Revelade
BattleForums Member
Unless I'm mistaken, from what I've seen replays of, the typical Orc uses FS/Grunts and adds TC/Raiders and sometimes wyverns. They aim to use ensnare to surround your hero and fiends and focus fire with grunts. They also use chainwave to drastically weaken your army.
I'm suggesting a strategy that someone might use to counter this, though I came up with this in theory.
BUILD ORDER:
Okay, so you are UD and start with a ghoul build. Get a LICH and place the point into Frost ARMOR. Creep against melee creeps with your ghouls and upgrade your necropolis ASAP.
Drop a graveyard if you haven't already and continue creeping. You should have the advantage thanks to the cheap FA that works against all his grunts and wolves.
At tier 2, drop 2 temples and a slaughterhouse. Pump about 5 banshees, 2 stats, 1 necro and 6 fiends. Send the ghouls back to wood. Upgrade web, burrow, banshee adept and later master. The necro is for summon a skeleton once in a while to get your mana back faster.
You can throw a DK in there, but he might take away valuable EXP for the Lich. His coil and aura can be useful.
If you see lots of grunts at tier 1, make plenty of banshees.
If you see only a few and a quick tech, focus more on fiends.
SKILL ORDER:
With your LICH, I suggest this skill order:
FA/DR/FN/DR/FN/FN/DD/FA/FA/DR
The reason is that FA is more effective in the beginning because it's cheap and you get a +3 armor boost. You slow down the attack speed as well as the movement speed of the melee attacker. You want to use this on your Lich and have him tank, while your ghouls rip them up.
I put FN later, because I only see it as really useful against wyverns. Not only are they stacked, so they take more damage, but all of them are slowed down. I chose DR over FN at level 4 because you could do a single level 2 FN against a horde of wyverns which DOES double the damage of a level 1, HOWEVER, the slow duration is NOT doubled, so it's better to have two level 1 FNs. Also, you have more mana and can choose between armor and nova.
The 1 necro is there, so you don't have to keep buying rods to use DR or to scout.
ANALYSIS:
LICH:
The Lich there to use FA on whoever orc decides to focus fire. Since orc is usually going to be using raiders/grunts/wolves, aka melee units, FA will always be effective. The reason I don't put more points into FA is that the next level does not decrease attack rate from level 1, but only adds 2 armor. Let's see, a +2 armor or a 150 damage AoE attack.
The Lich also counters wyverns as he attacks air and is great with a orb. You could try having wyverns chase the lich and nova them when they are bunched up.
BANSHEES:
Use banshees for 3 reasons. First, they actually have a better DPS vs. grunts than fiends. They only cost 2 food as well and they don't take 150% from grunts like fiends. Next, their curse ability increases the life of your army by 33%. Finally, AMS along with statues will nullify chainwave. At tier 3, if the orc is still going grunts/raiders, possess them, though stomp will be trouble.
FIENDS:
Fiends are their to counter everything else. Fiends WIN against raiders, believe it or not, because their attack only does 75% against raiders, BUT raiders only do 50% against fiends. If orc decides to bring wyverns, web will be needed and fiends do 200% more to them. Fiends also do 150% bonus damage against kodos.
STATS:
Finally, stats are their to keep the banshees cursing, AMSING and later, possessing. They also help your Lich with the FAs and novas.
SUMMARY:
Grunts/Wolves are countered by FA, curse, banshees.
Raiders are countered by FA, curse, fiends.
Wyverns are countered by FN, web, fiends, orb.
Chainwave is countered by AMS.
EXECUTION:
TIER 1:
Use FA on your Lich and creep melee creeps in the map with your ghouls, killing ranged units before melee ones. Avoid confrontation with the Orc, since your DPS isn't high and you have no unexpecting frost novas to surprise your opponent.
TIER 2:
Before engaging, apply AMS to everyone in your army.
If you have possession, turn curse autocast off. Have fiends act as a wall and possess the units that come near the wall.
If you don't have possession, keep autocast on.
Focus fire fiends on raiders. Focus fire banshees on grunts. Keep Lich and stats back. If Wyverns are focus firing, drag the victim back and FN the group, then web and FF with fiends.
BOTTOM LINE:
As you can see, this strategy is not meant for offensive play. It's about surviving against orc. If orc tries to attack your army, you have FA to slow down their attack AND add 3 armor, curse increases your life by 33%. AMS gives you 300 magic health and statues or blight items can boost more hp, in addition to burrow.
