Beleriand - Middle Earth - First Age (The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien)

This map and scenario are based on the book called "The Silmarillion", by J.R.R. Tolkien. It tells the story of what happened BEFORE the LoTR, during the First Age (LoTR is held in the Third Age), in a place called Beleriand (former North Western region of Middle-Earth).

Map and associated scenarios will be detailed below. Please feel free to comment below (balance of units, potential improvements, etc.).

Concerning the map:
Beleriand - Middle-Earth
The map is the map of Beleriand (http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Beleriand), the region of north-western Middle-earth during the First Age.
Beleriand is crisscrossed by plenty of rivers. As described in the book, most of them are too large to cross on foot, except at a few fords. Therefore, the large rivers have been designed to be too large to cross, except at the fords. The multiple minor rivers will be crossable on foot, while still allowing ships to move.
Please note that the river Sirion (the North-South central river) flows through a hidden but navigable passage in the Andram mountains (long wall of hills that ran across central Beleriand west to east).

On top of the rivers, many mountains are impassable as well as a few marsches (no-go areas). One mountain chain worth mentioning is the Crissaegrim, the Encircling Mountains of Gondolin (marked by the eagle symbol on the map), that protect the hidden city of Gondolin.


Concerning units:
In order to emphasize the many inter-racial alliances that took place in the Silmarillion, the map allows you to build different native units from each country (instead of exclusively building units from your initial country).

At that period, only the Elves had mastered the art of navigation, therefore they are the only one able to build ships. They generally have access to produce Ent and Eagle units, on top of the basic ones.

The Dwarves were the only tech-savvy race at that time, so they are the only ones able to build carriages (ground transportation).
Also, to represent their evolving craftsmanship, their main defense and main attack units evolve in time:
From turn 1 to 4, they have Iron (regular) 4/6 or 8/4 units with 5 crit;.
From turn 5 to 8, they have Steel 4/7 or 9/4 units with 10 crit (with increased cost)
And from turn 9, they have Mithril 4/8 and 10/4 units with 15 crit (with increased cost).
They also have a +2 against any fire-based enemy units (fire-drakes, Balrogs).

In the story, the servants of Morgoth have very powerful units. To respect the storyline, I had to include them. But I tried to limit the imbalance they create in-game. For instance, fire-drakes, although powerful, can only be produced (at high cost) in the three peaks of the Thangorodrim Volcanos (3 cities with a single reinforcement), thus preventing spamming. Also, Attack Trolls, as seen in the Middle-Earth map by Talos, have been reduced in strength, and their cost have increased...

In terms of rare units, I created some units which the storyline allowed to be either good or evil, including Huorns ("rotten" ents), Petty-Dwarves (some believe they were criminals rejected by Dwarven societies), Easterlings, and Dragons. Additionally, most important characters of the story could spawn anywhere on the map (Turin, Glaurung, Turgon, etc.).

(List of units to be continued)...


Concerning the map with basic units:
For those who do not appreciate maps with units too different from the basic units from the World Map, I will create a clone of this map with only basic units.


Concerning the scenario :

Nírnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of the Unnumbered Tears
First Age, year 472, Beleriand, Middle-Earth, onset of the Nírnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of the Unnumbered Tears. Almost 20 years have passed since the defeat of the Elves and their Edain allies in the Dagor Bragollach. Can the Union of Maedhros, the alliance of Elves, Men, and Dwarves, reverse the tide? Will Morgoth and his lieutenant Sauron succeed in conquering the remaining vast rich lands of Beleriand?

Morgoth, the dark lord, master of Sauron, is the first player on the "evil" side. He has his main fortress, Angband, in the north of the map, where he breeds Orcs and, from turn 4, Fire-Drakes (wingless dragons; real dragons were bred later than the current scenario). He also receives the help of Balrogs (as events, since Balrogs were "servants of the gods" created by Eru, not Morgoth) in his war against the free people.
Sauron, Morgoth's lieutenant, will be the second, and last player on the "evil" side. He, as is little known in the LoTR, created many evil species like Werewolves and Vampires. The player playing Sauron will also control Ungoliant's offspring, giant Spiders living in Nan Dungortheb (and ancestors to Shelob, the giant spider in LotR), because at the time of the scenario, Morgoth and his Balrogs already vanquished Ungoliant herself.
These 2 players will face 5 players on the "good" side.

