Characters / Warcraft I And II Units

Warcraft Main Character Index
Adventurers
The Alliance: Stormwind (Humans) - Lordaeron (Humans) - Gilneas (Humans/Worgen) - Kul Tiras (Humans) (Jaina Proudmoore) - Other Human Kingdoms - Ironforge (Dwarven Clans) - Gnomeregan (Gnomes) - Quel'Thalas/Telogrus Rift (High Elves and Void Elves) - Darnassus (Night Elves) - The Exodar (Draenei) - Vindicaar (Lightforged Draenei) - Mechagon (Mechagnomes)
The Horde: Orgrimmar (Orcs) - The Darkspear Tribe (Trolls) - Thunder Bluff (Tauren) - The Forsaken (Undead) - Quel'Thalas (Blood Elves) - Bilgewater Cartel (Goblins) - Thunder Totem (Highmountain Tauren) - Suramar (Nightborne) - Zandalari Empire (Zandalar Trolls) - Voldunai (Vulpera) - Other (non-playable races)
Other factions: The Old Horde/Iron Horde | The Scourge (Arthas Menethil) | Sylvanas and her followers (Sylvanas Windrunner) | Knights of the Ebon Blade | Illidan and his followers | Garrosh's Horde | Pandaria | Other mortals | The Void (The Old Gods) | The Light | Eternals | Shadowlands (Death) | The Titans (Arcane) | The Burning Legion (Fel) | The Dragonflights | Wild Gods |
Individual media: Warcraft I And II Units | Warcraft III Units | Warcraft III Heroes | Film characters | Hearthstone characters | Warcraft characters in Heroes of the Storm (Assassins - Warriors - Support)

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans Units

General

• Color-Coded Armies: By default, human units are colored blue, while orc units are colored red. In rare cases of mirror battles, both colors will be used by the same race, but you can't have red humans VS blue orcs.
• Cosmetically Different Sides: The Orc and Human units have identical stats, barring the Archer and Spearmen, with the only difference being the spells used by their magic units.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • This game has the two factions very similar to one another with the major differences being what spells are available. Warcraft II diverged the two factions a little more but 'Warcraft III made the equivalent units of each faction vastly different from one another with their own special abilities to further set them appart.
  • Hero units are few and far in between in this game and don't even feature in base-building missions. Warcraft II: Beyond The Dark Portal marked a radical change with heroes being much stronger versions of regular units, and Warcraft III made all heroes unique with their own exclusive spells and ability to level up and learn talent points to learn or improve their abilities.
• Manly Facial Hair: All of the human units, bar the peasant, are very macho, and all of them but the peasant have prominent facial hair.

Peasant / Peon

The Worker Unit for the Humans and Orcs, respectively. They are essential to a player's economy, but are also weak and cannot fight.

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• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Unlike later Blizzard RTS games, they are unable to attack, and can only flee. Construction sites are also immediately generated upon command, which creates physical obstacles that have the structure's maximum hit points.
  • They can not build defensive emplacement to protect bases, so if you send you entire army out for an attack, then your base gets left undefended. Warcraft II introduced defensive buildings to the RTS formula.
  • They can only build near other structures and along preplaced roads. Warcraft II eliminated roads and allowed workers to build on any buildable ground, and in Warcraft III it's only the Undead who need to build on their blighted ground generated from other structures, but even then, heroes can work around that with a common item that blights the ground.
• Informed Flaw: Peons are described as dumb in the manual, even though in gameplay they are just as good at their jobs as Peasants. Though this description is from the perspective of the Orcs and could be the result of Unreliable Narrator.
• Non-Action Guy: Unlike in later games, Peasants and Peons cannot attack.
• Worker Unit: They act as the builders and resource gatherers.

Footman / Grunt

The basic combat units for both sides in the first game.

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• Armor Is Useless: Despite the Footman being covered from head to toe in armor, his armor stat is the same as the Grunt, who is only wearing regular clothes. Interestingly, their manual art counterparts have only a few scraps of armor more than their orcish counterparts.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Grunts are a good deal more savage than the sword wielding Footman and thus wield an axe.
• Cannon Fodder: Both units are cheap and easy to amass.
• Horns of Barbarism: Orc Grunts are depicted as barbarian raiders and they wear furry horned helmets decorated with fur.
• Informed Ability: Grunts are described in the manual as being trained to use shields, even though their sprites and manual art lack them. They do however, benefit from shield upgrades increasing their armor.
• Shields Are Useless: Footmen carry shields that serve no purpose in gameplay.

Archer / Spearman

The ranged units for both sides of the war. Unlike other units, there is a slight difference in their stats, with the Archer having an extra point of range while the Spearman has slightly higher damage.

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• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Orc Spearmen vanish after the original game, never to reappear. ^note The most they got to a re-appearance was in very builds of Warcraft III. Human Archers likewise never appear again. ^note One would have been an NPC in Warcraft Adventures Lord Of The Clans, but the game was cancelled.
• Javelin Thrower: The Spearmen throw spears at their enemy.
• Long-Range Fighter: Both of them: the Archer having slightly longer range while the Spearman has slightly greater damage.

Knight / Raider

The advanced melee units for their respective sides. They are faster than the infantry due to their mounts, are better armored, and hit harder.

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• Armor Is Useless: Like with the Footman and Grunt, the armor stat for both units is the same despite the Knight being the one drawn as wearing actual armor.
• Canis Major: Raiders ride on top of wolves that are as big as horses.
• BFS: The Raider carries a sword that, based on the image of his sprite, is as tall as he is.
• Epic Flail: While the Knight's description says his weapon is a mace, the chain on it makes it a flail.
• Hell Hound: The final upgrade for the Raider's Dark wolves shows them gaining red eyes and elongated horns, similar to a Hellhound.
• Horse of a Different Color: Raiders ride giant wolves in place of horses.
• Lightning Bruiser: They are more durable than basic infantry, hit harder, and are the fastest units in the first game.
• Monster Knight: Orc Raiders are as skilled as human Knights, yet lack their chivalry according to the manual.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Knights are a downplayed case, II establishes all members of Stormwind's Brotherhood of the Horse were killed in the first war, their bodies being used to create the Death Knights. That said, they are functionally replaced by the Knights of Lordaeron, whom are basically the same outside of using hammers.
  • Raiders disappear in Warcraft 2 with the Ogre taking their place as the counterpart to the Knight and the manual saying Gul'dan manipulated Doomhammer into having them disbanded. They return in III as Anti-Structure specialists.
• Savage Wolves: Orc raiders ride Dark Wolves which are described as feeding on human flesh. With enough upgrades, the Dark Wolves even get demon-like horns.
• Sinister Scimitar: Raiders use scimitars as big as their wolves and are described as especially ruthless and merciless even by orc standards.

Catapults

The siege weapons for both sides. Unlike other units, they are identical in appearance in Orcs and Humans.

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• Chuck Cunning Ham Syndrome: The Humans' catapult disappears after the first game and never returns.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • The manual depicts the orc and human catapults as having different designs from one another unlike the game where they are identical.
  • The Manual also mentions there are crews that control the catapults, but the in-game catapult operates with no operator so the player can get a full view of its design.
• Mighty Glacier: Catapults are slow, but have more HP than Knights and Raiders, albeit with less armor. A direct hit from them is enough to kill any unit instantly, aside from a Daemon or a fully upgraded Knight or Raider, and their splash damage alone kills most weaker units.
• Siege Engines: Their range is very long, and with devastating damage.
• Suddenly Voiced: Normally catapults make no noise at all, but when the barracks has finished training a catapult, the catapult will announce it is ready for action in the human/orcish voice used by your other troops.

