Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/Ravages of the Plague

You start the mission with Arthas (who should be at Level 3), Jaina – another hero (who will start at Level 1) – two Footmen and one Captain. Note that Heroes are limited to advancing beyond a certain experience level on each game level. In this case, the maximum level is Level 4, meaning Arthas can only advance one level, while Jaina can in theory advance three. To get the most experience, keep the heroes seperated by distance to prevent them from sharing it, after Arthas reaches level 4 only use Jaina to kill enemies to maximize her gain.

If you watched the introduction scene, you saw Jaina fending off some Ogres. If you head east, you'll find them. Move in small increments, until you spot one of the Ogres. It's best to split them up and take them on one at a time, given your party's small size. Also try to have Arthas taking most of the damage. You'll see the first one, an Ogre Warrior, at a junction that leads to the south. Another Ogre Warrior might come from the east during this skirmish, but fortunately this is the one that received damage from Jaina's earlier attacks, and he'll fall easily.

The last Ogre is to the south, and this is an Ogre Mauler. He'll drop a Potion of Healing, which you can use if Arthas was the one taking the beating. Also look for a sheep in this area; kill it, and it'll drop a Bracer of Agility.

Prince Arthas can collect taxes from Garglemel.

Head back to where you started, and follow the path north-west. You'll meet a villager, Stacie, who will tell you that something is amiss as the bridge. Follow the path until you get to the bridge, where Achilles, another villager, will tell you that the bridge is impassable, but there is another way across the river. Follow the path to the east, and you'll meet Garglemel. He seems to have a guilty conscience over evading taxes. If you select Garglemel a hundred times, he'll produce a Potion of Healing as payment. Continue east, where the villagers need you at the moment, so run to their aid.

Splendora will reward you for saving her life.

There are five Bandits raiding the village, seven on hard difficulty. Use the usual tactic of focusing your attacks and Arthas' Holy Light. You may also want to try out Jaina's Water Elemental here. The Bandits will go out of their way to kill Splendora, and you want to make sure that they don't succeed. Only if Splendora survives, will you receive a Potion of Greater Healing as a reward.

Before heading into the river, you'll find the villager Alric to the east of the river entrance, who will enlist you for an Optional Quest -- to find the Fountain of Health. You'll see a blip on your mini map, so you've technically already found it, you just need to get there. This quest doesn't do much other than lead you to a Fountain of Health, which is never a bad thing.

Head north into the river, and two Murloc Tiderunners will greet you. They'll fall easily. Continue north to a small island. There are three more Tiderunners, four on hard difficulty, plus a Murloc Huntsman. As usual, focus your attacks, starting with the Huntsman. When the island is clear, turn your attacks to the Murloc Hut at the north end of the island. You will receive a Maul of Strength for your time.

Follow the path to the west, and you'll encounter another Murloc Tiderunner. Kill the Murloc, and continue along the path to the west until you'll come to a fork in the trail. Take the northern one, and it will dead-end at an island with enemies on it: a Bandit, a Rogue, two on hard difficulty, and an Enforcer. Take them out one at a time, starting at the Enforcer. Destroy their Tent, too, and you'll receive a Scroll of Protection.

Head back to the fork, and take the southern path. This will take you out of the river. Following the path you'll find three Footmen that you can't control under attack from nine Skeleton Archers, twelve on hard difficulty. Help them out. Your Footmen and Captain also learn Defend at this point. Units in Defend mode move slower, but are much harder to kill with piercing attacks, like that of Skeleton Archers. Keep an eye on the Footmen you don't control. You can still heal them, but you won't be able to target them from the display at the bottom, you'll have to click on them in the main map area.

Once you defeat the Skeletons, the Footmen will join your ranks. Add them to your party. Jaina should have leveled up by now, and your spell choices are Brilliance Aura, which helps spell-casting units restore mana faster, and Blizzard, which is a large-area-of-damage spell. At level 1, Blizzard isn't so useful, and you won't keep Jaina all that long, so it is advised to go with Brilliance Aura, which will enable Arthas to cast more spells for as long as you have Jaina.

To the south is the path that leads to the other end of the bridge. The only thing down here is a single Skeleton Warrior, hiding behind a tree.

From where you picked up the extra Footmen, head west. You'll see a path go south, but keep going. You'll see a Potion of Mana on the ground, which is bait. Six Skeleton Warriors, eight on hard difficulty, and one Skeleton Archer will ambush you. Fortunately Skeletons don't take much damage. Just keep an eye on your party's health and heal units as necessary. You can also use Holy Light against the undead, which will deal half the amount of damage as it heals. In this case, you're probably better off killing the Skeletons with normal attacks and reserving Holy Light for keeping your party alive.

You are just a few steps away from the Fountain of Health, though, so you don't need to restore everyone to full health. Keep going west, and at the Fountain you'll find two Skeleton Warriors. They're greatly outnumbered, and once they fall make sure everyone's at full health by getting them close to the Fountain.

When you're ready, head back east and take that path to the south. You'll see an Infected Granary, and a cut-scene will play. Destroy the Granary. There are some crates nearby; one of them hides a Skeleton Warrior, so you can open it if you want a few more experience points.

