Orcs Units

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Orc Units

Racial Tag
To be an Orc in WBC3 is a mixed bag - this classification offers some useful traits, but also some easy to exploit weaknesses. Units with the "Orc" tag have the following traits:


 * Slow recovery from all Psychological effects. (45 seconds instead of the usual 30)
 * Immunity to all Illnesses.
 * +2 combat during the night.

Kobold - Orcish Builder
The kobold is a somewhat average builder for the Orcs with a peculiar ability in Poison. They construct better than the worst builder in the game, but only marginally (Thralls have build skill 8). With or without the Training research, they will remain very unsuitable for any combat situation and should only really be used against big units for their Poison ability in the direst of circumstances.

Goblin - Orcish Scout
Goblins are small and swarmy units with the capability to give out Disease. Without the training research, they are around as useless as Kobolds. With Training however, they become an annoyingly dangerous swarmy creature that can fill the Orc ranks as semi-dangerous fodder.

Orc - Basic Orcish Infantry
The Orc is the basic infantry unit for the Orc race. It bears somewhat poor stats by comparison of the Snakeman for example (which has the same cost), but it more than makes up for that with its upgradability. Once fully upgraded, Orcs will be coming out at least level 3, be highly resistant to missiles (almost as much as Skeletons) and deal double damage to all missile units. All of this stapled onto a unit with piercing vulnerability allows the Orcs vulnerability to apply only in melee combat, which is a massive boost.

Gobshooter - Orcish Siege Weapon
The only siege weapon for the Orcs. It launches goblins, which have a chance to spawn where the goblin projectile landed. Goblins spawned from this siege weapon will always be set on Rampant. Gobshooters are surprisingly tough and difficult to remove. With the right support, Gobshooters are capable of smashing enemies or buildings as it pleases. Unfortunately, that incredible cost will nearly always get in the way of its production so it is unlikely to see the battlefield often.

Kobold Sniper - Advanced Orcish Missile Unit
The basic missile unit for the Orc race. It bears fantastic ranged ability, but at the cost of high frailty. These units can outrange ungarrisoned towers and are extremely effective against Dragons (except Dragonliches) and any high combat enemies which can't normally be taken down with other units.

Wolf Rider - Orcish Cavalry
The basic cavalry for the Orc race. It has the highest speed out of all the orcs which is also upgradable, so makes it good for following slower enemy heroes. Their second-greatest use is against melee piercing damage enemies such as Scorpions as they do not bear the piercing vulnerability as their basic infantry counterparts.

Bat - Basic Flier
There are pretty much two uses of Bats - scouting and tower fodder. As the Orc basic infantry is vastly superior in the later regard once upgraded, this leaves the Bat with the only option of scouting. Unfortunately, it has to compete with the Goblin who is available earlier and has the bonus of inflicting Disease. Still, Bats are cheaper, take up less pop cap and can fly. If you have need of scouts in tier 2, then, unless you really want to spread Disease, Bats would be ideal.

Goblin Chief - Advanced Orcish Infantry
Goblin Chiefs orient to the swarm playstyle of the Orcish race. They are reasonable tough and strong, but have a crippling weakness to piercing. The best of this unit it in its ability. Due to this ability, they can summon hordes of Goblins which can then be used to harass and Disease the enemy or as fodder.

Thrall - Primitive Builder
At tier 3 Orcs can obtain Thralls from Prisons via the Slavehorde skill. As they are "summoned" in batches of 10, you can instantly fill a mine to its maximum capacity, and even have some left over. Although, by this stage in the game all your starting mines would have been filled, leaving only the more trickier mines, which questions whether they're actually worth the risk of filling. Mine filling is the only thing that makes Thralls useful to Orcs, for their building skill is less than the actual Orcish builder, the Kobold.

