WC3: FT Communities...

[Artega]

I saved a replay of a particularly good game where I had a truly immortal army, and the enemy was smart enough to catch on to the fact that the Spirit Walkers (not the Tauren) were the greatest threat, so it also showcases some good use of the other Spirit Walker spells, as well. I don't have time to upload it to BattleReports, but I did watch the replay and made some notes of my build order. Our enemies were kinda newbish, and a little on the slow side, so you might consider the build order I had to be for teching/creeping/massing enemies, and not rushing enemies.

• Send three of your first five peons to gold, and have the other two construct a Barracks and an Altar.
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• Promptly churn out a sixth peon, and have him build a Burrow (preferably near your gold mine.)
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• Send your seventh (and all subsequent) Peon to the nearest forest, and have him harvest lumber.
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• When your Barracks and Altar finish, build a Grunt (bringing you to 10/10 food), and divide the two peons between gold and lumber (4 on gold, 2 on lumber.)
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• Send the Peon building the Burrow to gold, to fill out that mine.
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• Use the new food to build another Grunt, a Tauren Chieftain, and Peons to fill out. Go creeping if there are nearby green camps, and have a Peon build a second Burrow.
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• While your second Burrow is being built, you should also build a Voodoo Lounge (use the Healing Salves to heal wounded Grunts) and a War Mill.
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• After your second Burrow finishes, make Grunts and Peons as you see fit, and upgrade to a Stronghold. You should have at least five Peons on each resource, and preferably more on lumber. Depending on number and type of enemies, you may want more Grunts and less Peons.
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• Use the Stronghold upgrade-time to upgrade your melee weaponry and/or armor. Build another Burrow.
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• As the Stronghold finishes, promptly build a Spirit Lodge, and upgrade to a Fortress as soon as you have the resources for it.
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• While the Stronghold is upgrading to a Fortress, you should research Adept Training for your Spirit Walkers, futher upgrade your melee weapons and armor, build another Burrow or two (you should be at around 35/50 when the Fortress completes), and churn out a couple of Spirit Walkers.
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• If the map (and/or opponents) permits, expand as soon as you can. You'll need to extra income to fuel the expensive Tauren, and the extra ten food doesn't hurt.
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• As soon as your Fortress finishes, build a Tauren Totem, and research Master Training for your Spirit Walkers.
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• Once the Totem is finished, build a Tauren or two (or more, if your enemy is attacking often), and then research Pulverize. The two or three Spirit Walkers you built during your Stronghold phase should be close to 400 or more Mana by this point.<>
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  Hopefully your Tauren Chieftain was able to reach Level 6 (and Reincarnation) through creeping or killing during your buildup phase. Keep in mind that you're very vulnerable during this buildup phase, so you might want to forsake a few upgrades and build some Watch Towers instead. Have your allies cover you. Have a Human player plant an Arcane Tower in your town to dissuade Heroes from getting too close.
  
  When in combat, keep your fragile Walkers away from magic-wielding enemies. If you see Chimaerae or other powerful magic-wielding monsters, you would be well-advised to keep your distance.
  
  Don't underestimate Spirit Link. Spirit Link halves the damage the target creature takes, and splits the other half among four other friendly creatures (who take 12.5%.) This can make the already hard-to-stop Tauren unstoppable, and when you combine that with the ability to raise them from the dead at full HP, your army truly is immortal. Depending on how aggressive the enemies are, you'll need anywhere from four to eight Spirit Walkers to make this work well. Consider getting more if there are lots of third-tier melee units on the field (Abominations, other Tauren, and Mountain Giants can be problematic; Knights, you can practically ignore.) You'll need at least four Tauren (more if you don't have Level 2 upgrades by time you start fighting), as well.
  
  Keep in mind that Ancestral Spirit raises ALL friendly Tauren, and that Spirit Walkers are Tauren, too. If the enemy kills a Spirit Walker (or three), raise them! Spirit Walkers are what keep your army alive, so be damned careful with them.
  
  On another note, you can annoy the piss out of your enemies with Ethereal-form Spirit Walkers. Clump them near an enemy Town Center, and have them blockade Town-Portalling enemies, keeping them from attacking your Tauren and other friendly units. Don't do this if the enemy is using ranged attackers.
  
  Disenchantment is one of the best debuffing spells in the game, affecting a fairly large area, and dealing a significant 250 damage to enemy summoned units. Use it on enemy skeletons, water elementals, and even on summoned creeps, like Spirit Pigs. Keep in mind that it removes buffs from every unit in the area of effect, friendly as well as unfriendly.
  
  Necromancers, friendly or not, are your worst enemies. You can't raise your Tauren if they're being used as Skeleton fodder, and a Tauren is a lot better than a Skeleton and Skeletal Mage. Make sure friendly Undead players don't field Necromancers (unless they want to use Cripple), and target enemy Necromancers first whenever possible. Banshees with Master Training can Possess your Tauren, and this is also a bad thing. Undead is the best race to counter this strategy with.