Their major disadvantage is that, unlike the Shock Trooper, they don't have either Killing Momentum, or the ability to climb walls. Once again you run into the problem with the Static Shield, but otherwise you have a highly armores army that's good against almost everything. Ancient Ruins unlocks the Pillar of the Stylites which gives all pikemen units Projectile Resistance and +2 Spirit Damage and the Temple of the Sphinx unlocks the Solar Spire granting all pikemen units Blinding Aura and +2 Defense. The Static Shield is probably the best counter to this strategy as Orc Shock Troopers have relativly low Resistence and Static Shield has a good chance of stunning them, preventing them from retaliating or attacking.Īnother viable strategy with the Orc Warlord is the Phalanx, particularly if they are built in a city with the aforementioned Crystal Tree and access to Ancient Ruins and a Temple of the Sphinx. The main disadvantage with this strategy is if they face a heavily spell based faction, particularly Sorcerers, who have shield spells. Lastly, a Dungeon adds significant damage to all infantry and, if you have not cast the Warlord's Global Assault, gives your Shock Troopers Killing Momentum, allowing them to attack two units per round if they kill the first unit succesfully. Best way to take full advantage is to build them in a city with access to a Crystal Tree, Lich's Castle, and Dungeon the Crystal Tree adds +2 Defense and +1 Resistence to all armored units, one of which is the shock trooper, the Lich's Castle gives all infantry (and monsters) fear strike enabling them to discourage attackers or break defensive formations, particularly since they have the Guard Breaker and Overbear abilities.

By playing with a Shadowborn Adept specialization, they can also gain Life Steal, a valuable ability for any melee unit and if you decide to go for Shadowborn Mastery, you can use the Embraced by Shadows spell to give them an increased attack and resistence.

The Orc is pretty much tailor-made for warlord because of the high health and extra melee damage, not to mention their Tier III unit, the Orc Shock Trooper, is one of the most powerful units in the game. Orc Warlord with a specialization in Shadowborn Adept and two levels of either Destruction or Fire. The most effective class builds I've come across are as follows:

Age of wonders 3 human warlord build