The Road to Edain 4.6: Gundabad news

Today we want to present you the third and last of the great orc realms that make up the Misty Mountains faction: Gundabad. As was the case with Goblin-Town, we had to make some changes to the original design, since our earlier plans caused technical problems - for example, the old system was prone to disappearing build plots if the terrain was not completely flat. To fix that and incorporate parts of the design we saw in the Hobbit trilogy, the Gundabad camp is now a massive, connected outpost that grows in strength with each building.

As the third major orc realm, Gundabad also offers its own unique advantages that neither Moria nor Goblin-Town provide. Unlike the other two bases, Gundabad will provide access to strong warriors that can compete directly with the soldiers of other races, as well as military upgrades. If you can't overwhelm your opponent with monsters and a flood of orcs, Gundabad will give you the power you need to win!

In order to gain access to Gundabad's units, you'll have to construct a citadel with your builder, giving you space for three buildings. These buildings are constructed adjacent and connected to the citadel, so that the overall complex gets bigger and bigger and is defended by more soldiers patrolling around the buildings. This means the placement of your citadel is an important decision, because a Gundabad outpost is one of the few points where the Misty Mountains can establish a strong defensive position; on the other hand, losing such a position is immensely painful, since the lack of Gundabad's strong troops makes it difficult to recapture it. At the citadel, you can construct the following three buildings:

In the Goblin Cave you can recruit Gundabad Pikemen. Once the Cave reaches level two, Gundabad Warriors become available, and at level three you gain acces to the dangerous Gundabad Wargriders. While the infantry can stand up to most foot soldiers of other races, the Wargriders excel against enemy archers and at surprise attacks on enemy camps: they can temporarily double their armor against any arrow damage and at the same time trample enemies for twice as long.

In the Treasure Cove you can research the military technologies that allow your warriors to reach their full strength. As usual, you can research Heavy Armor, Forged Blades and Fire Arrows. Additional Treasure Coves reduce the cost of equipping upgrades on your units.

The third and last building you can erect is a Watchtower, which is resistant to melee fighters and allows you to build a strong defensive position. If necessary, the Misty Mountains can use this to defend bottlenecks, which would otherwise only be an extremely tricky endeavor with the weak orcs of the other orc realms. You can reinforce the watchtower garrison to place two additional archers on the top platform.

The warriors of Gundabad are led by a cruel, pale orc called The Defiler. It is important to note that this is not Azog, who plays a major role in the Hobbit trilogy, but was actually long dead at that time. Lord of Mordor explained our thought process on the matter many years ago:

'An Unexpected Journey presented a challenge to us by introducing Azog as an antagonist. We always strive to bridge the book and movie versions of story and unite the best of both worlds. Azog was an obvious pick for a new Misty Mountain hero, especially since that faction could really use more heroes with movie flair and charisma. And we knew that many players were looking forward to playing him in Edain. Others, however, raised valid concerns: Azog was a clear violation of the lore and had actually been long dead at the time of the Hobbit.

We found a simple compromise solution when we realized that our other two Orc heroes, the Great Goblin and the Moria Chieftain, both had no names and went only by their titles. We decided to use the design and abilities of the Gundabad Orc leader from the movies, but only use his title, 'The Defiler'. As a nameless leader of the Gundabad Warg Riders, he was a valid hero without contradicting the lore outright.'

Lord of Mordor

The Defiler fills the important role of a herokiller for the Misty Mountains, having a strong synergy with Gundabad's wargriders who can also hunt down and take down enemy heroes. He has the following abilities:

• Mount (Level 1)
• (Mounted): Warg Leap (Level 1): The Defiler's white warg leaps towards an enemy, knocking down enemy units and heroes at the target location.
• (On Foot): Massive Strike (Level 1): The Defiler strikes with his mace, knocking the target to the ground.
• Whip the Flesh down to the Bones (Level 3): The Defiler executes a horde of Wargriders or a Wargpack to drive the remaining warriors into a frenzy. Riders near the killed squad gain +100% attack power and +30% speed for a short time.
• Warg Ambush (Level 8): The Defiler unleashes a horde of his hunters and feral wargs in the target area, which pounce on all nearby enemies. Enemy units and heroes are slowed by 20% for the duration of the ambush.
• (Mounted): Bring me his head! (Level 10): The Defiler sends some of his minions to bring him the head of an enemy hero. The hero is briefly paralyzed and attacked by powerful orcs from Gundabad..
• (On Foot): Gruesome Example (Level 10): The Defiler attacks an enemy hero and inflicts a serious injury. Enemy units in the vicinity freeze in fear for their leader.

We hope you liked this update and are as always looking forward to your feedback!

Your Edain Team