No nerfing the orcs, in my opinion.
Sure, they have my succession fort hunkered down in tattered ruins, and brutally murder everyone who goes outside, ever, but that's part of their appeal. They just need careful handling, 'sall. Makes defending forts actually require effort.
Although the decision of nerfing the orcs should reflect your overall direction with the mod. If you want to simply expand upon vanilla gameplay and keep it accessible to even the newer members of our community, then you probably should nerf the orcs. After all, a careless player could easily lose a fortress to the greenskins. However, if you are gearing this mod more towards seasoned players looking for that extra bit of challenge, then the orcs should stay as they are.
I for one rather enjoy being under constant siege.
Sorry to hear about you being sick and all. I hope you get better.
-Nahkh
PS. Could you update the list of players who Dig Deeper?
Also, I gave you free advertising as I'm using DD with
SparkGear 3.