This section discusses this document.
Warcraft 2 is a real-time strategy game from Blizzard. This document lists frequently asked questions and answers appearing on the newsgroup alt.games.warcraft. Please read this document carefully before asking any questions on alt.games.warcraft. Most likely, your question is answered here.
This document does not address the original game of Warcraft. There is a Warcraft FAQ list at http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/usr/h88/h8825403/spiele/warcraft.zip .
This FAQ list was originally written before the Macintosh version of the game was released. As such, the questions and answers in this document are slanted towards the IBM-PC version. If you have a copy of the Macintosh version of Warcraft 2, please make appropriate suggestions, corrections, and additions, and they will be added to the FAQ with your name attached.
Please save a copy of this document. If you see someone ask a question that is answered in this document, please mail the FAQ list to that person instead of answering the question.
Each time a new version of this document is released, the date at the top is updated. Check the date to see if you have the latest version.
Please send suggestions and corrections for this to the author at zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu. Good ones will be used and acknowledged.
Sections marked with an asterisk are new or changed in this version.
The primary author is Dan Zerkle, zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu. If you would like to suggest an addition or revision, please mail it to him.
Suggestions and additions from Richard Wan (riwan@unixg.ubc.ca) are marked ``RW''. Other contributions are marked as they appear.
The document is posted Mondays to alt.games.warcraft, alt.games.kali, and comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic. It is available on the Web from http://seclab.cs.ucdavis.edu/~zerkle/w2faq.html . It is mirrored at http://home.earthlink.net/~eek/war2/w2faq.html and http://www.ogr.com/faqs/warcraft2faq.html .
This FAQ list is unofficial and the authors have no association with Blizzard except as customers. However, an employee of Blizzard made the following commendation:
I want to commend you on the War2 FAQ. Very thorough, and very accurate.Mike Morhaime
Vice President
Blizzard
This section contains general questions about Warcraft 2.
Warcraft 2 is a real-time action and strategy computer game written by Blizzard for the IBM PC and compatibles. It runs under MS-DOS, Windows 95, or MacOS. You may control armies of noble humans (and allies) or loathsome orcs (and allies). You may play against the computer or up to seven other players.
To defeat the enemy requires clever strategy, tactics, and resource management. You must produce buildings and harvest resources to train troops and fight the enemy.
It has the unique fog of war feature. You can not see the actions of the enemy unless you actually have a unit in visual range.
Their Web page is http://www.blizzard.com . E-mail is sales@blizzard.com. Sales are at 800-953-SNOW. Paper mail is P.O. Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92713. The manual lists contacts for customer support.
Version 1.0 is the original version (Tides of Darkness) that comes in the box on the CD. It comes with 28 campaign levels, a couple dozen built-in custom levels, and a map editor so you can make your own levels.
Version 1.2 is a free (RW) patch available from Blizzard's Web site. It fixes a bug with the exorcism spell, includes support for Kali, and allows players to start in random map positions in multi-player.
Version 1.3 is the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion set, available as a separate CD. It has all the features of 1.2. Also, it includes 24 difficult campaign levels, two new cut scenes, many maps for use in custom or multiplayer levels, a new tile set, special ``hero'' characters, better PUD selection software, and a disco music track.
Version 1.33 is a free patch available from Blizzard's Web site. It contains a program to fix old save files to work with newer versions of the program. A new map editor allows the use of the Draenor tile set and the new heroes.
W!ZONE is a collection of 65 scenario maps and a Tips & Tactics guide. W!ZONE 2: Retribution includes 64 such maps plus the guide. They are available from Wizard Works Inc., 2300 Berkshire Lane, Plymouth, MN 55441. They have a Web site at http://www.wizworks.com . (willy@rogers.wave.ca and Franz62421@aol.com).
Total War is 1093 single and multi-player PUD files. It's registered to Micro Star, 2245 Camino Vida Roble, Carlsbad, CA 92009 ("Willy" willy@rogers.wave.ca).
More War is a collection of scenario maps. Anyone with further information (price, company, address, other) please supply it for this FAQ list.
War2xed is a scenario map editor with a wide variety of additional features. It is free and is available from http://members.home.com/lemberg/ .
