Alliance isn't fun

General Discussion
1

I want to say that I have played Warcraft 3 since childhood and since then some opinions I’ve been having have changed by I do want to say that out of all 4 factions in Warcraft 3 I don’t like the Alliance much which is a shame because I do like them in the lore but they aren’t very fun gameplay wise because there are a great deal of inconveniences with them (I understand these can’t be changed but I still want to talk about them) I will least my issues

  • The farms: I don’t like how their food buildings which are farms provide very little food compared to all the other factions which have food buildings that provide at least 10 food but the Alliance farms only provide 6 so the players are essentially forced to build large amount of these farms that don’t do anything but provide small amounts of food and this is especially annoying because other than being for food they don’t do anything else whereas the orc burrows can be used for garrison that can allow them to serve as an additional defence tower, the undead ziggurat can be upgraded as a defence tower and the night elves moonwell can be serve the purpose of healing units but the farms don’t anything additional which is annoying especially given how little food they provide

  • limited abilities against flying units: Compared to all the other factions the Alliance is very limited when dealing with flying units as they have plenty of melee units that the player would likely use but those units aren’t useful against flying enemies granted the Alliance does have the riflemen and some magic units but I don’t think it’s enough compare the other factions the horde has raiders with ensnare, the undead has crypt fiends with web and the night elves have mostly ranged units so they don’t need anything special as much as the other factions

  • Two types of siege units: This is something that irritates me because I find it stupid why does the Alliance have two types of siege units the mortar teams and the siege engines there is zero need for a faction to have more than one type of siege unit since one type is more than enough and the mortar team is all the Alliance needs a siege engine is stupid because it has to go near enemy buildings to attack them which negates the primary benefit of a siege unit since siege units are supposed to be at a distance from enemy towers when attacking so if they are attacking an enemy defence tower that tower can’t fight back because of distance but the siege engine has to be close to a building which makes it vulnerable to defence towers what is the point of them they are really stupid just use mortar teams

I’m sure there are other things but that’s all I can think of for now but I would like to hear what people would say what they have in response to this

2

Well, let’s tackle these points of yours one by one. Though I do want to preface this by saying I’m by no means an expert at the game. Heck, I’ve not played PVP in over a decade.

  • The farms. While they don’t provide much else than food, they are also one of the smallest buildings in the game, on par with the Scout Tower and the Watch Tower of the Orcs. This makes them useful in plugging up holes that you might have in your base defences. After all, having some pesky Blademaster coming in and killing all your Peasants is annoying, so it is useful to have any entrances to your vulnerable workers blocked from any unwanted attention. In the best case situations you can even have enough space left over for a smaller unit to pass through.
    In addition you should note that the farm is also incredibly cheap compared to the other buildings you mentioned. And in some cases it could be useful to put a dispensable farm somewhere to act as an early alarm system in case someone decides to move their stuff through that farm’s sightline.

  • Air unit issues. Alliance has access to the Flying Machine (I miss when it was called the Gyrocopter…) which is one of the best anti-air units in the game once you have Flak Cannons researched. Sure, they have low health, but when sufficiently massed they only really lose to Troll Batriders and massed Frost Wyrms - Batriders cuz of their suicide ability being best when in situations that a Flying Machine is really effective at, AKA all bunched up, while the Frost Wyrms have high health and magic attacks which are great against heavy armor like the Flying Machine.
    Also they have access to Riflemen as you mentioned, which are really powerful as well, even without any active abilities.

  • Siege unit types. Mortar Teams are biological, that is something to consider. That leaves them vulnerable to many kinds of spells and abilities, something that a crafty enemy can make use of. Siege Engines? They’re mechanical, tons of spells just straight up don’t affect them. And they have Fortified armor - when did you last see a player making massed Cannon Towers to defend their base? If that’s not enough, they also get an upgrade for air attacks. Frankly, I find siege engines to be underutilized, though not by much. In 4v4 matches they are very much a consideration when deciding what build you ought to do.

3

Yeah I guess I just find the Alliance to be a difficult faction I don’t usually play much outside of the campaign honestly

4

That’s fair. I’m pretty much the same. I never was into that whole PVP portion, not with the base game anyway - custom games were fine though.

But yeah, it doesn’t surprise me that the stats and differences between all these units and buildings leave some of them lacking when compared to each other. This is an RTS after all, one with a once thriving multiplayer community, much more diminished nowadays but the design philosophies are still clear as day.

Anyway, it’s fine to not like a faction if you don’t find them fun. Feel free to play what you want or find fun, especially if you just play campaign stuff. Heck, I’m pretty sure you can find other versions of the campaign maps that have race swaps - Undead taking the place of Arthas’ humans in the last Reign of Chaos human mission? Hell yeah, let’s make him a death knight even quicker!

5

Siege Engines with Barrage are anti flying units with multi attack, and they are hard to kill because of their fortified armor.
Flying Machine basic attack is an air-vs-air anti flying weapon.
Dragonhawk Riders with the Aerial Shackles ability can literally freeze enemy air units in place and kill them, while essentially stunning the enemy air unit so that it cannot fight back.
As you mentioned, Riflemen are also great at anti-air.

In your game that caused you to decide there was not enough anti-air, were you building these kinds of units with these upgrades?

Orcs have 3 types of siege units: Raiders, Demolishers, and Batriders
Night Elves have 3 types of siege units: Glaive Throwers, Mountain Giant + War Club, and Chimaera + Acid upgrade
Humans have 3 types of siege units: Mortar Teams, Siege Engines, and Flying Machine + bombs

So, I think Undead is the only outlier that has only the Meat Wagon, but Frost Wyrms with Freezing Breath are good against buildings too even though they’re not truly siege-damage units. So, shouldn’t you be complaining about the Undead?

1 Like
6

Personally, human has always been my race of choice, even though I usually avoid the human races in games (It’s a fantasy game, I want to play as something fantastical). This is largely because I find Human to be the most straightforward and simple, and I like their spellcasters and seige units.

Also, technically Human has 3 seige units: Mortars, tanks, and copters. Copters do seige damage to buildings, and while one isn’t that strong, they are only 1 food, and can destroy a base as fast as the same amount of food in other siege units, besides also being effective anti-air.

I’m nota going to say it’s an amazing strategy because it’s not, but frankly, building 80 copters is certainly fun.

IT CAME FROM BEHIND…

7

I have an idea let’s buff mountain king and add an option to use farms as baracades for towers or just give them as much food as the rest and add a tiny town hall in the shop like the horde has And while we’re at it allow the Paladin hero to heal himself or herself.

8

Is this a joke or a genuine suggestion