Cleric / Necrolyte

The basic spell casters of the humans and orcs, Clerics using the magic of their respective religions. While their stats are identical, their spells are completely different.

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• Cool, but Inefficient:
  • Both of them have a spell that reveals an unexplored portion of the map. The spell in question costs a fifth of their mana and a hefty amount of gold to unlock, so the money is better spent using a regular scout.
  • The Necrolyte's Raise Dead spell creates a unit that is actually weaker than basic infantry, so it’s not worth using outside of specific scenarios.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The Cleric and the Necrolyte are implied to derive their powers from Heaven and Hades respectively. Warcraft III retconned this somewhat with holy magic being associated with "The Light", and Necromancy having an "Unholy" flavor to it.
  • This game is one of the few cases where a Holy magic user has the Invisibility spell. Warcraft II and on made this a spell that the Alliance Magi adopted after recovering it from tomes in the ruins of Northshire Abby. It has been a staple of Magi ever since.
• In the Hood: Necrolytes wear black hoods.
• Invisibility: Clerics can make themselves or a friendly unit invisible until they attack an enemy.
• Light 'em Up: The Cleric's basic attack spell Holy Lance shoots a projectile made of light, which their order devised due to the necessity of fighting the orcs.
• Martial Pacifist: Clerics loath violence, but will use it to protect themselves and others from the Orcs.
• The Medic: Clerics can heal allies with their magic.
• Necromancer: Necrolytes can cast Raise Dead to create skeleton warriors called The Dead.
• No Cure for Evil: Clerics are the only units that can heal and they are exclusive to the human, the villainous orcs don't have any healing units.
• Put on a Bus: Both units are gone after the original game, with the Cleric never appearing again. Warcraft II explains the surviving Clerics were deemed ill-suited for combat, so they instead taught their ways to a select few Knights, creating the Paladins. The Necrolytes were killed and their energy was used as fuel for the Death Knights. In III, their effective successors are Priests and Necromancers respectively while Paladins and Death Knights were re-imagined as melee hero units.
• Squishy Wizard: Both Clerics and Necrolytes are as frail as a Worker Unit.

Tropes applying to the Necrloyte's summoned unit

The Dead, simply known as Skeleton in the game, is a unit created whenever a Necrolyte casts Animate Dead on the corpse of an orc or human unit.

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• Cannon Fodder: Even with all their upgrades, The Dead have very low attack and are pretty fragile.
• Dem Bones: The Dead, known as skeletons within the game itself, are the reanimated skeletons of dead units.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • The Dead are equally likely to be created from the corpse of an enemy human, yet their portrait always depicts them as an orc skeleton wearing a grunt helmet.
  • The manual depicts The Dead as a zombie with a Skull for a Head instead of a full on skeleton like the enemy "neutral" skeleton, this isn't the case in the game.
• Non-Human Undead: The portrait for "The Dead" depicts them as orc skeletons rather than human skeletons. Coincidentally this is different from neutral skeletons, which are human in form.
• One-Steve Limit: Though the manual calls the unit created by the Necrolyte's Animate Dead, "the dead", the actual game names them "skeleton." The skeleton name is also shared with the neutral enemy unit, even though they are different units with different stats.
• Palette Swap: The Dead and the NPC Skeleton share the same sprite with a different portrait, their only difference is The Dead have bracelets that are colored red or blue depending on which army they're in.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The Dead are normally not worth investing in, but the dungeon missions of the orc campaign give you access to necrolytes whilst preventing you from building your own units, this means the ability to create new troops out of bodies of the dead can be quite helpful.

Conjurer / Warlock

The advanced casters of both armies, the Conjurers rely on the control of Elemental Powers while the Warlocks study Black Magic that even other Orcs are horrified by.

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• Early-Installment Weirdness: Rain of Fire is used by the protagonist Humans in this game. Later installments would make Blizzard more associated with protagonists while dark magic users would favor Rain of Fire as an Evil Counterpart. Poison Cloud meanwhile would be reimagined as Death and Decay.
• Elemental Powers: The Conjurer uses the powers of the elements, combining fire and water to create a literal Rain of Fire and the control of water to create a Water Elemental.
• Hellfire: The Warlock’s Fireball is described as them channeling the fires of the underworld.
• In the Hood: Like the Necrolyte, the Warlock wears a hood, though theirs is red.
• Shrouded in Myth: The Summon Daemon spell is described in the manual as only being rumored to exist, with the orcs only having a vague idea about how it works. In game, however, it is researched like any other spell.
• Squishy Wizard: Like the basic magic users, they die easily in combat. As a result, a common strategy for many players is to simply keep them at their base and rely on their Major Summons.
• Summon Magic: The main thing players use them for, specifically their Major Summons, which are so strong that, once unlocked, games tend to revolve around them.
• Wizard Classic: Conjurers have the look to a T with the robe, pointed hat, and Wizard Beard.

Tropes applying to their summons

Scorpion and spider

Water elemental and daemon

• Alien Blood: Spiders and scorpions have green blood.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Minor Summon for both units summons giant bugs: Scorpions for the Conjurer and Spiders for the Warlock.
• Big Red Devil: The Daemon is the standard red demon with a pair of bat wings.
• BFS: Even in proportion to the size of the wielder, the swords carried by the Daemons are huge.
• The Dreaded: The orc and human descriptions of Daemons make it clear both factions are afraid of them.
• Giant Spider: The orcs can summon spiders that are half the size of a man. The manual indicates they were created from ordinary spiders.
• Mighty Glacier: The units created by the Major Summon are only as fast as basic infantry, but they are the most powerful units in the game.
  • The Water Elemental is a ranged unit that hits harder than a Knight or a Raider, dealing enough damage to kill weaker units in a single hit. Despite being ranged, it has more than double the HP of any normally trained unit.
  • The Daemon has the highest HP in the game, enough that it can survive a direct hit from a Catapult, and its attacks kill most units in one hit.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: The Minor Summon lets this unit create free units as long as they have mana, but the units created by the Major Summon are so much better that players tend to skip researching the Minor Summon to save gold for the Major Summon.
• Put on a Bus: All these summoned units, besides the Daemon, are gone after the original game, and even the Daemon is a completely different unit in Warcraft II. Summoned units were reinstated for III but made abilities only heroes have. In III the Doomguard summon is effectively the Summoned Daemon of old.
• Scary Scorpions: The Scorpions are giant dangerous creatures with tails that can pierce through armor and a poison that causes a slow and painful death according to the manual.

Neutral Units

These are units who will appear in either campaign as enemies.

In General

• Gang Up on the Human: Though described as neutral in the manual, they'll always ignore or even work alongside the computer player, as if they were the same faction.
• Hard-Coded Hostility: Neutral units are always exclusively hostile to whatever army the player is controlling and cannot be played in any way without a third party editor.
• No Body Left Behind: With the sole exception of the Brigand, they all die in such a way that prevents them from leaving a corpse.

Brigand

Thieves who rob defenseless humans are encountered in only one level in the Orc Campaign.

