The first two dev. diaries have now been released for the final version of this popular, high-quality mod for Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion...
http://www.youtube.com/user/fourthag.../1/_Xo9NoEpz1Y
The Fourth Age: Total War - The Dominion of Men
The first two dev. diaries have now been released for the final version of this popular, high-quality mod for Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion...
http://www.youtube.com/user/fourthag.../1/_Xo9NoEpz1Y
Have any of those games ever been modded into fantasy, lord of the rings or whatever style? They seem like they could be perfectly molded for it.
Yes, there are a few fantasy mods for Rome. You can see them in the tables here: http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Released_Mods (sort by category)
My friend plays the Lord of the Rings mod on Medieval 2 and loves it. He prefers it over the Rome LotR mod.
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I think it had something to do with the balancing of the units. Only downside seems to be that ones you siege a castle/city and do not instantly attack it the computer will spawn a full garrison of nasty units to make the assault hell.
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Agreed. It's Third Age: Total War, and it's fun.Originally Posted by Stronke
Third Age is the latest mod. It takes a lot of imagery and concepts from the movies. It is not as developed as the Fourth Age yet (it's a lot younger of course). Fourth Age is an original design (not movie-based) and very much focused on the lore and attention to detail, balance, immersion etc. There's another mod, Lord of the Rings: Total War (also for Rome (Alexander expansion)) which is very heavily based on the movies (the War of the Ring rather than just the late Third Age) which is almost as old as FATW. Another one, Middle-earth: Total War (book based) was abandoned, but based on the books (there is a beta version out).
The Fourth Age: Total War - The Dominion of Men completes this year, one of the very few Total War mods to do so (and the only Middle-earth one to date). In terms of balance, coding, stability, immersion, lore-accurateness, features, innovation and replayability it will be second to none. Some of, if not the most skilled, modders on the Total War scene have put thousands of hours into this one, including the top expert on balance and unit stats, the top expert on trait and anc coding, the top expert on tech tree coding, one of the best new environment designers, and skilled writers. The Fourth Age team played a very large part in pioneering modding of the Rome Total War engine, made a great deal of discoveries about the same, and wrote many of the tutorials used by Rome and Medieval 2 modders today. What I'm saying is: you can expect a lot
Some other mods created by the Fourth Age include Norman Invasion, Viking Invasion II, Gods & Fighting Men, and the Multi-Mod Sampler. Former moduled releases of the Fourth Age (Corsair Invasion, Forth Eorlingas and The New Shadow) have consistently won the Favourite Fantasy Mod award for some years at the largest TW awards.
Like you (no doubt) we've played many of the Middle-earth games out there by commercial developers. We found their design and vision lacking. Adherence to the lore was abandoned in their products and gameplay was awful. In short they appeal to the younger player more impressed with great 3D graphics. The Fourth Age will appeal to the more mature player, who loves the lore of Middle-earth, and who wants a deep and immersive game even after the visual feast has lessened.
Its a script. You can turn it off.
And i like the third age total war mod for M2 total war best as well.
I have been playing Third Age since I installed it yesterday and its pretty win.
Really hope they will continue this with the shogun 2 graphics.
That fellowship campaign is a straight bitch and made me restart it on hard.
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Heh after posting last week i started playing again. Just the campaign on VH/VH. Played as dale (solid game) and as silvan elves. Got to the point as silvan elves where who ever i attack will start dying fast. I cleaned up misty mountain orc's and am helping dwarves take out gundabad.
Just been reading TW centre. Looks to be a few good submods and sob mod compilations. However version 3.0 seems to be aroudn the corner, not that i could find any definate dates.
Come accross any trolls yet stronke?
Without the script the game is too easy to blitz from the start. Other than that is one of the best TW mods, probably the best for medieval 2 (i live in hope of Europa Barbarorum 2 ever being released).
Smashing Minas Tirith to peices with Olog hai is pretty damn fun. Trying to recreate Arnor when playing Eriador is quite an interesting twist also.
