Ghoul-Goyle -- By Z_Dragonlord (Written for 1.12)

Difficulty: High
Type: Strategic (With tactical hints)

Z_Dragonlord, of sclegacy.com submitted this strategy.

This strategy, Ghoul-Goyle, focuses on the combination or Ghouls and Gargoyles and utilizes them effectively like Muta-Ling in Starcraft.

This strategy came about after witnessing first-hand the apparent equivelence of Gargoyles and Mutalisks. When this classic SC strategy is reworked for War3, it results in a powerful strategy. Like Muta-Ling, Ghoul-Goyle is rather vesratile; I use it as my default strategy. Manuevers and theory behind the strategy are included in the tactical advice section.

Build Order and Strategic Application

I recommend you start with a Ghoul/Cannibalize rush, or even try to early expand to fuel the Gargoyles since Undead gold mines are relatively inexpensive. This is a midgame to lategame strategy, so you need to get yourself in a working position to do this. Don't do anything too risky obviously. Since I use this mostly against random players, my hero of choice is also the Death Knight, as it is the safest and most versatile. In this article, I will include the details starting from when you tech.

1) With this strategy, you MUST expand when you hit low upkeep. This is incredibly important because Ghoul-Goyle will be slowed drastically without the extra income. Consider building some stationary defense at your expansion so your main army will not have to worry about it too much. Also, at around low upkeep, you want to upgrade to Halls of the Dead. With the upgrade started and your expansion too, you will be ready for Ghoul-Goyle.

2) This strategy is very offensive. You should be constantly harassing the enemy with your attack force. If you went Crypt Fiends early, but think that Ghoul-Goyle due to its flexibility and maneuverability is a better choice, switch to Ghouls purely. You want to build Ghouls (and Cannibalize to complement) solely due to the cost of Gargoyles. Consider getting 2-3 Crypts beforehand so you will be able to pump Ghouls and Gargoyles continually later on. Obviously though, don't get these until you'll need them, because they are quite costly and can put you back early units. As your Halls of the Dead finishes, get a Temple of the Damned and an Altar of Darkness immediately. After that, get a Black Citidel ASAP.

3) All the while, continue to attack and upgrade, but be careful not to lose a large part of your army. Currently, you can use death knight attack aura to increase your speed, but rumor has it that it might be getting changed. If this happens, I am not certain what you would do (obviously). Perhaps death pact would be the preferred way to go then... Or alternatively the new replacement might be a good option too. Death coil is good in any case.

You should be continually pumping Necromancers to join your attack force, although you can neglect these to get faster gargoyles if you prefer. Some players prefer to just not get necros and make additional ghouls. Either works. With Cannibalize, Raise Dead, and heroes to back them up, your attack force should be extremely difficult to kill, allowing you to put a lot of pressure on the enemy while you tech up. You want to constantly harass the enemy to hinder their tech and keep them occupied while you tech.

4) Once you get the Black Citadel, you should hopefully have some sort of advantage. If you expanded with the cheap undead gold mine, you should have an economic advantage, and if you have been conserving ghouls properly and harassing them, you hopefully will have both a psychological, and a unit advantage over the enemy. At this point you should start pumping out Gargoyles along with Ghouls. I like to have 2 Crypts with Gargoyles pumping and one with Ghouls. It is probably a good idea to expand up to two more times. This way, you can ensure that you will be able to constantly upgrade, make Gargoyles and Ghouls, and also provide enough money for support units such as spellcasters should you need them later. Again, some players just prefer ghouls and then gargoyles -- dont make it more complicated than you can handle. Curse and cripple can really devastate a hero though, and skeletons are useful in general. It is also important that you obtain Ghouls Frenzy and Stone Form.

5) At this point, the game will be in your hands as you constantly aggress and attack. At this point you should be overpowering the enemy and maintaining air superiority. Whenever you are not using the Gargoyles to attack, send them scouting and kill anything that you can. The way to actually use the units will be explained in the philosophy and tactical advice sections following.