CraftGen is a scenario map editor that can randomly generate maps. It is shareware ($15) and is available from http://www.concentric.net/~jimware .
PUD Browser allows the quick review of PUD's at full screen size, plus printing in monocrome and color. It is free and available from http://w3.one.net/~billw/PudBrowser/ .
A utility called ``WarDraft'' for Windows systems is available from http://stud1.tuwien.ac.at/~e8900070/ . It allows the modification of graphics, sounds, built-in levels, and the like.
PUD Master is a Macintosh level editor with a wide variety of extra features. It's available from http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~bwood/PUDMaster.html .
See also the questions about Kali and Kahn.
There are other third-party products available. If you have any further information, please submit it to the FAQ list author.
There are far too many to list them all. Use a Web search, watch the newsgroup, or follow links to find them. Here are three good ones.
Blizzard's Web site is at http://www.blizzard.com . It has all sorts of useful information. Check it out if you have purchased or are considering purchase of any Blizzard product.
Shlonglor's War 2 page is generally considered the best, with lots of strategies and overviews. It's at http://games.nextlevel.net/~fraizer/WAR2/war2.html .
Methos' Warcraft II Strategy Page contains lots of hints for better game play. It also contains links to other pages. It's at http://www.netleague.com/wc2/ .
In addition, GameWeb lists Web pages for dozens of games, including Warcraft 2. It is at http://thegw.com/ .
It's available for both IBM-PC and Macintosh from http://www.blizzard.com/library/demos.htm .
They are both good. If you like one, you'll probably like the other. You should probably buy both. Generally, Warcraft 2 is considered better for multi-player, while Command & Conquer is considered superior for single-player play.
Warcraft 2 has a medieval setting with monsters and magic. It runs in SVGA mode for nice graphics. The units for the two races are very similar, all having close or exact matches to the other side. You must harvest and manage three kinds of resources. Up to eight players are permitted in a single game (effectively six on Kali). Each package purchase allows up to three players per game (two of every three players don't need CD's). The cut-scenes between levels are sparse and not very pretty, but occasionally clever. It has the unique fog of war, which adds a new dimension to the game by allowing sneak attacks and surprise tactics.
Command & Conquer has a modern setting with soldiers and vehicles. It runs in VGA mode for mediocre graphics. The two opposing sides have widely varying unit types. You must harvest and manage only one resource. Up to four players are permitted in a single game (effectively two on Kali). Each package purchase allows up to two players per game (the game comes with two CD's). The cut scenes between levels are magnificent, detailed, frequent, and add to the plot of the game. It has no fog of war, so different players in multiplayer games can see everything that the other players do (after initial scouting).
The skills of the commander are much more important. Both races are nearly identical until the castle/fortress stage, when the spells arrive. Until that stage, the orcs have slightly easier weapon upgrades at the blacksmith.
After the castle stage, the races are somewhat different. Orcs are easier to play effectively, but humans are more subtle and dangerous.
A perfectly good orc strategy is to make a whole mess of ogre-mages, run them to edge of the enemy town, cast runes between the enemy hall and mine, bloodlust all the ogres, then run them into town to wreak havok. This, in fact, is one of the best strategies, and commonly used. It's easy and effective.
Humans, on the other hand, can do more things in the control of an intelligent commander. They have a wider variety of useful spells. Holy vision helps a lot with fast reconnaissance, allowing intelligent actions. Invisibility allows units to sneak into vulnerable spots and cause damage before they are stopped (invisible mages and transports are particularly dangerous). Slow is an absolutely devastating spell if used correctly and liberally.
In multi-player games with fast game speed and slow network response, orcs are much easier to play, simply because they don't have to cast as many spells. Humans have to spend more time doing that.
A PUD is a file containing a level map. Many come with 1.3. You may also create your own with the level editor or download them from various sources.
Just put the file in your Warcraft 2 directory (or a subdirectory if you are using 1.3 or later). To use it, select a custom scenario or multi-player scenario, then pick the PUD from the "select scenario" list.
No. All custom games or multi-player games have only the goal of destroying all the enemies. You can't change this with the map editor or any other way.
The map editor in 1.3 is the same as the one in 1.0. It doesn't allow you to use the new tile set or the heroes.