Yeah i leave the script on. also you need to play vh/vh for it to be challanging.
Some of the submnods look damn good though. readign through them now. I think i have another solid 3 months of playability lined up.
Even at vh vh it isnt very challenging..
try isengard........
No I have not, I did got my ass kicked several times by those Warg riders. I am also not sure why my Hobits keep dying when I try to solo those Urakhay's :s.
I have started a regular campaign with the Dwarfs but I am having a hard time being nice to those pointy ear Elfs (played to much Warhammer; Fantasy)
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Playing as the Dwarfs is frustrating me because I can not seem to be able to wield more then one large army where as these Orc fuckers got 5-8. I hardly build any thing except for mines/markets and I took a couple of towns. Either I try and take a enemy town/castle and loose two or three in return or I just defend and that gets boring as fuck.
Even though I am the administrator on my lappy I can not seem to change the dcstrat to give me more turns. It takes me about 20-30 turns just to take one hostile town/castle so I do not think I will ever have enough time reclaiming my mountain goals.
tl;dr playing The Third Age as Dwarfs is making me nerdrage
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Also having to run after all these javelin throwing skirmish units and archers for 30 minutes sucks BALLS
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Is one race harder than another?
edit: I started as the easterlings and was owning the men of dale(sp?). The problem is that every battle is too easy despite having less men.
Unit types and the size of your starting realm, while the AI will stay the same it will matter greatly if you are surrounded by hostile's or friends. The Easterlings have one of the largest kingdoms and pretty decent all round units.
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As a Dwarf you only start with two towns and two castles. One town and a castle lay in the east and the other two in the west. Isengard only has two towns and one castle. While it may not effect the end game, the begin of your campaign will be much harder.
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Plus orc units are generally all round weaker than the human/elve/dwarf counterparts. Even though a squad of orc raiders is 250 compared to a regular infantry 150 (onlarge squad sizes) they will get eaten for breakfast.
As isengard, you have rohan next door that start strong, and if you don;t take the nearby rebels quickly, you will get boxed in by the free people of eriador. And even then, if you take too much, you will border the highelves.
Anyway, i do find battles relatively easy, that is until the enemy starts to get trolls.
I'm about 40 turns into an Isengard campaign. I have taken the rebel settlements to the west and have made in roads into Rohan, taking the castle and town nearest me. Now that I have warg riders and can run down fleeing enemy men there really is no way for Rohan to recover.
As for Orcs being weaker, the numbers you can get more than make up for it. I generally lose the same amount of troops as Rohan each battle, unless it is heroic, but can easily replace my losses. I haven't faced trolls though.
Are you doing a VH/VH one? seems too easy. i get about 20 turns in (once i have taken all the rebel settlements) and get 2 or 3 large rohan stacks at my door. I don 't think i have played a long game as isengard yet. might have to try.
Only evil factions have trolls. Orcs of gundabad and misty mountains, and mordor.
As silvan elves when fighting morder, most of their armies had a troll unit in them. Means pretty much you need equal numbers to have a chance of winning. even in a seige.
The part that annoyed me about the third age was I couldn't really win by attrition. My favorite faction was Rohan, but Isengard would never run out of money or troops, so the only way for me to succeed was to draw their armies away from the settlements so I could storm them before their defenders returned. It made for some fun and heroic fights, but if even 1 of their towns remained I would be facing hordes of snagas.
It was pretty cool having Rohan rule Minas Tirish since Gondor AI sucks and couldnt hold on to anything.
Trolls have demolished my armies. Even 1 unit will smash any line you make, and focusing on the trolls weakens the rest of your position.
If you kill enough of them they stop fighting - Gen. Curtis Lemay
Fear the KKM
It's on VH/VH. I can supply the save file if you like. I imagine trolls are kind of like elephants, really strong, but susceptible to rampaging through their own army as much as the enemies?
Nah i believe you, i'm certainly not the best at the game, am interested in your early army composition. Most of my early units (apart from some guards of the orthanc spearmen are pretty useless, and i am usually at war with rohan pretty soon. Do you take Fangorn? Seems if i take that, rohan get the shits and will attack me.
