Exploration by Yuhef

A new map set for an old classic game. 

12 expert single-player levels against 3 computer enemies.

Created for Warcraft II May/June 2002. 


Why?:

When my modem died and I couldn't play on battle.net, I got bored and replayed the Starcraft/Broodwar campaigns, then got bored and went back and replayed the Warcraft II campaigns. Then I took out the Warcraft mapmaking tools and rediscovered Warmaker2.0. The ease of use of that tool inspired me to make some maps for that old game again. I became obsessed and made about 50 maps in 2 months. This 12-level map set came out of that obsession.


About:

These levels are roughly equal in difficulty so you can play them in any order, which is OK because Warcraft II doesn't have a NEXTLEVEL trigger like Starcraft does, meaning you have to load and play them one by one anyway. (That's why I call it a map set and not a campaign.) The natural order lets you be Human for 3, Orc for 3, Human for 3, Orc for 3, while cycling through the terrain types. The expansion terrain (swamp) is not used and only the stock unit settings and AI scripts are used so you can play them with regular Warcraft II. All the levels are over-indulgently play-tested and re-re-re-modified to be just hard enough that I can lose once in a while if I don't pay attention. Each level is designed with replayability in mind; some have some random elements, others have multiple ways to win. I expect you to lose the first time on most of them and then learn the trick(s) to beat them on replay. Have fun!
Yuhef (temp14@yahoo.com).


Bugs:

If you haven't played Warcraft II in a while, remember that the unit commands work differently than in Starcraft/Broodwar. The better command to use in Warcraft II is Patrol, not Attack. Units given the Attack command stupidly walk pass enemy units unless attacked by those units. Units given the Patrol command will correctly attack enemy units that come into sight. Also know that a bug or design flaw causes units on Patrol not to resume patrolling after they get into a fight, so you have to reissue the Patrol command if you want them to keep advancing. Another bug causes units not to respond when attacked by a Tower. This is especially annoying when you Unload a Transport next to a Tower. Command them to Attack the Tower once they get out. The Select Scenario window sorts custom map files some weird way which isn't by name or date. If these maps appear out of order, drag them into another folder temporarily, then drag them back in one by one in the proper order. This seems to fix it.


Tools: 

Warmaker2.0 is great. I wish Starcraft had such a tool. It generates random maps using Brownian-motion worms to paint squiggles of the different terrain elements (grass, water, etc.) that end up looking very natural. Much of the terrain got modified eventually, but Warmaker2.0 created the initial shapes which inspired me and made the job so easy. Warmaker credits say (Miro Hodyl Homepage: http://www.wwa.com/~sve/warmaker/ E-mail: warmaker@iname.com).

War2ed95 v1.0.26, the standard editor from Blizzard. I used this to carve up and fine tune the terrain generated by Warmaker2.0 and to add the units and set the AI. 

PudBrowser v1.1. This thing displays the whole map at once in a resizable window and lists the units. It helps a lot when you forget which map is which because you can view all the maps in a folder. You can keep PudBrowser and the editor open at the same time and reload a map into PudBrowser after saving it from the editor to see your changes as you work, kind of like a bigger mini-map. PudBrowser credits say (http://w3.one.net/~billw/PudBrowser/ Authors: Bill Wright (billw@one.net) Jim Weirich (jweirich@one.net)).

War2xed5.51 This is an editor which allows you to make custom units, but I only used it to make the minimap graphics for the ad, so it's safe to open the maps in the regular editor without corrupting them. The docs say (Daniel Lemberg  email: lemberg@bayserve.net website: http://www.bayserve.net/~lemberg).  

Megalux Ultimate Paint v1.91f is a totally free version of a paint program obviously inspired by the old Deluxe Paint that ran on the Commodore Amiga computer. Used for making the ad. (Internet: http://www.megalux.hu E-Mail: jladanyi@megalux.hu or jladanyi@elender.hu)


Hints:

All of the maps in this set have 3 computer enemies. Most of the maps have all 3 AI's--one Land Attack, one Sea Attack, and one Air Attack. Some maps have other combinations to trick you. In general, rush your Land enemy as soon as possible while the other comps are teching up and can't touch you, otherwise you will be overwhelmed by all 3 in time. Sea Attack AI makes no anti-air units except Destroyers so they are vulnerable to air attack against their Peons. You will usually have to save the Air Attack enemy for last. Build up and attack them with everything. You will need Transports to bring your ground troops along which means you will probably have had to kill the Sea enemy first in order to even build Transports. Don't forget your Mages with Blizzard spell and Death-Knights with Death-and-Decay spell. These help greatly against waves of Dragons and Gryphon Riders and can safely reach the Battleships and Juggernauts pressing your shores.

