WarCraft II: Battle.net Edition

More Offensive On the Ground
The Orc Ogre-Mage spells Bloodlust and Runes make the Orcs much more offensive on the
ground war than the Humans whose Paladins have to rely on Healing and Exorcism. Healing
does not make them offensive in most situations and Exorcism is only useful if the enemy has
Death Knights. 

Bloodlust
Bloodlust can turn one Ogre into the attack power of three. Bloodlust also triples the damage
of Dragons. Bloodlust can allow Death Knights and Troll Axe throwers to take on Dragons
by themselves. Bloodlust is almost always freely available once researched as there are often
plenty of Ogre-Mages around to cast it and at full mana an Ogre-Mage can cast 5 Bloodlusts.
Bloodlust is an offensive spell and is much more effective in increasing the attack power of the
Orcs, than Healing, a more defensive spell does for the Humans. Bloodlust can often turn the
tide of the game if the Human player is slow to Castle or does not build a lot more Paladins to
compensate. Bloodlust is also instantly effective as the Orc player usually already has plenty
of Ogres as the Bloodlust spell is researched. Healing in comparison only helps the Paladins
out if they survive the battle. 

Orcs Are More Intimidating
A group of Bloodlusted Ogres and the Bloodlust sound makes it a much scarier experience
then facing a group of Healing Paladins. Although some might argue Human Invisibility and
Invisible Blizzard attacks are much scarier.

Runes
Orcs have the unique ability to use their Ogre-Mages to lay down Runes. Runes can be
placed in the paths of oncoming enemies to damage them and reduce their numbers before the
two sides actually connect. Runes can also be placed in the middle of a Peon Mining stream
to quickly take out a number of them. Runes can be placed around Mages to keep them from
retreating. Combined with Bloodlust, Ogre mages are very powerful. 

Runes can also be cast on strategic locations to prevent invasions and attacks. This is one of
the few spells that can actually cause an enemy to retreat at the sight of. 

Upgrade Prices
The Blacksmith offensive upgrade prices for the Orcs are less Gold intensive. Gold is needed
very early for Peons and Grunts, so it's often easier to have a mix of Gold and Lumber, even
tho Lumber takes longer to harvest then a large collection of Gold.

For the last offensive Orc weapon upgrade, the price is 900 Gold, 300 Lumber. Humans in
comparison is 2400 Gold, no Lumber. Since Ogres and Grunts are heavily Gold priced (800,
600 Gold respectively), there is rarely a large collection of Gold built up. While it's faster to
mine Gold than Lumber, quite often you have a collection of Lumber built up by this point in
the game making the upgrade feel cheaper than paying 2400 Gold.

Hasted Death and Decay
Death Knights can cast Haste on each other to speed up the damage of Death and Decay. A
Hasted Death Knight can quickly cast Death and Decay making it easier to attack collections
of grouped units before they respond, and also increasing the chance the Death Knight will
have, to fully cast the spell before being killed. The Death Knight can also more effectively
pull off the "Mage Bomb" by casting a Death and Decay on the enemy then quickly casting
Death and Decay on itself severely damaging and killing units that respond to the Death and
Decay using Haste. 

Hasted Peons
Although largely useless, Hasted Peons can repair buildings faster as well as mine Gold and
chop Lumber at a faster rate. 

Ready for Battle Much Quicker
As the Orc player gets to the Fortress/Castle Stage, they only need to build one building:
Altar of Storms and upgrade their Ogres. A group of Peons repair-build the Altar of Storms
to quicken it's construction which gives the Orc player an even bigger jump. Then after two
short upgrades: Ogre-Mages, Bloodlust, the power of the Orcs are virtually tripled. At the
Castle stage the Human player is more vulnerable to attack as they must alter the makeup of
their forces. Resources are a big hindrance here as the Human needs much more before their
superior magic can come into play. They need more Peasants and Gold to have as many
Knights and Mages as needed to oppose Bloodlusted Ogres. Orc players do not suffer from
this problem except when facing other Orc players with Bloodlust. 

