Game objectives

  • Emulator used: PSXjin v2.0.2
  • Completes Orc story from "Beyond the Dark Portal"
  • Plenty of bloodshed to save time

Intro

The third of four. Thankfully the PSX version of Warcraft II also includes the expansion "Beyond the Dark Portal"; so now I offer you the continuation of the orc story. There's no longer any easy tutorial levels to sit through, and with the addition of our powerful new Hero units, expect nothing but hardcore battles and the total annihilation of all those who stand in our way.

Level Commentaries

1 Slayer of the Shadowmoon 1:55

Sacrificing an ogre or two to lead a guard pack out the way is certainly worth it, allowing Grom to be freed earlier. Seeing as Heroes have the most HP, we can use good old Hellscream to absorb all future death coils and survive. A true Warlord of Draenor.

2 The Skull of Gul'Dan 4:24

Standard level here, just doing early attacks before the enemies can amass any real threat.

3 Thunderlord and Bonechewer 9:02

Micromanagement certainly proves its usefulness here. Only a total of 6 grunts get used, yet they still successfully kill over 40 enemy units in their lifetime.

4 The Rift Awakened 2:57

Friendly fire for the win. The blue base is completely overcrowded with both cannon towers and ballistas, all of which just too eager to assist in the destruction of their own units. No more than a Blacksmith needed from our peons, as the initial army is more than capable of beating the level.

5 Dragons of Blackrock Spire 0:52

Highly dangerous mission here, needless to say the method used here wasn't the intentional route, given how well guarded their base is. Suiciding basically everybody grants just enough wiggle room to get to the end to rescue those dragons. Fear not brave orcs, for your lives have been given a greater purpose. May Ner'Zhul guide your worthless spirits into the ever after.

6 New Stormwind 6:19

A real toughie here, with two formidable opponents to defeat. The Green base who cower behind thick layers of rock will send in regular attacks from their non stop gryphon production, while blue send in more traditional footmen patrols. But no feeble alliance can possibly match the cunning or might of The Horde. Both are dealt with in a swift and timely manner.

7 The Seas of Azeroth 8:44

Supremacy over the seas must be established. This means both shipyards, 26 Destroyers, 8 battleships, 8 submarines, and 2 oil tankers all need sending to the bottom of the ocean. Not a task for the faint hearted, considering they already have upgraded units, guaranteeing a loss in any 1v1 match. Well, that is without the aid of super micromanagement anyway. Oh, and just in case you forgot: "You're the captain".

8 Assault on Kul Tiras 7:08

Another level where tower density severely limits progress, as multiple ballistas and towers are hidden behind walls, preventing quick zergs. A slow push on whichever units we can attract gives a steady pace to the level.

9 The Tomb of Sargeras 2:42

Kill the daemon at the end, using any rescued packs to help you. This renders all other enemy packs effectively optional, ideally resulting in skipping them. However, there is not enough room to sneak around them, nor can we use suicidal ogres to distract them because they're more interested in our DK anyway. This means the first few packs need to be killed properly, until the DK (once research finished) can clear some guard towers. Once that's done, it then becomes a mad rush to the end to kill a single daemon.

10 Alterac 6:04

An early dragon attack on red can lure peasants away into repairing. Kill those, and that'll render them totally broke, with no way to afford anything else. Red can then be slowly destroyed, while the rest of the army takes care of White. However, low remaining health means that not all guard towers can be done with our initial army, and so we need to return later with the additional help of the rescued units.

11 The Eye of Dalaran. 4:04

Nozdormu's power over time wanes while we approach the city of Dalaran, slowing down our mighty warriors to only half their regular speed. In order to overcome these dark magiks, we need to allow ample time before beginning our assault. (IE the frame rate is bad here if we don't let this level load properly, hence a delayed skip to get past the tactics screen). With no time to build a base, this means no extra catapults, no Bloodlust from ogres, and no Death & Decay for our DKs. These form the usual core behind any offensive attack on Cross Island, and so more cunning techniques have to be devised.

12 The Dark Portal 9:45

Medivh's work will not go unfinished. With the jeweled scepter of Sargaras in our command, and the dragon aspect Neltharion to cause destruction of cataclysmic proportions, the return to our home land Draenor can begin. Unfortunately, the alliance have bolstered their hold over the portal, with five of their toughest heroes standing watch over the shores. However, they are not immortal, as the simplest of auras can melt the flesh from their bones, securing another victory for The Horde. Other nuisances include enemy peasants who enjoy repairing, or just simply rebuilding entire structures. This means certain buildings are tactically not fully destroyed until we can work our way further in, to make sure potential replacements will not be built. Ten minutes are all that are required to lay waste to all.

