Random player, Reign of Chaos, needs some help.

I play Reign of Chaos, not Frozen Throne, and I've had a really hard time finding answers to some questions that are probably pretty basic.

When the screen pops up that says what race my opponent is, the fact that I'm random should hopefully give me a metagame advantage that my opponent lacks (well, unless he's random too). There are matchups where I just really have no clue what to do, though.

If I'm elf and my opponent is also elf, I lose far more often than I think is appropriate. Usually I meet them at some point during creeping, and my army just gets owned. I know that my build order is at least mostly ok, but what unit mix should I focus on getting, and what hero? How about late game?

When I'm elf I also have a big question when dealing with undead. Good ghoul players punish me pretty bad, but I see an overwhelming tendency toward fiends. Regardless, if I let the game go on, I tend to end up against an army of fiends and gargoyles, and basically have to rely on my ability to Creep my DH up to demon-mode in order to finish an expansion of theirs and finally seize an end to the game. Very likely, something goes wrong, and their army, which seems comperable in food size and upgrades, just obliterates my army- which usually consists of archers, a few hunts, and a couple bears. I'm scared to go talons because they seem to die so fast to fiends. Rushing this match usually gets me into their base with my DH and two archers (with a third on the way) at the time when they have two lumber ghouls, a freshly born DK, and a crypt fiend. If I attack the hero, he runs while the fiend and the ghouls own my archers. If I attack a ghoul, he runs, frequently dies, but sometimes is saved by a coil. Is rushing the answer, or am I just a tool for thinking it would help? I know that I lose far more late-game against undead than win them.



As undead, humans seem to have answers to most everything I do. Yesterday I played against a human player who never expanded and I outcreeped by a signifigant degree. I expanded twice, and kept pumping fiends and necros. His micro was bad, he didn't dispel my skellies, etc. I won, but it took me, in my mind, far too long, and he killed my lower level hero twice with a combination of focus firing his dwarves, stormbolt, and holy light. I had to run from combat once as well, even though we met in midfield and presumably things were mostly equal.

If this player had been halfway competent, I'm sure I would have lost, despite having a large upgraded army, and a DK of higher level. What unit mix and upgrades should I focus on against humans?

When I get orc, I'm just generally puzzled. They are easily my weakest race, and the Frozen Throne strats don't really seem to apply very well. My best strat from win / lose is early towers. If I try to win by creeping I usually get a rather early rax, a couple grunts, and a farseer, but as soon as I hit Tier 2 I have too many choices. What determines whether I should go second hero, who it should be, Spirit Lodge, Bestiary, or both, and when I should upgrade to T3? Also, when should I expand? If I try to tech / early harass I usually use Blademaster, who sadly seems like a liability until level 6- and it's worse because I will usually fall behind in creeping. Lusted Wyverns seem like a viable late game, and I certainly lose to them as orc, but... well, what am I missing?

As humans, what should I focus on versus elves who build mostly archers, and some bears?



Any help would be greatly appreciated.|||Humans go casters (sorcs) for the slow..and target each archer one by one and MK to stun hero till archers wipe. After that you shouldn't have to worry about much cus chances are, their hero is nothing with the archers. But don't take my word for it, I just started humans, but that has been my strat so far against NE. Oh btw I've been told Humans>NE, so you should already have the advantage with that lol.|||From my experience in playing NE, they suck vs. humans. Mainly cos' the homo's gots footmen who gots shields which gots Defend. Unfortunately if ur playing as human (as I do most of the time) mercs sometimes plays a role in reinforcing your not so strong (but versatile) army.