Woodland Realm Troop Suggestions Thread - TLD Overhaul mod for Mount & Blade: Warband

Hello all!

I would like to make some suggestions for alternate armour compositions and names of the Woodland Realm troops, with full consideration for the fact that you may not agree or may not be willing to make these changes. The purpose of these suggestions is to improve aesthetics and perhaps improve the loreful-ness of Thranduil's armies (without compromising the existence of different troop tiers).

Throughout this thread I will attempt to explain my personal opinions on the Woodland Realm faction in its current state, and what I believe to be positive changes to the faction's troops. This includes alternate armour compositions and troop name-changes.

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Revamped Troop Style

Now - I'm struggling to find a way to format this thread in a way that says "organised" and "flowing", so I'll start with this and see how it goes.

Personally, I dislike the rapid advance to armoured troops in the Woodland Realm's roster. Mirkwood is a closed kingdom heavily protected by hidden sentries and silent guardians, not soldiers patrolling and combating threats in force. With this in mind, I propose a revamp of the troop tree, hereby splitting the tree in half in both ranged and melee branches.

This may sound extreme or confusing, but I will explain as best I can. Much of Mirkwood's defence was down to it's elite Silvan rangers, and I hope to include this fact into their roster. Instead of Greenwood armour, Silvan soldiers used light, agile clothing to camouflage into the undergrowth and high in the trees. Here are some examples, seen from the films:

These "Silvan" soldiers will make up early-tier troops, as well as some later ones. Details on exactly how far this 'light' theme will run through the troop tree can be seen in the following section.

I have decided to maintain the use of the mid-tier armours currently used by a majority of Mirkwood's troops, however further in the thread I have suggested alternate compositions of these armours. These mid-tier soldiers will be used as a mainline force alongside the aforementioned "Silvan" troops, and should be held in high regard in Mirkwood's armies.

One thing I would suggest, however, is a name change to remove "Thranduil's" from the troop names, as hosting soldiers in your army that 'belong' to somebody else can feel a bit frustrating for us RP players out there. Changing "Thranduil's" to "Greenwood" would solve this problem, however this change can be seen later in the proposed troop tree anyways.

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Revamped Troop Tree

Of course, there are many more tiers of 'soldier' in Warband than in the films, so my suggested troop tree will account for that whilst staying as close as possible to the lighter logic. Although Silvan elves made up the entirety of Thranduil's population (with the exception of Thranduil and Legolas, who are of Sindarin origin), I have deliberately made a distinction between "Silvan" units and "Greenwood" units within the troop tree. This is simply to distinguish between the nature of each troop 'type' - "Silvan" soldiers are lightly equipped and agile whilst "Greenwood" soldiers are heavier mainline troops. Additionally, the shape of the troop tree has remained the same, with only the names and armours of the troops changing.

Below is my suggested redesign for the Woodland Realm's troop tree (names only):

*Full: Marchwarden

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Armour Compositions

See below for equipment lists of each troop, with the names of equipment taken directly from in-game. Troops listed from top to bottom (in relation to diagram above):

Ranged:

• Silvan Recruit: Light Clothes, Mirkwood Boots Green, Mirkwood White Knife, Woodelf Arrows 2, Silvan Bow.
• Silvan Scout: Light Leather Vest, Mirkwood Boots, Mirkwood White Knife, Woodelf Arrows 2, Silvan Bow.
• Greenwood Lookout: Mirkwood Hood, Heavy Leather Armour, Mirkwood Boots, Mirkwood White Knife, Woodelf Arrows 2, Mirkwood Bow.
• Greenwood Bowman: Infantry Light Helmet, Heavy Leather Armour, Mirkwood Boots, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Goldsword, Woodelf Arrows 2, Mirkwood Bow.
• Greenwood Archer: Infantry Light Helmet, Heavy Leather Armour, Mirkwood Boots, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Longsword, Woodelf Arrows 2, Mirkwood Bow. / Royal Archer Helm, Royal Armour, Leather Greaves, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Longsword, Woodelf Arrows 2, Mirkwood Bow.
• Greenwood Royal Archer: Royal Archer Helm, Royal Armour, Leather Greaves, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Longsword, Woodelf Arrows 2, Mirkwood Bow. / Captain Helmet, Captain Armour, Captain Greaves, Leather Gloves (Black), Mirkwood Longsword, Woodelf Arrows 2, Mirkwood Bow.
• Silvan Veteran Scout: Light Leather Vest, Mirkwood Boots, Mirkwood Goldsword, Mirkwood White Knife, Woodelf Arrows 2, Silvan Bow.
• Silvan Hunter: Mirkwood Hood, Hunter Armour, Mirkwood Boots Green, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Hunter Knife, Mirkwood Hunter Knife Shield, Woodelf Arrows 2, Silvan Bow.
• Silvan Sentinel: Warden Armour, Mirkwood Boots Green, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Axe, Woodelf Arrows 2, Silvan Bow.
• Silvan Veteran Sentinel: Warden Helmet, Marchwarden Armour, Mirkwood Boots Green, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Axe, Woodelf Arrows 2, Silvan Bow.

