STRATEGIES FOR WARCRAFT 2
This is, of course, not a comprehensive listing of strategies for Warcraft 2, but you may find these tips of value. If you have a strategy that you really feel should be up here, just E-mail it to us!
Thanks to Capnshiner!
OFFENSIVE STRATEGIES
A good pattern to follow while upgrading your troops is weapons-armor-weapons-armor-catapult-catapult. If you find yourself under heavy attack early in the game, upgrading both weapon technologies first may help.
Try to 'view' as much of the screen as possible, quickly. If you cannot get airships, use the long visual range of catapults/ballistas to scout out the 'dark' areas of the map.
When advancing an army towards an outpost, lead with catapults/ballistas so that you can take out any single enemy units w/o taking damage.
When attacking a stagnant town attack in this order: Towers, ballistas/catapults, ogres/knights, archers/axethrowers, footmen/grunts, peasants/peons, then town hall.
When attacking a producing town, attack in this order: Towers, catapults/ballistas, orgres/knights, then order half of your force to start killing the barracks while the other half finishes off the remaining enemy troops.
In a sea battle, find and secure oil patches quickly, the computer uses them up very fast.
When using underwater units, watch out for enemy submarines and air units which will reveal your units to enemy fire.
Cannon towers cannot shoot down a griffin/dragon. A destroyer CAN.
Fully upgraded battleships/juggernauts can often kill towers in one hit - so use a small fleet to wipe out a defended coastline.
Griffins and dragons react very slowly to your commands. Repeatedly clicking on a desired command will confuse the A.I. and cause them to move even slower!
Griffin and dragon fire will kill your forces as well as the enemy, so be careful when positioning your troops and do not use dragon packs of more than 5.
You can use multiple peons/peasants to build/repair faster! Set one to build, and then make others 'repair' the building. Really helps in the beginning of the game!
When attacking a powerful city or army, send in some 'bomber' units first! A single demo. team can do around 400 points of damage - 4 of them kills anything. They are great for softening up the enemy for the kill.
MAGIC AS OFFENSE: Death coil is great for taking pot-shots at an enemy and exorcism is excellent against the undead. However, the best use of offensive magic is to kill the cities after the troops are all dead, to speed up the ending... Bloodlust is particularly useful - try it on a dragon, or a 'bomber' unit!
DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES
Keep a good supply of gold and lumber stored away in case you should need to rapidly produce many small units for defense.
Keep a number of peons/peasants around your towers to repair if necessary.
When creating a tower blockade place a cannon tower behind two guard towers - cannon towers have a greater range.
Place a line of archers/axethrowers along walls and around towers and set them for STAND GROUND. With towers this will do major damage against attackers (except ballistas and catapults!)
In a multiplayer game, build walls that terminate against forest patches, or else the enemy can merely go around it.
Keep a small packs of troops (3-5) in your main city just in case.
In sea battles, keep a steady stream of airships around the coastal areas to scout for enemy subs, then hit them with catapults/ballistas.
In sea battles, make small packs of submarines to cover ship routes and damage invading fleets.
MAGIC AS DEFENSE: Magic spells are poor for a wide spread defense. Polymorph, death coil, slow, runes, healing, and of course bloodlust will increase your odds of survival. When you know the route that a massive invading army is going to take, use multiple magic users to lay down a thick layer of blizzard or deathcoil for them to charge through. The results, if lucky, are phenomenal.
THE BEST DEFENSE IS AN UNSTOPPABLE OFFENSE!
