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Warning: This is NOT a Frozen Throne report. Regular Warcraft has turned into Wardcraft and Castercraft and I am here to expose it to the world.. I am aware that the expansion solves these problems, but for the time being non-beta players such as myself have to suffer with how things are.

I have been away from War3 for a long long time, mostly because of the repetitiveness of the ladder games. On a medium sized map (Tranquil Paths, LT, etc) a human will fast-expand, an orc will fast-tech, and so on. In this particular matchup I faced a human while I chose orc. I of course assume the human will fast expand, while he assumes I will fast tech and therefore allow him plenty of time to do so.

Tired of seeing a fast-expand and death by massed gryphons (seeing as orc have horrid anti-air) I decided to be DIFFERENT ::gasp:: and not fast tech. Instead I opted to go altar, burrow, mill, rax and a BM first with a skill in critical hit. I produce HH to back him for power creeping.

Even if you rush a fast expander, its pretty hard to crush that new expansion because of the human's power build. Their expo is up in a matter of seconds, and immediately pumping gold.

Once the expansion is up our newfound korean friend techs to tier 2. He is hoping the gold mined from the expansion will reinforce his footman army while he invests in a Mountain King as his second hero.

SK trains two footmen, creeps his local level two trolls with a Water Elemental for meat, and immediately chimes in for four militia to follow toe. He is headed to his closest gold mine for a little human cheese.

At the same time, I, FearTheFrog have cleared a second gold mine and march a peon there in the event I decide to expand. I am also teching to tier 2, while continuing to pump HH. I have 6 HH out by the time tier 2 has completed. My item at this patch is a crystal ball, which I scout the remaining gold mines with. Both are cleared, and in one I notice an expansion going up.

I circle the map back towards my base, hoping to catch the SK creeping. He must have had the same idea and meets me halfway between our two bases. His reaction is a little later than mine, and as a result I get a few pot-shots in before he notices his forces taking damage.

Hoping he teleported to his main base, I rush my troops to the expansion site to cause a little damage and perhaps kill a few peasants. Instead of peasants I run into the AM, his two footmen, and a bunch of militia.

The battle is on! Well, it was until my BM mirror imaged himself behind their troops, dying almost immediately. My HH did manage to kill both footmen and a few militia before turning tail and running away. SK takes this advantage and checks to see if I have expanded, which I haven't.

I tell my new Far Seer to meet up with the six HH and a grunt and quickly hit again, while retraining my fallen BM. SK has brought his Mountain King to meet up with his AM and two footmen and prepares to creep. He doesn't get that chance, though, as my troops run for his expansion, focus his scout tower, and almost kill it.

As the picture shows, the expansion fell. Since SK is down in advantage right now, I take the opportunity to expand. SK immediately begins ressurecting his two fallen heroes, and pumps sorceresses from his twin Sanctums.

Rather than risking a direct assault while weakened against SK's base (which has a tower or two for defense) I creeped a fountain of mana and scored a healing ward. It was immediately put to use, and after healing I went for SK's base. He met me halfway, away from his base, and we began the final battle.

SK focused my BM, quickly getting him to red health. I panic and use his lovely Mirror Image ability, praying that the fake BM stays out front. To my surprise it works, and the real BM can sit back and take a breather.

Once SK's Mountain King falls, he has no real meat left and his remaining army falls like flies. The above picture shows the BM hiding, as was mentioned. The sorcs, while dishing out slow, really had no chance against level 3 Head Hunter spears.

• If I had done a typical pure caster build, I would have been overwhelmed
• Do something spontaneous, like harassment
• HH deal tremendous damage at level 3
• Never assume you've won, continue to tech (as the picture below shows I was doing)
• Fast expansion is cheese, and so is mass caster
• Fire is good