Choosing what to give orcs

[Rokirem]

Eyy haven't played this game in like a year, had to leave FL and my PC behind because of the hurricane. So I loaded up my laptop and guess what I found ^-^. Anyways I haven't had much luck until I made a Hill Orc who follows Beogh, who is currently traversing the lair with his Orc Warlord buddo. My question is what should I focus on giving him? I'd guess a good melee weapon but I don't have any (Currently using a waraxe with no ring of slaying or anything) BUT I do have a triple crossbow. How do you guys think that would fare with him?

EDIT: OOH I also have a rod of lightning but I don't know how that would work with a follower.

EDIT 2: YASD got fucked by 3 smiting high orc priests who didn't believe I was their savior

[Sprucery]

Polearms are best for melee.

[MainiacJoe]

It never occurred to me to give an orc a ranged weapon. Does that work? Do they pick up themselves a melee weapon for close combat?

[Rokirem]

It never occurred to me to give an orc a ranged weapon. Does that work? Do they pick up themselves a melee weapon for close combat?

Yeah my orc knight was using a hand-axe and a hand-crossbow with what seemed like infinite ammo. That's what gave me the idea.

[njvack]

I remember reading that due to monster combat mechanics, it's better to give spears than bardiches to your warlords — weapon delay is more important than base damage. I'm not sure about whether this would be true with ranged weapons as well.

My experience a few years ago was that warlords with ranged weapons are real strong. Polearms are good too for obvious reasons.

[prospero14]

Here's a HoMo of Beogh I won recently.
http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/prosp ... 181332.txt

I mostly gave my orcs arbalests, though I also gave them polearms occasionally, and plate. (Though Beogh will upgrade them to plate eventually.) Ranged weapons are really good on orcs. I had a big army by midgame, but they mostly died in the Depths. The last 4 orc warlords died on V:5. I sill love Beogh though, because of how much I like the idea of being the orc mesiah.