Thats because of the difficulty setting. On VH the kings purse of the AI factions is abotu the same as 5 or so cities. I have no idea why teh ai can;t be graded better, but i am sure the modders have their reasons. Pretty much means that once you can win on VH though that replayability drops. Although i found som submods that make thigns more interesting.
You really need to box trolls in. Usually takes about 2 heavy infatry units. If you can hit them with a ballista though you can take a few out with relative ease.
What annoys me, is they are infantry, and can consequently use ladders. Doesn't matter what you ahve on your walls, they will murder them. Kind of fun to have a militia unit box them in and use archers to take them down though.
Have had a morder army with 3 units of olag hai in it. Took about 2000 units to beat a 1000 unit army =/
The sheer amounts of units the evil factions bring is kinda hard to counter too. Whenever the dark lord calls for jihad on Edoras I just pile the city full of elite units and laugh my ass off as they slaughter entire stacks of easterlings and orcs.
I also enjoy having reinforcments come to save the city, using heavy cavalry to smash into the rear of the enemy blob as they are trying to squeeze thru the gates. Insta rout.
If you kill enough of them they stop fighting - Gen. Curtis Lemay
Fear the KKM
I had to restart my Dwarf campaign this evening because at turn 75~ the Easterlings completely zerged Dale and I was not prepared for that at all. I nearly had all my mountain goals and was rather proud of my self. I had my first couple of battles with some troll units but managed to kill them fairly easy because of my 2 Ballista and 4 Catapults. I only trained basic units since they proved to be enough against the Orc/Goblin units as long as I weakened them with artillery. I stopped using Crossbow units as standard warriors in shield formation proved more useful if not slightly more expensive, even able to withstand charges from cavalry units to some extend.
I counted on Dale to solo the Easterlings and that proved to be my undoing
That explains how the Orcs of Gunbad managed to create three large forces with only a single castle left. He almost managed to take all of his lost settlements back in less then 7 turns while I was desperately trying to keep my capital from the Easterlings.
The fact that I can not seem to wield at least three full armies frustrates me and makes winning near impossible ones I get attacked by more then one faction.
But I am trying it again and have a semi seized army walking around in Dale territory waiting for the inevitable invasion and make him hold on as long as possible.
Attempt #5 is go.
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No, I didn't take Fangorn. I waited to open war with Rohan until there was an Invasion called on Edoras.
For early army, it is a mixture of Uruk raiders, Clansmen, skirmishers(snagas??) and archers. Line the skirmishers up behind your infantry line and let them throw their javalins over the heads of your infantry and once they run out use them to flank. Hopefully you'll have a unit of warg riders to wipe out the fleeing infantry so you can execute them after, otherwise they just keep coming back for more.
Why do you want 3 full stacks? half stacks should be plenty to take on just about any orc army, especially in the early game. just make sure you are defending, not attacking in the battle.I had to restart my Dwarf campaign this evening because at turn 75~ the Easterlings completely zerged Dale and I was not prepared for that at all. I nearly had all my mountain goals and was rather proud of my self. I had my first couple of battles with some troll units but managed to kill them fairly easy because of my 2 Ballista and 4 Catapults. I only trained basic units since they proved to be enough against the Orc/Goblin units as long as I weakened them with artillery. I stopped using Crossbow units as standard warriors in shield formation proved more useful if not slightly more expensive, even able to withstand charges from cavalry units to some extend.
I counted on Dale to solo the Easterlings and that proved to be my undoing
That explains how the Orcs of Gunbad managed to create three large forces with only a single castle left. He almost managed to take all of his lost settlements back in less then 7 turns while I was desperately trying to keep my capital from the Easterlings.
The fact that I can not seem to wield at least three full armies frustrates me and makes winning near impossible ones I get attacked by more then one faction.
But I am trying it again and have a semi seized army walking around in Dale territory waiting for the inevitable invasion and make him hold on as long as possible.
