The Light Orc Guide to smashing things.

Terrain

Like: Barrens
Dislike: Artic, Blighted
Hate: Volcanic

Orcs (oddly enough) are a little fussy when it comes to climate. Though they like the barren terrain, when it comes to climate they either dislike or outright dispise half of the possible options . At the same time they don't have any terrain they dispise so that is a plus (as you can change the climate with abilites). That, and its always good to know that the climates the Orcs do hate tend to be dispised by others aswell.

Racial Bonuses and Other Traits

The Good: +5 Hitpoints (Iz gud)
+1 Smacking capability (melee if your dull... or an elf... or sensible)
Victory rush: If you win +6 Hitpoint recovery! (Nothing like a positive attitude to heal a
few fatal wounds.)
Tireless: Free cost to retaliation and oppertunity attacks (While not a trait, its
something most of your units have, and that will apply to any of your class units like crusaders and Assassins.) (Whapping things, now with more... more)
War Cry: Also not a trait, However available to many of their units. Gives a 1 round burst of +3 melee damage for each consecutive attack.(Always need more da...)

The Bad: -1 Ranged capability (T'was a cowardly way)
- 1 Magical Resistance (Is for Elves, Less elf, the better)

The Meh: +2 vision underground

So heres a shocker, Orcs are good at hiting things when they are much closer to them. Magic is also rather scary and thus they lose some resistance to it. Anyway, the bonus to hitpoints is always what makes me like them so much. That +5 to every unit adds up (and its hard to hit things when your dead) and allows you more lee-way to get into bludgeoning range. As for the bad, yea it sucks, but what is lost can be made up for through hero upgrades, what cannot be boosted through hero upgrades are hitpoints for all units and (as far as I know) the Victory rush ability. Speaking of the Victory Rush, its pretty damn good to come out of a battle with a few more hitpoints to fight the next battle in. As for the Vision upgrade... well... its nice, but sadly it depends on whether you even have the underground enabled or not.

So lets overview the racial units that the orcs get. I will be going through this by tiers with decent sized discription of the uses. As for the statistics, well I will touch on them, but the stats don't tell you much on how to use the units.

Tier One

Orc Spearman (nothing like pointy sticks to solve old problems)

So being the general-Tier 1-cannon-fodder-esque-irregular unit all Races get. Hes not exactly great. His main use is through his ability to act as a decent early range unit at one moment and a impromptu footsman the next. His range attack is equal to his melee attack (10) so the Spearman's usefulness is flexability .However, what really makes the spearman excel at his role of "skirmisher" is the sprint ability. The sprint ability gives a healthy +12 movement for a turn and allows him to get by enemies without suffering attackes of oppertunity. This can be useful for mainly two situations.
1: For flanking and stabing (or pelting) something with pointy sticks or...
2: Getting out of a sticky situation like being surrounded by a bunch of tougher units.
The sprint function also recharges after three turns, so if you havn't decimated the enemy by that point, heres a chance to try again!
Sadly, His defence is 8 (without shield), and his magic res 7, so be careful where you put him.

Orc Greatsword (Now this is a "ranged" weapon)

Compared to the other tier one swordsman for other races, this guy is really hard to beat. He has a fat and healthy 50 hitpoints and a decent defence of 10 with armour at basic level. His big bloody sword hits for 13 melee dmg and his overwhelm ability makes him stand a chance against the more defence heavy units like pikemen. There really isn't much to say about him besides HIT THINGS WITH HIM. Just be wary (as usual) that his magic res is lower than usual so be careful in engaging magic heavy creatures or with possible magic support. At the same time his hitpoints can soak up alot of the punishment dealt to him, but don't test him.

Orc Razorbow (Oh Dear)

Yea... bout this guy, we don't talk to him too much. Needless to say when a archer melee dmg is greater than his range dmg something is wrong. This guy is (chances are) the worst tier 1 bowman. His piddly 6 dmg may add up through sheer volume of shot, but overall he is just not as good as any other range unit. Anway to make up for his poor damage, he has the ability to cause bleeding wounds right of the bat. This can be used to launch a shoddy volley to cause maybe some long term bleeding damage. Sadly however (at least in my case) when I shoot something I would rather it die now instead of slowly bleeding out and having oppertunities to kill my men. His abilities barely make up for his poor damage output.. If you want range, I would turn to the spearman or another races units all together.

