Trying to Ork - must be doing it wrong

octovert

can't seem to find an opener that works. Fast lootas, blobs of boys, even a healthy mix of boys and shootas - i seem to lose most engagements, and subsequently most games. Even when playing with SM buddy rolling tac marines/devastators. Feels like i'm flailing trying to put together a compelling opener. What are a few that work?

TheGodOfCakes

An opener that has never failed me (unless I played it really poorly) is an early WAAAGH! tower into Dakka Hut and lootas. Just make a gretchin mob and 2 boyz at the start of the game, and yo'll have the resources for it. Lock enemies up with your boyz and let the lootas go to work. Even when you have just 3 units (2 boyz 1 loota), it's still a very scary blob of units early on in the game. Then you want your second loota mob into second WAAAGH! tower, so you can get a trukk. Use the trukk to save your lootas from grenades.

While micro is a big part of the early game in DoW3, it is close to everything for the orks. Being able to keep the enemy away from your lootas and keeping your boyz alive can be very tricky for newer players. And because you're going to lose models, try the doctrine that heals your line units whenever they pick up scrap. While using this, don't give scrap to a unit right after you've made it; wait till they have taken some damage, and then heal them up for free. This saves you time and resources.

Throw in some Stormboyz or Weirdboy and you're good to go!

octovert

Alright - i can get them out - i must just be positioning them wrong. Still tinkering with the right early game elite. Stormboyz seem to evaporate when i'm controlling them. Kommando is hilarious if they're detecting poorly (but that seems kinda rare)

Scrangos

I generally use something similar, I've stopped using stormboyz. Theyre decent but I can buy enough time to get gorgutz/kommando/weirdboy out. When they have their elite at 2 pts and you dont, dont overcommit to anything, just buy time. Consider seriously if to scrap boyz or lootas first, both have their uses. Depending on the map and opponent be careful of your first two buildings positioning.... if you are pretty certain you can hold you can put em forward, but if in doubt just build em further back. Try to attack with waaagh and heal up/harass while they're on cooldown.

I find the 2 boyz loota opener tends to get curbstomped to the point of losing your initial buildings if away from your base turret to 2 asm scout. 2-3 boyz + 1-2 shoota is marginally better at surviving that. But lootas reck tactical based players which is most of what you see.

Larkis

Maybe you could give us a replay? That could help a lot to understand where the problems are.

Scrangos

I havnt been saving replays but I can try to get a few replays made later today

octovert

I'll post some replays. I wish it'd autosave em

Arbit

Some things that have helped me in 3s and 2s

• Always give first scrap to boyz. Boyz are terrible without it, and pretty nice with it. The extra HP and stun are invaluable. Their dps is terrible though, so back them up with shootas.
• If you're not, you should be scouting with gretchin. Put them on hold fire and use their temporary stealth ability. I usually cap my natural with my first gretchin and make a second to build the boyz hut. By the time my first mob of boyz is rolling out, my first gretchin has capped the natural and will be close enough to scout out the contested point, or even stop a cap if my opponent is trying to cap the contested point with a builder. This will also tell you how aggressively you can place your first waaagh tower (which will generally need to be pretty close to the front line if you want to win the first engagement).
• Use the trukk, and practice getting it out efficiently. By the time I have a nice core (usually 2x boys and 2-3 shootas) I want to be able to have a truck roll out shortly after. That means having waagh towers built ahead of time, having a spot picked out for the dakka hut, etc. Try to time it so you're not floating a bunch of resources and feel compelled to buy more boyz/shootas. Also try to get the reinforce upgrade up in a timely manner

ShakerGER

I go mass bois into fast waagh 4. Reinforce all my postions with the towers and normally it works out great

Jazz_Sandwich

I generally get 2 sluggas and aim to build a relatively forward WAAAGH tower. As soon as the WAAAGH tower is up I build a dakka hut and get lootas. I barely, if ever, actually buy shootas. Their damage is decent to start off but they bleed effectiveness too quickly.

Where to put the scrap is tricky for me. Sluggas feels like the correct choice, but giving it to those early lootas lets them rake up more kills as their slow makes it take longer for enemies to escape their firing line. An early WAAAGH is always helpful, too. Be sure to tell your lootas to move BEFORE the WAAAGH actually hits, doesn't matter what direction, so long as they finish actually getting their asses moving.

Stormboys used to be a no-brainer, but recently I've been experimenting with holding out a little longer for zapnoggin or the kommando. I find zapnoggin much more reliable, though kommando is hilarious, and especially in 2v2 or 3v3 modes I find that in the later game people tend to get sloppier with their detection, especially when they're building armies before a push. Problem with the kommando is that he demands a lot of micro in a game where all units require some level of attention most of the time, and typically you have him pushed out away from everywhere else. For me I'm always aware that he takes up a lot of my attention when the rest of my army is either sitting still or not doing something useful, but with more skilled players that's probably less of an issue.

octovert

i also find the call tough - kommando has lots of utility but requires a lot of micro - zapnoggin has fun tricks, probably requires a little less micro, but hot ++heresy redacted++ is he fragile.