Middle Earth

[SnuggleBunnies]

This is a functioning Middle Earth custom and multiplayer battles army list mod; but before you get too excited, please note that there are no custom graphics in the mod. All the unit graphics are placeholders from the vanilla games, and banners are simply blue and red. The placeholders work better for some factions than for others. In the long run I may try to do some graphics work, but it is extremely time consuming so no promises.

In general, unit costing is done based on the Medieval points chart; there are some gray areas that the points chart doesn't cover, for which I used my best judgement to create chart amendments. More on that below.

The army lists are meant to be most relevant for the end of the Third Age, based only on the books. At present, all lists can ally with all lists, both because I saw no reason not to allow the player flexibility, and to allow people to roughly recreate armies from other eras of Middle Earth. For example, Gondor with Harad allies is a decent approximation of the armies of Umbar when it was ruled by Gondorian exiles in conflict with their former homeland. In the long run, I may add additional army lists for the mid-Third age to cover such conflicts as those of Angmar and the Wainriders, or some hypothetical lists for the Fourth Age. I think information on the Second Age is too sparse to do any justice to it, and the First Age relies too much on supernatural elements that would stretch the FoG system too far.

At present, the mod contains the following army lists:

Dunlendings
Dale
Dwarves
Easterlings
Gondor
Haradrim
High Elves
Host of Darkness
Host of the West
Isengard
Khand
Mordor
Orcs of the Misty Mountains
Rohan
Wood Elves
Woodmen

To install the mod for custom battles or multiplayer, simply download one of the below attachments and extract the mod folder into
Users\Documents\My Games\FieldofGloryMedieval\MULTIPLAYER
or
Users\Documents\My Games\FieldofGloryMedieval\CAMPAIGNS

Middle Earth v1.zip

(44.27 KiB) Downloaded 50 times

Middle Earth v1.rar

(39.68 KiB) Downloaded 29 times

For single player campaigns, extract the below file into \CAMPAIGNS (thanks Karvon!)

Middle Earth v1 - Campaign.zip

(50.27 KiB) Downloaded 42 times

For design notes on the various army lists, please see below -

[SnuggleBunnies]

Design Notes

The TL;DR key points to note are: all Elf units cosmetically display half the number of men and models that they have in terms of in game calculations. A number of Orcish units display larger numbers than they functionally have.

Dunlendings

This is a fairly straightforward Mannish army, primarily based on a mix of loose order warbands and close order picked warbands. The Isenmarch units represent men from the borderlands, who seem to have divided loyalties and occasional involvement in the internal politics of Rohan. Their infantry, the Isenmarch Shieldwall, fight in the style of Rohan's infantry, but the cavalry, unlike the Riders of Rohan, are Light Spear/Swordsmen. This is to show both the influence of the lighter Dunlending fighting style, and their expectation that they will be outnumbered by Rohan's cavalry, and thus trust to mobility to preserve them. The Dunlending Longspearmen are unattested in the text, but presumably some attempts would have been made to blunt Rohan's cavalry superiority. The Skirmishers are a mixed unit of bow, sling, javelin and light spear, that a few other Mannish factions field – this is to represent the young men and poor of such societies fighting with whatever armament they posess as a light infantry screen, as in many ancient societies.

Dale

There is very little information about Dale's army in the text. We know that at the Battle of Five Armies they fought on foot, and that many of them seemed to be archers. We also know that Dale is an expanding and powerful kingdom by the time of the War of the Ring. They are portrayed here as a largely infantry force, with some decent cavalry, which they would presumably use more of as they expanded into open country. The armored Dale Axemen represent those men fighting with some amount of good Dwarven gear traded from Erebor. The Barding Archers are named as a tribute to Bard; their 1% Light Spear does nothing on its own, but its presence triggers their Darts POA. Darts can in this case be considered a final deadly hail of arrows against a charging foe.

Dwarves

The text is pretty clear that the Dwarves fight in close order, in heavy armor, on foot. This makes for a rather bad FoG list, but I saw nothing I could do that was faithful to the source material to change that. So consider the Dwarves an extra challenge to use, and a prime candidate for an army to bring or to bring as allies. Dale allies are directly attested in the text, and plenty of other combinations are very plausible – Eastern Dwarves with Easterling allies for example.