Orc Impaler (Pointy sticks 2.0, now with less range)

Welp. this guy is a pikeman, and there isn't really that much else more to him. He is a little better than most thanks to his high hitpoints and melee damage, and hes good for holding the line and for throwing against heroes and cavalry. What im trying to say is that hes a good pike unit thanks to his orky nature, however don't expect anything special from him because hes not a very special unit (Don't tell him that.) Unless you count his slightly weaker magic res, hes not that much different. However, his discription is worth a read, and you will be a better person from experiencing it.

Tier Two

Hurray! Out of the meh and into the slightly less meh! Joyous day! So, lets get started.


Orc Black Knight (I would make the joke, but I will pretend to be a better person)

So this guy is kinda cool. Hes the only racial cavalry unit the orcs get (and a pretty cool looking one at that to) and he finds himself covering a few interesting roles. First of all besides the bonus hp etc, he is armed with a polearm. This gives him a meaty +5 against flying and mounted troops and makes him useful beyond his tier two role since alot of the faction tier 3 elites in AOW3 tend to be mounted or flying . Dispite what we might think (that a ork on a horse is kinda silly) this guy is a pretty good cavalryman as he is pretty damn good at stabbing things and his mixture of stats and abilites give him a chance against some of the heavier units you will no doubt encounter. He is still a tier 2 unit , though he will do damage, hes no human knight.

Orc Priest (Egad! His magic res is higher than his regular def! What is this madness?)

So besides his rather cool shaman-esque look this guy takes his support role of not really making his troops better, but making the enemy easier to chew up. He does this through his curse ability that either chops 2 magic res and defence away or -18 movement. The range of this move is also really bloody big making it all the more useful. He does deal in blight damage which is a bit of a two edged sword. It kills elves good, but at the same time alot of creatures are resistant to blight in this game, so its a little awkward when your supper cool blight move can't effect anything. At the same time as this guy levels up he can turn his range attack into something deadly with the debuffs he can add to it. So overall hes pretty good, however hes less support and more ranged damage and debuff as he can't actually help his own comrades (besides the dispel.)

Tier 3

Orc Shock Trooper (Brings tears to eye :,<)

Hes not mounted, nor is he that magic resistant at all, but blimey does this guy hit hard for a tier three unit. His abilities later on (killing momentum) make him all the more awesome as when the unit gets a kill it can move again and whack some other poor sod caught in its path. Yet another reason to take him. However, remember, this guy opitimizes the orcs the best by showing us the orcs greatest strength, and their greatest weakness. Physically he is supreme, but magically he is incredibly vulnerable with many tier one units beating him out in magic resistance. There isn't much else to say except, this guy hits HARD, but he can also be hit VERY HARD by magic.

So to encapsulate my play with these units. Spears are good flexible skirmishers. Greatswords are good at being great. Razorbows are only there to remind us that orks suck at shooting things. Impalers are Pikemen. Priests are good damage magic users instead of actual priests. The Black Knights make pretty good cavalry. And the smashyness of shock troops are very pleasing to mine eyes and should be to yours.

Oh my, here we go. Its going to be a little awkward explaining this due to the fact that the way I see some things work can differ from other peoples, lets see how many fireworks I set off.

Edit: Please note, looking back on this now, I need to work on this. Theres a lot to add, and the problem being alot of what to add isn't specific to orks. Will see what I can do however.

An edit within an edit: Started really adding to this now, should be actually functionable within the next millenia :S

Arch-Druid

Stat Bonuses

+5 Health (oooohhhhh)
+1 Magic resist (aahhhhhhhhh)
+ Vision range upgrade (+1 vision above ground) (cewl...)

Overall, the bonuses get are rather nice for your hero (presuming its an orc). More health is always, ALWAYS good. Magic resist is also nothing to complain about and that vision range is a nice little bonus. Orcs are however a little less effective with the bow for reasons obvious, though do keep in mind their ability to kill things is still potent. Their already massive health however (60 compared to the non archmage and non orc 50) makes them much more able to take damage.

