Map01) Interesting opening map. The optional mage boss on hard difficulty is quite hard to beat, since we only have a few starting units.
The terrain was a very good example of how normal terrain can create a great environment/atmotsphere. This mission was interesting in that it reminded me of the first human mission in Reign of Chaos, except the roles were switched with the humans being the enemy.
The final boss fight was good.
A key aspect of this mission that I enjoyed was that it acknowledged it was an easy fight. In many campaigns, the majority of missions are shown as the player VS very difficult enemies or impossible odds. In this mission, it was accepted that the humans had mostly fled, and only a few forces remained, so basically it was the not a fair fight, i.e the horde easily slaughtering the remaining humans. This was a good aspect.
Map02) I think it is unfair for the optional quest in this mission to give potions as one of the options. The people who choose the hard difficulty bonus mission cannot choose it, so there is only 1 choice--- the weapon. The human healers are overpowered. Having chain heal makes it so we are forced to lure units 1 at a time. If we lure an army, the healers will keep healing the front-line units, making it impossible to win the fight. For the final hero guarding Zuljin, it was very difficult to defeat her, because nearby enemies joined the fight if we moved around.
Good dialogue--- witch talks about herbal bag being stolen... which normally is the start for a quest, but then she backtracks, says bag not important, and she wants eyes of the bandit instead!
Map03) It would be easier if we knew at the start where the fountain of health was on this map, maybe through a ping or hint or vision. It was hard to discover the fountain without those things, since the humans were constantly pressuring the base, so there was no time to explore except at the start.
The biggest issue with mission is that without knowledge of the healing fountain, slowly the enemy forces will overwhelm our forces because the orc units will die one by one. The best way to finish this mission is probably to rush collecting the oil. Otherwise, it becomes too difficult (hard difficulty)
Also, the optional boss available on (hard difficulty) makes this mission far too difficult, since unlike the other optional bosses, this one will actively actually attack our base. If it attacks at the same time as an enemy wave, it is almost guarenteed that the entire orc forces will be close to death.
Map04) Sea missions are always really fun. The key to this map is knowing where the enemy zeppelins come from. If you know this, you can place towers in the correct position that will destroy the zeppelins before they can land on your base.
I liked that it the optional quest showed Orgrim Doomhammer as not a very nice person. Basically, the human sailors were in a predicament, and Orgrim took advantage of their misfortune and killed them. So it showed Orgrim/the Horde were not necessarily the "good" side.
Also, it was nice in the map description that the part about the Sirens were added. This directly foreshadowed the naga forces in the next mission.
Map05) My favourite mission of this campaign. I love the ally AI a lot! I have 3 points to say about this mission:
A) The only way the naga boss can be defeated in the time limit is to use ships to destroy trees near the boss's location, and then lure the naga to the ships. The truth is, if players try to go the normal path, it is impossible to kill the naga boss in time, because you need to fight past too many naga units (including that hydra unit). So basically, this mission is designed so the only way to kill the naga boss before the time expires is to make your own path with ships destroying trees.
B) I think giving static enemy heroes the phoenix ability is a big mistake, since there is a chance it will destroy your ally AI (green). For example, when I was playing, the green ally AI (left side) would keep starting to move, but then would return to the base without attacking anything. Why did this happen? Because Warcraft AI targets the closest enemy unit/structure in the region. If this unit is a phoenix, then as soon as the phoenix "dies", for 0.001 second, the phoenix unit does not actually exist in the game (and then it turns into the egg). During this 0.001 second period, the ally AI will realize the unit it is targeting does not exist, and then will return to the base. So, only after I killed the phoenix unit, then the green AI started to target other enemy units, and was able to work properly.
If the archmage or another unit was closer, then the green AI would not have problems. But the issue is, the phoenix will have a very high chance to be the closest unit to the green base, since Green cannot kill the archmage/guards on the first attack. When units come into range, they move to engage the enemy, so the archmage/guards/phoenix will likely move left/west to engage the green attack wave. Because on hard difficulty green's attack wave will likely die on the first attempt, the remaining archmage/guards will move back right/east to their original position. But the phoenix, because it is likely to die/respawn during the fight, will adopt the new position as its normal guard position, which means it will be more left/east than the other units, and thus the Green AI will target it for attack waves.
It is best to avoid this possibility from occurring by not giving static units the phoenix ability when there is AI in a mission. Otherwise, there is a high chance that this will happen to other players (green attack wave constantly moving to attack, then retreating before it attacks anything, since its target has "died" before the attack wave reaches it).
