Hello, people of ModDB!
Today I am going to tell you about the mod I am making to the game "Battle for Middle-earth 2", the mod's known as "The Eastern Kingdoms". Basically, this mod will be making a whole bunch of remodels, retextures and add-ons to all six of the pre-existing factions while also adding a 7th playable faction. Here is the full faction list!
- Gondor
- Rivendell
- Erebor
- Isengard
- Mordor
- Moria
- Rhûndor
The name for the Easterling faction is based on Elvish "rhûn" for "east" followed by "dor" for "land", similar to Gondor meaning "Stone Land" and Mordor meaning "Dark Land", therefore Rhûndor means "East Land". The unit appearances you are about to see are early concepts and do not purely mirror what the finished product will look like. And this is the first of my posts about The Eastern Kingdoms mod for Bfme2.
Rhûndor
Mordor and the Wilderland share a neighbor to the east with each other, made up mainly of steppes and forests, with a large inland sea and several small lakes east of that. This is the land of Rhûndor, the 'Eastland', which split down its middle by the Orocarni, or 'Red Mountains'. This very large land is populated by humans and horses, and by other such creatures as mewlips and turtle-fish and were-wyrms among others. The humans, in particular, are known as the Easterlings, the Men of Rhûn, deeply militarized human beings who happen to be the finest troops that Dark Lord Sauron calls upon. These men compose their armies largely of swordsmen, phalanxes, and horse riding archers known simply as "Kataphrakts". However, there are archers on foot among the Easterlings. When they are not charging in on monster war-chariots, they are hauling in elegant bladed staffs called halberds, which can be used as a spear, ax, or sickle all in one blade! Similar to the Armies of Mordor, the Armies of Rhûn have their own brutal monsters and heavy artillery to bring to the fields. The Mewlips, who live in swamps near the Orocarni, bring long-shafted hammers with which to crush tons of the opposition faced by the Easterlings. Hailing from deserts to the east of Orocarni are the Were-wyrms, flightless, wingless, four-legged drakes who deal with the Men of Rhûn's enemies by swallowing said enemies whole! Turtle fish are snapper turtles nearly as big as Oliphaunts who tear open the Easterlings' enemies by bulldozing and devouring any cavalry who try to trample Easterling archers. And the Easterlings have their own Trebuchets, too, operated by Mewlips who have been trained in the art of castle siege. Even the Siege Towers of the Easterlings are pushed around by Mewlips.
As Dark Lord Sauron calls upon the Easterling armies of Rhûndor to crush the Elven and Dwarven strongholds in the North Theater of the War of the Ring, Easterling soldiery and the monsters they have managed to tame around the Red Mountains will be introduced to a great many adversaries. Rivendell, Lorien, Greenwood, Lindon, the Iron Hills, Ered Luin... even Erebor itself will be assailed by a combined force of Humans, Horses, Mewlips, Turtle-fish, and Were-Wyrms! So exotic are the armies of Rhûn, and indeed, none of these forces have exactly prepared for this kind of assailant... if Sauron dies of the One Ring being unmade, then that's the only way the Easterling Empire loses these fights!
Units
Easterling Swordsmen. Horde size = 3 rows of 5. Recruit Cost = 300. Command Points = 60. Troop Type = Basic Fencing. Found all over the Easterling legion, Swordsmen are the backbone of most Rhûndor armies. Their scimitars are known to curve far enough back and weigh enough at the tip to be able to sever skin, muscle, fat, and bone in one swing with no bend. Easily the deadliest swordsmen among Middle-earth's human race, Easterling swordsmen are able to charge into enemy troops when lead around by a banner carrier.
(uses Gondor fencer skeleton and animations)
Easterling Phalanxes. Horde size = 3 rows of 5. Recruit cost = 400. Command Points = 60. Troop Type = Basic Pikemen. While the Fellowship of the Ring was being broken, Sauron was calling forth some very lethal pike and shield champions. These were the Easterling phalanxes, humans who carry massively long-shafted halberds while keeping large rectangular shields strapped to their forearms. Phalanxes in porcupine formation, like Dwarven Phalanxes, are also able to run around in porcupine formation, these two kinds of pikemen are the only kinds of pikemen who are not immobilized by going into porcupine formation.
(uses Gondor fountain court guard skeleton and animations from Battle for Middle-earth 1)
Easterling Bowmen. Horde size = 3 rows of 5. Recruit Cost = 500. Command points = 60. Troop Type = Basic Archery. Even though they spend far more time on horseback than on foot, Easterling bowmen are skilled enough at archery that being on foot makes no difference in their archery skill. Less useful than Elven archers but more useful than almost any other archers, Easterling archers are able to toggle between generic archery and a menu of temporary enchantments for their arrows. Arrow enchantments here consist of fire arrows cause them to burn enemy buildings, poison arrows cause them to erode enemy units and explosive arrows cause knockback to enemy troops, including cavalry.
(uses Lorien Archer skeleton and animations)
(Disclaimer: this model will NOT use this horse texture in the finished product and will instead use horse armor made of Create-A-Hero Easterling armor, along with a normal horse texture.)
Easterling Kataphrakts. Horde size = 2 rows of 5. Recruit Cost = 600. Command Points = 60. Troop Type = Basic Cavalry. Unlike other human kingdoms where horse riding knights do either jousting only or fencing only whenever on horseback, the horse-knights of the Easterling Empire do archery only whenever on horseback. Also, in contrast to Rohan, Rhûndor tends to field mounted archers as their entire horse-riding force, while Rohan fields every swordsman, axeman, spearman, bowman, hammer user, multi-tasker and royal guard they have on horseback. Like their footman counterparts, Easterling Kataphrakts can also toggle between generic archery and enchanted arrows, in all three of the same forms no less!
(uses Rohan horsed archer skeleton and animations)
Easterlings with Axes. Horde size = 3 rows of 5. Recruit Cost = 400. Command Points = 60. Troop Type = Elite Fencing. During the Siege of Gondor and the Battle of Pelennor Fields, an elite corps of Men of Rhûn came to the battle, identified in three simple words... Easterlings with Axes. Each of these wields a short-shafted halberd, almost as tall as themselves, and these halberds are used mainly as axes but can also be used as sickles or as spears in the greater heat of combat. These men, like their sword and shield counterparts, can also charge rapidly into enemy troops on command, but the axemen do not need to be lead around by a banner carrier to be able to charge.
(uses Black Numenorean skeleton and animations from The Rise of the Witch-King)
[WORK IN PROGRESS. This blog post is NOT finished yet!]
