The board is set, the pieces are moving - we come to it at last: the Elves of the Woodland Realm in Edain 4.
They have been released!
These are my first thoughts.
Unfortunately, as I already expected/suspected, the Woodland Realm has been severely marginalized. One can even choose to completely exclude them from gameplay, which adds insult to injury in my opinion. I believe that the current edition of the Woodland faction has been left severely lacking, and here are the first few reasons why:
- Absolute and utter number one on my list is the exclusion of the Woodland Guard on a permanent basis: it is not possible to recruit Woodland Guards permanently, only to summon them - and when one does this they are on the battlefield all too shortly and can hardly be used to make an impact
- The Woodland Realm can only recruit Tauriel in Mirkwood, which I believe is just another diminishing and marginalizing blow to the faction: making them smaller than they ever deserve to be made up as
- The Woodland Realm barely has any abilities or aspects of stealth, which I think is severely undeserved and completely unjustified: if there is one thing the Woodland Realm should be characterized by it is stealth and not including it is yet another condescending blow-off to the faction
- The Woodland Realm is further reduced to being Lothlórien's servants by giving Thranduil his armour through Galadriel's Gifts, as if this is really something that Thranduil would only come by through her
- When the Woodland horn sounds as part of the "Border Guard" summonings and Thranduil's Mobilisation Orders it is noticeably and unaesthetically cut off for absolutely no reason - I have two video examples which showcase the full version: one even better than the other - whereas Lorien's horn is sounded out 'til completion. As far as I'm concerned another diminishing and disrespectful blow-off
And now for the few positives there are, most of which I'd already listed in earlier articles/blogs:
- The Woodland Realm's citadel/fortress looks stunning, it's a shame you can't see more of it though
- The Woodland Warriors and Palace Guards look great, and are reasonably strong from what I've seen
- The Woodland Elkriders which I was opposed to originally are to my mind not exactly the biggest problem to be tackled - far from it - and do add a certain aesthetic to the Woodland Realm, though I still think Thranduil's Elk should be the only one in the game... But there you go: for now it adds some consolation and therefore my current verdict would be to let them go: the more Elks the merrier
There's still a lot of work to be done, and soon enough I will start submitting my comments and complaints to Edain's forum because it seems that is the only way things get done around the Edain Mod / Edain Team.
To be continued.
