Power of the Horde - Orc Basics

THE HORDE - ORC BASICS​

I finally got the balls to get off my ass and finally write this small, but basic synopsis of the Horde; one of the 4 races in Warcraft III. I will go over the basic units, what they are capable of, the heroes, some counters and things to watch out for. And some other things you will need to improve your skills. Quite possibly become the next 4k.Grubby, if you can make it that is.

General Facts + Pluses​

• The Orcs can be a costly race, in both gold and wood. Especially in the wood department (since they have no real special effects to help them get wood). Keep a well balanced number of Peons to solve this problem.
• Most of thier units have high damage output or more HP than the other races. Or a combination of both. A Tauren is an example of both things coming together
• With Pillage, you can turn enemy buildings into free cash. That could pretty much save your life. RESEARCH IT WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE
• They aren't the best race to deal with sorcery (Slow, poly, LS, skeletons etc.). Be sure you have dispellers on hand.
• Burrows may be a good defensive structure, but many professional players go directly for them to cut your food. Be sure to repair them as best as you can, Watch Towers can add more protection.
• Spiked Barricades may be crucial in dealing with melee units. Especially when they are fully upgraded.
• Try to get a harass in, with the Far Seer or Blademaster. You just may screw yourself over early if you don't know what your enemy is up to.
• As above, but Scouting is ESSENTIAL!
• And as with every race, Micromanagement is crucial. You have to back up weak units to the base or healing fountain, use Salves wisely and etc. The micro will determine if you are a good player or NOT!.

 

How to get Started?​

A build order for Orcs is an iffy discussion. It really depends what strategy you are aiming for and what type of game you are playing. This is a common build order used by the soloists or good Orc players on Battle.net. I also use it myself.

Common Build - Gets you to Tier 2​

1. Build 2-3 peon at the Great Hall, Use 4 on the gold mine. The last one builds an Altar of Storms (trains hero).
2. When the next peon comes out. Order him to construct a Burrow
3. When the next peon comes out. Order him to construct a Barracks
4. If you made 3 peons, the last one should go on Wood. Also, click on the Peon in each construction and order them to chop Wood when finished. If you want to Scout, the peon that is done the Altar should be the "scouter".
5. When the Burrow is finished (should be around the time the Altar is done), get a hero. If you found the enemy, you may rally the altar to the base.
6. Get a few more peons on wood and build another Burrow
7. Once you hit 190 Wood, tech your main to Stronghold.
8. While the main is teching, build a Voodoo Lounge and a War Mill near the wood.

During the build, you produce Grunts, any Watch Towers or necessary Peons you need to keep your economy/army going. Just remember to rally the Barracks and Altar to your first hero.

At T2, its up to you what you can do. If you want to get Raiders with your army, I suggest building 2 Bestairies when you get to t2. You will also need a second hero to support your first one and your army.

 

The Warriors​

The Orcs have a variety of units that specialize in either damage, sorcery and/or support for your troops. These range from the versatile Grunt to the almighty Tauren to even casters like Shaman and Witch Doctors.

Grunt - The basic warrior of the Orcish Horde. Costs only 200 gold and 3 food. Only requires a Barracks to make. This is pretty much your army for T1-T2 until you get units like Tauren or Wyverns. They have the most HP and Damage potential than any t1 melee unit in the game. However, their movement and attack speeds are Average.

Berserker Strength (Barracks) improves thier base damage by 3 and thier HP by 100. Making them more difficult to kill. Although they will be more hearty, you should still consider microing them instead of running them into a suicide run. They also have Pillage (Great Hall) which will allow you to gain resources by attacking enemy buildings. This could single handedly save you from money problems and help you gain an expo.


Headhunter - The basic ranged/aa attack of the Horde, Costs 135 gold and 20 wood with 2 food. Built at Barracks but needs a War Mill. These units are EXTREMELY frail, with only 350 HP. They will easily fall at the hands of melee and many units if not carefully used. However, thier damage payoff is quite high, but thier attack is Slow. If you use Headhunters, try to use them with Grunts early and/or focus fire on the targets you need to take down. Be warned, Footmen under Defend are not a suggested target to attack.

Troll Regen (Barracks, but needs Stronghold) improves thier HP regen rate to 1.5. This allows them to recover life more quickly and shrug off light damage after a while. Berserker Upgrade (Barracks, but jneeds Fortress) turns them into Troll Berserkers. They do the same damage. but they gain 100 HP (to 450). They also gain Berserk, which increases thier attack speed by 50%, but causes them to take 50% more damage.


Demolisher - Siege Weapon for the Orcish Horde. Costs 220 Gold, 50 wood and 4 Food. Accessible at the Barracks once you have a Stronghold with a War Mill. This is probably the ultimate sniper of unarmored units and the destroyer of structures and tanks. Even 2 or 3 to any army can make a difference. Just be warned: they are easily killed and they cannot strike at targets in melee range. Thier splash damage can also damage your own units or end up reducing them to guts. Bring Peons if you are gonna use them and they are going to get damaged. Since they are mechanical units, they have the power to repair it. But in the right hands, can be the nightmare of weak units, unarmored casters or ranged, or structures.