Slowing down the game clock can help you micromanage at critical moments. If you must, the "on screen" cheat can be useful until you learn the layout of the map. If it's still just too hard, you can always select fewer opponents in the Custom Game Setup screen in Warcraft II. 


(Warning: Level-specific hints follow.)

Exploration level 1 by Yuhef
Winter terrain. You are Human. Enemies are Land, Sea, and Air.
Build a Lumberyard, then run a Peasant to the South and Guard-Tower-rush your Land enemy. Destroy Red's Shipyard while you're there to slow them down. Make mass Archers to defend against the eventual Dragons. Keep exploring (thus the name of the map set) and expanding to new bases and you'll get rich. Tech up to Gryphon Riders. At this point you can either go all air or use your Gryphon Riders to defend an Oil Platform and tech up to Transports too.

Exploration level 2 by Yuhef
Forest terrain. You are Human. Enemies are Land, Sea, and Air.
You get 9 Archers but these won't be enough to rush your Land enemy. Convert your Towers and use them along with your Archers to defend against the nasty attack-critters (Daemons) flying around randomly. Attack that sneaky Mage hiding in your base too. If the Daemons don't kill your freebie Submarines, you can use them to park on the Oil Patches to slow down your Sea enemy, Purple. After you get the Peasants going, build a Barracks or two and crank out the troops until you get enough to attack Black. When you attack, use the freebie Dwarven Demolition Squad to run in and take out one of their Towers. Once you have their base, you can afford to tech up to everything. At this point there are many ways to win. I like to transport some Peasants over to Red and Purple's shared continent under Gryphon Rider protection and build mass Barracks and Mage Towers on their land and swarm them. If you need the gold on that extra island where your 2nd Gnomish Flying Machine starts, you'll have to blast your way in.

Exploration level 3 by Yuhef
Wasteland. Human. Enemies are Air and double Sea.
This requires sustained micromanagement for the first 15 minutes or so. Slow down the clock. Leave a Footman on the starting island to kill the two Peons and the Lumbermill. Pack everyone else in the Transports. Attack Blue's first island, using the Battleships to destroy the Towers on the shore. Leave 3 Peasants there to start your base including a Lumber Mill. Put everyone else in the Transports and attack Blue's second island. Start your second base there with the other 3 Peasants. Send half your soldiers back to your first base. Send your ships to hassle White. Build mass Archers on both islands with some Guard Towers. Tech up to Paladins with Heal, then to Gryphon Riders. Use Ballistas and/or Mages with Blizzard on the ships hugging the shores. Send Gryphon Riders to attack White's Peasants in both bases. Use your Paladins to Heal your Gryphon Riders while making more. This way you can increase your odds with every air skirmish, outlast Orange's gold supply, and end up with a sizable air force against their nothing. Use White's gold if needed to finish the map. On replay, try taking out White or Orange first instead of Blue.

Exploration level 4 by Yuhef
Winter. You are now Orc. Your enemies are Land, Sea, and Air.
Immediately attack your Land enemy with your Death Knight, Catapult, and one Peon to build a Tower or two and a Barracks, then a Great Hall. Continue building in both bases. Mass Berserkers are helpful against the waves of Blue Dragons in your first base, and Ogres against the Knights in your second base. Using Dragons to destroy Purple's Transports before they leave the enemy shore can slow the waves of Knights. Eventually, you can use Dragons to stop Purple's Peasants and provide cover for your Tankers, then send Transports to Blue.

