Any tips for playing as OoG?

[Loki_999]

Individually the OoG units are largely sucky. Even the general bodyguard units are pretty weak. Ive been used to playing Dwarves and Elves recently and they are a lot easier.

I am enjoying it, but looking to improve my battle results.

I know you should play to your units strenghts. Orcs dont do well on maps where they cant take advantage of their superior numbers. I just tried to take Rivendell with superior forces but still got my ass kicked because was just a sitting duck to the elven archers trying to get into the city. So now im sieging the place and waiting for them to attack me.

I dont have access to trolls yet but soon i think.

PS: playing vanilla.

Any tips on how best to handle battles?

[Dude with the Food]

Against elves, Keep your snaga ahead of the main army, they get shredded in melee or under arrows so they can take the fire. Also use wargs against the flanks but don't let them take too much fire either and especially not get isolated.

Against Dwarves, use snaga skirmishers more and hang back a bit more. Put your heaviest against their weakest and when they flank you, the rest of the army flanks them.

[CatoTheYounger]

Against elves, Keep your snaga ahead of the main army, they get shredded in melee or under arrows so they can take the fire. Also use wargs against the flanks but don't let them take too much fire either and especially not get isolated.

Against Dwarves, use snaga skirmishers more and hang back a bit more. Put your heaviest against their weakest and when they flank you, the rest of the army flanks them.

Havent played OOG yet but i have had some success with OOMM. I can tell you as somebody who often plays Orc factions that it is good to play defense and only skirmish for no mans land settlements on the campaign map until the Dark Lord Shows up. By that time you can start calling invasions through Sauron. That is no small advantage to have a stack or more of high end free upkeep crusading orc armies with allies helping them assault key cities of the enemy.

I would not attack Imladris until most of their kingdom is already in flames. Save it for when you have the heaviest armor and Trolls. Imladris like you said is a perfect defense against orcs and their masses. But Trolls are shock troops who you can send charging through their openings to break holes in their ranks and alow your orcs to flood in and swarm the elfs. Remember that once your orcs can pour through the opening you should not aim them to attack the enemy but run at full speed at a spot behind the last defender. If they can push with their mass and get mixed up on all sides of the enemy then you aim them all to attack the center of the elf pile. They will be surrounded and lose alot of their advantages!

Orcs are about swarming. Usualy even in open field you dont want to hold formation and clash but charge the enemy until the center engulfs their forces and your flanks rush past the enemy. Then you can direct the flanks to attack from the rear wherever you please and cause havoc. A full stack of orcs has such a numbers advantage the Free peoples armies can't match their fronts even with an equaly full stack. And once you have trolls you can break their center while they are being flanked and cause dissaray.

[Loki_999]

Just to follow up, i actually got Rivendell without a fight in the end. I sieged the place, and it said 10 turns until they surrender. I kept expecting the counter attack, but it never came. The stoopid elves just sat there until they were starved out. First time ever that has happened to me.

[LuckyPistol]

I have to disagree with your opinion on Imladris. Imladris should be the first thing you take down with a huge mass of Orcs and a long seige to dwindle the enemy numbers
Vanilla OoG are a more relaxed faction to play as after you get rid of the High elves in the area, as it benefits your two most important allies (Isengard and OotMM) as well.

But of course the key to orcs is to swarm and route the enemy! Trolls should be sent to plow through enemy lines and allow your troops to seperate enemy units from eachother.

Here is a good discussion on them:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...cs-of-Gundabad

There are a lot more, a recent one from a month or so ago really laid out everything.

My advice?

Get wargs as soon as possible, they are more effective than your trolls for the most part. Don't bother recruiting mountain trolls, go straight for snow trolls, they are more cost effective. Always have snaga in the front line to absorb the attack and then follow through with fellers or any other AP unit. I've personally found that flanking with AP is not as effective as using your archers to pelt the enemy side lines while you try to get your wargs to crash into the back and take out range units. If the enemy has cavalry, which is usually the case, use your goblin band to chase them down and if the enemy cavalry is near enough, send your orc fellers in a devasting charge

NEVER EVER keep wargs or trolls in combat alone! Keep moving your wargs in and out with charges like you would with regular cavalry, and keep trolls with at least one other infantry unit to stop them from getting overrun!

