Which race would in an all-out war, Orcs or Bretons?

[The Dog Whisperer]

And a battle takes what? Best part of a day at least, unless one side has some major advantage and can win faster than that.
And seeing as this has an even chance of going either way one battle could last a lot longer than a day.

So even if it's 45 mins game time, it's insignificant for one day.
Especially seeing as the two Greater Powers cancel out, like you pointed out. One greatly increases defence while the other'll increase power (And health and stuff...).
Just makes the entire thing meaningless. I think greater powers are good in game because you're not on a battlefield with a lot of enemies. You'll have about 10 max (If you're extremely unlucky And if you did you'd probably have a follower to get in the way... I mean help) in the game, so the powers can actually be put to some use. Here they won't last very long, and even if they did, they each negate each other.

[Farson]

And a battle takes what? Best part of a day at least, unless one side has some major advantage and can win faster than that.
And seeing as this has an even chance of going either way one battle could last a lot longer than a day.

Not necessarily, using the right tactics I'll bet the Orcs could win a major battle against the Bretons within an hour or two.
Let me paint you a picture with my imagination brush. Tthe Breton army is waiting in formation for the approaching Orc army to make their attack, the Bretons are all prepared for the battle, ready to fire arrows and cast destruction spells at the approaching Orcs.
Eventually the Orcs come into view, the Bretons ready themselves, and the Orcs march steadily towards the Breton army, then their pace increases, some of them start to run, and then they all do. A horde of screaming, savage Orcs is heading for the Breton front lines, the Bretons begin to fire their arrows and cast their spells and some of the Orcs fall, but not many, their heavy armour sees to that. Finally the berserk Orcs hit the Breton front line, and they hit hard, Breton skulls are cracked and bodies broken all down the front line.
They effect on morale of this kind of charge would be devastating to the Bretons, after half an hour of having their faces smashed by a mob of demented, heavily armed and armoured Orcs somebody in the fronts ranks would turn and run, then those around him turn and before the Breton commandes know what's happening they've got a full scale rout on their hands, even if the Bretons rally after the Orcs have run out of their Beserker ability the Bretons will have taken heavy losses both from the initial assault and the troops cut down during the rout.
This tactic was employed by Highlanders during the 17th and 18th century (they called it the "Highland Charge") and was very effective at hitting the enemy hard and fast, closing in quickly would also deny the enemy any long range tactics, and close up there's little contest between an Orc and a Breton. Even if the Bretons employed clever tactics like flanking and so on it most likely wouldn't deter a bunch of Berserk Orcs. Even if the Bretons were to somehow win the battle they would have to take heavy losses to do so, making a somewhat phyrric victory.

Apologies for the long post

[The Dog Whisperer]

Bretons aren't completely useless up close and personal though. I think someone's already pointed that out. They're pretty handy with a blade aswell as magic. (Plus, while the tactis was used by Highlanders, they didn't have fireballs shooting straight at them , which it's hard to miss with. They had arrows coming down on them, which are much easier to miss with.)
Oh, and there's touch spells too...

Why am I defending the Bretons? I voted Orcs... but I still think Orcs would win, but with the same outcome that Farson pointed out for the Bretons.

[Alilatias]

Argh, guess I'm beat when it comes to the whole non-statistic thing. There's not much a high schooler can do with semi-limited knowledge on war tactics, strategies, possiblities, and the like.

Magic in the lore may be seen as extremely powerful, but even I know that realistically, not every Breton can do stuff similar to the effects of weakness to magicka stacking compared to how most Orcs are rather handy with a hammer.

*Grabs my bow and retreats back to GameFAQs... Again.*

[The Dog Whisperer]

Aww... Come back.

So is this war over then? Can we start another?

[Avian]

The Bretons could summon an army of Xivilai.

[The Dog Whisperer]

Not for very long... we seem to be assuming here that the Bretons have massive amounts of magicka? The average one doesn't, just because a playable one can get 1k doesn't mean everyone can.

[bloodsteve353]

They would all vary, you would probably have some sort of recruits that are in the low levels, then you would have battle-hardened soldiers, not just from wars but from just fighting and training. I'm not talking battle-hardened to the extent of the player ingame but still with some considerable fight about them.

Something I just want to throw into the mix is the vampires, werewolves and the guilds. Would the Bretons guilds help them or stay out of it, I can see the Fighters Guild(Bretons are actually pretty good toe to toe) helping but what about the others? And would the Breton vampires and werewolves help at all? I think that they may. The vampire, seeing their food source under attack would help to defend it, a similar scenario goes for the werewolves, I'm pretty sure werewolves are a threat to consider when you walk down the street at night in Daggerfall. Would they help to defend the Bretons purely because they are an easier kill? Just throwing this out there, don't judge too harshly.

[akatosh]

The orcs would stand no chance: they aren't resistant to elemental spells so the breton sorcerers could just throw fireballs at them and become invisible and take a new position when the orcs come close.

You may compare it with the battle of Carrhae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae) where the powerful roman legions didn't even get the chance to engage in melee combat because they were outmanouvred by horse archers.

[Teinaava]

The orcs would stand no chance: they aren't resistant to elemental spells so the breton sorcerers could just throw fireballs at them and become invisible and take a new position when the orcs come close.

You may compare it with the battle of Carrhae where the powerful roman legions didn't even get the chance to engage in melee combat because they were outmanouvred by horse archers.

Fixed the link.

[Jaymundo]

The Orc's would will because they are just too brutal and bloodthirsty to accept defeat from what they see as a 'lesser' race.