Warcraft 2 [Hints]
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Warcraft 2 Strategy Guide
January 1996
* * * * * By Paul O'Keefe * * * * *
* The Warcraft 2 Strategy Guide from Blizzard Entertainment should be out
soon, and will probably be a lot better than this. This guide is
not a product of Blizzard Entertainment. This guide is just a few
strategies that helped me play the game.
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Contents:
1. Keeping a Defense
2. Planning an Offense
3. Using Spells
4. Building a Town
5. Keeping Troops Alive
6. Battles at Sea
7. Upgrading the Right Way
8. Cool Things to Do
9. Cheat Codes
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Introduction:
Well, here I am with the Warcraft 2 manual, a bag of chips and a
glass of soda. My lava lamp is making wierd bubbles, and I'm racking my
brain to try to think of all of the strategies I have used in Warcraft 2.
I mainly play as Humans, so I will be refering to the units as the Human
version. Ex: a "knight" can also mean an ogre. Here goes!
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1. Keeping a Defense
A defense is perhaps the most vital thing in any war effort. With
a good defense, you will have enough time to create a good offense.
Depending on what mission you are on, you may know how to use different
types of units. The most basic defense 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 bastillas behind the archers. In this picture, the enemy comes
from the top. If the enemy approaches from another side, rotate your defense
accordingly. The bastillas ( or 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 behi 11411q1613l nd the
attacker, killing anything there. Bastillas are also great at killing axe
throwers and archers, and sometimes an enemy will retreat once he sees the
bastillas.
E
E = enemy
K = knight KKKK
A = archer AAAAAA
B = bastilla
B B
Once you get Churches, immedietely 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 offense, because you will not
need to continuously build defenders.
If you're playing as the nasty little Orcs, a defense 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 11123334
3 = 3rd cast 12223444
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. Make the RIGHT choice. Ha, ha! Get it? RIGHT! :)
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 bastillas, 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 bastillas,
make them "move" toward the catapult until the enemy fires. One of the
bastillas will probably get slightly hurt. After the catapult fires, "stop"
your units and they will automatically fire and get 2 dirct 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.
Is that it for defense? I guess so.
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2. Planning an Offense
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
B = bastilla
T = tower
KKBBKK
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.
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3. Using Spells
Spells are cool, powerful, and perhaps the funnest 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, use this spell.
- Exorcism: I've never gotten this spell to work. Maybe it's
a bug or something.
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 beyon 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.
- 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 quite powerful, and has a good
range. To make an effective attack, make
sure the caster has plenty of magic power.
- 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!
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 pretty cool spell. The target will be
able to do more damage with each attack.
This is useful for quickly dispatching of an
enemy.
- 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 walk into the sight wange of that 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 bastillas.
- 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. The
manual says it can consume wood, but I have
not gotten it to do that. 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.
- 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.
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4. Building a Town
I don't have that much to say here. Basically, the order that I
build stuff in is:
Humans Orcs
1st- town hall great hall
2nd- farm pig farm
3rd- barracks barracks
4th- elven lumber mill troll lumber mill
5th- blacksmith blacksmith
6th- upgrade to keep upgrade to stronghold
7th- shipyard shipyard
8th- gnomish inventor goblin alchemist
9th- stables ogre mound
10th- foundry foundry
11th- oil refinery oil refinery
12th- upgrade to castle upgrade to fortress
13th- church altar of storms
14th- mage tower temple of the damned
15th gryphon aviary dragon roost
Of course, you will obviously need more than one farm. Build farms
as needed. And if the battle is mainly on sea, build the sea buildings early
on. I recommend at least 4 peasents, and as many as 8, depending on how
much of the resources you need. I find that six farms can supply a
good-sized army. And build towers as you see fit. If the enemy attacks with
air units, make guard towers. Otherwise make cannon towers.
READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ!
READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ! READ!