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• Head Swap: Their sprites are an edit of the Footman, also possessing identical stats.
• No Body Left Behind: They are the sole neutral unit to defy this and their corpses can even be raised by necrolytes to create "The Dead" skeleton unit.
• Unique Enemy: They only appear in one of the Orc missions, and ironically they are helping the humans against the orcs.

Fire Elemental

Fire Elementals created by human mages, which proved to be uncontrollable and will attack either side of the war.

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• Mighty Glacier: Fire Elementals are not as strong as Water Elementals, but they are still more powerful than units besides the Water Elemental and the Daemon. They are as slow as those units as well.
• Playing with Fire: They are beings made of fire who throw it at their enemies.
• Turned Against Their Masters: The Fire Elementals turned on the humans who created them and will attack humans and orcs alike.
• Unique Enemy: Fire Elementals only appear in one mission in the Human Campaign and one in the Orc Campaign. Ironically in the latter, the Fire Elemental is fighting alongside the humans.
• Unreliable Illustrator: The manual illustration depicts the Fire Elemental as having a lithe feminine figure like the Water Elemental when the in-game appearance Fire Elemental has a masculine, muscular frame.

Ogre

Huge dull-witted brutes from the same world as the orcs, though they are not on the side of the orcs. They have the same HP as Grunts and Footmen, but higher armor and damage.

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• Ascended Extra: Ogres in the original game were enemies who only appeared in a few levels. Later entries and lore feature them far more prominently.
• Carry a Big Stick: Ogres carry large clubs.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Ogres inexplicably explode into a fountain of gore when killed.

Skeleton

Reanimated skeletons of the dead seeking to take their anger out on the living.

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• Brain Food: Implied, the manual mentions they like to impale their foes through the eye sockets to reach the brain.
• Dem Bones: They are walking skeletons outside of the control of the orc Necrolytes.
• Glass Cannon: They have the same stats as an upgraded Footman/Grunt, but with half their HP.
• Informed Ability: The manual describes the skeletons as more difficult to destroy than expected, but they have less HP than a Worker Unit.
• Palette Swap: They are entirely identical to "The Dead" units created by orc Necrolytes outside of not having colored bracelets, though they have different stats with neutral skeletons having 10 less HP, 1 more armor and 5 more basic damage. Also their portrait depicts skeletons as a human skeleton instead of an orc one.
• One-Steve Limit: They share the same ingame name as the summon by the Necrolyte, even though the manual attempts to avert this by naming the Necrolyte's summon, "The Dead."

Slimes

Blob Monsters of unknown origin attracted to warm bodies with the intent of sucking the life from them.

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• Blob Monster: Green creatures made of slime that are hostile to humans and orcs.
• Stone Wall: Slimes have a pitiful attack but the highest HP next to Elementals and Daemons, on top of the highest armor in the game.

Warcraft II Units

General

• Chromosome Casting: Every non-hero unit is male.
• Cosmetically Different Sides: Like in the original game, the units for both sides have identical stats. The only difference between them is the spells used by magic casters and upgrades for the ranged units.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The various naval units are described as having a variety of different crews from Elves, Trolls, Gnomes, Goblins and Ogres, yet all of these naval units use the standard human/orc sailor voice.
• Put on a Bus: All naval units were removed from Warcraft III.
• The Voice: The crews of the naval units aren't seen but you can hear the voice of the sailor relaying your orders to his crew.

Peasant / Peon

The workers of both sides. While not designed for combat, they can now attack.

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• Informed Flaw: Peons are again described as being dumb even though they are capable of the same tasks as the Peasant, who is made out to be the smarter of the two units.
• Simpleton Voice: The Peasant uses a voice that makes them sound dull-witted, despite the descriptions in the manual making them out to be intelligent.
• Unique Enemy:
  • A variant of peasants known as attack peasants within the game's data only appear in the eighth and tenth human missions of Tides of Darkness, "Tyr's Hand" and "The Prisoners." These peasants are much more aggressive and cannot build, repair or gather lumber. They are also the only unit to avert Gang Up on the Human when under computer control, as they will attack other computer faction units that come near them. Attack Peasants cannot be placed on custom maps with the official map editor that comes with the game.
  • Attack Peons appear within the game's data, but are never used.
• Worker Unit: They are the builders and gatherers of land resources on both sides.

Footman / Grunt

The basic fighters of both sides.

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• Armor Is Useless: Like in the original game, the Footman wearing armor doesn't make his armor any better than the Grunt.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the demo version, clicking on a footman or a grunt enough times makes them advertise the full version.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Just like in the first game, the brutish Orc Grunts wield axes, interestingly the cutscenes in Tides of Darkness, depict many Grunts as using Maces.
• Can't Catch Up: Once Knights and Ogres come around, Footman and Grunts will mainly be phased out unless the player is stingy or needs an emergency unit produced as soon as possible. Funnily enough, this can make orcs, outside of peons, mostly absent in their own faction during a long game! ^note Death Knights are orcish, but they don't look like it due to possessing the corpses of human knights.
• Horns of Barbarism: The nomadic and savage Orc Grunts continue wearing horned helmets, the 3D rendered grunt has a helmet with two pairs of horns.
• Mascot Mook: They are the only units to advertise the game in the demo version and 4 years after the release of ''Tides of Darkness', action figures of the Footman and Grunt were even made.
• Motor Mouth: In the demo version, clicking on a footman enough times makes him say a long sentence in only five seconds.
  "8-player network and multiplayer capability with full Red Book audio and movies in the full retail version. Buy it now!"
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Grunts have no protection of any kind on their arms, nor do they wear sleeves.
• Vanilla Unit: They are the most basic units in the game: they have no special abilities, nor do they gain unique upgrades.
• Zerg Rush: A viable strategy for Footman/Grunts is just to build as many as soon as possible and just rush the enemy with them.

Elven Archer / Troll Axethrower

The ranged units for the Alliance and the Horde, respectively. The Archer can be upgraded to the Ranger and the Axethrower the Berserker, which grants the increased HP, access to upgrade to their range, and a unique upgrade for each faction.

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• Anti-Air: Both Archers/Rangers and Axethrowers/Berserkers are the one of the first units that can deal with air unit. You'll need at least three or four to handle dragons/gryphons, unless they're supported by something else such as guard towers.
• All Trolls Are Different: In this game, they are essentially leaner, thinner Orcs who can gain a Healing Factor
• Anti-Villain: In contrast to the orcs, whose only motive is warfare and bloodshed for its own sake, the trolls are motivated by the oppression they suffered at the hands of humans, elves, and dwarfs.
• Boring Yet Practical: Compared to the Berserker granting access to an upgrade that allows for a slow, passive regenerative ability, the Elven Ranger gets a simple but more useful damage upgrade.
• Cool, but Inefficient: Troll Berserkers can get an upgrade that grants a Healing Factor, but the slow rate it heals, on top of the cost of upgrading to the Berserker in the first place, means it doesn't help much unless you're relying alot on Bersekers.
• Depending on the Artist: Whilst most artwork depicts the Trolls as having five fingers, a few pictures in the manual depict them with three or even four fingered hands.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
  • Besides only the Troll Berserkers having tusks as mentioned below, most artwork of trolls depicted them with five fingers in contrast to later artwork that depicts trolls with three fingers.
  • Both Elves and Trolls only have their extremely long ears on their map sprites, their artwork and portraits show their ears as as barely longer than a humans.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The trolls' first appearance in Warcraft don't have their iconic tusks until they are upgraded to Berserkers. According to fluff, the Berserker state comes from experimentation by the goblins and regeneration is part of that, rather than Berserkers being made by the trolls' own alchemy and regeneration being an ability of all trolls that only needs to be researched for game balance.
  • Both Elves and Trolls are only known as Elves and Trolls, starting with Video Game/Warcraft III Reign Of Chaos, they were called High Elves and Forest Trolls respectively.
• Healing Factor: When they are upgraded into Berserkers, trolls gain a regeneration upgrade that makes them slowly restore HPs.
• Informed Ability: Trolls are stated to be more agile than orcs, even though their speed is identical.
• In the Hood: Upgrading an Archer to a Ranger causes their portrait to include a hood, though their on-map sprite looks the same.
• Long-Range Fighter: They act as the basic ranged units for their respective sides.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To the Archer and Spearman from the original game, fulfilling the same role. The internal name for upgrading throwing axes in the in-game editor is actually upgrade "spear strength".
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Axes in the case of the trolls. They are just as accurate with them as the elves are with their arrows.

