Ogre Mania!

Ogre-Mages are, arguably, the Orcs' most powerful unit. Even before they learn to use combat magic, they are very effective in combat, able to stand up against the Human Alliance's knights and crush pesky footmen in groups. Once your Ogres are imbued with the power of the dead Warlocks' magicks, however, they are able to swat aside even Paladins with ease, and reduce buildings to rubble in seconds. It is the Ogre-Mages' primal spells that really bring out the differences between the philosophies of the Humans and the Orcs in battle.

Eye of Kilrogg Mana

Mana Cost: 70

Research Cost: Non

This spell is a variation on the summoning and necromantic magicks used by the now vanquished Warlocks and Necromancers. The "eye" is a physical obect which can be destroyed by enemy arrows or cannon fire, but it is very fast. Over time, the enchantment that holds the eye together fades away, and the spell will cause a harmless explosion as the eye vanishes. The eye is, of course, intended to be used as a scout, but it can also be used to harass fleets of enemy destroyers by manuevering around them and drawing their fire. The destroyers' shots will do damge to any units within the small explosive radius, which can really annoy anyone foolish enough to leave their ships packed together too tightly.

 

Bloodlust

Mana Cost: 50

Research Cost: 1000

Bloodlust sends the target into a controlled frenzy. The subject feels fire is running through his/her veins, and is capable of dealing much more damage than usual. A Bloodlusted unit has both its Basic Damage and its Piercing Damage doubled for the duration of the spell, which makes the unit extremely effective against even the most heavily armored foe. The bonus from weapon upgrades is also doubled.

For example, in a battle between an upgraded Paladin and an upgraded Ogre-Mage, both units will do 4-8 points of damage to each other.

(8 Basic Damge - 8 Armor) + 8 Piercing Damage = 8 Max Damage (see The Combat Equation for a detailed explanation)

If the Ogre-Mage is Bloodlusted, however, it will do (16 Basic Damage - 8 Armor) + 16 Piercing Damage = 24 Max Damage

This is triple the amount that the Ogre-Mage was doing before! Even if a Human Mage casts Slow on the Ogre-Mage, halving its attacks, it will still do 50% more damage than the Paladin does. A cube (9) Bloodlusted Ogres can tear through a much larger force of Paladins, even if the Paladins are full of mana when they are attacked. It will only take an Ogre around 6 hits to kill a Paladin, which means that the Human player had better be really fast with Healing.

An extremely effective way to rapidly Bloodlust a group of Ogre-Magi is to select the first Ogre in the group, hit the Bloodlust hot-key ("B" in the American version), and double-click on the next Ogre. Hit "B" again, and double-click on the next Ogre, etc. This will cast the spell on that Ogre, and then select it. This way, each Ogre casts the spell one time, leaving it with 200 mana to either cast Bloodlust later on, or throw down some quick Runes. Once combat starts, try to mix up which Ogres are casting spells so that no unit runs out of mana before the others.

Don't forget that any living unit can be bloodlusted as well. Bloodlusted Trolls can do a little more damage than completely upgraded Rangers, and with axe upgrades, Berserkers can do significently more damage than their woodland rivals. Bloodlusted Dragons are an intimidating sight, especially if they're also enchanted with the Haste spell.

Runes

Mana Cost: 200

Research Cost: 1000

The exact nature of the Runes used by Ogre-Magi is unknown to the Humans, buttheir effect is obvious: anyone straying into the area warded by the Runes is struck by a fiery explosion capable of killing or injuring the hardiest unit. Each "Rune" consists of 5 distinct points, each of which will explode only once. The Runes are also indiscriminate-any unit, friend or foe, that runs over them will be affected. Only flying units are immune to the effects. Since the Runes "float" on top of water, they are pretty good against enemy ships, especially transports.

The simplest, and perhaps most effective, use of Runes is to cast them on the ground between enemy peasants/peons and the mine that they are working in. The runes are instantly fatal to the lowly units, and if your opponent has enough peasants/peons working he/she won't be able to pull them away in time to save more than a few. Doing this a few times will not only cripple your opponent's production, but will probably force him/her to pull some units back to guard the mine. This gives you a better opportunity to send a wave of Bloodlusted Ogres crashing into town.

Another devious use of Runes involves using an Ogre Mage and a Death knight together. The Ogre-Mage casts Runes on the ground between the Death Knight and some enemy troops, then the Death Knight casts Death and Decay on the enemy units. The troops will rush the Death Knight, and run right into the Runes. Obviously, the more Ogre-Mages you have available to saturate the ground with Runes, the more effective this tactic is.

Summary

While the Ogres were a useful ally in the early stages of the second Human-Orc war, it was Gul'dan's discovery of a means to imbue the deadly giants with great magickal power that gave the Orcs a major edge in combat. While Death Knights are kept in check by Paladins, nothing can effectively stand in the way of a group of frenzied Ogre-Mages. If you can attack a Human town with Bloodlusted Ogres before it has Mages defending it, you will probably defeat it without too much trouble.