Easterlings

We get much more information about earlier Easterling invasions than during the War of the Ring, but there are some hints, and these can be combined with that earlier information. I include Wainriders as a unit type, even though we don't see them in battle during the War of the Ring, as Frodo glimpsed them during his visions at Amon Hen. The Wainrider unit gets two models, but this is purely cosmetic so that if the unit takes 50% casualties it leaves the wreck of a chariot on the field. Tough axemen are certainly directly mentioned. Otherwise I imagine the Easterlings as a 'barbaric' people with some steppe influence.

Gondor

Gondor we actually do get quite a bit of detail about. They are largely a faction fielding well drilled heavy infantry. The Rangers of Ithilien are portrayed as a light unit – when in battle order they can be considered a part of the Gondorian Archers unit, ditto for archers of the Blackroot Vale. The various grim 'fisherfolk/hillmen' etc can be considered a part of the Levy Foot units. The Marines are somewhat conjectural, but they give Gondor a Medium Foot unit, and it would make sense for the fleets of such an organized state to have dedicated shipboard soldiers. Note that the Knights of Dol Amroth, despite their heavy armor, have 16AP.

Haradrim

Despite frequent mention, we don't get a lot of close detail about the Haradrim. They seem to have been brave and skilled in war, but lightly equipped – mostly scarlet clothes are mentioned, and the sole close desciption of armor seems to be of bronze scales. They have good cavalry, albeit not good enough to stand against the best of Rohan, and large numbers of missile troops. The Corsairs and Men of Far Harad each get units, having gotten special mention. The Guard Foot and Guard Archers are conjectural. The Guard Archers get a defensive Darts impact. The Mumakil are Above Average, and costed accordingly. Two Mumakil models are displayed, but this is purely cosmetic - so that if the unit takes 50% casualties, their carnage is added to the field.

High Elves

Although the army list is called 'High Elves', by the late Third Age most of the list consists of Silvan Elves. However, there are limited numbers of Sindar, and a maximum of two units of Noldor. They can also field one unit of Dunedain Rangers.

All non-light Elvish units get an additional 2AP, an extra Light Spear impact, and the archers also get Darts. They pay for these capabilities. The Elves are the only archers in the game to get Longbow. All Elvish archers also get 1% Handgun – this inflicts no additional casualties but does mean that Elvish close range shooting is more likely to cause a cohesion drop. Elvish heavy cavalry get Knightly Lancers capability but are classed as Cavalry, making them Maneuverable and less likely to keep pursuing.

Elvish units display half the men and models of Mannish factions, but their base unit size is the same. This cosmetic change is perhaps not ideal from a game readability perspective, but I couldn't think of a better way of showing just how effective the Elves were in battle, despite constantly being massively outnumbered.

Host of Darkness

This list is a mix of the various Men and Orcs fighting for Sauron at the Pelennor Fields, as standard lists can only bring one ally.

Host of the West

This list is the armies of Rohan and Gondor at the Pelennor Fields, with the addition of one unit of Dunedain Rangers.

Isengard

As central to the story as Saruman's army is, it isn't described in great detail in The Lord of the Rings; luckily, the Unfinished Tales chapter 'The Battles of the Fords of Isen' does. Most Orcs in the mod are classed as 'Warriors', but the Uruk-Hai are classed as drilled Heavy Foot. Both the Orcmen Axes and the Uruk-Hai Pikemen are attested in Unfinished Tales. The latter are mentioned just once, sheltering in field fortifications.

Note that Orcs have 960men/16 models but are functionally 720/12, and Orcish Light Archers display 360/6 but are functionally 240/4. Again as with the Elves, this was the only way I could think of to portray their vast numbers without throwing off the mod's balance further.

Khand

The most conjectural list in the mod, based entirely on the potential etymology of two words – 'Variags' and 'Khand', combined with Khand's location. 'Khand' sounding vaguely like 'Khan' and 'Variags' sounding vaguely like 'Varangians', it is a mostly eastern/steppe list with some solid Heavy Foot with Heavy Weapon. We do know from the Appendix of the Lord of the Rings that Northmen sometimes fought against Gondor, so that would be nothing new. I made the standard Khandian Horsemen only 50% Bow (with Light Spear/Swords) so that they couldn't easily shoot every other list to pieces, given that on average the mod's lists are less missile heavy than in the vanilla game.

