Yeah, they're fairly weak in space. Then again, Jomon is pretty much the only nation not weak in space. I think if I had access to some of my summons I might be able to get through them, as it is though I don't have anything capable of tearing down those infernal ice battle suits with the orks.
Yeah, it doesn't really sound like that much, but it really adds up and I can make an army of 120 orcs every turn from one set of two castles. Largely it's an advantage in the early game, because you make troops so much faster than everyone else that they'd be very hard-pressed to stop a rush. Then again, rush nations will be rush nations.
I think the Orks will be more fair costing more, I will see when I play them. I'll play the insectoids today, I've played amos' mod before so I'm not sure how much different it will be.