enthused, the game is balanced specifically so that one unit can't be overwhelming. Sometimes, an attack like that will work against an experienced player if it catches him off guard, but it's not a strategy that's going to work more than once.

Assigning units to hotkeys is essential to playing this game well. If you have all your archers/spearsmen/riflemen assigned to a certain number, then you'll be able to select them even if they're buried beneath swarms of flying units. Also, you want them all to target a single enemy unit at a time. Even if you haven't assigned them to a hot key, if you double-click on any one unit, you will automatically select all similar units in the area into one group.

Anyway, if you know for a fact that he's skipping the barracks, why are you holding off on attacking him? Take a hero and a handful of grunts/footmen/ghouls and kill all his peons.

yeah, but teh computer cheats

One thing I found really useful in Starcraft (I'm guessing it'll work for WCIII) is using hotkeys on some of my important buildings. That way, whenever you need to summon more soldiers/peons/attackers you just press the hotkey to go directly to that building.

can anyone explain how the won/lost record is kept?
I've played a few "Custom Games" and a few "team match" games, but the outcome does not get reflected in my record with the /stats cmd. When does a win/loss get reflected into your record?

They just posted the ladder rules: http://www.battle.net/war3/ladder/rules.shtml

Also, this might help:
(from the faq http://www.battle.net/war3/ladder/ladderfaq.shtml )
-David

Just a tip for selecting same-type units, double-clicking is often difficult when units are running across the screen, because you'll often miss the second click. Getting in the habit of control-click (which does the same thing) will be more effective.

Argh!!! I want my new computer from Dell to hurry up and get here so I can play my WCIII :( I've got the game, but no computer to play it on.

If you play as the Alliance, you have to exploit the heck out of invisibility, as that is one of the biggest advantage for humans! With the sorceress, each and everyone of your units (with the exception being a few odd creep units) can become invisible. And you can essentially turn your whole assult force invisible and just show up at the enemy door step. :D This is a great way to punish opponents who does not bother setting up sentry for invisible units.

Conversely, you should always look out for this tactic when playing against Humans.

PAL

I actually think that an one-dimensional gyrocopter rush is quiet easy to counter. The answer is easy: build all ranged units.

I think your error lies in the fact that you actually build melee units. Since the other guy don't have any, neither should you. All you should raise are the archer type units. The weakness of the archer units is that they can't take the pounding from melee units, which you don't have to worry about in this case.

Looking at it purely from statistical perspective (all base stats with no upgrades):

Gyrocopter - 2 food, 220 gold, 60 lumber (350 hit points). Does 20 ground/27.5 air damage at a cooldown rate of 1.5/1 (lower cooldown means faster attack rate).

The ranged units from all 4 races are below:

Rifleman - 3 food, 240 gold, 30 lumber (520 HP). Does 21.5/21.5 damage at a cooldown rate of 1.5/1.5.

Troll headhunter - 2 food, 160 gold, 20 lumber (280 HP). Does 25/25 damage at cooldown of 1.95/1.95.

Elf archer - 2 food, 150 gold, 10 lumber (260 HP). Does 20.5/20.5 damage at a cooldown of 1.5/1.5.

Gargoyle - 2 food, 220 gold, 30 lumber (400 HP). Does 17/51.5 damage at a cooldown of 2.2/1.4.

Assuming that both sides used similar amount of resources, so it will be 15 gyrocopters vs. 13 riflemen/20 headhunters/22 elf archers/15 gargoyles. The ranged units should come out ahead every single time. This does not even take into consideration that gyrocopters is higher up on the tech-tree, and need to research the gyro bomb in order to attack ground units. If we do, then the ground ranged units would get a level 1 upgrade in weapon and armor. Also, the gyrocopters needs more than double the amount of lumber compared to the ranged units, which we will neglect for now. If the battles are compared individually...

Gyrocopter vs. riflemen - The gyrocopters need to get within melee range to drop the bombs, the riflemen can fire away at a range of 50. 1-2 copters will be dropped by the time they get in melee range. At the end, the dwarven riflemen will outlast the gyrocopter because they have more HPs.

Gyrocopter vs. headhunters - Again, the gyrocopters need to get within melee range to drop the bombs, the headhunters can chuck away at a range of 50. 2-3 copters will be dropped by the time they get in melee range. The attack damage difference is 20 vs. 25, so the troll headhunters will still come out ahead, especially if coupled with bloodlust.

Gyrocopters vs. archers - The copters still have to get in melee range to attack, 2 gyrocopters will be downed by then. The damage potential is even at 20 vs. 20.5, but 22 elven archers will still outlast 13 gyrocopters. If the archers already have extended attack range then the outcome will be decided even faster.

