SpellBooks and Changes in Minas Tirith news - An Edain SubMod for Battle for Middle-earth II: Rise of the Witch King

For Mordor:

As you can see, Mordor's spells are mainly aggressive (there's no offensive/defenseive split). The strength of Gondor comes with time which gives it possibility to buy upgrades and heavy units, whereas the goal of Mordor's spellbook is to stop this progression, forcing the Gondor player to buy cheap units in large numbers to fight the spawn of orcs.

Rhun reinforcements: Calls 3 hordes of Rhun Spearmen, 1 horde of Rhun warriors, and 2 horde of Rhun spearmen. (The reload time of this power is a little shortened).
- Advice: Keeping the spearmen of Rhun alive will help you again the cavalry reinforcements of Gondor.

Trolls assault: Calls 10 Olog-hai with differents upgrades (4 with Hammer, 4 with sword, 2 with mace)
- Advice: wait for the Grond power to use this, that way you can rapidly take control of the first level of Minas Tirith.
- Grond is the only efficient way to break the main gate of Gondor. Useing the power of the trolls against that gate would be a terrible mistake.

Harad reinforcements: Calls 12 upgraded mumakils (improved with war painting and harad archers on their top)
- Advice: keep this power as an answer to the Rohan reinforcements of Gondor.

For Gondor:

The Gondor spellbook gives the choice between two strategies. One defensive which will allow the Gondor player to gain access to strong units which will have the power to deafeat a large number of enemy troops but the player wich choose this strategy will have problems fighting the different reinforcements called by Mordor.
The agressive tactic will allow Gondor to slow down the enemy expansion and to answer to the reinforcements called by Mordor but this time the Gondor player will not be able to improve his defences and the Mordor player will win field part by part.

I think the best solution is to invest in both lines at the same time.

To arms!: This power allows the player to instantly upgrade the bataillons in the target area with heavy armor, forged blade and fire arrows.

Minas Tirith units: This power unlocks the Royal barracks which can be build on one of the construction plots of the city (only one barracks is authorized at the same time).

Defender of the White City: When the player buys this power, Gandalf unlocks some new abilities, strong against the numerous light units like the orcs.
Gandalf also gains +500 points of health, improved melee/distance attack and can now hit multiple enemies at once.
(Gandalf is already white at the start of the game, therefore it is an improvement for Gandalf the white).

Dol Amroth reinforcements: Calls 3 hordes of Dol Amroth cavalry and the prince Imrahil.
- Advice: These units can easily break lines of Mordor and destroy the siege weapons.

Rohan reinforcements: Calls 12 hordes of Rohirrim, 2 hordes of mounted Royal Guards , Erkenbrand, Elfhelm, Grimbold, Eowyn, Merry, Eomer, Theoden and Gamling permanantly on the battlefield.
If one of the heroes dies you must wait that the spell is reloaded to revive them.

Army of the dead: Calls 12 hordes of dead warriors and the King of the Dead with an expanded time span. The spell also brings Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli permanantly on the battlefield.
If Gimli, Legolas or Aragorn die you must wait for the spell to be available again.
- Advice: Wait that Mordor calls the mumakils to use it.
- It really is better to buy it befor you buy the spell "Return of the King"

Return of the King: Allows Aragorn to become King Elessar.
When Aragorn is crowned, the kingdoms of men are reunited under one banner and you can buy new units at the inn.
- Advice: It really is better to buy it after buy the spell "Army of the Dead"

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Like I said before, Gandalf will receive a rework in the map Minas Tirith, I present so the news for him. I tried to organize its buttons in the most practical way possible, the idea is that the player must have access to some vital powers rapidly.

I introduce so the work of our team on the new Gandalf commandset for Minas Tirith:

The basic palantir of Gandalf will present all the palantirs toggle option, to allow the player to switch between the different palantirs.

Toggle Stance: These two buttons will allow Gandalf to switch between melee and distance attack (exactly like the Faramir toggle weappon Sword/Bow).

Melee Weapon: When Gandalf is in his melee stance, he can fight in close combat with the same damage that in the vanilla version. When the player buy "Defender of the White City" in the SpellBook Gandalf win a small damage area which allow him to defeat two enemies in the same time.

Distance Weapon: When Gandalf is in his distance stance, he can shoot magic balls on the enemy units.
This stance is like a toggle weapon, Gandalf shoot projectiles infinitely as long as it is in this stance.

Toggle Palantir: These buttons will allow the player to show the other palantirs of Gandalf.

Narya Ring: will be present if the Edain team decide to reintroduce it in game.

Mount/Dismount: Allows Gandalf to mount his horse. This power will be on the Basic Palantir because the player must access rapidly to this button.

The palantir of capacities of Gandalf is here to inform the player on all the bonus that will own gandalf.

This button will allow the player to return to the basic palantir when he click on it.

Gandalf is able to create a magic shield to protect itself against the strong attacks.

Mithrandir: Gandalf provide a leadership for all the nearby units (+20% Damage, 20% Armor and 50% Exps).

