WarCraft III Multiplayer Strategy - The Acolyte Rush
By Acolyte_Rusher, Undead, Unranked on Lordaeron 1v1 (US West)

This is a much underrated tactic, that when done well, can be highly effective. It requires perfect play in order to succeed. You start by building a town with double Necropolie for optimum Acolyte production. Don't bother wasting gold on upgrading your Ziggurats, because this will just take valuable gold that could be put towards additional Acolytes. You will need 2 Ghouls to keep a steady flow of wood to produce Ziggurats. The key is to try to mass as many Acolytes as possible before the enemy attacks, hopefully getting to about 24 or so. Then, while he's out creeping, hit his town and hit it hard! The following is a recap of this dreaded tactic at work:

Build Order:

  1. Put starting Acolytes on gold.
  2. Queue up 4 more Acolytes.
  3. When your first Acolyte is complete, start summoning a Crypt.
  4. Summon a Ziggurat
  5. Produce a ghoul.
  6. Queue up more Acolytes as gold becomes available.
  7. Unsummon your Crypt (to reclaim precious resources for Acolytes).
  8. Build 2 more Ziggurats to maintain Acolyte production.
  9. NOTE: Position your zigs so that create "choke points!" These will be critical for town defense if you are attacked!
  10. At 12-24 Acolytes, I generally send an attack wave over to the enemy.
  11. Don't bother making a hero, it's just gold you can use for Acolytes.
  12. Keep building Zigs to up your population limit and make more Acolytes.

Attack Phase 1:

Out of habit, I accidentally sent my massive army to creep nearby. Then I remembered "Oh yeah, no hero!" (because I saved resources for Acolytes). No need to creep!

So then, I put them back on the warpath to the enemy's town to attack while he was out creeping with his hero. (He should've tried to peon rush me if he was a good player). FYI, Acolyte Rush > Orc Tower Rush!

Just as I thought! Looks like there is no base defense, because the enemy army is out creeping. Bonus for catching him off guard! He didn't even have towers, just a bunch of wimpy burrows, which take nearly 3 shots to kill a fully-teched Acolyte (even though I don't waste gold teching when massing them for the rush)!

Things looked very promising for an early win, as I was able to take out a defenseless Grunt and Shaman. Be sure to encircle the enemy!

Always run for the peon line. Cut off his gold source and he can't make any more units.

Things were going quite well, I trapped most of his peons near the gold mine, so he was unable to reach his orc burrows in pathetic retreat.

Though the Acolytes have a slow attack rate, they do a whomping 9-10 damage. This is high enough to kill miners. Again, the key here is to surround one peon at a time, creating an Acolyte "mosh pit" for maximum damage.

After his army returned, I attempted to surround his FarSeer to keep it from escaping. However, he used my very own encircle technique against me, trapping my Acolytes with his Grunts.

He ended up winning this minor skirmish, but I wasn't down the for count! I think the one big mistake I made is that I didn't send over more than 24 Acolytes, as I had another massed group at my town. Next time, the outcome will be quite different!

Attack Phase 2:

Here, I massed many more Acolytes for a second attack! If at first you don't succeed...

As you can see by the screenshot on the left, I've built up quite a formidable force of undead two-handed slappers! This can look quite intimidating, even to the most seasoned of veterans. The sheer number alone is enough to make many players quit the game, rather than suffering the pain and agony of a crushing defeat!

Unfortunately, by resorting to the widely-overused combination of Bloodlust and Orc melee units, he was able to crack through the battle-hardened wall of ready-standing damned.

However, as you can see from the screenshot, I have another full wall of defenses ready for him. There stands a virtually inpenetrable line of non-upgraded Ziggurats, as well as 2 Necropolie. I can't believe he actually pressed the attack; He'd have a tough battle, fighting on the blight!

You can see here that I created an excellent choke point to trap his grunts. Little did he know, but he was about to meet 5 very unfriendly Acolytes, fresh off the gold mine! While Acolytes normally do from 9-10 damage, they seemed to be unleashing 9.7+ damage per two-handed slap because they were so mad! Who needs Bloodlust?

The battle raged on for what seemed like seconds, but again, his over-priced Grunts managed to squeeze their way through my defenses.

I didn't quite play up to the best of my abilities. I still have a few kinks in the system to work out, but overall I think this is an excellent strategy to not only confuse but decimate the opponent!

I did a great job of fully utilizing my resources, putting nearly all of my gold toward the production of dangerous Acolytes. A word to the wise, if you're my opponent and hear "The damned stand ready," it might be time to give up!
Click Here to view the replay: Acolyte_Rush

- Acolyte_Rusher
acolyte_rusher@hotmail.com