After years of role-playing with Diablo and sci-fi strategy with Starcraft, Blizzard is finally revisiting the franchise that originally propelled it to the top of the PC game heap: Warcraft. The newest game in the series, Warcraft III, is in many ways the most advanced and refined entry the real-time strategy genre has ever seen. The game features a variety of changes and improvements to the standard Blizzard RTS formula, including hero units, non-player enemies and buildings, and an increased reliance on smaller, more specialized groups of units rather than huge masses of troops.

Warcraft III contains a massive single-player experience that involves all four of its races. The humans and orcs of the past Warcraft games have returned, and the secretive night elves and vile undead join the fray in this newest installment. In addition, you'll be dealing with an additional, non-playable race of demons called the burning legion. The single-player campaigns in Warcraft III combine to form a continuous and compelling storyline, and we've put together a guide that will walk you through it every step of the way if you should run into trouble. Check out the Campaign Walk-Throughs section for detailed information on achieving victory in the single-player game.

Only two of the four races, the humans and the orcs, have been seen at all before Warcraft III, and even these two have undergone massive changes since their last time out, so we've also compiled a comprehensive rundown of the way each faction acquires resources, builds bases, and attacks enemies. Use this primer to familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of each race before you head into battle. Of course, practice makes perfect, so once you've armed yourself with the know-how, jump into the game and start your path to conquest.