Orc

Back to Races



Orc Information Pages
Orc Buildings Overview
 * Orchold
 * Tower
 * Walls
 * Ramparts
 * Battleyard
 * Goblin Tower
 * Beast Pit
 * Hovel
 * Brood
 * Prison
 * Shaman's Hut
 * Totem

Orc Researches Overview
 * Training
 * No Pain!
 * Cowards!
 * Eagle Eye
 * Wolfpack
 * Rabies
 * Ogrelord
 * Thump
 * Slavehorde
 * Shaman
 * Harpy Hag
 * Giantlord

Orc Armies Overview
 * Kobold
 * Goblin
 * Orc
 * Gobshooter
 * Kobold Sniper
 * Wolf Rider
 * Bat
 * Goblin Chief
 * Thrall
 * Troll
 * Ogre
 * Goblin Shaman
 * Harpy
 * Giant
 * Fire Dragon
 * Swamp Dragon
 * Gornak Elfeater

Overview
The Orcs are a formidable anti-metagame race with fast producing and often powerful units throughout the majority of the game. Their greatest weakness isn't easily exploited either due to the air defense and speed of the units (the Wolfrider does need upgrades to become fast enough to counter certain siege weapons). Pile on top the fact that there are multiple units with distinct costs and researches, and you have one of the most effective races in the game.

Pros

 * All non-flying units are immune to all Illnesses.
 * Huge array of units that can allow the race to work in many different situations.
 * Their basic infantry (when upgraded), remain very effective right through to the end of the game.
 * Access to many different ways to handle aerial targets.
 * Playing as the Orcs means the player gains 100 Stone upon destroying enemy buildings, essentially allowing some of their units to pay for themselves.

Cons

 * Cannot repair buildings.
 * Crippling weakness to psyche effects through a combination of low resistance stats and poor recovery times.
 * They effectively only have a single Dragon choice.
 * Race requires a lot of micromanagement, due to the vast variety of units and tactics.
 * Many units have a vulnerability to piercing damage.

Units
Orcs have a wide variety of units and are all immune to both poison and disease, some of which are disease carriers themselves. They are quite fast to produce and reasonably strong early in the game. The Orcs start off the game with access to multiple Orc researches and the Training research. Those who have played other races where the Training research is present know just how valuable this research is. Training improves the general power of all units that are produced. This power boost is a rather significant one, and is vital to get. Another vital research is the No Pain! research. With No Pain!, Orcs basically turn into hyper Skeletons, capable of sponging arrows and dealing quite a bit of whack back to any archer that dares to get in their path. By this point, Goblins and the vision upgrades are available at the Goblin Tower, but due to the gold costs of Kobolds, it would be recommended to only roll these out as fodder after sufficient amounts Gold mines have been acquired.

Wolf Riders are quite easy to access (HQ level 2 at the Beast Pit), but require upgrades to become effective. Fortunately these upgrades cost Crystal so the research cost is effectively just time since the Orcs don't use Crystal until later. Wolf Riders actually aren't a requirement, they mostly can only be used to counter piercing damage melee units (bar Pikemen and Halberdiers), chase heroes and spread disease around a bit.

Trolls are a welcome addition to the Orc arsenal, and can be access by HQ level 3 at the Prison. The cost of Trolls means the Orc player won't be producing Ogres any time soon, but they're only usable against Daemons and Dark Elves anyway. Trolls can pack quite a punch against anything standing in their way, whether unit or building. In the case where the Orc player is against Daemons or Dark Elves (or any fire damage prevalent set up), replace Trolls with Ogres.

Against any arrow tower races, Orcs should be spammed massively and thrust into the opponents base to cause as much problems as possible as early as possible. There are few races capable of containing an Orc spam, but if they do, back them up later with Trolls and possibly some Goblin Shamans. That combination of units is almost unstoppable - the Orcs take all the arrow damage, whilst they all dish out a variety of damage types which nothing can resist. Even cavalry counter attacks against the mob of Trolls and Goblin Shamans go down badly both thanks to the Troll's toughness and sheer power and the powerful cold damage and Call Lightning spell of the Goblin Shaman. Kobold Snipers can be used for defence or in certain circumstances where the enemy have got Dragons already.