Keep going south, and there is a large number of Undead tormenting the villagers. There are four Skeleton Archers, six on hard difficulty, five Skeleton Warriors, and one Necromancer, two on hard difficulty. Necromancers can raise more Skeleton Warriors out of fallen corpses, so be aware of that. The enemies will almost all come after you once you start attacking, but, again, just keep an eye on your party's health and use Holy Light. You can do better in this case by focusing your attacks on two units at a time, because with this many units running around it can be hard for all of your melee Footmen to actually get to a single targeted unit. Also, Skeletons just don't pose that much of a threat, and you'll be OK if you diverge from the standard tactic.

Wind your way south through the village, and you find two Priests at a bend in the path. They'll join you, and while their attacks don't amount to much and their defense is weak, they auto-cast a heal spell which is very handy in larger battles. You might consider keeping them in a separate party so that you can be sure of keeping them behind the front line. With auto-formation turned on, though, they'll tend to stay in the back, as they attack with ranged weapons.

Follow the path to the west and north, and there are two Skeleton Archers, three on hard difficulty. These won't be a big deal, but another Skeleton Archer will appear from the south-west, and run away. If you don't control your party, some units will chase after the Skeleton, where they'll get ambushed by another large group of Skeletons. Keep your units on a leash, and head them south-west as a group. You'll find a Mortar Team who will join your party, and at this point you'll be fighting a large group of Skeletons to the north and west -- ten Warriors and eight Archers, twelve on hard difficulty. They're close enough to each other that attacking one will eventually get all of them involved. One of the Warriors drop a Scroll of Healing.

As always, monitor your party's health, but this time you have the Priests to help out. Keep them near the battle but far enough away so as not to draw fire. Let them auto heal your units, and in the meantime let Arthas heal seriously wounded units. Also summon Jaina's Water Elemental for an extra boost. If you can get the Elemental to go into battle first and draw a lot of the fire, you'll avoid some of that on your irreplaceable units.

With this battle over, head for the island just west of where the Mortar Team was originally. There may be one or two Skeletons here that didn't get involved in the big battle, but they'll be nothing you can't handle. They guard a Mantle of Intelligence +3, which will boost mana capacity for the wearer.

The main part of town lies north, but there might be a lone remaining Skeleton Warrior hiding behind a tree to the west. For the experience, go kill it.

Jaina will likely have leveled up by now, as will have Arthas. Give Jaina Water Elemental 2, and Arthas Holy Light 2.

Head north, and you're treated to another cut-scene, of the Necromancer Kel'thuzad and some Undead Acolytes running away. They leave an Abomination, four Ghouls and four Skeleton Warriors behind to fight you.

The Abomination is a tough enemy, so the safest way to approach it is with all of your guns blazing. To help, try and clear away the Skeletons and Ghouls without drawing the attention of the Abomination. Ghouls are the Footmen of the Undead army, so they're not terribly strong and you out-number them. If you don't go too far north, the Undead will return to their guard position. This allows you to send Jaina in, attack the nearest Skeleton, and run back to the group. This will probably get two or three Skeletons to engage you, at a safe distance from the Abomination. You can do to the same thing for the remaining Skeleton(s) and Ghouls. Then make sure the party is healed up, and go after the Abomination all at once. Make sure the Mortar Team is with you. They're a little slower but can deal some serious damage. Make sure the Priests are nearby to auto-heal.

The party will automatically go after the Grain Warehouse once the Abomination falls. Destroy the Grain Warehouse to complete the level.

Summary[edit]

For treasure and experience, take out the Ogres to the east of your starting position. Also kill the sheep in the area.

Head north-west to the bridge, then east to the alternate route. Clear out the Bandits here, and look for Alric to receive the Optional Quest.

Make your way through the river, taking out enemies and gaining a Maul of Strength in the Hut and a Scroll of Protection in the Tent.

Back on land, help the three Footmen defeat the Skeleton Archers, healing them as you can and adding them to your party after the battle. Head west; there will be a Skeleton ambush, and finally two Skeletons at the Fountain of Health.

When all healed up, go back east and go south through the village. There is a large number of Undead a little after the Infected Granary. A little further along are some Priests you can add to your party, and more Skeletons a little after that.

Be careful when another Skeleton tries to lure some of your party away and into a den of several Skeletons. Keep them all together, and follow the path as a group. Pick up the Mortar Team, and fight the Skeletons, keeping Priests in the back to cast their healing spell and using Arthas to heal units that are seriously wounded.

Pick up the Mantle of Intelligence +3 to the west of the Mortar Team. Head north through the main part of town, but don't rush in. Let the Skeletons and Abomination return to their guard positions and lure a few enemies out at a time by sending Jaina in to attack one then running back to the group. Bring down the Grain Warehouse and you're done.

Treasures[edit]

The Ogre Mauler near your start carries a Potion of Healing.
The sheep in the same vicinity carries a Bracer of Agility.
Garglemel can be persuaded to hand over a Potion of Healing to cover taxes.
Defending Splendora from the Bandits will yield a reward of a Potion of Greater Healing.
The Murloc Hut on the first island as you cross the river hides a Maul of Strength.
The Tent on the last island of the river hides a Scroll of Protection.
A Potion of Mana is used as bait for an ambush.
One of the Skeleton Warriors next to the Mortar Team drops a Scroll of Healing.
There is a Mantle of Intelligence +3 to the west of where you find the Mortar Team.

Points of Interest[edit]

After you meet Stacie, there is a group of women along the path, one of whom is named Marie Claire Antoinette.
Between the bridge and the entrance to the river, there is a male villager named Garglemel.

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