Attempt #5 is go.
So you go straight for wargs, not better infantry in isengard? and simply build more snaga squads rather than raiders?
Wargs first then raiders. Clansmen and snagas are good enough to beat the early infantry and few cav of rohan. By turn 40 though your army should be mostly raiders with a few reavers and guardsmen for infantry. I still use snagas though, maybe 3-4 units just behind the infantry, those javalins are lethal.
One of the best mods for Third Age is the one ring mod. It makes the ring spawn somewhere in the misty mountains, and gives all sorts of powers to the leader who has it. If you are an evil faction you can use it yourself and get tremendous power at the cost of angering Sauron (he may attack you). If you are a good faction than you can either hide it, or use it and get armies of evil creatures to command, but you will gradually turn more and more evil until it consumes you. Others can take the ring by killing the ring bearer in battle.
Its pretty hilarious to see Aragorn using the ring to lead armies of orcs and trolls into battle.
If you kill enough of them they stop fighting - Gen. Curtis Lemay
Fear the KKM
There is a ring in this one. Does it not provide any powers?
I need to download the latest version, but I know the submod added some nice cutscene videos and extra powers. The One Ring in the normal version might add some attributes, but not change the storyline.
If you kill enough of them they stop fighting - Gen. Curtis Lemay
Fear the KKM
For several reasons really. Main one being that I am already outnumbered 2:1 when using the same amount of units. Secondly my towns and castles are somewhat far apart and can not always provide me with the units I need. Usually I can only train Miners, Warriors and Axe Throwers. So using a full army will allow me to fight three or four battles before I need to worry about retraining them. Also, with a full army I can easily siege settlements that have a low garrison. Because of that spawning script I can not use small armies since there is most likely a hostile army breathing down my neck waiting for my siege to finish.
I also have to fight a lot of javelin throwing faggots and since my dwarfs are slower I can not catch up to them (even when defending, they will run away because of the skirmish mode) so I will have a throw a unit at each javelin unit or suffer major casualties because when 250 models throw them at my 150 it hurts, especially since they have such a quick rate of fire.
I do not have any cavalry units, I can hire some as mercenaries but they are pretty terrible and die horrible at any thing that strikes back at them. I tried to solo javelin units but it failed miserably even when just charging in and out. I only use them for fleeing units to make sure I can execute them or to catch that fleeing general for a juicy ransom.
I will try using smaller armies, perhaps I can manage to remove a couple units from each and create a extra force but I have no faith in my self that I can beat the Orc armies back using only 10ish units. When he uses multiple Warg riders it hurts as they nearly always manage to get in my flanks and recharge over and over unless I get lucky and have some pike units with me. But since I can only train those at my capital its hard to supply my forces with them.
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I think its only for the story, but then I have not managed to get past turn 100 so I am not sure what will happen later.
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Stronke, play as Rohan. I tried to play as the Dwarves and they are total shit. With Rohan you can actually kill the enemy. Dwarves just cause them to route and your stubby legs keep you from finishing them off.
Damn, I need to download this game again
If you kill enough of them they stop fighting - Gen. Curtis Lemay
Fear the KKM
I like playing as elves. I have a sub mod pack and one of them gives me a building so i can build ents. Just started a new game now. Seems ot be a lot harder i am battling teh morder armies in the forrest and misty mountains orcs are attacking me.
The ring gets found by a mistymountains orc general. IF you kill him your general will get it. (if you dont; ahve a general i don't know what happens.
Seems to be mostly crappy traits though, plus you get a useless gollum following you which makes it worse.
Fair enough. the wargs i do use seem pretty terrible though. I take it you don't use them for charging infantry or anything. Just hitting flanks and running down retreating men?
Ok, i never built snaga skirmishers by choice before. i generally build archers over them. might need a change in tactics.
