Boring Introduction

Hello and welcome to yet another Who'sGotLag.IDO battlereport.  This battlereport will be about a game played on Footmen Frenzy v3.61.  That is to say this report is based on a UMS map for WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne.  You can skip down to the next paragraph since you will not care about what follows this sentence.  This is report number 18 for me (numerically), BUT in terms of completed reports, this is number 15.  You may ask where are the other reports and I would say incomplete or haven't started when I got bored/lazy/busy. (Yes, I keep recycling this.)

BTW. For those of you who have web browsers that can't display pictures with brackets or use Javascript, you're just outta luck.  This battlereport was designed for Internet Explorer 6.0.  Recommended minimum screen size: 800x600 pixels.

Some filler

Last time I put another video here so I might as well put another.  Here's a mime sketch of Natalia Imbruglia's Torn from Hollow Men as well as another miming video.  Another random movie that I found on collegehumor.com.

To use rapidshare, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "Free" button. Wait until the countdown timer completes and then proceed with the security check.

Footman Frenzy v3.61, the newbie guide

Ok, now you are sitting here probably going "wtf is Footman Frenzy" or "I know what Footmen Frenzy is".  If you are the former it would be in your best interest if you plan on reading the rest of the report to either read the Frenzy Compendium at  the official site or my wonderful Footmen Frenzy introduction if you plan on reading the rest of the report. If you just want to start the report itself, here is a handy hyperlink to speed you on your way to the report.

Edit: Ok now this thing is horribly out of date so you should only read it if you're crazy or totally don't know what's going on and are too lazy too look elsewhere.

The Short Version

As was stated in the introduction, Footmen Frenzy is a UMS map for WarCraft III The Frozen Throne.  The one and only goal in this UMS is to destroy your opponent's barracks.  Your barracks spawn troops and you can buy heroes, get better unit spawns, upgrades, and items depending on how much gold you obtain by killing your opponents units.

Click me for the Long Version

Pre-game

Pre-game setup in this paragraph, move on down if you don't care.  This game was played on December 03, 2004.  That's right, over a year ago with most of the time being spent after I wrote most of this.  This BR will be written in the first person format with situational updates...  I myself am the most wonderful and brave MehPracticeSmrf camouflaged and hidden in the southeast corner of the map.

Spread throughout the report are strategy boxes that I think are/thought were true... at the moment at least. Read them if you want to get more into depth on the issue or skip them if you don't care.  Remember how outdated this game and version are though.

Some more old Footmen Frenzy

This game started with 10 players in the 4 teams. The players were divided into teams by the corner they start in as you should be able to see above.  The Teams are numbered clockwise with Team 1 in the upper-left, Team 2 upper-right, etc.  At the beginning however honfazin transferred all his money to DeathInAPackage and yongmo was backstabbed by both his partners for some reason and quit soon after (He's not important so I excluded him from my beautiful chart).  This turned the game into a very convenient 2v2v2v2.

My partner merton selected a Jaood to be his hero and informed me to get a Demon Hunter to exploit the powerful lategame Bloodlusted Demon Hunter strategy I assume.  As he was typing his message though I, in my "random hero" phase of game playing, rolled the dice and ended up with a Halpmeh.  Conveniently my Halpmeh came with the free random items "Boots of Speed" and "Jaood Amulet" which made me faster and gave me additional hp and mana capacity.

Soon after I had gotten my Halpmeh however Hallogenic-X's CattleBruiser strolled out into the middle with his supporting Footmen.  Happily I contemplated the future outcome of the game as I imagined about my Halpmeh getting repeatedly walloped by a combination of Death and Cold Strike amplified by his Ethereal ability.

Needless to say I promptly switched to physical form and informed him of the great new dangers he was now vulnerable too, mostly composed of sharp objects.

