Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/The Defense of Strahnbrad

Chapter Introduction

Recent orc uprisings in southern Lordaeron have forced the Alliance to take decisive measures. To contain the orcish threat, King Terenas has sent two of the realm's greatest paladins – his son, Prince Arthas, and the legendary Uther the Lightbringer – to deal with the orcs once and for all.

Mission Objectives

Main Quest - Defend Strahnbrad

Travel to Strahnbrad

Arthas must survive

Optional Quest - Save Timmy

Slay the Gnoll kidnappers

Optional Quest - Bandit Lord

Slay Menag, the Bandit Lord

Return Ledger to Gerard

Strategy

You start in the North-West corner of the map, with Prince Arthas and 4 Footmen. Group them into a party. Immediately to the West is a crate that, when destroyed, will reveal a Potion of Healing. Head South, and destroy the crates near the tent that you soon encounter. One of these will have a Scroll of Protection.

Keep heading South. When the main path turns to the East, keep moving South over the grass and through the farm area. Head South about as far as you can, and to the West, standing to the South of two houses, are two villagers who will fight for you. They turn into Footmen, and you can add them to your party.

Head East, and you'll run into Alicia, a school teacher in charge of some children. She'll enlist your help in rescuing Timmy, who was kidnapped by some Gnolls. From the schoolhouse, head North-East and follow the path to the South-East, and the path will end at a Gnoll camp. There are three Level 1 Gnolls here.

The most common attack move with the Human Campaign is, again, to focus your attacks on a single enemy at a time. You outnumber the Gnolls, so this fight shouldn't take too long, nor should it take too much of a toll.

Your most valuable asset at this point is Prince Arthas' Holy Light spell, which can be used to heal friendly units and to harm Undead units. Get used the pressing the "T" key to trigger the spell, and then targeting a unit to heal (or attack). Holy Light doesn't work as an attack on non-Undead units, so in this level you'll only be healing. A handy trick with Holy Light is that you can target a unit in your party by clicking his avatar in the bottom middle area when you have several units selected at once. This makes is easy to select your main attack party, keep an eye on each unit's health, and cast Holy Light when a unit is getting low.

What tends to happen is units pick an enemy unit to engage in combat, and they don't change their focus until the other unit is dead. This means that one of your footmen will often be taking the brunt of an attack while the rest of your party is unscathed. If you keep healing the unit that is actively losing Hit Points, you'll be able to "distract" the enemy for as long as it takes while the rest of your party gangs up on him.

One of the Gnolls will drop a Potion of Healing (which can be handy, since Artahs can't heal himself with Holy Light). When all of the Gnolls fall, Timmy will be freed and you'll have accomplished the first optional quest. Better yet, you'll receive a Ring of Protection +1 from Alicia as a thank-you.

Return to the main path, where you veered off originally. A little further to the East is a forest path to the North. It looks like a villager is here and wants your attention. However, when you approach him, he turns into a Level 3 bandit and 4 Level 1 Bandits emerge from the woods. This is a tougher fight than the Gnolls, due to numbers and level ability, but you can easily take them down. Again, focus your attacks on the strongest enemy, the Level 3 Bandit, and use Holy Light when your Footmen get a little low (you'll learn quickly when the optimal time to cast the spell is, to allow the spell to recharge without wasting the spell on minor injuries). The Bandits will drop a Scroll of Healing, which may be useful after this fight, or the battle may not be worth. It will bump Arthas further along with Experience Points, though, and he'll level up sooner.

Whether you take on the Bandit ambush or not, head East along the main path and you'll find Gerard being mugged by some more Bandits. One of them is Menag, the Bandit Lord (Level 5). They may fight you for a short time, but will soon retreat to their hideout to the South-East. Gerard implores you to return his ledger to him. You should, because you'll gain Experience Points as well as a nice reward.

Follow the trail of the Bandits to the South-East, and you cross a stream. In this area are three Level 1 Bandits, guarding the passage to the Bandit camp. They will be relatively easy to take out, just use the focus attack and Holy Light approach and you'll be fine.

You should level up by now, and you can choose Divine Shield Level 1, or Divine Aura Level 1. Divine Shield is really useful, especially when at Level 3, so it is recommended that you choose Divine Shield. It will come in handy in the next few chapters, but it's also nice to offer some extra protection to your party, so the choice is ultimately yours. This walkthrough will assume that you've chosen Divine Shield, though.

Continue along South-East, and you'll arrive at the camp. Menag is here, along with four Level 1 Bandits. Gang up on Menag, keeping and eye on your troops' health. Menag will take a beating but you shouldn't have lost any men yet so you'll eventually overpower the Bandits. Menag will drop the Ledger, which you need to pick up to return to Gerard. One of the other Bandits will drop a Potion of Mana.

Once the Bandits are cleared out, you can return North-West to Gerard, where the slot taken up by the Ledger will be replaced by a Tome of Strength. Click on the item in your inventory to permanently increase your Strength.

Cross the bridge to the North-East, and you'll be at the gates of Strahnbrad. As soon as you do, however, two orc Grunts will be chasing a poor villager. The villager already has most of his health drained, so there's nothing you can do to save him, so immediately go after the orcs. The Grunts will be tougher than the Bandits and Gnolls, but, yet again, simply gang up on them one at a time and Holy Light any of your Footmen who are getting low.

Now you must save the town. Head North into Strahnbrad, and there will be three villagers in a row. They will be slain by the Slave Master, and there really isn't anything you can do about it. You could immediately follow him and finish the level, but for the sake of completeness, and to play it safe (you can't create any new units in this level), leave him be for now. Instead, focus on the orc Raider that is also in this vicinity, and the Grunt that will probably make his way to you while chasing another villager.

Head west, and there will be three Footmen waiting to join you, but under attack from two orc Grunts. One will be taking the worst of the attack, so make sure you can Holy Light him as you come to their aid. Once they are added to your party, head East, and travel North on the East side of the fountain square, and keep heading North. There will be two more Grunts here. Once these are slain, crack open the crates in the area; one of them will contain a Potion of Mana.

The last battle of the level is in the North-West corner of the town. You have the toughest orcs to take on, but with the same tactics you'll be able to defeat them with minimum casualties. There are two Grunts and the Slave Master, who is a formidable foe -- Level 5. Fortunately, they are outnumbered and the same old tactic of focusing on one at a time will bring them down with little to no casualties on your side. Aim for the Slave Master first; he does the most damage and once he's out of the way the remaining Grunts are just pests. Defeat all of these orcs and the level is won.

Treasures

• There is a Potion of Healing hidden in one of the crates at the starting position.
• There is a Scroll of Protection hidden in another crate near the starting position, near the tent to the South.
• One of the Gnolls that has kidnapped Timmy carries a Potion of Healing.
• Returning Timmy to Alicia will grant you a Ring of Protection +1.
• The bandit ambush north of the main path will yield a Scroll of Healing.
• Returning Gerard's Ledger will grant you a Tome of Strength.
• There is a Potion of Mana hidden in some crates in the North-East corner of Strahnbrad.

Points of Interest

There is a graveyard to the South-East of the entrance to Strahnbrad. It is haunted by villagers and critters that you killed that day. Return here at midnight to see their ghosts walk abroad! They are very faint, but they're there if you look closely. Mousing over them will highlight them, and they show up on the mini-map. (It's possible that this may only happen if you are playing the Reign of Chaos missions with an up-to-date version of The Frozen Throne installed).