The UNDEAD race is not a joke. There is nothing funny and amusing. If you play Night elf and fight versus the UNDEAD Scourge. This UD units have emerged from their graveyard and crypts just for one purpose - to make elfs suffer and die in pain. The main reason is because UNDEAD HAVE MANY STRATEGIES AND MOST OF THEM ARE GOOD. The opponent can go in different ways and suprise you badly. But when you beat an UD and clean the land from their garbage look buildings it brings you a great relief.
Tier 1
1. YOU MUST KNOW what your opponent is training - mass Ghouls or mass Fiends. That is why when your hero pops out of the altar immediatly send him to the UD base. If he have a Nerubian tower there is nothing you can do because your hero becomes almost useless. If there is no Nerubian tower start to kill acolytes. So with or without NerTow you must stay around his base and JUST SEE his army. If he goes ghouls start making hunts. If he goes fiends mass archers. DO NOT fight ghouls wuth archers and fiends with hunts. This is stupid. I have watched a replay of a gosu NE player who mass hunts vs fiends and i must tell you that his death /as expected/ brings only shame to the NE race. So lets look at the situation now:
1. He mass ghouls - Immediatly start pumping hunts and Tech to Tier 2 for talons /Druid of the talon/ and hippos.
2. He mass fiends - Mass archers and start teching to Tier 2 and Tier 3 for Bears. Do not be afraid to confront his army while you meet himm creeping - kill his ghouls or fiends and if possible shadowmeld your units.
Tier 2
As a said in the begining UD are very versitale. Basicly if he goes
1. Mass ghouls there is 2 ways for him ot continue - mass gargoyls or make strong earth army and later mass Abdominations. Both this strategies are countered well with 2 Ancients of Wind. Hippograff counter gargoyls, talons counter ghouls and with some support later also Abdominations. Now don`t tell me that archers are the only way to beat gargoyls. I think hippos are also good with the support of Wardens Fan of knives. If you try to counter gargoyls only with archers it is very possible that your archers die fast from ghouls. So to counter "ghouls and gargoyls strat" you must go - HUNTS, HIPOSS, TALONS and a few /5-6/ archers - just for their extra damage vs gargoyls. Most of the UD players take as second hero Lich. This UD hero is very annoying but has very very little hitpoints. It is very easy to kill the Lich if you have the opportunity. For an example /with Warden/ - cast on her Shadow strike, immediatly after that Fan of knives and than focus fire with your units. The Lich will die in seconds.
2. If he mass fiends you must continue pumping archers, get some talons and continue TECH TO BEARS. Now let me tell you - Bears beat fiends very easy. Basically he cannot beat you if he has mass fiends and you have Bears. Even if he has statues, 3 heroes and later pulls out Abdominations.
NOW VERY IMPORTANT - UNDEAD ALWAYS GOES TO AIR. Yes. In some moment of the game he will go to air with gargoyls, destroyers ot Frost wirms. So YOU MUST BE PREPARED. Always make 6-7 hippos just in case even if you don`t see air.
Tier 3
UNDEAD are very dangerous race. VERY VERY dangerous. After Tier 1 and Tier 2 he can go in very different ways to make you suffer and die. So lets look at all the combos i have faced while playing
1. Mass ghouls, abdominations, statues, 3 heroes. If you see this combo start to laugh. It is very easy to beat. The answer is MAGIC ATTACK. Ghouls, Abdominations have heavy armor wich take extra damage from magic atack and what is more important the units that provides it for NE are himera and talon. Yes. Those liitle talons kill ghouls and abdomination very easy and also TAKE AWAY THEIR ARMOR WITH FAERIE FIRE. 15 ghouls even with frenzie, 6-7 abdominations, and 3 heroes will die in seconds from 10 talons, 5 himeras and one Warden with Fan of knives. But remember that he can transform statues in destroyers so do have some hippos.