Version 1.33 patch contains an editor that allows the use of these features.
Also, Daniel Lemberg has written an unofficial editor that will let you do so called war2xed. See the section above about third-party products for more about war2xed.
Using the map editor, set the controller of multiple clans or nations to rescue (active). When the map is played, such units will attack each other. You may use the ``on screen'' cheat to watch them. (Noel Herradura noel99@sprynet.com)
Consult the README file that game came with the game for directions on how to do this.
Yes. Use war2xed to set the decay time of the unit to 1 and the cost to 0. Any such disallowed units created will instantly die. See the section above about third-party products for more about war2xed.
This section addresses general questions about game play and program operation but not strategy (there is a separate section for that).
Blizzard has extremely good technical support at its Web page. If something is going wrong, please check out that page first. An answer to your problem is almost certainly there. Modem difficulties seem especially common. Blizzard has a list of modem configuration strings at http://www.blizzard.com/support/init.htm .
If you're still having trouble, contact Blizzard at one of the support contacts mentioned on page six of the manual. This will work better and faster than posting to the newsgroup.
Do not post a technical question without trying these two things first. If you really must post, please mention that you already tried the above avenues. Messages posted to newsgroups are distributed to tens of thousands of servers worldwide, and it isn't really appropriate to waste these sorts of resources when you've already paid Blizzard to answer your questions for you.
Version 1.0 may crash when the exorcism spell is used in certain places.
The multi-player chat room does not always show correct versions of other people's software.
If you start a peon or peasant chopping wood, then order him to build a hall or lumber yard, you'll get one free load of wood without taking the time to chop it. It appears when the building finishes.
Save files from 1.0 or 1.2 will cause a crash after installing 1.3. The 1.33 patch contains a fix for this. Also, you may use the tigerlily cheat to continue your game at the appropriate level.
Walls, trees, and rocks are considered terrain, so you can see them being built or destroyed by opponents even if they are in the fog of war.
Rarely, when a building is destroyed (especially mines), you can still see it (although game play is not affected).
Sometimes, when you expect to get an ogre-mage, an ogre gets built instead. Likewise, knights can appear when paladins are expected.
Very rarely, in a laggy network game when the game is delayed but the user is issuing many commands, units will get built in the wrong building. For instance, sappers or peons may be trained in the barracks.
Knights rescued from other nations do not get church upgrades if the upgrades are taken before the rescue. They stay knights and only get the blacksmith upgrades (Derek Angell ChezLad@aol.com).
Sometimes, after restoring a saved game, one or more computer-controlled clan or nation will stop producing any troops, thus making the game too easy.
If the host of a multi-player game tries to start a a custom PUD that one player does not have, fails (because one user doesn't have it), switches PUD's, then tries to start again, the players that do have the original PUD will start on that original PUD (Ken Cantrell kec@cs.clemson.edu).
Sometimes, some of the PUD's that should be available in multi-player games do not appear. The game may report to the hosting player that another player does not have the PUD when he in fact, does.
Skeletons raised from the dead will die on their own after about 10 minutes. If a skeleton is on a transport when it dies, its icon on the transport will change to the next thing created, whether a building or unit and whether friendly or enemy. The actual building or unit will behave normally until the transport is unloaded, at which time it will move to the site where the transport is unloaded.
See the section above about the bugs in Warcraft 2.
Put your mouse pointer over an icon for any command. Text describing that command will show up on the bottom of the screen. One of the letters of the description is a different color. That is the shortcut key for that command. You may press it instead of clicking on the icon.
To use a cheat code, hit enter, type the cheat code, then hit enter again. To disable a cheat, just type it again. In multi-player, any cheat you use will help all the players. These are the more useful codes:
``Tigerlily'' enables level jumping. After this, use codes like ``human 7'' to skip to human level seven, ``orc 12'' to do a similar thing for orcs, and ``human 17'' to skip to level three of the expansion set.
``On screen'' shows the whole map and turns off the fog of war.
``Make it so'' speeds up building, upgrades, and unit production.
``It is a good day to die'' spectacularly boosts your units' strength (does not affect computer players).
``Unite the clans'' wins immediately.
``You pitiful worm'' loses immediately.
``Glittering prizes'' increases your gold, wood, and oil.
