The Road to Edain 4.0: Mordor, Part 2 news

One of the most frequently asked questions after our first Mordor-Update was the whereabouts of the people of Rhun and Harad within the faction. Until now they were located at the inn. The latter is removed as of version 4.0. We decided not to grant the evil men their own buildings within the faction but rather have them march in as external reinforcements. This was best implemented via the spellbook. At the same time we didn’t want to design a classical summon with a few temporary troops spawning every few minutes. Therefore the new spells “Reinforcements of Rhun” and “Reinforcements of Harad” function a bit different than normal summons. Both spells don’t spawn their troops directly at the designated position but rather have the evil men march in from outside the map. These troops stay on the field permanently. Rhun dispatches heavy infantry and Harad brings cavalry and a Mumak mounted by archers to the field. These spells aren’t suited to suddenly turn the tide in an ongoing engagement. Rather they provide the player with a continuous stream of free reinforcements. In our opinion this mechanic fits Mordor as it’s already defined as a faction with an ever-growing army of free orcs.
A second addition to the spellbook is the spider Shelob. Up to now she was assigned to the Misty Mountains without having a canonical connection. Geographically her lair belongs to Mordor. But this faction already fields the most heroes and doesn’t need an additional character as recruitment option. In contrast to Shelob the Balrog fits the Misty Mountain faction much better since it awakens within Moria. Sure, it used to be a servant of Morgoth, but it wasn’t affiliated with Sauron during the war of the ring. We aspire to give every faction two distinct ultimate spells, but decided to make an exception for the Balrog since we didn’t deem the Misty Mountains cool enough to be the only ones to summon him. Of course this attitude prevented them from becoming a cool faction in their own right and for version 4.0 we put quite an amount of effort into elevating the Misty Mountains to the same level as the other factions. They now have exclusive access to the Balrog. Mordor gets Gorthaur as a worthy replacement, who doesn’t have to hide behind any other ultimate spell in terms of power and impression – it’s the dark lord in his prime. The position as ultimate spell emphasizes the power of ages past which should be rare and difficult to gain. As a whole the spellbook for Mordor now looks like this:

You may notice a change in costs which have been adjusted to the values of BFME 1 which start with 1 point as the smallest unit instead of 5. More powerful spells now cost significantly more in relation. When before the cost of an ultimate spell was 5 times that of a healing spell now the costs have been ramped up to be the 10- or 20-fold of a starting spell. This emphasizes their high value and makes decisions more severe. Will you save for the big one or invest into additional small ones.

Enough with the spellbook, let’s get to the core of the faction. We were inherently satisfied with the idea that Sauron as dark lord would take on a central role within Mordor and empower the faction according to his growing strengh. However our first implementation of this idea was flawed – since he only gained experience through other heroes vanquishing Mordor’s enemies the player was forced to always adapt a strategy focusing on heroes. It can’t be the goal of a fundamental mechanic to impose such limitations when every faction should offer a variety of viable strategies. Therefore Sauron no longer gains experience through his heroes but levels up by the player increasing Mordor’s power. This is accomplished by fulfilling several objectives during play:

• Conquer 5 settlements
• Conquer 1 outpost
• Destroy 10 enemy buildings
• Bring 10 overseers to the field
• Field 5 trolls
• Command an orc horde which has reached the highest level
• Command a horde out of Cirith Ungol
• Recruit a horde of Castellans or Morgul Knights
• Command an army of 20 orc hordes
• Advance your siege works to level 3
• Recruit a Ringwraith
• Recruit the Mouth of Sauron
• Send out all nine Ringwraiths
• Eliminate an opposing player
• Unlock “Might of Ages Past” or “Hammer of the Underworld”

You see that there are more objectives than are necessary to get Sauron to level 10 since each completed objective grants 1 level. It’s up to you whether you level up by commanding subfactions, recruiting heroes or a giant orc army. At the same time you’re not forced to fulfil an objective which doesn’t provide an advantage – all tasks are designed to reward organically building up your faction. Plus we have taken care that Sauron levels step by step rather than bypassing several levels at once. While recruiting a Ringwraith may be achieved early on some objectives can only be completed in the late game.
As per usual the level of the Ringwraiths matches that of Sauron. While we saw this as a fitting connection to their master you’re no longer forced to recruit all of them to level Sauron – the dark lord will grant powers even if you only command a handful of heroes.
Likewise we wanted Sauron to increase the strength of the entire facton. Until now this was implemented via unlocking the subfactions, but these are now tied to outposts and don’t need to be unlocked as well. We chose another mechanic instead. At level 3 the dark lord gains the ability “Sauron’s Influence” which may be used on any building to imbue it with his powers and unlock a bonus for your faction. Each building has its own effect:

• Barracks: All orcs and uruks now bear the banner of the Red Eye. Banner bearers no longer have to be purchased, which has never been really viable when comparing the benefits with the Dwarves or Rivendell.
• Trollcage: Trolls can now bear heavy armor and weapons. In contrast to the banners these upgrades would be too powerful if granted free, so they still need to be purchased. Still, this unlocks one of you most powerful units.
• Tribute Camp: Doubles the reinforcements out of Rhun and Harad. Whoever prefers commanding evil men is enabled to field an even bigger army of them.
• Arsenal: Enables the unveiling of RIngwraiths. This is one of the most powerful effects, although the heroes as well as their unveiling still cost a considerable amount while other effects are free.
• Siegeworks: Enables construction of Troll Catapults
• Battletowers: All Towers now fire Flaming Arrows.
• Slave Camp: Orc hordes with overseers deal 20% more damage
• Slaughterhouse: All living trolls reach level 2, all newly recruited trolls spawn on level 2. This is a significant advantage as they can recover health from level 2 on
• Fortress of Minas Morgul: Ghosts of the Shadow Realm may now be converted into Morgul Wraiths. This ability is no longer tied to Sauron since a a free slot was needed for Saurons Influence. We found it to be a fitting bonus for the fortress. Of course it also would have been a good location for unveiling the Nazgul, but we didn’t want to force the players to conquer an outpost and build the fortress to get access to their best heroes.
• Fortress of Dol Guldur: Spiders can now be recruited for free.
• Ungol Barracks: Enables recruitment of Uruk-Hai Archers. Like the Uruk-Infantry and Orc-Halberdiers they are constricted to 3 hordes but cost no command points

Saurons Influence has a moderate cooldown so you have to consider your options with every use. Similar to the objectives these upgrades are meant to let the player choose different strategies and display Mordors increasing strength. Sauron himself is an important hero so we outfitted him with a safety measure: If he gets killed in any way he doesn’t have to be revived. Instead he lingers as a shadow on the battlefield, unable to attack or use abilities, but after some time he automatically returns to his former self. This reflects Sauron’s Immortality out of the book and movie as well as ensuring that Mordor can’t permanently lose both its most important hero and its upgrade-mechanic. At the same time Sauron can be taken out of the game for some time without Mordor being able to immediately revive him no matter its current wealth.
Lastly Sauron’s design has been revised. After the Hobbit movie provided us with an official design for the Necromancer naturally we used this opportunity. As Necromancer Sauron glides across the battlefield as a veiled shadow, attacking enemies with waves of dark magic. At level 10 he can wrap himself in a blazing inferno to show his power and burn all enemies within range. Since Gorthaur is only accessible during the late game and under considerable effort a lot more time will be spent with the Necromancer – it only seemed fitting to give him a distinct, powerful level-10-abilty. You can get a glimpse of the new Sauron and his Realm here:

We hope you enjoyed our journey into the Black Land and we’re looking forward to your feedback!
Your Edain-Team