Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne/The Brothers Stormrage

Chapter Introduction
Hours later, along the banks of the River Arevass, Malfurion and Illidan work together to pick up Tyrande's trail. Moving quickly through the woods, their skills and senses start working in unison--their twin wills bent on finding their beloved priestess before it's too late.

Mission Objectives

 * Main Quest - Tyrande's Rescue
 * Use Illidan's forces to destroy the red Undead base.
 * Use Malfurion's forces to defend the night Elf base.


 * Optional Quest - Dam Trolls
 * Slay the Trolls and their Chieftain

Strategy
Illidan's base is located in the north east, Malfurion's base is to the west, and Tyrande's near the middle, effectively point blank to the undead.

Aside from fortifying Malfurion's base, there's not much that he can do; he will be occasionally attacked by the Orange AI player and harassed by the grey AI player. However, in the event that this base runs out of gold, you can claim the gold mine to the north-west corner.

You will deal with Illidan in this mission. While you don't have "siege" units per se, your forces damage rate is more than enough to deal with the enemy. Your best two units will be the Naga Myrmidon and Dragon Turtle; the former gives the Ensnare ability to pull down flying critters. The latter can eat the land based units.

You can't send units to Tyrande's base, and as such must destroy the red base.

Illidan's base
Immediately build an additional Spawning pool; this is the only improvement necessary for this base as it is generally not a target.

If you're playing on hard, you might also want to include an additional defense or immediately start building anti-air; the first attack comes in three minutes.

Malfurion's base
Build one full attack force of 12 units, and upgrade them if desired. Keep them as defenses only, as there is no purpose for expanding the base any further. You may also want to add protectors, as the orange AI player has a habit of making flanking attacks. A second force won't hurt.

Illidan's attack force
After you lightly fortified Malfurion's base with 12 units, you should have enough time to build up an attack force.

You will want an attack force composed of Turtles and Myrmidons, to inflict damage on the enemy units and buildings. They also work in pairs; Turtles can consume the weaker land units to allow the Myrmidons to focus on combat, and the Myrmidons can bring down the air units to the ground (and receive attacks from the turtles.)

Naturally, you shouldn't use only these two units; Snap Dragons or Sirens will serve as a ranged unit.

Attack route
The easiest attack route is to attack the forest trolls to demolish the dams. You'll be up against a Level 11 hero, but that's not too difficult to deal with.

Once the dams are down, capture and rally your troops at the Fountain of Health to the south; there's two creeps there, but additional enemy creeps will engage from the east. However, this shouldn't give too much problem.

Advance to the west and take out a small base - this will be easy to smash (especially when compared to the northern entrance.) In case Illidan runs out of gold, you'll gain access to reserve funds that you can use in case the next portion gives you trouble.

Rebuild your troops (rallying injured troops to the fountain), and charge the Red base.

Attack waves
Malfurion will constantly be harassed by the base to the southeast, and from the inaccessible base to the northeast (across river).

Illidan will be attacked by the base immediately west of his own, and possibly the inaccessible one as well.

Destroying every base
Despite the mission giving a sense of urgency, there is a trigger in place that prevents Tyrande from actually dying. Thus granting time to explore and destroy every base. Even the inaccessible one can be destroyed using Malfurion's treants, Naga siren's parasite, long range units (as close to base as possible to attack units kited into range) and the infernal stone acquired by Illidan.

Make sure the units have the best upgrades (including Nature's Blessing for treants), and they can even be buffed by Illidan using scrolls of protection/healing if the summoned units get close to the cliff edge on his side (clear trees with infernal if turtles can't do it).

Treasures
There's a spot that allows the two brothers to exchange items along the cliffs west of the fountain of health on Illidan's portion of the map, and through the undead base southeast of Malfurion's base. This is extremely useful for transporting items via Illidan into the final two missions of the Blood Elf campaign.


 * A Gnoll camp is to the south of your base.  They have a Ring of Protection +5.
 * The forest troll chieftain to the south has a Mask of Death.
 * The sasquatches guarding the Fountain of Health carry a Pendant of Mana.
 * The Ancient Sasquatch to the right of the Fountain of Health carries the Crown of Kings +5.
 * The River Golem to the northwest of the northern green base carries Claws of Attack +15.
 * Before the River Golem there's an Infernal Stone.
 * The Murloc nightcrawler to the west of the southern green base carries some Healing Wards.
 * The Forest trolls to the east of Malfurion's base have some Healing Wards.

This results in an additional 52 attack,  7.5 armor, 12%/10%/8% faster attack speed, 225 HP, 2.45 HP/sec regeneration, 75 mana and .25 mana regeneration.
 * Suggested items for Illidan at mission end
 * Shadow Orb of Gul'dan (Tomb of Sargeras)
 * Claws of Attack +12 (Shards of the Alliance)
 * Boots of Quel'thalas +6 (Shards)
 * Helm of Valor (Ruins of Dalaran)
 * Crown of Kings +5
 * Claws of Attack +15

A unit and tower strategy for closing gates is very costly, it requires destroying and seizing the resources of many of the Orc bases. A more durable Illidan means a cheaper resource cost when defending him at gates.
 * Suggested items for defending Illidan in Gates of the Abyss (Hard)

This results in an additional 25 (19) attack, 12.5 (10.7) armor, 33% spell resistance, 12% (0%)/10%/8% attack speed, 225 HP, 2.45 HP/sec regeneration, 75 mana and .25 mana regeneration. The amulet will block 6 spells over the course of closing a portal (1 every 40 seconds), very potent with arcane towers near Illidan using feedback to compound the waste of mana by the demons. You do however lose armor, attack and the ability to reduce Illidan's attack speed to 1.05/.99 by giving him gloves of haste acquired by Kael and Vashj later.
 * Shadow Orb of Gul'dan
 * Runed Bracers (Wrath of the Betrayer)
 * Boots of Quel'thalas +6 or Amulet of Spell Shield (Balancing the Scales)
 * Helm of Valor
 * Crown of Kings +5
 * Ring of Protection +5

Points of Interest

 * Fountain of Health, south of Malfurion's base.
 * Goblin Merchant, western area of Illidan's base.
 * Circlet of Nobility, Periapt of Vitality, Boots of Speed, Scroll of Protection, Scroll of Healing, Potion of Invisibility, Potion of Lesser Invulnerability.
 * Fountain of Health, far south of Illidan's base.
 * Mercenary Camp, west of the above fountain.
 * Elder Sasquatch (5 food, Force of Nature, Bash), and Sasquatch Oracles (6 food, chaos damage, Roar, Rejuvenation) can significantly improve Illidan's forces.