The first player will play the Houses of Men. Men are relatively new to the region, and are not as numerous. Their deeds were more a matter of individual exploits more than massive army victories (or defeats). At the time of the scenario, they already lost many battles and have only 3 starting countries, if we count Bor's lands, an Easterling that remained faithful to the alliance against Morgoth.
The second player will play the Dwarves, installed in the Blue Mountains to the East of the map. Additionally, they have one city in the West, to respect Mim the Dwarf's contribution to the story (and to allow a fourth city to the Dwarves).
Finally, 3 players will share the Elves, in order to balance their power in comparison to the other races.
One will play the Sindar Elves, that is, the elves that came last to the Blessed Realm of Aman, and that lingered in Middle-Earth.
The two other players will share the Noldors, Elves that went to the Blessed Realm, and came back to Middle-Earth to wage war against Morgoth. One player will play the Sons of Feanor, the elf that created the Silmarils. The other will play the houses of the two brothers of Feanor, Finarfin and Fingolfin.

To represent the immortality of Elves, their heroes will be spawned as 1/1 commanders, giving bonuses to the masses. That way, they will be the last units to be killed. Also, ground commanders give bonuses to ground stealth units, which fits well with the renowned stealth powers of the Elves. Please note that these bonuses STACK, so 2 commanders in a stack will give a +2 bonus.
On the other hand, to represent mortality of Men, human heroes will be set with high offense/defense ratios, to allow them to replicate the deadly exploits described in the book, but more often than not, their high statistics will make them the first unit to die.
On top of heroes, Men will have a couple of powerful artifacts (as described in the book) to help them on their quests. Turin has a transport capacity of 2, for both the sword Gurthang (++attack) and the Helm of Dor-Lomin (++defense). Beren can wield the Ring of Barahir (++defense).
***At the moment, there is a bug, where ground commanders give bonuses to Air units.

Balance of the scenario
As the story imposes, Morgoth will be allowed to use VERY powerful units like Fire-Drakes and Balrogs.
To oppose such strong units, I count on two things:
- The effect of having 5 "Good" players turnblocking only 2 "Evil" players, and
- Elves and Men will be given many powerful heroes (they are non-buildable and only spawn at the beginning of the game).

Please note that in order for this scenario to be Casual Games compatible, all the special units will spawn on Turn 2. Having them spawn on turn 1 would ONLY grant them to players joining on Turn 0.

List of Events

Turn 2
- Gurthang (Houses of Men), Turin's sword, lies with Beleg in Doriath.
- Beren (Houses of Men), along with the Ring of Barahir, lives in the very remote island of Tol Galen, in Ossiriand.
- The Nauglamir (Dwarves' forces), a prized necklace crafted by the Dwarves (huge defense), is located in Doriath, near Menegroth.
- Many Ents (Sindar Elves' forces), involved in the Battle of Sarn Athrad, live near Mount Dolved and the Dwarven cities.
- Heroes Celegorm and Curufin (Fëanor's forces) live in Nargothrond.
(to be continued...)

Turn 4
(to be continued...)

Turn 5
(to be continued...)

Turn 9
(to be continued...)

Thank you!

Noir Brillant

You should remove rare units completely, they kill the balance in scenarios.
Other than that, an interesting concept that I'd like to check out.

Written by Zephyrusu, 06.11.2015 at 16:08

You should remove rare units completely, they kill the balance in scenarios.
Other than that, an interesting concept that I'd like to check out.