One of my Footmen then took a lap around the map and returned. After a battle started between ThUnDa_LiZaRd and Hallogenic-X, I put a point in Zoz and put a lightning shield in the middle of their battle (Level 1 Shocker barely does anything). In that way I could do damage to both sides and more importantly leech kills off of them. Since my Halpmeh was in physical form he also began to engage in combat. Unfortunately his inexperience in the physical realm was very apparent as he proceeded to swing his incense holder wildly while using his axe for balance.  Tragically Hallogenic-X soon after killed the Zozzed Footman with a Cold Strike spell thereby ending its effects.

Fortunately for me however, gayfer had selected a Paladin and chose to harass the only undead hero in the game who also happened to be my biggest threat.  merton in the meanwhile was running around invisible with Moon Walk and attempting toambush and pick off heroes.  Soon after backstabbing yongmo's hero, Hallogenic-X's and later ThUnDa_LiZaRd's heroes were killed by gayfer's and merton's ambushes respectively.

My second and third skill points went into The Shocker and Tichmeh aura respectively. The former to get more kills in and the latter to soften up enemy units for my Footmen and Halpmeh.  Then Zoz, Shocker, and Huk! when I upgraded to Ghouls merton picked up a "Scourge Bone Chimes" for its Vampiric Aura and "Claws of +20" while I saved up for a Tier upgrade.

Team Backstab (Team 1, northwest) was doing quite well with its Footmen/Archer combo.  The Footmen were a decent shield and the Archers were doing heavy damage with their focus fire, badly wounding or killing any enemy hero nearby.

The Northeast team was starting to fall behind with both player's heroes having died once already.  gayfer and Hallogenic-X were involved in a feud and were trading hero kills while other battles raged about them.  They then decided to pick on the next weakest team, mine, but took heavy casualties doing it and helped me get enough gold to upgrade.

Team Pool (Team 4, southwest) was naturally doing quite well with a strong shield of upgraded Grunts allowing the 2 heroes to level quite well.  After reaching level 6 DeathInAPackage's HatoUp moved into Team Backstab's base and started a Stampede.  Both gayfer and merton moved in to hinder his ultimate, with merton ending up killing both the HatoUP and the Paladin with Moonwalk and Bloodlust. 

(7:50) Feel the Ultimates

Soon after using Dust of Appearance to reveal and allow macg3freak's Archers to kill merton's Jaood, Hallogenic-X came down and used his Camato Yannon ultimate on my poor little piggy. He had been busy incensing md1415's Fox who was at the front lines and providing Tichmeh Armorz aura support for the army.  These 2 kills quickly raised the CattleBruiser to level 7.

Team Pool decided to take advantage of this weakness and sent their armies in our direction.  Many Ghouls and Footmen were lost to the upgraded Grunts but they were steadily overwhelmed especially when our revived heroes' auras returned.  My Halpmeh began wandering around trying to rub his sexy body against as many enemies as possible without being surrounded while merton was killing at random.  md1415's metamorphosed Fox became trapped against a wall and was killed by merton's lusty Jaood while under Halmeh's aura.

Hallogenic-X was using Dust of Appearance well against merton's Jaood previously so I think merton got a few of them to reduce their availability.

A second attempt a few minutes later was also foiled when DeathInAPackage's HatoUP attempted a Stampede but was put to sleep by a purchased Renegade Wizard creep, md1415's Fox became trapped without mana by my Ghouls, and merton's Jaood began single-handedly annihilating DeathInAPackage's HatoUP and army of Troll Berserkers.

(12:30) Tunnel Vision

Then a third attempt less than 2 minutes after that went into our base losing many electronic lives but doing no serious damage.  Both the attacking and defending armies were destroyed but considering how DeathInAPackage had upgraded to Tier 3 Raiders and I had made it to Tier 2 Crypt Fiends before the battle, we came out slightly ahead in experience earned.  I had to switch Halpmeh to ethereal form to avoid his dying under the swarm of Raiders.  merton had to use his Town Portal twice to avoid being surrounded and killed but the second time ended up behind enemy lines and killed DeathInAPackage's HatoUP from the back.

