I've done the same type of thing in three sections. I built a wall around my largest camp, consisting of two barracks, a Gryphon Aviary, Blacksmith and two Arcane Sanctums. I put a first line of defence out infront of my base by using some of my workers, buidling farms as a large wall to deter my opponents. While doing this, I had these workers move systematically to begin building towers behind this wall as soon as their two farms were done. Behind this thinner wall of Guard Towers I laid a group of Arcane and Cannon towers behind it. With this finished, I took four of my workers from there and teleported to my second camp. I built one barracks at this camp and sent in patrols to guard my base camp while I escorted groups of workers to create large lumber-harvesting colonies around the map to deter my opponents further.
Using sentry wards, courtesy of my Orc allies, I kept a close eye on all of the paths to our bases. During this time I began the slow process of waiting them out. As soon as the opposing players found my first lumbermill, they attacked, assuming I had a large base nearby. Thanks to my sentry wards, I could see their march, so I immediatly sent my Blood Mage and a group of Spell Breakers to attack the other human players' unprotected base.
I destroyed two farms before their army returned, forcing me to teleport back to one of my little communities.
At the time, the map was hidden, I didn't know where my enemies' undead partner was, for a while. I realised after building a small town that I was dangerously close to their large, single base. They attacked quickly, but my town was built for instant combat, as a way to deter my opponents again. It was filled to the brim with peasants, right around the Town Hall and it's five cannon towers. I sent in my militia to deal with the undead base, I took this chance to send my Blood Mage and his mercenaries to get rid of another human encampment, my Orcish allies sent a group of Tauren at my request to help with the undead base. these players clawed through the trees, a narrow network of pathways and clearings with tunnels leading to a goldmine I overlooked.
the Tauren couldn't fit in and my peasants lost militia status, so I sent them back to town to clear away the forest, while one built a town hall to arm them for when they cleared the undead maze. My human enemies managed to repel my attack, so they sent us running. They followed close, but my Orcish friends saw that and sent a group to stop them before they reached my first lumbering community, which was soon turned into a large, tower-guarded barricade.
Sharing a goldmine with long defences following our workers' paths, we gathered enough gold to fortify eachothers positions. I created a tower maze to block any footmen or ghouls from getting in too quick, they created a large system of burrows and towers, though a bit messy, it was effective.
Our tunnel of towers consisting only of Watch Towers and Guard Towers, which went along a LONG path to both of our bases, allowing us to share the gold.
Once our defences were set and our enemies were becoming impatient, we launched a large-scale assault. My new Paladin and a legion of knights escorted a group of fully upgraded Tauren and their Chieftain. We wiped out most of the opposing human encampments before cornering our undead enemies.
They dug deeper into the trees, so my orcish friends sent Batriders to scout the forest for us. We pooled our resources into a large scouting mission with flying machines and Batriders, once we found out how far their little path was, we sent our workers to clear the forests, our combined armies flooded the pathways and tore apart the first few buildings, until we reached a mountainous area of the map, which had a large group of abominations and frost wyrms, along with their fully levelled Lich and Death Knight.
These tunnels were a good defence and a great way to hide your plans. They wasted their gold on building this elaborate workway, I didn't even notice all of the exits spilling out until later. Once we found them, though... they attacked. Many of my bases were attacked by Wyrms, my large group of peasants were picked off and useless, though it freed up my upkeep. My main base was attacked by abominations and the Death Knight, but it was unsuccessful as the abominations kept attacking the farms infront of my towers. The Knight ran and the Lich arrived with his Ghouls, which did a decent amount of damage, though the Lich died and his army was killed upon their retreat.
The Undead teams' gold reserves were empty, and my Orcish allies took their old goldmine. I sent in my bloodmage and the rest of his spellbreakers to deal with the remaining undead base and we won.
Everything in this little war is an example of defensive strategies. My 'Turtle Kingdom' strategy, putting the majority of my armies fortified girth into a protective shell, while only letting small limbs pop out, my allies crude system of mixed towers and burrows, with all of their upgrades working, which provided the perfect distraction for me to make my move. The constant building of small communities or large war factories to deter your opponents is also a great strategy, thinking that your base is extremely widespread or that you're simply protecting a goldmine, the enemy can take whichever bait you leave out for them. The pathway system is great for defensive players, it had me fooled for a long time, I didn't even know that the Undead had these pathways built for easy access around the map at any time, with necropolis' and Black Citadels scattered around the forest, I thought they were just spreading their army thin. It turned out that they had pooled all of their resources into building an intricate defence while waiting out their offense, which did a large amount of damage. To give you a bit more insight on these strategies i'll give you a small guide on each one I've witnessed in this game:
Elf-style Barricades:
Simply using the forest to your advantage, making pathways thin and having them split off in multiple directions, such as the exits, or dead ends. This was perfect, as I never saw the Shades patrolling the lands, for some reason. they did everything they needed to avoid letting me see them, teleporting around the map to hide from me.
Turtle Kingdom:
Take ideas from a turtle and use them at war. Unlike the turtle you must quickly move out to accomplish your goal, like I did. Creating my large defences at my main base was my best defence, other than my allies' help. With the majority of my army hidden and ready for battle, I sent out groups to built large camps and small camps to lure my opponents away from my base, which would have been razed during a largescale assault if I hadn't built those camps.
Spiked Barricades:
Though easy to navigate through, if an army was simply told to fight their way through to your goldmine, this is a perfect way to deter them. Keep your Burrows in a messy fashion, with many Watch Towers in any opennings, do the same as I had with my Turtle-styled defenses, using Burrows and Warmills to block off any advances into the main part of the base. Claw through the forest if you don't have a regular exit, just make sure you can get another exit before you block the hole.
