Orc Strategy?!

[JuiceBox]

I have just recently started playing the normal WarCraft 3 game [instead of the custom ones] and I like playing orc. What are some basic strategy for this race?

Will give +1 rep for strats!!

 

[Whitesock]

I've written a guide for strategy here on the forums before.

http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php?p=769969#post769969
http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showpost.php?p=380861&postcount=5

You probably won't find much in there for orcs except for the base build at the bottom, so luckily there's a great website for strategy.

http://www.wcreplays.com/forums/

Check the Orc Strategies forum there.

 

[Razalgrim]

This is what I usually do:

Build an altar and send 4 peons in the mines while making 2 peons.
Build a burrow with the first peon that pops out.
Build a barracks with the next peon, then send the peon after that to the mines.
Build some more peons until you get 6-7 on lumber. Build a new burrow the moment you get 40 lumber.

After that it's pretty much up to you. Orcs usually end up with some grunts, raiders, spirit walkers, and a kodo, but you should always adjust as you see fit.

 

[black.sheep]

Mmm grunts are nice at the start of the game (Especially if you trap the enermy with them and a scroll of speed)
Radiers are good if your enermy is spread out, or is skirmishing, running their troops back
Dunno about spirit walkers, suppose they would be good vs mass casters/single targeters?
Kodo beasts are good if you keep em back, devour is good, massing kodos CAN work i suppose, especially if you like pissing people off
And then there's the blademaster...

 

[Avaleirra]

I would say get the blademaster for a hero and use him to just rush in, bladestorm, mirror image, windwalk outta there and then send your army to finish them off

for units
grunts - a lot better than most people think, upgrade these guys

raiders - weaker than grunts....only faster. I personally don't like them (or use them)

witch docters - A MUST. Make sure they have healing wards and your good. Timing stasis wards so that they trigger right after another is great too

headhunters - upgrade them to berserkers and have a few for support

kodo - have 1-2 and your good, devour healers or heavy hitters

tauren - have at least 3 and make sure you have pulverize

windrider - useful for disrupting resource gathering (I have about 6-7 to take out workers, and destroy as many buildings as possible. Go for their farms/burrows and get outta there when their army arrives)

batriders - I make do without them

spirit walkers - dint have to upgrade them I usualyy only have 1 for spirit link

shaman - godly. Lightning shield their units and your pretty much farming them, have around 4 so you can get the bloodlusts going



Make sure you have several peons on lumber, I usually have 5 on gold and 6+ on lumber


When expanding drop some sentry wards as early ingame as possible so you can see when your enemies are going to expand. As soon as you see them prepare your army nearby (out of sight) and wait till the creeps are almost dead. Do your best to steal the items that drop and use strategy to take down enemy units fast. Have a peon with you or buy the tiny greathall so that you can secure your expansion ASAP

have a few watchtowers, but don't build more than 2-3 per expansion, having 4-5 at your main base is good.

Forgot demolishers, get them but I personally don't use them to support my troops cuz they damage friendly units. Use them to fire at buildings on the other side of a river or somethin. I usually bring 1 or 2 along just in case the have towers.

Upgrades - VITAL for the orcs, orcs have strong units with great abilities, but they take a while to build and they eat up food fast. Upgrading units as much as possible makes it so you can match their numbers with strength.

E.g, if these units were fully upgraded, it would be enough to take out an expansion that has a few units guarding

4 grunts
2 withdocters
1shaman
2-3 Tauren
1 spirit walker
1demolisher
1 kodo

keep a Zeppelin aside incase they send their army and you need to escape fast.



And so ends my rant. Hope this helps

 

[Whisky]

The Ultimate Orc Strategy: Mass Batriders
Written by Whisky

Use it and laugh at your opponent when he is crying for imba and calling you noob. Works best 1v1.