A fourth attack was a sent a minute later and ended even quicker.  DeathInAPackage apparently had a strong dislike of merton's Jaood and kept attacking his side of our base and taking out his speed-built Cannon Towers.  He was able to kill merton's army of Footmen very quickly while I had to hang around our base to kill the incoming Raider packs.  My Tichmeh Armorz aura was helping us a lot as his Raiders had negative armor levels when fighting us.  Using Huk! to resurrect some of my lost units helped my forces to withstand the next attack and brought my Renegade Wizard back to life after it died to Shadow Strike.

After a battle between everyone in the middle, a sixth attack supported by a level 2 Stampede a couple of minutes later was also thwarted as the Raiders ran into our Footmen/Crypt Fiends supported by a couple Avatars of Vengeance creating invulnerable Spirits.  The Stampede was interrupted again by my Renegade Wizard's Sleep spell.  The HatoUP then chose to Town Portal out rather than face the Jaood standing right next to her.  I advised merton to upgrade to at least Tier 1 at this point several times since he was clearly the target of a vendetta.  He didn't.

A seventh consecutive attack against our base was launched after a slight skirmish that started in the middle cost both merton and myself our heroes to Hallogenic-X's CattleBruiser.  merton's Jaood could handle Team Backstab's army, but when a Camato Yannon hit him he collapsed in an instant.   My Halpmeh was cruising around the middle in ethereal form and the impacts of the CattleBruiser's regular spells was not pleasant.  DeathInAPackage's army were eventually killed in our base by our combined forces and merton's Jaood dealt with the HatoUP.  DeathInAPackage had something to say about that.

(20:30) Spend that money

At this point ThUnDa_LiZaRd must've figured out how they were this game's whipping boys and quit leaving gayfer alone and outmatched.  gayfer had been harassing the CattleBruiser but being so far behind in levels his attacks weren't very effective unless it had been injured first.  After getting killing the CattleBruiser one more time then getting his Ghouls whipped by the Jaood, gayfer quit as well eliminating Team 2.

Teams 1 and 2 had been busy fighting while our battles occurred to the south with Team Backstab benefiting from their weaker opponents.  Hallogenic-X's hero had the highest level out of all the heroes but that isn't unusual for a CattleBruiser.  Hallogenic-X had recently purchased a HatoUP as well getting up to level 3 so far.  macg3freak's Archers had done their job well and unwary Footmen and heroes were in serious danger near concentrations.  The inherent weakness of Archers had occurred to macg3freak's and he had been saving up for Dryads until this moment.  

The above Shockwave netted me enough for to upgrade again to Tier 3 while merton continued his hero killing adventures.  Team Pool launched a heavy attack against Team Backstab with Raider groups shielding DeathInAPackage's Stampeding HatoUP and md1415's metamorphosed Fox.  Hallogenic-X and macg3freak's armies crumbled under the highly upgraded Raiders and ultimates, but merton annoyed DeathInAPackage again by Moon Walk/Bloodlust ambushing his hero yet again and md1415's Fox was picked off while the armies fought on.

With the death of their heroes I sent my forces into Team Pool's base and started rubbing my Halpmeh around.  merton came over to assist while I had to switch back to ethereal form to avoid being swarmed by the Raiders.  Angered by his mistreatment yet again, DeathInAPackage used a Rod of Envy on the Jaood after his hero had been revived.  The Rod put merton's Jaood to sleep for 2 minutes and gave the Team Pool the advantage again.

Team Pool's armies were more than able to handle my initial wave of Crypt Fiends and Skeletal Mages but the pile of bodies allowed masses of invulnerable Spirits of Vengeance to be raised.  Coming to block the base entrance behind them were 2 control groups of Skeletal Mages that had spawned rapidly during the previous battle.  My Halpmeh did leave the base to go the middle Archvault where he was promptly killed by Hallogenic-X's respawned level 16 CattleBruiser.

