In the game, they never mention your character's name. But in the Warcraft II manual, the usurper has a name: Orgrim Doomhammer. Do you play as Orgrim Doomhammer in the original game, or are you his lackey? There are certainly points of overlap, like the overthrow of Blackhand, the leadership of the orcish horde, and the sacking of Stormwind Keep.
I suppose it's left up to players to interpret.
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| It's backstabbin' time! |
Just as you did in the previous mission, send your starting units in all directions to scout the area. The enemy orc base is to the north, separated by a river and a single bridge.
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| Start building your base. |
The gold mine is directly to the west of town. Build your peons and start mining. There's a patch of forest to the southeast that should be sufficient for all your building needs and won't compromise the natural defenses. The enemy will attack from either the north or the west, so build a lot of spearmen. The good news here is the spearmen don't have an advantage in range like the human archers do.
The enemy warlocks will summon a lot of spiders. Luckily, they rarely send more than four at a time. Your spearmen will take care of them quickly. The computer player also likes to station warlocks and necrolytes around your town to harass your peons. Keep a few raiders handy and watch the minimap.
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| Hustle and bustle. |
Build your temple and train necrolytes to scan the orc base. Thankfully, you won't have to research dark vision again. However, don't bother building a tower to train warlocks. The only spell you'll be able to use is minor summoning. It costs 750 gold to research and another 900 gold to train a warlock. Your money is better spent upgrading spears and armor.
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| Blackhand's soldiers have bolstered the bridge defenses. |
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| Send catapults to scatter them. |
Scan the bridge area and you'll notice that the enemy orcs have taken a page out of your playbook and set up a wall of spearmen on the other side of the river.
This is your cue to send in the catapults to disrupt their defenses. Turn down the speed so you can micromanage each catapult and have them each target a different unit. The splash damage should be immense. Have raiders nearby to engage the enemy raiders. Once you have the bridge under control, you can send your peons to the other mines on your side of the river without worrying about unwelcome spider attacks. Redeploy the spearmen you had guarding the mines to the bridge.
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| Readying your strike force. |
Immediately outside the enemy base, there's a natural wall of trees. Once the bridge is secured, the computer player will amass their units north of these trees. If you set up the catapults and spearmen like in the screenshot above, you'll be able to wipe out just about anything the computer throws at you.
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| Here come the catapults! |
Focus your catapult on the nearest building and surround them with spearmen. Keep your focus on your raiders and use them to knock out any remaining defenders. By keeping the catapults on a building, you reduce the risk of accidentally killing your own troops. The spearmen will automatically target the most threatening unit in their vicinity (usually an enemy spearman). The raiders will take care of the rest.
