LOTR - Third Age: Total War

[Sophie Scholl]

I think a First Age mod would be great, as it featured more infighting amongst the "good" factions, was much longer in time frame, and more epic in scale and size of battles.  No hobbits either, who would cease to be but for the Rangers patrolling their borders.  Sorry, but Hobbit archers just don't inspire me as a legit army, nor do the militia rabble they might be able to call up combined with sherrifs and bounders.

[MadImmortalMan]

I think a First Age mod would be great, as it featured more infighting amongst the "good" factions, was much longer in time frame, and more epic in scale and size of battles.  No hobbits either, who would cease to be but for the Rangers patrolling their borders.  Sorry, but Hobbit archers just don't inspire me as a legit army, nor do the militia rabble they might be able to call up combined with sherrifs and bounders.

That's a great idea. Angband would rock. And Sauron as the wolf-lord.

[grumbler]

I think a First Age mod would be great, as it featured more infighting amongst the "good" factions, was much longer in time frame, and more epic in scale and size of battles.  No hobbits either, who would cease to be but for the Rangers patrolling their borders.  Sorry, but Hobbit archers just don't inspire me as a legit army, nor do the militia rabble they might be able to call up combined with sherrifs and bounders.

First Age would suck, as all the Nolder could do was await destruction until they suffered enough that the gods took pity on them, and, deus ex machina, destroyed Melkor.

Second Age could work, with the player being the High Elves and holding on until Sauron revealed himself, then X turns until the Numenoreans arrived.

Best would be a campaign starting with the arrival of the Numenoreans and continuing through the Third Age to Sauron's defeat (or victory).  This suits the game scale better.  The Numenoreans would need a couple leaders called "settler" that would vastly increase population in Osgoliath and Anumimas to represent the exiles, but they could have short lifespans.

I have played the game for a dozen turns each as three factions (High elves, silvan elves, and Gondor), and none of them have any feel for the books.  they are [insertTWhere] on a new (albeit glorious) map.

[Sophie Scholl]

I don't think it would suck at all.  The Noldor were rather competent in their seiges of Angband, and but for some bad luck and betrayals, they might have been able to actually win without the gods coming forth.  It also is the setting with the most varied factions, the most overall used territory, the longest timeframe, and the least black and white morality portion.  Angabnd is all that is evil yes, but the Noldor and other elves and humans fall anywhere between dark grey and white.

[Ape]

I am simply saying that making a campaign game out of the Third Age of Middle Earth might be interesting, since we would be able to do/see things not covered by the main portion of the book.

Not so sure about that, when would it begin?

Year 1? No Sauron, no Mordor, no Rohan (they live in Rhovanion), no Isengard, no Dale, just Arnor and Gondor, the two kingdoms in exile. As well as a shitload of Dwarves and Elves. Khazad-Dûm is still a Dwarf city. Hobbits still in lives in the Anduin vales.

861? The Splitting of Arnor into Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur.

1000? The arrival of Sauron in Dol Guldur, though very, very weak.

1300? Angmar is founded?

1409? Cardolan is overrun?

1432? The Kin-strife in Gondor?

1637? The Great plague?

1856? Wainrider wars? The Northmen of Rhovanion flees to the Anduin vales.

1974? Arthedain overun?

1981? Dwarfs abandon Khazad-Dûm?

2002? Fall of Minas Ithil?

2510? Balchoth invasion and founding of Rohan?

If you start at year 1, the forces of Evil will have to perform a miracle to even get to 3019. Heck they don't even exist, and besides doing over 3000 turns? Yikes that is one marathon game.

Personally I'd make it from 1640 on. Angmar exists, Sauron is on Dol-Guldur, but the watch on Mordor has been abandoned, kin-strife has been, Arnor is divided.

[grumbler]

Personally I'd make it from 1640 on. Angmar exists, Sauron is on Dol-Guldur, but the watch on Mordor has been abandoned, kin-strife has been, Arnor is divided.

Agreed.  The game would not be interesting until the rise of Angmar.  Not sure how you could handle the Dwarves discovering the Balrog, though.

[Fate]

The first age wouldn't feel right unless they could implement non-traditional units such as werewolves, giant spiders, giant eagles, dragons, and balrogs/other demons. Melkor's army would seem rather bland if it consisted of humanoid calvary, swordsmen, and archers.

[Lucidor]

The first age wouldn't feel right unless they could implement non-traditional units such as werewolves, giant spiders, giant eagles, dragons, and balrogs/other demons. Melkor's army would seem rather bland if it consisted of humanoid calvary, swordsmen, and archers.