Resources
Humans sometimes require a lot more to effectively counter Orcs. They either have to build a
lot more Paladins to counter the Bloodlusted Ogres, and/or build Mage Towers and a
Church, Mages and must research Blizzard which require a lot of resources. Then they need
to research Invisibility or somehow sneak Mages in to Blizzard Orc Peons. The Orc player
often only needs an Altar of Storms to research Bloodlust. 

After Fortress
The Majority of games against lesser skilled Human players can be handled using Bloodlusted
Ogres. Prevent the Humans from building Mage Towers and Churches. 
Killing Mages
Mages are very expensive, the best way to attack Mages is to limit the enemy's ability to mine
Gold. If that is not possible, attempt to attack them directly using Bloodlusted Ogres. Cast
Runes around the Mages and in front of them in the hope that they will walk over the Runes
and be destroyed. 

Invisible Mage attacks
There are only a few possible defenses against Invisible Mage Blizzards on the Peons. You
can place Runes around the area, but the player will most likely walk around them or wait
until they disappear. You can place Towers or Cannon Towers around the Mine so that once
the Mage starts casting Blizzard he will be killed before his spell causes serious damage. But
quite often Mages can find a perfect place to cast that is out of range of the Towers. Another
option is to place a few Catapults around the Gold mine that will instantly kill the Mage when
it appears. This also is usually quite impractical. The best solution is to wall in the town
completely using buildings and walls. Invisible Mages cannot walk through buildings so
buildings are the best bet at protecting against such a strategy. 

Mage/Paladin Healing combo
Orc players often head straight for the Mages. Humans may Slow incoming Bloodlusted
Ogres and cast a Blizzard on them then run their Mages toward your Guard and Cannon
Towers. At the same time the Paladins beat on the Ogres backs, and also Heal the Mages as
they are being attacked until the Ogres die to the Paladins and possibly Towers. For the Orc
player it is best to attack the Paladins first as they are the ones Healing the Mages. After the
Paladins are gone, the Mages will be without protection and more easily killed. 

Try a surprise attack. If possible, use Demolition Squads to blast your way or Transports to
land your way into the fight from an unexpected direction. This can catch the enemy off-guard
and unprepared to defend against your assault. 

Exorcism on Death Knights
Try if possible to get rid of that Church before they get Exorcism. But if they do get it and use
it correctly, you might avoid making any further Death Knights. Unholy Armor can prevent
Exorcism if you need to make a quick hit on the enemy town. This will require more than two
Death Knights.

Fighting Invisible Transports
Invisible Transports usually can't be Invisible all of the time. Often people with Invisible
Transports bring them right back to their island when they are done attacking so watch their
shores. Wait for the Transport to appear off shore or land back on the enemy shore then sink
it using Destroyers.

When you see units unloading onto the shore quickly cast Death and Decay where you see
them unloading, use Ogres to place Runes around the the Transport. Build Towers out of
range of ships yet still within range to attack units landing on the shore. Often the enemy will
not have time to unload before you can destroy them using a combination of Towers, Runes
and Death and Decay.

Easier to Learn, Hard to Master
The Humans are more intuitive than the Orcs. Their buildings and building names make sense
right from the start while the Orc Buildings require a little more time to learn. However, once
the Humans reach the Castle Stage, the player must be very good to defeat enemy
Bloodlusted Ogres. Quite often, less skilled Human players are very strong until the Castle
Stage when playing Humans well requires more control and strategy. 
More Strategy
Some argue the Humans require much more strategy than the Orc player. The Orc player
often needs and builds only Bloodlusted Ogres, while the Human player has and needs all sort
of spell combinations, units and strategies to counter the Orc threat. A Human victory over
Orcs that reached the Fortress/Bloodlust stage is often something to brag about because of
the skill level and strategy required.

More Damaging Attacks
Humans can clear out any Death Knights with Exorcism, and can use Mages and Invisibility to
destroy all of the Orcs mining operations. The Human player can then slow enemy
Bloodlusted Ogres, and catch them without Bloodlust to finish them off. Mages can instantly
kill any Death Knight or Dragon with Polymorph. The Orcs really have just one severely
damaging attack, attacking with Bloodlusted Ogres, and Human players playing Orcs always
know that is coming. The Orc player in contrast doesn't often have any idea what the Human
player is going to do. This Orc player overconfidence and predictability can sometimes be
their downfall.

