GarfunkeL said:
That's why after a brief foray into the tournamet/battle.net-world, I've only played RTS-games in a friendly LAN-fashion. We might team up against the AI or a have FFA with a timelimit and while winning is always fun, sometimes it's fun to lose as well, especially if the fight is long and drawn-out :D
And I'm saying that that's a perfectly fine way of playing it, and don't let the e-peen crowd criticise you for doing so. Having said that, you CAN play multiplayer with a focus on late-game units, but it depends on the matchup and it also requires that you go in with that being your strategy. E.g. fast-teching while denying your opponent an expanion means that you have higher-tech unit. Often done where one side doesn't get air until the higher-end.
E.g. undead vs humans relies on high-end upgrades (frenzy) and units (destroyer). Undead vs Night-elves relies MASSIVELY on a combo of tier 3 units (aboms), tier 2.5 units (siege weapons) and casters that can range from tier 1 (necros if they aren't prepared for raise undead or curse as a cheap way of nulliying their bears) to tier 3 (more likely - cripple vs their bears, or even possession if you want to break the game by getting the bear buffs for yourself). Undead vs orcs varies massively on what the orcs do (orcs get the driving seat on that matchup), but it is either teching and harassing against the orc's nigh-unstoppable fast-tech to wyverns, or similarly against a fast-tech to tauren (although it is easier to destroy the building in the latter event). Either way requires some high-level teching and levelled tri-hero. Especially as your biggest aim when playing vs orcs is to get one or two (no more due to food limit, and definitely NOT 'mass frost dragons'...they DON'T 'equal instant win!', but one or two out, with suitable backing from casters casting frenzy and giving support against anti-air, and with tri-heroes out, and orcs have a really really hard time dealing with them. They are great hero-killers as the slow-down allows the undead tri-hero nuke to be applied repeatedly, and great unit killers. But if done en masse, they'll get taken apart - they need supprt.
So almost all matchups will involve some use of high-level units, even in competitive play. Of course, you make your opponent work damn hard to get to those units, and should be able to stop a weaker opponent from getting there at all - but watch a tourny final amongst professional players sometime (yes, I was sad enough once to watch those things for strategy tips), and usually the player gets to those units, just at a cost (sometimes recoverable, sometimes not) economically.
And as for FFA? That's all about the high-tech armies. You'd think FFA is random chance, but it's like poker. Everyone is subject to the odds, but some people keep making the most of the hand they get dealt. The top FFA players get something like a 28% to 30% WINNING ratio, which is MUCH higher than what you'd expect from random number distribution. It's all about teching to top level, and levelling up your heroes on the uber-tough creeps (that actually have good drops, and often have things like an uber shop guarded by level 10 dragons or golems, in the centre of the map). You 'might' get attacked early, and screw up your teching, but that also gives you the change for your tri-hero combo to level up past L6 - and for undead, FFA is all about trying to get level 10 heroes (a L10 DK/lich/CL can defeat max food-cap armies without raising a sweat, whilst L10 DK/DL/lich can turn any melee army into an absurd self-healing death machine). Short of getting those uber-heroes (and you can only get past L6 by fighting other players) it's all about teching and upgrading to frost wyrms, destroyers, stats, aboms and gargs (maybe even crack frenzies ghouls) depending on what your scouting tells you about opponents - with shades as scouts, you should know what is being built in every base, and should also have a shade following every vaguely nearby army.
There's PLENTY of use of top-tier units in competitive play.
But, again, I'm not knocking that. Not everyone wants to play like they're an ADD kid whose taken too much meds. Not everyone wants to quit (or have their opponent quit) after 15 seconds because someone has screwed up his/her build order (which can screw the rest of the game:-(. I can fully appreciate why you'd want to play it differently.
