a bit expensive for what they are. They help but it doesn't really matter if you don't have a unit.

If your having war machines you could max them for only 580 points.

What about characters?

My basic idea was 3 blocks of boyz, 2 units of arrers, 1 unit of black orcs, 2 stone throwers and 1 unit of boar riders in as the main comp of the army.

Are chariots decent?

chariots are good, I always have a boar chariot in my list.
Characters 2k you can easily have a warboss or a shaman. Always have a bsb it is important orc leadership isn't the best. Really for characters you have a range of choices you could only have orc characters which would give a punch to your army or you could spam your list with hundereds of goblin characters, it really depends on your playing style

I generally build armies to 2500 for 8th edition, so there is room for 2 lords. To me orcs and goblins are 2 thematically different armies, so no goblin characters for me. If I want a goblin army I'll start one, and it'll have no orcs(likely the next army I do after orcs).