This is a really cool trick. If you need to speed up the building
of something, have one peasant "build" the building, and then have all of
your other peasants "repair" the building as it is getting built. It will
cost a bit more, but the building will get built a lot faster.
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5. Keeping Troops Alive
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.
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6. 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 take out the remaining towers. Your losses may be heavy.
When searching for enemy ships, always keep a flying machine close
by in case you run into an enemy submarine. You will know you are under
attack by a submarine if you see big explosions on your ship, but no enemy
units nearby. Or you can always make your own submarines, because they can
see enemy underwater units as well. Submarines are very weak, and can be
destroyed in one or two hits. The problem is GETTING those one or two hits,
because if you don't have a submarine or flying machine close by, you won't
be able to see the enemy submarine.
If you can't get close enough to destroy the shipyard, then go for
the enemy oil platforms. These are usually guarded by a few ships. Once you
destroy the enemy's supply for oil, it will not be able to continue
constructing ships. You can the rule the seas, and kill some buildings near
the shore with you boats. Battleships have a longer weapon range than
destroyers, so if you need that one extra unit of range to attack a
building, get a battleship. If there are enemy ground units one square out
of range, use the "attack ground" command to attack the space right next to
the enemy. A lot of the time, the enemy will run towards you, and into
range.
If you are getting attacked with ground units being brought across
on transports, build a GUARD tower as close to the shore as you can. A
cannon tower would overshoot the transport, but a guard tower is not as
strong. But each time the transport gets close, it will get damaged a
little. Patience!
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7. 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.
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8. Cool Things to Do
1. While you are building something, "repair" it with other
peasents. It will be built much faster, but it will cost
a bit more.
2. Cast "unholy armor" or "invisibility" on enemy demolition squads
and goblin sappers. They will explode.
3. Destroy the enemy's gold mine. This will take quite a long time,
but once you destroy it, the peasents will have to walk a
long way to get more gold. Put a few knights in their way,
and the enemy won't get anymore gold.
4. Use cheat codes :)
5. Click on critters so much that they EXPLODE. It takes about
10 seconds of clicking.
6. Repeatedly clicking on all of your units, and listen to the funny
things that they say.
7. Using the map editor that is included with the game, make your
side off in one corner, and make 7 opponents, all on the
edge of the map. All of the opponents should be peasents.
Make one ( 1 ) mine right in the middle of the map with the
maximum amount of gold in it, and have a forest all along
the edge opposite of where your base is. All of the peasents
will make a town hall real colose to the mine, and begin
making a huge town, right in the middle of the map. Ever see
sixty peasents go into a mine at once? You will now. (you
might want to use cheat codes if you intend to PLAY this
level). Make sure you adjust the starting conditions to give
enough resources to each opponent to build a town hall.
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9. Cheat Codes
Oh boy, now what you've all been waiting for! I don't think these
are ALL of the cheat codes, because I don't yet have a "eye of newt" type
magic code or a "iron forge" type upgrade code. This is what I have:
glittering prizes - 10,000 gold, 10,000 lumber, 5000 oil
it is a good day to die - all units invincible to everything except for
excorcism and death coil. You can also
kill most enemies in one hit
hatchet - two chops on a tree and your peasent will bring it back
showpath - shows full map. There will be a black haze around places that
you haven't explored in the map in the
upper-left hand corner
on screen - same as showpath, but gets ride of the black haze
make it so - build units and buildings super fast. Careful! It affects the
enemy also
valdez - get a whole bunch of oil. Not much use for this if you know
"glittering prizes"
UCLA - displays "go bruins". Not much use for this
there can be only one - lets you see the ending sequence for your current
side. The Orc's ending is cool!
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That's it! I hoped you liked it. If you really liked it, you can
send me $500,000 dollars, and get the registered version! Just kidding. Good
luck beating Warcraft 2!
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³ Dirty Little Helper v0.2a [Sep/98] - (c) 1997 by B.Wolffgramm & P.Lieven ³
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