Mordor

Trolls are assumed to fight in tandem with supporting Orcish infantry. They are classed as Light Spear, Heavy Weapon. The standard Uruk Foot are, unlike Uruk-Hai, Undrilled Heavy Foot (this is probably generous to Saruman...), but the Guard are Maneuverable. Orcish Massed Archers display 720men/12models, but are functionally 480/8.

Orcs of the Misty Mountains

Orc Champions display 720men/12models but are functionally 480/8. Warg Riders are Camelry, the fierce mounts presumably scaring horses. Given that they are Light Spear/Swords, they still can't go toe to toe with heavy cavalry, but they are useful for their disordering, as a flank threat, and running down lights and archers.

Rohan

The Guard are Knightly Lancers, the Riders Lancers. Very generously, their Outriders are Bow, Light Spear, Swordsmen. Although the Rohirrim are explicitly shown to include skilled mounted archers, they seem very small in number. These concentrated units of outriders presume that perhaps, in a pitched battle such men might be expected to fight together for special purposes. This is stretching things from a lore perspective, but it does help Rohan fight in an appropriately aggressive style.

Wood Elves

Quite similar to the High Elves list, except that they lack heavy cavalry or infantry; instead even their Guard unit is Medium Foot. Both lists are small, expensive, and extremely deadly – fighting against them requires patience and an attempt to surround them to take advantage of their limited numbers – easier said than done considering their mobility...

Woodmen

The Woodmen of Anduin Vale. The 'Beornings' unit is not so much assumed to be composed entirely of Beorn's descendants, but those men who have pledged their allegiance to them. In the Hobbit, it's said that some of Beorn's descendants can also skin-change, but the Hobbit is full of things that don't get mentioned elsewhere. In any case, their special ferocity gives them Light Spear, Heavy Weapon. Otherwise, all we know about the Woodmen is that they are skilled archers, and despite living in many scattered settlements are able to keep the passes clear. Thus they are an army of Medium Foot, archers, and relatively light cavalry.

[SnuggleBunnies]

Thanks to AKvGoeben, Lennard, Karvon, ChangDao, and Rosedelio for testing help. Along with new lists I will be tweaking existing lists based on feedback. See you on the field.

[Karvon]

SB has taken over the Campaign version and added it to the initial post.

Regards,

Karvon

[kronenblatt]

Excellent job and effort, Snuggles!

Which army or armies do you feel are the “coolest” lore wise?

And cosmetically/graphically which army or armies do you think work best using the base game’s GFX?

[Karvon]

Well, I've only played a few games as the Orcs of Misty Mountain against Elves, Dwarves, Rohan and Woodsmen, so haven't really looked at all the lists in any great detail. I pretty much got slaughtered in all of my games, but then that's pretty much the norm when I play SB or Rosie

I'm not a LOTR expert, so can not attest to how accurately the lists reflect the books. As I pointed out to SB, I think some lists, such as the Dwarves, would benefit from a little logical expansion to be a bit more playable without having to rely on allies.

There are no special graphics replacements such as in the GOT mod atm. Graphics really don't move me in any case, so I really have no opinion on that. The number of models displayed in the units has been modified, though, so you do get the sense of Orc swarms vs thin Elven lines.

I've enjoyed playing around with it in SP and Campaigns, beyond my few MP games. Certainly a nice addition to Medieval. Highly recommended.

Expansions I think would be cool, in no particular order:

1. Geography and date data added to narrow down enemies.
2. Allies narrowed down to eliminate crazy options.
3. A few lists tweaked to make them more playable.
4. List of appropriate general names for each army.
5. Maybe a TT like reskinning, rather than new models, for each army.
6. ME banners for each army.
7. Maybe someone could do a few new models.

Anyway, give it a go!

Karvon

[SnuggleBunnies]

1. Geography and date data added to narrow down enemies.

I could see this being done if the number of lists grew unwieldy, but so long as it's below say, 30 I don't see the need for this.

2. Allies narrowed down to eliminate crazy options.

But why? Players have to choose allies right? So why not have the options - given that 'ahistoricals' won't appear without being chosen.

3. A few lists tweaked to make them more playable.

I am certainly open to suggestions on this, but they do need to be grounded in, or at least plausible to, the source material.

