Wights - Scrug likes wights. Wights go boom. 

Wights are useful in two ways. First, they tend to really draw an opponents attention. They make a great distraction and can act as flank or rear guard. Not because they can wipe out troops, but because they enemy will HAVE to deal with it before coming at you. On a 5 way map, I will often send 2 wights off one way and concentrate my main army the other way. Not only do the wights act as a deterrent to attack, they make a great "tin can" in that you hear them go off if the enemy decides to attack you from that direction.

The other way I have used wights succesfully is to draw enemy archer fire. Face it, when a wight comes out of the water on desert or creep, the enemy WILL use his archers to get it. Meanwhile, you continue to hit his archers with your archers. I once used 5 wights to wipe Tartan in this way. I put 5 wights in the water and brought them up 1 by 1 right after each other. While he directed his archers at the wights, I directed my archers at him. When my 5 wights were gone, so were half his archers. Seeing that he would now lose the archer duel, he rushed me with warriors thinking that there was no way I could possibly have a 6th wight :)

Wight goes boom - Attacking with wights is a bit trickier. A couple of things you can do here. Get those wights MOVING! A wight is most effective when it is a surprise attack. If you wait 15 seconds into the game before you move your wights, it will be spotted. If you move your wights AS SOON as the game starts, its chances for getting underwater unseen is vastly improved. Also, consider moving wights into the water away from the action. THEN, after your wights are under cover, move them toward the enemy troop concentrations in the middle of the map.

Wight attacks on Carnage: Wights are great on this map for about any game. The pools of water are close and allow you to get your wights under cover quickly. I have wiped out 8 careless Souless many times. I LOVE to see souless come saunter in over my wights. Even if I don't have them, some players know that the pools around Scrug's flags, bacon, etc. are a place to stay away from. :) On LMOTH on this map, players tend to look TOWARD the flag and leave thier rear unwatched. I have done this as many times as I have received it. 

Countering Wights - So how do you counter wights? Besides the obvious ways, here's some other tricks to countering wights.

Thrall - As soon as you see a wight and you have thrall in the area, detach 1 or 2 thrall immediately and send them after the wight. Then forget them. I did this to Soulsbane once and by the time my team had won, the thrall had chased the wight almost off the map. The wight is slightly faster than the thrall, but the wight will run from the thrall unless it is directed to attack it. If that happens, the 3 point wight is gone, and your 1 point thrall will still be standing.

Use an archer to spot. If I see a wight enter the water, I will direct 1 archer to fire at it. That archer will track the wight as it moves underwater giving away its position. It also provides a constant reminder that the wight is there. If the wight comes up, at least you have 1 archer that is firing at it.

Fetch sweeps. Last night, I wanted to move my souless over water. Problem is, this map provides 10 wights that can not be traded away. So, YSD lends me his fetch and I start control clicking on the deep pool. Sure enuf, BOOM and wight chunks start flying out. If you are not sure about a pool of water, use a fetch to sweep it by blindly firing on the pool surface.

Early attack of wights. You can sometimes do some real damage to a careless enemy. Use ghols, myrms or zerks to rush the enemy as he approaches his set up area. I have done this and had it done to me. A careless enemy will bring his wights forward in the middle of his own troops. Foolish enemy! I will spend 2 or 3 units to make that wight go off in the middle of his formations. 

Should I buy wights? Depends on the map and game. On RIP? Are you in one of the two corners that has deep water? Look carefully at your terrain before you buy. Wights aren't much good in the open. But on most maps, I will take 2 wights over a regular dwarf anyday.

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Wights loooove trees. More than dogs do. I've snuck up on archers using trees as cover and done much damage. 'Nate terrorized a dozen of my Warriors with a double wight strike. *shudder*

Thrall make great wight guards. I've used them in two ways. First, if you send one thrall along with a wight to his target, a harried player may see a red dot on the map, and look to see what it is. I've found many people don't rotate their camera enough, and only notice a Thrall standing in the open, while nearby a wight lurks in the trees.

After sending the thrall towards them, the wight can sneak in while archers waste their arrows on the ax-bearer.

Another Thrall/wight combo I practiced a lot a few months ago. I tried it again with Eph. on Ground Zero yesterday. Eph got a really good hit in, as pre-exploded wight bits were scattered. I've found it's risky, but in the heat of battle it can be devistating. Set a group of 3-5 thrall up in a tight line or box formation. Put a wight so that these thrall are between it and your hapless target (preferably archers - who tend to stand their ground till it's too late).

Now advance your thrall wall and the wight. Archers shooting at the wight hit the thrall. If you've timed it right, your wight can devestate the opposition. Sure, a few thrall get hurt, but that's war.

This strategy could work with J-men too, since they're immune to paralysis and can heal themselves after the explosion, but I haven't tried it yet. J-men are costly for such a risky maneuver.

A good wight wrangler can counter the strategy of chasing Wight with Souless . If a wight controller is precise, he can evade capture and advance close to a better target. But most of the time the guy controlling the wight is preoccupied with other stuff so the thrall attack works. :)

Another tactic is to use a lone Thrall to go wight-sweeping. Shift-click on one end of the deep water, shift-click on the other end, and shift-click again on the starting waypoint. Your thrall is now on wight patrol, walking back and forth through the deep water. Wights entering the water will run out to get away from the Thrall...

One of the best units for rushing Wights during early in the game is the lowly spider. On spiderweb, I saw one player guard the hill with two wights and a fetch. I'm sure he'll never try *that* again... 

Perhaps even better, the Trow can waltz through a formation, boot a wight, and survive to kick the poor paralyzed troops. 

Creep is my favourite map to use wights. Lots of trees, deep water hidey holes. Terries or FR on carnage is good for wights. I haven't gotten them to work well on Mudpit, tho', unless I manage to use a thrall wall.

One more reason to use Wights: Puss packets. Besides the obvious advantage it gives a well controlled ghol, exploded wight bits hiding in water can be devestating. Conner caught some zerks of mine on spiderweb. As he fetched the water, my zerks were paralyzed by wight chunks. Imagine my chagrin as I was unable to run from the lightning. The horror! The humanity!