Start:

1. All peons to mine, queue 2 peons on great hall.
2. First peon bringing gold builds altar.
3. First peon coming out of the great hall builds burrow. Preferrably right next to the breadline (poor guys bringing some stuff in a sack from random looking building) so it tightens up the line, making your peons bring you the bread faster.
4. More peons, next two to bring you lumber. (This strategy requires it a lot).
5. When altarpeon finishes building, order him to build voodoo lounge and Train Blademaster.
6. Order the burrowpeon to run in to the breadline. (Shift-click helps a lot.)
7. More peonz, all to lumber.
8. When you have enough money, create warmill. Training peons must not stop until you have 20 food.
9. Take normal Win Walk and Critical Strike skill build to your hero and order him to go creep to nearest green creepcamp. When he is done run back to voodoolounge, sell Scroll of Town Portal and buy one jar of that healing stuff and a clarity potion. Continue creeping until blademaster is level 2.
10. When you have 20 food, upgrade your great hall. Make many towers behind the greathall so they are hard to kill. Build two burrows and research spiked barricades and the ranged damage thing while upgrading.


Mid game:

Blademaster lvl2? Good, find your enemy and go harass him. Best would be if you find him creeping. If his hero is on low hp and killable (not Mountain King), attack him. Else just try to lasthit the creeps he is killing and steal items. Sending some of his units to a better lace would be nice too.

Some notes about harassing - If you don't find him, go to his base. If he is just standing here, laugh at him and go creep your blademaster. If he is decent and is not in the base. kill some of his workers. If you are playing mirror, always try to kill burrows instead of peons. If you see a worker building a building, attack it.
Your major goal is to inflict harm and keep him busy. If you annoy him enough, he probably becomes angry and starts playing badly, which is a great advantage to you.

Just remember to repeat the part 10 (build burrows and towers and upgrade) while harassing. Without towers you are in a deep shit if he finds out what's happening and decides to attack.

When your great hall is upgraded, build two beastiaries. Start upgrading your great hall to fortress as soon as you have money for that. Build one or two burrows so you have 50 food at maximum.
If your enemy happens to have a crappy antiair, you can switch to windriders and win fairly. If he happens to have some antiair or you just love butriders, start training them as soon as your beastiaries are ready. Remember to set the rally point to somewhere far away; Your enemy should not even suspect you are making those imba little bastards.

Keep creeping/harassing with you blademaster; Good thumbrule is that the blademaster should never stand still unless attacking something.


Late Game:

When upgrade is ready, research the burning oil upgrade for batriders, and move your batrider army behind your enemy's base. Wait him to be enough far away from his base and/or attacking to your base (that you hopefully have upgraded with reinforced defenses) and launch your deadly assault.

Your main target is his town hall. Most likely you will get it down before your opponent even thinks about teleporting back to his base. If he has towers or burrows, order one butraider to attack each of them so they won't harm you so much. You can bring your blademaster with the assault to finish off the leaving workers or you can keep your enemy busy with him.

If you don't manage to destroy his whole base at one time, just order your butraider army to hold postition somewhere where no ground unit may harm them. And since there is no air unit that is match for batriders, they should be safe.

Towers - Now he is forced to stay guarding his base. Towers are no match for batriders (burning oil makes them useless), so if he decides to leave his base after building some towers, enjoy finishing the game.

Turtling - He may be so scared that he start turtling and doesn't leave his base. Then you are free to do whatever you want, you may even switch to some normal strategy, maybe some taurens and master shamans, witch doctors and spirit walkers. Now you can build as many expansions as you want and destroy his, if you already haven't.

Force splitting - He may split his army, leaving his antiair to guard the base go kill you with his remaining forces. Don't worry, even though your batriders can do nothing about antiair units, they are basically just free experience for your blademaster. Remember to thank your opponent when he realizes his mistake and runs back to his base. Too late, of course.

Now this strategy may sound invincible, but it really has nothing to do with that. If he rushes you early, there is nothing you can do. This strategy also requires a decent sized map - if you try this in some map like echo isles, you are doomed. Also, like all the other orc strategies, this works rarely against undead.