``Valdez'' increases your oil.
``Hatchet'' speeds up wood chopping.
``Deck me out'' gives you armor and weapon upgrades.
``Every little thing she does'' gives you spell upgrades.
``There can be only one'' wins whole game.
Each game has a maximum limit of 600 units, which includes mobile units and buildings. This limit is divided evenly amongst all the players. Therefore, if there are four players (human or computer), each one can have a maximum of 150 units.
The unit limit only applies to players still in the game. So, if one of the four players in the example above was eliminated, each of the three remaining players would get to make up to 200 units.
In campaign levels, the roles of the dark portals, rune stones, and circles of power are explained by the introductions to the appropriate levels. However, in custom maps (PUD's), they can serve no roles other than decoration.
Using w2xed, it is possible to assign different characteristics to all buildings. For instance, a rune stone could be made into a gold collection point. See the section above about third-party products for more about war2xed.
There are only two new cut scenes. One is at the end of the human campaign (level 12), and the other is at the end of the orc campaign. That's it.
No, they can't. The computer can, but it's cheating.
To find out what a spell does, there are three steps:
First, read the manual. It has a description of the spell.
Second, experiment with the spell in a single-player game. You'll get a good feel for the thing. This should be enough.
If you're really, really curious about the exact details of the spells, check out the Insider's Guide to Warcraft II, at http://www.gamespot.com/features/wc2/index.html .
The haste spell doubles the number of attacks from dragons and gryphons. All other units will attack no more frequently and cause no more damage when hasted.
You can only build them in multi-player games. The computer units never attack walls directly, so they aren't permitted in single-player games.
You may use farms as a substitute for walls. They are much more expensive and they are not as flexible, but they are much harder to destroy.
Click on a unit many times to hear it say funny things. Keep clicking. Footmen are particularly hilarious. RW: Boats are funny as well!
You also get cute quotes from testing the sound card too many times (Simon.Palmer@cs.uwa.edu.au).
Sheep say ``Baa ram ewe!'', which is from the movie, Babe.
If you click on a critter enough times, it explodes! No, it doesn't cause any damage when you do this.
If you use the cheat ``disco'' on an expansion set level, a really cute song will start playing. You can also play the song by putting the CD in an ordinary music CD player and playing track 18.
Not much. Mostly, they just get in the way. Death knights can cast death coil on them to top off their health (Gary Jacobson jcbgar04@scilab.uct.ac.za). Mages can cast flame shield on them and they'll damage enemy units. Their main purpose is really to give enemy units something to turn into after a polymorph spell. The sheep are fun to kill (my girlfriend)!
This and other useful information is in the README file in the Warcraft 2 directory on your hard drive.
Generally, you can't. You have to replace them. However, a peon or peasant can repair a transport if it is on shore. You must order the peon or peasant to repair instead of right-clicking or command-clicking.
The word ``raze'' can be found in any English dictionary. You really should look in there before asking on a newsgroup.
You get credit for one razing for each building you destroy.
Use the map editor. You can't build one during the game.
You get 500 points for winning a level, plus more points whenever you destroy units or buildings. See http://www.blizzard.com/tips/tip3.htm for details.
A beserker with regenereration will slowly regain its health after it has been injured.
The formula is fairly complicated. See http://www.blizzard.com/tips/tip2.htm for complete details.
This section discusses play in the campaign levels.
Generally, you can protect your town with lots of towers and wait until you've built up a huge force. Then, attack.
On the expansion set levels, you often need to attack much sooner. On several, in fact, you need to wipe out an enemy town immediately with your starting forces.
Most levels can be beaten with simple persistence and skill. See the strategies and tips section for some hints that may apply to single-player levels. Tricks for beating tricky levels are detailed below. If this FAQ list isn't enough for you, you may call Blizzard's hint line at 900-370-SNOW. The charge is 85 cents per minute.
You missed one or more somewhere. Keep searching. Make sure that the entire level has been explored.
You may need to turn off the fog of war to help you look. Using the ``on screen'' cheat helps. Also, you can turn off the terrain display on the mini-map with the TAB key.
Some of the later levels have submarines or turtles that are very hard to find. If there is water, use a flying machine or zeppelin to look for them. Also, black enemy units are hard to see on the mini-map, so scroll the main map and look there.