Type of play for Orcs

Mixture of weakness covering and supplementing their limited magical arm. As for building on their strengths... well, no. To put it simply the archdruid dosn't adress their strengths as much as simply minimize them by using summons and good range units.

Dreadnaught

Dreadnaught works well with the Orcs, as chances are it should. Anything that kills magic things faster is a friend, comrade and cool guy. This is a class that better fits the description of "weakness filler" than "strength builder". It adds range, anti magic and even more bonuses when it comes to armour for your orcish units.One problem that immediatly hits me right of the bat is that dreadnaughts focus on hitting things from range. However besides the problem maybe with the musketeer the dreadnaught isn't that bad when I think about it. Problem being there are better synergies when it comes to dreadnaught. Both good things and bad things come from the dreadnaught machines. Mostly that they don't suffer from the debuffs of Orcs, but at the same time don't gain the bonuses like other classes( for example the warlord having all his units with a +5hp and +1melee). It works, the question of who it works better for is based mostly on opinion.

Type of Play for Orcs

While there are no direct synergies, the options it gives an orc player are good when it comes to giving some range power aswell as ways to deal with elves/wizards the proper way. BY SETTING THEM ON FIRE, ALOT.

Rogue

This where things get rather juicy when it comes to synergy. The rogue focuses on fast hard hitting units, something the Orcs like. They don't tend to have alot of range units besides the scoundrel, and my the Assassin works well with the bonuses the Orks give. The rogue and the Orcs tend to work well together since the rogue can give orcs the mobility and flexability to hit things very hard from all sides, just what I want. With that increased toughness and hitting power the Orcs can give, the class and the race synergise quite well.The ability to get shadow stalker and uh... the succubuses add some magical support that the Orks need. As a side note taking exploration and then finding trail runnning will make your game much funner, trust me. And this goes for any race.

Type of Play for Orcs

Sorcerer

When looking at this class I see similar problems with the Arch Druid. Alot of summoning is good at fixing the Orcs Weakness but at the same time dosn't adheer to much to the strenghts. Though at least the apprentice does take a new role for Orcs to use. Again like the Arch Druid its not the the Both orcs and the classes in question don't work at all together, its more that there are better options out there to use instead. Then again thats my opinion. Some people like to try and make up for thier races weaknesses, others like to go for powering through the races weaknesses by focusing exclusively on the strong sides.

Theocrat

Imo both the Orcs and the theocrat really shine together. The theocrat covers the magic weaknesses with buffs etc while wtill playing to the Orcs advantage of lots of melee focused soldiers and augmenting their soldiers with spirit weaponry. The bonus's for Orcs shine through since their negatives are overshadowed either by the theocrats ability to buff them beyond their weaknesses or because the theocrat barely focuses on their weaknesses like ranged physical damage. There is a weakness, like the lack of summonses for the Theocrat, but that can be augmented through specializations (though not as strongly as the sorcerer or the arch-druid. But in my opinion the Theocrat is a good option

Warlord

Here we are, the Orcs class made for them. The Warlord is all about hitting things very very hard with very very large sticks. Indeed, when people think orks, they think of the warlord, which is what I usually think aswell. The Warlord plays to the strenghts of the Orcs here by giving them the most powerful cavlary, infantry etc in the game. There is however one rather large flaw. The Warlord class dosn't deal well with the ork weaknesses. For that you will have to rely heavily on heroes or captured dungeon buffs etc to stop magic heavy enemies from making a mess of your imperialistic plans. Ostensibly, unreliable sorces which won't do the job very well. Speaking from experience (possibly outdated mind you) I had a hellish time taking down a sorcerer because dispite my brute strength I couldn't kill her units without losing a good portion of my men. It was only full sheer numbers and determination that I managed to beat her. It shouldn't take that much. Just remeber that as mentioned before some people like to play exclusively to the strenghts of some races. I don't really know where I sit on that fence, but this option plays to the orcs strenghts and not much with some range supplements, but honestly what else can you ask for? Its fun.

Response to Crownlessking:

Noted, and yea, I need to improve my synergy list. Should be coming when my professors stop thinking burying me under reading and homework is not really that funny.