Go for some more ranged units. I have no idea what dwarves have. Somethign better than axe throwers i hope, but you can eat 20% of an army down while they are charging you if you ahve 3 or 4 archer units. then 4 or 5 infantry units and you can jsut about beat any orc army that doesn't have trolls. I go 800 vs over 2000 regularly and win. You need archers for this though. Especially when you seige a settlement till they have to break out. You can shoot them for ages while they form up outside the gates.For several reasons really. Main one being that I am already outnumbered 2:1 when using the same amount of units. Secondly my towns and castles are somewhat far apart and can not always provide me with the units I need. Usually I can only train Miners, Warriors and Axe Throwers. So using a full army will allow me to fight three or four battles before I need to worry about retraining them. Also, with a full army I can easily siege settlements that have a low garrison. Because of that spawning script I can not use small armies since there is most likely a hostile army breathing down my neck waiting for my siege to finish.
I also have to fight a lot of javelin throwing faggots and since my dwarfs are slower I can not catch up to them (even when defending, they will run away because of the skirmish mode) so I will have a throw a unit at each javelin unit or suffer major casualties because when 250 models throw them at my 150 it hurts, especially since they have such a quick rate of fire.
I do not have any cavalry units, I can hire some as mercenaries but they are pretty terrible and die horrible at any thing that strikes back at them. I tried to solo javelin units but it failed miserably even when just charging in and out. I only use them for fleeing units to make sure I can execute them or to catch that fleeing general for a juicy ransom.
I will try using smaller armies, perhaps I can manage to remove a couple units from each and create a extra force but I have no faith in my self that I can beat the Orc armies back using only 10ish units. When he uses multiple Warg riders it hurts as they nearly always manage to get in my flanks and recharge over and over unless I get lucky and have some pike units with me. But since I can only train those at my capital its hard to supply my forces with them.
I have never fought dwarves, nor fought as them, but they sound pretty crap. Might be a good faction for a challange.Stronke, play as Rohan. I tried to play as the Dwarves and they are total shit. With Rohan you can actually kill the enemy. Dwarves just cause them to route and your stubby legs keep you from finishing them off.
Damn, I need to download this game again
But I love my bearded ladies
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Natural sprinters on the plain?
I only have one Crossbow unit, and while its armour piercing and long ranged, it has a very slow firing speed. Unless you can spread them all out in a two man file line they will aim straight in the air and weakening the impact and accuracy. They can drop stakes wich can be quite useful unless in the mountains (where some terrain slopes or unevenness will prevent you from using the ability) It helps that I can use all units (including my Axe Throwers and Crossbowmen) In combat
The trick is to get the enemy in close combat and make them stay there.
I'll try, try, try again until I will win. If I get into a to big of a nerdrage I'll be switching to my Harad game and stomp all these mother fuckers
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I just remember as dwarves those fucking snaga would only skirmish and I could never accomplish anything in the open field, unless having them use all their ammunition on you is a strategy..
If you kill enough of them they stop fighting - Gen. Curtis Lemay
Fear the KKM
I just foung out that ents can already be built by elves in fangorn..........damnit....now i need to convince rohan to give it to me.
I just tried a game as the Dwarfs, and ended up wanting to punch myself in the nuts. They have by far the worst starting position, and shit units for the theater they are in.
I will try anothe game as Rohan or Eriador. I am too set in my ways, which favor a fast paced battle focusing around maneuver and one titanic clash.
If you kill enough of them they stop fighting - Gen. Curtis Lemay
Fear the KKM
Seems dwarfs suck, but the consensus on TW centre is that the OOMM are the hardest faction to play as.
I don't like playing evil factions, but I will give it a shot. Despite being in the NC I prefer finesse to blobs in strategy games.
If you kill enough of them they stop fighting - Gen. Curtis Lemay
Fear the KKM
Yeah same. I like seeing legolas' squad of sindar archers take out about 1200 orcs =) i was defending a town with 2 lots of archers (one being legolas) and a spearmen unit and killed about 1700 out of 2200 orcs. i thought i was going to win for a bit. I killed the nazgul as well. Was a pretty epic battle.
Do trolls count as finesse? make an army of them.
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