By night, fires dot the black hills of Zaruk Hel, the Capitol of the Khazoth Orcs. The air here is rank with sweat and stink. War chants echo down the slopes and the never ending sound of steelworks makes it clear that the host is preparing for war. The defiled land is honeycombed with deep pits, used for breeding the Zaruk Battle and Blood Orcs.

The mountain stronghold, Zaruk Hel, exudes power and dominion across the hills of the Khazoth Orc realm, and the puny nations of Sovereignty shall feel the ire of Khazoth. Soon Zaruk Hel's walls will be adorned with the mutilated corpses of the Human, Elf and Dwarf Kings, like rubies in a crown ...
... a Crown of Kings!

There's no space for weak expandable warriors up in the hills of Khazoth. The Khazoth Orcs are stronger and larger than their Iron Barony brothers. This difference came mostly from the fact that the Orcs of Khazoth occupy a lot less territory than the Orcs of Iron Barony. To survive this challenge, the Khazoth Orcs had to adapt. Every Orc counts, and so over the centuries, a new breed of Orc came to be.

In the Plunder Hall of Zaruk Hel there won't be an old skinny Orc counting one by one the coins of the realm. For the Khazoth Orcs everything comes down to War. May it be the lack of resources, gold for improvements or the desire for known landmarks - the Khazoth Orcs take what they want by force!

To have a capable army for this task in the beginning, the Khazoth Orcs will only need three resources: Iron, Crafts and Stone. All these three resources are close by. Iron and Crafts is already available to them and there's more in neighboring provinces, but for the Stone they will have to trade ... for now. In later stage Alchemy will come in play.

There are 5 provinces:

Zaruk Hel is the capitol and the strongest of them. It also has Iron, the highest income and neighboring foreign provinces that contain Gems and Iron. It is advisable to improve this province more often than the others.



Asshira is the second most strongest province. It is neighboring the Cragenwaste's capitol Crow's Rest, which makes it an easy target for raiding, but the priority should be the other Cragenwaste province that has Stone.



Moch and Koraz have the same improvements, but Moch is more poorer since it's the smallest of the provinces, but it produces Crafts. Moch and Koraz are the only provinces that border three different kingdoms.




Mar Ashet is the only mountain in the Khazoth hill realm, so as expected the economy there is bad. Since it has no value it is not advised to improve the holdings there. Cragenwaste and Hadrigel, however, like to conquer this mountain first since it is the weakest stronghold and, as Koraz, connects these two kingdoms.


A real Khazoth Orc leader doesn't think of gold he gets from taxes, so don't overthink too much on the financial side. The goal is not to get rich, the goal is to kill all and take what was theirs.

From which Hall or Chamber do the Khazoth Orcs conduct their diplomacy? Bahaha there's no such place! The only place where they come close of talking about politics is in the Pits, where most Orcs release their bowels, and afterwards wipe themselves with the Code of War parchment!

In the grand scale the Khazoth Orcs do suffer from diplomacy penalties. They are aligned as evil, so therefor all neighbors that are aligned as good will more and more hate them. Some nations will even join a war against the Orcs only to increase their political standings in the realm. This works the other way as well. Should, for example, the Khazoth Orcs destroy the Cragenwaste, all the evil aligned nations (marked red in the above map) will praise Khazoth, the good aligned nations will curse it and the neutral can do one or the other.

Khazoth's best ally is the Iron Barony. The Iron Barony will always want to have an alliance with their strong brothers. Even if the Orcs will strike an alliance with the Undead of Palemoor or with the Night Elves of Sirucil or with the untamed north, in the end Orcs will rule them all. Orc or die!

The Orcs of Khazoth have a very impressive army composition. It shouldn't surprise anyone that a militaristic nation of ruthless warriors is superb at war. It has no real archer units, absolutely no cavalry or naval units, but it does perhaps have the most strongest melee units in Sovereignty.
Absolutely no one in open battle can stop this brutal war machine that is the Khazoth Orcs.

The Orcs of Khazoth can take on any foe or foes and come out victorious with small losses. The main army must have Rock Trolls, Blood Orcs, Zaruk Battle Orcs and maybe some Javelins - that's it. The battle will mostly start with the Rock Trolls crushing their enemy with their hit. If the enemy gets successfully crushed, the unit's defense will fall to zero. When it's zero, the Blood Orcs, which deal the highest damage, will advance for the killing blow. One turn one kill. The Zaruk Battle Orcs and the Javelin Orcs only responsibility is to protect the flanks and make sure the enemy will not surround them.



The Javelin Orcs can use their javelins only one time. I advise not to use them offensively since the enemy will probably have a shieldwall. Use the Javelin Orcs defensively, because when it's the opponent's turn, they won't have a shieldwall to protect them against the javelins (note: all range units use automatically their attack during the opponent's turn; only one time per turn and only if in range of an attack).



Since the Khazoth Orcs require a little bit of time to get the Blood Orcs and Rock Trolls, it is recommended not to start a war. But don't worry, Khazoth is surrounded by enemies and they all hate the Orcs. A war will be soon declared on you, and since they follow some Code of War, you will have time to prepare for that war, or maybe even strike first.

Regarding how to expand, I highly recommend to take over the Cragenwaste resource provinces. Iron and Stone in particular. In my experience Cragenwaste is not so eager to start a war, but they will declare it if the Khazoth are at war with the other neighboring nations. Since we are at the border of their capitol, it's very easy to annihilate them. And spit on the diplomacy penalties for destroying a kingdom, it's war and in war the victor is right!



The Kingdom of Hadrigel will be your main concern. They will always start a war with Khazoth, but only when they get the support from the Boruvian Empire. When the war starts I advise to handle it from the defense. Hadrigel's provinces that border Khazoth have no value. The Hadrigel army consists also of cavalry units. It is easier to fight them in the hills than in the plain.


The Khazoth will never have any issues with the Boruvian Empire. They are far away and they have other enemies which are closer and more threatening to their realm. The Boruvian Empire will never start a war, but it will be obligated to join a war if their new ally Hadrigel drags them into one.



The fourth and last neighbor are the Dwarves of Brogen Hur. The Khazoth Orcs are annoyed by the thought of having to share their mountain region with these Dwarves. In due time they will be destroyed with the rest of them, but in the beginning they don't pose a threat. Brogen Hur mostly never attacks, because maybe they don't have a good ally in the region. Even if the three human nations (Cragenwaste, Boruvian Empire and Hadrigel) declare war on Khazoth at the same time, Brogen Hur will be hesitant since they don't have that diplomatic security if the war will go bad.

When attacking these neighboring kingdoms, make sure never to conquer the capitols. There's always time for that, but in the beginning just take some lands which you think are useful and let them live. Better standing strong and bordering a weak neighbor rather than limping on one leg and facing a strong new neighbor.

Once you understand how the Khazoth Orcs fight, you will know that diplomacy and economy is for weaklings. True power lies in the military strength. Trustworthy allies will recognize it. Weak and pitiful kingdoms will fear it. The Khazoth Orcs carry the symbol of a bloody Red Hand, for it symbolizes Khazoth's reach for power shall be covered in blood.

THANK YOU, dear reader, for taking the time and checking out my short overview of the Khazoth Orc race from the great fantasy grand strategy game Sovereignty: Crown of Kings!

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All pictures used in this guide are taken from the game.

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