The complexity of the Orc units is quite deep, and other tactics can be used in many different ways. For instance, Goblins can be spammed as fodder against non-arrow towers whilst Trolls or Goblin Shamans smash them down, or you could simply spam Goblins just to harass and disease the opponent's base before finishing them off. Also, the Goblin Shaman's spell enables already dangerous Orcish units to become deadly, at a cost though: only for last chance, suicidal or final blow tactics (unless the player is ready for a lot of micro-management).

Note: Orcs can be a very useful support race with Minotaur allies due to the ability of the Minotaurs to produce Sheep for the Trolls to throw.

Buildings
Orcs have a few researches, but not as many as a lot of other races. That said, the researches the Orcs have are all they need, and are usually very powerful. Buildings are nothing out of the ordinary, except for the 100 Gold and 200 Stone cost of Battleyards, making them more awkward to construct as well as place as they're somewhat large in certain areas. Orcish towers would be good examples of a tower were it not for the unique Orcish ability to be unable to repair buildings, which is quite possibly their greatest weakness, although somewhat difficult to take advantage of. By the time the Orcs get to HQ level 4, they will have access to the Shaman's Hut, which has a research required to build Totems. Totems are unique Orcish air defence structures with around 150 hits and 50 magic damage. These Totems are highly effective at anti-air defence, particularly against tougher air units such as Dragons.

Heroes
The Orcs have a tough choice of heroes due to their odd qualities. Out of the list though, there are a couple of outstanding concepts. However, both of which require a fairly high level (past 30). Unfortunately, Orc hero classes tend to be pretty difficult to create since their low level skills may not be enough to support them through tough battles easily.

The Tinker may look like a poor choice for an Orc hero, but the Orc Lord skill can be spammed along with Charisma to give a Chieftain-styled morale bonus over the horde. There are other upsides too, the main ones being crucial access to both Smelting and Quarrying, albeit at fairly high levels. These skills can be used to turn the hero into a Merchant, but for the Orcs. What is great is that there is access to Alchemy should you want it, giving further bonuses by allowing resource trading, acquiring of mines in that massive command radius and a small mercantile bonus via the Charm spell.

It is possible to abuse Demolition and become a building destroyer, but again, the requirement is a high level hero. If you choose to go for a melee building destroyer, either choose Warrior or Monk depending on whether you value toughness or damage more respectively.

A spell sphere choice for the Orcs is unfortunately quite difficult. The Orcs have no mana or spellcasting researches, so Orc wizards will get no support from the race. A Runemaster could be used simply to repair damaged Orc buildings, but usually it won't help aid the win condition for the Orcs so it may be a little risky. The synergy Orcs have in Chaos Magic can only really be abused on Goblins since they're already fodder, making them weaker changes basically nothing. Making them stronger however, can make them into a serious threat.

Counters

 * A large issue for any Orc player is the fact that they cannot repair any of their buildings. Abuse this maximally by attempting to attack guarded points from different angles in the attempt to further damage and eventually destroy defensive positions. Although catapults are weak against most Orc units, they can be used to devastating effect against buildings too. Units with an enormous sight radius can really help to pinpoint enemy locations and proceed to volley the enemy buildings with catapult fire.
 * Orcs may have good defensive units, but both them and their buildings cost Metal and Stone. Strip any Orc player of these, and it is very likely they will have a much harder time throughout the game. Also remember when attacking Orc mines, they cannot repair them just like any other of their controlled buildings, so the above tactic can be used against the mines too.
 * Interestingly, the massive cost of Orcish towers is quite an issue. Orc players may frequently run out of Stone when building stronger units or these towers. Cutting an Orc player's Stone supply off will weaken their defence dramatically.
 * Some orc units are vulnerable to piercing attacks; this is the case for the Orc (though the No Pain! upgrade helps against ranged piercing attacks), the Ogre, the Goblin Chief and the Goblin Shaman (who is also vulnerable against slashing and crush) . Factions with powerful or many piercing attacks might cause much trouble against them (e.g High Elves where upgraded Iceguards can prove devastating or The Swarm who have access to Scorpionmen and Scorpions.)