War Of The Silmarils mod for Battle for Middle-earth II

This is a mod for BFME2, based on J.R.R Tolkien's epic tale The Silmarillion. It will replace all the current factions with factions from the First Age, as well as changing the gameplay in many ways, including new AI for each faction. The factions we will be adding are:

Teleri - A faction based almost entirely on ambushing. They will be one of the easiest factions to play as on either heavily forested maps or maps with a lot of water, due to their superior navy and ambushing tactics. They may struggle in open battle, but late game they will be able to hold their own, due to their elite infantry and strong heroes. They are very weak to siege, as their lack of cavalry means they can't ride out and quickly destroy any siege weapons.

Noldor - The Noldor will be the best all-round faction, who will probably be one of the easiest factions to play as. Their only weaknesses are high build costs and build times. Their siege is also not as strong as other factions. Apart from that though they are a great faction. In prolonged battles the Noldor will often be triumphant, due to their superior weapons and armour. They also have some of the strongest heroes in the game, including Feanor and Fingolfin.

Edain - The Edain will be a strong defensive faction, although weak on the attack. Their defences may not be as strong as those of the Noldor or Dwarves, but they will be much cheaper. The Edain will generally have a nice selection of troops, although not as useful in battle as some of the other factions units. They will have several powerful heroes, such as Turin and Hurin, who will be capable of taking down large sections of an enemies army. Their main weakness will be thier lack of decent siege.

Dwarves - The dwarves will be an almost entirely infantry based faction. All their units will act as tanks in battle, able to absorb much punishment before finally being killed. They lack the speed and versatility possessed by other armies though, so they will try and engage in melee battle as quickly as possible. Their siege will be some of the strongest in the game. Their weaknesses will be their slow units, lack of decent archers and lack of cavalry.

Angband - Angband will be an unusual faction to play as. Early game they will have to rely on their very weak (but cheap) orcs to drive back the enemy through sheer numbers. Late game however they will be near unstoppable, if they can get a good economy going. This is because of all the powerful heroes and monsters available to them late game, although orcs should still be used to soak up damage. They will have no navy, and thus on sea-based maps will have to rely on their superior flying units to destroy enemy ships.

Easterlings - The Easterlings will be very much alike to the Edain, except their units will generally be cheaper and weaker. Their heroes will be very cheap, giving them a chance to gain lots of experience before the more expensive enemy heroes come out. They will have a good variety of units, although like most factions (all except the Teleri), will be primarily infantry based.

So those are the factions we are planning to add. We are also reworking many of the games features:

• Gollum will be replaced with Ungoliant, and she will carry a Silmaril instead of the ring. Each faction will either gain a new hero, or one of their existing heroes will receieve a buff
• The campaign will hopefully be completely redone, and we will add both good and evil campaigns, based on the Wars Of Beleriand
• The CAH (Create-A-Hero) feature may also see certain improvements, to suit this mod better
• War of the Ring may be altered in a future version, likely featuring a brand new map and allowing the new factions to be used
• And many more that you'll have to wait until release to find out about