EditorPunk

I back this: both Gimli and Boromir just constantly chuck their weapon throws when no targets are available.

I'm a noob and am having trouble getting past the first battle in "The Lord of the Rings" campaign. Any tips? I think it's hard because the command point is so low and there are so many orcs coming after you all the time.

It was a fun battle, but it required you to conserve troops. Building troops is a non-option, as the mission will give you the necessary troops in numbers that exceed the pop cap (command points). If you're ever at the point that you can train troops, you have already lost the mission. With Isildur and Elrond conserve your units up until the north-western base is destroyed, which triggers the arrival of Elendil and Gil-galad: this puts you at above 500 pop cap. DO NOT LOSE ANY UNITS FROM HERE ON!

On the first plateau to the north concentrate your forces in a wide line and engage the enemy. A rear ambush army will arrive in the far west- if you've built structures there they will destroy them (good, that gives you time). Don't split your army to deal with this ambush- remain fully concentrated on the first plateau. You ought to be able to conserve your battalions and wrap up the stream of units coming from the North before the ambushers arrive to rear charge your combat line. With your pop cap still at around 500, and when fully healed with all abilities off cool down, only then should you march through the gates up to the second plateau.

At the second plateau, utilize both Elendil's and Gil-Galad's abilities before the cutscene- the quicker you can kill the Nazgul, the quicker you trigger Sauron's arrival. Do not use Elrond's nor Isildur's abilities until after the cutscene when Sauron is at your front line. Sauron will walk generally in Isildur's direction- keep Elrond away from Sauron, and keep Isildur slightly apart from you front line. As Sauron's attack cause massive area of effect damage, nesting Isildur in your front line will cause your forces to buckle quicker. At this point it's a race against time, keeping enough troops to keep Elrond protected & alive, and keeping Isildur healthy enough to uninterruptedly attack Sauron with all abilities.

It's not a perfect scenario, due to the command pop limit and difficulty spikes. The buildings are only useful to you as a speedbump for an ambushing enemy, and for the fountain you can build. If you don't have enough troops for the final battle, you will lose no matter what.

Well they need feedback, just like any Q&A or beta process. The goal is to point out discrepancies.

Speaking of which:

• Dol Guldur flaming arrows do not set Ents on fire, nor do bonus damage to Ents. Has this feature been broadly removed for all instances of flaming arrows, or is it just Dol Guldur has this as an oversight?

@Dúnedain76

@Mathijs

Is this the feedback thread? Great mod for it's assets and VO work.

Dol Guldur seems to have some issues on certain maps. I tried the faction on skirmish, and liked it enough to go over to War of the Ring mode and see it in action there.

The faction seems to have issues when starting without a base in WotR mode: AI aggression is pretty direct in this game, and requires the player to meet the enemy head on in the first few minutes of the match if you brought an army. However, the Dol Goldur design means that the army is immediately taking damage & loses if it starts without the Necromancer. You'd need to be playing WotR for some time already to get starting units that don't take attrition: this is quite punishing. I'm sure I can do it, but the design has me jumping through hoops to make it work. The faction wiki describes it as a heavy necromancy army, but in the early WotR game pulling this off seems too difficult if there isn't a single structure built to start with.

• In multi or skirmish, the pacing would seem fine(?). I'm making no comment as to that here, just WotR.
• Dol Guldur in the hands of the AI in WotR mode also has early game issues, to the point where it's trivial fighting them. They follow the same build order, and entirely stop any base-building once their last worker is spent. I suppose they could pump a worker out of the tower they built, but I never see them do.

The Dol Guldur faction has an issue when starting on the vanilla Dol Guldur map: the fortress catapults are missing. Dol Guldur is already an easy fortress to lay siege to, and the lack of standard defenses seems like an oversight.

• Furthermore, I've only tested this on WotR fortress maps, but obtaining the ring as Dol Guldur allows the player to build Sauron. If the Necromancer is already built, he too receives the typical ring bonuses.

Other bugs I've seen out and about with the mod: AI is very passive in the role of laying siege on one of the new lovely siege maps. Maps like Dol Amroth of Calas Galadhon have a totally inert AI.

• Will the WotR receive the new updated fortress maps like Rivendell, Dol Guldur, and Mithlond?

The Rivendell faction in the WotR mode has Elladan and Elrohir taking up a precious power point tier position. In the vast majority of matches, that power will be a filler with no use.

**CAMPAIGN**

The first moria map is lovely. I'm surprised you left the right third of the map unused. Very fun exploration with the light mechanic.

• The introduction midway of Balin's escape to a larger hall is appreciated. However, it's presence sets up the expectation for the continuation of this side story, as does the dialogue between Gandalf and Gimli. So the end result is that the pacing on this map and the next feel odd. It the player's gut, we're expected a round 2 with Balin, whether that be in the Moria map, or the Khazad-Dum map. It'd be acceptable if the original story's and movie pacing in the record room be divided with a Balin sequence of its own, before the orcs and troll boss arrive in the tomb.

The Khaza-Dum map has an issue in the final chamber with the Balrog- the fire assets don't load in every game. In my first few attempt on the map, I noticed smoke, and was wondering why the heroes were taking heavy damage. I played perhaps 5 times before a load initialized the flame graphics, and the ease increased expectedly.

• Design-wise, you could guide the player a bit more smartly in the 'kill the goblin shamans blocking the bridge phase': it's not intuitive to find these little guys currently, and causes frustration that can be ironed out by a design that suggests the objective clearly.