#antonidas

He's not getting a very good reception.

He turns into raven form and flies away.

This prompts Antonidas' student to reveal herself and apologize for eavesdropping.

They both teleport to another vantage point.

If you recall, during the council scene at the start of this campaign one of the king's ambassadors mentioned this.

Jaina is sent to check it out. Also I love how one of the background sorceresses has randomly turned the other into a sheep.

Now it's time to get into the mission.

He's sure. She usually runs a little late.

Arthas tells them not to bother, as she can handle this herself. Indeed, in a few moments she's slain one of the ogres and the other has fled.

Jaina is known as the 'daughter of the sea', as her father is the admiral of the Kul Tiras Navy, and she's an expert in ice and water magic. In addition, she's the Mage class hero in Hearthstone.

She's also implied to have been in a romantic relationship with Arthas at some point.

Time to get to investigating.

Archmage: Mystical hero adept at using magic to dominate the battlefield.

Summon Water Elemental: Summons a water elemental to fight for you. The elemental's lifespan is 60 seconds and the cooldown on this spell is 20 seconds, so up to 3 can be summoned at once. Additional levels summon more powerful elementals.

In the original release of Warcraft III, Jaina's outfit was basically just a bra and some poofy pants under her cloak. Thankfully she's a little more sensibly dressed for the remake.

This is another mission where we have no base and can only use the units provided to us. Right now that's just Arthas, Jaina, two footmen, and the captain, who is a unique footman with a little more health and attack. It looks like the bridge is out, so they're taking the long way across.

They encounter a few bandits along the way. This is the first time we have to manage two heroes at once, and the extra micromanagement can be pretty mean, especially as Jaina learns more spells.

The villagers grant Arthas a potion of greater healing for dealing with the bandit problem.

They also leave a tip. We'll have to look out for this later.

Some footmen are dealing with skeleton archers. This unlocks a new ability for them.

Defend: The Footman places his shield forward, heavily reducing damage from piercing attacks. He moves more slowly while in this stance. This upgrade can be researched at the Barracks for future missions.

I haven't really talked that much about damage and armor types. Some attack types are more effective against certain armor types. Most melee attacks are Normal damage and do extra damage to Medium armor. Projectiles are Piercing and deal extra damage to Light (and are blocked by Defend, above). Spellcaster units have Magic damage, which deals extra damage to Heavy armor but can't hit units with magic immunity. Buildings have Fortified armor, which heavily reduces damage from everything except Siege, which is usually used by long range artillery such as Demolishers. Unarmored units just take full damage from everything, with a little extra from Piercing and Siege. Heroes have the unique Hero damage and armor types. Hero attacks are only resisted by Fortified, and Hero armor resists everything but Medium and other Heroes.

Anyway, enough rambling on about that. Jaina leveled up to 2 from fighting these things off, and learned a new spell.

Blizzard: It wouldn't be a Blizzard Entertainment game without this, huh? This is a channeling spell that calls down waves of ice shards from above to deal area damage. It's cheap and easily spammable, but you have to place it carefully as the shards can harm friendly units.

The footmen join Arthas' group, and together investigate the undead threat. Arthas' Holy Light spell can deal damage to undead units, but it's generally more efficient to use it for healing.

There's the fountain of health. Standing near it will regenerate lost health for all units.

This is blighted ground, a common element to Undead bases. I'll talk more about that when we get to the Undead campaign. Arthas wonders if the grain itself could be plagued.

Destroying the granary is probably a good idea.

Arthas is then joined by some High Elf priests.

Priest: Spellcaster unit that provides healing and support. Has two of three spells unlocked for this mission.

Heal: The good old classic. Heals a small amount of HP and can be rapidly cast to restore life quickly. Can be set to autocast.

Dispel Magic: Removes spell effects in an area and deals damage to summoned units. Can also be used to remove blight.

Priests are casters that don't really require much micromanagement, which is good. It's always handy to have one or two around.

A short distance away, we find a pair of dwarves opening fire on more skeletons.

Mortar Team: Long-range artillery, manned by a pair of Dwarves. Does not count as mechanical, unlike other siege units.

Arthas reasons that they'll be handy for destroying the grain warehouse and brings them along.

I also had Jaina join in on the bombardment by casting a Blizzard.

Jaina leveled up to 3 soon after, and I unlocked her third ability.

Brilliance Aura: This aura affects spellcasting units and heroes, increasing their rate of mana regeneration.

This is quite helpful for ensuring she can keep casting spells, and Arthas and the priests benefit from it too. Speaking of, Arthas also made it to level 4 and I put another level into Holy Light.

This mantle is a nice treasure. It gives +3 intelligence to the hero that wears it. I put it on Jaina, since she could always use more.

At the grain warehouse, we encounter some cultists doing something mysterious. They flee as soon as Arthas' group approaches.

The necromancer raises a few more skeletons, then leaves.

This unit type is called an Abomination, which is really all you need to know about it.

The Abomination has a lot of HP, but swiftly found itself outnumbered after the skeletons were dispatched.

It fell not long afterward.

Destroying the warehouse didn't take long, but I was ambushed by a few ghouls along the way.

This plague might be more dangerous than it seems. Arthas and Jaina will have to investigate further, and hopefully stop it at the source.