Gyrocopters vs. gargoyles - This situation is the reverse of previous ones. The gyrocopters have an air attack range of 50, and attacks extremely fast with a cooldown of only 1, while the gargoyles need to get in melee ranges to do damage. By the time they close in, 2-3 gargoyles would have been downed. But at close quarters it's not even a contest, as the gargoyles puts out a devastating melee attack of 71 vs. gyrocopters' 27.5; plus gargoyles have much higher armor. The gargoyles would eventually come out of this contest way ahead.

The other common point in all the scenarios is that it's mechanic vs. organic units. The copters are air-borne and cannot be repaired. While some healer units nearby can heal the ranged units.

The whole gyrocopter rush idea is not bad, but as you can see there are counters available. If the guy would bother sending in a couple melee units along with the copters, it would have been a much better offensive move.

PAL

Has anyone been able to beat the computer 1 on 1? It's virtually impossible. I even turn off fog of war and still get my ass kicked. It seems like the A.I cheats by knowing where you are all the time. The minute I build an expansion base, it always attacks me!

~~ PAL ~~,

Impressive stuff! But I never want to play against you. Ever! ;)
I've heard that you should build towers first when starting an expansion base against the computer, but I haven't tried this myself (still trying to find time to finish the single player campaigns) so I don't know how useful this advice is.

-David

timewaster: It's definitely beatable. I haven't played Warcraft III in a while (I'm an FPS fiend :) and can't get enough of SOF2) but my 10 year old brother routintely beats the computer 1 on 1. I'm not trying to be mean or anything. I'm just saying it's definitely possible. I've tried a few times and the computer always kicks my ass. I have no idea how my brother does it. Some people are just better at RTS games than others. :(

I've beaten the comp on a 1 v 3 match. That's right, I took down three computers by myself.

Of course, they were trapped by trees and the AI malfunctioned.

But I still count that as a victory :)

Seriously, I have won a 2 v 3 comp skirmish, with one computer as my ally. True, the other computer took down two opponents, but I did take out one all by myself, so I can say I won a 1 v 1 comp match :)

--

On a strategy note, does anyone know how to use air units effectively, as part of combined arms? I know the gyrocopter rush mentioned above, but I don't play like that. On a broader note, what is the best way to micromanage your units? I usually divide my army into three parties, each led by a hero. If I'm doing a concentrated attack, I have all the melee units under one hero, ranged under another, and spellcasters under another. If I'm doing a flanking type attack, I divide them evenly between the parties. Then I have a fourth group consisting of artillery and light defense. This works really well on SP (I blazed through the campaigns), but it's proven less successful in skirmish. And there doesn't seem to be any place where air units can be effective. I usually attach them to one or more of the parties to fly cover, but they always seem to be blasted out of the sky before they can do anything.

Any thoughts?

It's OK, with Anonymous Matchmaking on Battle.net, you won't know it was me. ;)

Just to let you guys know, gamespot released a somewhat in-depth guide (nothing new really) for Warcraft III today: '

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/gameguides/pc/warcraft3/

I think that the key to success is always have complementary units in the assult party. Yes, it will be more difficult to micromanage, but you'll be reducing your overall effectiveness and fall under the trap to being one-dimensional. Having a group of all melee/ranged/artillery will be easily countered, especially against human opponents.

Using Undead as an example, a good assult party would consist of primarily meat wagons and necromancers. The meat wagons for artillery assult, while necromancers raise corpses off the wagon to skeletons for support/cannon fodder. But you definitely don't stop there, have some gargoyles also for anti-air support, since your skeletons and wagons will be susceptible to air assults. The gargoyles also attacks melee units that gets too close to your group. In addition, keep 1 or 2 banshees around for their spell support with curse and anti-magic shell. The banshee is also great at turning around a battle quickly after you learned possesion. Think about how quickly you can trun a battle around if you possess a Kodo beast, then go and swallow another powerful unit before scampering off, or possess a sorceress and then cast polymorph on the knight next to her. For something truly devious, you can even possess an enemy worker and begin building their units. ;) Natually, all the strategy above will be enhanced even further by the hero leading the assults. If you use a Lich, keep doing dark rituals on the skeletons to fuel the mana supply and continue the casting of frost nova on the enemy. Same ideas apply with the Death knight's death pact. A Dread lords vampric aura will keep your units around longer as well, not to mentions nasty spells like sleep and carrion swarm.

Anyway, that was only an example, since all races have good complimentary skill that works best when combined with other units.

PAL

Well, got my first ass whuppin' yesterday. Didn't really learn much, but now I've "put my toe in the water", I'm sure I'll be playing a lot more :)

i've played almst 200 games and am still learning....

email me if you want some good replays

I've played a number of games and still get my ass kicked. I don't think I will get the hang of this game. Its very different from StarCraft, which I did master.