But afterall it's a very fun strategy, give it a try at least :thup:

 

[JuiceBox]

@ Whitesock: Ahhh thanks for the link, helped me a lot!
@ Razalgrim: Thanks! So I'm guessing this is the basic start for an Orc base?
@ black.sheep: That's a good strategy. Haha, my problem with grunts before was that they die before even getting close to ranged unit, I completely forgot about speed scrolls .
@ Avaleirrra: LOL I like your strategy. However, which units should be top priority? I know grunts are A MUST, but should I get witch doctors first or shamans? And, what's the best way to counter air units?
@ Whisky: LMFAO, I will try that! However, what should I do if I have an Orc mirror match and he gets bats as well (same strategy as this). How can I counter that?

The biggest problem I find playing as an Orc is that I'm pretty much screwed against air units, especially the tier 3 dragons of the Undead which needs like 3 suicidal bat riders to take out.

 

[Avaleirra]

I would build witch docters first.

And the way I counter air is weird, usually lategame I have plenty of gold so I buy an orb of lightning and if I don't have any other items that increase damage then I stack em.


And I detest batriders

 

[Whisky]

@ Avalleirrra: You stack orb of lightings?

I agree that orb of lighting is a must buy, since it allows your blademaster to kill heroes more efficiently and makes him the orc's best antiair. But paying 300+ gold just for 5 damage... It is same as buying goblin sappers and making them blow some trees up. And if you even have creeped at all, your blademaster should not have enough room for two or more orbs.

@ JuiceBox: Every race has his ultimate weaknesses and strong parts. Orc's strong part it tier 2; Not any of the other races can match orc then. Undead is orc's worst nightmare; If you fail and let it to tech to tier 3 and make frost wyrms, you might as well leave. Same applies to every race but orc that is controlled by a decent player, you must win him with your tier 2 units, and do it fast.

And well, if you really happen to play mirror with both of you massing batriders, just suicide your batriders to his ones as soon as they come in range. If you know what he is up to, do an assault to his growing batrider army; 3 batriders is enough to destroy his whole army if they are floating at one place. And remember that blademaster with orb is the ultimate batrider counter so keep them away from him. Same applies to your opponent of course. If he is keeping his army some place that is accessible by ground units, have fun slaughtering your enemy.

 

[Avaleirra]

@whisky

it works a LOT better than what most people would think

 

[DreamZ]

Use the legendary peon build. Build about 50 burrows around your base, build 100 peons send them in the burrows, if theres more then 50 left over, send 4 in mines if you dont have some already and send 10 to lumber. Repeat burrows.

 

[Avaleirra]

Use the legendary peon build. Build about 50 burrows around your base, build 100 peons send them in the burrows, if theres more then 50 left over, send 4 in mines if you dont have some already and send 10 to lumber. Repeat burrows.

Lol I'm going to try this out

 

[JuiceBox]

Use the legendary peon build. Build about 50 burrows around your base, build 100 peons send them in the burrows, if theres more then 50 left over, send 4 in mines if you dont have some already and send 10 to lumber. Repeat burrows.

What if they bring catas/wagons/mortars/etc? LOL you're screwed

 

[Avaleirra]

What if they bring catas/wagons/mortars/etc? LOL you're screwed

Send all the peons out and attack


EDIT: where's my rep (Ima repwhore btw)

 

[black.sheep]

Abuse lvl 3 far sight
Seriously, its the greatest fucking spell ever
Also, if your going to bm harass, make sure to bring some of the items from your shop (The healing one and the mana one) so you can do it more effectively.

 

[Razalgrim]

raiders - weaker than grunts....only faster. I personally don't like them (or use them)

I love raiders. I always have at least 5. Mid-game, scout the base with your BM - if his units are gone, buttraep his supply buildings with your raiders while chopping off his worker's heads with your BM. His army comes to put a hurting on you? TP, rinse, repeat. Coupled with pillage, you can easily collapse his economy while fattening your own.

Another thing... you know when big clashes end up the enemy losing a couple of units and running back to his main, only to return and kick you square in the ass? Well, if you have raiders with Ensnare, you can take out the good few extra units he's going to have to leave behind. I'm especially fond of Obsidian Statues. They're crunchy.

