Cost: 400 Hit Points: 30 Damage: 1-5 Armor: 0 Sight: 4 Speed: 10 Range: 1

Peasant
Peasants are trained from the hard-working and stout-hearted citizens that live in the numerous kingdoms of Lordaeron. By mining Gold and harvesting Lumber to meet the ever-increasing needs of the fighting force which must push back the unrelenting Horde, they are the backbone of the Alliance. Trained not only in the construction and maintenance of the myriad buildings found in every community, but also those necessary to wage war, they take great pride in the invaluable service they provide. Roused by the tales of the Orcish atrocities in Azeroth, these Peasants have learned to use both pick and axe for their own defenses if threatened.

Peon
The label of Peon denotes the lowest station amongst those in the Orcish Horde. Inferior in all skills of import, these dogs are relegated to menial tasks such as harvesting lumber and mining Gold. Their labor is also required for the construction and maintenance of buildings necessary to support the vast undertakings of the Horde. Downtrodden, the Orc Peons slave thanklessly to please their overseers.

Jobs
Build buildings, Mine Gold, Harvest Lumber, repair buildings, scout the map in early game, and provide the last line of defense.

Orc vs Human
No Difference.

Peasants and Peons are the working class. They are your most valuable and fragile commodity. Peasants generate all the funds or resources necessary to fund armies, build your civilization, and keep it in good shape. When the time comes, they even can provide a last line of defense for the town. Alone, their attack is weak, but in large groups, Peasants can bring even the mightiest warrior down.

Peasants generate both Gold and Lumber so they must be protected at all costs. Usually, this involves protecting them with walled into Towers. Realizing how valuable it is to have a strong Peasant force working, you should realize that the Peasants are equally valuable to your opponent. Knowing this, your goal should be to kill of their Peasants at all costs. Killing Peasants puts a stop or slows down the enemy's resource gathering. Once his reserves wear out cannot build any more buildings or units for defense and can be over powered.

Speeding Up Building Construction
You can have more than one Peasant build a building. To do this, first have one Peasant build a building. Then select a group of Peasants that are between chops on Lumber or who are otherwise free, and right click on the building as it is being constructed. This will command the Peasants to help repair-build the building. Repair-building adds extra resources to the overall price of the building which can be damaging early in the game, but the time saved in a building's construction is often worth the extra cost. This can be especially true for Town Halls and Farms, or buildings that advance your defenses (Barracks, Altar of Storms, Stables, etc).

You can have as many Peasants building a building as you can fit around it. The more Peasants that are repair-building it while it is being built, the faster the building will be completed. Hasted Peons work even faster.

How many times in the game are you waiting for a building to finish construction? This can be very damaging if you're waiting on a Farm when your food supply is at its max since unit production will be halted until the Farm is built. But if you devote more Peasants to repair-build the building can be created a lot faster and the time spent with no new unit creation is lessened. Other key uses for repair-build are Town Halls when you need to quickly set up at a new resource spot, Towers, Farms used for wallins, Foundries which allow Battleships, Stables/Ogre Mounds, which allow Knights and Ogres, and Altar of Storms which allows Ogres to research Bloodlust.

You do not always want to repair-build every building because it increases the cost of a buildings construction. Make a decision to repair-build or not based on how badly you need a particular building, and how many surplus resources you currently possess. Less critical buildings, or those you do not need immediately, can be built normally. Buildings you need right away should be repair-built if the extra resources can be afforded.

[ Click to Enlarge - 57 KB ] Peons work quickly to put up a Temple of the Damned.	[ Click to Enlarge - 72 KB ] It's important to get a Town Hall up at an expansion mine as quickly as possible. When you send over your group of Peons that will be mining at the new mine, use them to also more quickly construct the Town Hall.

When Constructing New Buildings, Use Idle Peasants
If you need to make a building, before you begin construction try to wait until a Peasant is done harvesting Lumber or until a new Peasant is created. It makes no sense to allow a Peasant to get 30 or so chops onto a tree (51 required to get Lumber) only to have him stop and make a building. You should instead try to use a Peasant who's either walking to harvest Lumber or walking back from harvesting. You can also wait until your next Peasant pops out of the Town Hall. Sometimes there are situations where it is more important to get a building built rather than finish harvesting Lumber so you must prioritize. Later on in the game when you have built up a reserve of resources it becomes less important to grab idle Peasants for building tasks but always look to this as a way to optimize your economy.

