Spoony Plays Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition, Human Campaign Part 1

We play a classic RTS.



I had some trouble getting this one to work windowed in DXWnd; it would either start up and be choppy, display nothing in the window, or just come up blank when I tried to record footage with both Bandicam and OBS.  But after much fiddling, I found the solution.

Use the preset that comes with DXWnd (/exports/Warcraft II Battlenet Ed.dxw).  This is a preconfigured setup for the game.

Once it's loaded, make the following changes:

• Enable Force Cursor Clipping under Input.  This will keep the cursor bound to the window so you can mouse scroll.
• Positions W and H under Main should be 640x480.  Anything else will cause performance to take a major hit.  It kind of sucks that you can't have a larger window while playing, but them's the breaks.
• X and Y can be whatever.  Somewhere around 500x300 is roughly centered on my 1920x1080 resolution monitor; adjust yours accordingly.
• Moving the window after you launch the program will mess it up, so don't do that either.  Always make adjustments through the X and Y coordinates.

You should be good to go!

(If you're wondering why I'm so stubborn about using BNE over the DOS version, it's because BNE adds in two extremely useful tweaks - the "Attack" command now properly causes all of your selected units to target enemies instead of breaking off into one-on-one fights, and you can also assign "squads" via CTRL+0-9 as in Starcraft.)

Other tweaks implemented for BNE are listed here:
http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Warcraft_II:_Battle.net_Edition

Units Introduced

(Generally speaking, both factions are very similar to one another; each unit has a very close equivalent in the other's army with identical stats and costs, with the only real differences arising from some of the upgrades their advanced units get.  I will note any significant differences, though.)

Peasants - Your basic low-level worker unit; they build and repair buildings, mine gold and chop wood.  All but useless in a fight, but they form the backbone of your army and are absolutely essential to success.  Keep them protected and replace them immediately if they get killed.  Requires a Town Hall.

Footmen - Your basic infantry unit, packing decent health and damage but no range to speak of.  Useful early on for base defense and some enemy harassment, but you'll want to replace them once better options (ie Knights) become available.  Requires a Barracks.

Archers - Your basic ranged units.  Decent range, but piss poor in close quarters due to their low HP and fire rate.  They're handy backup for your melee troops, though, and are also great for taking down annoying flying units.  They can later be upgraded to "Rangers" which have slightly more HP and get a few new upgrades, including a +3 bonus to damage that their Orc equivalents, the Axethrowers, lack. Archers require a Lumber Mill, Rangers require a Keep.

Tankers - The seaborne equivalent of Peasants, they exist only to build oil derricks and harvest oil from them.  Oil is a must on any map with a lot of water, so keep them under close protection.  Requires a Shipyard.

Destroyers - The workhorse of your navy, having decent HP, speed and attack power.  Relatively cheap to produce and useful in all things naval combat related, as well as for taking the occasional pot-shot at land units.  Requires a Shipyard.

Critters - Generic unowned units that roam the map randomly and don't do much other than occasionally get in your way.  They mostly just exist to add some atmosphere, though you can kill them if you really want to be a jerk.  The Mage can also turn enemies into them with the Polymorph spell, but that's another story.