Orcs

Orcs are a minor race that exist on almost every map in the form of one or more countries called hordes, although some random maps will not have any meaningful orc presence.

## Orc Horde Actions

Left to their own devices, an orc horde will slowly expand to nearby empty locations (wilderness, ancient ruins, or human ruins) with habitability at least 5%. On its own, though, a horde will only be able to grow up to 8 locations.

If the horde borders a human kingdom or another orc horde that it believes it can defeat it will invade and attempt to raze its locations. Razing human locations will add menace to the horde, eventually leading human kingdoms to attack and attempt to destroy the horde. Unlike humans the strength of orcs does not depend on the habitability of their locations, so they will be stronger than an equally large human kingdom in places with low habitability and much weaker than an equally big human kingdom in places with high habitability.

The different actions (expand or attack) which an orc horde is considering can be examined in the National Actions tab of an orc location.

When one or more locations of an orc horde are infiltrated, it will become less likely to expand on its own (TODO confirm whether this is still true) or to attack evil (enshadowed? enshadowed or infiltrated?) countries. Both effects are based on what percentage of the horde's locations are infiltrated.

## Orc Upstarts and Suppression

Each orc horde will normally have an uncontrollable agent called an Orc Upstart. It spawns at level 0 with 3 might and 1 lore/intrigue/command. It also spawns with a "Banner of \_ Horde" item in its inventory. The Upstarts present at the start of the game actually spawned 100 turns earlier and so will be level 2 or 3.

An Orc Upstart can perform the challenges Rest and Resupply, Orcish Raiding, Recruit Goblin, and Recruit Orc Warrior (details will be below under the Orcs#Orc Camp heading). Even when at full health, they spam Rest and Resupply a lot (slowly levelling up), maybe when the Upstart AI 'thinks' that its existing menace level makes it unsafe to perform Orcish Raiding.

When an orc horde's Upstart is killed, the horde as a whole gets a negative 'Orcish Suppression' motivation added to all of their national actions (-40). This suppression stays there at full strength until another Upstart spawns, at which point it starts decaying by 2/turn.

This suppression makes them very unlikely to expand or attack anything until it's mostly or entirely worn off.

## Orc Banners

In order to infiltrate a wild (i.e. not created by your agents' actions) orc camp or fortress, the infiltrating agent must carry the banner of that location's orc horde. Also, if an agent has the banner for some orc horde, that agent can go into a human nation and perform the simple challenge Warpath to cause that orc horde to declare war on that human nation.

An agent can obtain a banner for a horde by killing that horde's Upstart. If the horde currently has no Upstart and the agent must get a banner immediately, the agent can go to one of the locations of that horde and perform the challenge Challenge the Horde.

## Orc Location Types

Each orc-inhabited location has an Orcish Industry modifier which starts at 1% when it is first settled and naturally moves towards 50% (by 1 point per turn).

Any orc locations other than Orc Camps are called 'specialized'.

#### Orc Camp

TODO

The following challenges are available at orc camps as well as other orc locations:

The challenge **Lay Low** is explained here: Challenges#Lay Low

The challenge **Rest and Resupply** is explained here: Challenges#Rest and Resupply

Orc minions and agents can only be healed by performing Rest and Resupply in orc locations

The following challenges can only be performed in orc camps:

"Causes this camp to become an orcish shipyard. It will initially be empty, and requires you to commandeer ships from a human dock (found in coastal cities). Once provided with ships (using an orc Warlord to steal them), this shipyard can allow the horde to expand across the ocean using the orc Warlord's ability".

#### Orc Fortress

The challenge **Subjugate Fortress \_** is equivalent to 'Subjugate Camp \_' but is only available at un-infiltrated orc fortresses.
Spawns a regular orc army, as described in the **Orc Armies** section

#### Orc Shipyard

This is only useful for orc agents- it enables certain challenges for the Warlord (Agent). Also, in the 0.9 beta, it allows the recruiting of the Buccaneer unique agent.

#### Orc Mage Camp

Spawns an orc spellweaver army, as described in the **Orc Armies** section

## Orc Armies

Each Orc Fortress will spawn a normal Orc army, and each Orc Mage Camp will spawn an Orc Spellweaver army. The max strength of an orcish army is based on the sum of the Orcish Industry modifier in the home location which spawned it and the Orcish Industry modifiers in home-adjacent orc locations in the same horde.

Other than that, orc armies behave like human armies in several ways, as described on the Armies page.

Please note that human nations will perceive an orc horde as more of a threat if it has more military strength.