Northshire Abbey (WC1 Human)
- For lore and background information about this location, see Northshire Abbey. For the Warcraft: Orcs & Humans Orc campaign mission of the same name, see Northshire Abbey (WC1 Orc).
| Northshire Abbey | |||||||||||
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| Location | Northshire Valley, Elwynn Forest | ||||||||||
| Result | Human victory | ||||||||||
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| Previous |
 The Forest of Elwynn | ||||||||||
| Concurrent |
 Sunnyglade | ||||||||||
| Next |
Sunnyglade | ||||||||||
Northshire Abbey is the sixth mission of the Human campaign in Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.
Mission briefing
The monks of Northshire Abbey are under siege by a band of warriors that have been convinced by enemy agents to fight against the crown. You will be given a complement of knights to lead to the Abbey, which is already under attack. Ride hard and fast, as you must prevent its destruction. When you have secured the Abbey and beaten back these treacherous curs, you must then move to destroy the enemy at their source.
Battle
The forces of Azeroth repels the enemy agents before they can raze the town, then take the fight to their base, completely wiping them out.
Guide
Your base is under attack and the longer you take, the more buildings you will lose. Send all your forces to engage the enemy forces. Try to minimize casualties, since you will have no economy to start with when you secure the base. Build Peasants and get to work mining the gold and chopping down lumber. Avoid the trees surrounding the Gold Mine for the time being; they will serve as a barrier to help protect your Peasants from being harassed.
Send your Archers out to canvas the area. When you see the two Gold Mines to the north, do not travel any further north than that; a large concentration of enemy units are sitting there, waiting for easy targets. Make sure to scout the surrounding area, then bring your Archers back to base.
The mission introduces two new units, but you have access to only one of them for the time being:
- Catapults. These are bringers of mass death and destruction onto the battlefield and can clear out large clumps of enemies with ease. They have several weaknesses, however, such as slow rate of fire, slow movement speed, slow projectiles that allow faster units to completely dodge them, reduced damage toward buildings and a minimum range that prevents them from attacking targets that get too close. While you have these, so do the enemy. You will need to work around these weaknesses and make sure the whole area is well-scouted, lest you lose 9 Archers to one with a well-placed hit. They also tend to kill nearby units when attacking an enemy base, so if you choose to bring Catapults to your enemy base, keep the melee units away from there.
- Conjurers. These are only available to the enemy forces on this map. Like the Clerics, these units are spellcasters. Their spell for this mission allows them to Summon Scorpions to attack enemy forces. Usually they do it from within the confines of their base when they reach maximum magic points, drop an entire payload of Scorpions onto the battlefield and send them toward your base. Fortunately, they are weak and do only a small amount of damage, nothing your Clerics cannot heal with ease, but they can harass your worker line, take out spellcasters or even engage Archers with a chance of victory if not carefully handled.
The enemy forces will behave just like usual: Start with one unit, then increase to two for the next few waves and more down the road. With the addition of enemy Conjurers, this can make some of the waves a bit more beneficial for your Archers to mop up. However, with the addition of Catapults, they can mop up your forces, instead. .Enemies approaching from the east side should be given free reign to attack your Farms while you re-position and hit them as hard as you can from a distance.
Rebuild your Lumber Mill when you can and train a few additional forces to hold down the two sides the enemy approaches from (On rare occasion, the enemy may hug around the western riverside and attack from the west). Try to get out a couple Clerics to start healing your battered forces. When you have a good cache of lumber, start training a couple Catapults. They will help to deal with larger waves of incoming enemies.
When you have a good 20 units with a couple Catapults, being moving north. Like in previous missions, set up a kill zone with Archers and Catapults and lure the enemy to you with a Knight. After you mop up the enemies, advance and repeat.
When you arrive at the enemy base, you will have to decide what you want to do. The Catapults are pretty good with buildings, but it has trouble doing full damage to smaller ones and are likely to kill your melee units if they get too close., so you can either pelt the base from a distance (with Archer support) or you can leave the Catapults behind and bring your melee units forward to crush everything.
The Fast Way
Ride your Knights to the enemy forces in your base and focus on the Knight and Footman that are attacking the Blacksmith, since they are a lot closer. Leave the Archers for your Footmen and Archers, pulling away Knights that are close to death, then engage the remaining forces. If this is done right, you will only lose the Lumber Mill and all your forces will still be alive.
Send an Archer to the middle to the map and another to the middle-right where the Gold Mines are for scouting. Do not scout beyond those points since there is a large concentration of enemy forces near there. After unveiling a good chunk of the map, return to base.
Get your economy started with a couple Peasants and when money allows, start training Clerics so they can heal up your forces and bring them back to full strength. Two of them should be enough to (gradually) handle this. You will want at least 6 Peasants for your Gold Mine and another 4 or 5 for lumber. You will require a lot of lumber for the attack.
When you economy is in good shape, rebuild your Lumber Mill and train 4 Catapults (There will be no need to train anything else if your forces are still alive). Do not waste your time with any upgrades; your Catapults ARE the upgrades. Regroup your army and return to the Gold Mine by the middle of the map (while occasionally clicking back on your Barracks to train reinforcements). Send a Knight to lure the enemy forces to your position , then return once he comes under attack. The Catapults will deal serious damage to the enemy forces while your other forces mop up the rest. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed with Knights, fire a Catapult shot at the enemy Knights. They may cost you a unit of your own, but it will stop the Knights from doing far worse damage.
Move to where they were positioned and eventually leapfrog your way up to the base and clean up everything they have left. Your Catapults can mop this up.
Forces
- Band of Brigands
Version Differences
- In Shareware Version 1.21 CD Demo (6 Levels), the next mission is Grand Hamlet.
Trivia
- The "enemy agents" who convince the brigands to attack the Abbey are never identified, leaving their motives unknown.
Videos
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