Alliance Ashes 1.11

[Tuwnew]

Hey,

Now releasing a new update, quite light, but includes some important and necessary changes to Chapter Three. Here the changelog:

1.11

General Updates
Fixed most unit portraits. Please report any that still appear incorrect.
Draenn's Critical Strikes has been renamed to Vanguard's Instinct. It now has a new icon and includes a chance to block attacks, at the cost of reduced damage output.
Wizard's Antimagic Shield has received a new visual effect.
Diana's abilities has new updated effects.

Chapter Three
Reworked the intro cinematic with improved camera angles.
Major adjustments to the second half of the mission:

• The Counterattack quest is now cancelled after a few minutes.
• A new event has been added around the Vanguard base.
• A new timed quest has been introduced, focusing on the defense of Ambermill.

I have also worked on some bonus chapter and a new Cult of the Damned subfaction that I will try to add later.

Enjoy!

 

[pesprespes]

Just wrapped up the campaign - what a ride!

Cinematics and camera work? Immersive, dramatic, and just the right amount of flair.
The terrain and environments could be better
I really hope it gets dubbed one day - voice acting would push this into masterpiece territory.[/CENTER]

Chapter thoughts:

• Prologue – First Loss
Whew… tough start. It slapped me around a bit, not gonna lie. The village layout was a bit of a maze—had me spinning like a confused chicken, but it set the tone well.

• Chapter One – Lands in Conflicts
Smooth sailing here. Chill pacing, nothing too wild. Though tbh, I don’t remember much lol It was like a first date with no drama. So that's a win?

• Chapter Two – Shadowfang?
More like Shadowfang No Thanks. Constant wolf attacks nearly had me ragequitting. But I pulled through. Painful? Yes. Satisfying when done? Also yes.

• Chapter Three – Toward Fenris
Defend mission. My arch nemesis. Third try in, I gave up on attacking and just said "nope" to the main quest. Ironically, that was the correct move?? Sneaky devs!
The mission turned out pretty great in the end. Props for terrain it looked nice

• Chapter Five – Through the Enemy Lines
Really solid chapter. The siege of the last undead outpost felt epic. And Uther’s graveyard? Wow. That place oozed holy vibes. Genuinely gave me goosebumps.

• Chapter Six – Mind Blinded
Rename this “Mind Broken” please. This one really tested my sanity. Took some deep breaths, a walk, maybe screamed into a pillow... but I did it.
Layout and terrain were top notch though, so credit where it’s due.

• Chapter Seven – Sifting the Ashes
A nice change of pace. Loved getting some backstory filled in. I was curious and this delivered.
Kinda like getting juicy gossip you didn’t know you needed.

• Chapter Eight – Honor & Loyalty
This chapter hit fast and hard. The opening pace was zoom and I loved it.
That betrayal? Didn’t see it coming. (Yes, I’m way too invested in storylines.)
Early game resource starvation + gnolls = stress levels rising. But hey, survived it like a champ.

• Chapter Nine – Outside the Dome
Escort missions. My sworn enemy. Convoy escorting wagons? Pain. Pure pain. But… I did it.
The bit with the necklace left me scratching my head, I let the orcs live, expected a cool alliance twist, but nothing.
Maybe later? Still, the mission was cool and kept me curious.

• Epilogue – Burn to Ashes
Poor Doc… felt really bad for the guy This mission was a tough one, with some nice optional quests and a few solid easter eggs.
I’m docking a few points for skipping Uther’s grave this time - like, come on! Missed opportunity for a funny callback or hidden moment.

• Bonus – First Autumn Leaves
It was nice, terrain was good. Glad to see stromgarde.

---

Final thoughts:

The walkthrough was nice, loved it. The terrain could be more done, detailed or something—it looked pale in some missions.
Would be nice to see other kingdoms like Kul Tiras or Gilneas show up in the future.
Overall, nice—there were ups, downs, ragequits, plot twists, and deep breaths.
Looking forward to new chapters!

 

[Tuwnew]

Hey, thank you for this quite refreshing review.

I didn't expect Chapter Two to be that difficult honestly. I might have to check balance.
Chapter Six needs to be reworked too, but I wonder what made you screamed exactly? Too many enemies? Bosses? Lack of hints?
About Orcs in Chapter Nine, well, I guess it's bad game design (my fault). If you don't help them, the Orcs attack you alongside the Undead during Diana's part. But that might need to be better noticed.

Glad it gave you so much emotions

 

[pesprespes]

Hey, thank you for this quite refreshing review.

I didn't expect Chapter Two to be that difficult honestly. I might have to check balance.
Chapter Six needs to be reworked too, but I wonder what made you screamed exactly? Too many enemies? Bosses? Lack of hints?
About Orcs in Chapter Nine, well, I guess it's bad game design (my fault). If you don't help them, the Orcs attack you alongside the Undead during Diana's part. But that might need to be better noticed.

