Kingdoms of Arda in 2019 news

Despite the relative silence over the past months, we are quite active.

Music

The musicians are making plenty of progress. Here is a few samples of their work:

The main theme of Kingdoms of Arda, made by Arktos.

Under the Banner of the White Tree, by Martin Renner.

The Men of the West, also made by Arktos.

Thanks to Martin and Arktos, Kingdoms of Arda will have a soundtrack worthy of Mordor! Without it the mod would not have the proper feeling of a LotR mod.

Fiefdoms

In Kingdoms of Arda we plan on expanding Bannerlord's Clan features to represent the fiefdoms in GRIM(Gondor, Rohan, Isengard, Mordor).

Here are the planned fiefdoms for the GRIM factions. Icons and map courtesy of SimonJW

Each fiefdom will have a leader, which all of the parties of the fiefdom will follow. The military leader of the faction might call on fiefdoms to follow them in a larger campaign. For example Boromir the Captain-General of Gondor can call upon fiefdoms like Lossarnach to bolster the main army's numbers. Fiefdoms will also get a unique troop to bolster their armies. Armies are made up of the faction's milita and elite troop trees, along with the relevant fiefdom troop. Erkenbrand as the Lord of Westfold, would use troops from the Peasant, Noble, and Westfold troop trees(seen below). Isengard's fiefdoms will be unique, as its legions are all out of Isengard instead of their own land.

Gondor

Anorien - The royal demesne of Gondor, led by Boromir its unique are the Tower Guard, made up of some of the best infantry in Gondor.

Ithilien - Overrun by orcs, Faramir and his captains lead elite rangers in guerrilla warfare against Mordor and its allies.

Lossarnach - The Lord of Lossarnach Forlong brings heavy shock infantry with axes to the battlefield.

Lebennin - Orodreth's fiefdom specializes in naval warfare with the Pelargir Marines. The Lebennin troops from the mainland bring a skirmishing aspect to Gondor's heavy infantry.

Belfalas - Home of the Swan Knights and Prince Imrahil. Featuring some of the heaviest and effective cavalry in Middle Earth.

Lamedon - Angbor of Calembel leads foot knights specialized in dueling with great swords.

Morthond - Duinhir and the soldiers of Mornan are adept with the bow, with archers and heavier infantry both effective at range.

Pinnath Gelin - Hirluin's fiefdom is one of the least wealthy, but their troops are hardy and quickly trained into effective soldiers.

Anfalas - This coastal fiefdom will have unique naval troops and ships because of constant threat of corsairs. Its lord, Golasgil, has no specialized land troops available.

Rohan

Folde - Ruling from the Golden Hall, Theoden brings the Royal Guard, Rohan's best cavalry.

Westfold - From the Hornburg Erkenbrand brings lancers and Helmingas, a troop specialized in foot combat, skilled in both archery and melee combat.

Eastfold - From the Eastfold Rohan draws their best horse archers, well armoured and equipped, they can devastate armies from afar.

West-March - Having a strict focus on infantry, the sturdy troops of the West-March will be the first wall to stop the tide of the Orcs of Isengard.

The Wold - The Riders of the Wold are light skirmishing cavalry. Their training, steeds, and light equipment makes them some of the fastest riders in Middle Earth.

Isengard

Storm Legion - The first legion has the standard Uruk-Hai soldiers and berserkers.

Orthanc Legion - The second legion has Orthanc Guard, elite Dunlendings, alongside their heavy Uruk-Hai.

Pavise Legion - The last legion(in dire need of a new name), has Uruk-Hai drilled in formations with their broad pavise shields, becoming impervious to straight on missile fire.

Scouts - Lurtz and the Uruk-Hai scouts have lighter equipped soldiers better suited to skirmishing.

Warg Riders - The orcs of the White Hand make up the entirety of Isengard's cavalry force, focused entirely on riding their wargs into battle, letting the Uruk-Hai make up a more formidable mainline.

Mordor

Gorgoroth - In Barad-Dur are the orcs fiercest, the Black Uruks. Sauron also commands more fearsome servants from the Dark Tower, the Black Numenoreans are Sauron's most effective troops,

Morgul Vale - The Witch King brings forth foul Morgul Orcs and his own retinue of Black Numenoreans.

Morgai - Orcs from the western mountains of Mordor. They are equipped with large armour piercing javelins, capable of unleash great damage into ranks if they are left unchecked.

Udun - Uruks of Udun are tasked with the defence of the Morannon, so are trained to be long ranged and accurate archers.

Nurn - Being the only somewhat fertile place of Mordor, wargs are available, providing some much needed cavalry to Mordor's legions.

Gaer Durlith - The smiths of Gaer Durlith equip Olog-Hai with heavier armour and shields, giving trolls a new dynamic with a defence against their biggest weakness: projectiles.

Unit Concepts

Thanks to our 2D artists we get to design our units before they are put to 3D, here is some of their recent work:

Assorted Dol Amroth designs from Roman. Swan Knights will be receiving updated graphics based on what is seen here. And other assets are to be made, such as Imrahil, foot knights and mid/low tier Amrothian troops.

A Black Numenorean design, also designed by Roman. The Black Numenoreans have been a work in progress design for a long time, but this concept will help finalize them.

Riders of the Wold, a concept done by BLBoca. Finally some more work done on everyone's favourite horselords! We will be seeing more from Rohan this year, as they are our least developed faction.

Concept for warriors of the Blackroot Vale by JoshuaF. This is the first work being done on the fiefdom, so it isn't entirely set in stone, but is definitely the theme we are aiming for.

A Lossarnach redesign by SimonJW. We felt the previous design ( Moddb.com ) while being a great design in itself, did not fulfill the aesthetics of a Gondorian unit. Now they belong in Gondor's battleline!

The Orthanc Guard by SimonJW. Equipped with modified Uruk-Hai equipment, these Dunlendings are the ones Saruman trusts to protect the Orthanc.

Troop Trees

You will have to view in a new tab:

Gondor

Rohan

Isengard

Mordor

These troops trees are still work in progress and likely still much different to what we will finally implement into Bannerlord, changes are still being made, so suggestions are welcome.

If you have any comments feel free to leave them down below, or come join the community in the discord: Discord.gg