Philosophy

The main goal of this strategy is your common everyday tech up to Gargoyles. However, this strategy truly focuses on the persistence of the Undead force. In the early game, you should be constantly aggressing and healing your units while you do so. Most of you already know that with Cannibalize and Death Coil, the early Undead units are very powerful and will be able to hold their ground for a long while. This way, you can constantly attack while losing much less than the enemy. Chances are they will actually fight the same Ghouls for a while in the early game. As you reach higher up, you can augment this further by obtaining Necromancers. This way, every unit that dies on your side will have two more replacing it. When you finally reach Gargoyles, remember that Stone Form will help you to keep them alive. With Gargoyles, you can augment your offensive the same way you did with Zerglings and Mutalisks. Zerglings can be sent in waves after waves- Ghouls and Necromancers can imitate this effect not through massive unit count, but through persistence spells. Gargoyles can be used just like Mutalisks, striking deep into the enemy to annoy and to kill.

Possible Forks

1) Many people slow down on getting Gargoyles and just pump Ghouls with the help of the second hero- the Dread Lord. Commonly known as the Dual-Aura Ghoul cheese, this is a feasible tactic to use before teching finally to Gargoyles.

2) Some people like to get just a few Gargoyles (4) to harass and fool the opponent into getting more air defense. At the same time, you could get Abominations and make the enemy, if they neglected ground superiority units for anti-air, pay.

Countering Counters

1) You will experience a certain degree of problems with certain ranged tactics. To counter ranged units, make sure you hit from all angles and make sure you Cannibalize to make your Ghouls very effective.

2) Against heroes with anti-unit spells, which can be effective against Ghouls, it is a good idea to get a Dread Lord. Sleep will help take the hero out of the battle for a while and also Vampric Aura will help with Cannibalize to regain lost health. Try to assassinate such heroes with Gargoyles.

Tactical Advice

1) First of all, Cannibalize should not be underestimated for Ghouls. Use it like this: Cannibalize during your battle by selecting individual hurt Ghouls. This will really maximize Ghoul efficiency. In such early battles, that 30 HP will really turn the tide of the battle. If a Ghoul's health reaches red, it will probably die next- there is no use trying to Cannibalize with him-it's too late. You should try to retreat ghouls at dark orange, or death coil them then. Remember -- you can always pull a ghoul out and cannabalize at your graveyard.

2) When choosing heroes, I generally pick Death Knight, as he is probably the safest to choose. However, the Lich and the Dread Lord really have some good qualities to offer. It might be a good idea to consider picking one of them instead in certain situations. For example, the Lich can be helpful against other Undead using this as Frost Armor will really own. On the other hand, Dread Lords can really help with the battle against Orcs by casting Sleep. Picking them as secondary heroes is also a good idea. However, I would only take them as seconds when you have a firm grasp on your economy and can still support other units building while making them. Typically, the most popular choice is Dread Lord for various reasons.

3) A good idea is to put your points in Death Coil first and then Death Pact. Death Pact is really underestimated, but can really help with this. I mentioned before how to use it with Ghouls, but it will really help your Death Knight later on. A neat trick later on is to Death Pact your Abominations and then Animate Dead. A Level two Death Pact on a Abomination will yield 1000 more HP and a level three one 1500. Zileas recommends you use the attack aura currently (again, rumor has it that might not be the correct choice next patch), but death coil is key either way.

4) When attacking with Gargoyles, remember that you can hit from any angle (just to remind the newbies). Also, realize the importance of Stone Form. Very hurt Gargoyles should be turned to Stone- similar effect to using Cannibalize in battle. Some players like to use area effect spells to help defend against Gargoyles- similar to Psi Storming Mutalisks. Remember that Stone Form gives you 10 armor, 8 HP/per sec regeneration, and also SPELL IMMUNITY. That means as soon as that Blizzard hits your Gargoyles, turn them into stone. Another thing with Gargoyles is to go hero hunting. With enough Mutali- I mean Gargoyles, you can easily hunt down unguarded heroes. This is extra evil if you mix in deathcoil offensively.

5) One way to make this particularly heinous is to use your units to quickly kill anti-air capable units, and then just clean up with gargoyles. Gargoyles are very hard to kill, and this is particularly difficult for night elves and orcs to counter, if you can get to it. You may not want to do ghoulgoyle against Humans though.

6) A final reminder to those who do not use Muta-Ling very much. Remember to attack from multiple sides to split the attention of the enemy. With the smaller armies today, the enemy will not function well with their armies split. More specifically, attack frontal with your main army and flank with the Gargoyles. If certain units, such as Ballistae, are causing you grief, assassinate them with Gargoyles, or try running up with ghouls. Ghouls have a very small footprint, so they can move through troops with great ease.