Warcraft II Miscellaneous Strategies
Okay, this page is finally up. This is where I'll put the majority of my strategies, and I may end up splitting it up, but for right now it will probably be one big mess.
Land attack strategies
Attack early. The key to winning is offense. If you just sit back and lie on your butt you're just asking for a devastating attack.
Confusion among your enemy is the best time to attack. If you have a large force send in a magebomb or two, and watch him squirm around for a few seconds. Then launch your attack, take out all towers, and go from there.
When attacking, go for any mages or death knights first. Use exorcism on death knights. And CHARGE the mages. You can't afford to have 2 mages ruin your attack, which they can do with slow. Go for them first, and make them cast a defensive blizzard on you. If they're going to hit you with blizzard, make them do it on your terms.
Do a fly-by with a flying machine right before you attack to find out where any mages are, or any defended towers, and to see if they have any surprises in store for you.
Do not, I repeat DO NOT attack a wall-in with footmen, knights, or archers. If it is a crappy wall-in you might be able to weaken it with ballistas, but I would just starve them out until you get magic, or else sneak in some demo squads. Blizzard/D&D and sappers are the only good ways to handle a truly good defense.
If you appear to be winning a battle, don't quit making units. You never know what your enemy might have up their sleeves.
If it's early in the game, here is a good strategy to use. If you're attacking with, say, 8 or more footmen, here is a good thing to do. Take one or two of your guys and attack a building as far from the peasant line as possible. Then, when he rushes with his units to hit those, QUICKLY move the main part of your force in and hit the peasants.
Don't stand in the middle of someone's peasant line with just one guy. That will accomplish nothing. Get more guys in there.
Just because you're attacking doesn't mean that you can't upgrade and build units, even build more peasants. The whole point of attacking, even if you're evenly strong, is to weaken them until you can get ahead. Upgrade, get knights, everything. Don't let the fact that you're attacking loom over the fact you still have resources to use.
Here is the order in which I try to take things out: - - - - - - - . From here it's a clean-up job.
Air attack strategies
This will be brief. I rarely use air units, but if you don't accept my argument that they aren't that good, then at least read this to learn how to use them correctly.
A lot of people don't have a clue about air defense. So air attacking will work against a number of people. But don't think it's the best way to go.
If you're going to use gryphons, use them en masse. 2 or 3 won't cut it. Click here to see what you want. (This is overkill, but you get the idea).
The only place gryphons really work is on defensive games where both parties are merely waiting for the other to attack. In an intense back & forth battle, you won't have the time to build these...and if you do you are a moron. Build them when time means nothing to you.
Hide your aviaries all in the 1 spot where your enemy is the least likely to find them. If they see that you are building gryphons and they defend against it than you are toast. Surprise is the only advantage.
When you launch your attack, go straight for the lumber mill, so they can't build any more archers. Then take out mage towers, guard towers, and barracks. If you can get that far then from there on out it is a clean-up job.
Generally, combining air and land attacks is risky because you damage your own units. But here is one strategy that works, sometimes. If you're building gryphons and the enemy catches you, they may start building nothing but archers. If you see this happening, launch a ground assault just prior to your air assault to clear out any archers. This is risky, but your best bet if you are discovered.
Sea attack strategies
Early on is the best time to landlock your opponent, but rarely happens against good players. If you get a battleship before they get a foundry, then go for it. Otherwise, rely on your recon for when to attack.
Use battleships for attacking. Destroyers die when facing battleships.
If there is a sea battle going on then that is YOUR FIRST PRIORITY. Man, jugg-jugg battles are the true test of your skill. And a 1 on 1 win in a jugg-jugg can easily mean the difference in sea superiority, early on.
This is how you handle a 1 on 1 jugg-jugg. It relies on the fact that a jugg's shot can miss, and only do a small amount of damage to the opposing ship, if the opposing ship is moving, and also on the fact that a jugg can't move just after shooting. Thus, when you attack another ship, the attacker gets first shot. Move in within the ship you're attacking with and shoot just after they do. Direct hit. Then MOVE, and if the enemy ship shoots they might miss. If they do shoot, return fire ASAP. It only usually takes 2 shots to down another jugg. If they move, it becomes a stand-off. Who will attack first. Just keep moving.
1-1 sea battles are all about timing. If you can time the point at which you attack correctly, you can win every time.
If you get sea superiority, try and launch a ground attack right away. The opponent will most likely be building ground forces in preparation for this. Also, on High Seas, keep an eye out for the enemy expanding through sappering through the rocks or pulling the "Foundry Hop." Prevent this. Launch your attack quick, and go right for the peasants.
There is what is known as the "sea wall-in." (discussed later). The only good way to break it is to use demo squads. Don't be afraid to use them, even on sea.
Smite any attempts of your opponent to rebuild a shipyard, and do it with style. I wouldn't try to take out enemy catapults with ships, rather just use flying machines for recon and go in quick on any attempted shipyards.
Don't forget to look on adjacent places, on High seas, for a shipyard.
On the flip side, if your shipyard gets wasted, pull the foundry hop to an adjacent square to build your shipyard (on high seas only, of course). Then build up your sea forces quietly.
