The most significant drawback of orcs is the long-range phase, which renders them almost useless in the middle and late rounds without a substantial lead. Losing an average of 75-100% of your army in long-range combat is simply staggering. While I understand orcs’ vulnerability to long-range attacks, it’s disheartening to witness them being completely dominated, even by races they should be strong against. For instance, I recently won an attack against a dwarf but still lost 72% of my attacking force in long-range combat.
The argument that building guard towers and more slingers is a viable solution is, at best, inconclusive. Orcs are typically built for fast, aggressive attacks. The number of guard towers required for them to be effective is impractical. Even when I deployed one guard tower per land in the final month of the round, I failed to engage in short-range combat against a gnome and only managed to do so once against an elf, which still managed to eliminate 97% of my army in long-range combat. Investing more building space in a structure that serves primarily as a defensive asset is simply not advisable. Perhaps land should provide an additional 20 buildings instead of the current 10?
Despite these challenges, I still believe orcs can be a formidable race. In the early rounds, I actually performed well against gnomes and elves. However, as the round progressed, it didn’t matter who struck me; if they were in my 70 or vice versa, I was consistently losing most of my army in each battle. It became a repetitive pattern of being overwhelmed, rebuilding, and repeating the process the following day. The only saving grace for orcs is their exceptional survivability of shadow warriors.
I acknowledge the primary concern with nerfing long-range combat. It’s the only aspect where gnomes and elves excel, and as the game progresses, human and undead survivability can surpass them without a significant lead. Nevertheless, I believe there’s still room for further discussion on race balancing. No race should completely dominate another. While they may be good or not so good against certain races, the inability to attack kingdoms due to the limitations of long-range combat is a disadvantage that other races simply don’t face.
Also yes slingers should train faster.
