Sil - Orc scouts

[portia]

Hi there.
I am pretty new to Sil and generally this genre of games.

I've been having problems with orc. I usually die around 200 ft because there will always be orc scouts coming at me from around. I am not strong enough to fight them. I can't run away. What am I doing wrong? Is there any tactics to deal with Orcs?

  [Sil 1.1.1 Character Dump]

 Name   portia           Age    3,676       Str   1
 Sex    Male          Height   6'6       Dex   6
 Race   Noldor        Weight   150       Con   3
 House  Feanor                           Gra   3

 Game Turn    2,967   Melee  (+13,3d6)   Melee       13 =  8  +6  -2  +1
 Exp Pool       904   Bows    (+7,0d0)   Archery      7 =  0  +6      +1
 Total Exp    7,804   Armor   [+9,3-7]   Evasion      9 =  4  +6  -1
 Burden        38.8                      Stealth      7 =  2  +6  -1
 Max Burden   120.0   Health     34:34   Perception   3 =  0  +3
 Depth         250'   Voice      34:34   Will         3 =  0  +3
 Min Depth     150'                      Smithing     4 =  0  +3      +1
 Light Radius     1                      Song         3 =  0  +3

 You are one of two children of a prince from the house of Feanor. You
 have light green eyes, straight black hair, and a fair complexion.






  [Equipment]

a) a Greatsword (-2,3d5) [+1] 9.4 lb
   It requires both hands to wield it properly.  
b) (nothing)
c) (nothing)
d) (nothing)
e) (nothing)
f) a Wooden Torch (with 377 turns of light)
g) Leather Armour [-1,1d4]
h) (nothing)
i) (nothing)
j) a Helm [-1,1d2]
k) (nothing)
l) a Pair of Boots [+0,1d1]
m) (nothing)
n) (nothing)


  [Inventory]

a) 3 Fragments of Lembas
b) 3 Wooden Torches (with 2000 turns of light)
c) a Round Shield [+0,1d4]
d) a Longsword (+0,2d5) [+1] 3.0 lb
e) a Bastard Sword (-2,3d3) [+1] 3.7 lb
   It does extra damage when wielded with both hands.  


  [Notes]

portia of the Noldor
Entered Angband on 7 Jan 2013

    Turn     Depth    Note

     871    100 ft    (Charge)
   1,246    150 ft    (Dodging)
   2,389    200 ft    (Finesse)
   2,854    250 ft    Encountered Gorgol, the Butcher



  ['Score' 005097033]

Any tips? Thank you

[MrBims]

You did not have a single ranged weapon in your inventory, so you were probably trying to hug corridors as much as you could, right? Playing a Noldor, you should be using archery fairly liberally on threats advancing towards you. Or at least use throwing weapons - 13 melee is more than enough to make good use of daggers, spears and throwing axes, which are all quite plentiful in the dungeon and do not have a chance to break on impact.

I would re-evaluate your starting stats. Having only 1 in strength means that you were completely reliant on charge attacks to do all of your heavy lifting, so you fall apart when you have to stand and fight or fight on the retreat. Even the longsword is far from its full potential. The extra dice sides from higher strength is going to be what does the damage to pierce enemy armor, when you can't guarantee getting criticals.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Orcs are the first real stumbling block in Sil, I'd wager. Wolves never seemed to bother me, and orc soldiers rank kind of tough for monsters than can pop up on level 1. Orc scouts shouldn't really bother you, but they flee like archers do and are annoying to track down, like archers.

These are pretty basic tips, but:
1. Try to fight in corridors, or, fight 1v1, or 1v2 situations always. Enemies get an increasing bonus for every monster surrounding you. Orcs are smart and won't follow you in a tunnel unless you are pretty hurt, or have some negative status, like fear. But, you can usually find the join in an 'L' corridor where you can lure 1v2 situations. Unless you're strong, try to avoid the end-of-corridor 1v3 scenario.

2. Orc archers hurt. Having a good protection score nullifies the damage which is how I deal with them. Archery attacks halve your evasion, so you are going to get hit. Depending on your protection score, you might just have to run away or put yourself in a position where only 1 archer can draw aim on you. Another approach is to hunt them down and kill them.

3. Orc archers... the killing of. Archers run, the cowards. Cue Sinistar voice from yourself. Again, 'L' corridors are your friend. Walk away from the join maybe 5 spaces and one will pop out and start shooting... all you have to do is charge toward him and kill him. Then, walk out again to cue the next archer (since they seem to always come in cowardly packs). I call 'L' corridors archer grinders. You can also maneuver them in regular rooms, but the 'L' is safer since you usually only take arrows from the one archer.

Your skill choices look fine with this guy. Melee/evasion high is best for learning. I would say that evasion is more important than melee in the early game... swapping that 8/4 will increase your survive rate I think. I'm a damage monger but I usually start out 7/5 evasion/melee. I would offer a Feanor 2/4/5/3 for learning stats. Maybe 2/5/4/3 too. A '3' con isn't much wiggle room. I never use ranged attacks, but I'm sure the above post is right. The same flaw with my protection advice for archers is the same with his ranged attack advice, you gotta find some of that first and sometimes the early game is scarce. I usually run across some spears on the first two levels. Those would be good to chuck I'd wager.

[WaveMotion]

You may get higher damage with a light longsword than a greatsword, since you will get better critical hits with a lighter weapon (especially with Finesse) and you don't really have the strength to get great damage with a greatsword. Keep that greatsword around for critical-resistant or heavily armored enemies, though!

Strength is widely rated as the least important stat for the early game, but you still might want at least 2 (1 is nice if you're going all-out with criticals, e.g. with a 1.0lb shortsword and Subtlety, but I'm not sure that's a good start anyway). A more important stat than Strength is Constitution: 3 Con is playable, but for a beginner I would suggest 4 or even 5; that should give you a lot more breathing room around early orcs.

[portia]

Thank you all. I'll try the suggestions that you've given me. I'm going to start a new character. To put it all together: What starting stats would you suggest for this character?
Thank you

[HugoVirtuoso]

Thank you all. I'll try the suggestions that you've given me. I'm going to start a new character. To put it all together: What starting stats would you suggest for this character?
Thank you

Depends on your playstyle. I tend to play heavy-hitters who like to wield the closest Greatsword or Battle Axe nearby.

To start, I pick Noldor, Fingoflin, 3-4-4-2 stats (in that order), with 5 Melee and 7 Evasion, and pick Power, Charge, or Dodging as my first ability.

[Scatha]

I actually thought your starting stats were fine for the early game (though perhaps not the easiest for the mid-late game). 2543 would be a little easier.

I would emphasise two things:
- put more points into Evasion.
- don't get surrounded in the open! Feel free to run from fights, sometimes to somewhere else on the level; sometimes to the stairs.

Anyhow, good luck, and enjoy your adventures!

[HugoVirtuoso]

Getting 'Crowd Fighting' or using an Herb of Rage helps in cases when you get surrounded.

Another working stat combo is 3-3-5-3, with big emphasis on CON. This should help some characters last longer.