Game:

WarCraft II (1995)

Duration: 0:00

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It’s now time to launch a major offensive against the kingdom of Stromgarde and finish it off. We’ll do just that in this mission, but we’ve gotten off to a bit of a rough start. The Alliance has captured the Transports we need to ferry our invasion force into action, and the briefing instructs us to recapture these Transports. We actually can’t do a thing without those Transports, since the landmass we start on has no mines or trees at all. We have to move our starting army to another landmass farther north in order to build our city, and to that end we’ve got to get those Transports. They’re guarded by a couple of Elven Destroyers, and fortunately we have four Troll Destroyers. We need to eliminate the hostile ships, claim the Transports, and get our ground units into them. Once that’s been done, we’ll be able to head north and really get going.

Our Destroyers easily beat their Destroyers, and once the Transports are claimed I move our combat units forward. We have four Peons, three Grunts, three Axethrowers and two standard Ogres. These Ogres don’t have magic like Cho’gall did, but their size and strength are nevertheless great assets. I have the fighters beat a path through some enemy Footmen to the Transports, and everyone’s able to board safely. We then we head north and I have everyone disembark on what’ll be our main island. The clearing I want to build on is defended by a Guard Tower and two Footmen, so I gather up our troops and have them attack. The Tower’s the most dangerous threat, so I have everybody target that first. Once it’s gone, our remaining forces easily defeat the two Footmen and we’re in business. I move the Peons forward and begin the slow process of building up a powerful base and navy. Notably, the Blacksmith now has new upgrades—we can upgrade our axes, shields and Catapults twice each. Also, upgrading our Great Hall to a Stronghold now unlocks the Troll Berserker upgrade to our Axethrowers. Purchasing this upgrade automatically turns all of our Axethrowers into the stronger Troll Berserkers, which unlocks some special upgrades for Berserkers specifically. Getting a Stronghold also unlocks the Ogre Mound structure; building one of these allows us to train Ogres at the Barracks.

I buy as many upgrades as possible while also preparing a massive armada. The general plan is to create two separate nine-Destroyer fleets, sweep through the water in opposite directions, and have them converge on the Alliance naval base in a giant pincer movement. I build both fleets as planned, but run into trouble when the Gold Mine on our main island is depleted. Building so many Destroyers and purchasing so many upgrades has been extremely expensive, so we’ll have to find another Gold Mine right away. Luckily, there’s a small island to the northwest that has one. A Guard Tower protects it, but I land a Catapult on shore that destroys the enemy tower. From there I have our Peons build a Great Hall and start mining Gold while I move the western fleet over there. The Alliance base is now fairly close and the fleet begins engaging enemy forces, so I have one of our Peons stop mining Gold and build a new Shipyard. We can now continually create reinforcements right at the front line, and with this extra asset we steadily build up our western fleet while I move the eastern fleet forward into position. Disaster nearly strikes when an Alliance raiding party lands on the small island and nearly destroys our satellite base, but we manage to defeat the invaders before we lose our Great Hall. We resume production and soon enough we have nine Destroyers in our western fleet as well as nine in our eastern fleet. That’s my cue to begin moving them both towards the Alliance naval base and trigger the decisive battle.

It's a tough one. There are a whole bunch of Elven Archers and Ballistae guarding the coastline, and the Ballistae in particular are great at coastal defense. Still, for all their resistance they don’t have an answer to our large numbers and we succeed in destroying their coastal structures. We now need to land a ground force, and it’ll need to be a big one. Inconveniently, the second Gold Mine runs out of resources as well, so we’re limited to the Gold we have. Still, I train a force of eight Ogres, five Troll Berserkers, four Grunts, a Catapult, and three Transports to move everyone. After searching the water and eliminating all remaining enemy naval assets, it’s time to land our army. I decide to avoid the front line where the naval base was and attack a side area, allowing us to have the element of surprise. When we burst through, the enemy’s remaining troops come hurrying over to intercept us (including Knights, the Alliance counterpart to Ogres), but they’re not numerous enough and we’re able to win. Once the base’s two Barracks go down, we’re home free and I leisurely destroy the remaining structures.

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