Upgrade Cost
On maps with less Lumber such as Oil is the Key and Nowhere to Run, the Blacksmith
upgrades which require less Lumber than the Orc counterparts can be a slight advantage.

Healing
Humans can use Healing to keep expensive units such as Mages and Gryphons alive battle
after battle. If units survive an attack, Healing can make them brand new again.

Holy Vision
Humans can use the Paladin spell Holy Vision to spy on the enemy while the enemy can do
nothing to stop it.

Exorcism
While the Orcs do not have a very good counter against Mages other than directly attacking
them, Humans have several good counters against Death Knights. A Human player often has
plenty of Paladins and once the Exorcism spell is researched, there is plenty of mana and
Exorcism to go around. A Paladin needs only to get within 10 of a Death Knights to cast the
spell. Orc players often stop building Death Knights once Exorcism comes out because of the
fear of Exorcism. 

Mages Have More Effective Spells Than Death Knights
All Human spells are useful for specific purpose. Mages have more spells that are effective in
everyday playing. Death Knights have more "trick" spells such as Whirlwind, Raise the Dead,
and Unholy Armor which really don't come into play as often. The only real advantages that
Death Knights have over Mages is their one extra attack range and Unholy Armor, Hasted
Death Knight "Mage Bomb" trick. While Death Knights can use Death Coil to heal
themselves, Human players can just use Paladins to Heal their Mages which is much easier
than trying to find an enemy to Death Coil to heal the Death Knight. 

Invisibility
Invisibility is an exclusive Human spell that Orcs can do little to counter. One way to fight an
Invisible unit is to use attack ground with Catapults and Juggernaughts and hope you hit them
but this really isn't an effective counter and is something that is usually pulled off once in a life
time. Runes can be thought of as the best counter to invisible Mages.

Humans can use Invisibility with all sorts of spells and units to make nearly uncounterable
attacks. One of the most effective Spell combos for the Humans is the Invisible Mage that
casts Blizzard on the enemy Peons mining Gold. The Orc player can attempt a Hasted Death
Knight Death and Decay attack but this is nowhere as effective as the Invisible Mage attack. 

Slow
Humans can instantly cut in half the attack power and speed of any unit. One Mage has
enough mana at full to to cast five Slows. 

Polymorph
The Orcs have no instant kill spells other than Runes. Humans Mages can instantly kill nearly
any unit with Polymorph, especially Death Knights and Dragons. Orc players sometimes get
in situations where the enemy has Death Knights or Mages and they have no real way of
getting in to kill them other than direct attacks with Bloodlusted Ogres or a complicated spell
combo of Unholy Armor and Haste on a Death Knight using Death and Decay. Often the
Mages just survive and Heal using Paladins. But Human Mages can usually clear out any
group of enemy Mages and Death Knights with Polymorph. Using an Invisible Transport the
Human player can land a Mage, pop out, Polymorph, then get back in the Invisible Transport
and run. For longer distances, another Mage in the Transport can pop out, make the Mage
Invisible, then the Invisible Mage sneaks in, casts Polymorph, then runs back to the Invisible
Transport. This is very hard for an Orc player to counter. Walls and Runes are really the only
defense against this and not an effective one at that. 

Invade By Surprise
One thing you have to watch out for is alerting the enemy to your coming attack. This will give
them time to Bloodlust. What you must try to do is get in there beating on the Ogres before
the enemy knows what is going on.
Death Knights
Upgrade Knights to Paladins and research Exorcism. Using Exorcism you can easily clear the
map of Death Knights in hit and run attacks.




Basic Strategy

Warcraft II is a Game of Production
Quite often the more you resources you mine and harvest and the more units you produce, the
better you do. If you find yourself falling behind in unit battles, try building more Barracks and
Shipyards. Also build more Peasants to mine Gold and harvest Lumber. Take over multiple
Gold mines so that you can mine more Gold.
Remember to place your Town Hall properly so that can fit enough Peasants on mining and
also will allow them harvest correctly 

Peasants Are the Key
Peons and Peasants are responsible for all production. They are the most important units in
the game and the key to winning. Quite often Peon management is just as important as
controlling attacking units properly. Build a lot of Peons, enough to generate more than
enough resources and keep them protected. Take and defend expansion positions to further
your security.