Knight / Ogre

The advanced melee units for their respective sides. They are stronger, faster, and more durable than the basic units, and can be upgraded to use spells.

The Knights are the knights of Lordaeron that seek to avenge the fallen Brotherhood of the Horse. Knights can later learn the holy teachings of the clerics of Northshire to become Paladins that can fight and heal.

The two-headed Ogres are enforcers brought from Draenor to reinforce the Horde and keep order between the clans. Gul'dan eventually figures out how to infuse them with the knowledge and powers of the warlocks to turn them into the Ogre Magi which combine an ogre's strength with black magic.

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• Acrofatic: Ogres are huge and very fat, but are as fast as the horse-mounted knights.
• Armor Is Useless: The knight is covered in armor while the Ogre wears nothing beyond a piece of cloth, yet their armor stat is the same.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The Paladin's Exorcism spell does damage to undead units. Since there are only two of those in the game, the spell is fairly pricey, and Polymorph is more readily available, it doesn't see frequent use.
• Cyclops: One of the ogre's two heads only has one eye.
• Dumbass No More: Ogres become much smarter when they are upgraded into ogre-mages. Their heads will even speak in unison instead of bickering.
• Dumb Muscle: Ogres are very dumb thanks to their heads arguing, but they are very strong. They also do as much damage with their fists as a Knight does with their hammers.
• Elemental Punch: Ogres attack with electric punches.
• Faster Than They Look: The huge hulking Ogre is as fast as a Knight on horseback.
• Genius Bruiser: Ogre Mages have all the strength of a normal Ogre, with the intelligence to use magic.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom:
  • Paladins have yellow glowing eyes and are dangerous to have as enemies.
  • Subtly done with the Ogre-Magi as the iris of all three of their eyes glow the color of their army. Ogre-Magi are deadly Sorcerers that can also punch people to death.
• Insistent Terminology: Whilst usually simply called them "Ogres", the Barracks interface insists on calling them "Two-Headed Ogres", possibly to differentiate them from the weaker NPC ogres of the first game.
• Lightning Bruiser: They are strong, fast, and durable. Despite the Ogre's bulk, he's just as fast as the knight. The Ogre Mage can take this even further by casting Bloodlust on themselves, which triples their effective damage.
• Magic Knight: The Knight and Ogre are heavy melee units that gain the ability to use magic when upgraded to the Paladin or Ogre Mage.
• Multiple Head Case: Ogres have two heads, and they are prone to arguing with each other.
• No Cure for Evil: Paladins on the Human's side are the only unit that can heal, with the Orc side once again not having access to any heals.
• Oculothorax: Ogre-mages can summon the Eye of Kilrog, a flying eyeball which observes the battlefield.
• Quirky Bard: Typically, upgrading a Knight to a Paladin isn't worth the cost since the spells gained from the upgrade aren't especially useful. However, if you're employing Gryphon Riders, they are at least a good way to protect your Gold-heavy investment. Additionally, they do completely shut down Death Knights, effectively forcing the Horde player into only playing Ogre-Magi, or researching Unholy Armor to block all damage (but not Polymorph).
• Shock and Awe: Ogres have electricity surrounding their fist when they punch.
• Simpleton Voice: Ogres are stated to be dumber than Orc Peons, and their voices give the air that they are not very smart.
• Speak in Unison: After becoming Ogre Magi, their heads speak in unison, most of the time anyhow.
• Stout Strength: The huge and fat Ogre is so strong he can simply rely on his fists instead of a weapon. The build of the Ogre is closer to a weightlifter than a person who is overweight, so he has very bulky arms to deliver those punches.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The paladin's healing spell become very helpful in the expansion pack missions as oftentimes you have to keep Hero units alive.
• Took a Level in Badass: Ogres in Orcs and Humans were powerful units, but were still a little weaker than a Knight, Ogres in the second game are equally powerful to a knight. This is possibly because these are "Two-Headed Ogres" instead of the one headed ogres of the first game.
• Useless Useful Spell: A problem holding back the Paladin. Healing sounds useful a paper, but between its high mana and the game doesn't let players set spells to autocast, it is not worth using on anything besides very expensive units like Gryphon Riders or allied Dragons. Exorcism is even worse since the only thing it is good for is killing Death Knights and their seldom-seen Skeletons.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Freeze-Frame Bonus shows both the heads of the ogre vomit green goo when they die.

Ballista / Catapult

The long-range siege units of the war.

Horde Catapults are the same destructive Siege Engines returning from the first game.

Alliance Ballistas are a collaboration of the humans, elves and Ironforge Dwarves, the latter whom making the giant bolts the Ballista fires.

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• Cutscene Power to the Max: One of the more memorable cutscenes in the game shows a Footman killing a grunt operating a catapult and subsequently hijacking the catapult to shoot down a nearby Zeppelin. Within the actual game, catapults are entirely incapable of air units.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Canonically, there is someone operating the siege units, but the operator is invisible in-game for visual simplicity.
• Long-Range Fighter: Both units have the longest basic-attack range in the game. Magi and Death Knights only out range them when casting certain spells.
• Made of Explodium: Both siege units explode in a fireball when destroyed.
• Nerf: Compared to the Catapult of the original game, the Orc Catapult has a massive reduction in damage so it can no longer one-shot most of the game's units. It does, however, possess a much greater range and has utility for knocking down towers from safety, but Magi and Death Knights typically replace them once available.
• Siege Engines: They act as the long-range building destroyers of their respective factions.
• Suddenly Voiced: Ballistas and Catapults normally only make noises as their operator is nowhere in sight, but when created they will announce they are ready for orders in the voice of a Footman and Grunt respectively.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Ballista is this to the Catapult the Humans had in the original game, fulfilling the same role as their counterpart to the Horde's siege unit.

Demolition Squad / Goblin Sappers

Suicide units who are meant to carry explosives to their target.