Melee:

• Silvan Sentry: Light Leather Vest, Mirkwood Boots, Silvan Longspear, Mirkwood White Knife.
• Silvan Watchman: Noble Leather, Mirkwood Boots, Mirkwood Goldsword, Mirkwood White Knife, Mirkwood Leather Shield.
• Greenwood Swordsman: Infantry Light Helmet, Heavy Leather Armour, Mirkwood Boots, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Goldsword, Mirkwood Leather Shield.
• Greenwood Elite Swordsman: Infantry Light Helmet, Heavy Woodelf Scale, Mirkwood Boots, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Longsword, Mirkwood Leather Shield. / Royal Helmet, Royal Armour, Leather Greaves, Leather Gloves (Brown) Mirkwood Longsword, Mirkwood Gold Shield.
• Greenwood Royal Swordsman: Royal Helmet, Royal Armour, Leather Greaves, Leather Gloves (Brown) Mirkwood Longsword, Mirkwood Gold Shield. / Captain Helmet, Captain Armour, Captain Greaves, Leather Gloves (Black), Mirkwood Longsword, Mirkwood Brown Shield.
• Silvan Warden: Warden Armour, Mirkwood Boots Green, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Axe, Mirkwood Round Shield.
• Silvan Marchwarden: Warden Helmet, Marchwarden Armour, Mirkwood Boots Green, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Axe, Mirkwood Round Shield.
• Silvan Spearman: Noble Leather, Mirkwood Boots, Mirkwood Spear, Mirkwood White Knife, Mirkwood Spear Shield.
• Greenwood Spearman: Infantry Light Helmet, Heavy Leather Armour, Mirkwood Boots, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Spear, Mirkwood Goldsword, Mirkwood Spear Shield.
• Greenwood Elite Spearman: Infantry Light Helmet, Heavy Woodelf Scale, Mirkwood Boots, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Spear, Mirkwood Longsword, Mirkwood Spear Shield. / Royal Helmet, Royal Armour, Leather Greaves, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Spear, Mirkwood Longsword, Mirkwood Gold Shield.
• Greenwood Royal Spearman: Royal Helmet, Royal Armour, Leather Greaves, Leather Gloves (Brown), Mirkwood Spear, Mirkwood Longsword, Mirkwood Gold Shield. / Captain Helmet, Captain Armour, Captain Greaves, Leather Gloves (Black), Mirkwood Spear, Mirkwood Longsword, Mirkwood Brown Shield.

Note: Greenwood Archer, Greenwood Royal Archer, Greenwood Elite Swordsman, Greenwood Royal Swordsman, Greenwood Elite Spearman, and Greenwood Royal Spearman have 2 variants each. This is because I thought it a good idea to bring the iconic armour from the films further forwards, and so more accessible to the player. If this is the case, I have accounted for this replacement with the Captain armour set. If it is decided that the armour seen in the films remains at the end of the troop tree, I have prepared alternate armours. Variant 1 of each troop is first in the list, with Variant 2 after. Format: "Variant 1 / Variant 2".

Note also: I have introduced two custom weapons used by Silvan troops that I believe should be added to Mirkwood's Armoury - the Silvan Bow and Mirkwood Longspear. A Silvan Bow is a recurve bow, as shown in images further up this thread. A Silvan Longspear is the same as a normal spear, except longer (duh). The length of this spear would equal that of the currently-existing Mirkwood Great Spear, which has a 'Weapon Reach' of 170 (whereas the regular spear has a 'Weapon Reach' of 120), and soldiers should not be able to use it with a shield.

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Final Word

Hopefully you've read the entirety of this thread! There are some loose ends I must tie before I leave, though.

Attribute Points, Skill Points and Weapon Points are up to you, the mod developers, to adjust. I am sure that, with these armour compositions provided and my suggested troop tree explained, distributing these points should be simple. Certain items may need their names changed and their stats modified. For example, if the "Royal" units are to use the "Captain" armour set, it is probably wise to rename it from "Captain" to something else. Another example - if the "Captain" set is used, it is also to use the Mirkwood Brown Shield, which actually has lower stats than the Mirkwood Gold Shield, meaning these stats would need to be increased to make the unit more elite.

I hope you take on board some (or all! (I can dream)) of these suggestions. It has taken me about 4 hours to write this thread with detailed information and suggestions, so I hope it was worth my while.

All the best,
Bewi

Edited by: Bewi

Thanks for taking the time to write all of this down! It is more than I have initially expected, so it might take some time until I have thought through this all before commenting properly. I also pinged Masoldo and LegendDragon about it since they are the two which have invested a lot of time into the Woodland Realm faction.

Edited by: Eärendil_Ardamírë

Hi! Thanks for taken the time to make your suggestion detailed.

Revamped style

I was thinking about this some months ago, so I re-made the rangers armour with a full new armour set, and weapons.

Just the same as the second picture.

About the names I also agree with you about that, I feel Thranduils name a bit weird.

Armour Composition

Since I added/redone a lot of new stuff (shield knife, green boots, quivers, palace guard spear, tauriel knives) some of your concepts could look different to what you were thinking.

I will post the new work in our Discord, but before I need to take some screenshots and ask permission to use some assets from RoM

I appreciate you both reading! It is interesting to know you have continued the development of Mirkwood assets and armours, even though the faction is being advertised as "final/finished"! Of course, the compositions I have spent time putting together (and thoroughly testing in game using the item spawner) to ensure they actually look good, were based on this knowledge.

If it is of any help, I would definitely be happy to help out with their designs, albeit only being able to help with putting the right armours together (as I can't model) - even if you would just like an outside opinion. I love the faction, so the offer is there.

"Revamped Style" is essentially a suggestion to rethink the entirety of how the roster works; less armour (even at higher tiers) with more ranger-type units in the mix (again, even at high tiers - as shown in my proposed troop tree above). Plus, using this design choice would greatly increase the faction's uniqueness, as their playstyle will be very different than the heavily armoured Rivendell or Lothlorien.

Again, if you would like any help from an outsider, I am certainly happy to provide feedback or even different perspectives on gameplay choices or value. With this being my favourite faction and a heavily RP player (i.e. I enjoy playing factions as I would expect them to actually perform in Middle Earth), it was with passion that I opened this thread. Since 'retiring' (I guess?) from RoM, I have a lot more free time to offer help elsewhere, even if it is minimal.

Edited by: Bewi