With the loss of my hero again, I decided to simplify the battle by trying to take out md1415 who was still at Tier 0 with focus fire on his Barracks.  My reinforcements plus more streaming from my base and some of merton's Spirits changed target and started burning md1415's barracks down while the few defenders hacked into them.  This of course opened up the base chokepoint again and DeathInAPackage's HatoUP ran into the middle and picked up a Wand of Negation.  A couple of casts later and the Spirits died but the Mages survived.  Long enough to take out the Barracks at least.  Hallogenic-X's HatoUP also showed up toward the end to have a Cold Arrow and Shadow Strike fight with DeathInAPackage which ended before anything happened.

DeathInAPackage got off the last shot however as merton's Jaood came out of his slumber a few seconds later and died to an arrow from the Orc barracks.  The killing of the Jaood also gave DeathInAPackage just enough cash to upgrade to Orc Tier 4, Taurens.  

I had sent another wave of Mages into the base when they were hit from behind with a Shockwave from Hallogenic-X's CattleBruiser and disintegrated.  Rather than try to flee past the death machine Halpmeh Town Portaled out and the CB killed the pale blue HatoUP instead.

As I was leaving the base again with another batch of Skeleton Mages, a flood of red and blue units flowed across the middle toward our base and I promptly advanced in the opposite direction.  While I engaged macg3freak's Dryad army just inside our base, merton's Jaood was fighting Hallogenic-X's entire army of Footmen in the middle which wasn't too unreasonable if not for the CattleBruiser.  Soon after dispatching the Jaood, Hallogenic-X joined up with macg3freak and sniped both my Halpmeh and the Renegade Wizard on the right flank. 

Mouseover picture

Although we had lost both our heroes, my Skeletal Mage army was still good enough to hold off Team Backstab's combined forces and heroes.  merton gave me 2k and then repeatedly told me to upgrade to a Cannon Tower and then to Abominations when my reserves hit 4k but I finished reviving my hero first since we were in no real danger.  After our both our heroes were revived, merton Moon Walked off to recharge in the middle and then ended up killing Hallogenic-X's CattleBruiser just before dying again to the army and HatoUP standing nearby.  The Claws of Ultimate Devastation which combined with 3 "Claws of +20 Attack" and Frost Orb added a combined +166 damage to his normal amount of chaos damage.

(30:00) Retaliation

With the removal of his ally, DeathInAPackage attacked hard after Team Backstab's attack.  After deploying a line of Taurens in our base, the Halpmeh sent another Stampede tearing into the clashing lines.  merton's Jaood was still being resurrected in his barracks and his Tier 0 Footmen were no match for the heavily upgraded Taurens.  The Footmen were mostly eradicated before my Renegade Wizard could finally reach the HatoUP.

The mass of upgraded Tauren then turned their attention to merton's unupgraded barracks and began to tear it down.  merton's emergency Peasant teleported in and began repairing the barracks but its contribution was nothing to the storm of damage being imparted.  Seconds before the barracks was destroyed the Jaood returned to the battlefield before dying with it.

DeathInAPackage's few Taurens that survived killing merton were quickly annihilated by my remaining troops and the HatoUP fled to fight another day.

(32:00) The Deciding Factor

A few minutes later DeathInAPackage launched a heavy attack with 2 control groups of Taurens against Team Backstab.  Both of Hallogenic-X's heroes were killed by the rampaging Tauren and level 6 Ice Shards from the HatoUP.  I however was unwilling to run into the Stampede running around in their base and instead sent my 2 control groups of Abominations against DeathInAPackage's base.

In both cases there was heavy disruption to the bases and many units killed but the overall effect of the attacks was negligible.  Cannon Towers in both bases dealt heavy damage to the battling units on both sides but the faster replacement from the defenders barracks turned the battles.  By the end of the attack Hallogenic-X's base was down to 206 hp, but DeathInAPackage was too busy trying to repel the invaders in his base to send units to finish him off.  

