After spending most of last weekend playing Starcraft with Andrew and Dana, my love of real-time strategy games was rekindled. In an effort to get Warcraft III working, I removed all but 256mb of RAM from my computer. Though game still crashes, it's only crashing once per day now instead of once every fifteen minutes.

Though Warcraft III and Starcraft seem to share similar features, it seems that the strategies for the two games are vastly different. I'm pretty competent at Starcraft; Dana/Andrew vs. J.D. is a fair fight. I suck at Warcraft III. In nine games on battle.net, I have a record of one win and eight losses. That one win was in a team game!

I've been trying to determine what it is that's so different between Starcraft and Warcraft III. Though I can enumerate many differences, I'm unable to describe how these differences affect strategy and tactics.

In Starcraft, your economy and infrastructure are key. In order to be successful, one must expand early and often. Each town ought to be running a set ratio of workers to mineral nodes. Each town ought to have four workers at its gas mine. In Starcraft, the early game is all about establishing a better economy than your opponent.

This doesn't seem to be the case in Warcraft III. For one thing you're given a large chunk of gold and wood to start the game. Rather than throw your initial workers into harvesting, you throw them into getting your important initial structures (barracks, farm, hero altar) erected first. And while three workers are building these items (and you have two workers on gold), you still have enough money to build a worker and get him harvesting lumber.

In Starcraft I'd often run out of resources. This drove the need for expansion. While I do run out of resources in Warcraft III, for a number of reasons it's never that big of a deal. I try to get one expansion by midgame, but that one expansion is all that's needed to keep a substantial economy afloat.

Still, I'm doing something wrong. Perhaps I'm driving the tech tree too hard. Whatever the case, my opponents on battle.net always have more units than I do. By the time I've established my first army and am ready to "creep" (more on this later), generally my opponent is launching some sort of assault on my base. How can this be? Sure, Andrew rushes me in Starcraft, but these thrusts are easily repelled. In Warcraft III, an early rush is a thorn in my side.

Maybe I'm not utilizing my heroes effectively enough. Perhaps I should try some multiplayer vs. the computer to determine the heroes' relative power. Maybe I should be creeping earlier in the game.

The heroes are the one huge difference between Starcraft and Warcraft III. In Warcraft III, each of the four races has access to three hero units. These units are buff and each is able to choose from several powerful abilities. (The Paladin can heal units, the Blademaster can attack for double damage, the Mage can summon a Blizzard, etc.)

The hero units gain power through experience in battle. As they gain experience, their statistics increase and they gain access to more abilities. The best way to gain experience is to "creep". Each map has numerous neutral creatures stationed throughout: trolls and golems and gnolls and dragons hide in various nooks and crannies. These creeps can be hunted for extra gold, items, and experience.

I generally wait until I have three or four basic combat units to accompany my hero before I start creeping. Given that my heroes seem to be weaker than those of my opponents, maybe I'm waiting too long. Maybe a hero ought to set out alone (or with the first combat unit) in order to become more powerful more quickly. I'll have to experiment against the computer.

Actually, now that I'm thinking out loud I realize that a large part of my problem comes from a lack of familiarity with the various units and their abilities. Because Warcraft III was crashing so often, I never played far in the single player missions. I played to perhaps the fourth Undead mission. When people complained that they couldn't do well at Starcraft, I always preached: finish the single-player campaigns. Maybe I should follow my own advice with Warcraft III!

The game is fun, there's no question. I'm just frustrated that I'm unable to do well. I was a rank novice at Jedi Outcast when I started playing it online, but was usually one of the top players in the capture-the-flag games I joined. I don't' consider myself a novice Warcraft III player, but I suck at it.

Anyone want to play multiplayer Warcraft III? Just e-mail me. Or whisper jdroth on battle.net.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — Army of Coons   I was lounging in the tub this morning, soaking in the glorious hot water, when Kris — standing at the bathroom window — whispered, "There are two raccoons outside. Come see."

2004 — Alaskan Voyage: Portland to Vancouver   For the past two weeks, Kris and I have spent time in Canada and Alaska, thinking only briefly of the cats, of the house, and of you.

2003 — Reflections From a Log   In which I sit midstream upon a log, alone in the woods outside Estacada.