The More Peasants the Better
Unless Gold is limited (small mines of 25k and below), the more Peasants you have the
better. Just how many should you build? Many players build about 14 Peasants then stop.
That will usually not cut it. You should have about 25 Peasants minimum. Keep training
Peasants until you are into the Castle/Fortress Stage. Some say 30 peons will get you enough
Lumber and Gold to do the job. Another way to find the ideal number of Peasants is to keep
building them until you more Gold and Lumber than I know what to do with. How do you
count Peasants? Count up your other units spread around the map, look at the food used and
subtract the other units from the food used. You can also just estimate. 

Continually Training Peasants, Especially In the Beginning
Train Peasants in a steady succession from the beginning. If at any time you have to wait for a
Farm to train another Peasants, you are getting behind. Stay ahead in your building of Farms.
Don't be afraid of making too many Peasants. If you find you have too many Peasants mining
Gold, send them to another Gold mine to build a Town Hall or move them onto Lumber.

The second a Peasant gets done training, you should immediately train another. You must try
to keep this up through the Stronghold level and into the Fortress level. Now you can't always
build Peasants, because you fall behind in food supply due to lack of Farms. You must try to
minimize the lag between building Peasants. So keep building those farms and stay ahead.
Sometimes, however, you must make a choice as to whether to build an offensive unit or a
Peasant. You need to have enough offensive units to defend yourself. 

Keep a Balance Between Gold and Lumber
You should have enough of both resources. If you find you have a lot of Gold, put more
Peasants on Lumber. If you have lots of Lumber, get more on Gold. What often happens is
you put too many peons on Gold and do not have enough wood but have lots of Gold. The
same can happen with Lumber, lots of Lumber and no Gold. You must avoid both. Why?
Because it slows or stops you production. You could have 30,000 Gold and 0 Lumber and
you wouldn't be able to build much besides Gryphons, Mages and Footmen (all Gold only).
Keep in mind that Lumber takes much longer to get than Gold so you may have a lot more
Peasants on Lumber than on Gold.

Out Produce the Enemy
In land battles of equally powered units, control plays a big key, but generally the person with
the most units and similar or greater upgrades, wins the battles.

Each Barracks can only train one unit at a time. To train more units at once to form large
offensive and defensive forces you need to have multiple Barracks. It's not uncommon to see
high skilled players to build 7-10+ Barracks. Be careful, however, to only build Barracks that
you can support. If you have five Barracks but are only training out of two, those 3 Barracks
are wasted. Build extra Barracks when resources start to build up. To support multiple
Barracks build several expansions. 

The same is somewhat the case on water maps. Generally two Shipyards are needed to
quickly build up an attack fleet. Often players with only one Shipyard are not able to keep up
in production against players with two. 

Keep Your Money Spent
There is no reason at all to save up Gold and Lumber. Warcraft II is not won by accumulating
wealth but rather instead by crushing your enemy. If you find you have too much Gold and
Lumber, spend it on more Barracks, Shipyards, upgrades, Mage Towers, and offensive units.
You can't always keep your money spent and you don't always need to, but keeping money
spent is a good overall plan. It is often very embarrassing to lose a game when you have
plenty of resources but just didn't bother to use them. 

Food
To create a new unit you must have one Food grown. The Food limit of 1 is the same for
every unit regardless of type or perceived size. A Town Hall provides 1 Food support, while
Farms provide 4. Be sure to build enough Farms so that you will be able to create units when
you need them. At the top right portion of the screen to right of the resource counters is a
listing of Food Used/Food Grown. The indicator turns red when you have used more Food
then you have Grown Keep a watch on that indicator and build more Farms as necessary so
that you will have enough. There is no penalty for using more Food then you have Grown, but
you will not be able to create any more units until more Food is grown or less Food is used
which usually means some units die. 

