Facing Paladin Rifle as Undead

Written by EchoGoodman with contributions from Ves

This guide presents a strategy which is proven to be successful in games up to Grandmaster level. Fairly simple in its idea, but requires the ability to execute!

The strategy will assume you started with a Crypt Lord ghoul opening, as this is the standard in most games these days. Why? Crypt Lord is viable against both Archmage footmen and Paladin rifleman openings, which is why he is our hero of choice against human.

In order to know what we are facing, we have to build a 6th acolyte for scouting. When we see that our opponent has a blacksmith and eventually a Paladin – we will now begin executing our strategy.

Strategy Idea

The idea of this strategy is to out produce our opponent and buy time for superior upgrades. In this case – using lots of ghouls and summons

The Initial Build Order

Time to Expand

At this point we have successfully completed our initial build order.

What now?

While creeping the green camp we aim to get as many beetles and skeletons as possible, including from the critter corpse.
After creeping the green camp, we pull additional 3 ghoul from lumber (4 in total) and go creep our natural expansion
Use the skull where you are creeping near the goldmine to build a Ziggurat. Haunt the gold mine as soon as you have the resources. Upgrade the Ziggurat to a frost tower

All of the steps leading up to this moment usually happen without any interruption from the human player. Therefore, you can practice this sequence in a custom game as a drill.

Depending on the map, this should take about 4 minutes of in game time for reference.

After creeping the expansion, we now have a lot of options for what to do next and many players will proceed differently. This guide focuses on a very passive/defensive style which, in my opinion, is easier to execute for a beginner.

Since Warcraft is a messy game after the initial build order, instead of giving exact directions of what to do next, it’s best to have a list of priorities. For this strategy, our list looks like this:

Scout the human player’s Paladin
- Highest priority! We have to scout the enemy hero to be ready to defend our expansion goldmine from being cancelled. Scout heavily with beetles and skeletons and be prepared to interrupt his attack on the goldmine. Having information of what the opponent is doing also helps us further make decisions.
- Undead is a very reactive race and therefore we simply cannot ignore what our opponent is doing, we play around it. Don’t wander too far from the expansion as it is being built unless you know where the paladin is!
Defend the haunted gold mine if human tries to cancel it
- This build will only lead to a win if we manage to get our expansion up and running without it being disrupted too much
- Forcing a surround on the Paladin so he Town Portals back home without cancelling our haunted gold mine is an ideal scenario
Creep level 3 with the Crypt Lord
- Since we are not attacking the human directly, our only other option is to farm creepcamps. Lvl 2 beetles are very helpful against riflemen.

It’s possible to achieve all 3 of the above mentioned goals, but it’s helpful to know where to put your attention first.

When you fully saturate your expansion, at around 5:10 – 5:30 min, as soon as you can afford:

Tech to Tier 2
Build a Graveyard
Build a Necropolis at the expansion
Build a 2nd Crypt
Build 2 Ziggurats at the expansion
Upgrade main base Ziggurats (1 frost tower, 1 spirit tower)
Upgrade expansion Ziggurats (in total 2 spirit towers and 1 frost tower).

Whilst trying to make these buildings, you must continuously produce ghouls (up to 45 supply at most, as we want to leave 5 supply for our 2nd hero before breaking upkeep)

When we reach Tier 2, we immediately tech to Tier 3, make Deathknight and build a Slaughterhouse. We are aiming to unlock Ghoul Frenzy and get a Lich as our 3rd hero.

Facing the Death Push

During this period when we are teching to Tier 3 or even earlier, it is very likely that we will face an attack on our main base or expansion and we will have to react. This is the critical point of the game and it is here where most games are decided. If we manage to defend successfully without losing too much and get to Tier 3, get our 3rd hero and ghoul upgrade, we will have a great shot at winning the game. This is how we will try to defend:

Pull all of our ghouls, Impale the human army and walk in it
Leave everything on Attack move
Do NOT hero focus unless you manage to surround the Paladin
Try to manually put 2-3 units on each rifleman during combat. Spreading damage versus a single target healing ability is our best to deal the most damage and potentially land some kills
Keep summoning beetles and skeletons from dead ghouls or riflemen
When you force the human away from your base, go back!

Remember, we are not trying to win the game outright here during this period, we are simply buying ourselves time for our Tier 3 upgrades and 3rd hero, so do not overcommit.

If you manage to defend without losing too many ghouls and your buildings are still standing when we arrive at Tier 3, get Lich with Orb and Ghoul Frenzy, you are now shifting the strength of the armies to your side and can go on the offensive! Now you want to look for a fight actively, because you are stronger.

Late Game Considerations

There have been 2 moments in the game where the game could have been already decided. 1 is when you defend your base during tech to Tier 3. 2 is when you engage the human with Lich and Ghoul Frenzy at Tier 3. The game could go a few ways now depending on how the human plays it. Again, we have to be reactive. The best way to know what to do is to gather information by scouting!

Human is still Tier 2 and/or is expanding at Tier2:

Go for a 2nd Slaughterhouse and go mass abominations
If you get 4-6 aboms against a pure rifle army, the game is almost unlosable

If human tries to get an Arcane Sanctum for Sorceresses, we get Destroyer upgrade to dispel it.

Human is going Tier 3 and getting Gryphon Aviaries:

Start pumping Gargoyles.

Additional Tips

If you have enough gold floating, buy Boots of Speed on the Crypt Lord. This will enable you to chase down fleeing low health riflemen or even heroes.
Try to keep your Crypt Lord as healthy as possible during tech. We will need this health when we are facing a push by the human.
When creeping, send back low health ghouls to lumber and bring fresh ghouls to creep. Blight gives a lot of regeneration for undead units and we need to replenish our ghouls for the defense facing ahead.
Buy mana potions at tier 2. With 2 bases up we have a lot of gold, and since our heroes will be low on mana because of Blood Mage, we can sometimes use a mana potion for a surprise Impale on the army or Death Coil on the heroes
During the push, if the human has workers with him building a shop, try to send a few ghouls to kill the workers during battle. Denying the shop greatly helps our chances of pushing him back
When standing in base and waiting for a good setup to attack, leave your heroes and army on Hold Position so that they don’t randomly walk in and die
Make sure to have Rods on both heroes to have maximum summons during all times when fighting.
If you have spare resources, get attack and defend upgrades for your ghouls at the Graveyard.
If you need to commit vs the paladin rifle player before frenzy, try to flank with ghouls from multiple angles (bring ghouls behind the pally player) as it helps you surround and attack multiple targets.