Meat Wagon (Warcraft III)

For lore, see meat wagon.

Meat Wagon
Faction	Undead Scourge
Statistics
Hit points	380
Unit Type	Mechanical
Level	2
Gold	230
Lumber	50
Food	4
Produced at	Slaughterhouse
Build time	36 sec.
Transport slots	2
Attacking priority	3
Hotkey	M
Collision Size	48
Combat
Normal attack:	79.5 (108*) Full Damage Area: 2.5 2/5 Damage Area: 5 1/4 Damage Area: 15
Can attack:	Ground, Structure, Tree
Range	25 - 115
Attack type	Siege
Cooldown	4.00 sec.
Weapon type	Artillery (Missile*)
Armor Type	Heavy
Armor	2
Day Sight	140
Night Sight	120
Movement Speed	Slow (220)

This article or section contains lore taken from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the manuals, and/or official bonus maps.

One of the strangest and most dire tools utilized by the undead Scourge is the dreaded Meat Wagon. This rickety contraption is used to collect and store recently slain corpses from the field of battle. At any time, corpses can be pulled from the Meat Wagon and raised into undead warriors. The Meat Wagon can also 'fling' diseased corpses at enemy units by use of a crude catapult device. An invaluable support vehicle for the Scourge, the Meat Wagon strikes fear and woe into the hearts of even the most resolute defenders.

Information

The Meat Wagon functions similarly to the Night Elven Glaive Thrower and Orcish Demolishers as long-range mechanical siege units, and as such are effective against heavily fortified enemies where a simple head-on attack would be unfeasible. However, despite this use, they're fairly uncommon due to their lack of versatility compared to other siege units (Demolishers have Burning Oil for DoT, Mortar Teams can be affected by spells and Glaive Throwers can multihit), along with the fact that they only help Necromancer-heavy setups.

Unlike its other counterparts, the Meat Wagon is also designed to hold corpses - up to eight at any given time. The Meat Wagon preserves the corpses held inside them, so they will never decay. This makes it particularly useful for Death Knights and Necromancers. While it is unlikely that there will be many high-level creeps on any given map, the Meat Wagon may hold onto them for the Death Knight to reanimate, temporarily giving players powerful assistants for their side. Necromancers also enjoy the benefit of the Meat Wagon by quickly summoning Skeletal warriors and/or mages as soon as they enter the battlefield for additional assistance. However, their long attack range means the summoned skeletons must be directed to attack enemies as they will be too far to acquire targets. This can be remedied by bringing the Meat Wagons closer to the Necromancers.

The Meat Wagon doesn't automatically pick up corpses unless set on automatic - they collect the nearest corpses. If Exhumed Corpses has been researched, then the Meat Wagon automatically supplies itself with corpses like the Graveyards, making the process of collecting corpses unnecessary. Meat Wagons can also benefit from the Disease Cloud research as their attacks become capable of spreading disease onto enemies.

If destroyed with corpses inside, all of the corpses will spill out of the Meat Wagon.

Spells and abilities

Get Corpse (Autocast)

Picks up a nearby corpse for later use.

Drop All Corpses

Drops all corpses for immediate use.

Disease Cloud

Meat Wagons will cause Disease Clouds wherever they attack that deal 1 damage per second for 120 seconds to nearby enemy units.

Undead are immune to Disease Cloud.

Research Cost Researched At Requirements Upgrade Time 100 200 Slaughterhouse Black Citadel 45 sec.

Exhume Corpses

Gives Meat Wagons the ability to generate corpses.

Research Cost Researched At Requirements Upgrade Time 75 50 Slaughterhouse Halls of the Dead 20 sec.

Upgrades

Unholy Strength

Increases the attack damage of Ghouls, Meat Wagons, Abominations, Skeleton Warriors, and Skeletal Mages.

Research Cost	Researched At	Upgrade Time
125 50	Graveyard	60 sec.

Improved Unholy Strength

Further increases the attack damage of Ghouls, Meat Wagons, Abominations, Skeleton Warriors, and Skeletal Mages.

Research Cost	Researched At	Requirements	Upgrade Time
200 150	Graveyard	Halls of the Dead	75 sec.

Advanced Unholy Strength

Further increases the attack damage of Ghouls, Meat Wagons, Abominations, Skeleton Warriors, and Skeletal Mages.

Research Cost	Researched At	Requirements	Upgrade Time
275 250	Graveyard	Black Citadel	90 sec.

Patch changes

Patch 1.19 (09/18/2005)
Exhume Corpses research now costs 75 gold / 50 lumber down from 125 gold / 100 lumber.

Patch 1.15 (05/11/2004)
Exhume Corpses now requires Halls of the Dead instead of Black Citadel.

• Patch 1.06 (2003-06-03): All basic siege units (Mortar Teams, Catapults, etc.) have had their night sight increased to 1100 from 1000.
  
• Patch 1.01 (2002-07-05): Hit points reduced to 380 from 450.
  

External links

Battle.net Warcraft III - Undead -> Units -> Meat Wagon