Move your Ancients to your Main Tree immediately, it's much easier to defend your base when the defences are not scattered.

The Rescue Mission
While all that's going on, you're going to have to guide Furion and Tyrande to Maive as well. Simply follow the blue dotted line. First we provide some general tips on minimizing your losses.

1. Let the enemy focus fire on your heroes over your units, they're tough, and can withstand innumerable hits, with rejuvenation.

2. Even better, use Treants. Always have four of these guys in front of your army as cannon-fodder.

3. Remember Entangle has been improved, it now disables units! Use it on tough enemy troops, such as Dragon turtles, Royal Guards and Myrmidons. It'll disable them for the vast majority of the Battle.

Starfall comes in handy, just don't get stunned by Royal Guards.

4. Before Casting Starfall, ensure as many Royal Guards are disabled as possible. Their Frost Bolt can end your spell prematurely.

5. Don't be afraid of using Tranquility a lot, it's got a very short cooldown now.

6. Remember to Roar during Battles.

Keep the above in mind as your proceed to A. Overwhelm the Naga Royal Guards with Entangle, Treants and Starfall. Now the route to Maive's base is to the left, but take a few detors first. Summon some treants, move them to the right passage. Now get Furion to pick the gold, Frost Revenants will appear. Engage with the treants and move Furion back, you have to waste.

Cast Treants on the Trees to the north, it'll open a way to a secret area. Move your treants forward, near the pool, then get Furion to get the items, tomes and gold. Three Sea Elementals will appear, but again, your Treants can halt them as you get the hell out. Don't waste time engaging.

Continue to B, fight some Naga's along the way. Destroy the Crates near the sunken ship and get a Ring of Protection +3. A quest will be activated, telling you that you can get reinforcements at D, F and G.

Proceed to C, where you'll engage a whole bunch of Sea Giants. Entangle the biggest one, and use Starfall. As you proceed towards D, there's another tough fight, against multiple royal guards. Make sure to have a Treat Shield before engaging. You may wish to wait for Starfall to recharge here, as well till Maive repels another attack. It's not good to be caught having to micro two battles.

At D, you'll get two Huntresses, now backtrack to where the War Golems are. they maybe yellow, but they will attack as you pass them. So get Treants and attack them first. Now, the Naga Base at E needs to be destroyed...

Surprise Assault
While Blizzard expects you to fight your way through the Naga Base with just the rescue force, that's simply not possible on Hard. You'll need Maive's Cooperation as well. Wait for an enemy attack, the unroot all of your Ancients. You should have 7. Move them up towards E and plant them on the ramp going down.

Use the Spirits summoned by your Avatar of Vengeance to herd the enemy units into this wall of Protectors. As they charge forwards, attack the enemy base from the East using your rescue force. Entangle their Royal Guard, then launch a Tranquality/Starfall Combo, with range of the enemy base.

The Naga's a sandwiched! Use Maive and her Avatar to disrupt enemy forces, unroot your Ancients and move them in during the chaos. Root them with range of enemy buildings. Victory is assured.

Note that you SHOULD NOT bring Tyrande or Furion to the location of your original base. By not doing this, you won't trigger the completion of your Main Quest till much later. Which means, Illidan Ai won't be enabled, and he won't attack you with his forces. This gives precious time to establish your defences at E, build up more Moon Wells, upgrade, and harvest.

A Combination of Starfall, Avatar of Vengeance and Treants can survive any attack.

Preparations for the Fight
Yes, the Naga Sea Witch will still attack you, but with 3 Level 10's, you won't have much trouble. Entangle the Sea Witch, Focus Fire with Tyrande, bring in a few Treants, hell, Starfall, no problems. You should be able to spare Maive to G and J to receiver the rest of the Night Elf Fleet, tow Mountain Giants and some Dryads.

Proceed to build an army of Ancients, two rows in fact, on the Eastern Entrance, and about 3 More to the North, to fend off Couatls. It'll take around 10 minutes before the game finally triggers the rescue sequence, and another five before Illidan begins to attack.

Now you'll be assaulted by three Separate Forces. The Sea witch with her complement of Myrmidons, two Royal Guards, lots of Mur'guls and dozens of Sirens. Also, Illidan will attack, with a smaller force, and more Royal Guards. Both of these will come from the East. Finally, Couatls, 7-8, will attack from the North. By now though, you should have about 12 Ancients, Plenty of Moon Wells.. and so.. no problem.

TIP: Illidan may look tough, but Entangle really destroys him. Once most of the enemy forces are dead due to Fan of Knives and Starfall, Entangle Illidan and Focus fire, he should be too much trouble.

