Welcome to my third article in the Building a Battleground series. For this map concept I want to take you to a Stormwind under siege. The Horde has relentlessly assaulted the gates, seemingly poised to push through the city and wipe it out completely. Only the brave forces of the Alliance stand between Stormwind and its utter destruction. Let’s take a deep dive into what this map concept would look like, and if you’re interested in how this event came to be you can find a “small” Lore section at the bottom, enjoy!

Setting: Stormwind is an iconic Warcraft setting. The bastion of humanity, this three lane battleground will offer excellent variety not only for art and a new setting (city themed map), but also will allow for interesting terrain variance and design from a layout standpoint.

Gameplay: Stormwind Assault will play as a standard battleground where your win condition is to destroy the enemies core. The Horde side being a massive siege engine, and the Alliance side being the fortifications guarding the “final defense” small keep in the North. This map will feature something I call “Escalation”, where you will be able to invest or, “Recruit” resources to increase your pushing power over the course of the map (this is detailed in the “Recruitment” section).

Objective: The objective for Stormwind Assault is fairly straightforward. As in maps like Cursed Hollow or Sky Temple the objective, Supply Crates, will spawn (or in lore, be found) either one or two at a time at different locations on the map. These locations will be random from game to game, but will be highlighted 30 seconds before the objective goes live. Supply Crates work much like chests in Blackheart’s Bay. Attacking the Supply Crates will drop Supply, which can then be picked up by Heroes. If you want to draw comparisons, Supply Crates will have more health, and drop more Supply than Blackheart’s chests drop coins. Supply is then held by each Hero individually, and if that Hero is killed all of their Supply will be lost.

Recruitment: Recruitment is what you will use your Supply for, and the main reason I call this an Escalation map. There are three major forms of Recruitment, Clear, Siege, and Boss. Each form of Recruitment will cost a certain amount of Supply to recruit, except for Boss. Supply is turned in at your Hall of Storms, and each Supply turn in will have a counter on it (ex 3/15) to show how much Supply has been turned in, and how much is needed to Recruit the particular unit. No more than one of each unit can be active at once, and no more that one Recruitment type can push a single lane (though these limits could potentially change with actual testing for balance).

Clear: When enough Supply is turned in, a group of three wolf riders/cavalrymen will spawn and proceed down the least pushed lane. Each unit has a cleave attack that is adept at clearing lanes quickly if not stopped, but they are less effective vs structures.

Siege: When enough Supply is turned in, a large battering ram (Horde and Alliance graphical flavors) will spawn and proceed down the least pushed lane from a structure perspective. All lane structures being equal, it will start from the top lane and then go down from there. Battering rams will have a decent amount of health and do major damage to structures, but will also be very slow and may require an escort to get the most out of them.

Boss: Unlike Clear and Siege, you can not turn in Supply to summon bosses directly (though there will be a total Supply counter for Bosses located near the other two supply turn ins to view your progress). Bosses will be automatically summoned after a certain total threshold of Supply has been turned in (increasing for each subsequent boss) and proceed down the least pushed lane from a structure perspective. All lane structures being equal, it will start from the top lane and then go down from there. Bosses will be siege tanks (Horde and Alliance graphical flavors) that will roll down the lane wreaking havoc on the enemy team. Siege tanks will have a three shot main cannon that will fire upon the first structure that comes into range, doing moderate structure damage as well as splash damage around the structure. Once all three shots have been used, the siege tank will roll up to the structure and begin using its battering ram. The siege tank will also periodically throw out timed bombs that will show a countdown effect and then explode, damaging all enemies in their radius.

*As an aside from a UI standpoint, you could also show total turn ins of Supply for each Recruitment type (Clear, Siege, and Boss) as a special small UI underneath the minimap, as many other battleground objectives have.

Mercenaries: There are two new types of mercenaries on Stormwind Assault, Prisoners and Looters.

Prisoner: There is one Prisoner mercenary camp located near the middle of the map at the Stormwind Stockades. Defeating the Prisoner mercenary will drop a token that will allow you to summon a Prisoner in a small radius around you that will fight for you for a short time. Unlike most other mercenaries, the Prisoner will actually prioritize enemy Heroes over minions. Until killed or its timer expires, the Prisoner will attack the closest Hero (or minion if there are no Heroes nearby) with a minor damage melee attack that will also apply a stacking slow of 2% per hit up to 20%.

Looters: There are two Looter camps located near the midpoint of the map to the far West near the Stormwind Harbour, and the far East near the ruins of Stormwind Keep. Each camp contains three Looters which once defeated will drop X amount of Supply. This allows for a secondary way to gain a small amount of extra Supply between objective spawns.