Exploration level 5 by Yuhef
Forest. Orc. Enemies are Land and double Sea.
You start with 2 bases, but one will soon be under attack. You have no Air Attack enemy this time so don't waste lumber building anti-air defense. The Axethrowers you start with will be enough to kill the starting Daemon critters. It helps to build 2 Barracks as soon as possible in the Southern base and crank out the troops. Forget about defending the Farm that is almost immediately attacked by their Tower. Instead, build your own Tower and make it a Cannon Tower to counter-attack their Tower. Cannon Towers reach farther than Guard Towers. There's a little notch in the forest to the Northwest of the Farm under attack, which is a perfect place to put this. Attacking their Guard Tower will sap their resources and delay their Peons which must keep repairing the Tower. The Cannon splash will also kill some Peons. Retreat to the North base if worse comes to worst. If you are stuck in your Northern base, there's a little beach where Death Knights can stand and reach across the water to cast Death and Decay on the enemy workers and troops that will cluster around the Gold Mine on the far shore. If you can eliminate the Land enemy, the rest will be easier. Simply float Dragons over the workers on the other islands while you build more Dragons to attack the ships. Try to do this before they start sending Transports since there are two Sea enemies making Knights and Ogres.

Exploration level 6 by Yuhef
Wasteland. Orc. Land and two Seas.
Rush White with your Death Knight and 2 Peons. Use the Death Knight to attack the Peons chopping wood while your Peons build Towers. Back home, start pumping out Peons and building Farms. Get mass Axethrowers. Your bottom left base will do well with 5 Guard Towers on the coast and 2 Cannon Towers behind them to defend against those pesky Transport attacks so you can keep your Axethrowers together in your main base. Once you get Dragons, float them over Purple's Peons. If you feel like it, it's fun to cast multiple Whirlwinds on Purple's Oil Platform by standing at the very end of the peninsula. Transport up to Red's continent. Build some Barracks and Temples there and sweep across their land. 

Exploration level 7 by Yuhef
Winter. You are Human again. Enemies are Air and double Sea.
You get two bases but this time they are separated by water. You also don't get much gold to start with. The good thing is, you have no Land enemy so you don't need to worry about early defense. Don't build anything but Peasants on both islands until you run out of food, then build Farms and more Peasants. Once you've got an economy going, you can win a few different ways. The quickest way is probably just to tech straight to Gryphon Riders without building anything else and then attack the 2 Sea enemies' workers to prevent them from producing anything, then use more Gryphon Riders to defend against the incoming Dragons whose base you haven't attacked. If you play it the slower way, you'll need Mages with Blizzard against ships, Archers against incoming Dragons, and Paladins with Heal ready to run to wherever the Blue and Orange Transports land. You may run out of gold eventually and will need to have attacked one player and begun taking their gold to continue and win. 

Exploration level 8 by Yuhef
Forest. Human. Double Sea and one Air.
OK this one can be tricky. Each enemy has two islands and you have only one. Withdraw all your ships to the Northern harbor so the Daemons don't kill them right away. Build Guard Towers and Archers to kill the Daemons. Once the Daemons are mostly gone, send your ships back out to attack whatever you can reach along various shores. Keep building mass Archers and make some Towers (but not too near the shore because Battleships will come eventually). Harvest the Oil Patch in the Northern harbor and get Transports. Place Archers near the Tower on your Northern peninsula to attack the Submarines that come hunting your Oil Platform. You will definitely need to take some of their islands soon to win. This will slow them down and improve your economy and won't let you run out of resources. Mages with Polymorph can help against the transported Knights that come periodically.

Exploration level 9 by Yuhef
Wasteland. Human. Land, Sea, Air.
The twist to this is that, unlike all the other maps, you have land access to the enemy bases by walking all the way around the map, so you don't really need ships as long as you keep your one stranded Peasant alive to repair the defending Towers on your island strand. Otherwise, you'll have to transport another Peasant there. Immediately make 2 Gryphon riders, 2 Peasants and a Footman. The game will let you do it even though you don't have the Farms for it. Send the Footman and the Gryphon Riders to the Southwest to attack Orange. Use the 2 Peasants to make Farms. Make more Peasants, more Farms, and more Footmen and now Archers. Keep attacking Orange. Don't start converting the Towers until just before the White Gryphon Riders come. Upgrade your troops since you start with a free Blacksmith for a change. Orange may sneak away and build another base in the Northwest. Explore and make sure he's eliminated. Build 9 Aviaries or walk Catapults and Archers around the map. The rest is cake.

