After many years I finally got my fav game back....and somehow it is different.....Ordos is now weak?

[SirBugz]

After many years of being disappointed with gamed in the current decade, i searched for a way to play OG games like Dune 2000 and Warcraft on PC and i found the Gruntmods edition.

Took me a little bit of messing about but i got it working...for some reason my system doesn't play sound in fullscreen, but it is happy with 1920x1080 Borderless....I have no idea why this is a thing but apparently it is.

However, now its running, i binged it yesterday and completed the Harkonnen campaign, and as always it did not disappoint... back in the Amiga/Early PC days i played Hark first, then Ordos, then Atreides.

Harkonnen was super fun!! I started Ordos today, and is it just me or are they new weak as a wet paper bag....After level 4 or 5, i am noticing really stupid mechanics so i went stupid myself to see how bad it was.......i downloaded a trainer, i used infinite money and instant build and i built a squad of:

20 Siege Tanks, 20 Normal Tanks, 20 Quads and 20 Trikes and sent them all at 4 cannon turrets on the enemy base.....I lost.....

Seriously, all that fire power against 4 crappy cannon turrets and somehow Ordos lost!!!! (Harkonnen had no issues, maybe lost 2 or 3 tanks per turret but nothing stupid....How did i lose 80 units to 4 turrets?)

Why is Ordos so under powered now? is it this mod? what's going on?

 

[aarmaageedoon]

 

On 10/29/2026 at 11:06 PM, SirBugz said:

Why is Ordos so under powered now?

They always been. Ordos tanks are weaker than Atreides tanks which are weaker than Harkonnen tanks. and they dont have missle tanks. 

 

On 10/29/2026 at 11:06 PM, SirBugz said:

20 Siege Tanks, 20 Normal Tanks, 20 Quads and 20 Trikes and sent them all at 4 cannon turrets on the enemy base.....I lost.....

This is simply you having no idea how to play the game. Try it slow, rethink your tactics and you will eventually beat all missions.

[X3M]

He was testing them.

Could you show it in a video?

As for the Ordos....I don't think they are weak. They are just build differently.

It is a sneak peek in EbfD where I find them the most powerfull. That is....if you keep moving them around.

Hitpoints:

• 2100 (Atreides)
• 2700 (Harkonnen)
• 1800 (Ordos)

Move speed:

• 28 (Atreides)
• 24 (Harkonnen)
• 32 (Ordos)

Coolddown:

• 50 (Atreides)
• 55 (Harkonnen)
• 45 (Ordos)

The other stats are the same. Damage is 270.
Attack range is 128. Cost 700. Turn speed 1. Sight range 4.

I don't know about the damage dealt on moving targets. It seems to be less somehow. But what I find very interesting is that the Ordos combat tanks can get into positions very fast and then show more dps as well.

10 shots on a Harkonnen CT, while itself would take only 7. Assuming the first shot doesn't take cooldown. You get to 9 and 6. With 9x45=405 and 6x55=330. Yes, they are weaker. But not that much. Only by 23%.
As for crushing infantry, the Ordos CT is actually 33% better at this. Overall, in a game where speed matters, Ordos is your faction.

The quads move with 36. That means that they move around their combat tank friends. The Harkonnen have this the worst. But the ones with ordos kinda are close. The difference is what matters most here. For Ordos, it is only 4. for the harkonnen, it is 12. Thus, the harkonnen army is more spread out. And Ordos benefits from being a tighter ball.

[SirBugz]

10 hours ago, aarmaageedoon said:

This is simply you having no idea how to play the game. Try it slow, rethink your tactics and you will eventually beat all missions.

Kinda rude.. You are the kind of person that is not successful in real life and feel the need to spit bile on the internet. 

It is pretty obvious you cannot read and therefore I will ignore your shoe-size IQ.

Have a good day. 

[SirBugz]

6 minutes ago, X3M said:

He was testing them.

Could you show it in a video?

As for the Ordos....I don't think they are weak. They are just build differently.

It is a sneak peek in EbfD where I find them the most powerfull. That is....if you keep moving them around.

Hitpoints:

• 2100 (Atreides)
• 2700 (Harkonnen)
• 1800 (Ordos)

Move speed:

• 28 (Atreides)
• 24 (Harkonnen)
• 32 (Ordos)

Coolddown:

• 50 (Atreides)
• 55 (Harkonnen)
• 45 (Ordos)

The other stats are the same. Damage is 270.
Attack range is 128. Cost 700. Turn speed 1. Sight range 4.

I don't know about the damage dealt on moving targets. It seems to be less somehow. But what I find very interesting is that the Ordos combat tanks can get into positions very fast and then show more dps as well.

