Warcraft III: 1v1 in the Woods  

How to begin? Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm. Yummm (just put some chocolate into my mouth). Okay! Hello and welcome to my first Warcraft III battlereport. I am going to be your guide and narrator for today in an adventure containing elves, magic, gnolls, women, and lots of action. All you have to do is sit back, grab a drink, and read on!

The players for today are none other than Drintr himself (playing as human), and his worthy adversary Dilneilomo (playing as the feared night elves). The map? Gnoll Wood. For those of you who have never played on this map, or worse, never played Warcraft III, I will provide you with a brief summary and a minimap photo.

Gnoll Wood, home to a myriad of gnoll tribes (as its name would suggest), is a beautiful out-of-the-city countryside destination. In fact, if it wasn't for the murderous rock golems, trolls, and of course gnolls that roamed the area, chances are it could have been a very profitable vacation spot. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view, the human armies of Drintr and the night elf armies of Dilneilomo did not come to Gnoll Wood for a vacation, and a battle that would last for many nights was only to ensue between the two forces. With that, on to the report!

Drintr's town hall was randomly generated at the 1:00 position, while Dilneilomo swiped 6:00. Both players immediately began production on the peon unit for their respected races, and both players began  production on buildings: building each an alter, barracks, and a house. With five wisps on gold, an ancient of war completed, and four wisps on wood Dilneilomo started production on the sexy night elf archers in the early game. A Priestess of the Moon popped out of Dilneilomo's alter at about the same time his first archer was completed, and a second moon well for his base was ordered to be grown in the soft earth during this time as well.

Meanwhile Drintr was not idle, and had ordered an archmage hero into production that was completed shortly after Dilneilomo's Priestess of the Moon was finished. Drintr also began the production of footmen, as well as a blacksmith for weapon upgrades and riflemen! Upon the completion of Drintr's third footman, he ordered his soldiers and his hero to begin creeping. After clearing out his natural creeps (with 3 newly built footmen to assist), Drintr's archmage hit level 2 and gained a very nice mana stone as well as an experience tome that served to almost boost Drintr's archmage to level 3. 

Dilneilomo was similarly very busy, and his game strategy started to fully unfold when a dreaded Hunter's Hall was built, followed by the production of huntresses. An owl scout sent by Dilneilomo's hero spotted Drintr's main, and with three archers, three huntresses, and a Priestess of the Moon the rush began!

By the time Dilneilomo's army crossed the river adjacent to Drintr's base, poor Drintr was still not in a good condition militarily. With only 6 footmen (one badly injured), a level 2 hero (with one point in water elemental magic and the other in brilliance aura), and a newly created rifleman, the battle did not look to be in favor of the humans. A blacksmith upgrade giving the footmen plus one attack was countered by the huntress' being upgraded with plus one armor, and in the end footmen cannot stand up to huntresses.

The fighting was fierce! The single wounded footman died quickly to the blades of the huntresses, and some bad pathing caused another of Drintr's footmen to go in a direction away from the actual battle. The Elvin archers of Dilneilomo fired furiously, and his huntresses soon found themselves joined by fresh troops from Dilneilomo's base. Luckily Drintr's archmage had a trick up his sleeve, and from his advancement to level 3 during the battle, was able to summon some powerful level 2 water elementals to help his fellow soldiers. The huntresses slowly were killed off, and while Drintr's footmen were decimated (only two surviving), in the end he won the battle. 

With the enemy gone and a second barracks constructed to help replace the dead, Drintr continued with his creeping; reaching level 4 in the process (putting a point into the blizzard spell with the new level). Now with 1/1 footmen upgrades, Drintr's newly replenished footmen, riflemen, and hero were a match to be reckoned with, and during their creeping bumped into the enemy hero/army who were also fighting creeps. The enemy, caught in a corner, teleported away leaving Drintr to take a left over scroll of the beast (gives a 25% attack bonus) that had dropped from the creeps the Priestess of the Moon was in combat with.

The surprise attack by Drintr left Dilneilomo in a state of anger/vengeance, and due to this ordered the attack of his ten 1/1 huntresses and level 3 Priestess of the Moon. Drintr, who only had 5 footmen, a level 5 hero, and 7 riflemen was surely in a bad position (no really, huntresses simply own all). Although, the wise archmage hero had a trick up his sleeve once again, and with the use of the scroll of the beast he had gotten, plus a good blizzard casting, he was able to drive the huntresses into retreat. While although Drintr lost the battle in terms of units (losing quite a few footmen before he was able to kill off the weakened huntresses), he was still able to defend his base and drive off the invading army. Yet, the battle did teach Drintr that if he was going to win he would need some better technology, and thus he upgraded his town hall to a keep. 

The Huntresses Strike Back!

