Warcraft II Strategies - Games - http://maxpages.com/goldenmania/Warcraft_II

Miscellanious

Be sure to build peasants and keep building none stop, this will help in very long games ensuring you have money coming in fast to finance army.

Try and get bloodlust as fast as you can and attack straight after getting it. Build a barracks and blacksmith(to upgrade constantly), upgrade to a stronghold, then build an ogre mound and lumber mill, then you can upgrade to a fortress. Be sure to have plenty of peons, and about 6 grunts.

When defending line you troops in a line(this will give you the upper advantage since you can move ends around to flank of attackers. If you have an ogre or grunt on that is very low in energy, put him about 6 or more paces in front so you will have a warning when the other player(s) are attacking so then you can bloodlust in time.

If you have listened and built hordes of peons and have too much gold go over board and build about 5 of each building (those that build men of course) sappers are also very usefull ;) as 2 can cut down 9 attacks down to size.

Oh when raiding enemy bases make sure you kill all of the defenders then go in for the PEASANT KILLS! Remember to send out groups containing varied unit types rather then the one unit. A mixed group will defend better to the different enemies in store for you.

If you want to turn off unit responses you can do that in the SOUND menu. Building a Lumber Mill increases the amount of lumber you produce from each load your peasants bring in.

It is quicker to press the right mouse button to issue Auto-Commands to a selected unit. Units can be ordered to Move, Attack, Harvest, Mine and repair with a single click.

You can use the PATROL command to setup a two point patrol route for your fighting units. While in patrol mode they will attack any enamy unit that they see. The STAND GROUND command is used to force your units to stay in place. It is great for when your fighting units are guarding something and your not looking and your emamies come up and attack, your fighting units wont move and they will fight when the enemies are in fighting range.
When playing multi-player games you can send messages to your opponent by pressing ENTER then typing in your message then press ENTER again.
To turn off SOUND press CTRL-S, and to turn off the music press CTRL-M.

When you build your Town Hall build it close to the gold mine it'll be quicker for the peasants to return the gold. Keep the path between the Town Hall and available resources clear. Obstacles slow the rate at which resources can be returned. You can select a whole group by holding down the left mouse button whilst dragging then you can make a selection to the whole group for example an attack. If you don't know what to do in the level goto the menu then press Scenario Objectives, this will tell you what you have to do to finish the level.
You can speed up or slow down the game by pressing + or - keys.

You can use sappers and demo squads to blow up almost anything including rocks and trees. Submarines and giant turtles can only be seen by fellow subs, turtles, guard towers and fliers.

Keeping A Defence

A defence is perhaps the most vital thing in any war effort. With a good defence, you will have enough time to create a good offence. Depending on what mission you are on, you may know how to use different types of units. The most basic defence is a row of 4 or more knights, then at least 6 archers right behind them, in a single row. It is always good to have about 2 catapults behind the archers. In this picture, the enemy comes from the top. If the enemy approaches from another side, rotate your defence accordingly.

The catapults in the back are huge helps. They will always fire at the first guy, and unless the enemy is very slow, the shots will miss. But the shots WILL hit the area right behind the attacker, killing anything there. Catapults are also great at killing axe throwers and archers, and sometimes an enemy will retreat once he sees the catapults.
E

E = enemy
K = knight KKKK
A = archer AAAAAA
C = catapult
C C

Once you get Churches, immediately research paladins, and then the "heal" spell ( only humans have this spell). Use the heal spell to replenish your health after each attack, or during an attack if the need be. The heal spell will enable you to focus on building an offence, because you will not need to continuously build defenders.

If you're playing as the nasty little Orcs, a defence is not as easy to maintain. If you're fast enough, the "bloodlust" spell will enable you to kill attackers rather quickly, but it is pretty hard to cast it on your defenders in time before the attackers get to your defensive line. The "rune" spell can be helpful. Place a line of runes about 6 squares before defensive line. Be careful not to overlap runes, as they will be wasted. A line like the one below will kill or seriously damage quite a few attackers before they get to your defensive line.
1 = 1st cast 1 3
2 = 2nd cast 1 1 1 2 3 3 3 4
3 = 3rd cast 1 2 2 2 3 4 4 4
4 = 4th cast 2 4

If you are playing a level where dragons (or griffins) attack your town make sure you build archers, and a lot of them. The worst thing you can do in a dragon attack is to position your units on after another like in the left picture. Position your archers like the right picture.
WRONG! RIGHT!!

A
D = dragon AA A
A = archer AAA D A
AA A D
A
A
A

Can you see why? In the left picture, each time the dragon attacks, he damages at least 2 or 3 units, because the trail of fire continues beyond his target. In the right picture, the dragon only damages one unit per attack and have the dragon as close to your archers as possible! Remember make the RIGHT choice. hehe :)

Catapults are usually the only thing that would cause you to have your defensive line retreat. Catapults are slower than other units, so they probably get close after you have killed the other attackers. Depending on what I have, I will either send 2 catapults, or 2 to 3 knights out to kill the catapult. Make sure that the knights don't go one after the other, or the 2nd or 3rd knight will get hit with the blast. If you send catapults, make them "move" toward the catapult until the enemy fires. One of the catapult will probably get slightly hurt. After the catapult fires, "stop" your units and they will automatically fire and get 2 direct hits, most likely destroying the catapult. If for some reason you decide to send archers or some other unit with a ranged attack, move them up next to the catapult and the catapult will over-shoot them. Cool, huh?