You mean if it was more like unmodded RTW?

[Ape]

The first age wouldn't feel right unless they could implement non-traditional units such as werewolves, giant spiders, giant eagles, dragons, and balrogs/other demons. Melkor's army would seem rather bland if it consisted of humanoid calvary, swordsmen, and archers.

You mean if it was more like unmodded RTW?

[grumbler]

The battle Ai still sucks.

With incredibly outnumbered forces, it is still possible to get the AI to commit bits of his force to deal with skirmishers, and then whittle him down when he is too disjointed to respond.

Not that this is completely bad, as the AI raises huge armies at will.

In my game, also, Pope Sauron took Edoras very early, and Rohan was never a factor.

[MadImmortalMan]

How do you guys beat those damn trolls? What should I attack them with?

[Ape]

How do you guys beat those damn trolls? What should I attack them with?

Very, very carefully

Archers, ballistas and spearmen


Thinking of doing some modding on this mod  :pinchL like reducing the Gondorian and Elven recruitment

[Syt]

Patch has been released:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=260637

FIXES

- white battle map interface (hotfix included)
- Dunedain Knights missing their melee weapon fixed
- wrong faction banners disabled
- missing rebels and mercenary unit cards fixed
- diplomatic text refers to wrong factions fixed
- Dale freeland archers' bows float in the air fixed
- Beorings javelins float on the air around them fixed
- snaga skirmishers weapon fixed
- new meshes for Isengard heavy Uruk-Hai units
- Breeland riders have invisible weapons fixed
- Uruk Halberdiers missing secondary weapon fixed
- Goblin Halberdiers missing secondary weapon fixed
- warg sprites added
- Troll Cage descriptions fixed
- Henneth Annun "object on battle map bug" fixed
- Horse Guard animation fixed
- rebel generals/captains with silver textures fixed
- Harad "invasion" mercenaries with silver textures fixed
- all floating cities and castles fixed
- hardly/unplayable bridge and river issues fixed
- new orcish diplomat/spy/assassin cards
- eryn dolen stuck at village fixed
- minor 2d symbols fixed
- 2hhanded orc error fixed



NEW FEATURES

- New and huge sound package (a huge thanks to Smirk )

    * all medieval phrases deleted and replaced. No more sultans, gods and piety...
    * all wrong voice references to the vanilla factions fixed
    * new and reworked speeches for all factions and orcs
    * reworked all voices for campaign map
    * dwarves have own scottish accent
    * New troll sounds and orcish voices for battle map
    * fixed missing catapult impact sound
    * and more!

New unit and battle map balance

    * new animations for better unit cohesion
    * missile units weakened, ammunition varied, new elven arrow type
    * mumakil costs decreased, increased morale
    * trolls more vulnerbale to missiles, slower, more expensive throw units into the air, availability decreased
    * raised morale for all troops
    * improved cavalry and charges
    * improved stamina for dwarves and other units
    * halberds and spear units improved
    * arrow/ballista towers weakened, walls and gateways improved, more logical stats
    * many other little unit stats changes

Other

    * new loading bar
    * several map improvements, like smoother and realistic rivers
    * new event pics for the orcish factions
    * northmen portraits added
    * events for advanced units are earlier
    * Eriador - High Elves alliance
    * no more witches
    * servants of Sauron slightly weakend
    * Generals can get older
    * More logical character traits at campaign start
    * garrison script slightly nerfed
    * good factions will survive longer
    * new fire textures and sound for burning men and burning buildings

Included Sub-Mods

    * non breakable alliances without a diplomat (Thanks to Archaon)
    * smoother coastlines (Thanks to Nevada)
    * improved Eldar models (Thanks to Razor)
    * Germanicu5 Battle AI (Thanks to Germanicu5)
    * Germanicu5 stakes script (Thanks to Germanicu5)
    * Witchking model (Thanks to Devils_Advocate)
    * spelling mistakes fixed (Thanks to Krazy Krook)

[Razgovory]

I tried to install this but everytime I do I get a message that says the file is broken.

[Agelastus]

I tried to install this but everytime I do I get a message that says the file is broken.

I see the necromancer of Dol Guldur has struck.

And I gave up this mod when the AI started spamming trolls; it was already getting boring whacking a full Mordorian stack at Osgiliath every bleeding turn without having half or more of their army consist of those arrow hogs.

And nothing I've read has suggested they've fixed that.