Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Compendium:General Tips

Back after some problems with blog...with a general Footmen Frenzy compendium.



Over two years old and still going strong, Footmen Frenzy is one of the longest-running crazes on USEast and USWest, even gaining a feature spot in Blizzard's Spotlight Map program in 2005. Though at first glance it appears to be shallow, BGH-ish, and impossible to lose, there's tons of complexity just below the surface.

The rules of the game are simple. You start on a team of 1 to 3 players, on a map divided into four corners with a neutral ground connecting them all. Each player begins with a barracks and 2000 gold. Footmen automatically spawn every few seconds at your barracks and there are shops scattered behind your base and in the center of the map. When everyone running Warcraft on their Palm Pilot has finally loaded the map, the game camera centers over the Hero Taverns, and you are left to your own devices.

The ultimate goal is to destroy all other teams by razing their barracks. As soon as a player's barracks is destroyed, he loses all his units and spawning privileges and gets observer privileges across the entire map. The winner is declared when only one team is left. It's that simple!


Or is it? The possibilities of Frenzy are endless. Should you put all your money into hero items and hope for the best? Upgrade your tier immediately and gain money for a late hero? Go pure Creeps? In your first game, you might want to stick with the basics -- get a known hero and play conservatively. Upgrade your army through the tiers and spend money equally on Weapons, Armor, and a race-specific upgrade like Improved Range. If you're an experienced player with a new ally, let him experiment and feed him any spare change you might have. It's always more effective for the experienced one to support the new player, than vice versa.

The team that coordinates has a much greater chance of success than the team where everyone tries to be the winner. Because you can trade resources like a real game, it's often useful to pool your money with other teammates so one teammate can get to Tier Four. Some players divide into offense and defense, with one in charge of base defense, and the other two providing money for upgrades. Another common team strategy is having fewer heroes on a team, while the other teammates upgrade their army (the heroes level slightly faster). A very balanced way of playing is to have one player to get a support hero or tanker, one player get an Area of Effect hero like the Archmage, and one player get a hero killer like CattleBruiser.