The Legends of Arkain: The True Story 7.3 - Dead Forest 

The Undead truly get the hardest maps - this one and Possession in particular. Queen Keera is usable only on this mission and is fairly fragile, but she has a low cooldown Finger of Pain. I choose her leadership boni as it is only available this mission and it buffs her ranged Undead Elves. Given the difficulty of this map, I'd actually recommend you take Ornasion's to buff Deathguard damage, but I wouldn't say the difference between the two is huge. There are three Demonlords behind trees to be raised as Deathlords scattered about, but one is waiting very close to your initial lumber harvesting that I purposeful let loose by destroying trees with Flamestrike. This gets me the great unit, but also ensures it won't be killing my workers at a time I need to be paying attention to something else. I prepare to attack the Souleater base to the left at a very specific time - more on that timing later - and it is incredibly difficult to break for a number of reasons. First, the base is heavily defended and you start on only one gold mine. If your first attack does not work then I would recommend restarting rather than slowly waiting for gold to rebuild. Second, the Elven Demon Slaves' base to the north sends attack waves with artillery and a hero with Starfall where the only interrupt available to me is Firebolt from very fragile Undead Eredar Sorcerers. This means any offensive against Green requires split focus because a Demon Slaves attack will inevitably overlap. Now you may think taking out the Demon Slaves first would be a good move, but I assure you it is not. That base is only barely easier than the Souleater one where the same challenge remains of having only a trickle of income on one gold mine. This makes it too difficult to reinforce, meanwhile the Green base will attack you from the left with strong Demon attack waves. This brings me back to that very specific timing attack. Golden Guard battalions will spawn huge waves from the left of the map that will establish their own bases and smash into both Demon bases at the top and bottom on the map. I tried a few different strategies on this one and the only way I was able to successfully topple Green on one gold mine was to take advantage of this Honor Battalion attack wave distracting the base's defensive force. Meanwhile, I set up some extra Spirit Towers and leave a couple Sorcerers at home to interrupt Starfall when it happens. The Golden Guard waves are actually TOO strong and they despawn on a timer, else they would probably wipe the whole map. Using them as a distraction before they disappear really seems to me the only way to reasonably approach this map. Green's base going down is an important breakout point for me because I go straight into the lower left Golden Guard base, which is too new to have much defense set up. This gets me access to two fresh gold mines where Keera also sets up some NPC structures that spawn allied units. Orange, the top Demon base, now becomes our primary problem. With the income to reinforce, the Demon Slaves now fall easily, but Starfall can still be a big problem if not anticipated. I prepare to attack Orange and this is around when the main Golden Guard base starts sending out attack waves, complicating things more. Orange's base is a similar caliber to Green's, but there is no giant spawned distraction this time. I gingerly pull the defensive force out of the base and use a couple Frost Wyrms since pathing gets pretty cramped. Keera's ultimate is critical here to get more numbers onto the field - the amount of Infernals defending the area may lead to needing multiple runs at this base. Glory Battalion in the upper left goes down quickly after, which leaves only the huge Golden Guard base in the center left. The Daviliad Nexus sends units from the structures they spawn in as each outlying area is secured, which helps grind through that last base slowly but surely. It takes some time to get through the front entrance choke point, but the difficulty winds down once in. The beginning of this map is a real challenge. Both the Green and Orange bases are incredibly difficult in part due to pathing struggles through the forest and their huge numbers of defending units. The Demon Slaves' base is more a nuisance than anything, but it is large and time consuming to get through as Green attacks would wipe your main base. Whatever you decide to do first on low income is critical.

When I first played this map I was pleasantly surprised by the Demons scene and liked Hallowbane as he not a simple minded demon he was very logical and showed not all demons were battle hungry giving the race depth, shame he had to die as I thought he could have been an interesting character to have around

Demonlords behind trees A Shar Dundred special

When was Queen Keera risen to undeath? I don't remember a mention of here anywhere else

It's unclear to me why the golden guard faction is hella strong in lore lol, are arrogant is secretly a secret power?, thank god that duke valorian & van durce doesn't always teams up then. Cause the demons gonna get obliberated 😂