Yes. It always knows where all your units and buildings are. That means that it can hit your invisible units with death coil. It also means that it doesn't have to search to find your towns. On the campaign scenarios, it usually starts off with considerably greater forces. It can upgrade scout towers to arrow towers without having a lumber mill (Paul Jeray pjjeray@students.wisc.edu).
There are some catapults on the left side of the map. If you touch them, you'll capture them and you can use them to attack the orcish town. They are especially good for destroying cannon towers.
Just send your fighting ships forward to kill the enemy ships in the way, followed immediately by your transports. Load your hero on the transport with the least damage and send him to the island with the circle. Transports are so fast that it will probably survive. If you really want to, you can use your troops and ballista to remove the land forces that attack your ships.
Load your transports with the footmen, knights, and ballista. Attack the shore with your ships and all the troops in the transports simultaneously to remove the towers, catapults, and ogres. Then, land your mages, archers, and peasants. You must be quick to be ready before the dragons arrive.
Build lots of anti-dragon defenses. Guard towers or archers, mixed in with an occasional mage fireball, will do the job. Once you have plenty of guard towers, build up forces, take the black gold mine, and the rest of the level is routine.
Attack the black orcs last. They won't bother you if you don't go near their town.
Immediately use your starting forces to knock out the white village to the south before they build any troops. Then, set up your own town there. Your castle does not have to be right next to the portal; it may be anywhere on the map.
Although you can't build much, you can make a lumber yard, a ship yard, and lots of destroyers. Do so.
Kill Deathwing by using your gryphon to lure him to your fleet of destroyers, which will do the job quickly.
This is a very difficult level, and there are no tricks to it.
Either open mine will work, but the bottom center one is easier to defend. Use farms for walls and put up lots of guard towers behind them where you get attacked.
Put a flying machine on the approach path of the death knights. They will waste mana casting whirlwind on it instead of destroying your buildings.
You must eliminate the bottom right orcs quickly; you need their gold. The center (white) orcs will not attack unless you go too near their town. Leave them alone until later.
Send two gryphons to the top left mine. You can destroy the stronghold there and save the mine for your use later.
Gorefiend is a pest. Polymorph him as soon as you can. Use an invisible mage.
Use dwarves and blizzards to eliminate the cannon towers before you attack the black orcs.
As the game starts, send Deathwing to the top left (purple) enemy mine, out of range of the arrow towers. He will kill all of the peasants there and that nation won't be able to make troops. After that, do the same with the nearest enemy mine. Haste and bloodlust help.
Early in the game, you need to attack the white orcs. Cast blizzard spells on their towers and over the trees on their peons. After that, set up a defense force near the portal and have Khadgar destroy the portal with lightning and blizzards.
This section details questions relevant to multi-player gaming.
You may install the game on multiple computers. You only need the CD to create (not join) a multi-player game or to engage in a single-player game. Each CD on a computer in a multi-player game will serve up to three players, so an eight-player game will work with only three CD's. This multi-play from a single CD is called spawning.
All players who didn't create the game must click in the little ``ready'' box next to their names.
Your best bet for improving your game is to carefully read the strategy Web pages, including the ones mentioned earlier. See the tricks and tactics section later in this document, as well. For the impatient, here are a few quick tips:
Tactics you used against the computer won't work here. You need to build really fast and produce lots of forces right away. You should probably wait longer to buy all of those expensive upgrades that were so handy against the computer. Towers don't work so well against intelligent players, so use fewer of them.
Build your hall as close as possible to your mine. Don't build your hall until you find your mine.
You need many, many peons or peasants. Forty isn't too many.
Use the lumber bug when you play on low resources.
Probably not. Most likely, they're just much better than you are. If you enable a normal cheat, it affects all players, and a message appears on everyone's screen.
There are various hacks that allow such things as viewing the map without using a built-in cheat, producing units without farms, and letting buildings produce any unit or upgrade.
Go away.
It has two definitions. It either means attacking with a lot of grunts or footmen early, instead of trying for upgrades, or it means building a barracks before a town hall and attacking with a couple grunts before anyone else has them. You should not use the second meaning. Instead, refer to that strategy simply as ``barracks first.''
