I know it's your mod, I can play it if I want to but I'm not able to change anything... but! let me share with you with some ideas, maybe you will like it, maybe not.
StoryHow about mix of First and Second War (without Beyond of the Dark Portal)?
Instead of recreating every mission, 1 to 1 from War1 campaigns, maybe try to make new campaings from scratch. Based on the old ones.
I'm thinking about 4 campaings, 10 missions in every campaign, in this particular order:
1. Human campaign
First fights with orcs, king Llane, lord Lothar and archmage Khadgar are the main heroes. In the last mission they are killing possesed Medivh.
2. Orc campaign
Blackhand assault on the Llane's kingdom. Him, Gul'dan and Garona are the main heroes. Somewhere in the middle there could be a mission of sending Garona to human base. In the last mission there is a huge siege of Stormwind and Garona kills king Llane.
3. Horde campaign
Lord Lothar and archmage Khadgar escaped from the massacre and Alliance was formed. From that point Crossbowmans are replaced with Elven Archers and from this campaign flying and naval units are available.
Orcs also were looking for allies. Trolls, ogres and dragons are joined the Horde. At the beginning of this campaign Blackhand is killed in a duel by Orgrim Doomhammer. Orgrim, Gul'dan, Cho'gall and Zuljin are the main heroes.
4. Alliance campaign
Lothar, Khadgar and Uther are main heroes. In the last mission Horde is defeated.
UnitsThe biggest problem Warcraft 2 always have was unbalanced races with only one tech tree. Units and stats are the same in both races and also orcs are stronger because of Bloodlust spell. Maybe units from War1 could be used to change that and modify a little the tech tree.
First of all Death and Decay/Blizzard spells should be removed or heavy nerfed cause with these spells catapults and archers are not useful.
For Humans Clerics could replace Paladins. Same three spells, Healing with autocasting (in some other mod it's already implemented) and no attack ability. Clerics could be train with basic, Town Hall tech.
Keep tech could provide Horse Archers. These could be a nice counter for Grunts and Ogres cause Horse Archers could move faster than them.
For Orcs Wolf Raiders could be added from basic, Great Hall tech. Raiders could be upgraded with bonus to speed (just like in War1) and then this unit would be the fastest in the game so ir the result: Raiders will be able to catch Horse Archers. I can share with you sprites for Wolf Raiders I had for my mod.
Stronghold tech could provide War2 flying Deamons from Temple of the Damned. Temple should also be avalaible from Stronghold, but not Death Knights; DKs should be avaiable from Fortress.
Dragons could be buffed a little with maybe increased costs.
Ogres could be slowed down to Grunts speed, their hp could be increased but damage lowered.
As a replacement for DoD/Blizzard spells I would suggest:
- Summoning a Warden for Mage (creature that cannot move but can attack with range 3)
- Dark Ritual for Death Knight (works like Polymorph but instead of changing unit to a critter it change it to a demonic warrior with stats on Grunts level. Can be casted only on owned unit that has less than 50% hp. Useful when orcs are after a battle and many units are heavily damaged; these units can get "a second life" with that spell)