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• Action Bomb: Both units attack by blowing themselves up. While they explode when they are killed by enemies, this does no damage.
• Crutch Character: They can see use for surprise tactics like destroying any obstacles besides water, sniping clusters of buildings, or quickly blowing up a wall-in during a rush but tend to be passed up or phased out in favor of Magi or Death Knights.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: They explode even if they die without using their kamikaze attack. This explosion doesn't cause damage.
• Eye Take: The Dwarven Demolition Squad's death animation starts with the black-haired dwarf getting comically-wide eyes as the red-haired dwarf explodes. It's hard to see because it's visible for a single frame, the sprites are small and the death animation is replaced by a generic explosion effect if the unit does its suicide attack.
• Glass Cannon: They deal enough damage to destroy any unit caught in the blast and instantly destroy less durable buildings. They are also fast, but are only as durable as an Archer or Axethrower.
• No Body Left Behind: Since they explode no matter the way they die, they leave no corpses. As such, Death Knights cannot bring them back as skeletons.

Mage / Death Knight

The magic units of the game. They are extremely frail, but possess destructive spells.

The mages have seen the failures of the Conjurers in the First War and worked to ensure they would stronger and be better prepared to face the Orc Horde.

Death Knights are dead Warlocks brought back to life by placing their souls in the bodies of dead knights. Further empowered with the energies of dead Necrolytes, the Evil Sorcerers of the Horde continue to wreak havoc with their Black Magic.

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• Achilles' Heel:
  • A paladin with full mana can one-hit kill a Death Knight with a single Exorcism.
  • Unholy Armor only blocks damage to a target. Polymorph completely bypasses this invulnerability as the game doesn't recognize the transformation as subject to the invulnerability. Thus, a Death Knight with Unholy Armor can only evade Polymorph by hiding in a Transport or fleeing out of range.
• Alien Blood: Death knights have green blood.
• Animate Dead: Death Knights can turn dead units into skeleton soldiers.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Casting Whirlwinds with Death Knights can be a good laugh for mayhem against a base, but the mana cost is rather high for each tornado and you can't control their movements, meaning wasted mana for each tornado that drifts off course away from desirable units or structures. Death and Decay is normally superior due to its low mana cost per instance and better controllability.
• Blow You Away: Death knights can summon tornadoes.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
  • The Death Knight's Unholy Armor spell was absent from III with no fanfare. However, the Paladin hero's self-only Divine Shield is effectively a Good Counterpart that doesn't drain the recipient's health.
  • Whirlwind was also retired as a Death Knight spell, but the Naga Sea Witch can cast Tornado, which is improved with the ability to be controlled by the player.
• Composite Character: Magi inherited the Clerics' Invisibility but favor Blizzard instead of the Rain of Fire Conjurers' used. Death Knights inherited the Necrolytes' Raise Dead and Unholy Armor and use Death and Decay, a variant of the Warlocks' Poison Cloud. Both act as the advanced casters of their faction replacing the Conjurer and Warlock respectively.
• Cool, but Inefficient: The Death Knight has the Raise Dead thanks to their theft of Necrolytes' energy. Despite creating a greater number of units, they are still too weak for the spell's cost, barely more durable than worker units. About the only niche use for Skeletons is if the the map is mined out and you want to raise your workers into Skeletons; this can be helpful if you and your opponent have very few units left and you have Ogre-Magi to give them Bloodlust so that they fare better against any resistance.
• Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: The Death Knight's Whirlwind creates an uncontrollable tornado that damages anything it touches, friend or foe.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Polymorph is much more powerful than later versions of the spell, as it's a One-Hit Kill spell that works on any biological target. Future versions of this spell are toned down to a temporary Locked Out of the Fight ability.
  • Blizzard and Death-and-Decay are almost identical and don't have a channeling requirement that deducts mana ahead of casting. Each wave only needs 25 mana to cast and the waves stack for devastating effect. Death and Decay diverged into a channeled Percent Damage Attack that is most effective against stationary targets in III, while Blizzard became less efficient against structures and intended for use against clustered units.
  • Death Knights are Squishy Wizard liches in this installment and don't engage in melee like the name suggests. Warcraft III promoted these units to Lich heroes while Death Knights were reimagined as fallen Paladins heroes who wield unholy versions of their Paladin spells and play like magic knights.
• Elemental Powers: Like the Conjurers, the Mages use a lot of spells based on elemental magic.
• Fireballs: Mages can shoot fireballs.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Mages have three attacks based on thunder, fire and ice.
• Forced Transformation: The Mage's Polymorph turns the target unit into a harmless critter, effectively killing the target since they are rendered harmless.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • If a Mage uses the Polymorph spell on a Demolition Squad or Goblin Sappers unit, it will turn into a single critter, even though they are respectively two and three characters as a single unit. Similarly the Knight and his horse will be turned into a single critter.
  • The Death Knights' Raise Dead spell will turn any corpse into a generic Orc skeleton, even if the corpse was a human, elf, troll or ogre. This quirk of Raise Dead was retained in Warcraft III with the added benefit of two skeletons being raised per corpse like the skeletons are summoned rather than raised.
• Glass Cannon: Both units can inflict considerable losses and damage with their spells, but they die very easily if they come under attack.
• An Ice Person: The mages' "blizzard" spell consist of summoning a rain of icicles.
• In the Hood: Death knights wear colored cloaks with the hood over their heads. In their sprites, the death knights' faces are completely obscured, save for their eyes.
• Invisibility: The Mage can make units invisible, including other Magi. This makes for a dangerous combination, since it allows them to easily get into a position to kill enemy workers with Blizzard.
• Life Drain: The death knights "death coil" spell drains their enemies' HPs.
• Make Them Rot: Death and Decay, which damages anything in its radius, friend and foe alike.
• No Body Left Behind: They don't leave corpses when they die. This has a slight impact on gameplay because death knights can only bring back dead units as skeletons if said units leave corpses. When they die, mages turn into sparklings that disappear along with their clothes and staves, while death knights dissolve into green blood that leaves no traces.
• Nonindicative Name: Despite their name, Death Knights are not so much knights as they are horseback-mounted liches.
• Not Completely Useless: Death Coil is normally rendered obsolete by Death and Decay but for sniping priority targets, Death Coil works as inferior alternative to Polymorph that also heals the caster. By using a particular quirk of the control group system, it can be quickly multi-cast by 2 or more DKs to increase its sniping potential. However, this works best against isolated targets to ensure they receive full damage.
• Playing with Fire: Mages have two fire-based spells. Fireball, which sends out a fireball that hits enemies in a line, and Flame Shield, which creates a barrier of flames around a target that damages anything it touches.
• Power at a Price: The Death Knight's Unholy Armor makes the target temporarily invincible at the cost of half their current HP.
• Shock and Awe: Mages shoot lightning bolts for their basic attacks.
• Squishy Wizard: Both units do not have much HP or armor, so they die easily in a direct fight. However, they can cause a lot of havoc with their Area of Effect spells and take down a lot of units before they bite the dust.
• Unfriendly Fire: All of their spells can damage friendly units.

Gnomish Flying Machine / Goblin Zeppelin

Speedy fly recon units that cannot attack.

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• Defog of War: Neither of them can attack, but they are the fastest units in the game next to the Eye of Kilrogg and can see submerged units, making them useful for spotting turtles and submarines.
• Fragile Speedster: They cannot fight, but they are fast.
• True Sight: They see the otherwise invisible Gnomish Submarines and Giant Turtles.

Gryphon Rider / Dragon

Offensive flying units. They are fast and inflict heavy damage.