4. List of appropriate general names for each army.

Yes, this is possible to do, just very time consuming. No promises, but I may get around to it.

5. Maybe a TT like reskinning, rather than new models, for each army.

This is something I could learn to do - but whether I have the free time to do so is a limitation.

6. ME banners for each army.

This again is doable but tedious. I may be able to get some assistance from more practiced hands in this.

7. Maybe someone could do a few new models.

Yup, models would be nice, but it is well beyond my abilities so I am not counting on it.

Thanks for the feedback

[SnuggleBunnies]

Which army or armies do you feel are the “coolest” lore wise?

And cosmetically/graphically which army or armies do you think work best using the base game’s GFX?

I think the elves are most unique in how they play, given their myriad stacked abilities and massive expense.

In terms of the placeholder models, the Mannish factions in general honestly look pretty good, while the various Orcs require the most err imagination.

[Karvon]

Points 1 and 2 are related to randomized campaign or SP play.

I'm not sure on how creating name lists works. The default list looks like it's actually from ancients rather than medieval.

Here's a DBM LOTR army list page created by Luke Ueda-Sarson, a top level WRG/DBM player I played with a few times here in Japan and via Cyberboard many years ago. He was pretty hardcore into researching stuff, but I'm no LOTR expert, so can't attest to the accuracy of these lists. He does document his lists and explain his rationales.

http://lukeuedasarson.com/MiddleEarthintro.html

I know SB isn't an artist, but maybe some other community members might take up the challenge and contribute.

Regards,

Karvon

[SnuggleBunnies]

Points 1 and 2 are related to randomized campaign or SP play.

Ah, that makes sense. Well I can amend that easily enough for just the campaign version.

Here's a DBM LOTR army list page created by Luke Ueda-Sarson, a top level WRG/DBM player I played with a few times here in Japan and via Cyberboard many years ago. He was pretty hardcore into researching stuff, but I'm no LOTR expert, so can't attest to the accuracy of these lists. He does document his lists and explain his rationales.

Thanks. A cursory glance at his notes shows that he knows his stuff, though I think the earlier age lists make me feel right in not trying to bend fog that far. I'll look these over, but the rational for giving Dain's Dwarves loose designation because of their two handed weapons can't be justified in fog, which makes such units heavy foot all the time. Will read up a bit on how DBM classifications work and give this a closer look.

[cnzmur]

Nice mod. Was just thinking recently it would be cool to have a LOTR one.

I feel like you could argue the dwarves have at least the capacity for a light archer unit from the Hobbit. Dwarves like Thorin, who's not only an archer but a good hunter (takes down the jumping deer), was outside when the dragon came because he was 'always' wandering around and adventuring, goes on some ranger-y, Aragorn-y journeys. It's basically a design decision though. That level of extrapolation would fit in with your evil Men factions who are pretty speculative, but looks like you might be sticking closer to the books for the factions you do have evidence for.

Seeing people ask for general names inspired me a bit, so I learnt how to do it and added a couple of lists (for Rohan, Dwarves and Gondor) for a bit of flavour. If anyone else wants them it's attached below (just put both files in the mod folder, my text6 replaces the original one, the data folder doesn't replace anything).

[SnuggleBunnies]

Nice mod. Was just thinking recently it would be cool to have a LOTR one.

I feel like you could argue the dwarves have at least the capacity for a light archer unit from the Hobbit. Dwarves like Thorin, who's not only an archer but a good hunter (takes down the jumping deer), was outside when the dragon came because he was 'always' wandering around and adventuring, goes on some ranger-y, Aragorn-y journeys. It's basically a design decision though. That level of extrapolation would fit in with your evil Men factions who are pretty speculative, but looks like you might be sticking closer to the books for the factions you do have evidence for.

Seeing people ask for general names inspired me a bit, so I learnt how to do it and added a couple of lists (for Rohan, Dwarves and Gondor) for a bit of flavour. If anyone else wants them it's attached below (just put both files in the mod folder, my text6 replaces the original one, the data folder doesn't replace anything).

Thanks. I already have general names and banners set for v1.1 (largely thanks to assistance from kronenblatt). I didn't give the dwarves light archers because I thought I might need to make them have a bit less AP than conventional skirmishers. More problematically, no narratives of Dwarves in battles mention them using missile weapons en masse, or indeed using missile weapons at all - the mixed bow and heavy weapon units are a bit of a concession as it is.