2. Mass fiends, abdominations, 3 heroes, statues. This is a little more hard. You must have bears to kill this combo. Your army must involve. 5-6 bears, 7-8 talons, 10 archers and Warden. The key points here are two:
a/ First kill the fiend with your bears, do not go for the abdominations
b/ Kill Death knight at all costs. This hero is one of the strongest in Warcraft and can support all other units by healing them. When you kill the Death knight the battle turns in your favor. NOW i will recomend to you that you must build also himeras even if he has WEB to bring them down. Don`t be so afraid if he brings your himerras down - after all even down they continue to attack. At one moment the fiends will die and your himmeras go high in the sky you will be victorious.
3. Meat wagons, abdominations, necromancers, fiends, statues, 3 heroes. This one is e real hell. Meat wagons provide corpses and HAVE INSANE DAMAGE, necromancers make corpses in skeletons, Abdominations are meat shield for the fiends. This strategy is realy hard to beat and to be really honest i DON`T KNOW HOW. Fiends bring down himerras, you are clearly outnumbered on the ground from the skeletons, Abdominations stop you very away from the meat wagons. This is ultimate hell for Night elf. Sometimes he produces beetles with Crypt lord and provides even more meat upfront. Maybe some gosu will give advice how to beat this....
4. Mass air - gagroyls, destroyers, frost wirms, heroes. This is another deadly strategy. The simple answer is hippografs. It is much more difficult in fact. Frost wirms slow down hippos, gargoyls kill them and the destroyers are immune to magic so you cannot kill them with Fan of knives. The answer is mass archers and mass also a great number of hippos.
5. Ghouls and necromancers. Some players fear a lot about mass ghouls and necromacers. I do not fear this. The simple answer is WISPS. Detonate them where the skeletons are and they will dissapear. He cannot beat you at your base with this. Detonate all your wisps on his army and thats all.
6. Ghouls, abdominations, banshees, statues, heroes. Hard strategy to beat becase mass master banshees are very deadly. With posession they will turn all you strong units into their units. I have played some guy who had 6 banshees. Just enough for him to turn my 6 bears into his bears and i was beaten badly. Banshees are great units well underestimated and suprisingly not often used by UD??????
7. Mass frost wirms, heroes. At first place you should not give the opportunity to your opponent to achieve a great number of frost wirms - 9-11 units. It will show that you are complete noob if the guy achieve such force. But sometimes it happens especcialy on the map Twisted medows. Some Undead players have very interesting strategy. They mass gagoyls - clean the mine on the islands on the corners of the map and make another city there - with altar, crypt, graveyard and 3 dragon boneyards. Ising the mine they try to get around 8-10 frost wirms with upgrade that frozes the building. Do not panic. Start pumping hippos, archers AND USE ZEPELLIN OR 2 TO GET TO THIS ISLANDS. The key here is the archers who can look weak but in great numbers >>>> frost wirms. Also try to keep your hero alive, which is difficult because frost wirms have high damage and also also slow your hero. The key poynt is to kill his golmine and prevent him from getting another one.
As you can see UD have many strategies /and i suppose they have even more that i did not faced yet/. The situation is even worse because they also have a great number of gosu players who implement those strategies and make some of us - noob and medium skill players suffer a lot.
I think the key points in beating a medium skill player UNDEAD ARE as follows:
1. Always remember that sooner or later he will go to air
2. Always use a great number of talons - UNDEAD don`t like faerie fire at all
3. Scout them in all times to see what they are planning and react properly
4. Remember that some of them use shades and thats why you must use constantly units or tricks that reveal invisible units even on your own army. May be a shade is moving all the time with you.
5. Always try to develop an area of effect skill to your heroes - fan of knives, breath of fire, haze or something else. Combination Warden and Panda is very strong against undead. Use Scroll of protection.
6. The back bone of the UD army is Death knight. Kil him if possible.
7. Don`t be so affraid of mass gargoyles. With Warden`s fan of knives faerie fire, hippos and a few archers the can die very fast. The problem with gargoyls is their speed and that sometimes you may be suprised with them.
After all this game is for fun. Enjoy....
chims can't attack air and no matter how fast you teach he will still get destroyers cuz theyare immunes and it is nessecery to have them (if you are UN)
