Orcs

I think that they multiply fast and that could be the buildup. Morgoth has many problems at the beginning of season 4 but the main one is that so many orcs have been killed. The fast growth of the orc army could be scary enough.

I’m reluctant to making orcs less vulnerable to sunlight. It would make me wonder why they didn’t become even less sensitive to the Sun, or why trolls never went through that process.
Well, we could do a numbers boost, since it seems that the sunlight problem isn’t solved until the Third Age.
 
Well my idea would be that trolls are animated stone and older orcs are born before rise of the sun, yet even mannish orcs should not be fully immune to sunlight until the third age, when saruman finds the missing link, but maybe they could be a bit more resistant than their predecessors who might turn unconscious or blind from sunlight while they are more like grishnakhs orcs, they become weak, slow and tired, but they can move on for a time. Well... just thoughts..
 
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Sunlight is the new and very serious challenge that Morgoth's armies are facing.

We proved in Season 2 that an army of trolls could very much take on an army of Noldor and win soundly. Morgoth thought he'd won the arms race. And now...his crack fighters *turn to stone* when the Sun rises each day. That's...quite a set back!

The first solution is not to alter the orcs or trolls, but to try to block out the Sun. Let them fight under cloud cover. Or, rather, volcanic ash clouds. Something dense enough to blot out the Sun temporarily, but long enough for him to move armies over the course of days or weeks.

But it can't be comfortable fielding an army when a strong wind will defeat your plan utterly.

So, yes, the next stage is to beef up the troops, make them resistant to sunlight. There is *no* progress with the trolls. They turn to stone, full stop. That leaves the orcs. The orcs are afraid of the Sun. They cower and hide from it, filled with dismay. Something can be done about that, in the 'I'll give you something to be afraid of' manner that we would expect from Boldog and his ilk. This might be the first time we see orcs driven by lashes to move in daylight. But they could still try to arrange to fight at night, at least.

I was going to point out that Angband is very far north, and thus has long nights in the winter and short nights in the summer, but...this is pre-round world, so never mind :p

So, between trying to figure out how to get his troops dealing with being outside under Sunlight and Moonlight, and replenishing the numbers of his vastly reduced armies....the fact that an army is fielded at all at Dagor Aglareb is an accomplishment.

Angband should always have cutting edge military technology. Morgoth doesn't lose because his armor or weapons are inferior.
 
Yeah. He soon will have chainmail and hoplites or phalanxes and all the good stuff the noldor and dwarves have introduced...
 
I agree with MithLuin's assessment. Orcs are also weakened by the Sun, as shown in the Lord of the Rings they can't run as fast or as far under sunlight.

Morgoth tries several solutions to the Orcs vs. Noldor and Orcs vs. Sunlight problems:
1. Make Orcs and Werewolves. The Feanorians defeat them.
2. Bigger and stronger monsters (Trolls). The Sun rises.
3. Make even more Orcs and Werewolves, and fight under an ash cloud. Dagor Aglareb happens.
3. Use better strategy and ambush the Noldor. They still lose.
4. Make Dragons. This isn't perfect, but it's promising.
5. More Dragons, + more Orcs, + ash cloud, + firestorm. This really works! But then the Union of Maedhros happens.
6. Even more Dragons and Orcs and Trolls, + plague, + attacking at night, + treachery. This nails it.

So, his strategy never seems to involve bigger or better Orcs. I think Saruman only tries that because he's short on Dragons and volcanoes.

I do think that Morgoth is going to start breeding Mortals into his Orc lines in this Age, and trying to pump them up with "demon energy" or whatever, but I don't think this yet results in Orcs resistant to Sunlight.* As for intelligence, I don't think Orcs are less intelligent than Elves and Men, excepting the orc-beasts which are sub-standard but maybe more loyal.

*Even when Saruman gets enough Human blood in his Orcs to accomplish this, it might only work for one generation before the results degenerate into plain Orcs again.
 
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So, between trying to figure out how to get his troops dealing with being outside under Sunlight and Moonlight, and replenishing the numbers of his vastly reduced armies....the fact that an army is fielded at all at Dagor Aglareb is an accomplishment.
Maybe that he fielded it, but not necessarily that he had it. Dagor Aglareb (in the Annals, at least) was 92 years after Dagor-nuin-Giliath. That must be at least 3 generations of Orcs, maybe 4. If they're as prolific as humans can get, that'll produce exponential population growth.

And then just think... Dagor Bragollach was another 395 years later. I doubt Morgoth even needed to field all his Orcs at that time.
 
Maybe that he fielded it, but not necessarily that he had it. Dagor Aglareb (in the Annals, at least) was 92 years after Dagor-nuin-Giliath. That must be at least 3 generations of Orcs, maybe 4. If they're as prolific as humans can get, that'll produce exponential population growth.

And then just think... Dagor Bragollach was another 395 years later. I doubt Morgoth even needed to field all his Orcs at that time.
It definitely wouldn’t be wise to field all your soldiers in one go. Look at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, where all the fighting men of Dor-Lomin were slaughtered to a man. And nobody was left to protect against the Easterlings, who enslaved the populace.
 
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