To ORC? - Or Not To ORC? - THAT Is Our Question

For a long time it's been very clear that it simply wasn't really worth the effort of trying to make ORCs work in most PanOceanian forces. There have been some viable options for Solo ORCs in Vanilla and arguments for the ORC Haris in some NCA builds, but there have simply been better options.

However with the advent of Wildcard options to add more variety and pull down the cost of the Fireteam, as well as the new ORC profiles and expanded opportunities to run Core Fireteams of ORCs, it's worth coming back to take another look.

In NCA I see two interesting things you can do, and one more vanilla choice:

1. Go with the Aquila, Black Friar and Bipandra to maximise your impact as a midrange combat unit with Specialist support. Probably best in missions requiring taking and holding objectives or territory.

2. Cheaper, running the ORC Hacker with TinBot support, and maintaining Specialist numbers:

3. The actually "low cost" option, which still retains a fair amount of tactical flexibility and options for combat in a variety of situations:

Now, I'm not sure that ANY of those are really "great" choices for NCA. I'd think long and hard about any of them hit the table in a seriously competitive game which I really wanted to win.

But at the same time, I don't think they are terrible either. The first one is going to be pretty frightening once it gets into the midfield, and NCA probably has the support options to get it there (if you can't just bully your way through with a BS17 B5 HMG in the Core anyway).

I'd probably lean into a Peacemaker and/or Locust Boarding Shotgun in the midfield to help deal with threats that are too tough for the Fireteam to handle, but one of my biggest concerns is that it's going to be hard to build up to high orders in the PanOceania Sectorial which probably most rewards pushing up to (or past) the 15 order mark.

For Varuna you are almost certainly going to lean into the Varuna ORC options rather than the Vanilla ORCs, so that's where I'll focus looking at:

1: The HMG is here with the TinBot again, backed up by Patsy (who brings great options and flexibility for her cost, as well as the option to split off as a Haris if you take casualties and/or want to back this up with a Fusilier Core and swap out) and the HRL on the Kamau giving yet more flexibility.

2: The more expensive option pulls in another ORC (in my case the Hacker, but you might go for the Feuerbach or even a Multi Rifle option for that choice) instead of the second Kamau, but ends up being very expensive (although still VERY strong).

In Varuna you've got lots of great support options, which is good but also highlights what you are competing with. At the same time it does have more ways to threaten without high SWC cost so it makes that aspect of these choices easier than elsewhere.

Although you could build an ORC Core with Rao in Acontecimento, I'm not sure that option is even worth exploring and MO simply don't have the ORC (with the Hospital Knight Core probably being the nearest equivalent option available for you to run).

These end up feeling like something you could build a list around, but don't seem highly competitive. In most missions it's going to be more efficient to build around a Light Infantry Core with an ORC added in or simply continue to run the much better solo Heavy Infantry options with more orders backing them up.

But for missions like Frostbite, or area and console control missions, where you need to move up and take the midfield (and where those LI are going to suffer) the ORC Core might have a role to play.

There is another interesting option for deploying the ORC Fireteam Core, in the brand new NA2 Foreign Company!

They have two potential builds, one of which pulls in the entire Soldiers of Fortune Aristeia! team into a single Fireteam, with either a Bolt or an ORC to join them. However the mechanics of Hannibal's Strategic Deployment skill make the choice of the Bolt a no-brainer ('though there is an argument for taking one of his profiles without that ability for this build). Nevertheless it's only one ORC, so we'll ignore it.

The other option brings in up to 3 ORCs alongside Avicenna and Valkyrie. This is a solid ORC Fireteam Core which is well worth considering. It's leaving enough points on the table for decent support, and has the potential for high impact:

Obviously you can invest a little more if you want the Hacker in there, or pull in a Multi and run the Heavy Shotgun Valkyrie, but this base seems pretty solid. And with Avicenna in there it'll be VERY hard to put that HMG down for long!

If you are interested in joining the conversation about ORC Core Fireteam options, join us in the comments!

Have you run an ORC Core?
How did you build it?
Which sectorial was it in?
What missions did you use it for?
How did it go?