Besides, I don't think you can take on a 30 food control group of flyers with one BM using 2 Orbs of Lightning. It's not realistic. :nuts:

The only problem with raiders for me is their Medium armor. But if you can micro well, your grunts should be the ones clashing with the opponent's melee units.

Also, look for maps with marketplaces. If they're not selling Blades of Attack, they should still have Gloves of Haste. Turns your hero into a one man army.

 

[Bloodcount]

Well... Orc is not my choice of race but...

First of all don't make any upgrades. You can make 1 armor upgrade but nothing more.

Use the extra cash from not upgrading to buy your hero some speed scrools and healing salve ? (not sure of the name)

go for a coupple of grunts and creep. When you feel confident enough rush your opponent. After that back, heal your units and take a gold mine. By that time you should have T2. Make a second base and upgrade to t3. While upgrading build atleast 3 more grunts. Produce riders with nets as soon as possible. Their net is a good way to stop units and kill them. Also, use speed scrolls to stop the enemy from escaping. You need 2-3 riders. (they also count as catapultstoo, because thy have siege dmg) After that get taurens and catapults.

This is a very strong combo of units. Try to wore out your opponent. Kill his expansions.
So to sum it up
T1 4grunts
t2 riders and 2 more grunts
T3 taurens with pulvarize

aditional things you might use:
Shaman with bloodlust
witchdoctor with healing ward
troll batrider for sneak attacks
The tauren mage to revive your taurens.


Things you should use when having a bad game

A lot of troll berserkers
Neutral healers
riders.

Things that you shouldn't normally use if having resourses:
Troll berserkers/headhunters
neutral healers
catapults


I am not that good with the orc race. Still I hope this is somewhat useful.

 

[Genkora]

imo, orcs have the best casters, and you should make sure you always have at least 3 docs and shaman. I usually make about 2 tauren, 2 spirit walkers to go with them, always one kodo (unless the enemy masses knights or something, then mass kodos ftw), a few raiders to ensnare big air units like chimeras or frost wyrms, and 3-4 demolishers to take out enemy casters. I'll usually make 6-12 wyvern riders (or whatever they are called) as my main damagers. Of course, if they build lots of aa, you should make somthing else. Really, it's just keeping an eye on your enemy (those watcher wards of the witch doctors work great) and making things to best counter it. I have always felt that in large games, orcs have pitiful aa, but in 1v1 they have great aa, if the enemy has lots of small, lower healthed air units, bats, or a few large high healthed ones, raiders. 2 or 3 bats are also useful for harassing expos, hit and run, hit and run, keep them occupied so they won't attack you (probably).

Orcs also have some of the strongest heroes, again imo. A high level blade master wielding a lightning orb is killer against air, I like to chase chims and stuff around the map with them and windwalk if they get wise or my bm gets too hurt, and of course, early game worker harassing. Tauren chieftain's warstomp is amazing in 1v1 (very long stun length), and is usually my first choice for a hero in those games. If the TC is your first hero of choice, you can drop a tauren unit for something else, the TC is very difficult to kill, especially after lvl 6. The farseer's chain lightning is great for killing things like archers and other low health units, and if it is your first hero, feral spirit is a good rushing ability (but serpent ward on the shadow hunter is better I think). Shadow Hunter is the master of rushing, like I said, serpent ward is devestating early on. Just drop those bad boys around enemy workers. Hex is useful for stopping enemy heroes that are retreating, or just for controlling enemy numbers.

 

[JuiceBox]

Here's my basic build:
Note: This is in 2v2 or 3v3, NOT in 1v1 games.

I mass wyverns and bats, upgrade armor and weapon to "3". I also get Blademaster and Shadow Hunter as heroes. Blademaster takes care of mass ranged, while Shadow Hunter heals the wyverns and hexes heroes for focus fire. I get expansion after I get enough resources and upgrade to tier 3 for poison upgrade and unstable concoction for bats. Bats take care of their seige (catapults/meat wagons/etc.).