Game:

WarCraft II (1995)

Duration: 0:00

127 views

0

In the next briefing, we learn that Gul’dan used the Elven Runestone to create a large force of spellcasting Ogres like Cho’gall. Going forward, we’ll be able to upgrade all of our Ogres to Ogre-Magi once we build the Altar of Storms structure, certainly a valuable asset. As for our actual objective in this mission, we’re attacking the Alliance stronghold of Tyr’s Bay. This bay has a large island that serves as a key link in the enemy supply line, and our orders are to clear this island of hostiles. Once we do, we’ll need to build a Shipyard and a Fortress—the Horde counterpart to the Castle structure we destroyed last mission—on this island to claim victory. Notably, our opponent is the red-colored Nation of Stromgarde, so as in the Khaz Modan missions we’ll be playing as the black-colored Black Tooth Grin clan this time.

We start in the southern part of the map, and our base has four Farms, a Barracks, a Lumber Mill, a Blacksmith and a Shipyard. As always, our first priority is building a workforce. I begin training large numbers of Peons to both mine Gold and harvest Lumber, and I also build an Oil Tanker fairly early on as well. There’s an Oil Patch right near our coastline, and I want to start collecting the black stuff as quickly as possible. Oil is necessary for upgrading a Great Hall to Stronghold and then to Fortress, and my strategy is to make the upgrade as soon as I can get away with. That’s because having a Fortress makes each haul from a Gold mine worth 120 Gold compared to the standard 100, and the bonus really adds up over time. This particular map has only two Gold mines we have easy access to and they’re not very plentiful as mines in this game go, so I’m hoping the Fortress Gold bonus mitigates that. I also need to think about defense, as the enemy is pretty aggressive on this map and repeatedly sends strike forces against us. I build a network of Cannon Towers along the coastline to our rear, and then upgrade to Stronghold, getting a +10 bonus to Gold. In order to upgrade a Stronghold to a Fortress we need a Lumber Mill, a Blacksmith, and an Ogre Mound—we have two out of three, but still need the Ogre Mound. I have a Peon start building it, and while that’s in progress I also build an Oil Refinery to make our Oil Tankers produce more Oil as well. Once the Ogre Mound is built, I promptly start the Fortress upgrade. We’re forced to deal with a raid of Elven Archers while it’s in progress, but I have our Troll Destroyer take them all out and soon the Fortress is completed. Resource-wise, we have all the bonuses now.

I proceed to build a couple of Cannon Towers on our main coastline, and then begin preparing for offense. As in the previous mission, I want a fleet of nothing but Ogre Juggernaughts to smash through our enemies, so I build a Foundry to unlock the powerful ships and then build a second Shipyard to produce them twice as fast. I also make sure to max out ship upgrades at the Foundry and build a Goblin Alchemist for Zeppelin support. Once we have six Juggernaughts, I cautiously sail out and build a new Oil Platform to increase Oil production; this allows us to increase the pace of constructing the Oil-thirsty ships. Around this point, we max out the Gold mine on our island, forcing us to get a new one. Luckily there’s a nearby island with a second Gold mine, so I move some Peons there and set up a mini-base to harvest the Gold and Lumber on that island. From there, it’s just a matter of building a big armada and neutralizing the tough enemy defenses. There are a LOT of defenses, including two enemy Shipyards and a total of twenty-one Cannon Towers backed by plenty of dangerous Ballistae. Still, I steadily eliminate the enemy presence while producing new Ogre Juggernaughts to replace losses, and soon enough it’s safe to land ground troops on the target island. I bring in some Troll Berserkers and Ogre-Magi to destroy the enemy Keep and the Paladins defending it. Now we just need to build the Fortress and Shipyard.

I bring in some Peons and build the Fortress. However, before building the Shipyard I decide to go ahead and destroy the remaining enemy base as well. It’s a bit of a risk, since we’ve now used up the second Gold mine and can’t get any more Gold, but we have a lot in reserve and I think we’ll be fine. I move our Ogre-Magi and Trolls to the main base, and bring along a Peon to build a Barracks for reinforcements. Initially it goes well, but as we get to the southern tip of the base we run into problems. There’s an extra Barracks there and the enemy has been producing large numbers of troops, so we run into tougher resistance than expected. I train more troops to replace losses and we clear it out, but with very little Gold to spare. When all the enemy forces are eliminated, we only have 1286 Gold. A Shipyard costs 800 Gold to build, so we cut it pretty close. Still, we accomplished our goal and I build the Shipyard to win the mission.

Other Statistics