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• Achilles' Heel: Destroyers can really tear through their health but Magi are very dangerous as they can One-Hit Kill them with Polymorph like any other biological unit. At 2500 gold per unit vs 1200 for each Mage ^*Plus a one time cost of 2000 to research Polymorph which an experienced player will do if they scout their opponent massing for an air attack, this weakness is even more pronounced than usual.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: These dragons are green, despite later works such as Day of the Dragon and Warcraft III made clear that the Horde enslaved the red dragonflight.
• Herd-Hitting Attack: Attacks from both of them hit units behind their target.
• Lightning Bruiser: They are the fastest units in the game next to the Flying Machine and Zepplin, have above-average health, and on top of hitting hard, their attacks hit units in a line. That being said, both units attack slowly and take a long time to react to commands from the player. This changes if a Death Knight casts haste on them, at which point they'll attack and react faster.
• Non-Mammalian Hair: Dragons are reptile-like creatures with hair. This feature was dropped in later games.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons in this game are the standard fire-breathing variety, and they are green aside from their wings and hair. This was before most of the lore on dragons was established.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: The Dwarves riding the Gryphons are an entirely different breed than the Ironforge Dwarves. These dwarves are feral nature lovers that come from Northeron and are actually good friends of elves, distrusting humans and Ironforge Dwarves. Most artwork at the time depicts Northeron Dwarves as much slimmer and taller compared to the other dwarves, though still smaller than humans. This disposition was changed in Warcraft III thanks to the Alliance aiding them against the Horde invaders as the Gryphon Rider rep in that game is very jovial and act like goods friends of the alliance player commander much like the Dwarven Mortar Teams and Gyrocopter/Flying Machine pilots.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Or throwing a hammer, in the case of the Gryphon Rider.
• Thunder Hammer: Gryphon Riders use Stormhammers, hammers with electrical powers that trigger when thrown.
• True Sight: Both units can spot submerged units.
• The Voiceless: The feral Dwarf riding the Gryphon never speaks and it is his mount that makes all the noises.

Oil Tankers

Ships that are built to gather oil.

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• Cool Boat: The Orc Tanker is partially constructed out of bone, and has a huge skull on the front.
• Worker Unit: Oil Tankers have no combat capacities whatsoever and instead serves to gather oil, a resource that is only found on the water.

Transporters

With the introduction of water maps, Transports are added to carry units it.

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• Defenseless Transports: All they can do is transport units. They cannot attack.

Elven Destroyer / Troll Destroyer

The basic warships of both sides. They are mobile and can attack ground and air targets with their cannons.

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• Anti-Air: Aside from attacking land units, they can also fire at air units. Note that this is an advantage they have over Battleships/Juggernauts.
• Cool Boat: They are fast ships that pack a considerable punch with their cannons.

Battleship / Ogre Juggernaut

The advanced warships, armed with a battery of cannons on top of carrying heavy armor for their protection.

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• BFG: Their cannons hit hard and can really tear through units and structures.
• Cool Boat: The Battleship is a huge sailing ship with a battery of large cannons. The Juggernaut is even larger with more cannons.
• Mighty Glacier: While much slower than destroyers, these ships have more armor and HP, and do more than twice as much damage.
• Not the Intended Use: Their "Attack Ground" command allows them to hit submerged units even if they cannot see them, as long as the player aims for the area where the submerged unit is.

Gnomish Submarine / Giant Turtle

Stealth ships that are invisible to all but a few units with True Sight.

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• Cool Boat: The submarine is a sub that packs a powerful cannon.
• Crutch Character: They can be a nasty surprise at sea if they're rushed out early, and computer Sea Attack opponents will always do this tactic. However, once fliers are brought out to escort armadas, they lose their stealth advantage, can't withstand Destroyer or heavy ship cannons for long, and their torpedoes can't even strike targets that are inland and off the water.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: They are the earliest example of a permanently cloaked unit in Warcraft games but this version of cloaking is implemented differently than usual. Any flying unit or tower is considered a detector and the permanent cloak is exclusive to submarines. Warcraft III would classify all invisibility spells and effects under the same category and only specific True Sight abilities can reveal units under the effect. Permanent cloaking was also made a very rare effect, the Undead Shade being a notable unit boasting the ability but having no attacks whatever.
• Glass Cannon: Both units have strong attacks, but low HP and no armor.
• To Serve Man: A cutscene shows a giant turtle eating a human corpse that fell into the sea.

Skeleton

The only summonable unit capable of combat, Skeletons can only be created by a Death Knight's Raise Dead spell and act as summoned Cannon Fodder. Additionally several maps in the campaign include Skeletons that are present on the map without having to be summoned, acting similar to the NPC units in the first game.

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• Achilles' Heel: Skeletons are weak in general, but the paladin's Exorcism kill a skeleton with just one use unless their mana was very low when they cast it.
• Cannon Fodder: Just like in the first game, Skeletons are extremely easy to destroy and you aren't encouraged to keep them alive. Summoned Skeletons also die after ten real life minutes, but it is unlikely they'll live that long to begin with.
• Eye Scream: The portrait of the skeleton shows a bloody arrow going through the back of their skull with the pointed tip coming out of their eye-socket, implying an arrow through the eye killed them.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Skeletons always look they were raised from an Orc, yet it is equally likely a skeleton to be raised from the corpse of a Troll, Human, Elf, or Ogre. Ogres are particularly obvious as they have two-heads, yet Skeletons have only one skull. Noticeably artwork shows human skeletons too.
• Glass Cannon: Skeletons have the same attack power as a Grunt/Footman with no upgrades and attack at melee range, but they also have an armor and HP stat equivalent to a Axethrower/Archer.
• The Goomba: Not the case in the base game, but in the expansion, Skeletons are among the first enemy units encountered in both the human and orc campaigns due to their low stats.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Skeletons that are placed on a map to begin with will not die after ten minute, unlike skeletons that are summoned.
• Night of the Living Mooks: The shoulderpads and portrait of the Skeleton indicate its the skeleton of an Orc Grunt, one of the basic Mook types.
• Non-Human Undead: The portrait of a skeleton shows them as an animated orc skeleton instead of a human one.
• Not Completely Useless:
  • Skeletons can come in handy when a map is out of resources and the player needs all the combat units they can get.
  • In the ninth orc mission of Beyond the Dark Portal, which is also a Baseless Mission, Skeletons are great for tricking the enemy paladins into wasting their mana by casting exorcism, meaning they won't be able to oneshot your lone Death Knight once they get in range of him.
• Scary Skeleton: Though they're just Cannon Fodder within the gameplay, one of the manual illustrations depicts a Death Knight summoning a bunch of grisly skeletons that swarm a terrified Footman that humorously resembles the artist of the drawing.

Daemon

Campaign only units who appear in a few missions, never under the control of the player. While they share the name of the Daemons from the original game, they are functionally completely different.

