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.
