WARCRAFT II HINTS GENERAL HINTS & STRATEGIES: - When building any structure highlight a few extra workers and assign them to repair the building that is under construction, this will speed up the building process and allow you to construct your buildings faster than your opponent. This will also cost you more gold and lumber, but the amount compared with the speed of construction is well worth it. - Instead of building a wall, line up a bunch of farms across an opening. This way you will be getting a dual purpose out of the farms ... first they provide more food for more troops and they can also withstand ALOT more damage than a wall can. The biggest drawback to using this method is if you are playing against the computer opponent. Normally the computer will not attack a wall if it is placed in between you and the computer. But, if a farm is there, the computer will not hesitate to destroy your farm-wall and you will constantly be repairing your farms. - Don't attack your opponent at the same spot all the time. Force your opponent to spread defenses all around the base. Once the defenses are spread around then attack two areas (or more if possible ) and attack each with a different method (i.e. a group of paladins/ogres and archers/axe throwers attack the front entrance while balistas/catapults and/or gryphons/dragons attack from the side. This will force your opponent to bring in reinforcements from other areas and ultimately leave those areas with weak defenses. - ALWAYS keep one or two flying machines/zeppelins scouting all around the map. This will alert you to any waves of enemy troops on their way. This will also allow you to spot any second mines being harvested by your opponent. Usually a player's extra mine(s) are not protected very well and allow you to send in a small group to eliminate a bunch of workers and slow your opponent's gold accumulation. - Fly something over all forest and rock clusters. This is where the level designers always like to hide extra mines or rescuable units. If you do find something inside then station a couple gryphons/dragons there to make sure your opponent's workers or bombers do not cut/blast their way to it before you do. -ALWAYS use natural formations (forest, rock, etc...) as natural walls. Be careful not to cut or blast an opening otherwise you will have to divide your defenses and, therefore, weaken them. Natural walls cost you nothing but once they are destroyed/cut down they cannot be repaired or replaced so try not to create any openings or weak spots. -ALWAYS upgrade your troops. An upgraded footmangrunt is stronger than a non-upgraded knight/ogre so remember to upgrade weapons and armor whenever you can afford it. HUMAN STRATEGIES: - If you want to do some mass destruction and are not afraid to lose one mage then simply cast invisibility on a mage and walk him into your opponent's town. Once you arrive you can then have him cast a blizzard spell onto a building or group of buildings. Be careful not to stop your mage near any towers or nearby troops because as soon as the blizzard spell is cast your mage will reappear and likely be immediately attacked. Therefore, you should place your mage (if possible) a distance from any enemy troops so that by the time the enemy reaches your mage he has cast as much of the spell as possible. - while attacking a group of enemy troops hold back a bunch of paladins away from the fight. Use these paladins to constantly cast healing on your front line troops or to cast exorcism on any units raised into skeletons by death knights. - If you spot a catapult (or a number of them) coming towards your town, send a mage (or a few mages) out and have them cast slow onto the catapults. This will slow them down considerably and give you enough time to have just a couple units charge out and destroy them before they reach any towers or buildings. Just remember to use either footmen or knights/paladins because ranged attacks are susceptible to return fire. Also keep a close eye out for late arrivals who will attack your footmen and knight/paladins. - Mages are your most powerful weapon so use them to turn enemy orcish scouts into critters by using the polymorph spell. If your opponent is the computer then you will be able to situate a mage (or mages) near a group of computer troops and turn them all one by one into critters. Just don't get too close to them or else they will charge after your mage(s) and take them down very quickly. If you keep some distance between your mages and the computer troops you will be able to stay there unnoticed. Versus a human opponent you just have to cast an invisibility on your mage(s) and run them in and immediately run them back before your opponent realizes where the attack came from. - The fire shield spell is excellent to cast within a group of enemy troops assembling outside your base. Cast the spell on an orc that is situated in the middle of the group and by the time your opponent knows what is happening and reacts to it you will have taken down a couple. Cast two or three into the same group and your enemy will be sure to pull the troops back....well, the few that are still standing will be pulled back. - Send in an invisible group of workers to chop away at an enemy's forest wall and create an undefended opening that the player will have to close in ... if your opponent notices it in time! ORCISH STRATEGIES: - The death knight's whirlwind does not need the death knight to remain in place to keep it going (unlike death & decay and blizzard spells) so use your death knights with haste. Cast on them to rush in and have each death knight cast two whirlwinds into your opponents base and then rush back to base. Be sure you are ready for any retaliation from your opponent. With only six death knights a player can have three cast haste on the other three and rush in to cast six whirlwinds into an enemy base. Soon after the player can have the death knights that cast the whirlwinds NOW cast hasteon the first three death knights. This will cause ALOT of havoc in your enemy's base as he/she is forced to spend time & resources to try and repair buildings before they are leveled by all the whirlwinds. You may be able to catch a few workers or troops in the whirlwinds and either severely damage or kill many. - Death and decay is an excellent spell to use against troublesome towers. A single death knight with full mana can take out up to three towers with death and decay. It is also useful to attack a computer opponent's building with death and decay, wait for it to send in peasants for repairs and then have another death knight cast it so as to get as many peasants as possible. This will slow your opponent's harvesting ability until more peasants can be trained. - Use bloodlust whenever possible. Bloodlust combined with either unholy armor or speed can create a deadly force especially if the force consists of upgraded ogres. - Have a group of ogre mages stand back and cast a bunch of rune spells inside a narrow passage (your opponent's main gate is the best spot) and then have a death knight run up and cast death and decay or whirlwind only to get your opponent's attention. When your opponent starts to come after your death knight he/she will run directly over the runes and take out most of the front line. Even if your opponent manages to get some units past the front gate he/she still has to deal with the ogres that cast the runes and chances are that many of the enemy troops will be hurt from the runes and will not be much of a match against the ogres. -If you are able to create or find a hole in your opponent's defenses then quickly gather a few goblin sappers and before your opponent can establish any kind of defenses send in your goblin sappers with hastecast on them. Be sure not to send a group of sappers together to the same target because the first one will destroy any that follow. Send each one with about a one second delay that way by the time the first hits it's target the others will not be caught in the blast. - Create waves of axe throwers and upgrade them so they have regeneration. This way you can rotate your guard by pulling back your injured and bring in ones with full health. The units that you pull back will have a chance to regain their health and be able to take over when any others get hurt. Unless you are facing a continuos attack from many opponents you should be able to have the same axe throwers guard that area as long as you keep rotating the injured for the ones that have recovered. - If the computer keeps parking a bunch of units just outside your base (behind a forest wall for example) bring in a few death knights and a couple catapults. Use the catapults to eliminate the group and once they are ALL dead have your death knights cast raise dead on the remains. You can use the skeletons as either an initial wave of protection or as expendable scouts. Many feel that raise dead is useless but if you are able to raise a bunch of skeletons within the damaged survivors of a battle you will find that the skeletons will be very effective. The bottom line is that the skeletons are cheap and expendable units, that cost no gold and are an INSTANT force that can be used against the survivors of a big battle. The only thing that skeletons cost is mana and your death knight will recover that in no time. If possible cast either haste or unholy armor on some newly raised skeletons to make them a little tougher. - The best defense against gryphons is to have a few ogre mages standing nearby either a bunch of death knights and/or beserkers and have the ogres cast bloodlust on them. The death knights are particularly good because they can use death coil to damage the gryphons and heal any damage that the death knights have taken from gryphon attacks.