Map: Below is a rough (very rough) design for lanes, structure placement, potential supply spawn points, and mercenary camps. The actual layout of Stormwind would of course have to be modified for it to make sense from a lane standpoint and make it fair and even for both sides (so don’t read too much into where things are placed). I do love the idea of keeping, to a point, the different feels of each area of Stormwind, as well as bridges over the canals and multiple paths to get back and forth between lanes. The Horde half of the map (the bottom half), will look much more destroyed, with the keeps and forts being essentially fortifications that have been stood up as they moved further into the city. The Alliance half of the map will look more pristine, but with war implements set up as well as fortifications and guard towers acting as their forts and keeps.

Strategy: Team fighting, objective contesting, and Recruitment decisions will all be crucial in Stormwind Assault. Variant spawning of Supply Crates will allow for larger scale team fights, or smaller skirmishes when two are up at once. Recruitment units can be powerful, but when left alone to push can potentially be cleaned up quickly. Timing turn ins for key moments like when objectives are up, or using them to split push while a member is down and you can’t fight will allow for reactionary play depending on how the game is going. Keeping track of your Boss summon track will also be important, as you’ll most likely want to dedicate resources to helping it push, or use it as a distraction while objectives are up. Looter mercenary camps can be a great source of extra Supply if you’re looking to finish off a Recruitment, and the Prisoner mercenary can be an extra push in a lane or team fight, and is useful for slowing down a fleeing opponent. Don’t forget that many lanes are also interlinked through the various canal bridges, allowing for multiple paths into lanes. Be sure to use these to your advantage, whether in escaping to a safe lane, or coming in to gank an enemy Hero. Lastly, remember to target enemy Heroes that are holding Supply, as killing them will cause it to be lost permanently.

Final Thoughts: As always, to wrap things up I just wanted to talk a little about map balance. You may have noticed that I didn’t put many hard numbers in here like amount of Supply needed to Recruit the various units, exact map paths, Boss summon amounts, etc, and that’s intentional. Without lots of testing, anything I put specifically could be argued on and picked apart endlessly. The point of this is to provide a tight framework, that once created, could have numbers plugged into it and then be tweaked as needed.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Stormwind Assault concept and as always I’d love to hear feedback in the comments below. If you want to see some of my other map concept work you can check out my Arathi Basin Concept here on HeroesHearth as well!

Lore:

Footman Holmes rushed down the ramparts, almost tripping down the steps that led to the main gate. Holmes looked around frantically as he reached the main city streets, he had to find General Hammond now! Pushing his way past archers who were running towards the wall, he made his way back past the defenses to a tent set up in the middle of the Trade District.

“I have an urgent message for General Hammond!” Holmes said almost breathlessly.

The Knight to the right of the tent nodded and gestured for him to go in. The tent itself was a flurry of activity. Pages ran back and forth receiving and delivering reports while at the center table General Hammond looked over a large map of the city and surrounding area, talking quietly with his advisors.

“General Hammond!” Holmes said, a slight squeak to his voice. “I have urgent news from the front.”

General Hammond looked up quietly, waving a hand to silence those at the table around him. “What is it Footman?”

Holmes couldn’t meet the Generals eyes. “General, Goldshire lies in ashes.”

“What?! How could this be? We had fortified that position. We had several regiments there protecting the town!” General Hammond said, surprise and shock in his voice.

“The Horde have a new weapon...” Holmes said quietly. “A massive siege tower. They rolled through and demolished the town. Nothing we had put more than a dent in it, at least that was the report. The report came by gryphon rider, but they were shot down by the assault outside the city. The only reason we recovered it was because they crashed behind the wall. And...the siege tower is coming this way.”

General Hammond clenched his fist, then smashed it into the table. “Come, I need to see this for myself.”

Holmes followed behind the general, quickening his pace to keep up. They hurried up the steps to the ramparts as General Hammond reached his hand out for the spyglass a scout offered to him. He felt the blood drain from his face as he focused the spyglass. The siege tower coming up the hill was larger than any he had ever seen. Several bolt throwers lined the sides of the tower as it plodded forward slowly on six massive wheels. A large catapult sat on top, flaming rock sitting in its bed. On the front sat a huge iron wolf head, flame and smoke seeping from its slightly open mouth. Behind it more grunts, wolf riders, and various other Horde assault troops marched.

“Man your stations...” General Hammond whispered, still looking on.

“What was that sir?” Holmes asking, looking concerned.