It is a devastating strategy for medium-resources land games. Build a hall, three farms, and a barracks. As you do so, produce six peons or peasants. Start the barracks as soon as the first farm is done. Set five peons or peasants to mine gold, and put the sixth to chopping wood. Use the gold to produce seven grunts or footmen. As you produce them, scout for the enemy. When you have all seven, gather them outside the enemy town, then attack to kill all the enemy peasants or peons.
If this doesn't work, you will eventually have enough wood to build another farm, produce more choppers, and proceed as usual.
This strategy is so nasty that people rarely play on medium resources any more.
It is a mage casting blizzard on the area in which he is standing. The blizzard won't hurt the mage. However, it will kill any of the usual armored units that try to attack the mage. If, after starting a mage bomb, the mage casts a very brief blizzard on a group of enemy units, those units will charge into the mage bomb and all die. Mage bombs are especially effective when used in the middle of the enemy miners and when used by invisible mages.
Note that death knights can do this by using the death and decay spell. A hasted, unholy-armored death knight doing a mage bomb is extremely deadly.
This is the strategy of building a barracks before a town hall, then producing a few grunts or footmen to attack very early. When the enemy doesn't do it, it is a guaranteed win if you find his town fast, and a guaranteed loss if you don't. Most people don't like to play this sort of game.
Edit the file war2.ini. Find your name in it. Use your text editor to insert the characters CONTROL-B through CONTROL-F Each of these characters will change the color of the letters after it when you're in the game.
You can use the MS-DOS edit program for this. Just position the cursor, type a CONTROL-P, then the control character you want. The special character will be inserted.
A program this will do this for you automatically may be found at http://www.csra.net/jlawton/war2col.zip .
Yes. See the next section about Kali and Kahn. Also, Macintosh players can use TCP/IP directly. See the section on Macintosh questions for more.
Internet play of Warcraft 2 is very popular and gives the highest level of competition.
This section discusses Internet play of Warcraft 2, including Kali and Kahn, the popular Internet multi-player gaming utilities. For more information, see the Web sites.
Kali is a system designed by Jay Cotton that fools a set of computers on the Internet into thinking that they are together on an IPX network. This allows many games that allow multi-player action on an IPX LAN to work over the Internet. Server machines on the Internet and a chat facility allow players to meet before they start their games.
There are Kali systems for MS-DOS and Windows 95, with a Macintosh version in beta release as of this writing.
Kahn is a competing product that does basically the same thing. See the later question about Kahn.
Warcraft 2 works particularly well on Kali.
You need a real Internet connection (PPP and SLIP are fine) running at least 28.8Kbps (14.4 might work), at least version 1.2 of Warcraft 2. Kali and Kahn require special software that may be downloaded from their Web sites.
To play on Kali, you need $20 one-time registration fee if you want to play for more than 15 minutes. Kahn requires a $15 fee and has a three-week trial period.
AOL's Internet software works with Kali, but special software must be added and the performance is poor. See the support section on Kali's Web server for details.
You may play on Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone for free if you have Windows 95 and the Internet Explorer browser. It is at http://www.zone.com.
Also, you need experience. Before you try playing on Kali, complete the 28 campaign levels that come with the game. They are good practice.
It is available from http://www.kali.net .
Complete, detailed instructions come with the Kali package. If you download that, you'll have all your Kali questions answered.
You'll need to unzip the Kali files to get at the instructions. If you have a Macintosh, you'll need to unstuff the files first instead of unzipping them. If you don't know how to unzip or unstuff a file, ask any friend who knows something about your computer.
If you have a problem that is not addressed by the instructions, contact Kali technical support. They will be happy to help you.
Really, read the instructions. They're very good.
Kali St. Louis has lots of novice games. There is a server called ``->Warcraft<-'' which obviously works.
Otherwise, just look for a server with lots of players on it.
This rule is commonly used on Kali. It stands for ``town hall first,'' and means that you must build a town hall or great hall before anything else. One should always assume this rule unless someone specifically states ``no rules.''
It is a rule which disallows attacks unless there is an ogre or a knight in the attack party. It is sometimes called by less skilled players who don't want to quickly lose to waves of grunts or footmen.