Response to sprn'gr:

Yup. Beserkers any time, any place tend to be really good. Once again my quams when it comes to warlord are not their ability to completly kill everything, but their ability to be gibbed by magic. Anyway, as outlined to why I like the rogue so much, the beserkers are many of the things I like. They have some (if not much) extra movement to get into mauling range, and have good health, damage and some nice abilites such as mind control immunity and the ability to channel their anger into ladders before your very eyes! So yea, I agree, not much more to say.

Response to Shinigamith

Thats a neat little synergy ya got there. Maybe if its cool with you I will add that.. maybe. Reason i'm a little iffy on it is because I don't like talking about elements of the game generated at random. That and I think its something that should go on something to do with the sorcerer rather than a page about the orks, never the less its a neat synergy.

Response to lathamhj

1. Yea, they are tuff, but to say a stack of tier one irregulars is unbeatble is overstepping it a little bit. Yea, they are cheap and easy to levy en mass, however all it takes is some half decent cavalry and theres very little one can do with pure tier 1 soldiers. On the other hand, yea, its more or less a truth that rogue (no matter what race) has the best irregular options.

2. Bard no matter what anywhere is just a flat out great support unit. From that +300 morale to gathering free armies in inns, they are more or less a must for any rogue lord. And as you said, fast expansion... that is to say early-med game expansion. Later on it will take more than just a bunch of brainwashed mercs to kill some of the crap the AI will throw at you.

Anyway, its a nice little synergy between the orc priest unit, cuz curse is cool, but nothing godlike.

3.As mentioned its true for any race, dosn't mean that yah can't appreciate the increased durability of what could be really damn squishy unit though. But anyway, to deviate from the topic, its not only the scoundrels sabotage that makes siege engines irrelevant, but that most units and heroes tend to have wall climbing, flying or incorporeal. Scoundrels are nice, but nothing OMG SO OP PLZ NERF :C.

Once again, its kinda awkward answering questions that would otherwise be on a rogue page, but whatevs, am fine with it :)

Also, orcs are strong, but I would be a little iffy to say what is best and what isn't when alot of what classifies in peoples eyes as best and not best are based more on opinions than facts.

Response to ohkh1120

I think there are two ways people try to play races of any sort. They either build on their strengths to overcome their weaknesses, or they focus on suppressing their weaknesses to make their stenghts more reliable. Neither way is right or wrong (it never is), but anyway, in this case I think your focusing on trying to fill in their weaknesses.

As a side note, yea the small damage really dosn't count, but im more focusing on the dreadnaughts ability to pump out machines and resist magic.

Anyway, as you said Dreadnaught covers alot of the orcs range options and gives them some machines which can take some magical hits (albiet not by thaaaaaatttt much.) As for the pistol thing, it works well with any mounted unit, theres nothing that special about it when it comes to the black knight. Dosn't mean that its not good though. So yea, I think it works and I can see its appeal (not that any class for any race dosn't work in this game.) Thanks for the Comment.

Response to Blackhood

... Damit, I forgot, completely. Your quiet right, it does deserve to be put in, thanks for pointing that out. Tireless is well, yea, pretty good at helping you at mantaining maximum mauling efficency. As for the synergy issue... well you put it rather right. The awkward thing I find about doing race overviews for AOW3 is that there is simply to much stuff to cram in without us sitting here all day discussing the most minute and random details. I can't do something in great detail without some-one else demanding the same for everything else, that and alot of people would like stuff that would feature on another guide itself. I do however think some things do need improvement, but indeed the question is to what degree do they really need it. Anyway, moaning aside thanks for the feedback. It appears that no-sleep me back in september still could still identify what humour was (if not spelling) for the most part.

Response to Entherian

Quite. Builds in my opinion tend to focus around 2 central ideals.

1. Try to cover weaknesses as the strengths of a faction are strong enough. Hard to defeat something that while not very powerful, is always effective under any circumstance.

2. Weaknesses are gonna be weak no matter what, should focus on strenghts as being a jack of all trades means stability yes, but no real powerhouse combo's. No point at seeming sub-par at everything if the opponents chosen speciallty can beat yours no matter what.

Took alot of whats been said of the dreadnaught into consideration (including your own comment) and well, lets say I have changed a few things in the dreadnaught section. Apologies for the wait on response, shoudln't have taken so long to get back to editing this thing. Thanks for the comment!