I think I've settled on the two weirdest things about Warcraft 2.

The first is the campaigns. Specifically, they don't play like an RTS.

The computer starting with a full base is pretty normal. What's weird is how heavily the game discourages early aggression, scouting, and expanding. Those are all hallmarks of RTS play even in Warcraft 2 itself.

In the campaigns however, scouting is near impossible unless you have zeppelins/flying machines. The map is littered with enemy units, sometimes in quite large groups. Areas of the map will be blocked off by guard towers with a contingent of soldiers guarding it. Getting an expansion isn't a matter of quickly moving out to one once your economy is online. You sometimes have to destroy an entire enemy base to get it. Secondary gold mines are only meant to be taken once the first gold mine collapses.

The flow of the game becomes defend, defend, defend. Get a decent sized army, and slowly clear out the trash units around the map. Only then are you able to siege the enemy base.

Another example of this weirdness is the mission I just completed. Objective: Build a bunch of shipyards and destroy all enemy ships. The logical RTS response to that is to quickly build a shipyard so you can get a fleet before the enemy techs up.

Wrong. The enemy already has ships patrolling the coast, and will immediately attack your shipyard. If you get past them, they will send an attack force to destroy your oil derrick, which is out of range of any ground defenses. If you somehow beat them, the enemy will send gryphon riders to attack you - all before you can get enough oil to build a navy to defend it.

The solution is to ignore the ocean for almost the entire mission. Wipe out the other enemies and tech up to dragons, then use your air force to beat the enemy into submission until you can get your naval economy online.

Each mission is like a puzzle. There is a best strategy, and you are encouraged to play the mission multiple times to analyze the AI and exploit it.

Little wonder that I was totally unprepared for Starcraft when it came out.

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The second is the command delay. There is a reaction time for units, and I remember the same thing happening in the DOS version. Units will "pause" for a moment after being given orders, and then react to them a couple seconds later. Order a group of dragons to move, and there will be a brief pause before the first dragon moves. The second dragon will wait for the first dragon to move, and then move itself. This goes down the line to the last dragon, which by this point is probably dead from whatever was attacking it. Microing units by individually selecting them is actually superior to selecting a group and moving them all at once.

Fascinatingly, this can also be seen with AI controlled units and units acting on their own. If a group enemies are attacking your towers and you send a defensive force out, the attackers will freeze while they process this new threat. They don't attack during this time, even if they are being attacked. This can even result in units not doing anything - an archer put into a worker line may freeze up entirely. They spend a moment acquiring a peasant, then the peasant goes into the gold mine and becomes untargetable. The archer will then spend several seconds acquiring a new target, which gives the new target plenty of time to either enter the mine or the town hall. Melee units will do the same unless told to stand their ground, in which case they have no problem smacking whatever comes close.

I'm dead curious about this effect. Was it a side effect of the pathfinding processing? Was it intentionally put in?