It stands for ``top versus bottom.'' It means that the top two players on the chat room ally with each other against the bottom two players (who also ally with each other).
It stands for ``free-for-all.'' It is a multi-player game where every player attempts to destroy all the other players. Secret alliances are allowed when more than three players are in the game, and treachery is not frowned upon (as it is when teams are decided before the game starts).
There are several.
The International Warcraft II League (IWL) is a league of teams called clans and nations that play on Kali. It is small but has absolutely top-rank Kali players. The clans compete for points and rank. IWL players put special characters around their names in kchat to indicate their team. The IWL home page is at http://www.instantweb.com/~shadow/cgi-bin/iwl.htm .
The National Warcraft 2 League is similar. NWL players put the ``NWL'' characters after their names. When NWL players do this, they typically refuse to play against anyone who is not in the NWL. The NWL page is at http://home.netinc.ca/~amolnar/war2/inwl.htm .
Case's Ladder is a system that allows thousands of players to play each other for rank for various games. There are Warcraft 2 ladders for both individuals and teams. Case's Ladder can be found at http://www.igl.net/ .
The Macintosh Gaming league is for Mac users playing directly over the Internet with straight TCP/IP. Players compete for points and can play solo or join teams. Its home page is at http://www.magleague.com .
NetLeague has a chess-style rating system for individuals plus a point system for squads. It can be found at http://netleague.com/warcraft/ .
The World WarCraft2 League has a point system and allows individual or team play. The home page is at http://www.snafu.de/~kuzarow/wwl/war.html .
See the bugs question above. It is important when playing on low resources because it allows you to build a farm immediately after finishing the town hall.
Slow the game way down. As fast as you can, select peons or peasants and order them to stop by pressing the ``s'' key. Eventually, some of them will stop.
RW: Most players can get by without doing this. Just train more peasants.
When starting the game with one peasant only, full speed is best for a short while. After three or four buildings are completed, it is best to slow the game to one notch below that. This makes units more responsive, so it is possible to cast spells, react to attacks, and so forth.
If the lag in a game is particularly bad, the speed should be slowed to about the midpoint to reduce the effect of the lag.
Note that lag is caused almost entirely by network and modem performance. Turning music on or off does not help with lag.
Yes. It's alt.games.kali.
They stand for Garden of War and Plains of Snow, two built-in maps that are popular on Kali.
Kahn is a system for MS-DOS or Windows 95 that provides about the same services as Kali. For Warcraft 2, though, Kali is much more popular. As of this writing, the software is in beta test, and is available from http://www.stargatenetworks.com/ . The registration fee is $15.
This section discusses common questions on how to deal with elements of game play. It is mainly oriented towards multi-player action. These hints are purposely brief. See the Web sites for more detail.
There is an official strategy guide book. It mostly contains information in the manual, but also contains maps and walkthroughs of the standard campaign levels. There is also a strategy guide for the expansion set levels. You may purchase them at your local software store or directly from Blizzard.
Most of the Web sites for Warcraft 2 offer multi-player strategy guides.
Destroy or hurt the enemy badly in the beginning of the game so he can't get them.
Make sure you have plenty of reconnaissance in the form of towers, flyers (flying machines or zeppelins), and patrols, so you can see them coming.
Cast slow on them.
Cast blizzard or death & decay on them when they stop outside your town to bloodlust or when they attack a building.
Polymorph them.
Put up a cannon tower and surround it with farms and other buildings so the ogre-mages can't touch it.
Cast runes in front of them.
Keep a few gryphons or dragons over your town for last-ditch defense. Ogres can't hurt them.
RW: Cast a flame shield on one of them when they are in a group together.
Run your units away from them and wait for the bloodlust to wear off.
Spread out your buildings so a single unit won't be able to hit multiple buildings at once.
Destroy or hurt the enemy badly in the beginning of the game so he can't get them.
Keep your enemy from getting lumber, so he can't build them.
Make sure you have plenty of reconnaissance in the form of towers, flyers, and patrols, so you can see them coming. Patrols will also likely kill them.
Don't keep your units standing around. It's too easy for a sapper or dwarf to blow up two or three of them. Put them on patrol, instead.
Cast slow on them. They will be much easier to kill.
