Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/The Druids Arise

Chapter Four
Two days later, deep in the Winterspring Valley…

Mission Objectives

 * Main Quest - Awaken Druids
 * Reach the Barrow Dens
 * Destroy the corrupted Night Elf base
 * Bring Furion to the Barrow Dens


 * Optional Quest - Crazed Furbolgs
 * Kill the Furbolg Warlord


 * Optional Quest - Cursed Glade
 * Kill the Death Revenant to restore the forest

Overview
This mission is quite hard. It's not so much that it's hard in and of itself, rather the problem is that it's so different that you won't have a good idea of what you should do on the first, or fifth, attempt. Once you have managed to explore most of the map, however, your plan of action becomes clear, and the gameplay becomes fairly easy. There still are difficulties, but at least you can formulate decent plans.

Strategy
Split among 4 mines, gold is scarce on this map, at least for you. (Actually, there is a way of getting an infinite amount of gold, which will be described later.) You will be forced to relocate at least part of your base at least two times. Luckily, enemies are either weak or have little interest in you, fighting among themselves most of the time. Stay within No Upkeep until your first three gold mines are empty.

The beginning
You start with 2 Heroes, 3 Archers, 5 Wisps, 5 big walking trees, and some static buildings. And no gold, although a tiny mine beckons somewhat NE of your position. Can you go there right away? Perhaps, but you have no way of knowing that yet. What do you do? Scout the mine area, of course. With an Owl, of course.

In the meantime, start harvesting wood with all of your Wisps. Your Tree of Life can be anywhere for this, and it can be mobile. Root your Ancient of War in place and produce one Archer. Root your Ancient of Lore and produce one Dryad. Root your Ancient Protectors in place, for want of something better to do. Scout the SW corner of the map, and keep spitting out Owls as appropriate.

You will find that the Orc base in the NW corner can only be reached by air. Since they have a bunch of Zeppelins, they can attack with air-mobile forces as well as air units. You will find that there doesn't seem to be much of a ground threat to the mine area, so go Entangle it. The mine should be ready to start producing gold by the beginning of the first night. Send all your Wisps in there and suck it dry.

Eliminate the creeps NW of the Undead base. They drop an Ironwood Branch (strength +1), which Furion takes. There is also a Potion of Healing in a box.

As gold comes in, produce one Archer, and 2 each Dryads and Huntresses. This gives you a combined-arms force of 12 combat units, and you are at 30 food. Get upgrades as you can afford them, but save any remaining gold for contingencies. When your first mine collapses, withdraw your economic units to your first base, and put your Wisps back on wood.

Early on, you will see the Orcs send some air units to attack the Undead. They are quite likely to ignore you. You might as well let them fight, or you might help the weaker side, or you might help the Orcs, or whatever. It really doesn't matter. All the factions have so much gold that you can never wear them down, you can never take their mines (with one exception), and you will get vastly more experience than you can keep. Shortly afterwards, you will see the Undead send air units to attack the Orcs. The main thing is to keep your army available to react to any threats. Because you cannot afford to build static defenses, and your position is wide open, this will limit when and how you attack creeps.

Try to attack the creeps in the north part of the map (near the Fountain of Health) shortly after one faction has sent an attack wave over. You will get a Ring of Protection +2, and a Tome of Strength in a box.

The first redeployment
As you continue to explore the map, you will find that the Undead base can only be reached by air. They can only attack by air. There is another tiny gold mine north of the Undead base. You should eliminate the several Furbolgs close to that mine, but don't move far into their territory yet. Eventually, you will realize that you have no choice but to take over the second mine. Send all your Wisps to this mine.

Keep your army available to defend the immovable part of your base. The Orcs will be sending ground forces there, including Catapults. You should build 2-4 more Ancient Protectors there in a self-supporting arrangement.

Enemy air attacks will aim only at your current Gold Mine. Your army should be available to rush back to defend your mine, but note that the only time anything there is really vulnerable is when the mine is about to collapse and your Wisps are about to be evicted.

Suck the second gold mine dry, get any remaining upgrades, but save any remaining gold for later. Keep scouting. Unfortunately, Owls don't last long enough to cross the entire map effectively. However, you will get enough information to be able to understand this scenario.

There is a human base not far to the NE of the Undead base. This base is quite weak, and doesn't do much. There is another human base west of the Druids' rest home. They also attack the Undead with air units, and vice-versa. You will find that the only way you can make progress is by going right through the Human base in the middle.

Humans
Once both Gold Mines west of the gates are empty your top priority is Human base, which is blocking the passage to the Cursed Glade and Barrow Dens. You shouldn’t lose any units up until this point. Bolster your army with at least 2 Ballistas, 2 Dryads and any amount of Archers/Huntresses you can afford (given that you did research armour & attack upgrades).

Lure Paladin’s main force outside the gates (Furbolgs around Defiled Fountain need to be cleared beforehand). Destroy towers next. Clear the area and set up your third base here. After the Gold Mine is captured, Orcs will stop attacking your immovable buildings at the starting location. Build two more Moon Wells and move your Protectors to the current Gold Mine.

As soon as Gold Mine collapses go beyond No Upkeep and build up a huge army: Huntresses, Dryads and Heroes will be in the first group; 12 Archers in the second group; 4 Ballistas in the third group. Leave Ancient Protectors and units that do not fit into first three groups at the base to defend against air strikes.

Cursed Glade
Completing second optional quest — although yields no treasures — will permanently remove any enemies that spawn within the Cursed Glade (otherwise you will be forced to fight undead each time you need to cross the forest). Take your vast army south east and defeat the Dark Revenant.

At the far west corner of the Cursed Glade trees can be destroyed to reveal Ancient Storm Wyrm which drops a very powerful treasure.

Corruption
Depending on your success with Dark Revenant, corrupted Night Elf base to south east can be destroyed without capturing the last Gold Mine. Simply root your Ancient Protectors near the entrance to their base and place Ballistas on the east ramp overlooking the passage (destroy their two Protectors there first).

Corrupted Night Elves have no wisps and won’t be rebuilding their base during the fight. Destroy everything except the Tree of Life and take your time to complete Furbolg Optional quest along with scouting northern part of the map for Dark Trolls and valuable items they possess.

Once Furion Stormrage is fully equipped, take him to the Barrow Dens to complete the mission.

Treasures

 * Ironwood Branch in a small Troll camp east of starting location along with Potion of Healing
 * Ring of Protection +2 from the Dark Troll Warlord west of the Fountain of Health
 * Tome of Strength in a crate behind the Dark Troll Warlord


 * Sobi Mask from the Ancient Storm Wyrm hidden in the Cursed Glade
 * Claws of Attack +6 from the Furbolg Warlord
 * Potion of Mana in a crate on the way to Furbolg Warlord