Orc vs Orc
Farseer/ Shadow Hunter/ Grunts/ Raiders/ Kodo Beasts:
One of the most useful heros in the Orc mirror is by far the Shadow Hunter. The reason is that his spells are all useful in an Orc mirror.
-- Healing Wave to heal low hp units.
-- Hex to trap/prevent units from escapin and allowing for easy focus fire as the unit cannot hit you back.
-- Ward (you get free towers for so little mana, you shouldn't be complaining).
--Get an early barracks since every single grunt does matter a lot in the early game of an orc mirror. The player who builds a late barracks tend to lose out to early pressure.
When to use what spell combo?
- Healing wave + ward for grunt + kodo
(since ward's piercing is good against kodo's armour)
- healing wave + hex for grunt + raider
(since ward's piercing is weak against raider's armour)
- ward + hex is for mass grunts
(since hex can help you to stop retreating units and wards are good)
- A lot of the pros use hex + wards. Perhaps the logic behind this is that these 2 skills are cheap (mana) yet effective. The Shadow Hunter is almost always able to cast serpent wards since they cost only 35 mana.
Grunts + Grunts > Grunts + Raiders > Grunts + Kodo > Grunts + Grunts
(that is if the raiders ensnare the kodobeasts to prevent them from devouring)
1) 4 peons to goldmine
2) 1 peon to build altar
3) 6th peon to build orc burrow
4) 7th peon to goldmine
5) 8th peon to build barracks
6) 9th-12th peons to harvest lumber
7) Build an orc burrow with 40 lumber
8) Train 2 grunts
9) Tech to tier 2
10) Build a beastiary and a warmill (you can choose not to if you are getting raiders but a warmill is needed to get demolishers and build defensive towers in case you get towered)
11) Summon a Shadow Hunter
I feel that you should always play defensively, and creep. This is because level 3 is very important for both your heroes, where you get level 2 wolves and level 2 wards. If both of you play defensively and creep, you should try to get a creepjack after your farseer reaches level 3. Scrolls of healing and protection are also very important (like the night elf mirror).
When you have a good advantage, you have two options to make the best use out of it. The first is to finish off your opponent. Send 3 peons to start towering outside your opponent's base. Do not build it too close or else your opponent would be able to destroy them. Try to do this when your opponent is creeping elsewhere, so that your towers go up without interference. Start getting demolishers so that you can hit his buildings while hiding behind the towers. You should also train kodo beasts instead of raiders, since you can devour and run behind the towers. If you are getting towered, start building defensive towers and get demolishers too. Use them to attack the towers or the opponent's demolishers. Do remember to repair them. The other way is to get an expansion and research upgrades/buy expensive items like scrolls with the additional gold. You might want to research pillage and use hit and run tactics on your opponent's base to get a little bit of resources and waste his gold (use a scroll of speed to run more quickly when he TPs home). As long as you have the hero advantage and the item advantage (scrolls), you should most probably win.
During early battles, try to kill the feral spirits since they give lots of xp in this patch. Of course, this will be at the expense of your farseer's health, so I suggest you get a voodoo lounge right after you tech so that you can heal up.
Fighting casters: Grunt raider kodo is definitely no match for tauren casters. You should either rush (with demolishers if he has towers or get casters too and expand).
--You should never use windriders, since orc has the best anti-air against low hitpoint air units. Using them would mean that you are plain stupid or brave or gosu (if you do have skill in using them after all).
-- As for map specifications, just creep with the same old creeping patterns, hang around the goblin merchant especially on Gnoll Wood to buy scrolls since there are 4 of them.
Orc Vs Human
Far Seer / Tauren Chieftain / Grunts / Shamans / Spiritwalkers or Demos (if needed).
-- Maps for this matchup
i) Lost Temple
ii) 2 rivers
iii)Turtle Rock
--This is a matchup that was viewed as in the Orc's Favour for a long time in 1.17 however with the buff on the Arcane tower it is quite balanced in my opinion. The standard human army will always go Archmage/ Mountain King/ Rifles and Casters to slow and focus fire grunts. Hence the main strategy would be take out the annoying slow and also to use the Deadly Chain Wave combo to polish off the lower hp units of the Human Army.
-- Another push that is done on tavern maps is the infamous Archmage/Beastmaster/ Mass casters skipping rifles Strategy, which is also quite effective but can be taken out in the following manner.
-- Tier 1 is where orc dominates with wolves and grunt harass, note to win you must end the game before the human reaches tier 3 and also to prevent fast expansion or deal as much as damage while that is set.
-- Always get adept shamans for the deadly Lightning shield that can wreak havoc when put on the TC or grunts. Good positioning is a must and purging of the heavy hp water elementals will ensure good experience bonus for the heros. Add in demos if the caster army is rather large (which you should prevent with early game harass).
) 4 peons to goldmine
2) 1 peon to build altar
3) 6th peon to build orc burrow
4) 7th peon to goldmine
5) 8th peon to build barracks
6) 9th-12th peons to harvest lumber
7) Build an orc burrow with 40 lumber
8) Tech on 180 lumber.
9) While teching, set up a shop and another burrow.
10) hitting Tier 2 get a TC, adept shamans, either powercreep tc to level 3 while constantly harassing with farseer (watch out for bolt stun surround so buy a staff of teleportation when harassing)
Far Seer / Tauren Chieftain / mass Air
--This is a strategy that was popularised of late by constantly harassing the Human player and preventing the Blacksmith as well as the expansion to go up. This would then allow you to put up dual beastiaries for wyverns and after about 5-6 wyverns are got, you can hit the peasants and the stop economy, thus almost ending the game there.
-- maps for this
i) Gnoll Wood
ii) Twisted Meadows
iii) Possibly Lost temple.