The Big Update: Age of the Ring news - Battle for Middle-earth

After months of consideration, we have finally decided to change our mod's name: The Horse Lords is now Age of the Ring. We feel our ambitions for this project have outgrown the old name.

Age of the Ring is a name that encapsulates what we want to do: present, as a RotWK mod, Middle-earth during the last days of the Third Age, also known as the Age of the Ring, in as many ways as we can manage:

• Factions and gameplay inspired by The Hobbit films, such as Erebor, Gundabad, and Mirkwood, and campaign missions based on Thorin's Quest.
• Factions and gameplay inspired by The Lord of the Rings films, such as Gondor, Rohan, Mordor, and Isengard.
• Lots of things inspired by things that only appeared in Tolkien's books - a range of Gondorian Fiefdom units and heroes, book-inspired Lothlórien, Rivendell, and Haradwaith factions, and dozens of nerdy nods and tidbits.

Build Anywhere! Gameplay and Balance in Age of the Ring

Age of the Ring aims to mesh Middle-earth immersion with existing RotWK gameplay conventions.

The mod is based on the excellent RotWK 2.02 community patch, meaning that we've started off on an expertly balanced and smooth version of RotWK.

We're not out to completely overhaul the game's basic systems: we like most of those, including the ability to build anywhere.

However, we are bringing back some systems from BFME1, such as combo hordes.

The mod founder, RiderOfRohan, is an avid competitive player, which translates to a real effort to keep AotR fair and balanced.

Our Release Schedule

Like most mods, we don't work with release dates. However, we have set a certain order for factions to be released. Below is our release schedule, as far as it's currenty decided:

1. Demo release. Alpha Gondor, alpa Isengard, Mordor.
2. Second release: "Over the Misty Mountains Cold". Misty Mountains faction, finished Gondor, Isengard, and Mordor factions.
3. Third release: "In the Land of Lórien". Lothlórien faction.
4. Fourth release: "The Line of Dúrin". Erebor faction, first campaign mission.

Meet the Team!

RiderOfRohan: 19 year old donut, leader of Age of the Ring and a big fan of Peter Jackson's six Middle-earth films.

Dúnedain76: Even after losing half of his assets he made for The Horse Lords after a hard drive failure, Dúnedain is still sticking around for some reason. 21 year old poor college student fuckboi.

Mathijs: Staving off the clutches of existential horror one LotR-related 3d model at a time, Mathijs also part-times as a librarian, YMCA-inspired rodeo clown, and The3rdAge.net Leader.

Vengefulnoob: Just a guy who figured out .ini coding through trial and error, mostly error. Now helping out his Revorian heroes and happy to be a part of the THL team!

Fredius: "I'm 21 years old, male, and have been a part of the Battle for Middle-Earth modding community since 2009. I can be found on Revora Forums (under the name of Bashkuga), ModdB and Modding Union. My role in the Age of the Ring mod is that of mapper (mainly scripter for missions) and beta-tester."

Glorfindel23: "17 years old, male, I can be found on Revora Forums, Modding Union, and ModDB under the name Glorfindel23. My role in Age of the Ring is principally to release some additional maps fortress, but I'm a little connoisseur in modding and coding."

Want to help out?

We are always looking for new talent to help us develop this ambitious project. If you think you've got something we need, contact RiderOfRohan or MathijsRevora.

Don't forget: if you like our work, give us a vote in the MOTY awards!