Make sure in the beginning to use your general units in battle since they repelenish, and then later on you can use them to defend archers from potential attacks. Your archers are very useful despite their stats, as they can be replaced easily and have a good rate of fire.

A full stack of orcs is a formidable opponent, espeically if there is a general with high fear. always try to have wargs with you, they are the most effective weapon against dwarves.

[Loki_999]

Yeah, love wargs when charging enemies from behind, they rip the enemies apart... except once, where i charged a mass and didn't realize there were spearmen at the back... that hurt a lot.

[LuckyPistol]

In my experience, wargs die quicker than snaga

[Finkeren]

OoG has the same problem as the other orc factions: Lack of heavy cavalry or other effective charging unit to use with your masses of expendable infantry. OoG has it even worse than the others IMHO, since they lack the cheap, effective javelin units of OotMM and Isengard and the Nazgûl of Mordor, and I consider OoG to be the weakest faction militarily in early game.

It all gets better once you get trolls, but in the beginning you'll be fighting elves and dwarves without any units that can match your opponents. So what do you do?

My recommendations:

1. Accept that your early battels aren't gonna be easy wipeouts and will often cost you losses 2 or 3 times that of the enemy.

2. Don't build military buildings at all except blacksmiths to get armour upgrades and a single warg breeder to supply a bit of cavalry.

3. Build huge, cheap armies of lower tier melee infantry. Preferably full stacks with 1-2 generals, 2 warg units and the rest melee infantry, most of it snaga with a couple AP units sprinkled in. 1 full stack is worth 3 half stacks.

4. Forget about archers altogether. They're not going to do a thing against heavily armoured dwarves, and the only elves they will kill are the ones who die from laughing.

5. Avoid field battles if posible. Starve out the enemy in long sieges, every single elf or dwarf that die of hunger is harder to replace than a whole unit of snaga.

6. If the enemy sallies, be sure to let them all come out before you envelop them. Set aside a unit or two to cut off their retreat. Even half a unit of archers or heavy infantry that routs and regroups at the center can charge or shoot you in the back and cause a chain rout.

7. If forced to fight in the field position yourself spread out a good distance from the enemy. Harrass him with wargs or snaga on the flanks and try to split up his forces. Defeat in detail is the way to go.

8. When facing archers (elves in particular) always set aside a couple of units of snaga in open formation to soak up the arrows and shield your wargs.

9. Your generals serve 2 purposes in battle: To bolster your main force and rally routers once melee is joined and to tie down especially annoying enemy units. Don't throw their lives away, but if a general dies while keeping a unit of dwarven dragonslayers out of the main melee, I consider that good use.

10. No matter what the unit card says, wargs ARE NOT HEAVY CAVALRY. Don't let them get bogged down in melee - even against archers, don't charge any unit head on, keep them out of the line of fire of archers (or at least give them a snaga meat shield) and most importantly: Don't feed them after midnight! Use them to harrass the enemy, to split up larger forces and to hunt down fleeing foes.

11. Always execute prisoners. You're an orc dammit! Also it forces your dwarven and elvish foes to spend 2 - 3 turns training a new unit, and with the free money for AI script, you won't be able to bankrupt them anyway.

Those are my suggestions. Hope it helps.

[Loki_999]

Thanks, i'm quite a bit further in now, (have trolls! Yay!). I'm following most of that advice, although against dwarves i'm going heavy on archers. Sure, they are crappy, but those dwarves with their stubby legs get tired quicky chasing down the skirmishing archers. Once they are tired i send in the wargs and trolls to hit them repeatedly from different sides. Its good fun.

[Gallus]

Go scorched earth on eriador, after that you will have so much money you will e invincible.

[LuckyPistol]

^Eriador is a 50/50, sometimes they are a pushover, sometimes it will backfire and they will push you all the way to Gundabad. If he was playing MOS, I would advise him to not attack Eriador before taking care of teh dwarves and elves, as the Dunlendings do NOTHING when controlled by the AI for the most part so all of Eriador will be focused on him. But since he's playing Vanilla, much more could happen since Isengard usually ends up fighting with Eraidor for control of Tharbad. That and since there is no Lorien elves, the OotMM can actually function properly. But still, even if he is playing vanilla, don't attack eriador unless the high elves are taken out of the area.