Well, all this Warcraft gaming has gotten me addicted again. I’ve been playing through the orc single-player campaign and having a good time reliving all those old-school battles. Why the orcs? Well, canonically, the orcs win the first war.
Looking online, I couldn’t find a good walkthrough for the game. So I thought to myself, “why not write one on my own?” And so, here we are.
I’ll be playing through the orc campaign and chronicling my strategies and thoughts. If someone wants to read it and use it as a walkthrough, I say go for it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make it through the whole thing. I remember the later stages being especially difficult.
Read on, dear friends.
Orc Mission 1:
The first mission is simple but tedious. You’re tasked with building six farms and one barracks. You start with one of the farms already built. Here’s your starting position.
The good news is you don’t really need to do much fighting. There are some enemy footmen scattered around the map but they don’t really attack you unless you venture outside of the town. Also, your three grunts are more than capable of taking them out. Still, the first step is to venture north to the gold mine and start mining gold. The rest is easy.
I guess the creators realized how long and annoying this mission is. In Warcraft II, they changed the objectives of the first mission so you construct four farms instead of six.
Orc Mission 2:
The difference between this mission and the first is that there are numerous footmen and archers scattered around your town. They’ll attack the town one by one. When the last one has been defeated, you’ll be victorious. In reality, most people build up an army of grunts and go hunting for them. The mine is directly north of the town, so start building.
It’s really quite annoying that Warcraft only allows you to select four units in a group. In Warcraft II, they increased the number to nine. Then, in StarCraft, they increased the number to twelve.
As you send the grunts around to mop up the enemy opposition, you’ll notice that the orcs don’t say much. Their language consists of growls and groans. Longtime fans of the series know that ‘zug zug’ is a common phrase for the orcs. But they didn’t actually start to say it until Warcraft II.
Occasionally, the humans will attack your town while your grunts are hunting. Just keep some spearmen around the perimeter of the town and you’ll be fine.
Orc Mission 3:
The humans are growing strong in Grand Hamlet, you say? Well, this is the first mission where you’ll have to take out an entire human town. You’ll also have access to the necrolytes.
Long before the undead became their own faction, the orcs employed armies of necrolytes to raise the dead. (They make a cameo appearance in The Frozen Throne.) As the story goes, the necrolytes were slain by the warlocks between the first and second game in order to create the death knights. Of course, these death knights were the reanimated corpses of human knights with the souls of the slain necrolytes. Later, there would be a different type of death knight consisting of corrupted humans aligned with the lich king. The two should not be confused.
Warcraft lore is complicated.
Anyway, the gold mine is a little farther away from the town this time. Send your peons to the southeast and start mining. You’ll be glad that the river and forests create a natural wall to protect your town from attack.
You can defend against southern attacks with a few spearmen between the trees. On the east side, bring spearmen to guard the bridge. Now your town should be completely secure.
Because gold is limited on this map, I try not to waste too many resources building necrolytes and researching their spells. Raise dead can be helpful, but ultimately not worth the money. The skeletons are too weak and the necrolytes often get ripped apart by human archers before they can get close enough to raise the dead. Instead, invest in spearmen.
You’ll notice that there’s another bridge to the south and a bridge farther to the east. These are the two chokepoints that the humans must pass through in order to attack your town. The trick is to send lots of spearmen to these chokepoints and hold them. This will give your peons access to two additional gold mines.
Once you’ve amassed a huge army of spearmen (and grunts), have both groups converge right outside of the human town. One should be directly north of the town and the other directly south.
Send one group in to draw the town’s defenders away. Then, send the other group in from the opposite end. Even if one group gets slaughtered by the defenders, you’ll be able to wipe out most of the key buildings. Destroy the barracks first and the rest should be easy.
Next Time:
We enter the Dead Mines and take care of some ogres. Yes, it’s a glorious indoor mission.
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