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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 behind 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