Total War: Wainriders is a full-conversion & fully modfoldered modification for Rome: Total War - Alexander. Inspired solely by the written works of J.R.R. Tolkien, it seeks to reflect both the spirit and lore of Middle-earth as Tolkien saw it. Total War: Wainriders is being built by the Fourth Age Total War team on the excellent foundations of the Dominion of Men mod for Barbarian Invasion, but completely reworked to take full advantage of all the features of Alexander. It will feature fully overhauled factions, an updated campaign map, and new mechanics and gameplay systems all designed to effectively transport the setting of the main campaign to T.A. 1864 and tell the story of the great conflicts of Middle-earth at that time.
The dark heights of the Eryn Vorn receive the winds of the Sea. Of late the winds bring only clouds and rain and the smell of salt – but in the days of long ago, before the Dark Years, the winds brought great ships like floating houses bearing men tall and stern. These strangers made settlements along the coasts to the south. They disturbed the land. They hewed down trees. And they made war. Only dim memories and faded stories remain of those days, when the fearsome Elves fought against the loathsome Orcs of the Dark One, who brought fire and ruin to the waste the new-come men had made. Now, there come stories of wraiths and evil hill-folk from the north, while rumours whisper of other troubles far to the East. But from stockaded homesteads deep in the pines of the Blackwood, and from villages hidden among the reeds, the people of the forests and the coasts have begun to gather. Far from the eyes of the mighty kings of men, the tribes are growing strong under warlike chieftains. It has been many lives since they crept from the shelter of wood and bog, but the time is at hand when the foes of the Black Forest will go in fear of the night, when the wind will speak to those enemies of the feathered shaft and the hidden spear.