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Many years ago, when Warcraft III was still big, I got hooked up on a custom map named Shango Tower Wars. At first I did not understand how it works, but a friend of mine whom I played with quickly saw that the minions would pass two control points. I need to build towers in a maze-like way to elongate their way so that my towers have enough time shooting the minions down.
Shango Tower Wars generated money every some seconds and one could increase that regular income with buying minions which would appear on the opponent's side. Of course one also needed money to build towers on one's own field.
If the 20 starting lifes are used up, you lost.
After some time, a guy with the nick mastersined which I met on the battle.net tought me some tricks, for example how to time minion waves.
For months, eventually for years, I played this map in several versions. Eventually I saw that only a handful of other guys on the battle.net Northrend realm could beat me.
There were Enfo_Megadeth. He really was able to push you down. But in one single game, where I built a very large maze around each control point using cheap towers, and then tricked the AI with closing the maze and open it on another location which I then closed again, I was able to keep the tough minions he sent longer in my maze than he was able to keep my minions.
I think I could beat him only once, but at least once I remained victorious over this guy. Normally when he entered the lobby, I knew I lost.
There was FünfGegenWilly. He could beat me virtually any time, but I once beat him so hard that he didn't like to play against me again. But at one occasion we played in an arranged team. Without having to use the ingame chat very much, we worked together at almost 100% efficiency. It was because we both knew the game so well.
And then there was the other guy. I saw that nick, and I a broke out in cold sweat. I felt real angst when I read that nick. Random_ZH. My heart was pounding. He lost a lot of lives early on, but seemed to be confident that he would still win. At the end, I was able to bring him down.
We then had an ingame chat and I remembered that he beat the living crap out of me in a much earlier match. As it turned out, he himself created some varians of Shango Tower Wars maps. As far as I remember, the first time was also the last time I ever beat him.
If none of these guys entered the lobby of that the game, I would win no matter what. Sometimes I even lost 19 lives intentionally to win with just 1 life left. I knew all the races of the game, the best tower progressions, the best way when to save money and when to spend it, I knew how to confuse the AI if needed.
Years passed. Warcraft III lost popularity. Game lobbys for that map took more time to fill up with players. But then, it happend. The guy who tought me came online. mastersined. Of course we played Shango Tower Wars.
He could see that I learnt a lot. He still was good. I don't even remember who won, but at this one game, a door opened.
I was not playing Shango Tower Wars. I was playing versus him. I did not just pulled the trick sending a double wave of tough minions. I knew he knew how to do this and even more, how to defend it, even if he did not tought me this particular trick. I knew what he knew about me and thought about how I could turn this into my advantage.
It was the ancient duel: The pupil versus the master.
After all those years.
What started as a cute tower wars map turned out to be a serious game when I played versus the right person.
 
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This was a cool blog. Thanks for sharing.
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So many memories. There were so many nice WC3 games and I really enjoyed my time there.
The one you stated reminded me about rabbit vs sheep, although that one isn't TD. Shango sounds very interesting too, as opposed to the typical TD games.
My favourite game was Uther Party. Simple yet deep, a game about risk vs reward and a ton of psychology.
Really looking forward to WC4
...and BLizz not fucking it up of course.
PS: How are the UMS games in SC2 now? I might play SC2 just for the UMS. Last time I played it sucked.
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Nice blog indeed, please write more often.
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On July 24 2015 00:54 JieXian wrote:
So many memories. There were so many nice WC3 games and I really enjoyed my time there.
The one you stated reminded me about rabbit vs sheep, although that one isn't TD. Shango sounds very interesting too, as opposed to the typical TD games.
My favourite game was Uther Party. Simple yet deep, a game about risk vs reward and a ton of psychology.
Really looking forward to WC4
...and BLizz not fucking it up of course.
PS: How are the UMS games in SC2 now? I might play SC2 just for the UMS. Last time I played it sucked.
I don't really know, except for some Nexus Wars on US (though my main realm is EU) I rarely play any Arcade map.
Regarding WC3, I remember of course some Dota games. Two times I tried to get into Dota with the help of a friend, but I never managed to really get into it. I liked to played Zeus (the Mountain King.) I was always kicked from the lobby if I was loading the map through the lobby. The way to get the map was getdota.com.
I played quite a lot of Footmen Frenzy and EleTD 3.0. I liked some versions of Hero Line Wars, though some maps seemed to be buggy. I also played some other maps which were not so well known like TGS (The Great Strategy.) I think I played just two matches of Uther Party, I was confused and did not stay.
I was a collegian at those days, having the time to play hours every day. The good thing is, that it is not just a golden memory today; I also enjoyed the games then. Time well spent.
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yea I played a ton of DotA, it was really popular here. Yes we'd kick people who are downloading it too :D
I've heard of footman frenzy and ele TD too 
I think I played just two matches of Uther Party, I was confused and did not stay.
Yea at first it was confusing for me but I slowly got to understand it after many games (it's complicated since there are so many mini games to learn). After getting past the initial barrier I discovered that it's so deep and would host it a lot although everyone else seem to be playing DotA, Warlock and some TDs :D
Another game I like is Worm War, that got ported to SC2 I think but it was an inferior version (back when I played sc2)
Yeah, good days Will still play WC3 for the ums if it were still active PM me if you somehow manage to get a group together :D Shango Tower Wars sounds interesting.
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EPT