C) The light blue base is a lot closer to the orange AI base than the green base. As a result, the green base was able to kill the teal base easily (though this is also because Teron Gorefiend is a stronger hero than the orange base's hero), whereas for the orange base, it would unable to kill the Gilneas base, and was always close to dying (since both Gilneas + Light blue will attack it) and I was forced to always defend the orange base. I think it would have been more balance if the light blue base was in the exact center, so that then it would have a chance to attack the green base.
Map06) If players have not learnt Stormbolt on Orgrim before the mission starts, then the starfall ability from one of the windrunner sisters will wipe out the orc forces early game, since it is hard to get behind the elf melee units to kill her quickly (later in the mission when Orgrim levels up then the player can learn stormbolt).
I personally think Zul'jin's monsoon ultimate is the worst ultimate of all the playable heroes.
Also in regards to Zul'jin, the ending line of the mission from him missed the chance to emphasize that the Horde leaving Quel'thalas caused a split/friction between the orcs and the trolls. I think his last line was something about he will stay and fight until the last drop of blood has been bled dry. There was nothing in that line that signified he was angry at Orgrim for breaking the promise he made to the trolls to destroy Quel'thalas in return for the trolls allying with the orcs ( at least based on the book ).
One part of the alterac interlude I liked was that Perenolde was never named, he was only "Man". Not revealing his identity made the cinematic better.
Map07) This mission took forever to complete. There are many enemy bases. Also, because there were many static human forces placed to the south of our base, our ally (orange) spent most of the time attacking them, instead of attacking the enemy bases. Dragons are the key to winning this mission, especially with the healing fountain on this map.
Map08) In the quest description, it said the "Great Wavethrasher" (Hydra) lived in Azshara, but it did not explain why it was currently in the broken isles.
I think this mission + the next mission are interesting, because we are basically controlling the two idiot heroes who do not play a significant role in the story. The main characters are Gul'dan/Cho'gall. Even in the opening cinematic of this mission, Gul'dan and Cho'gall speak a lot, and then Rend only says 1 line, something like "Kill them all" ha ha. Rend + Main are idiots.
Also, there was no indication in their dialogues that they resent Doomhammer for killing their father. It would be a nice addition if they had some argument with Doomhammer about this. The only thing they argue with him about currently is when Rend doesn't understand why they are splitting their forces before capturing Lordaeron city. Basically, Rend and Maim were presented as too loyal/subservient to Ogrim Doomhammer.
The demon unit summoned by one of the enemy orc heroes (i forget if it was the Stormreaver or Twilight's Hammer clan) was very overpowered on hard difficulty.
Map09)
In the opening cinematic, Urluk I thought was killed by Gul'dan, but then it seems we fought it him later?
Also, the quote for Urluk should have been changed, since it is based on the shaman quote"... for the Horde..." (I forget the exact line). At that moment, he would not be serving the Horde at all, so perhaps that sound quote is not accurate.
Final comments)
There was a very high integration with World of Warcraft. Perhaps for people who played Wow, they will enjoy this aspect greatly. I did not play WoW much so it did not affect the game for me.
Even though the names of named units are written in full on the units themselves, when they speak, it is always only the first name. For example, during map05, someone called "Tess" speaks when you fight against her. On the unit itself, it has the full name "Tess Greymane", but when the transmission is spoken, it only has the name "Tess". For players not familiar with WoW, they won't know who these characters are if it is just the first name, at least with a last name it can give them hints as to who they are.
This issue is also present in cinematics. People who have not read the book will not immediately identify who Rend and Main might be, since it only uses their first names in cinematics, but if "Blackhand" was added, it would give them hints as to who they actually are.
A good point about this campaign is that even though there are very few cinematics lines at the start/end of missions, it does not affect the gameplay at all, the "story" is often told through the fighting/mission itself.
I wish there were more missions like 05, because having strong AI allies is really fun. Maim/Orange base in 07 was basically doing very little, at least in the hard difficulty. He role was just to act as meat shield.
Also, it is interesting to compare Enoshima's view towards the Tides of Darkness novel compared with Rondstat's "Legacy of the Master" campaign.
Legacy of the Master
Both campaigns tell the same story, but the campaign are very different based on the approach of the individual author (in that campaign Zuluhed (Dragonmaw Chieftain) is the main character).
So, is Enoshima doing any more campaigns that are adaptions of Warcraft books?