The White Rider: Gandalf provide a leadership for all the nearby units which give them a resistance to the fear and all the nearby buildings research upgrade and train units 25% faster.

The palantir of the spell contain all the vanilla spell of Gandalf the White.

This button will allow the player to return to the basic palantir when he click on it.

The palantir of the Istari contain all the new power than Gandalf will unlock when the player buying "Defender of the White City" from the SpellBook.

This button will allow the player to return to the basic palantir when he click on it.

Hidden Power: This spell will paralyzes nearby enemies and convert the nearby troll in stone (like we can look in the Hobbit movie). The main goal of this power in the Minas Tirith map will be to delay the units which attack numerously.

Troll Slayer: For 20 seconds, Gandalf win 100% damage against trolls and 50% armor against the other enemies. This is a good opportunity for the player to defeat the "Trolls assault" spell of Mordor.

Power of the Istaris: A lighting storm fall on a big area causing great damage to a big number weak enemy like the orcs. This spell is a good spell to fight against the Mordor Spam.

I think you noticed the fact that we loved an old submod made for Edain 3.8.1 and we wanted to bring some forgotten abilities here (link of the Heroes submod for those who are interested : Youtube.com )

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Hi there! After a long time of research for the gameplay of Tower Guards, I finally finish my plans which I will explain to you in this article.
The Gondor Tower Guards are Gondor's elite infantry. They are the permanent garrison of Minas Tirith and defend it against all attacks.

The old concept :

When I started to work on the Submod, I wanted to give more prominence to this very iconic Gondor unit by having them appear more specifically in-game. So I chose to do a base system of three hordes, each with a specific objective:

1) The Swordsmen effective against heroes and heavy units
2) The Pikemen effective against cavalry units and monster
3) The Spearmen with Shield effective (resistant) against distance units

All these hordes was limited to 2 at time on the battlefield.

But I was not satisfied because these elite units were too many and Gondor already had plenty of them. I always wanted to find a specific objective for each unit because if we had too many units, some of them might not be used. Also, I didn't want to see an army of tower guards, it seemed odd to see more elite soldiers than regular units.

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Concept reworked :

So I refocused on the basic characteristics of Tower Guards, to help me create a more appropriate concept :

- Pikemen: As we can see on the movies, they handle a long spear.
- Iconic warrior: As a whole, they were considered to be the best soldiers in the realm of Gondor. Known for their bravery, fighting skills, and unshakable loyalty, they swear an oath against their own lives to serve their lord.
- Guard of the White Tree: "When the first leaf opened in the spring, Isildur was healed of his wounds."
- High military rank: At Gondor, these soldier better than anyone, know the art of war. They are disciplined and experienced.

And, after some research based on these points, I can finally introduce the final Tower Guard system:

In An Edain Submod, the tower guard will be heroic unit limited to two horde at time on the battlefield. Unlike the usual heroic unit which are often a small horde of 5 units the tower guards will be a horde of 15 pikemen and a total of 22units when the horde is fully upgraded (I decided to remove the shield carriers and the swordsmen hordes and implement them by another way).

This units will own some upgrades and can be reach the level 10:

"BASIC PALANTIR"

Stance: Pikes wall/Phalanx /Attack

Pikes wall stance = In this stance, the Tower Guards goes into a strong defensive formation, they win +75% armor but can't move.

(The pictures show the pikes wall formation without and with the upgrade "shield carrier").

Phalanx stance = In this stance, the Tower Guards goes into a light defensive formation, they win +20% armor -30% speed.

(The pictures show the phalandx formation without and with the upgrade "shield carrier").

Attack stance = In this stance, the Tower Guards aren't in formation but are able to run. They own basic states.

- Level 1 = Guard of the White Tower (passive): The Tower Guard are responsible for keeping the last level of Minas Tirith, they are positioned in front of each of its buildings. The nearby buildings win +30% armor.

- NoLevel = Palantir of the upgrades: This button allows the player to switch between the "basic palantir" and the "Palantir of the upgrades".

- Level 5 = High ranked fighters: The Tower Guard presence inspire the nearby units, when this ability is activated, all the nearby units gain +75% armor but lose -25% speed for 30 secondes.

- Level 9 = White Tree protection (passive): The nearby troops are slowly healed.

- NoLevel = Banner Carrier (cost 400): Add a Banner Carrier at the back of the horde which provide a leadership to the nearby troops making them fearless and allow the Tower Guards horde to regenerate fallen units.

"PALANTIR OF THE UPGRADES"

- NoLevel = TogglePalantir: Return to "Basic Palantir".

- NoLevel = Forged Blades: Increases the damage.

- NoLevel = Heavy Armor: Increases the armor, hit points and damage resistance of the unit.

- NoLevel = Shield carrier (cost 800): Add a rank of five Tower Guards armed with large shields and spears on the front of the horde. These units add a strong resistance against projectiles.

- NoLevel = Captain (cost 600): Add a Captain at the back of the horde. The captain of the Tower Guards is a swordmaster, his presence strengthen the Tower Guards units which win +15% damages against heroes.

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More to come