Update: The Lord of the Rings news - Shadow and Flame mod for Battle for Middle-earth

Hello everyone,

For this Shadow and Flame update, we're going to touch upon what is probably the most drastic change in terms of Spellbook Powers that we've implemented.
As you might already know if you've been reading our faction plans in the Discussion forum (which, by the way, are sneakily updated quite often),
we've gotten rid of both the Evil faction Balrog summon, and the Good faction Army of the Dead. In their place, each faction in SaF gets a unique final power
that unlocks a powerful hero for that faction to be recruited from the Citadel.

These heroes won't be all-powerful army killers, instead providing powerful abilities and leadership to aid the player's army.

Well, except for one...

Once Mordor unlocks their final Spellbook Power, they'll be able to recruit the Lord of the Rings himself.

In Shadow and Flame, Sauron is a one-man-army type of hero. While he's the strongest character in the game, he is not easy to gain access to,
requiring a sizeable sum of power points, resources, and recruitment time. When playing versus Mordor, it might be in your best interest to ensure Sauron never enters the field.

He does not have access to a grand arsenal of abilities like Gondor's Gandalf the White or Rohan's Radagast the Brown.
With his Gorthaur passive ability he inspires fear in all but the bravest of troops, including his own.
Using his Conflagration power, Sauron can destroy most enemy heroes by making them burst into flames,
the same way he killed Gil-galad during the War of the Last Alliance.
Finally, his Annatar, Lord of Gifts power allows Sauron to temporarily sway the hearts of an enemy force.

Whether to send them forth to do his bidding or safely crush them beneath his heel, we leave to you.

Thanks for reading,

The Shadow and Flame Team