On a level other than high seas, don't try to rebuild your shipyard until you have blizzard to fend off the enemy ships. Cats just don't do the trick for me.
Use more than one transport when pulling your land invasion. 6 units at a time isn't worth it, unless its mages or demo squads. Get 12 knights at least.
If you lose sea superority, hide any transports you have. Transports are still the key to sea levels; you build your other ships in order to ensure the safety of your transports. Then, use them, as long as you can ensure their safety.
Land defense strategies
The wall-in is effective, but has weaknesses. I don't like to use them right-out, because expansion is so hard once you've sealed up, but instead what I do is get everything I need for a wall-in except for one building. I put towers behind my wall and everything, and I keep my attacking units outside of the wall. Then, if an attack is eminent, I stuff up the hole. This is the best way to go, in my opinion.
A successful wall-in must have towers behind the wall. Otherwise there is no point.
If you're going to build cannon towers, protect them similar to this. A cannon tower will miss up-close attackers; it has a minimum range of 2 I think. So make it so the bad guys can't attack the towers, and so the tower can hit. Otherwise use guard towers.
Even if you protect your towers, get guard ones as well, just in case you have to fend off any air assaults.
Try not to be forced to use your mages defensively. I would much rather have them on offense.
Don't play defensively by choice. Do everything in your power to launce counter-attacks, especially after a successful fending off of an attack. It is almost impossible for a defensive player to expand, and expansion is critical.
If you're playing an 8-player game, then a wall-in is almost a must. You can't fend off 4 different people without one, and expansion is a lot harder with no free mines.
Sea defense strategies
If you lose sea superiority, you're in trouble but not dead. Build up your land forces and wait for the attack. Build towers, set up your defense, and if you have any transports try and set up a 2nd island.
This is the sea wall-in. It only works once you have mages, and have a large amount of forces. What you do is, wall-in as you normally would, as completely as possible, and build towers and everything. Keep most of your mages INSIDE your wall-in and only a few mages, and a lot of paladins outside. When the land invasion comes, use your inside mages to blizzard the transport, and the immediate things coming off of it. These units will attack the wall-in, and run up against the towers. Cast slow on them, and polymorph anything that looks like big trouble. Then, use your paladins to clean up the remainders. Heal and repair anything that has been damaged. Cycle, rinse, repeat.
If you can keep the enemy busy trying to crack this defense, and build up a 2nd town secretly, you have a very good chance of winning.
The sea wall-in works best on Fierce ocean combat, I have noticed, because of the small islands. It's much harder to defend larger spots like in Spiral and High Seas.
Air defense strategies
Recon, recon, recon, recon, recon. If your enemy is building gryphons or dragons, you need to know about it. If they're taking out your flying machines that try to scout, use holy vision and look for multiple aviaries. You need to know if your enemy is building up the birdies.
If they are building up the birdies, then start building archers, and place a few towers near your lumber mill. I try for a 3-1 ratio of archers to gryphons. If you're also worried about land, build mages, and knights. Try even harder to prevent the enemy from expanding, and expand yourself to any available gold mines. Try and goad him into attacking with his gryphons (if you're ready to take the attack), through heavy expansion. Then, when the attack comes, waste the gryphons and immediately counterattack.
The only thing to worry about in a gryphon situation is surprise.
Building/Expansion strategies
Only build what your resources can handle. Don't build 3 barracks if you can only be constantly using 1. That is just a waste.
As a general rule, don't expand until your first mine is about to run out (10,000-20,000 left). There are exceptions, however.
One prevailing strategy on High resources land levels is to get 2 or 3 towns right away. If you're not worried about a very early attack, then this is worth it. Just being able to build peasants twice as fast is a HUGE advantage. This strategy requires balls but is worth it.
Don't build your farms close too close together. You're ripe for sappers and demo squads, as well as blizzard. If you have room, then use it.
If your resources are piling up, build more barracks, gnomish inventors, mage towers, shipyards, whatever. Gold is nice and all, but you can't spend it in Hell.
Expansion is critical to winning. Don't run out of gold. Just don't do it.
Team strategies
Communication is everything with teammates. Know where your teammate is located, where they are expanding to. If you find where an enemy base is, say so. Say things like "Red is building in the middle. Defenseless. I'm attacking there, join if you want."
If you think you'll hit resistance, coordinate your attacks. That is the whole point of teams. 1 group of 20 will do a whole lot more than 2 groups of 10. Decide who you will attack, where your forces will meet, and say "GOING!" when you are moving your guys.
If your teammate asks for help, give it to them! Treat it as if your guys were getting wasted. You don't want to be stuck in a 2 on 1, no matter how powerful you are.
Sometimes it is a good thing to, rather than help out your teammate at his base, attack the defenseless base of the guy who's attacking him. But before you do this, say that is what you're going to do and give them veto power. If they say, "No, I need help here," then go.
Don't stab your partner in the back. That's very bad form, no matter how bad they are.
A good thing to do is, if one enemy is weaker than the other, send a few token guys to attack the weak guy's base. Send enough to keep him busy, and hopefully he will ask for help. When the better player shows up to help, have both of you attack the better guy's defenseless base and go right for the peasants. Tou and Chrism would always pull this on me and MadDawg, man does it work.
