Strategier

Undead

Full Undead Guide

1.03 - May be valid in higher versions

Thus far, as a huuuge Warcraft 3 fan, the majority of the diaries I've been reading, and strategies I've been hearing all start with pretty much the same beginning line... "In this game I went with the night elves, because they totally own house and are hela-kewl and they all shoot flames and throw lightning and stuff! Woo Hoo! (and yay for archers and the PotM" ... Now pardon me to rain on your parade, but can't anyone try something new for a change???



Thus, my Undead strategy was born, because I feel that the Undead Race isn't even getting much of a change unless someone happens to accidentally choose them by picking a random race. 



First things first... CORPSES ARE YOUR FRIEND! Get to know them, find out what their likes and dislikes are, maybe take em out to a nice candle lit dinner... Using such reasoning, it'd be safe to say that... Graveyards are good! Anything that gives you corpses is oook in my book. Think of it as your ladies man friend that lets you have the left overs... Mmmmm... Corpses...



Heroes - In the hero department, I'd have to go with the Lich, or the Death Night. I don't know that much about the Dread Lord as of yet. 



When raising a Lich, Death and Decay is your ultimate goal, duh. But before you get death and decay, Frost Armor is always nice, the lich is by no means a melee bad ass, so you have to give him a little defense some how.



Uses - Death in Decay is pretty much the end all of offensive trickery. Cast it on Night Elves, Night Elf buildings, Night Elf's Moms and Dads. I'm pretty sure it work on other races too... But there's no time for rational solutions. Make sure that you back up the Lich with plenty of Melee Units when you want to use his ultimate, because if he can't get through casting it, it's not nearly as powerful.



With the Death Knight in early levels put your points into Death Coil. It's an all purpose, heal your units, hurt their's kinda dealy. Cant' go wrong with it. Once you get the ultimate Animate Dead Spell... It's time to play the plague bringer of the undead army... with the toads, and the hell fire and whatnot. 



Uses - Use Animate Dead when there are a lot of dead units just laying around, good when you need that offensive kick before you bite the big one... it's a good idea to cast on your Graveyards if you need additional defenses. Unload all your meat wagons... etc etc... you get the idea. This spell can turn the tide of any battle 180 degrees.



     I'll cover the Dread Lord too, although I don't use him much. You want to put points into his Aura, and his Carrion Swarm. Vampiric Aura is a pretty decent spell, anything that helps out the crew is a definate plus, and whoever doesn't like bats, just just not an undead head. I've heard that the carrion swarm actually does a pretty fair amount of damage. Sleep is a nice spell and all, but if you get into a huge battle, it's not all that useful. As far as the ultimate is concerned, I'm thinkin' it's pretty weak. Unless you have a Lich casting Death and Decay on the enemies city that needs to find his way home really quickly, or maybe for a gargoyle hit and disappear on some unlucky peons.



Uses - Beats me? See the Lich and Gargoyle combo above... you get the idea.



City Management - 

Place your Zuggarats where you may need defenses later. Plan ahead, every little bit helps. Make Graveyards, I usually make about... 3 or so.



Unit Strategies - 

First things first, I'm going to give some basic bios of each unit. Parties and Formations will come later. Undead need tons of unit management on the battle field. That's why no one has written anything about them, and is why when people are undead, they lose.



Necros - Keep the modal raise undead off... Until you get into a fight! That way you have mana, and fresh off the ground skellies. Unholy Frenzy is always a plus if you have the mana for it, and corpse explosion is great, as long as you don't have many friendly units around. I like dropping a few ghouls and a necro back where peons and peasants are mining. Kill one or two peons with your ghouls, and BOOM! Corpse explode the sucker. That'll take care of his mining buddies.



Skellies and Necros - If you want to use Skellies, you have to upgrade and Longetivy!!! People say the undead are weak, and skeletons suck, and have no hit points. Skellies are not supposed to be units that stick around, that's why they don't take up farms and upkeep!!! Keep a few necros in the back ranks and have them set on modal raise skeleton! Skeletons may not be all that "uber", but as your enemy dies, you get more units! What could be better than that? You have to use the undead like a steam roller of sorts. I know War3 is supposed to be strategy oriented game and not just flooding people with expendable units, but that in my opinion is how the undead are supposed to be played. Read the Race Bio.



Meat Wagons - Get the Plague Cloud! Great for looong range attack (after upgrade), great for taking out defensive structures. They can hold 8 corpses, great to unload in battle if you need some extra Skellies, try to keep the corpses in the wagon as powerful as possible. Corpses keep track of what unit they used to be, so if you have a big scary abomination corpse, you get an abomination when you cast Animate Dead on it. So the better the corpses, the better the army you will last for the underworld. 



Crypt Fiends - Undeadies don't have that much when it comes to long range, so air units can be a problem. You have to net them and beat em senseless when they crash, or have some gargoyles around to get em. Use web on Zepplins if you can catch em quick enough.



Ghouls - These are your bestest pals, the glue that holds the Scourge together nothing really super special you can do with there guys, but you need them for any and every undead fight. They also harvest lumber... but you knew that didn't ya? Clever little readers.



Abominations - Get the Plague Cloud! The Abominations are your huge, pissed off, newly faster melee tanks. I wouldn't recommend having all your Ghouls set to cannibalize, but it's worth it to set these brutes up to eat.



Gargoyles - Gargoyles are pretty much your only air defense outside of Webbing some flyers. I like to use them in small raid packs, great for flying over trees, and killing some peons or peasants.



Banshee - Banshee's a speciality flier. Great for possessing enemy units, only the biggest and most powerful ones though. I usually only keep one around for dispelling ultimate spells, and possessing if things get too nasty.



Frost Wyrms - Big flying beasties, They're speicality is freezing building production. A nice added feature to the standard big scary dragon arsenal. Usually used in the typical big group to attack an enemy town.



Shades - Great for scouting. Advanced warning of an attack, the works. 



Parties and Formations -



In any undead party you want to keep the necros, and meat wagons in the back ranks. Melee in the front, and Heroes somewhere around the middle. Wow... that section went by a lot quicker than expected.



If all else fails, and you start to get beat. Make sure your Death Knight is ALIVE! this is very important, because the Death Knight has to be alive to cast Animate Dead on the bloody battle ground. 



That all for now... But I hope this has shed some light on how to play the undead. I hope it's used to slaughter some Night Elf punk newbies... the way it should be.

Tilbage