You probably already know about the Wardenclyffe Tower that Tesla tried to build. It was going to be basically an enormous Tesla coil that would communicate and transmit electricity wirelessly across the Atlantic from America to Europe! If you’ve ever been near a Tesla coil or seen a video of one, you know that they’re really effing loud. I think this is perfect for your orcs. Enormous iron towers that roar and snap and spit lightning across hundreds of miles? Yes please.
And your orcs are probably screwed if anybody (including them) comes up with Faraday suits.
Woah! THOSE ARE AWESOME!
But, what could the Orcs use them for?
Also, those could be potentially problematic. With the Surge Weaponry (Uses batteries) they might as well use those to transfer energy to them, thereby allowing them continuous shooting. Although I could always just use willing suspension of disbelief.
I’m no physicist, so take this with a grain of salt. I believe the wireless transmission of electricity is working off magnetic induction. I think the coil will only induce electricity in another coil that is the same size and shape or a specific ratio (not just any ratio) of that size and shape. You, as the lord of all physics in your game, could simply say that the towers either can’t induce electricity in an object small enough to be handheld but large enough to power a surge weapon, or you could say that the towers will only induce electricity in other towers of the same size and shape.
Or you could say that the amount of electricity imparted by the towers would demolish something as puny as a handheld surge weapon in a spectacular explosion. Or that the orcs tried it and got fried by lightning bolts from the distant tower.
Or you could say that yes, orc surge weapons don’t use chemical batteries. They’re powered inductively from the huge roaring towers the orcs build all across the landscape, so suck it.
As for what (else) the orcs would use them for, they’d probably be the first thing the orcs built when they expanded their territory. The coal-burning, forest-burning powerplants are probably way behind their lines, but with these towers the orcs can immediately start accessing electricity for all their tech. Destroy one of these towers and orcs for a hundred miles around are suddenly either powerless or running on chemical batteries/goblin treadmills.
Edit: oh, also, orcs wouldn’t be reliant on telegraph cables (which can be easily cut) like the humans and dwarves. They can communicate wirelessly from one fortress to another using the towers.
Perfect. I’ll go with the first one.
And those towers being the Orcs’ only source of power can lead to some interesting sabotage scenarios. :3