The strategy uses FA, curse, AMS, stats and burrow to try to win a war of attrition, defensively, against Orc.
I'm suggesting a strategy that someone might use to counter this, though I came up with this in theory.
BUILD ORDER:
Okay, so you are UD and start with a ghoul build. Get a LICH and place the point into Frost ARMOR. Creep against melee creeps with your ghouls and upgrade your necropolis ASAP.
Drop a graveyard if you haven't already and continue creeping. You should have the advantage thanks to the cheap FA that works against all his grunts and wolves.
At tier 2, drop 2 temples and a slaughterhouse. Pump about 5 banshees, 2 stats, 1 necro and 6 fiends. Send the ghouls back to wood. Upgrade web, burrow, banshee adept and later master. The necro is for summon a skeleton once in a while to get your mana back faster.
You can throw a DK in there, but he might take away valuable EXP for the Lich. His coil and aura can be useful.
If you see lots of grunts at tier 1, make plenty of banshees.
If you see only a few and a quick tech, focus more on fiends.
SKILL ORDER:
With your LICH, I suggest this skill order:
FA/DR/FN/DR/FN/FN/DD/FA/FA/DR
The reason is that FA is more effective in the beginning because it's cheap and you get a +3 armor boost. You slow down the attack speed as well as the movement speed of the melee attacker. You want to use this on your Lich and have him tank, while your ghouls rip them up.
I put FN later, because I only see it as really useful against wyverns. Not only are they stacked, so they take more damage, but all of them are slowed down. I chose DR over FN at level 4 because you could do a single level 2 FN against a horde of wyverns which DOES double the damage of a level 1, HOWEVER, the slow duration is NOT doubled, so it's better to have two level 1 FNs. Also, you have more mana and can choose between armor and nova.
The 1 necro is there, so you don't have to keep buying rods to use DR or to scout.
ANALYSIS:
LICH:
The Lich there to use FA on whoever orc decides to focus fire. Since orc is usually going to be using raiders/grunts/wolves, aka melee units, FA will always be effective. The reason I don't put more points into FA is that the next level does not decrease attack rate from level 1, but only adds 2 armor. Let's see, a +2 armor or a 150 damage AoE attack.
The Lich also counters wyverns as he attacks air and is great with a orb. You could try having wyverns chase the lich and nova them when they are bunched up.
BANSHEES:
Use banshees for 3 reasons. First, they actually have a better DPS vs. grunts than fiends. They only cost 2 food as well and they don't take 150% from grunts like fiends. Next, their curse ability increases the life of your army by 33%. Finally, AMS along with statues will nullify chainwave. At tier 3, if the orc is still going grunts/raiders, possess them, though stomp will be trouble.
FIENDS:
Fiends are their to counter everything else. Fiends WIN against raiders, believe it or not, because their attack only does 75% against raiders, BUT raiders only do 50% against fiends. If orc decides to bring wyverns, web will be needed and fiends do 200% more to them. Fiends also do 150% bonus damage against kodos.
STATS:
Finally, stats are their to keep the banshees cursing, AMSING and later, possessing. They also help your Lich with the FAs and novas.
SUMMARY:
Grunts/Wolves are countered by FA, curse, banshees.
Raiders are countered by FA, curse, fiends.
Wyverns are countered by FN, web, fiends, orb.
Chainwave is countered by AMS.
EXECUTION:
TIER 1:
Use FA on your Lich and creep melee creeps in the map with your ghouls, killing ranged units before melee ones. Avoid confrontation with the Orc, since your DPS isn't high and you have no unexpecting frost novas to surprise your opponent.
TIER 2:
Before engaging, apply AMS to everyone in your army.
If you have possession, turn curse autocast off. Have fiends act as a wall and possess the units that come near the wall.
If you don't have possession, keep autocast on.
Focus fire fiends on raiders. Focus fire banshees on grunts. Keep Lich and stats back. If Wyverns are focus firing, drag the victim back and FN the group, then web and FF with fiends.
BOTTOM LINE:
As you can see, this strategy is not meant for offensive play. It's about surviving against orc. If orc tries to attack your army, you have FA to slow down their attack AND add 3 armor, curse increases your life by 33%. AMS gives you 300 magic health and statues or blight items can boost more hp, in addition to burrow.
The strategy uses FA, curse, AMS, stats and burrow to try to win a war of attrition, defensively, against Orc.
and it will seriously affect your mana for curse or possesion, besides the orc race doesn't have buffs like the other races (slow, curse, faerie fire).