Friday, April 23, 2010

Human Campaign: Map 3

Your job is to destroy the orcish outpost of Kyross in the Swamp of Sorrows. Interestingly enough, this is one of the few orc outposts in the game that's actually given a name. However, none of the later games ever reference Kyross again.

The mission also introduces the first necrolyte encounter. You'll find them a minor nuisance at this point in the game because they mostly extend battles by raising skeletons. In later missions, their unholy armor spell becomes the bane of your existence.

Hello, swamps!

Here's the starting location. Immediately grab each of the starting footmen/archers and send them in different directions to explore the area around your town. There aren't any enemies nearby at this point. Later, the necrolytes will hang around the borders of your town. So try to reveal as much of the shroud as you can before things get crazy.

Find the mine to the south.

Meanwhile, send the two peasants immediately south. You'll find enough gold and lumber here to build up the essential structures and defenders. The design of the map places the town immediately east of a large body of water. This forces the orcs to attack from either the top of the map or the west. Station archers at both locations.

Secure the second mine early.

There's a secondary gold mine directly west of the base. I recommend training at least three archers to guard the mine. When the enemy squads attack your town from the west, they almost always walk past the mine first. If you have it secured, it'll move the skirmishes away from your town and protect the peasants.

Build a church to train clerics and heal your units.

The cleric will quickly become your most crucial unit in any town. The healing spell spell is the only means to restore HP in the entire game and is unique to the human faction.

Amass your army outside the orc outpost.

There are two ways to attack the orc outpost, which is at the northwestern corner of the map. The western entrance is better guarded but you can head off any potential surprise counterattacks. However, I prefer attacking from the bottom because the gold mining peons are an easier target.

Burn everything to the ground.

Twelve units and a liberal use of the healing spell should ensure a quick victory with plenty of units left over. Destroy the barracks first to prevent any more grunts from being trained. Don't be afraid if the necrolytes summon skeletons. They aren't very tough. Always attack the more damaging grunts and spearmen first.

Next Time: You're tasked to rescue Sir Lothar from some ogres.

Human Campaign: Map 2

The mission objectives are different this time around. You have to defend the town from all enemies. Basically, there are a bunch of orc units scattered around the map. Every 60 seconds or so, one of them will come and attack your town.

Your humble town.

Send the starting units to the northwest and you'll face your first grunt. This will buy you some time to train peasants and build more farms.

The soldiers defeat an orc.

After a few more orc attacks, you should have a barracks built. Train more footmen and scatter them around your town.  The orcs almost always come from different directions but you can see them coming on the minimap. If you're feeling adventurous, you can train a squad of four and send them to hunt down the remaining orcs before it's their turn to attack your town.

Guard your town.

The enemy spearmen love to attack your peasants at the gold mines. This is annoying because whenever a peasant gets attacked, he'll panic and run. You'll need to grab them and manually direct them to resume working. Station one or two archers here to protect them.

Human Campaign: Map 1

Last November, I played through the Warcraft orc campaign and created a full walkthrough. Now, it's time to do the same for the humans.

Unlike the later games in the series, the two races aren't radically different here. All of the human units have the same health as their orc counterparts with the exception of the summoned water elemental and daemon. Also, the orc spearman deals a little more damage than the human archer. However, the human archer has extra range.

The final difference is with the spells. The human cleric can heal living units while the orc necrolyte can raise corpses as skeletons. Also, the cleric can turn units invisible while the necrolyte has the unholy armor spell which grants invulnerability at the cost of the unit's health. The human conjurer's area attack spell is the rain of fire, which deals enormous damage over a large area but requires the conjurer to be alive to continue casting it. The orc warlock has the poison cloud attack which has a smaller area but only needs to be cast once.

That being said, the initial human missions aren't much different from the orc missions. If you've already played the orc missions, you can probably skip ahead. If not, read on.

The first mission is simple but tedious. You’re tasked with building six farms and one barracks. You start with one of the farms already built. Here’s your starting position.

And so it begins.

Orc grunts are scattered throughout the map but they won't ever attack you without being provoked. As long as you don't stray too far from the town, you should be able to complete the mission without being harassed.

Yes, my lord!

The gold mine is immediately east of the starting location. Your starting peasant should immediately be directed to mine. With your starting funds, you can build a farm and a peasant. Send the newly trained peasant to chop trees to the north. Take a few minutes to stretch your legs, grab a drink, or use the restroom. By the time you come back, you'll have enough funds to build the remaining buildings. You shouldn't have to build a single road.