10 shots on a Harkonnen CT, while itself would take only 7. Assuming the first shot doesn't take cooldown. You get to 9 and 6. With 9x45=405 and 6x55=330. Yes, they are weaker. But not that much. Only by 23%.
As for crushing infantry, the Ordos CT is actually 33% better at this. Overall, in a game where speed matters, Ordos is your faction.

The quads move with 36. That means that they move around their combat tank friends. The Harkonnen have this the worst. But the ones with ordos kinda are close. The difference is what matters most here. For Ordos, it is only 4. for the harkonnen, it is 12. Thus, the harkonnen army is more spread out. And Ordos benefits from being a tighter ball.

Hi,

Yes I can get it on a video, and yes you are correct, I was just testing to see the outcome and I found it surprising.

I don't usually play with trainers, but for the sake of speed and resources as a one of I built that large force.

It is late here so I'll try and grab the video tomorrow. 

[Cm_blast]

Ordos were always the weaker of the 3. In Dune 2, the game has a hidden difficulty based on the House selected. Harkonnen were the easier due the use of the heavy trooper and quads (no trikes nor upgrades needed), while ordos have the Raider which on that game were faster but also weaker, and the lack of missile tank.

In dune 2000 they are more balanced. Ordos have the Raiders which here are better (faster moving, faster firing). Now, Ordos feels weak because their combat tank does the worst job ar being a combat tank.

Harkonnen Combat tank has the highest health but the lowest ratio of firing. Ordos tank is the fastest both moving and shooting, but it has low hp, and Atreides are in the middle.

If you put 10 Harkonnen tanks vs 10 ordos tanks (all in 1 vs 1 encounter) you will see that they balance each other. The Ordos tank attacks so fast that can kill the Harkonnen tank despite having way higher hp.

Now, the main issue is that the combat tank job is to be an actual tank, so when you send a bunch of harkonnen combat tanks against the enemy turrets, and then other units like missile tanks or quads (which are strongest in terms of damage) is fine because those turrets will take a while to kill the tanks. However, in the same escenario but with Ordos tanks, Ordos tanks does more damage, but because they died faster, those turrets will start firing to your other units which you don´t want to, and they will die too, so turrets will survive.

Also, siege tanks does no damage to turrets, they are a good anti-infantry, and as Ordos lack the missile tank, instead of "1 tanky unit and other 2 damage dealers (combat tank, missile tank, quad), you are stuck with 2 damage dealers units (combat tank, and quad) and no missile tank to help.

 

As a suggestion, you can slow a bit the speed of the game, because if I am not wrong, the game is stored at the maximum speed posible (as most multiplayer people play that way, and others find the lower speed too boring), but originally it was intented to be player at at lower speed, and if the game shows in the screen "at 15 minutes, X happens" that timer shouldn´t just reach 0 in only 6 minutes. 

If you open the main menu you can move the speed slide twice to the left (this is assuming that it is on the max speed, I am not sure), if you do that, the game will be at the "real time speed", which means that if a crono on the screen marking 15 minutes appears, 15 real life minutes will pass; Reducing the speed will allow you to instead of just sending your 20 tanks and 20 quads ahead on whatever position/speed, you can control the units way better, grouping them, sending them more closers, sending the tanks first and then the quads or other units... at at razonable pace.

Next time you go to attack the enemy (and if you are playing on a lower speed so that helps a lot), Apart for grouping and moving the units based on the type, you can send the tanks to aggro enemy turrets/siege tanks, and then sending your troopers, troopers will decimate any turret (and they barely does damage to them), sometimes troopers alone won´t be enough if the enemy have sieges or try to crush over, but if you send a group of other units to keep them busy, you can destroy the turrets with them, and then just go all in with everything else that you put next to the enemy base but not too close. <-- building a 200 units army can work, but if you use the units more carefully you can do lots of damage even with a small force, as long as you place the units well.

I mention the speed, because I also play at at lower speed. I have done custom maps that because the speed I play, I can line my units as "4 missile tanks, 4 combat tanks, 4 quads, 4 infntry/troopers" and enemy sending a bunch of units and barely doing me any damage, and then playing the same mission on the fastest speed, and because there are too much things to focus (deploying, protecting from other attacks) I don´t have the time to line up those units in rows, so I just put them together in a chaotic way, which turns that the infantry/troopers are behind, the missile tanks are the in the front, and by the time I realize half my army is gone. Same map, same player, but the fastest or more lower speed can make the difference.
 

Pd: Now, In dune 2, the Ordos were the "highest difficulty", but in dune 2000 they are balanced, as if you reach the lastest levels as Harkonnen, enemies will have massive bases with lots of turrets, while if you play as Ordos, while still lacking the same firepower as them, you will fight enemies with smaller bases and you will have an ally that will help you defending, on the offense too and sometimes even finishing enemies that you weakened (but if left unchecked may recover, but with your allies they will keep the pressure so that enemy never recovers).

Edited 1 hour ago by Cm_blast