Discussion about the Stronghold faction.

I suspect this refers to a skirmish or multiplayer game, not a Campaign?
Yes, Orcs have a tough time at the start (I wrote about this on the previous page).
My strategy is based on the hero's specialization - "+7 to the health of Ogres and Crushers". A 20-25% increase in the health of the main attack stack is not 2% of Endurance. Thanks to this specialization and the wonderful ability of Ogres, "arrow protection," along with the "Reinforcement" spell cast on these units, they can withstand significant damage and defeat most neutral creatures (don't forget to use goblins to set traps) without losses, without spending mana. By the way, mana needs to be saved very strictly, using spells only in extreme cases.
I play on the normal difficulty level because on hard, there isn't enough money to buy a hero on the first day, and I don't like the main hero performing tasks that aren't his direct responsibilities (resources should be gathered by a secondary hero-economist, and the main hero should only fight). So, on the first day, I build the Hall of Heroes and buy Ranks, thereby doubling my initial army and getting a collector-economist. On the 2nd day, I build Ogres - increasing the strength of the attack stack. Day 3 - Market, Day 4 - Town Hall (a lot of money will be needed, so all chests, at least for the first week, should be taken with money). In the remaining 3 days, I build creatures (goblins, crushers, and harpies). I don't take harpies into the army until they can be upgraded; otherwise, ranged neutral creatures start targeting harpies instead of Ogres, and their survivability is poor.
Hero development:
If there is a Stone of Enlightenment in the visibility range and it is unguarded or the neutral creatures on it are not difficult, i.e., I am sure that I can kill them without losses, then on level 1, I take Education, and on level 2 - Reinforcement. If I am not sure about defeating the neutral creatures, then I take them in reverse order.
Levels 3 and 4 - Drain and Restoration (the sequence depends on the surrounding monsters); Orcs don't have "healing" spells, so they need to somehow survive, but I try to use magic as little as possible (remember, mana needs to be saved for difficult monsters).
The sequence of taking skills from level 5 to 11 can also vary depending on the circumstances, but the general idea is as follows:
Level 5 - Intimidate. A good skill that greatly helps in the early stages of the game - we hit enemies and accumulate rage.
Level 6 - Logistics. We move faster - we develop faster, we collect more resources.
Level 7 - Tutelage. You can't get anywhere without good assistants these days.
Level 8 - Reinforcement II. Sooner or later, centaurs appear in the army, and ranged neutral creatures now start targeting them first.
Level 9 - Ambush. Initiative is never superfluous.
Levels 10 and 11 - Heroism -> General Heroism. An excellent skill. In addition to directly increasing damage, it allows you to deal double damage (luck) or get an additional attack (morale) -> additional rage points.
Further, it depends on reputation, but I haven't decided on that yet - a lot needs to be tested in practice, of which I still have little (I'm still going through the Campaign, and things are a bit different there).

P.S. The above is not a claim to be an axiom for developing a Barbarian; I just shared my thoughts and some experience. I suspect that with the acquisition of more experience, much may change in my mind and in this development.