MY LIFE FOR THE HORDE


Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: With every coming Warcraft II TAS, they just keep looking better and better. Fine execution of brilliant strategies, micromanagement, sacrifices, and everything else that makes these runs joyous to watch. Looking forward to seeing the Dark Saga concluded with the fourth and final campaign in the future. Accepting to Moons as a new branch.
Spikestuff: "Alright."


TASVideoAgent
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Spikestuff
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Editor, Publisher, Expert player (2642)
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6438
Location: The land down under.
Providing Encode, other stuff (claiming for publication when accepted), and Jazz. Sorry for Low Quality since this is a bit of a high demand side. A HD temp will come along. Link to video Edit: Scratch that HD temp, internet here is being funky. The publication is what you're going to have to wait for if you want HD from me. Sorry.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
Zucca
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Spikestuff wrote:
Providing Encode, other stuff, and Jazz.
Yes please!
trazz wrote:
Killing the skeletons sooner or letting the skeletons live (unlive?) won't affect that at all.
Skilled player (1458)
Joined: 11/26/2011
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Location: RU
All WarCraft II TASes are great celebrations for me. Many many many thanks to Warchief Flip for creating these masterpieces!
I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Current projects: NES: Tetris "fastest 999999" (improvement, with r57shell) Genesis: Adventures of Batman & Robin (with Truncated); Pocahontas; Comix Zone (improvement); Mickey Mania (improvement); RoboCop versus The Terminator (improvement); Gargoyles (with feos)
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Joined: 6/30/2010
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FOR THE ALLIANCE! But seriously, good job TASing all those categories, we almost never see this genre on the site.
Current project: Gex 3 any% Paused: Gex 64 any% There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
darkszero
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You're the captain! Yes :)
Zucca
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Location: KUUSANKOSKI, Finland
Watching the encode... Looking good. I just hate hate those loading screens... This is one of the main reasons I stopped buying consoles after Sega Saturn disappointment. Is the emulator also that slow loading? I guess preloading the whole game into RAM would cause desync...
trazz wrote:
Killing the skeletons sooner or letting the skeletons live (unlive?) won't affect that at all.
Joined: 1/8/2014
Posts: 55
Zucca wrote:
Is the emulator also that slow loading? I guess preloading the whole game into RAM would cause desync...
I am not an emulator guru or anything, but if I had to guess, I would think that for anything to work right at all, the CD drive has to be emulated as well, and therefore its reading speed. I could be wrong though.
LOAD TO SUNRISE
Cooljay
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It always nice to watch some RTS TASes. The management skills, the mockery of the computer opponent, the destruction from the well planned raids, and winning battles with some units that might not win in regular play make it very entertaining. Yes vote.
Joined: 1/27/2014
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Fantastic video! Yes vote! :D
Warepire
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I know it's already accepted, but I have to add my "Yes, Master" to this. Excellent TAS.
Joined: 2/25/2006
Posts: 407
derula wrote:
Zucca wrote:
Is the emulator also that slow loading? I guess preloading the whole game into RAM would cause desync...
I am not an emulator guru or anything, but if I had to guess, I would think that for anything to work right at all, the CD drive has to be emulated as well, and therefore its reading speed. I could be wrong though.
You're correct. Typically the emulator has an option to act like a PS2 running a PS1 game with the Fast Disc Read option enabled in the PS2 BIOS (Only affects PS1 games). The function isn't compatible with all games but it is compatible with most and it does drastically improve load times. PCSX2 has an option to emulate running the games from a HDD instead of a disc. I doubt these options are legit in speed running/TAS communities.
Ryzen 3700X, ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) Motherboard, 32GB 3600MHz RAM, MSI Geforce 1070Ti 8GB, Windows 10 Pro x64 http://tasvideos.org/Nach/FranpaAlert.html
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I liked this a lot! Another great movie in the series. This one was super fast-paced since you start out with an army so often. I'll probably never get tired of seeing units dance back and forth in combat. Yes vote from me. (FOR THE HORDE)
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3037] PSX Warcraft II: The Dark Saga "Orc Expansion" by Flip in 1:09:41.93
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we're only missing the human expansion,if only someone would tackle it
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto. TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.