As someone who mains orcs

[WarheroJango]

Who or what race should I try next?

I want to make a new hero but I can't find an army or style I like after having a near invincible Chieftain to throw around.

[Karol13]

Hi.

Depends if you like the feat of orcs and want something similar, or you want try a different setup.
Orcs are mostly about melee early-game assaults (as they produce units cheaper and faster compared to other races)
Orcs are not much about magic (despite goblin shaman is quite neat) and their hero is also more about fighting than casting.

Chieftain = barbarians. Barbarians are not so much different form orcs, probably harder to play. Their early game units are somehow broken and their units are in general unbalanced for good cooperation. Their first unit - Barbarian, is worst unit in the game when it comes on hit-rate. They miss probably everything that moves and they cannot aim at adjected adversaries (melee).
Later they can produce quite fast cavalry, which is sadly useless against flyers and also is weak against buildings.
Chieftain as a hero can be quite formidable in melee combat, but as a true leader he lacks both support and magic. And barbarians need at least one of the two.
At least, Barbarians can repair buildings and have a bit more advanced economy. But building a good army with Barbarians is worse than with Orcs.

Remember, heroes as warriors, works only early in the game, as soon enemies start producing tier 3 or tier 4 units, in addition to catapults or dragons, your hero will probably not last long, no matter how buffed he will be. Enemy AI is doing good job at making versatile assault armies, meaning that your hero will be usually stopped and surrounded by cheap infantry or cavalry and then bombarded by ranged units. While against most ranged units the hero can defend greatly with high defense + artifacts, when catapults start bombarding you, with the crushing damage, you can only hope you still have an escape route to run to.

When you are looking for beefy warrior, look also at Minotaurs. They are pretty cool in melee. Surprisingly, also Demons make excellent fighters and also Undead. While demons are great at maximizing defense and damage, Undead get natural immunity to poison and disease and later can steal HP from enemies. Minotaurs are probably best damage dealers and can heal fast by consuming animals (either neutral animals that randomly spawn on map or you can produce your own) making you independent from healing potions.

Also, Minotaurs are not so different from Orcs.

Oh, also Knights can offer good warrior hero, and their archers are a bit better than barbarians, IMO (as early anti-air defense)

[WarheroJango]

What if I tried something crazy like Dark Elves?

[Fendelphi]

If you want a different style of "Rush" army hero combo, play Wood Elf summoner hero with Barbarian army.

Pros about the hero.
- Caster hero with high starting and max mana(thanks to Lore).
- Wood Elf hero gets a rune which boosts flying units health. You want 10 ranks as soon as possible(+50% health to produced fliers).
- Access to lore of Nature, which includes a bit of healing and cure(either through Gemberry or Summon Unicorn) and a slow spell to better control fights(you dont need more than 5 ranks in Lore of Nature to make it effective in combat). You can cast Shillelagh to boost Combat value in emergencies.
- Summoning spell sphere is one of the stronger spheres in the game(15 ranks should do fine).
- Imps are cheap and numerous, effective for both warding off early aggression or for bringing down enemy buildings.
- Can summon Quasits to put in mines for early economy boosts.
- Elf Slayer is one of the better Slayer skills, since it affects 3 of the factions. A total of 4 points investment means that even as a caster, you can defend yourself against basic elf units fairly reasonably, and the rest of your army gets half of this bonus(so +10 damage).

Pros about the Barbarian race.
- Core unit is a ranged unit that by late game deals respectable damage.
- High focus on mobile units, with some fairly cheap and quickly produced cavalry.
- Pegasi and Eagle are great flying units. One is a quick and aggressive unit with crushing damage(one of the best damage types in game), the other is a competent builder(Thralls are not that great).
- Having Warlord cavarly to defend your base means a high morale for your entire army(attack speed bonus).
- Reavers are absolute beasts, being quick and hits very hard(especially against large targets), while being fairly cheap and fast to build as well.
- Cavalry and Pegasi gets large bonuses to Combat and Speed.
- Summon mana research, meaning faster mana regen for your hero and units that use mana(either retinue or summoned).
- Trade building.
- Riders, Warlords and Barbarians costs mainly Metal, while Pegasi is gold and crystal. Combined with the trade building, you can optimize your economy fairly easy.
- Horde Research to greatly increase army limits.

Some of the synergies:
- Having a caster Hero as a horde faction is nice, because it means large groups of allies can be affected by your buffs, and your bonus Exp from Intelligence combines nicely with the Training Research.
- Early Barbarian economy can be rough, but Summoning Circle + Summon Quasits to fill mines helps a lot.
- Casting Phantom Steed(with 15 ranks in summoning magic) provides nearby cavalry(Riders and Warlords, and also Unicorns) with +10 Armor and Resistance, and +3 Speed, which combined with barbarian research "Magical Tattoos" makes them surprisingly tough for a decent duration(2 minutes) and low mana cost.
- Having a few summoned Unicorns running with your Riders/Pegasi will further increase their survivability due to a combination of Awe(reduces enemy attack speed and removes ranged attacks), Cure and Group Healing.
- Having access to Summon Mana research means a lot of mana regen, which greatly assist both your hero and summoned units.
- Once the Wood Elf "Sky Rune" becomes available, Pegasi spam becomes even more deadly due to increased endurance(so the odds of landing a crit during it's lifespan increases).
- At mid- and late game, most of your army consist of Warlords to defend the base(for Morale bonus) and super buff Pegasi to assault enemy bases/armies, with a few other units for special tasks.
- You have a wide variety of damage types available. Piercing(Barbarian, Rider, Unicorn), Slashing(Wardog, Reaver, Warlord), Crushing(Pegasi), Electrical(Thunder Hawk, Titan) and Frost(Imp).



To sum it up:
You end up with a fairly strong economy, and a very powerful airborne force before even reaching tier 5. You are able to summon swarms of tough Imps(Sky Rune) that can wreck nearby enemies and buildings and support your other units with Group Healing, Cure and Awe through Unicorns.
It is a very mobile setup that keeps snowballing as you play.
Finally, the Hero is fairly self-sufficient(due to the mix of Nature and Summoning) so can work well in other armies as well(Demons and High Elf in particular).