Thier only upgrade, Burning Oil (Barracks, but requires Foretress) soaks the ammo in flaming oil. When the ammo hits the ground, it causes the ground to light on fire and units who walk over the fire take 3 damage per second. Personally, I do not like this upgrade. But every bit of damage helps, plus it still works on buildings. Just don't let your units walk into the flaming death.

Raider - A melee version of the Demolisher. Costs 180 Gold, 40 Wood and 3 Food. The starting unit of the Bestairy. Extremely mobile at 350 Movespeed and decent damage, they are decent warriors, but not ment for front lining.

So why use them? First off, they do siege damage. They can turn unarmored and buildings into mush in seconds, a good unit to also combat Human Siege Engines with. But that is not all they have: They got the most dreaded ability of the horde, Ensare (Researched at Bestairy). This skill throws a net at a target unit and it cannot move for 12 seconds (2.5 vs Heroes). This skill acts like a manual version of Web as well, in the sense it can bring air units to the ground. Because they have more HP than Headhunters, you can consider them as a form of AA, as long as you have the support to gun them down. The wise use of this skill can also hamper the performance of Micromanagement for your enemy, since they now cannot move thier weaker units.

This spell is also good at taking down tailgaters or units heading to the heroes group. You can easily net the unit and surround it with your numbers, then kill it off. This skill is a recommeneded must when you take on Undead or even Night Elves, you should consider having raiders with your melee strategies. Just be warned, they only have 610 HP and can easily be smashed up by melee or high damage. And the effects of slow or magic are still a hampering force to them, especially Slow. And they cannot do effective damage vs. heroes.

Raiders are extremely effective units vs buildings and battle control. Use ensare effectively, and you will soon realize why I consider them to be my favorite unit of the Orcish Horde.


Kodo Beast - A support unit that can also be found within the Bestairy, but requires a War Mill. It costs a whopping 255 gold, 60 Wood and 4 Food. It is a giant beast with an orc rider, that jacks a damage increase aura to all nearby allies. As you well know, every bit of Damage helps, and this will improve with your upgrades. But that is not all it has.

It's second power, Devour is an effective tool to incapacitate units. The Kodo will eat the unit and keep it in its stomach. As long as the creature is in his stomach, the unit takes 4 dps until it dies or the Kodo dies. If the unit dies and the Kodo lives, then a new unit can enter his stomach. If the kodo dies before the unit is dead, the unit is freed with whatever Hit Points it has left. And as long as there is a unit inside, it will reveal the location of the Kodo to the player that the unit belongs to. So it's not a good thing to have for surprise attacks.

However, this can incapacitate casters or t3 melee that you do not want to fight. One less unit to comprehend with can make an extreme difference in combat. Just make sure you can get teh Kodo out of harms way when you do so. Also, if the unit gives a bounty, you will get it, but you wont get any items if it was supposed to have any, so watch it when you use this skill against creeps.

It's only upgrade is an aura bonus, which requires a Fortress to research. Your damage improves even further. So really, Kodos are great units to support your troops, just be sure you keep them safe from damage (Unarmored) and compensate thier Slow speeds and lack of damage with battle units.

Wind Rider - The Orc's air warrior, a high damage but slow attacking unit that costs 265 Gold, 40 Wood, and 4 Food. When left unchecked, they can be extremely devastating vs armies, workers, and buildings. But there are easily countered by teh effects of anti air, slows, and web/ensare effects. They are handy focus firers, especially against hampered units and heroes that suffer from Ensare, Hex or Statis Trap/War Stomp effects. Just make sure you draw the limit of when to fly in and kill units, you dont want to fly your expensive Wind Riders to thier doom all because you wanted to kill a simple hero. They are an efficient Unarmored unit killer as well, perfect for turning casters into swiss cheese with thier two-point spears.

Health-wise, they aren't as effective as the other air units out there. You really need to take micromanagement into consideration to gun down the units that can duel them more effectively. Spells like healing wards, unstable concotion and bloodlust can turn to tides to your favor. Just remember to fly out the weaker wind riders to your base. They have no terrian holddowns, so getting them around isnt that difficult. One thing you can also do in battles is move them to areas above unaccessable terrian, so AA wont form up as well. Plus you can drive a commander nuts if he is extremely focused on them. But along with Grunts, you can have an effective one-two punch that can force AA players to choose between the ground and get pounded by air, or vice versa.

Thier only upgrade is Envemoned Spears, which requires a Fortress to learn. Now thier attacks carry a DPS effect, doing 4 dps for 25 seconds. To be effective, you can spread this poison to various amounts of units, till they are reduced to a point where even a pickaxe from a Peasent can kill hte unit in one shot. But most people use them for focus firing against melee, heroes, or air that can't attack air as effectively.

TO BE CONTINUED!