How the hell do you beat Orks in the campaign?

[FENラック1312]

I'm only on turn 2 or 3, Normal difficulty, there's an Ork cruiser clash and I cannot beat it.

I have a level 3 Dominator, a Level 4 Dauntless and Level 2 Dauntless Mk2. What the hell is the winning strategy? The Ork ships tear my cruisers up in seconds. I tried spamming escort ships and they were like wet toilet paper. The Ork ships are constantly on top of me, I can't get any distance between my ships and theirs, and they take ages to go down from my own guns.

The closest I've come to winning is when the map spawns a lot of asteroid fields, and I kite them around and through the fields. But all three times I've managed to get down to the final ships, one of my ships has had to retreat, and then my Dominator (down near the bottom of the map, spamming the Nova Cannon, the only thing that seems to do any damage to the bastards) retreats without me noticing until it's too late. They retreated Every. Single. Time. So I'm more than a little salty right now.

[shde2e]

Yeah, the Orks are an absolute pain to deal with.

I personally use lots of torpedoes and broadsides, and stack all my ships on one end of the map (with 1 ship on the other end to confuse the AI), and try to fight their ships 1 or 2 at a time.

I also try to let their escorts outrun their cruisers, so I can deal with them first.

[FENラック1312]

Originally posted by shde2e:

Yeah, the Orks are an absolute pain to deal with.

I personally use lots of torpedoes and broadsides, and stack all my ships on one end of the map (with 1 ship on the other end to confuse the AI), and try to fight their ships 1 or 2 at a time.

I also try to let their escorts outrun their cruisers, so I can deal with them first.

What would your fleet composition even be? I can only afford the three cruisers, and splitting them up is even more of a death sentence (you have to keep constant track of your ships to dodge the Orks' ramming, and looking away from any ship for more than 5 seconds results in it being obliterated)

How do you split them up, too? They're so aggressive that they pile together just by virtue of chasing me. And I've never seen them let the escort ships get too far away from their cruisers.

[shde2e]

My fleet is mostly ships with long-range macro cannons and torpedoes, which seems to work pretty well. Orks are still a challenge though, you just can't kite like the chaos and eldar can.

The AI tends to start their ships out pretty spread out, so I usually put my ships in one corner, and a small ship in the other. The AI usually sends a lot of their fleet after the small one, who can outrun them pretty easily.

The escorts don't move that far away, that's true. Their escorts are usually faster than the cruisers, so they usually arrive a bit ahead of the main fleet, at which point I try to focus fire, ram, and torpedo them as much as possible.

What also works pretty well is to try and charge in between a line of Ork ships. Their ships turn around pretty slowly, so you can usually create quite a bit of distance that way.
It does mean that you're taking a few broadsides and boarding actions though. But most ork guns rely on staying in close range, so it usually doesn't do too much damage.

Stasis bombs also work pretty well, since Orks can't really dodge them.

The slowmotion is also a godsend.

[Ashardalon]

the trick is getting behind them and shooting them in their unarmored ass
orks slow down just before they boost, if you boost then you should be able to dodge it, turn and open fire at their ass
also, dont use melta torps on them, just regular torps
while the meltas have good damage vs orks who tend to burn, they dont have ap so when firing on approaching orks its a 75% chanse to do nothing
aim engines and ram their escorts

orks are the hardest fight you will have as IN but with some practise its doable

[preston.sh]

Your not going to outrun a Ork ship with navy ships. You need to boost out of the way when they charge you and use the front guns on your ships as much as possible that ignore most of their armor.

[soylent]

Torpedos and ram! The quintessence of the game.

[FENラック1312]

Originally posted by soylent:

Torpedos and ram! The quintessence of the game.

I'm playing against the Orks, not as the Orks :P

[Ashardalon]

still correct
just need to ram their ass

[soylent]

Originally posted by FENラック101:

Originally posted by soylent:

Torpedos and ram! The quintessence of the game.

I'm playing against the Orks, not as the Orks :P

Yes, think on their stupid surprised faces!

I ram eldar, i ram orcs, i ram chaos, i ram all day long. Maybe i should play orcs...

[Jason]

Imps are the ramming faction not orks

[Asperger Berzerker]

You can't most of the time, also the game is completely broken on "heroic" as in, it is mathematically impossible to win without cheating. There is a trainer out there that lets you set enemy ship health to "1" so I suggest deleting enough enemy ships to give you a fair fight and then enjoy the brawl.

[Ashardalon]

and cuphead needs a easy mode for the tutorial

[Jason]

LOL this guy

[Jason]

Originally posted by Leon DeGroype:

You can't most of the time, also the game is completely broken on "heroic" as in, it is mathematically impossible to win without cheating. There is a trainer out there that lets you set enemy ship health to "1" so I suggest deleting enough enemy ships to give you a fair fight and then enjoy the brawl.

I can beat most of the game on heroic on iron man mode without losing a ship so it isnt the game its how you play man

[Nine-ball]

Assuming you still have this problem and the thread is not too necro, you need to get those Dauntlesses up to uniform spec. Pick lances or torpedoes, based on your preferred playstyle. It's a pain in the ass to mix and match, even with the Tactical Cogitator. Select one or the other, and focus upgrades on the weapons system you select.

Next, keep your Dauntlesses, well, Dauntless. They need to be facing forward where their frontal armor is most effective and their weapons are strongest. Even Ork torpedoes and ramming attacks won't hurt them too badly if the greenskins are eagerly throwing themselves on a spike. They'll just get deflected to either side, which is why you need another key upgrade: armor-piercing shells.

Select the command deck of Ork ships, or the engines as a target, let them charge. Heck, counter-charge them, and then let those macro-batteries do the devastating work they're designed to do at point-blank range. Ork ships have shields, but they're weak. Their armor is strong, unless you're hammering it with lances or upgraded macros that count all armor as 25.

Once you slide past them, hammering them all the way, perform a high-energy turn and put all that firepower straight up their green butts. Ork ships are prone to mutinies and fires. If you're targeting their weak points, the engines and the command deck, they'll burn their own ships down given half a chance. All you need to do is give them a whole chance.

Torpedo builds can work against Orks, if you use Meltas. I prefer lances most of the time because they require less micro-management, and what micro-management they require involves ramming ships, easily one of the best parts of this game, imo. Lances are generally more useful, as well, since they can't be shot down by defense turrets.

That said, a nasty trick the Imperials can pull is getting the Assassin upgrade. It works on everyone, but it works really well on Orks. An Assassin is giving them the whole chance and then some. Point a Dauntless at an Ork ship, full power to engines, ram it head-on, lance its shield away or set it on fire or destroy the command deck or inflame their engines, and then teleport an assassin aboard. It's an almost guaranteed mutiny.

Once that happens, you can use any Dauntless in the vicinity to ram the living **** out of an Ork ship. It could be the one attacking, or another one. The more the better. Other Ork vessels may approach and try to ram, but they'll end up ramming their own ships if they get too close. Meanwhile, your vessels have those upgraded macro-cannons to rip past their armor.

You problem, at least for now, is that you went and bought a larger ship and didn't get your line ships in order first. I hope this advice helps, and if it doesn't, have Faith in the Emperor.