That said, one possibility would be to give the dwarves fewer mixed missile units and give them a small number of light archers with slightly reduced AP, something along the lines of Superior, Protected, Light Foot. Bow, Heavy Weapon. I'd reduce their cost a bit thanks to their lower AP, but I still don't think such a unit would really help them.

[Karvon]

I, for one, would happily trade away a few mixed weapon units for a handful of LF bow for scouting purposes, if nothing else.

Karvon

[SnuggleBunnies]

I, for one, would happily trade away a few mixed weapon units for a handful of LF bow for scouting purposes, if nothing else.

I will experiment with this in my internal build; they will be spendy, but perhaps if I give them just 50% HW and abv avg, combined with reduced cost for reduced AP they won't be hideously expensive. If that doesn't prove to be an obstacle, it will just be a matter of whether it 'feels' too wrong or not.

[Karvon]

While I'm in no sense a 3d modeler, I'm thinking it's quite feasible to export some models from existing fantasy mods for Total War into Blender then convert the files to the format used by FOG2 using the tools made available by Slitherene. There are at least two LOTR fan made mods for TW I've found which have a wide variety of factions and models in each. I've found a couple of guides for exporting TW models to Blender, which I just skimmed through. When I'm at home on a faster connection, I'll DL the TW mods and required tools and see how easy this is to actually do for a novice

Karvon

[SnuggleBunnies]

While I'm in no sense a 3d modeler, I'm thinking it's quite feasible to export some models from existing fantasy mods for Total War into Blender then convert the files to the format used by FOG2 using the tools made available by Slitherene. There are at least two LOTR fan made mods for TW I've found which have a wide variety of factions and models in each. I've found a couple of guides for exporting TW models to Blender, which I just skimmed through. When I'm at home on a faster connection, I'll DL the TW mods and required tools and see how easy this is to actually do for a novice :)

I have talked to two people so far, both experienced in 3D work and apparently it is rather more difficult than it seems... but by all means, take a look. Fourth Age team have given me permission to use their models if it can be figured out (I have plundered some of their name lists, and will credit them when I release the 1.1 update with banners and general names), and as they are the only book-centric mod that came to fruition, that is what I would use. The other TW mods all use movie based visuals. I know it *can* be done, as JamesManhattan did so for his 18th century mod, but I'm still not totally clear on how.

[Karvon]

Well, I'm not making any promises beyond taking a look and seeing how easy it is to follow the supposed step by step tutorials using existing models. I am definitely not going to be attempting to create anything new nor alter the existing models, aside from perhaps resizing them if necessary.

If it proves to be something I can do within a reasonable amount of time per model, I'll take a look at the various TW mods available and we can consider which ones you'd like to see used for the mod.

Karvon

[Paul59]

Well, I'm not making any promises beyond taking a look and seeing how easy it is to follow the supposed step by step tutorials using existing models. I am definitely not going to be attempting to create anything new nor alter the existing models, aside from perhaps resizing them if necessary.

If it proves to be something I can do within a reasonable amount of time per model, I'll take a look at the various TW mods available and we can consider which ones you'd like to see used for the mod.

Karvon

This is all rocket science to me, but I know it can be done. As Snuggles said, JamesManhattan did it for his mods.

I think a stumbling block might be the animations ie; how to translate the TW animations into the FOG2 .txt formats. I have a guide on the FOG2 animations that I can post if that helps. It's basically just a list of the animation number codes and what they mean. It's very old (2017), but I believe it is still relevant.

The other issue would be the mixed units. FOG2 can only use one model for each unit. So the model for a mixed unit has to be made so that it can be used for both the close combat figure and the missileman. The differences in equipment and weaponry are then depicted on the appropriate figures by the use of different animations and alpha layers in the texture file (that makes the inappropriate weaponry/equipment invisible). I don't know how TW handles this, if at all.

[kronenblatt]

Are there any good podcasts about Middle Earth and the Lord of The Rings lore?

[SnuggleBunnies]

Are there any good podcasts about Middle Earth and the Lord of The Rings lore?

There probably are, but I've mostly relied on books for this. 'Middle-earth Seen by the Barbarians' was especially useful when putting this together.