Hello and welcome to a tip about what is probably the most underused and underestimated structure in 2.02 – I am of course talking about… pause for suspense… WALLS! Most skilled players consider walls extremely lame but there are situations where walls can come in extremely handy. There are five factions in the game that have access to walls (Mordor and Goblins do not) and when you reach a certain stage in a game walls can be of great use to any of these factions! There are three main "non-lame" uses of walls and I’ll go through each of them.
Isengard is the only faction in the game that has access to both Industry and walls. When combined, they truly give an incredible advantage. Industry is one of the strongest 10 PPs in the game that raises a resource building's output by 300% for a certain amount of time. However, any good opponent will try to destroy that RB relentlessly as soon as Industry is discovered. If you choose to wall in your furnace, your opponent won’t be able to reach it without using siege weapons or Power Points. Furthermore if you use Industry on a Furnace in the back of your base and then wall it in, it is very unlikely for your opponent to even get siege weapons close enough to destroy it. One might say that this is a bad move as it costs around 1000 resources to wall a Furnace in, but 1000 is a small price to pay in the long run for a level three Furnace with Industry.
Despite their mine system, Dwarves can have a really hard time defending their RBs. The enemy will often be able to destroy RBs from the back before Dwarven units can stop them. Again, walls can be game saving here.
As you can see in the picture I’ve walled in the sides and the back of the three Mine Shafts closest to my Fortress, forcing my enemy to attack it from the front. Now the defenders will be able to kill almost any harassing unit that comes too close. This tip should only be applied to the four Mine Shafts closest to your Fortress. Otherwise it will become way too expensive and complicated as it costs about 600 resources to wall in a Mine Shaft. However 4 x 600 = 2400 is a not a lot to pay to keep four level 3 mines intact for most of the game, and with Dwarven Riches it’s even more affordable.
The last main use of walls is to wall in your important Production Buildings. Any decent opponent will try to take out your high-level PBs in order to stop you from producing many elite units. However, if you deny him the ability to clump at the back and sides of the building, your enemy will have a much harder time doing anything about your elite spam. It’ll cost you about 800-1000 resources to wall in a PB – but that is again a low price for being able to keep up an elite spam without having to worry about anything but Power Point Powers and siege weapons.
These were the three main uses of walls. Now it’s time to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of using walls.
Advantages of Using Walls
- As mentioned in the examples, walls have several good uses concerning the protection of important buildings.
- Walls force your enemy to change strategy, which gives you time to push back as siege weapons are created to destroy the walls.
Disadvantages of Using Walls
- It’s expensive to build walls. You spend resources that could have been used for units or upgrades.
- Building walls will force your opponent to make siege weapons. Siege weapons are very powerful in 2.02, though players still don’t use them much.
- Building walls is very time consuming. One of your builders will be unavailable for a certain amount of time. Furthermore it takes a lot for precision which can be difficult if there's a lot of pressure on you.
So, knowing some of the advantages and disadvantages, it’s time to come up with a conclusion: are walls worth it? This is easily done with a cost/benefit analysis. Walls are expensive; it’ll cost you about 1000 resources to wall in a Furnace and also the same to wall in a PB. However, the benefit you’ll get from this is the safest RB and PB you’ve ever had. So in conclusion, walls are worth getting in 2.02!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this tip. Perhaps you’ll now choose to wall in your level three Barracks during your next game. I’m looking forward to seeing walls being used in more competitive games in the future!
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