Surround your important buildings with walls.
Make a group of troops and put them on patrol along likely approach paths for the exploders. Upgraded elves and trolls are especially good for this.
Use polymorph, unholy armor, death coil, runes, or invisibility on them. All of these spells instantly destroy exploding units.
Destroy or hurt the enemy badly in the beginning of the game so he can't get them.
Make sure you have plenty of reconnaissance in the form of towers, flyers, and patrols, so you can see them coming.
Use exorcism on them. With good reconnaissance, you should always be able to kill them before they kill your paladin.
Cast slow on them. Death & decay becomes much less dangerous.
Attack them normally when they approach.
Destroy or hurt the enemy badly in the beginning of the game so he can't get them.
Listen for the sound of the blizzard. If you see where it is, pull your troops away from before they try to charge.
Use thorough reconaissance to spot mages setting up the blizzard.
Stopping invisible mages from blizzarding your miners is nearly impossible. Put two cannon towers near your mine. They will probably kill the mage before he causes too much damage. A catapult and some patrolling units near there also help.
The best way is to make sure that you can see them. Consult the manual's descriptions of submarines and turtles to find out how to see underwater units. If you can see a sub, it is easy to kill with ships or a catapult.
If you are in a pinch and can't see the sub, order a catapult, ballista, battleship, or juggernaut to ``fire at the ground (water)'' where you see the sub's projectile coming from. You may be able to hit it anyway. It will die in one shot, usually. Blizzard and death & decay spells are also great for killing these units.
Use the THF rule.
Play on low resources.
Play on a water level.
Play on a map where you need to chop through trees before you can reach the enemy town.
Build faster than your enemy.
Use your own early grunt attack first. Kill all the enemy peons or peasants so that he can't make grunts.
Near your hall, build a cannon tower and surround it with other buildings (probably farms) so that grunts can't hit it. It will defend your peons or peasants.
Block off access to your peons or peasants with trees and buildings. This is called a ``wall-in'', and is dangerous because your peons or peasants can't get out to new mines or to expand the town.
Play a water level or one where you need to chop out of a bunch of trees.
Kill enemy peons and peasants first. They are the most dangerous units, since they are the ones who are sending those nasty enemy units at you. They are also really easy to kill. The best way to do it is to cast blizzard or death & decay on the area between the enemy hall and mine.
If someone does something really nasty to you, remember it. Do it to your next opponent.
Have multiple peons or peasants repair a building while it is being constructed. It will build much more quickly.
Use hotkeys. You can order your troops and buildings around much more quickly that way.
To bloodlust a group of ogres very quickly, click on one, type a ``b'', then double-click on another. You've now bloodlusted and selected that ogre. Type another ``b'' and double-click a third ogre. Continue this process until all the ogres are bloodlusted.
Caste haste on a deathknight, then order it to cast death & decay. It will cast the spell very quickly.
Use mage bombs whenever they will kill three or more enemy units. If you use invisibility, you can do it while the mage is standing in the enemy peon line.
Cast haste and unholy armor on a death knight, and have him do a mage bomb. It works better than having a mage do it. He may even escape.
Make a lot of gnomish inventors or goblin alchemist buidings near or behind the enemy town. Make a lot of exploding units and blow the enemy town to bits.
Put a platform on every oil patch. Your enemy won't get any oil. Even a simple tanker sitting on the spot may do the job.
Cast slow on every enemy unit you see.
Cast haste on your woodcutting peons.
RW: A trapped peon can build a wall to pop himself out.
RW: Cannon towers can not attack units directly adjacent to themselves. Surround them with farms.
This section is for questions about the Macintosh version of Warcraft 2. Please send in questions and answers.
Connect to the EFNET IRC channel #macwarcraft. People gather there to set up games. (Ted Woodward ted@austin.ibm.com). For more about IRC, see http://www.cochran.com/understand/irc.html .
Yes, at least using IPX or IPX over Kali, serial play, and modem play (modem confirmed by davidmurphy@earthlink.net). The IBM-PC version does not have direct TCP/IP access, so that will not work.
Yes. Ted Woodward (ted@austin.ibm.com) reports: You may need to change the file type and creator to the editor's type and creator, W2Ed.