Glad it gave you so much emotions

Chapter Six:
It was totally a skill issue on my part lmao
On the third try I finally stopped playing like a caffeinated footman and started actually thinking. That’s when it clicked: the whole mission is about taking your time, being strategic, and corrupting as many soldiers as you can. And once I tuned into that vibe? Chef’s kiss. Really solid design - it just punished my “W-key go brrr” playstyle at first


Chapter Nine:
YESSS that would've been so good! Just a quick “YOU MADE A MISTAKE, MORTAL” warning from some ominous narrator—or even just a dramatic pop-up like
"THE ORCS REMEMBER."
...or
"You spared them. They will spare you."


Honestly though, you're doing amazing with this campaign.
Looking forward to more for sure!

 

[solarian]

As someone just enjoying some Wc3 campaigns with a touch of story-telling, this might have been one of my favorites. And I hope that the creator will find the necessary motivation to finish it. Some may find some of the missions' objects repetitive, I personally think it's well made and design to fit a casual player like me: not too long, mixed in different styles of playing and balanced difficulty

Here are a few shares of my thoughts on the campaign overall and some chapter specifics.

Overall

• Immersive, no awkward moments during the cinematics, smooth dialogues and transitions.
• Exciting plot while keeping it mysterious, or maybe I'm not playing Wow so I cannot anticipate what happens next.
• The AI is less predictable makes the missions interesting, especially when they choose to flank you from behind.
• Units are well designed and have larger impact on the game outcome rather than making heroes becoming obnoxiously powerful.
• Heroes are vital but not at all OP. The chemistry between Arrad and Diana resembles of what Arthas and Jaina could have been.

Mission specifics
Two of my favorite missions are Chapter 8: Honor and Loyalty and Bonus: First Autumn Leave.

Chapter 8

• Enemy hero is amazingly strong: Shockwave and Mirror Image decimated my troops. Nice touch on Orb of Corruption suggesting the status of our "friend" and amplifying his damage output by a ton. The map designer must have added damage reduction passive for him. It took my whole 80-food army to focus fire him down at the cost of several semi-heroes. That was fun.
• The corrupted human troop on the other hand is less destructive. Much easier to deal with non-hero attack. The enemy Undead also attacks frequently and could be damaging without proper defense. This emphasizes on the usefulness of human faction units in this campaign. A combination of well-designed units such as Defender and Crossbowmen with their proper passive upgrades.
• I used the big size of the map as an advantage while base-trading with the enemy Human. Knowingly I won't be able to defend my first base without heroes, I made it so when their hero was done with my base, his base also got dusted. A cherry on top comes when he came back and got stun-locked by +12 Agility Ms. Finnall with Rusty Mining Pick.
• The allied on this map is less useful. It's understandable since it's just a small base.

Bonus

• The first half of the mission is quite standard, I wasn't prepared for the storm that was waiting for me later. Glad I took out the Orcs guarding the goldmine on the East side.
• And then comes the second half where I got humiliated by the frequent attacks on 3 fronts. This gives the vibe of the missions in Arkain where the attack waves getting larger and more frequent. I couldn't move out of the base for longer than 2 minutes without getting flanked from behind and/or attacked on the base.
• I learnt to take out the Brown Human base asap in the second attempt. That gives me the advantage of positioning the base defense on top of the new ally. However the usually double armies with high level heroes are not easy to fend off, especially at first try. Gradually I built up quite a stable army and crushed the Orange bases. Then finally I found General Hath just to know that I was supposed to find him before going berserk. That would make the mission significantly easier.
• I like how you added the Wand of Negation to help with the defense since Thoras's army is lacking of it.
• I wonder whether the side quest about not destroying any production buildings of General Hath army would fail if the Allied AI destroyed them instead of my army. Since I took out all the Orange bases and General Hath army is the only enemy left before I found him. I didn't stay long enough for one of them to be destroyed.

Bugs

• In chapter 8, there's no item dropped from killing the big camp near the mana fountain. Also, the items dropped from the Orge Overlord is quite miniscule (+1 Str, what). However since I found 3 Rusty Mining Picks across the campaign, maybe it's on purpose.
• In chapter 9, Abjurist Aruna (semi-hero) has unlocked ability but no upgrade for it. Evasion upgrade says 30% while it's 15%. There's also an upgrade called "Ambush" for Enforcer unit but not available after trained at all. Btw the Enforcer should also have the Evasion passive upgrade.
• In bonus chapter, Thoras' passive Vanguard's Instinct showing the wrong tooltip for its skill at level 1 (x2 damage instead of x4). The upgrade for Guard Tower and Gun Powder Tower both use G as shorthand. Caster unit with Sparkles but the shorthand P doesn't work. Also Charge ability for Knight.

In conclusion, amazing and enjoyable campaign. There are multiple aspects about it that really attracts me and I have played all the campaigns suggested in the description . Keep up the good work and finish it if you can!

 

[SalvatorThenorium]

Just a small observation... If you're meticulous and use your heroes (who are quite strong) to defend this specific base of the Nerubian army, the entire system of Undead bases collapses -- This results in you being attacked only by the demonic army. Was this intentional?

 

[Tuwnew]

View attachment 532950
Just a small observation... If you're meticulous and use your heroes (who are quite strong) to defend this specific base of the Nerubian army, the entire system of Undead bases collapses -- This results in you being attacked only by the demonic army. Was this intentional?

Clearly not intended! Thanks for noticing, gonna fix that.