Warcraft 3 Orc Walkthrough
Chapter Four: The Spirits of Ashenvale
Finally we can control Grom hellscream. I love this guy. But eh, I love all the Orc heroes. Naturally with such a large amount of wood to gather you'll want to have plenty of peasants doing the chopping. Actually there is a better alternative. But we'll get to that in a bit. Don't go constructing a bunch of units yet as you have a limited gold supply. And you'll notice there are no gold mines nearby. Wait a while and your units will break through the forest wall to the northwest. A pack of Night Elves will attack you. They're not a very challenging bunch so you won't have much trouble with the units you started with.
Head around to the east and you'll encounter a group of goblins. They want you to kill the furbolg chieftain and reveal his location on your map. From the goblin area head to the west and you'll find a gold mine. It has only 9200 inside but it should be enough to do you for a while. Keep your units nearby to protect this area while it is being built up (some watch towers should help slow the enemy down). Before too long a group of flying units will attack your base. Use your raiders' ensnare ability to bring them to the down and finish them off. When your base is producing gold and your first units to defend it are coming out take what you have and do some exploring.
Optional Quest: Furbolg ChieftainI took Grom, four raiders and four grunts and the first place I headed was for the furbolgs. Fight off any elves you encounter on your way. The furbolg chieftain is pretty powerful and uses a stunning attack on your units. There isn't a whole lot to fear from him if you concentrate your attack however. When you finally slay him you'll get a health stone. But that's not all. Return to the goblins and he'll give you access to shredders. These big guys mow down trees like grass and can carry 200 on each load. Buy two more shredders, get them chopping, then take Grom and a force similar to what you had for the furbolgs and attack the small base to the west of yours. There is a great tree here and when destroyed it yields 3000 lumber. Which triggers us a new Optional:
Optional Quest: Destroy Trees of Life
First head southwest and you'll encounter some spirits around a circle on the ground. They're pretty annoying as they can put a lot of units to sleep but when they're destroyed they'll drop a pair of boots of speed. Now head to the west-northwest of here and you'll encounter some trolls. They drop a potion of healing but in one of the huts there is a crystal ball item. You can use it about two screens west of the gold mine here (which you may want to take over if your original is running low) to reveal another Elven base. Use grom's wind walk ability to reveal the path you'll need to take to get there. Don't attack anything, just get the area scouted for when you have sufficient forces ready. When you do, begin your assault and kill off all the ground forces first. Note that pillage will help your resource gathering, if only a little. Kill off the big tree again and you should now have a lot of lumber. In fact, possibly even enough to call this mission a success. If not, let your shredders to work and finish off the 15k requirement.