Cheats, Tips, and Hints Oh My cheats for Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal

Cheats, Tips, and Hints Oh My

Peons/Peasants

Yer bog-standard Serfs, their primary use is in collecting gold and lumber and

Building things. If a fight occurs near them, move them all away to safety

Immediately. Always try to keep your Peons behind other units. One of the more

Useful things that Peons do is repair. If one of your buildings is under attack,

Instruct a Peon to repair it while the attack is going on. As long as you keep it on

The other side of the building from the attacker, you�ll find that it�s perfectly safe

And will seriously slow down the rate at which the attacker causes damage.

Indeed, get two Peons repairing a building and you�ll have made it practically

Indestructible. It�s also possible to use this facility to speed up your building by

Sending Peons to repair a building under construction. Be warned, though: this

Will substantially add to the cost in both gold and lumber.

Orc Grunts/Footmen

These characters are your basic foot soldiers, and you�ll need a few of these at the

Start of each level. As soon as you can though, you should stop producing them

And concentrate on some of the

Other more useful units.

Trolls/Elven Archers

These are the missile units. In hand-to-hand combat they are quickly

Overwhelmed. Always keep them behind Grunts or Ogres (Footmen and Knights

For the Elves) in battle. If you group them with these other units, keep a fairly

Even mix. When you move to engage the enemy, the Trolls or Archers will stop at

A distance while the hand-to-hand specialists move in. In the case of the Trolls,

It�s worth producing lots of these early on, as later you�ll be able to buy

Regeneration for them.

Both Trolls and Elves should be upgraded vigorously. On later levels they

Become the best defence against the heavy aerial threat posed by Dragons or

Gryphons. A couple of well-trained units can be very effective, especially if you

Distract the aerial invader with some cannon fodder. Get a Footman or Grunt and

Run him around underneath the flying nasties. He�ll probably survive for quite a

While and your missile chuckers will benefit from the easy target practice

Provided.

Catapult/Ballista

More destructive than the Trolls or Archers, these are also missile-only units.

They�re very slow, however, and in defence you should always keep them back

From any front-line areas, only bringing them forward when an enemy appears.

Their greatest use comes when attacking, because of their exceptional range. With

Reasonably careful positioning, you�ll be able to take out enemy towers without

Any danger to the catapult. When attacking with these units, always keep some

Foot soldiers nearby. If the catapults come under attack, move this squad in to deal

With the attackers. Then pull them out again and let the catapults do the major

Damage.

Goblin Sappers/Dwarven Demo Squad

Surprisingly effective, these units self-destruct when instructed. You�ll find that

Two of these will take out most enemy buildings. Like the Peons, though, they

Should be kept away from all combat. Keep them in some safe corner until you

Need them. They can also be used to carve routes through to gold mines or forests

By blowing up mountains. It can be well worth using a couple of these to make a

Journey for your Peons shorter, giving you quite a significant long-term time

Advantage.

Ogres

Ogres are very tough hand-to-hand fighters. As soon as you can, stop producing

Grunts and switch to these. Later on you�ll be able to turn them into Ogre Mages

And research spells for them. However, if money is tight this is one thing that can

Quite easily be dropped from your schedule. The Death Knights get much more

Effective magic and the Ogres don�t really get all that much tougher when you

Make them into Mages. Keep a careful eye on your Ogre units, which tend to be

Rather head strong and are likely to charge off after retreating enemy units when

You don�t really want them too.

Knights

Knights are great shock troops and, as with Ogres, as soon as they become

Available you should concentrate on producing them instead of Footmen. Unlike

The Ogres, though, they get great magic when upgraded to Paladin status, and it�s

Well worth spending the money on research. Two spells in particular are hugely

Useful. First Healing: it can make sense to keep your Knights with healing safely

Out of the way and just bring units to them to have them healed. This is especially

Useful when combined with Gryphons. The other invaluable power that Knights

Get is exorcism. Use that to pick off any Death Knights you come up against.

Mage

Like the Death Knight, the Mage should be kept out of close fighting. The Mage

Has great destructive capability with it's Fireball spell - just be careful there are no

Friendly units in the line of fire. The other great spell in the Mage�s armoury is

Invisibility. Cast it on a Peasant and get him to walk calmly into your enemy�s lair

And build a Guard Tower. Or cast it in on a Peasant in combination with Flame

Shield and get him to wander unnoticed among your enemy�s army, wreaking

Havoc as he goes. Or cast it on some Dwarves and get them to blow something up.

You�ll have great fun with Invisibility, the only drawback being that it doesn�t

Fool death Knights, so make sure that your paladins have exorcised them first.

