Musings of a technophile

So I was playing Warcraft III online last night and this guy used a strategy against me that I had never seen before. You know that’s one of the best things about Warcraft III, and perhaps other RTS games as well; no matter how many times you play online, there is always someone else who uses a different strategy.

Anyways, this guy’s strategy was pretty simple. Basically he brought his hero and like seven archers over to my town and just started attacking. That wasn’t so much of a problem, I mean afterall I had enough guys and upgrade to fight them off. So I come out of my base to attack, and he immediately goes invisible. I wait a minute, then decide to go out and do some creeping – the instant I leave my base, he starts attacking again. I come back – he goes invisible. Basically anytime I leave my base, he attacks, anytime I try to attack him back, he becomes invisible. I had already made a blademaster hero, so it was too late to get the far seer for his far sight (See invisible units) ability. Also this was early on where I didn’t have a witch doctor yet so I couldn’t make any sentry wards.

Anyways, the effect that it had was that I didn’t leave my base, and he must have had some other units out creeping because his hero kept gaining levels, even though he never left the area. In the end I didn’t know what to do and he brought his units in for the final kill.

I think in the future, I need to implement the following strategy. First, make sure I attempt to upgrade to a stronghold early on so that I can get with doctors and make sentry wards. Second, fight fire with fire – attempt to make more ranged guys if he is only going to make ranged archers – you HAVE to get him out of your base, at least long enough for you to go out creeping or at least send some units out to go creep. Third, just hold him off till morning, even make towers in your base for defense. Once it’s morning, night elves lose the ability to go invisible. Also if you haven’t made a hero yet by the time this guy implements the strategy, then make a far seer so you can see him.

I think just that strategy should help in the future. Like I said, about 1 out of 5 games I come across a new strategy I’ve never seen before, the important thing is to learn from each new strategy and know how to defend against it.