How far are you getting? Are you collecting an orb? Are you getting overrun, or quit the run because you think it is lost?
Just trying to get a feel for the balance - it might very well be too hard right now.
It's not really about placing workers, but you have to take care not to use all your free orblings on the paths, because otherwise there won't be any left to go to the forts and become orriors. The immediate goal is to maximize orrior output - so you need some forts that are well provisioned with orblings and gemmstones.