I Should Have Made This a Long Time Ago
 

Seriously, this gets on my nerves so badly.

I play Warhammer, like all good Americans. I play it well. I find no challenge in beating the computer on insane, with any race, be it my own or that of my allies, and on most of the levels. I have hotkeys memorized, I know what unit best counters what and can adpat my strategy without committing too much.

Overall, I would say I'm pretty good.

But, before I even owned any of the Warhammer games, I played Warcraft. I loved that game, honestly I did. I played the first game when I was 10 and from then on I was hooked. One and two were easy, simple RTS with different units specializing in different things. Very few abilities to worry about. Then, WCIII comes out, and all hell breaks loose. The game is incredibly micro intensive, and you must constantly pump out units. Heroes, while incredibly powerful, instantly become lightning rods for your enemie's attacks. About a third of the units have abilities, several with three or more. This is all fine and dandy when up against a human player, they are only one person. The computer, however, can micro to an extent that is impossible for any person. Not only that, but their attacks are far more organized and done so much faster than you or I would find possible. All of this is true on Easy.

I have never beaten the computer on WCIII without cheating, on any difficulty with any race. I mention this, because I just picked the game up again, thinking that my improved skill in Warhammer would carry over to WCIII. Unfortunately it just wasnt true.

What I was wondering, and hoping to discuss is this-Why do I suck so much at WCIII when I own at Warhammer, Age of Empires, Black & White, and the earlier WC games?

And, does anyone have any tips that they would like to share when fighting the computer?

I'd say because Warhammer is stupid easy, a rush eats the computer alive every time, the AI is weak due to the computing power eaten up by it and therefor it's reactions are slower. WC3 just cheats, there is no silly "pretending to be a person and not knowing where you are thing." It just eats you. Unless of course you are me and live for the intense micromanagement required to beat the computer. Beating the AI in WC3 just involves a dogged commitment to not following any of the preset pathways anywhere (log your way where ever you go) and knowing that the AI will kill your first couple waves (buildings have more HP than troops) and you'll need to confuse them with twists and traps in your forest pathways. The paths often land you steering your peasants, but again, you must love the micromanaging. I also create completely autonomous strike forces that I attack their base with whenever they attack me, this usually works well and the AI has issues with it.

All in all Total Annihilation is a much better game, but to each their own.

I haven't played Total Annihlation yet, so I don't have an own at the moment.

Aside from tree tunnelling (I actually first used this on WCI when I was like 13), which takes a lot of time and isnt really effective on certain maps, what would you consider to be a good strategy for anti-elf when playing as undead?

I try to swarm them with ghouls, but that doesn't work. I put my own range up against them, but to no avail. So far, my best idea has been to carrion swarm them, sleep the hero, surround two enemies at a time with a few ghouls and work like that. Vampiric aura helps a tad. Then this thing called a 'demon hunter' comes out and rapes me. A more astute name for the hero would be 'necron lord'. I see several similarities between the two.

1. Both have more Hp than something that small (or agi based) should have
2. both have rediculous melee attack damage and are excellent anti-heroes
3. both turn into monsters that make you cry when they get in your base
4. Both are the only sturdy unit they have until tier 3

With Undead I try to spread as much as possible, this allows for larger swarms and less overall damage when they come through to rape you. Other than that, for Undead at least, I'd have to recommend you to Loki, the master of the Swarm.

I think your problem is that you're playing an RTS. Seriously what the hell? Turn-based is da biggest and da best!!!

Ehh, I can't play most Turn-based strategy games, as I have a bit of an issue with the AI's attitude problem. I don't let anyone, especially a damn game AI demand shit from me.

As such I usually get steamrolled early game for telling the computer to shove a stick up his ass.

Thats why I prefer a good RTS, it skips all the politics and gets right down to the violence.

I play both, but most TBS feel very old after you play a few of them (Soul Nomad, how dare you), whereas RTS only feel a little old no matter how many you have played.

Besides, with a TBS there is no pressure to micro, almost no skill is required. Patience is important to TBS, something I have a hard time massing the resources for.

What I don't like about RTS is the micromanagement required for the game. I kinda wish that you could just make a set of commands that your workers follow (y'know sorta like the Gambit system in FFXII). Seriously I tuned out of Age of Empires II while playing on the first Campaign level...

Total Annihilation (or it's spiritual successor Supreme Commander) is the best RTS ever.

I prefer Company of Heroes over Supreme Commander; SC is by far the best on large scales, but Company wins in squad-based combat. Squad-based is just that much more enjoyable to me.