Goblin Zeppelin/Gnomish Flying Machine

With no combat ability whatsoever, these units are just spotters. They�re very

Handy for sussing out enemy strengths and weaknesses, but their major use comes

When the enemy produces submarines. Add one of these to any naval group you

Create and they�ll be able to spot the otherwise invisible subs, allowing you to

Attack them without being spotted.

Death Knight

The Death Knight is an awesome creature, but not really suited to hand-to-hand

Combat. Try to keep them slightly away from the fighting and particularly any

Paladins. Probably their greatest power is to animate the dead. With the judicious

Use of a couple of Death Knights attached to any raiding party you can turn all the

Enemies you defeat into skeleton soldiers at no financial cost. As the enemy gets

Weaker, you get stronger.

Also very effective is the Whirlwind, but only when cast on very dense areas of

The enemy�s defences. Unholy Armour is great if you give it to a Sapper unit and

Then send it, now invulnerable, to blow up an enemy building or army. It certainly

Gets rid of pesky Mages quickly.

Dragon/Gryphon Riders

These great aerial beasts are the finest weapons available. No longer do you need

To build ships to transport your men around. Now you can just fly somewhere and

Attack it. Their only real disadvantage is that if grouped they tend to destroy

Friendly units with over enthusiastic fireballs, and even each other, but keep them

As loners and they won�t go far wrong.

Naval Tactics

The Troll Destroyer and Elven Destroyer are fast, manoeuvrable ships and still

Useful when they�ve been superseded by the bigger and more powerful Ogre

Juggernauts or Battleships. The larger ships are much slower and take longer to

Respond, so always keep a blend of different ships in a naval group. That way

You�ll be able to react more quickly to any threat. The Destroyers are also capable

Of hitting flying opponents, which makes them indispensable at sea.

The Submarines make a great addition to any naval group as well, but can also be

Used very effectively as raiders in groups of two or three, especially if combined

With an aerial spotter to watch out for any Towers or flying creatures that are

Capable of noticing them. Sending Subs out in advance of a large navy is a great

Tactic, as you can pick off enemy ships before they�ve seen you.

One final piece of advice. Towers are very effective against naval units, and

You�ll nearly always lose ships when attacking them. But you can use a Transport

Instead. Put three Footmen into the Transport and rush the enemy Tower. Land

The Transport as close as possible to the Tower, then release your Footmen, who

Will attack it and remain safe because the Towers can only attack units at a

Distance. Move the Transport out of harm�s way until the job�s done, and then

Send it back in to pick up your heroes.

Sim Citadel

The layout of your buildings can have a crucial effect on the outcome of any

Attack, so take some time to think about where you place them. Always make sure

That your Peasants have as short a route as is possible to the Town Hall or Lumber

Mill, for instance, and build Barracks as near to the front as possible so that your

Troops have less distance to travel into battle.

Towers are an extremely effective form of defence, particularly as they can be

Easily repaired when damaged. What�s not so obvious is that they can also be very

Handy in an attack. Building a string of Towers behind enemy lines will certainly

Give them something to think about.

Although you can�t build walls yourself, you do have an option to create very

Effective barriers by using Farms. Farms are not crucial buildings and are pretty

Cheap to produce. If you want to block off an area against repeated attacks, build

A wall out of Farms and then place Towers just behind it. The enemy will come

Along and attack the Farms, leaving you in peace to pick them off. Then when the

Attack�s over, repair your Farms. Using this tactic it�s possible to just sit back and

Absorb all that the enemy can throw at you until he�s exhausted all his resources.

Keep an eye on how much gold is left in his mine by using your aerial spotter.

Filthy cheat

There is a quite splendid array of cheats for Warcraft II. These are just some of

The more useful. To use any of them, press the �enter� key. Then, when the

�Message:� prompt comes up, type in any of the following. A word of caution

Though: some of these cheats (particularly the production ones) give the enemy the

Same benefits. This is thankfully not true of the invincibility. Typing in the same

Cheat code a second time will turn the cheat off.

IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE: Makes all your units and buildings invincible,

Except for a few magical attacks.

GLITTERING PRIZES: Gives you 10,000 gold, 5,000 lumber, 5,000 oil.

VALDEZ: Gives you 5,000 oil.

HATCHET: Speeds up the production of wood so your Peasants or Peons get a

Unit in only two chops.

MAKE IT SO: Dramatically speeds up all building.

TITLE: Increases the speed of your units.

NOGLUES: Disables magical traps.

SHOWPATH: Displays entire map.

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE: Shows the end sequence and

Finishes the game.

UCLA: Shows �Go Bruins!� message. For no obvious reason at all.

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