Peasants Chopping On the Same Piece of Wood
Quite often two or more Peasants start chopping on the same piece of wood. What happens in this situation is whichever Peasant first reaches 51 chops grabs the Lumber, and the slower Peasant is forced to move to another section of forest and must start chopping all over again. Each Peasant on the same section of trees past the initial Peasant is effectively doing nothing. You would have lost all that time those Peasants could have spent bringing in another load of Lumber on a free section.. Peasants always want to share the duties of chopping Lumber so you must constantly watch them. This really is damaging early in the game because it gets you behind but it becomes less so when you have a lot of Peasants on wood and a big reserve of lumber later in the game. When you do discover two Peasants chopping the same piece of Lumber, try to pick the Peasant that last started chopping (has less time invested) then move him on to another section of trees. If you do not know which Peasant was the last to reach the area, just pick one. Although it may be difficult to tell if Peasants are actually chopping the same Lumber, eventually you will become skilled enough to be able to make a good guess.

[ Click to Enlarge - 71 KB ] Two Peasants chop on the same Lumber, axes are crossed.

Directed Chopping
You can remove specific sections of Lumber to build a path through the trees or to clear up specific sections. Move a Peasant to the wood then hit Stop. Next right click directly horizontal or vertical from the Peasant's location, depending on what direction you want chop. Try not to chop diagonally as that direction makes it difficult to tell exactly where you're chopping. Directed chopping is necessary when you want to quickly chop through a section of Lumber to reach a Gold mine such as on 4 Corners, and Plains of Snow, and also to quickly chop a path through a block of Lumber such as on Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to hide, Jimland, Web, 3vs3.

[ Click to Enlarge - 70 KB ] 3 Peons chop into the Gold Mine. They are clearing a 3 Peon wide path for easy Gold Mining.

Rescuing Trapped Peasants
Ever get a Peasant stuck and have to chop him free or abandon him (which ties up food)? Instead of chopping the Peasant out, if that's even possible, have the Peasant build a wall, then once the wall is completed continue building walls until the Peasant pops out at the right spot. You may have to build multiple walls until it has filled up the space it is trapped in. You could also sometimes cancel the wall construction and the Peasant would pop out in the right spot also. This can help you free your trapped Peasants in a multiplayer game, though walls cannot be built in a single player game.

[ Click to Enlarge - 74 KB ] Building walls can rescue this trapped Peasant.

Peasants Can Attack!
Don't be afraid to use the Peasants to fight to turn the tide of battle. Normally it's a good idea to run before the enemy attacks them but if you do not have enough Grunts or other units to fight off an enemy attack throw your Peasants into the battle. Often this is necessary early in the game to save your town from early Grunt attacks. See also Peon Rush

[ Click to Enlarge - 88 KB ] Peons attack some Mages	[ Click to Enlarge - 84 KB ] In the counter move to the Peon Rush, the Mage runs circles around the Cannon Tower until it has killed all of the Peons in pursuit.

[ Click to Enlarge - 77 KB ] Peons defend the Town.	[ Click to Enlarge - 57 KB ] With their escorting Ogre dead, the Peons are forced to kill the Mages along.

[ Click to Enlarge - 47 KB ] Two Peons take on a Knight that has been Slowed.	[ Click to Enlarge - 57 KB ] Peons help some Dragons clear out an enemy Great Hall.

[ Click to Enlarge - 64 KB ] Bloodlusted Peasants slaughter defenseless un Bloodlusted Peasants.

Defensive Barrier
When Peons no longer have Lumber to harvest or Gold to mine, you can use them to defend important units such as Mages.

[ Click to Enlarge - 58 KB ] These Peons do their part to form a Peon barrier around the Mages to prevent them from being rushed.

Run Away
If you know an attack is coming and know that you can do nothing to stop it, rather than continue mining and harvesting select the Peasants and have them run away and hide. If you cannot hide have them run in circles around nearby Guard or Cannon Towers until the enemy dies. While you must halt production to run away, if your Peasants survive and return to work, you will be in much better shape than if you allowed them to work until they die.

Build a Building, Get Away Trick
If a Footmen or other unit is pursuing your escaping Peasant, have your Peasant build a Farm or wall then cancel it. The pursuing unit will stop to attack the building and will lose it's "lock" on your Peasant. Unless the enemy is directly controlling them the Peasant will be able to escape. Even if the enemy knows what you're doing it's still difficult and annoying to pursue the Peasant, you will force them to devote all attention to the pursuit.