Build gryphons as soon as you can, and keep them a little after your defensive line. If you see a group of enemies with no axe-throwers, death knights, or dragons, send your gryphons over and you could get a few easy kills, since most land units can not attack units in the air.

Make sure you explore your surroundings thoroughly, and build towers
(I think guard towers are more useful) around points of attack. A few flying machines can set a perimeter around your base, and if the flying machines come under attack, it is easy to have them retreat.

If you play without the "fog of war" build flying machines as soon as you can, and explore the whole map. You will definitely be able to spot attacks early on if you play this way. So that it for defence! Good Luck

Planning an Offence

Once you have an adequate defense set up, the time is right to get to work making an offense. Early on, all you will have is footmen and archers. In my opinion, archers are good at defense, but their attacks aren't powerful enough to make a good offense. Even with full upgrades, archers can't fire repeatedly at a good rate. There is a few second delay between shots, where enemies can get in a lot of hits. Because of this, I mainly focus on making land units such as knights, footmen, mages and dwarven demolition squads, and bastillas.

Most enemy towns are protected by a couple of guard or cannon towers. Make sure you have two or three bastillas to take out towers. The range of a bastilla is only 1 more than a cannon tower, so make sure you don't positon units in front of the attacking bastilla, or the cannon tower will kill them. Upon first sight of of an enemy approaching you when you are attacking a tower, have your bastilla(s) retreat and move knights to intercept the approaching enemy. A lot of the time the enemy will simply go right for the bastilla, no matter how many knights you have defenders you have. Make sure you protect your bastillas, because if you lose them, you will not be able to get into the base without heavy losses.

It is much better to wait and make more bastillas before attacking than to just send in your troops against a tower. If for some reason you need to get past a cannon tower without killing it, remember that, like catapults, the tower will overshoot its initial target. A tower will usually attack the closest thing to it, meaning that you can attack it with archers, and keep a knight constantly running around the tower. The tower should go after the knight, which is constantly running so the tower will over-shoot him, and you might only suffer light losses. It is still much easier to attack it with bastillas though.
K = knight T
C = catapult
T = tower

KKCCKK

Dwarven demoliton squads are awesome! If you ever see a group of enemies such as grunts or ogres ( it is important that the enemies do not have a ranged attack, because they will not walk up next to the squad ) just send a demolition squad up right into them. When the enemy has gathered around you, detonate your explosives and the explosion will kill or seriously damage all of the enemies. Demolition squads are also helpful in destroying towers. Two squads can kill a towerby detonating themselves next to it. BE CAREFUL YOU DON"T HAVE FRIENDLY UNITS CLOSE TO THE SQUADS AS THEY DETONATE!! You will just end up killing your own units.

Once you get into the town, immediately attack the barracks, only stopping to kill enemy units that could harm you. Once the barracks is gone, you are pretty much home free. Attack any additional towers, and then go for the peons. Once the peons are eradicated ( the great hall will continue to make more ) then attack the great hall. Attack any peons attempting to repair the great hall. Once the great hall is destroyed, MAKE SURE you have killed EVERY peon. If you don't kill every peon, the peon will build a new great hall, and you will have to do everything over again. After the great hall, the barracks, and all the peons are dead, go for any other building that has the capability of making new units, such as Temples of the Damned, shipyards, goblin alchemists and dragon roosts. Depening on what the enemy is attacking you with, you may want to destroy the dragon roost first, or the shipyard, or anything else. Save the pig farms for last, since they don't do anything to kill you.

When trying to approach the base, you can usually find a few lone
guards. If you don't want to lose much health in an attack, you can attack
the enemy with a bastilla (the enemy won't see you coming). You can surprise
the enemy and get an easy kill. I guess that's it for offense.

Using Spells

Spells are cool, powerful, and perhaps the funniest thing in the game! Here is a list of spells and their uses:
HUMANS:

Paladin:

Holy Vision:

Just like far-seeing from Warcraft 1. Useful for scouting areas. I don't use this spell very much. I mainly use flying machines for scouting.
Healing:

This is a great spell. I use it mainly for defense. Any time a unit is getting low on energy, from getting attacked, use this spell. It heals your init pretty quick!
Exorcism:
Use this spell on death knights and skeletons only.
Mage:

Lightning:

The basic attack for mages. It is fairly powerful, and it doesn't use any magic power to fire. It can attack air units as well as land and sea.
Fireball:

I don't really like this spell. It uses way to much power, and doesn't do enough damage. It is useful in getting rid of towers if you are patient. It continues beyond its target, so if the enemy is in a row, use fireball to do a good amount of damage.
Flame Shield:

This is a good spell for sending a lone troop into an enemy defensive line, but it can be dangerous if any of your other troops come in contacted with the enchanted one. Try casting flame shield in the middle of a group of enemies. You can use the enemy to your advantage, because anywhere the enemy goes, he will do damage. Useful on peons because they are not the attacking type to defend themselves as you will see!
Slow:

You can try using this spell on retreating enemies, but I have never been able to find a good use for it. Otherwise, cast it on attacking ogres or other strong units to slow their attacks.
Invisibility:

I was a bit disapointed with this one. You can't cast it on dwarven demolition squads ( it will kill them ), and death knights can still see your invisible units. What a rip-off!
Blizzard:

I think Blizzard Entertainment put this spell in because the name of their company is the same as the name of the spell :) Anyway, this spell is indead quite powerful, and has a good range. To make an effective attack, make sure the caster has plenty of magic power. It will destroy most buildings with two casts!
Polymorph:

Now this is a COOL spell! The enemy will not notice you casting it, so you can turn a whole group of defenders into sheep, hogs or seals. Wow! This spell will not work on catapults though, so watch out! be ready for them!
ORCS:

Ogre-Mage:

Eye of Kilrogg:

Sort of like the holy vision spell, ogre-mages can make a floating "eye" to fly around and explore terrain and sight units. These eyes disappear rather quickly, so use them with haste.
Bloodlust:

This is a really cool spell. The target will be able to do more damage with each attack and your defence power is doubled! This is useful for quickly dispatching of an enemy or buying some time!
Runes:

I talked about these in the "Defense" section of this guide. If you want more uses, just cast this spell right in front of any enemy unit, then they walk into the range of the unit. He will chase after you, and go right through the field of runes. You can cast this spell out of the sight range of every unit.
Death Knight:

Touch of Darkness:

This is a lot like lightning. It is the basic attack for death knights. It does not use any magic power, and can attack units on land, sea and air.
Death Coil:

If a death knight is getting low on energy, you can trade magic for life with this spell. It has a nice range, and is powerful. Whatever is taken away from the enemy, you get. I don't think it works on catapults though.
Haste:

With this spell, the enchanted on will do all of his actions (walking, attacking) faster. Combine this spell with bloodlust for a fierce guardian.
Unholy Armor:

This is just like the unholy armor spell from Warcraft 1. Be careful, it wears off quickly. Each time the spell is cast, the target loses half of his power. Use this spell conservitively. Don't cast it on goblin sappers!
Death and Decay:

This spell is useful in groups, but is not worth casting for only one enemy. It also consumes wood, for example buildings it is great for getting rid of a couple of cannon towers and other buildings. It is very useful for destroying buildings.
Whirlwind:

Again, this spell is useful for groups of enemies, but not much else. Actually, this spell works great against air units and sea units.
Raise Dead:

This time around, skelatons stay alive without needing magic power. This means that they never die on their own. Using this spell you can build up a large army of the undead and march it on your enemies base. Skelatons are much stronger this time.

Keeping Troops Alive and Upgrading Quickly

This will be pretty short. Basically, when you are in a defensive line, you may find that the enemy keeps on going after one unit. If you don't have the "heal" spell, then it helps to rotate your troops around the defensive line. For example, have the strongest guy switch places with the weakest guy. This way, the damage will be spread over many units instead of focused on one. If you have the "raise dead" spell, you can put the skelatons right in front of your defensive line, so the skelatons will take the damage instead of your troops.
Upgrading the Right Way

This is mainly just a matter of what you need the most. If most battles are on land, upgrade swords and shields. If the battles are on sea, upgrade your armor and cannons. Only invest money into elven rangers and troll berserkers you you have a whole bunch of archers or axe throwers, or if you've got money to spend (which is rare). Try to upgrade everything once before you go into upgrading something for the second time. I almost never upgrade my bastillas for the SECOND time. 4000 gold for only 15 extra attack points? You're crazy. I would much rather have 5 ogres than an twice upgraded bastilla. If you have any towers, upgrade them as soon as possible, since a watch tower can not harm enemy units at all.

Battles at Sea

Personally, I think sea battles are the hardest in the game. Here are as many strategies as I could think of. First of all, the cannons always overshoot a fast unit coming toward you, such as a transport or a oil tanker. What I find works is to use the "move" command, and click on the oncoming ship. As soon as the enemy ship passes you, use the "stop" command and, if the enemy is within range, your ships will fire and hopefully sink the vessel. Only oil tankers and transports will try to get through your defensive line. All other ships will attack it.

Most bases only have one or two transports to shuttle their units across bodies of water. If you can find a transport on the shore, immedietly destroy it. If you destroy all of the transports, and the shipyard, the enemy will not be able to get any more units across water. This means that you can concentrate on making a strong navy. But beware, after you destroy the shipyard and transports, the enemy will continuously build land defenders, so when you do send in a landing party, you will meet a lot of defenders. But they can't get off the island, and their mine will eventually run out. If their mine is VERY large, you can always destroy it.

The best way to get past cannon (or guard) towers located on a beach is a fast and furious attack. Send in as many ships as you can. Once you clear away a small area, get a bastilla or two on the beach (out of range of the towers) to t

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