Exploration level 10 by Yuhef
Winter. You're Orc again. Two Air enemies and one Land.
Rush Yellow with Guard Towers. You're temporarily safe so build your economy. Build a Barracks and start making Axethrowers. Save resources by not converting your free starting Watch Towers to Guard Towers until the first Gryphon Riders and Dragons start to trickle in. Build more Barracks and mass Berserkers in pace with your growing economy. You'll need greater numbers than usual since there are two Air enemies and your Gold Mines are dispersed on an elongated continent. Don't try to win by sending only Dragons across the sea against their double numbers of flyers. (In fact, you can win without any Dragons at all.) The sooner you cross the water with ground troops and steal their remaining gold, the better, since your own gold will run out even with four Gold Mines. Hit their expansion areas first since they will be less well defended and have more gold left. Catapults help against their many Towers.

Exploration level 11 by Yuhef
Forest. Orc. Land, Sea, Air.
Build a Guard Tower or two on your expansion island right away to protect it from the critters (Daemons) and to begin hassling Yellow's Shipyard and Tankers, slowing Yellow down. Assemble a mixed group of at least 9 soldiers as soon as possible and attack Red's Southern base to slow down his economy. Put more Towers on your expansion island for defense against Dragons and keep pumping out the troops at your main base until you're strong enough to finish Red. Once you own the two additional Gold Mines that were Red's, you'll have the economy to create mass Dragons or do whatever you want, including transporting Catapults and Axethrowers everywhere.

Exploration level 12 by Yuhef
Wasteland. Orc. Land, Sea, Air.
This one requires intricate and efficient micromanagement at the beginning. Slow down the clock temporarily. There are many ways to execute the first 5 minutes. Here's one way. Don't waste your shiny new Dragon attacking the Axethrowers. Instead, quickly task the winged one to fly East. Now send your ground troops into Black's base, except for the Catapult (so the splash damage won't hurt your troops). One by one, kill the soldiers that approach your group. Select all your guys and right click on an enemy but if it runs away, don't follow, just right click on the next nearest enemy, keeping your guys in a close group. It's essential that you don't just send all your guys in on Patrol or Attack since the enemy's starting forces are almost equal to yours and they will be building reinforcements immediately and can eventually wear you down. Focusing all of your attacking power on individual units ensures that their numbers will decrease faster than yours. Fight your way in like this until you reach one of their Barracks. Don't worry about killing the rest of their men yet. You need to slow down their troop generation first. Attack one Barracks (select all your guys and right click on the Barracks, then once they've gotten into position next to the Barracks hit Stop so they will be able to defend themselves while continuing to attack the Barracks). While they're attacking the Barracks, move your Catapult to where it can attack their Lumbermill and the Peons that come to repair it, and check your Dragon--ensure that it is parked directly over Orange's Town Hall, harrying the Peasants that arrive with gold and lumber. Once one of Black's Barracks is destroyed, move into the midst of Black's Peons. As their vital center is under attack, run your six Peons past the action and use one to make a Great Hall in the empty area North of their Gold Mine. Use four other Peons to make four Farms away from danger. Use your last Peon to make a Lumber Mill (an optional strategy is to start a second Great Hall.) Hopefully you will have destroyed all their soldiers by now. If not, make a Guard Tower and/or a Barracks immediately to help your remaining troops kill them off. Check your Dragon periodically to see that it doesn't become idle as everything under it is destroyed. To defend your newly acquired continent, you will need all the tech, starting with anti-air for Yellow's Dragons. Orange will eventually land troops in Transports even though your Dragon has slowed him down, so you will need Ogre Mages and Death Knights with Death Coil. A Cannon Tower or two around your base can help against the Knights. You will have to get off the island to harvest more gold. If you find that Orange ships are repeatedly destroying your attempts at a Shipyard, make two Shipyards at opposite ends of your continent to distract them and split their attack. Death and Decay can work wonders against the Battleships that park along the shore. Once you expand to the base your Dragon has secured, you'll have the economy to win. 

Yuhef (temp14@yahoo.com)