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• Boss in Mook's Clothing: The Daemon in the ninth Orc mission of Beyond the Dark Portal looks like any other Daemon, but actually has significantly higher stats, almost as much as a Daemon from the first game.
• Color-Coded Armies: Daemons are the only unit in Warcraft II to defy this as they are always the same color, even though they are assigned to factions like every unit (unless one counts critters).
• Flaming Sword: They wield burning swords.
• Fragile Speedster: In contrast to the original game, Daemons in Warcraft II are speedy but fragile flying units, especially in contrast to dragons.
• Hard-Coded Hostility: No matter which campaign you play in the base game or its expansion, Daemons are never under the control of the player unlike every other unit in the game. The only way to play as a Daemon is to play a custom map made with the ingame editor that assigns Daemons to the player faction. Even then, controlling a daemon show they weren't designed with player control in mind.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Daemons can only be controlled and ordered one at time in contrast to every other unit which can be put in a group of up to 9 units. This is likely due to their unplayable status, but even so, even other unplayable units such as the attack peasant do not work like this.
• Sinister Scimitar: Just like in the first game, these evil Daemons wield curved swords that are simultanously on fire.
• Sword Beam: Daemons shoot fiery blasts by swinging their flaming scimitars.
• The Voiceless: Daemons make no sounds whatsoever when under player control, unlike other non speaking units which at least make noise.
• Villain Decay: Compared to the Daemons of the original game, these do not pose much of a threat. Their descriptions also do not hype them up as powerful monsters feared by both sides of the war.

Warcraft II Heroes

In General

• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • As mentioned in Palette Swap, Heroes use the same battle sprites as regular units, this means their on map sprite won't actually reflect their true appearance as shown in their in-game portrait and manual illustration. For example, Kargath is one-handed, but like any other grunt, his on-map sprite is two handed. Most noticeably Deathwing the Black Dragon, uses a green sprite with black hair and wings at best.
  • In Tides of Darkness, all Hero characters use the same unit quotes as the unit they are based off of. However Beyond the Dark Portal gave its new units their own unit quotes.
  • Despite being legendary figures of great power and famed veterans, in Tides of Darkness the heroes are rarely ever more powerful than a regular unit, with only Cho'gall really having stronger stats (apart from no armor). The greatest offender being Gul'dan, who is weaker than a regular Death Knight, though the guidebook tries to handwave him as a decoy for the real deal. The heroes in Beyond the Dark Portal however have proper stats that reflect their hero status.
• Palette Swap: All Heroes look completely identical to a regular unit in the Human/Orc army, differing only by a unique portrait that often doesn't match their battle sprite. In the campaigns, all heroes are given a unique faction color shared by no one else. For example, Zul'jin is the only user of the green palette in the one mission he appears in, making him stand out among the other troll Axethrowers which use a black palette.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Played with in Tides of Darkness and played straight in Beyond the Dark Portal.
  • In Tides of Darkness, only Zul'jin and Cho'gall have better stats than the units they're based off of, and even the latter has worse armor than a regular Ogre Magi. Uther is exactly the same as a normal paladin, and Lothar has better sight than a regular knight, but this only helps him see his impending doom better. Gul'dan even has significantly worse stats than a regular Death Knight.
  • The heroes in Beyond the Dark Portal on the other hand, are significantly stronger than their units they are based off of. Most notably Danath, Grom, and Kargath are much stronger than a Knight/Ogre, unlike the Footman/Grunt unit they're based off of.

Uther Lightbringer

Base Unit: Paladin
The Apprentice to Archbishop of the Northshire clerics, after most of the order was slain during the first war, Uther formed a new order among the Knights of Lordaeron called the Silver Hand, that could defend people as well as heal them.

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• Escort Mission: Uther is the subject of this in his only playable mission, the Battle of Darrowmere, where he must be safely escorted past the Orc and Alterac forces to Caer Darrow.
• The Paladin: Uther Lightbringer is the first of the Paladins of the Silver Hand, pious knights that succeed the dissolved Northshire clerics by being able to heal as well as defend themselves.

Lothar

Base Unit: Knight
A proud and noble warrior from the Kingdom of Azeroth's Brotherhood of the Horse, Lothar led his countrymen escape across the great sea to Lordaeron after the death of King Llane. In recognition of his services, Lothar was named commander of all land and air units within the Alliance.

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• Controllable Helplessness: The player immediately starts the map with an uncontrollable Lothar and three controllable knights surrounded by a giant mass of Elite Mooks. Whilst it's possible to save the knights with very quick thinking, Lothar has to die.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Lothar is killed so quickly, one will have to react fast to see his portrait and unit stats.
• Old Soldier: Lothar is stated in the manual to be 57 years old and shown in his portrait to be a grizzled grey-haired soldier with a bloodied sword.
• Supporting Leader: Lothar is named commander of all the Alliance's land and air forces, but he doesn't personally show up in the game until Blackrock Spire where he is quickly killed. Instead throughout the game he and Admiral Proudmoore give you orders through the mission briefings.

Zuljin

Base Unit: Troll Axethrower

The leader of the trolls whom has long fought a war of attrition against the elves of humans, he come to see an allegiance with the Horde as the only hope for his race's survival.

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• Anti-Villain: Unlike the orcs whom are fighting for the sake of it, Zul'jin sees the Horde as the only way to save his race.
• Palette Swap: For some reason, in the PSX version of the game, he's a yellow unit rather than a green one.
• Scarf of Asskicking: He's the leader of the Trolls with superior stats and is identified by a scarf wrapped around his face.

Cho'Gall

Base Unit: Ogre Magi

The leader of the Twilight's Hammer clan, the first Ogre Magi and a close ally of guldan whom helped tutor him. Cho'gall sees the Horde as secondary to the goal of bringing apocalyptic to the far realms.

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• Glass Cannon: He has zero armor unlike a regular Ogre unit, but he deals even more damage and comes with all the Ogre-Magi spells at base.

Gul'dan

Base Unit: Death Knight

An immensely powerful orc warlock and one of the architects behind the Dark Portal, Gul'dan secretly ruled the Horde with his Puppet Blackhand and was displeased when Doomhammer took over. Gul'dan's magical creations have proved useful to the Horde, but his true motivation is to find the legendary Tomb of Sargeras and obtain ultimate power for himself.

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• Actually A Doom Bot: The guidebook attempts to explain the various discrepancies with Gul'dan's on map appearance by implying the enemy your units fight ingame is actually a decoy.
• Character Narrator: He narrates the orc side of the Warcraft II manual.
• Gameplayand Story Segregation: Even among Hero units, Gul'dan stands out for not not being consistent with the in-game story.
  • Gul'dan is in all sources a living orc. The on-map Gul'dan is a Death Knight, an animated human skeleton with an orcish spirit inside.
  • The intro cutscene for the map depicts Gul'dan being ripped apart by a Daemon in the Tomb of Sargeras, yet right after the cutscene ends, the player sees Guldan alive and well, hanging out with a bunch of daemons.
  • Gul'dan is described in the manual as one of the most powerful Warlocks to ever live, the on-map Gul'dan is inferior to a regular death knight in every way, even having 20 less HP.

Beyond the Dark Portal exclusive Heroes

Alleria

Base Unit: Elven Archer
An elven ranger that lost her family during the Horde attack on Quel'thalas. Her all consuming hatred for orcs has led her to hunt down the remaining free orcs such as the Bleeding Hollow clan.

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• Final Boss: Alleria and the other Alliance heroes are all grouped around the Dark Portal in the final orc mission, accompanied only by four generic knights. To finish the map, Alleria and her comrades must be killed in a Wolf Pack Boss.
• Vocal Dissonance: She lets out a masculine scream if she dies due to using the same death scream as Archers/all human ground units.
• The Smurfette Principle: She's the only female character within the game.

Danath

Base Unit: Footman
A veteran mercenary from Stromgarde, Danath was a hero in the second war during the liberation of Khaz modan. He currently resides in New Stormwind and acts as an overseer for orc prison camps.