Troll - Orcish Missile Unit
Trolls are the bulky Orcish missile unit, obtainable at HQ level 3 (rather than HQ level 2 of Kobold Snipers). They may do the same damage as a Kobold Sniper as well as have less range, but it more than makes up for this in crushing damage and physical resilience. The ability to pick up and throw Sheep is also a nice bonus.

Ogre - Advanced Orcish Infantry
Ogres are the first bit of true muscle the Orcs have got to offer. The Ogre is very different to most of the other Orcish units, as it has high resistance and a resistance to Fire. Its piercing vulnerability means it won't be used against arrow towers any time soon, but it can still prove useful in situations on the battlefield or against Dark Elven or Daemon towers.

Goblin Shaman - Orcish Spellcaster
The Shaman is a small Orc spellcaster that is capable of berserking nearby units, calling down lightning on nearby enemies and can control whether it's day or night (all Orcs get +2 combat at night). The lightning can be quite devastating when combined with other Shamans but is somewhat underwhelming. Fortunately, Goblin Shamans should never reach the front line since an upgrade in its damage will spell cold, icy doom to anything it fires at. Once the Goblin Shaman is fully upgraded, it is capable of absolutely mowing anything with its powerful ~ 39 cold damage attack. Paired with arrow resistant berserk Orcs, one can easily see why these are so effective, especially compared to its negligible costs (Orcs never use Crystal outside of the Shaman, Dragons and Harpies).

Harpy - Advanced Flier
The Harpy is yet another unit that Orcs get which can inflict some kind of illness, but it wont be anything you'll be relying on. Its ability to drain mana also wont be seeing much use, either, as most of the Orc race has the durability (especially with the Training skill) to endure most damaging spells thrown at them. They can be useful against High Elves - stopping Manticores and Moonguards from casting their, otherwise deadly, Multishot spells that would normally hit Orcs / Ogres and Goblin Shaman against their piercing weakness.

Giant - Orcish General
The Giant is the Orc General, produced at the Battleyard like the Orc, Ogre and Gornak Elfeater. It is a powerful unit which is very capable of taking out small armies due to its splash damage. The Giant has a lot of hits and is not vulnerable to any particular type of damage, so can be difficult to defeat. Its crushing damage can be used to devastating effect against buildings or when the Giant manages to make a critical hit, where multiple units will take massive damage and be stunned. As with other generals, the Giant can convert buildings. Unlike most other generals however, the Giant costs very little resources, barely more than the Ogre. It is also stronger than Ogres, the only tradeoff being that it takes 4 unit cap instead of 2.

Fire Dragon - Elite Flier
Orcs are, unfortunately, one of the 2 races in the game that gets both the Fire Dragon and Swamp Dragon. This effectively means Orcs only get one Dragon type, as the Swamp Dragon is identical to the Fire Dragon but with the added bonus of lowering enemy armor. Because of this there is simply no reason to build Fire Dragons when playing as Orcs.

Swamp Dragon - Elite Flier
The Swamp Dragon is a fantastic Dragon choice, unfortunately, its pretty much the only Dragon choice Orcs get. The Orc race lacks fire damage for dealing with buildings / siege weapons effectively, but the Swamp Dragon fills that gap nicely with its incineratingly powerful splash attacks. The added bonus of eroding armor can be used to soften enemy Dragons and Titans, making them that much easier to be taken down with the likes of Kobold Snipers, or, if you're feeling bold, Ogres / Giants.

Gornak Elfeater - Orcish Titan
The titan for the Orcish side is a half-breed Giant-Troll riding a massive Basilisk. By comparison to other ranged titans, he sacrifices range and a tidbit of damage for the ability to petrify enemies and a decent amount of hits for a ranged titan. He's not the most overwhelming of titans, but his petrification ability can prove very useful should he be backed up sufficiently. Outside of that, his range sacrifice has made him much more unable to pose a threat to a base compared to both The Lion Throne and Iriki for example (both of which can out-range un-garrisoned towers, The Lion Throne out-ranging even non-Dwarven garrisoned ones).