Multiple Units on Only 1 Food
There is a trick to allow you to get the most units out of one remaining food. When you have
only one extra Food Grown left, train units from all of the unit producing buildings such as
Barracks, Shipyards, Temple of the Damned, Gnomish Inventors. Once the units are started
they will be created regardless of the Food used once they are finished. Using this method
you can get quite a jump in units over the Food limit. For example if you have 1 Food left,
then instruct all 8 Barracks to make a unit at the same time you can jump 7 over the limit.

Freeing Up Food Space
Sometimes you run into a situation where you need to quickly build specific combat units but
you do not have Farm space, the time necessary to create a Farm or possibly the resources
to build it such as you have run out of Lumber. In desperate situations, kill some Peasants or
the most useless unit you can find to free up Food space for units that would better address
the situation at hand. While this may seem an extreme solution to lack of Food it can help out
in dire situations.

Learn How to Control Your Units

This is very important. For more info, look at Unit Commands and Controls as well as Hot
Keys and Special Commands

Upgrade
Upgrades are key in Warcraft II. When using land units, quickly build a Blacksmith and begin
upgrading as soon as possible. Make sure you Always stay a level ahead of your enemies in
both ships and units. If you see they have level 3 ships build level 4 or 5. The same with land
units, upgrade them in the Blacksmith. Every level you up upgrade ships and Barracks units
Footmen and Knights will pay off if you have enough units. 

Something you should never have is level 1 Knights. Get at least one or two upgrades before
making Knights. 

You can check the upgrades of your units without having to click on the Lumber Mill,
Blacksmith or Foundry. Select a unit then take note of the Stop and Attack icons which will
indicate the level a unit has been upgraded. Enemy units however will not be able to tell which
upgrades you have researched. Level 4 for example could mean 2 armor upgrades and 1
weapon upgrade or it could mean 2 weapon upgrades and 1 armor upgrade. 

Don't Be Afraid to Lose Units
While it's good to save any units you can for a later battle, do not become so protective of
them that you are afraid to use them. 

Know How to Counter Each of Your Opponent's Moves 
What I mean is no matter what your enemy does, you should know what to do. Examples: If
they keep Blizzarding your town, go find and kill those Mages. If people are Dragon making
you, get out the Axe Throwers and Bloodlust. For every move, you should know the counter.

Recon Is Key: Know What Your Enemy Is Doing At All Times
If you want to know what to do against the enemy, you should know what the enemy is
doing. This means recon. Recon is one of the most important things in the game. Poor recon is
the usual cause of lost games. Perhaps you didn't notice the enemy had an expansion with no
defenses, or that the enemy was building up a certain kind of unit, or that they were wide
open to certain kinds of attacks in certain locations.

Good Recon does not have to be delayed until you get Flying Machines. On land maps, send
out a Peasant or Footmen to all the Gold Mines and make sure no one is building 2 Town
Halls early. Recon is so important because you can often attack the enemy when they have no
defenses early in the game. 

Place Flying Machines on patrol over Gold mines that you expect the enemy to expand to. Be
warned that the enemy might not build there if they see the Flying Machine. Try if possible to
keep it within view of the Gold mine without giving away it's location.

Do a fly by the enemy mines and compare their Gold Mine to yours. Take note if the enemy is
mining more Gold than you then build more Peons and place them on Gold. Keep up in the
resource race.

On Low and Medium Resources, Do Not Upgrade to Stronghold/Keep Too Soon
The normal upgrade time for a Town Hall is usually when you have more than 18 or so
Peasants. You can get into great problems if you upgrade too early. What sometimes happens
is that people get greedy and want the Ogres/Knights just a little too soon. So they make a
few or no Footmen and then upgrade directly to Keep. During this period, the enemy runs in
with a bunch of Footmen and catches the enemy before they can build enough Knights to
defend themselves. At this point you don't have enough forces to repel all those Footmen.
Even if you do start making Knights, the enemy can position their Grunts around the Barracks
so they can Kill any Ogres that pop out. This is a situation you do not want to be in.

Skipping the Footmen Stage
Some people decide to skip building Footmen and go straight to Knights. This really risky.
Here are the trade offs. If the enemy comes in with Grunts you are dead. If they don't, you
will get a lot of Knights and will most likely be able to overpower them. This might be
something you might want to try on maps where the enemy has difficulty in reaching you such
as Nowhere out of this Maze. Combine this strategy with a few walled in towers, or by
walling yourself in, it might be possible to pull this off. The enemy may just bring in a catapult,
break open your defenses and send in the Grunts. 

