The Borderlands (WC1 Orc)
- For lore and background information about this location, see Borderlands.
| The Borderlands | |||||||||||
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| Location | Borderlands | ||||||||||
| Result |
Orc victory (retail game) Human victory (game demo) | ||||||||||
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| Previous |
 The Swamps of Sorrow | ||||||||||
| Concurrent |
 Grand Hamlet | ||||||||||
| Next |
Grand Hamlet | ||||||||||
The Borderlands is the second mission of the Orc campaign in Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. In this battle, the orcs defend the Borderlands from the humans of Stormwind.
Mission briefing
Like the stinging of a wasp, the attacks from the humans grow more and more bothersome. You have been assigned to a small outpost on the Borderlands of the Swamps of Sorrow. You are to defend our lands from the incursions of these ravenous dogs by crushing any opposition that you encounter.
The battle
The orc commander was sent to defend the outpost in the Borderlands surrounded by patroling human forces. His forces intercepted and killed every human there.
Guide
This is a survival map where you must outlast the incoming enemy forces. There are 19 enemy units, but they will only approach the town one at a time (about every couple game minutes). When they are all dead, the player wins. They come from five different directions: North-east, east, south, west and north-west. If you chop too many trees above your base and open up a tempting enough path, they may sneak in from the north.
Begin by training a Peon and sending your starting Peon to a Gold Mine. There is one to the north and one to the southwest. The north mine is much closer and is far easier to protect (for the time being), so start working on that one. You will need a farm immediately after your Peasant pops out. Work on getting (at least) 5 Peasants on your Gold Mine and another 3 working on lumber. Once enough buildings are out, you can move some Peons over to mining more gold.
Get your economy going, then work on a Barracks to pump out some Grunts. After you take care of a few incoming units, you should have room in your resources to build a Lumber Mill. Unlike in future versions of Warcraft, the Mill does not serve as a drop point, only access to Spearmen, Spear Strength upgrades and access to advanced buildings, such as the Blacksmith and Temple. You can defend the base with Spearman (Though they are outranged by Archers, so you will take some damage from them) and they have access to the Spear Strength upgrades; These add +2 Minimum damage (which cannot be blocked by enemy armor) to your Spearmen's attacks, allowing them to greatly outdamage the (eventual) incoming Archers. Keep in mind: Spearmens not hit as hard as Grunts, even with full upgrades.
You can play this two ways: You can wait it out and allow the enemy to send one enemy at a time until they have all been taken care of (safer method, but takes a long time) or you can go on the offensive with a task force of Grunts and/or Spearmen(faster method). If you decide to explore the map, make sure you leave some forces behind. All enemy units can located around the edges of the map, though there are none along the very top if it.
The following guide will tell you which direction enemy troops come from when they approach the base (if you decide to wait them out or are having trouble building an attack force to seek them out):
Enemy Approach
| Footmen | South · Northeast · East · Northwest · Northwest · West · South · South |
| Archers | East · South · South · West · South · Northwest · Northeast · East · West |
| Footmen | Northwest · South |
Notes
- Make sure to keep a couple units near your lines when mining the Gold Mine to the south. Peons have a much higher priority rating than your combat units and enemy combat units are likely to go after them first if chance offers them such an opportunity.
- When possible, send your Spearman to scout around your base perimeter so you can better observe where the incoming attacks are coming from.
Forces
Videos
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