Build 3 Ancients of War, one Ancient of Lore, upgrade your Archers and Bears, and get a 70/30 mix of both. For now, don't go over no upkeep. Instead concentrate on an army of treants, research better Moon Wells, and wait till you've got about 4000 gold left in the mine before mass producing Archers and Bears. Once you've got 80 supply worth, you're read for the first fight.

Siege of the Lower Base
This is certainly not easy, that's why you need 80 supply of troops and a Dozen Protectors to pull it off. Unroot twelve of your Protectors (You should still have about 5 in your Base) and proceed towards H. You should have around 24 Archers, 4 Bears, a Mountain Giant and 2 Glaive Throwers as well. Have your Protectors be the Meat Shield, and your Archers right at the back to Focus Fire. Remember, archer's a weak, do, not send them within range of spells such as Crushing Wave.

You'll be up against a formidable defence. About 8 Couatls, 4-6 Royal Guards, a Naga Sea, who'll resurrect during battle to fight again, as well as dozens of Sirens and a swarm of Mur'guls. Root your Ancient's in front of the enemy base, As you do this, the enemy will charge forward (if they don't, lead them out with your Warden). Give Tyrande your Amulet of Spell Shield, if you found it, and have her cast Starfall behind the Protectors. Entangle enemy Royal Guards and Dragon Turtles, and have Archers focus fire of Couatls and Royal Guards. Maive and her Avatar should try slow the enemy as much as possible, and blink back when too damaged. Oh, don't forget to Roar. Dispel whirlwind with your staff.

Notice creates just Northwest of H, they have a rune of Healing, which may be useful during Battle. Once the wave is destroy, charge forwards immediately with everything. On hard Difficulty, enemies build faster, and they'll restore their defences within 40 seconds. Use Tranquility to heal your troops. Focus on the enemy altar and Spawning Pool, the rest is easy. This will eliminate the Naga Attacks forever,

During this assault, Illidan may strike your main, If so, build a few Huntresses, and your Protectors, Huntresses, coupled with Moon Well healing, can kill him (albeit slowly).

Siege of the Upper Base
Before you can attack Illidan's Main, you'll need resources. There's a hidden Gold Mine at F, with trees Blocking the Way. use Force of Nature to get to it, and move your remaining Protectors and Tree of Ages there. Establish an economy. Plant the Protectors on the ramp at K, the enemy always goes through here. Build more Protectors there. The enemy will always attack via this route, and yet you've got a Fountain of Health around, a great defensive position.

While Treants are not Strong Units, the very fact that they cost no supple makes them invaluable in single player sieges... when a full supply worth of units may not be able to take out the enemy.

To make it even better, use Force of Nature to remove to free up space for your Protectors. Have them build behind a thin wall of Trees. You're all see... you won't suffer losses from Illidan's attacks.

The second base restores its forces even more quickly than the first, and the Royal Guards are a big problem. You'll find that leading enemy defence out won't work anymore.. since by the time you killed them, he'll have restored his forces completely! You need to take out the construction buildings quickly.

Mass Glaive Throwers, get twelve of them. (While you build up your forces, store them close to your treants, especially the Glaive Throwers, or enemy Couatls will destroy them). Supported to a 2 Mountain Giants, a Bear or two and some Archers. Build right up to 100 supply (remember to stop harvesting gold when you hit 80, you can't afford upkeep). Get 12 Protectors for a meat shield and you're read to go.

Send in Protectors first, heroes behind, Bear roaring and Glaive Throwers trailing. As you meet the initial save, entangle the Royal Guards and Cast Starfall behind your Protectors. Select your Glaive Throwers and use them to systematically take out any building within range. You can kill their towers in one volley, production buildings in two. By the use of Entangle, Spirits and Tranquility, you should be able to keep your Siege Alive till all their Production buildings are dead.

Without reinforcements, their defences will fall. Oh, during the battle, you'll probably have to fight Illidan more than once. Entangle, Focus fire, will rule him.

Mission Secrets -By Chib
1. At the top of the first ruins, there is a "room" off to the right, instead of going in there, use Force of Nature on the trees to the North and you will enter a secret area. There are a couple Sea Elements to kill and several tomes and items.

2. At the top of the map (directly above Maiev's base), there is a Fountain of Health, to the left of this is a hidden area with some Turtles and a Gold Mine. Walk downwards from the Fountain, then left and cut through the trees to the North to get in.

3. Directly to the right of Maiev's base, you can Blink down the cliff to find a couple Turtles protecting a Lesser Replenishment Potion and two crates.

4. At the very top right hand corner of the map, you can Blink over a canal/river thing and find three barrels.

Walkthrough Index
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