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[Tarzanello]

So a couple of days ago I decided what the hell, let's try to play orcs. I've done 5 embarks so far, all terrible failures.
The reason is pretty simple: 4 out of 5 got steamrollered by dwarves in the second year (I lost one to rampaging gargoyles, but that's only because I derped). After just one year, regardless of population (most of the time around 12) a dozen of dwarves show up, armed with mithril and steel and sharp sticks and just f**k me up royally. I don't know if I'm playing this incorrectly: I know that overwhelming forces are met with truckloads of traps and various shenanigans as dwarves, but it feels weird to do so as an orc. Am I not supposed to be able to meet them on the battlefield? Is there something I am missing that would enable me to have a running military with decent equipment by the second year?
I am honestly at loss here, help out a poor fellow if you can

[Tenderroast]

Ever since reading Mahrgell's forts, im a firm believer in 2 "man" squads. Get them training early, and they will fuck some shit up

[LMeire]

I suggest farming drakes; warbeasts, metal-grade leathers and bloodsteel are plenty thematic for an orc-horde. You can periodically shear the drakes for iron-grade scales, train the strong ones as warbeasts, and butcher the weak ones for blood and bone to make bloodsteel.

[Tarzanello]

So I should embark with two soldiers and manage to get them properly equipped in a year? BTW any chance someone can explain me where do I make bloodsteel as orcs? I know that with dwarves you need to research alchemy and get an alchemist running, but with orcs I've yet to figure it out.
So what would a standard embark look like? 2 soldiers, one butcher/cook/herbalist/brewer, one lumberjack/carpenter, one alchemist, one weaponsmith/armorsmith and one tanner/leatherworker sounds good? And of course one anvil and a truckload of farm animals, I suppose.
Still, I'm unsure about this: 2 man against a dozen, won't they simply get swarmed? With one year of training, I suppose they should become expert or so (assuming they started as proficient)?

[Meph]

You have the Gui for a reason.

If tou have issues with early dwarven attacks, you can set their attack time to very late in the Gui. Or ad natural fighting skill to your orcs. Even 1-2 points should make a big difference.

[Tarzanello]

That would surely fix my problem, but it would leave a bitter aftertaste. I mean, if they come that early it means I should be able to deal with them: that means I'm missing something of the big picture. I'd like to know what that is, therefore my question
I hoped I had missed something big and obvious (like lightsabers or maybe a Tesla workshop which gives you a death ray?) to anyone else, but if that is not the case maybe I just have to improve my gameplay.

[kamikazi1231]

Now correct me if I'm totally wrong, but I was always under the impression that that siege setting was also what the game looks at for sending caravans.  So dwarves are attacking you so early because default dwarf game you want them to come very early for trading.  They are a very strong race and I don't think realistically they would attack in force a small band of ten or so orcs.  I'd just set them for a little bit later attacks.

[CptCrunchy]

I've always had an easier time with early-game orcs than any other race, might just be my playstyle though.  Get a couple snaga hunters, set up a tribal wargear for ironbone and bloodsteel production and basic weapons, then get the tribal bowyers shop (can't recall the name) for some composite bows.  A simple walled-off encampment with one entrance can be guarded by a couple melee orcs (I usually use a squad leader with a welded mithril daikatana and spearorcs with welded wolfram polehammers) while archers with composite bows (preferably great bows if there have been some elf ambushes) punch through invaders armor from the walls.

[Arcvasti]

Usually I have a 5-man squad of well-trained bloodsteel-armed, lamellar-leather-armoured orcs by the time the first dwarves come. I usually completely butcher them. Having a fortified camp and snaga archers helps a lot. Orcs have naturally high combat skills and can make iron-steel grade weapons and armor easily. You shouldn't have too many problems.

FAKEEDIT: Actually, the dwarves coming at first autumn is probably an unintended bug for orcs. Just set dwarves visitation thing to "Early" from "Very Early". Then they'll just come at the autumn of the second year, which is about 888% more reasonable.

[Tenderroast]

if you have a 2 orc squad  training from the get go, and set it up right, they will be legendaries by the time the dwarves arrive. Just make sure you set the training schedule to "Train, 2 minimum" so they will spar properly, instead of waiting for endless months for 8 more squadmates to show up to the biting demonstration

[palu]

You make ironbone and bloodsteel at the boneforge.

[Tarzanello]

Well, thank you everybody, I think I got this now. I'm going to give it a couple of tries tomorrow night (I've got my thesis discussion tomorrow so I can't really dive into this now) and see how it goes. BTW, one last remark: why is that orcs are the only race which lack an "official" gameplay discussion here? Why so little love for the poor greenskins? Is it their poor hygiene and the fact that they smell funny, or is it something else?

[Meph]

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=113621.0

[kingu]

I experience the same thing playing kobold. Somwhere around pop 20-40 a siege of 10-30 dwarfs show up almost as if hardcoded. Always dwarfs. 6-8 kobold forts in a row on 4 different worlds with all races active. Really hard to defend without exploiting cagetraps.

[MerkerBenson]

exploit high z level archery/blowgunkobold towers made of wood! Station all your guys inside one when the enemy comes(make sure you make A LOT of ammo and store it there beforehand, as well as some food/drink) and fight!