Bofurs Cheese Knife

I had a level idea for the recently announced ROTK campaign. One of the levels from FOTR that always stood out to me was the council of Elrond, interacting with some of the great tales from Middle Earth was pretty cool and my idea is basically a kind of sequel to that concept. 

Story wise it would take place just after Gandalf and Pippin arrive in Minas Tirith and before their audience with Denethor. While waiting for an audience with the steward Pippin would despair of being on the edge of an unescapable battle and Gandalf would send him to the library of Minas Tirith to learn of the great deeds of various heroes to boost his courage. 

Now we get into the tales themselves. 

First and probably the most interesting of the encounters Pippin can have would be with Gandalf, who would relate a tidbit of his battle with the Balrog. The player would take control of Gandalf as he tracks the Balrogs footprints from the foundations of stone into the lower levels of Moria fighting hordes of Nameless creatures along the way before concluding when Gandalf reaches the stair of Durin. As an aside I'd make the Nameless creatures more akin to their LOTRO counterparts. Also to keep Gandalf's boss battle in Durins tower unique to that mission the player would not actually fight the Balrog. The level aesthetics would range from flaming Mustafar-esque lava chambers to rundown dwarven passages. 

Secondly I thought an amazing story to tell would be that of Helm Hammerhand, recounted by a librarian of Gondor. The player would take control of Helm in his famous last battle. Using either Helms hammer or a fear inducing ability the player would have to clear Helms Dike of Dunnish and Corsair enemies. Since the battle took place in a brutal winter I would make Helms health slowly decrease due to frostbite. The idea would be to clear Helms Dike of enemies before Helm dies, with a bonus objective being to clear all enemies. Either way the segment would end with Helm freezing to death.

Which brings us to the third tale. During which we would take control of a much younger Aragorn, disguised as Thorongil, as he leads an attack on the port of Umbar. The objective would be to use flame archers to burn ships and clear the docks of enemies. Once that's done you would have to kill Kathuphazgan and an Umbarian honor guard to end the tale. 

Now I know that the council of Elrond only had three tale segments. Yet I still have one last idea that could be done without using much map space. A short boss battle between King Earnur and his guards and the Nazgul during his ill fated duel. The characters would walk into Minas Morgul before the front gates shut trapping the party. You would be able to defeat a Nazgul or two before the rest gang up and kill you. All in all a cautionary tale about being too brave.

And there you have it. Regardless if you use this or not I'm sure the campaign is going to be dope. 

Saw that DG was getting some changes in the next update. But I think those solutions will make DG even harder to play, since I like playing as DG I thought i'd throw some ideas for balance out there. 

Risen Dead - they are unique troops and something you should keep for the DG gameplay meta, but they could use some polishing. The first is remove the level requirement for getting Risen Dead. That is to say once you have a Spire of Sorcery you can get Risen Dead without needing to rank your basic troops up. And to incentivize players to use basic troops buff Risen Dead a little by increasing attack speed and armor a little. Lastly allow a roundabout way of recruiting Risen Dead directly. Copy the Fortress decommission mechanic into the Spire of Sorcery, only instead of getting resources your troops go into the spire and Risen Dead come out. 

Dark Presence - another unique thing you understandably want to keep. But one that raises an obvious disadvantage in battle; any smart player will just prevent you from building your structures and keep you at an arms reach. To fix this I think you need some units that cast Dark Presence. Start with heroes, make it so that all DG heroes and Armored Castellans cast Dark Presence. Furthermore a few spellbook powers that cast it wouldn't hurt either. Replace the underwhelming Don't Follow the Lights with a power that simply casts Dark Presence on a medium area for about 45 seconds. Next replace Darkness with a spell I call Necrotic Shadow that casts Dark Presence over the entirety of the map for about a minute and a half. 

Next DG is in dire need of troops that can venture into enemy territory without the player needing to worry about Dark Presence. First DO NOT make Ravagers and Tomb Guard affected by Dark Presence. Next add some new troops in the form of the Mirkwood Orc Warriors and Mirkwood Orc Archers. And augment these with a new type of semi heroic monster unit; the Leshens. Which can be used to eliminate hardened infantry. Together with heroes and your reworked Unburied Wights these should be able to overcome enemy forces and capture territory needed to expand. Lastly some cavalry would be ideal to rapidly respond to attacks to your structures in the field. I say borrow Caragor Riders from Shadow of Mordor  thus giving DG a unique cavalry force, though you could also substitute Warg Riders or even Spider Riders like in the original game. And relegate Fell Brood to an early game monster unit that can cheaply harass enemies and support basic troops. Furthermore with an expanded unit roster some additional structures may prove beneficial to keep the Gaol interface from getting too cluttered. Add a Mirkwood Orc Pit and a Mirkwood Armory for upgrades and possibly a Caragor pit if you decide to use those. 

And last but not least some hero suggestions. With reworks to basic troops Thrain the Broken's role as an early game hero could be improved. Give him more health and damage so he can better compete with other heroes on the battlefield. And I have a suggestion for a new DG hero; Azog. HEAR ME OUT. I dislike his appearance in The Hobbit just as much as you guys do but you could feature a resurrected version of his character; Azog the Deathless. Give him some armor to differentiate his Misty Mountains appearance, and modify his model to canonize his death at the hands of Dain. He should have scars, glowing green magical eyes, and his head has been sewn back onto his body.  

And that's it. Make of my ideas what you will, thanks for reading my suggestions, and I look forward to playing the finished mod!