“MAN YOUR STATIONS!” General Hammond yelled. Pushing the spyglass back on the scout, he practically flung himself down the stairs, yelling as he went. “Get those heavy crossbows up on the wall and manned now!”

The wall defense regiment jumped into action. Footman with long spears began to form defensive lines in front of the gate as archers and workman carrying large parts of heavy crossbows began to move up the wall to reinforce the ramparts.

“We have to hold...” General Hammond whispered to himself, looking out over the preparations, “Or Stormwind is lost.”

High Overlord Varok Saurfang gazed down from the top of the massive Horde siege tower, allowing himself a small smile as he put his looking glass down. Pathetic Alliance rabble, scurrying around like ants. He would crush them like ants, and their precious city. Nothing could withstand the power of this new siege engine. He turned towards the small Goblin standing next to him. “Are we ready?”

“We’re ready.” the Goblin said, nodding his head vigorously. “You saw what it did to Goldshire. Stormwind will break as well.”

“Good.” Saurfang said. “Launch the attack.”

CRASH! The impact reverberated out as a large fiery boulder hit the top of the ramparts, taking a chunk out of the wall, scattering soldiers and equipment. Bolts fired from the wall and mages threw fireballs at the large structure but both seemed to be completely ineffective, the bolts bouncing off the sides and the fireballs seemingly absorbed by some sort of magical shielding. Another rock hurtled into the wall on the left side, leaving a large crack as stone scattered into the water below. The siege tower hit the junction point on the bridge, and began to slowly turn towards the gate. As it neared the front, the iron wolf head began to slowly retract inward.

“Brace for impact!” General Hammond yelled. “Archers and mages, change your targets and pick off as many of their ground troops as possible!”

Soldiers desperately grabbed for hand holds as the iron wolf head projected outward, slamming into the gate. The metal buckled inward with a sickening screech as unfortunate soldiers who had not found footing were thrown from the ramparts by the impact.

“Spears prepare!” General Hammond yelled, drawing his sword and positioning behind the thick spear line.

The wolf head slammed into the gate again, fire and smoke pouring from its mouth as the gate gave one final shudder, and crashed to the ground. Dust and smoke filled the space where the gate had been as loud yells and warcries sounded from the other side. The Alliance soldiers grouped together in tighter formation, spears and shields ready, all eyes on the opening. With howls and cries of “For the Horde!”, wolf riders, grunts, and shaman began pouring through the opening.

“For the Alliance!” General Hammond cried as the soldiers echoed him and charged forward.

Spears found wolves, axes found necks, and lightning and fire rained from above as the two sides crashed into one another.

Saurfang marched through the carnage his troops left in their wake, occasionally stopping to finish off a wounded survivor or a lone combatant. He turned to the side to see a footman finish off a grunt almost twice his size, pulling a sword from the orcs throat where he had been too careless in letting the smaller soldier slip past his defenses. Shouldering his axe, he moved toward the man with a steady stride, his lips curling into a smirk. The man stood up, breathing heavily, as he turned towards Overlord Saurfang. Blood marred his left cheek, but he held himself with an air of defiance as he locked eyes with the large orc.

“For Stormwind!” the man yelled, running towards Saurfang, sword and shield raised.

Saurfang snorted and positioned his axe in both hands. The man came in fast, sword swinging quickly as Saurfang parried the blade with the head of his axe. They traded several blows, but neither could land a hit. Saurfang narrowed his eyes as he began to concentrate. This man was good, and fighting for his life. Spinning his axe around he brought the flat across to try and stun the man. The soldier pulled up his shield just in time to take the brunt of the blow, though it still knocked him back several feet. The man grunted then came back, swinging high then ducking quickly, changing the arc of his blade. Saurfang jumped back, wincing as the sword cut a gash across his left leg. Snarling he let the rage take him as he threw his axe towards the soldier. The man's eyes went wide as the axe hit him head on, knocking him to the ground, his sword and shield clattering to the now pockmarked cobblestone around him. Saurfang walked up to where he lay. Reaching down he slowly wrapped his fingers around the man’s neck and pulled him up to eye level.

“You fought well soldier. You have my respect. What is your name?” Saurfang asked.

The man glared back in defiance, spitting blood towards Saurfang. “Footman Holmes.” He sneered.

This,” Saurfang said, waving his arms out over the battle, “brave as it may be, is pointless. You will all fall under the might of the Horde.”

“Stormwind will stand.” Holmes said in a raspy breath, eyes unblinking as he stared at Saurfang.

Saurfang threw Holmes to the ground with a sickening crunching sound, then leaned down and picked up his axe.

“We shall see...” Saurfang said quietly, as his axe came down...