Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/The Awakening of Stormrage

Chapter Three
The next day, near the outskirts of the sacred Moonglade…

Mission Objectives

 * Main Quest - Furion Stormrage
 * Reach Moonglade Isle behind the Orc base
 * Slay the Primal Guardians
 * Bring Tyrande to the Horn of Cenarius
 * Slumbering Furion Stormrage must survive

Overview
This is a very easy mission, at least on normal level. You can complete this level without any finesse at all: just produce a bunch of units, smash into the enemy positions, rinse and repeat. However, there are a couple of tricks that you can use to make your operations more effective.

Tower Attack
Any race except the Undead can do a Tower Attack. However, the Night Elves get the additional feature that, after they have built their "Towers" outside the enemy base (for example), they can walk them forward, fighting on the move. Perhaps the proper phrase is "crawl forward", because trees walk very slowly.

Overproduce workers
Because building a Night Elf "Tower" uses up a Wisp, if you know or expect that you will be building a bunch of "Towers", you can overproduce a bunch of Wisps early, and collect extra resources. Later on, you will free up those spots in the population roster.

The Undead
Don't waste any time or energy scouting the Undead positions to see how you can get at them. You can't, and the quest instructions actually explicitly tell you so. You are on a timer in this scenario, and the Undead have no function whatsoever here except to put a lot of window dressing on the timer.

Hard Mode Strategy
First mission within the Night Elf campaign which really has Hard Mode flavour to it. One hundred trees protecting Furion equals roughly 15 minutes. There’s no room for any mistakes. Focus of this strategy is to build an outpost early and close to the Orcs base to deliver reinforcements directly to the battle field.

Preparations
Build 5 additional wisps and order them to collect lumber. Right away uproot your Ancient of War and Ancient Protector and move them to the Fountain of Health found just outside the Orc Base to north east. By the time both Ancients are going to make it there Orc Raiders that are guarding the fountain should be killed by Tyrande.

Don’t build any units just yet. After wisps are produced, the very first upgrade you need is Tree of Ages, because it lets you build Ballistas. While Tree of Ages is being researched spend some of the gold on unit upgrades and build another Tree of Life next to the second Gold Mine to the east.

The initial army is enough to defeat the first (and the only) Orc’s attack of 4 Grunts. After dealing with them your outpost should be already completed by half. Build two Moon Wells west of the Fountain, another Ancient of War and one Ancient of Lore. Now you may expand your army. Start with Ballistas, then add Archers and Huntresses.

Counter Attack
Once your outpost is established and you have at least 3 Archers, 3 Huntresses, 3 Dryads, 3 Ballistas (and more in-production) you may start harassing the Orc Base. Attack their Watch Tower and get back to the Fountain. Do not enter(!) the Orc Base before defeating most of their forces. Orcs are quick to train troops. You will simply find yourself overwhelmed.

The most important battle will take place when Blade Master Hero will come out at you. Fight him between the Fountain and Moon Wells with Ballistas at the back. There is only one attempt. You either emerge victorious or you will start over again. It’s very important not to lose any Ballistas. Not even one.

After defeating Orc’s main army, right away start pushing into the base. Your army is wounded so take it slow and be careful, demolishing one building at a time. Keep units together. Focus fire. At this point you have 5 Ballistas, use them also to help your troops at the frontline. Ballistas are not to be used solely on buildings.

The attack should be executed as a one single movement which might be slower at times but without interruption. Throughout the attack you are constantly producing new units on the background. Make sure to add them into your group to assign attack targets. Waypoints should be set to Tyrande. Don’t let your attack die out. Meet Orc’s reinforcements one by one.

Primal Guardians
Destroying the Orc base is not among the requirements (you only need to reach Moonglade), but it’s wise to get rid of the Great Hall and peons. Primal Guardians are quite powerful and should you require reinforcements it’s important they meet no obstacles on the way. Do not underestimate Orc’s ability to rebuild their base from scratch.

Take all of your assault force north. Ballistas once again will prove very useful. Continue producing reinforcements up until the last Primal Guardian, the Lightning Protector is defeated. You’re doing it right if by the end of the mission you have accumulated no spare resources.

Mission Checkpoints
At best your buffer is roughly 10 trees, which is 1-2 minutes. The map has no items of any real value given that Tyrande got all powerful treasures in the previous mission.

95 trees left: you are already building second Tree of Life

85 trees left: Ancients are rooted south of the Fountain

80 trees left: the first and the last attack by the Orcs defeated (4 Grunts)

70 trees left: outpost is almost completed

60 trees left: time to lure enemy Hero out (initial attack force produced)

50 trees left: Orc’s Hero and main army is defeated (slowly assault begins)

30 trees left: Orc’s base is going down

20 trees left: First Primal Guardian is engaged

10 trees left: Tyrande is at the Horn of Cenarius

Treasures

 * Jade Ring outside the cave past the first Primal Guardian
 * Anti-magic Potion in a crate to the right from the Horn of Cenarius
 * Boots of Speed in a Murloc Hut
 * Healing Wards next to Gold Mine within the Orc Base