The Dead Rise as Quel'thalas Falls (WC2 Orc)

The Dead Rise as Quel'thalas Falls is the eleventh mission of the Horde campaign in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.

Mission briefing
''With the destruction of Stratholme, the Alliance supply lines to Quel'thalas have been severed. Only a handful of Human and Elven defenders remain to safeguard the ancient Elf kingdom from the onslaught of the Horde. The enchanted domain of the Elves has inspired Gul'dan to unleash his most perverted creation - the Death Knights. Formed from the corpses of the fallen Knights of Azeroth, these once proud defenders of Humanity now serve the Horde in a blasphemous state of eternal undeath. Conjuring dark spells of necromantic horror upon their terrified foes, these Death Knights seek to unleash their wrath upon any foolish enough to stand in their way.''

Objective

 * Destroy the Elven Stronghold

Background

 * Note: this account comes from the Official Strategy Guide, which features a first-person description of each mission from the game.

Since the Horde's objective was to remove the stronghold itself, their plan was to raise a huge force and beat a path through their back door in much the same way as they had at Stratholme. First they needed to secure their base for construction. A group of Alliance enemies were already inside their walls, so the sappers were quickly moved out of the way for their ogres to do their work. When all was quiet again, the ogres immediately marched out through the west entrance and circled around to the other side of the forest, where more Alliance troops were trying to gather. From that point onward, they continued to keep forces in the clearing to eliminate enemies before they had a chance to gather in force there. They then plugged the west entrance with two pig farms and began building an army of workers to prepare for the assault.

When they had their first great hall built up into a fortress and complemented with an ogre mound, an Altar of Storms, and three barracks, it was necessary to send workers south to raise another great hall near a second gold mine. A constant stream of ogre magi poured out of their barracks; a group of them was sent to guard the new hall while the rest continued to guard the clearing. Sappers were also built in large numbers, for these were the tools with which the enemy stronghold would easily be demolished. As last they had a huge army of twenty ogre magi, four catapults, and ten sappers to begin the final assault. Other magi stayed in the clearing to defend the base. Their army marched off in force to the southeast corner of the area.

After slaughtering the few defenders around a third mine directly east of the city, their magi gathered west of it near an ice bridge, but did not cross it. Eyes of Kilrogg were summoned to look to the west, where a tower and ballistae awaited their arrival. The magi then cast multiple runes just north of the tower, and then brought in catapults to start firing on it. The first barrage prompted the Alliance guards to rush them; they exploded nicely on the runes that were set up for them. Having cleaned up the remaining units, they continued west and demolished a lumber mill and a farm. While they waited for their magic to build up again, the sappers were brought up, but remained in the rear, as they removed another emplacement of towers and defenders in the same fashion as the last with the runes doing most of the work for them. From there they made the final push through the back door of the city, pausing to build up mana again, and set runes to draw city guards to their deaths.

Finally they allowed the runes that had not gone off to dissipate, cast bloodlust on their magi, targeted towers with their catapults, and poured into the city to create as much chaos as possible. This cleared the way for their sappers, who rushed in and levelled the stronghold with a fantastic display of fire and noise. The rest of the elves soon retreated, knowing that the Horde could not be stopped. Urok, believed that, once again, their Gods were pleased.

Forces

 * Orcish Horde
 * Grunts
 * Axethrowers
 * Berserkers
 * Ogres
 * Ogre magi
 * Catapults
 * Death knights
 * Sappers
 * Zeppelins


 * Alliance of Lordaeron
 * Footmen
 * Archers
 * Rangers
 * Knights
 * Paladins
 * Ballistae
 * Mages
 * Demolition Squads
 * Flying machines

Speculation
The mission is depicted with three opponents: Azeroth (blue), Kul Tiras (green) and Dalaran (violet). Yet the only opponent with a base and a true army is the blue one, as the green and violet opponents do not have bases, only groups of elven archers and ballistae to protect their towers and farms. The blue base also starts with no footmen, only archers, knights and peasants and is described in the mission's objective as an elven stronghold. As such, it is entirely possible that the various opponents are meant to represent various branches of the Elven Ranger Corps and that their names are just caused by an engine limitation. Amusingly, the Alliance forces have no less than three elven lumber mills.