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• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He was a common Footman of ordinary birth whom rose to be a high ranking general due to his extraordinary performance in the war.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Unlike later material, Danath has no surname and by all accounts is an ordinary Stromgarde Footman whom made a name for himself through his performance in the war.
• Final Boss: In the final orc mission of the expansion pack, Danath guards the Dark Portal at the very end of the map with the other four Alliance heroes. Due to the way, the map is organized, Danath and his crew will likely be the last enemies you face before the victory screen.

Turalyon

Base Unit: Paladin
One of the first knights to be trained as a Paladin by Uther and is an honored member of the Alliance. Turalyon was one of the knights that accompanied Lothar during his death at Blackrock spire and regrets his inability to save his lord.

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• Final Boss: The final map of the Horde campaign has Turalyon and other four Alliance heroes all surrounding the Dark portal as a Wolf Pack Boss that must be defeated.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes glow yellow and whilst not evil, he's a very dangerous man.

Khadgar

Base Unit: Mage
A mage whom served in the first war, Khadgar studied in Dalaran to help figure out the secrets of the Dark portal. Following the second war, Khadgar came to study the ruined Dark Portal

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• Characterization Marches On: Khadgar is presented here as The Leader of the Alliance expedition, later material would retcon Turlayon to be the leader of the expedtion.
• Final Boss: The final mission of the Orc campaign, "the Dark Portal", has Khadgar leading the four other Alliance heroes to guard the Dark Portal. Khadgar and his fellow heroes must be killed altogether before the game can be won.
• Hero Must Survive: Khadgar is the only Alliance hero you have to keep alive in the final human mission. This is a Justified Trope, as Khadgar is the only unit capable of destroying the Dark Portal, which in the story translates to sealing it.
• You All Look Familiar: The cutscene in Warcraft II: Dark Saga shown after the tenth Beyond the Dark Portal mission shows Khadgar's model used to represent an Alterac mage.

Kurdran

Base Unit: Gryphon Rider
A proud and belligerent dwarf, Kurdran made a name for himself as a dragon slayer in the second war. He and his gryphon, Sky'rie serve as warriors and scouts to the Alliance expedition.

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• The Dragonslayer: Kurdran is known for slaying nine dragons over the course of the second war.
• Final Boss: In the last mission of the orc campaign, Kurdran and all of the Alliance heroes are guarding the Dark Portal and must be slain to complete the map.
• Inconsistent Spelling: The manual says his Gryphon's name is spelled Sky'rie, but the briefing seventh mission of the human campaign, spells his mount's name as Sky'ree.

Grom Hellscream

Base Unit: Grunt
The ferocious leader of the Warsong clean, he seeks to prove the dominance of his clan on Azeroth, though he personally distrusts Ner'zhul.

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• Barbarian Long Hair: A savage warrior with chest-length wild hair that would make a metalhead proud.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • In his debut, he is functionally a souped-up Grunt and doesn't affect the story visibly in the course of the canon storyline, only appearing in the first and final mission of the Orc expansion story. In Warcraft III, he becomes an Ascended Extra who plays a pivotal role in the Orc campaign, which is now a chapter of the entire canon storyline. Grom is also portrayed as having been trained as a Blademaster and has their exact abilities at his disposal.
  • Grom's voice is very high pitched in this game, but starting from the canceled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans and later Warcraft III, Hellscream would consistently have a deep baritone voice.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ner'zhul pulls a non-lethal variant of this at the end of the orc campaign by stranding Grom Hellscream, Kargath Bladefist, and their clans on Azeroth whilst he and the Shadowmoon clan escape into the portal alone.

Kargath Bladefist

Base Unit: Grunt
A bloodthirsty warrior and clever tactician with a blade in place of his left hand, Kargath awaits the day the Shattered Hand are unleashed upon the humans.

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• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Kargath has a prominent eyebrow above his undamaged eye, unusual for an orc.
• Handicapped Badass: Kargath is missing a hand and an eye, with artwork in the manual showing Kargath walking with a cane. Despite all this, Kargath is one of the deadliest warriors of the Horde.
• Inconsistent Spelling: At a few point in the game and the manual, Kargath is called Korgath.
• Old Soldier: Implied, Kargath's age is unstated, but he is: missing a tooth (or rather a tusk), hunched over (unlike most orcs in the game), and uses a cane in the manual.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Just like Grom and the Warsong clan, Kargath and his Shattered Hand clan are abandoned on Azeroth by the Shadowmoon clan.

Dentarg

Base Unit: Ogre Magi
Ner'zhul's most trusted servant, Dentarg acts as both Ner'zhul's ambassador for the Shadowmoon clan and enforcer that keeps the clans in line with Ner'zhul's rule of the Horde.

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• Gameplay And Storysegregation: Within the game, Dentarg is easily the most powerful hero after Deathwing, being able to take out Alleria, Danath and Turlayon together at once. Yet in the story, Dentarg is just a valued servant of Ner'zhul with no indication of being that powerful.
• Multiple Head Case: Downplayed Trope, Dentarg uses pronouns like we and they, but otherwise acts like a singular person with two heads that never disagree.
• Undying Loyalty: Their main characterization is that they' are defined by their absolute loyalty and obedience to Ner'zhul.
• Speak in Unison: Both of their heads always speak in unison, showing their unity.

Teron Gorefiend

Base Unit: Death Knight
An orcish warlock turned Death Knight, Teron has discovered the secrets of the Dark Portal and will share it for the price of a world to call his own.

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• Achilles' Heel: Teron Gorefiend is still a Death Knight despite having much more HP, so he's very vulnerable to the paladin's Exorcism spell. A single Paladin at full mana can't kill Teron with one Exorcism, but it still takes away one third of his health. As such, it is a good idea to keep Teron far away from Paladins. The game doesn't even grant him immunity to Polymorph, making Magi problematic as well.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Despite not being placed as more important than the other Horde heroes in the manual, Teron appears in four missions of the Orc campaign and even one mission of the human campaign, an honor unique to himself.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Teron is NOT immune to Polymorph, so it's best to not get reckless around Magi when you control him. The player can even inflict this on him in the Human mission he appears in, leaving him as a harmless boar.

Deathwing

Base Unit: Dragon
Second in power only to the Dragon queen, Alexstraza, the Black Dragon's formidable might was further increased during the second war when goblins outfitted him with adamantine armor, making him impervious to almost any attack. Leading a group of renegade dragons, Deathwing makes a pact with the Horde.

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• Contractual Boss Immunity: A variant, polymorph instantly kills Deathwing and any other hero, so Khadgar has all his spells but polymorph in the 7th mission of the human campaign, where Deathwing acts as the Boss Battle.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: You don't get to command him until the final mission of the Orc expansion levels, but he can do a lot of damage if controlled carefully and has Dentarg and Teron Gorefiend to buff him with Bloodlust and Haste right off the line. With 800 hitpoints and a whopping 10 armor points (making him armored like a ship), and few units able to strike him, he can last a while.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The Manual isn't lying when it calls Deathwing, the greatest terror to the known world, the Black dragon has a whopping 800 HP. To put this in comparison, Dentarg has 300 HP.
• Human Sacrifice: According to the mission briefing for the seventh human mission, the Alliance captives on the map were meant to be given to Deathwing as sacrifices.
• One-Man Army: He can take out dozens of units without being killed.

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