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Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness Hints
Harvesting techniques
Although this would seem minor, it is EXTREMELY important. You need to know, mainly, how many Peasants to chop down lumber, and how to get gold. So, make at least 4 Peasants, although 8 to 10 would be better for later levels. Start off with a majority of the guys getting lumber, and the rest getting gold. Make sure you also build a Lumber Mill along the line, it speeds up lumber production majorly. Build that Lumber Mill as close to Lumber as possible, but try to put it in the middle of two sections of trees. Confused? Well, if you have trees on the top, some on the bottom, and a small area in between, put the Mill in that area. That way, once one section is used up, it won't take so long to haul lumber once they start chopping in the new area. You might also want to build another Lumber Mill if you feel that trees are too far away from your current one.
When you have too much lumber and not enough gold, switch the tasks of Peasants. If you want to make a strucuture, you can either make one Peasant a "building Peasant" (meaning he'll build all strucutures) or simply take one of the working ones, and tell him to build something. I prefer the latter -- I don't like having Peasants standing around doing nothing! Again, if you have more lumber than gold, have a wood-chopper stop and build something. Realizing how to get resources right is a vital element to the game, so get good at it!
Annexing gold mines (and islands) is very important. Build a Town Hall near another gold mine in case the first one runs out, and this speeds up getting gold, too. Sometimes there are trees on islands where there are gold mines, so if you run out of lumber on your main island, at least you have an alternate source.
Upgrading to a Stronghold/Keep and Fortress/Castle will increase gold production. Do so, when you can! Lumber Mills will increase lumber production as well, and Refineries will help oil.
For oil, it's usually a bit less urgent. You'll want a Refinery as close to the Oil Patch as possible, and at least one Oil Tanker. If you need to build alot of ships, build another Oil Tanker, for a total of two. If the Oil Platform is far away, make A LOT of them (about three or so, maybe more if you really need them). Guard the platforms with Destroyers and a Flying Machine nearby. Turtles will usually be brought over, so with the Flying Machine you can see them, and destroy them.