All parties then stopped to repair and respawn more units.  No armies ventured out for a few minutes because of the risk of further flanks.  I sent my Halpmeh in to harass DeathInAPackage's Taurens in their base before he chased me out.  On the way however, Hallogenic-X ambushed the light blue HatoUP and killed it with a Camato Yannon.  Team Backstab then must've felt they had some sort of advantage and sent their armies charging forward.

When I saw the moving mass of red Riflemen and blue Dryads come pouring out of their base I had 1 thought, "Look at all that free money."  It would take a truly huge and heavily upgraded low tier army to defeat either DeathInAPackage or my own Tier 4 army and this army wasn't even close.  Seeing the army swing southwest instead of toward me I knew I had to do something fast.  Flank them hard and turn them into my money or watch DeathInAPackage get rich.

I earned about 2000 gold off Team Backstab for little damage and another 2000 from DeathInAPackage barely defeating his Tauren army.  Team Backstab then complained to me about my attack and how they apparently thought they were going to be able to kill off DeathInAPackage with their Riflemen and Dryads.  In the meantime I of course began to blow the cash I earned off them to bring my barely upgraded army up to par while ignoring them.

Team Backstab again launched another attack against DeathInAPackage with an even smaller army which I belatedly moved to counter.  I say belatedly since their army mostly disappeared in seconds under the mass of Taurens facing them.  Despite the fact that their army had died before mine had even arrived, Team Backstab decided that I was the cause of their failure and began to hypothesize about my life.

After a few more skirmishes, feeling outmatched by the fearsome wit of this dastardly duo, DeathInAPackage and I took turns attacking them until they died.  Or rather I should say we would let the other get started attacking them before the other would charge in and hit them in the back.  During this time both DeathInAPackage and myself both got second heroes, Paladins, which were ideal for supporting both our heroes and armies.

DeathInAPackage had softened up their defenses and Hallogenic-X expended his defensive Stampede on them when I sent the final blow on them.  macg3freak had reached Tier 4 Night Elves (Glaivethrowers) but that wasn't sufficient to stop lots of upgraded Abominations (with Devotion aura and supported by Tichmeh Armorz and Resurrection) from overwhelming them.

Endgame

With the removal of Team Backstab there was some more chatter from them while DeathInAPackage's army swarmed out of his base and bore down towards mine.  My army itself was still inside Team Backstab's base and needed to make the long trek over.

At this point Hallogenic-X babbled something incoherent and then quit.  At which point the game disconnected, probably because neither DeathInAPackage or I was a suitable host.  

Game Over

Wasn't that interesting?  What?  Not happy with the ending? Too bad.  This was originally intentioned to be an independent report, then I decided to make it a 2-parter to make up for the crappy ending.  Then I stopped working on the second part so now its independent again.

Even though my units were less upgraded than DeathInAPackage's Taurens, I'm pretty sure I could've taken him out to end the game.  My Halpmeh had army weakening spells while DeathInAPackage's HatoUP's were less effective.  My Area of Effect spells would've weakened his army even with their superior upgrades while my Tichmeh Armorz aura negated his armor upgrades.  Finally my Resurrection ability would've made sure that I had more units overall then he did.  The HatoUP's abilities while powerful would've been less effective on my greater numbers except for the Stampede which I could probably negate with the Renegade Wizard.  A Rod of Envy to take out a hero would probably have turned the battle toward one side or another, but with second heroes both of our primary heroes could've been taken out for 2 minutes.

There was also the option of the less interesting stun/sleep lock but what's the fun in that? Let's also not mention the fact that I forgot to buy Scourge Bone Chimes after merton was sent on his not so merry way.

No, there isn't any replay link. 

Link to my other reports if you are extremely bored is here.

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