Poor man's entertainment?
Okay, so I've still not purchased a videocard yet. (See? I am fair in my procrastinating; even my hobbies get victimized by it. Kidding.) 90% of my games won't run but marvel of marvels, Warcraft 3 does!
What follows is a series of pictures summarizing my battle with the AI (Normal), which chose the Human race for this session. I am very happy with the match since my newbie microing skills assured me a 0% casualty rate until the middle part of the game.
I still get my head handed to me on a silver platter everytime I play in Battlenet but nonetheless, trouncing the AI is still very satisfying.
Start of the game: Ancient of War taking root near a creep camp. (For those who do not know, an Ancient of War is a Night Elf Treant that also serves as the race's barracks.)
Ancient of War (AoW) used as a tank. Note that it's usually SOP to train a single archer first (shown here netted by the trolls) before uprooting an AoW and letting it lead the fray.
The first harass with only a single archer in tow. Notice the overwhelming numbers. Some experienced players seek out the Human's war party but I opted for this simple economy harass by attacking the peasants. (seen here with two Footmen) Nelf players rely on the Demon Hunter's (DH) speed and the archers ability to Hide in night time.
The Human's war party arrive to the rescue. Faced with a tide of steel, I did the most prudent thing. I fled.
The third of my archers comes out of training and rallies directly to my hero. More firepower! Seeing that one footman had only little hit points left, I reengaged the enemy.
Lol! After killing one of the pursuers, I turned tail again; Robin and his merry vixens must get to Sherwood Forest fast! (Yes, Robin is really the guy's name, "Darkweaver" is just an alias meant to scare dumb-as-shit footmen.)
Finally got to higher ground. Superior visibility! Upon reaching there, I turned back once again and rained a volley of arrows upon the humans.
"On hemmed-in ground, use subterfuge.." Fighting in my sacred grove. Had to micro like hell here. Heal, retreat line of archers, DH takes brunt, heal hero, retreat line of archers again... Busy, busy. 'Had to shoo away those labanderas gossiping by the moonwells; needed those atabai real bad...
What's this?! They're retreating! The blackguards are actually retreating! After them half-na--- I mean, merry vixens of the Sherpaps Forest!!
They left their waterboy behind! Free XP! At it, my ladies!!
What they've got in those wells is some pretty strong sh|t.
Knowing that their forces are still convalescing, I charge back to their base...
Drawing out the enemy
After bleeding the enemy bad, I decided to flee again. Take note that I have still with me my six archers. My Ancient of Lore (AoL) is now up.
First casualty; an archer dies. Tut. Have two Dryads with me now though. Superior units --- their endowments are only covered with leaves. The merry vixens get jealous and are not so jovial now. They focus on their art and got Improved Bows.
These waterboys. Tsk.
Details on what they're doing: http://youtube.com/watch?v=nNJN8r1YamY
Twelve minutes into the game, I begin my first siege in the hopes of doing some major damage before the AI's army arrives...
No dice.
Faced with a hero, a tower, and foot and riflemen: what's a blind guy to do?
One creeping and a skirmish later:
Range units disengage to distance themselves
What I love about the Nelf race: focus fire!
Got bears. Now for the endgame.
"In death ground, fight." A Blood Mage unleashes his final spell ineffectually against magic-immune dryads.
The final battle: While my bears worry a footman to bits, a group of footmen arrives from the rear, taking my range units nearly by surprise. Robin metamorphoses into a demon. Nifty things, those cans of spinach.
Range units disengage again while Robin and the bears of Sherpaps Forest continue their attack. On the bottom part of the screen you can see the humans' Archmage dying.
All my units then turn their attention on the hapless footmen. It was pretty much gg several images back.
Hope you had fun reading! (The effects of having one's videocard fried --- 'does funny things to your brain.)
And no Warcraft III: Frozen Throne is NOT a poor man's game. It still is unrivaled in its depth and complexity. Kudos to Blizzard for producing a game that can run well on a wide range of computers. Also thanks to the people at WCReplays for providing replays; a lot of the tactics above were learned from them.
The full update changelog and the download link after the jump. 