With his main base almost running out of gold, Drintr realized an expansion would be needed. The footmen/riflemen army, accompanied by the level 5 archmage, were sent to the 12:00 position to kill the creeps and subsequently create a clear spot for a new exp. While Drintr succeeded in killing the creeps, at the same time many of his men were wounded. And worse yet, the huntress army (fully healed from moon wells) had decided this was a good time to strike, and charged again at Drintr's base. Realizing that his troops would take too much time to walk back to the base from the now cleared out expansion point, the archmage used his teleportation scroll to teleport back to the under siege town center with the damaged army. With only four 2/2 footmen and five 1/0 riflemen (plus a sorceress  from a newly created Arcane Sanctum), Drintr knew the battle against the twelve 1/1 huntresses would be close. Luckily, he did have a few advantages:

1. His hero was level 5 (and became level 6) in the battle, allowing level 3 water elementals, a powerful blizzard spell, plus fast mana regeneration from brilliance aura.

2. The buildings in Drintr's base formed a choke point that allowed Drintr's riflemen to fire without fear of being attacked (the footmen and water elementals served as meat shields for them), plus the choke disallowed all of the enemy huntresses from attacking Drintr's army at once. Since the huntresses were all crowded in a ball waiting for their turn to attack the enemy through the choke point, they were a prime target for blizzard (which was used).

3. Drintr's troops carried an advantage in upgrades (2/2 versus 1/1) and another scroll of the beast increased their attack power against the enemy.

As can be seen by these advantages, while outmatched unit wise, tactically Drintr was in the lead (which in Warcraft III can easily mean the difference in a battle). Greatly damaged by blizzard castings and having to put up with the continuous summoning of level 3 water elementals, the huntresses were forced to retreat. Moreover, due to the Drintr's sorceress' slow spell, many of the huntresses were slaughtered in the retreat by the comparatively faster moving water elementals and footmen.

With the enemy once again in retreat, Drintr used this time to expand to the 12:00 base, and replenish his footmen once again. Meanwhile Dilneilomo still had not given up, and after his unsuccessful run-in with the blizzard spell, decided to tech to the magic resistant dryad units. At the same time also leveling up the Priestess of the Moon hero.

With Drintr, unit wise, still at a definite disadvantage, Dilneilomo knew he would have to strike fast if he wanted to win the game. With an army of dryads and a few huntresses, Dilneilomo attacked again Drintr's base (and at the same time making an expansion at the 4:30 position). Luckily to this attack Drintr was certainly prepared. With fresh troops, water elementals, and more sorceresses to caste slow, the victory was quick. The three huntresses leading the attack were easily slaughtered by the footmen and riflemen defenders, and with the meat shields gone (those being the huntresses), the remaining footmen in defend position (defend position reduces range attack damage to 30%) were easily able to defeat the spear throwing dryads.

Now it was Drintr's turn to attack, and with his decisive victory against Dilneilomo in the previous battle, Drintr knew this was an opportunity he could not miss. Thus orders were sent to his army to move towards Dilneilomo's main, yet the orders were halted when the expansion of Dilneilomo was spotted on the way. Guarded by only a few huntresses and dryads, Drintr put his footmen in defend position and then charged forward into the fray. Easily outmatched by the footmen, riflemen, sorceresses, and water elementals, Dilneilomo retreated again. While the dryads were able to escape, the huntresses, who had been slowed by the sorceresses, were slaughtered; giving Drintr another victory.  With Dilneilomo's expansion undefended, Drintr's army freely razed the base.

The Final Battle

Without an expansion and with his gold mine run out at his main, Dilneilomo knew that he would have only one chance to defeat the army of Drintr and win the game. With that, Dilneilomo leveled up his hero through creeping to level 6, and replaced his lost huntresses who were now 1/2 in upgrades. Then, with his dryad and huntress army, Dilneilomo ordered the final attack against Drintr's army which was stationed at the old 4:30 expansion point. Drintr, on the other hand, who had just upgraded his keep to a castle and who had footmen with 3/2 upgrades, was all too ready for the attack. Yet, this time it was Dilneilomo who had a trick up his sleeve, and once the battle was joined by both sides the sky started to fall...literally. Yes, Dilneilomo's now level 6 hero had decided to caste her no good ultimate starfall on Drintr's army. Drintr, who knew he would surely lose if he continued to fight at that spot, retreated his army back to his main base. Consequently during the retreat, Drintr lost most of his footmen and his sorceresses. With the battle won Dilneilomo continued to advance, only to then be screwed over by a newly created army of knights!

The battle was rough between both sides, but in the end the non-upgraded dryads stood no chance against the 3/2 knights. While the huntresses put up more of a fight, the fact that they take extra damage from knights did not help them, and they too were killed. Even though Drintr's hero died in the  battle (who had just become level 7), Dilneilomo's army was ultimately  massacred by the knights. Without an expansion, significant amounts of money, a hero (who was also killed by the knights), or an army, Dilneilomo resigned. In the end leaving the battlefield to Drintr. GG!

Well I hoped you enjoyed this battlereport of a huntress rusher getting beat down by the supposedly "underpowered" humans. Please leave some comments on the comment page! Oh, by the way, the graphics in Warcraft III are much better than the pictures may make them appear to be. When I saved the picts in .gif format, they lost quite a bit of color/good looks.

Peace and Love,

Drintr