Be Very Careful In the Early Part of the Game 
The first 10 or so minutes of the game are extremely important. Any mistake or delay in
building Peasants, Farms, or getting resources can cost you the game. You have to carefully
watch each and every unit and make sure they are all doing exactly what you are telling them
to. After your town starts to roll, this becomes less necessary and you can devote time to
attacking the enemy. Lower resources starts require more precise movements early on in the
game as they can easily determine the outcome of the game.

You must learn exactly what to do for each plan and resource.

Run Away!
If you see yourself in a battle that you just can't win, run away. The happens when someone
has a walled in Cannon, Guard Tower, or when the enemy has more troops. . Know when it's
a good time to fight and when it's time to run. You want to run away if you are Human and
see the Bloodlusted Ogres. If possible run with the Ogres following until the Bloodlust wears
off, then turn and attack. If someone casts Unholy Armor or has a Flame Shield on run until
this spell wears off. 

Don't Repair Buildings If You Can't Stop People From Attacking Them
This is the most common Newbie mistake. If you have units coming out of a unit producing
building, or have reinforcements on the way to save the building repair it. Repair buildings that
are key to a wallin. Otherwise do not waste resources on a losing battle.

Don't Repair a Building Unless You Have to
Repair key buildings such as Black Smiths, Stables, Town Halls, but do not repair buildings
without a good reason. Buildings are not destroyed by fire no matter how many hit points they
have left so the only reason to repair a building is because it's important, or to require more
Goblin Sappers to destroy it. 

Know Why You Lost
Warcraft 2 is a game of learning. When you lose you should know why. By knowing why you
lost, you know what you can improve on in future games. If you don't have a clue, ask the
players who defeated you after the game how they won. Be sure to not accuse them of
cheating but be sincere in your request. If they are nice, they will give you their input. Have
your friends watch you play. Often they can give you good advice about how to play from
another point of view and to correct your mistakes as you go. 

Offense vs Defense
The best defense is a good offense. Don't spend too much time building defenses for your
town. Be sure to wallin your town if possible. A huge defense may protect you from attacks
but to advance in the game you need to attack the enemy town and prevent them from
expanding. Instead of building too many Towers and Catapults you will have much more
success building more offensive units, expand to more resource spots, upgrade, and attack. 

Quite often, people spend plenty of time building lots of Towers in their town which does not
leave enough resources to build any units to protect all these Towers. Towers can easily be
killed by Goblin Sappers, Catapults and Blizzards. You might want to build one or two
Towers by your mine, or at most 3-4 Guard Towers but don't over do it. 

Building Orders
Building Orders can allow you to build to specific units and buildings as quickly as possible.
Building orders are very important on low resource games, and less so but still important and
helpful as more resources are available. While building orders will not be listed here, many
people are willing to share their favorite building orders on the fan sites. 

Placing your Town Hall 
When you start the game, find the mine first. Next decide how close to the Gold Mine you
want to place your Town Hall. If you want to put a lot of Peasants on Gold, you should move
it back a space from the closest possible building distance. Be warned, the further the Town
Hall is away from the Gold Mine, the longer it will take the Peasants to mine Gold and return
to the Hall. You will have to train more Peons just to keep up with the enemy who has their
Town Hall closer to their mine. Do not place your Town Hall against the left side of the screen
or up against Trees on the left side so that the left side is covered. If the left side of the Town
Hall is blocked, the Peons/Peasants might pop out on the wrong side of the Town Hall or
Gold Mine which will mean they will have to walk longer to walk to and from the Gold Mine.
This may put you behind the enemy in resource gathering. 
The computer "remembers" where the Peasant Mined or Harvested, and will generally place
the Peasant out to the left or right of the Town Hall, up or down depending on where the mine
is located (occasionally, if the mine is directly above or below the town hall, they'll pop out
above or below the Town Hall). Here is the reason Peasants sometimes will come out of the
town hall the wrong way:

The order remains the same as the pop