Hey,
First of all, thanks for showing interest. As for rare units, now that you mention it, I think you are right. I spent so much time trying to balance the scenario that I don't feel like ruining everything just for rare units.
However, as a first try, I think I will adopt "half" your solution; instead of spawning "full" quantities of rare units, I think I will reduce the quantity to a very low level. That way, I avoid the imbalance your mentioned, but I keep the "lore" added value. For instance, instead of spawning 8-10 Easterlings, it could spawn 2-4. Instead of spawning 2-4 Huorns, I could spawn 1. If, after testing, it still destroys the balance, I'll adopt your "full" solution, and remove them altogether.
Thanks again!

EDIT: with more experience, I agree with you. I will remove the rare units completely.

Amazing

Written by obumbrata, 11.04.2016 at 17:57

Amazing

Thanks!
I was almost done the map and fine tuning the scenario when the map editor was switched to HTML5. Now, I can't open my map nor start a new game, so ... last touch ups will have to wait. As soon as the map editor is up and running, I will update this thread to notify you, so ... stay tuned and watch the topic!

At first, I had that problem. However, it hasn't been a problem for a while. Also, and I hope this isn't the case, but some maps just didn't make it over the transition - I recall reading something about that in the forums, but I could be wrong. It may be possible to resurrect them with the HTML5 editor, but I have no idea.

Written by RatWar, 15.09.2016 at 02:03

... but some maps just didn't make it over the transition ...

Nooooo

It all depends. I'm not saying that it happened to yours.

I was able to view your map. It looks very interesting, but I see what you mean about the cities being far apart. I like the notion of the open-field battles, like in the book, where there were few settlements/cities for supplies and units.

One way to counteract that would be scenario events with units. Another possibility is to significantly increase the income and production value of the cities (at least double, if not triple, the production values).

Written by RatWar, 15.09.2016 at 21:15

It all depends. I'm not saying that it happened to yours.

I was able to view your map. It looks very interesting, but I see what you mean about the cities being far apart. I like the notion of the open-field battles, like in the book, where there were few settlements/cities for supplies and units.

One way to counteract that would be scenario events with units. Another possibility is to significantly increase the income and production value of the cities (at least double, if not triple, the production values).

Hey RatWar,

I get stuck at the following screen when I try to open my map in the SL editor:

I hope this does not mean my map did not make it over the transition

As for the number of cities, before my map got stuck like above, I have created an "Extra Cities" version of it, with fortresses and outposts in most countries. So we get the option to play according to the lore, or ... with more cities. As for increasing the city production, that's also a good idea if I want to stick with the lore. And finally, there are many events, mostly on turn 2, so that many units are brought to the table at the beginning (I am not a big fan of dropping units later during the game, as it can cause bad surprises).

Anyways, I fear i won't see my map again anyways, so ... dozens of hours lost, if not hundreds...
I could try to message Amok, he fixed different bugs with my map once or twice in the past...

Well, that screen can happen just due to a server hangup. I'd try a few times, at different times of the day, before messaging Amok.

Great idea about the extra cities! Good move, leaving it as an option like that.

It could even be possible to play the map without the scenario with the extra cities - maybe. Wouldn't be necessary by any means...just a thought.

Seems like an awesome map to play!

Testing my Beleriand map again, for those interested.
48h 10k Medium Rare format...

https://atwar-game.com/games/?link=7727379986

Whoa i completely missed this topic in 2015, i'd stay oblivious that First Age map exist.

I'm huge fan of Tolkien high fantasy and the most interesting part of Silmarillion is War of Wrath with the Battle of the Powers, and War of the Jewels ending with Dagor Bragollach.

I had a plan to make Dagor Bragollach map, but never realized it. Nice to see someone else loves the topic and will design it into a map. Will play it definitely.

Written by Skanderbeg, 27.03.2021 at 12:09

Hey, thanks for showing interest

But you did not miss much, cause I never published the map, and during the conversion to the new editor, my map broke.
Last year, Dave + Clovis helped me recuperate an old version, then I left AtWar for a while.

But then I thought ... I should finish what I start in life, so I decided i'd come back and finish the map (it might have to do with the fact that I just read the Silmarillion again )

Anyways, i'll let you know when I start a new game with this map, and I'll try to finish this Nirnaeth Arnoediad scenario soon.

Talk to you later

Written by Noir Brillant, 28.03.2021 at 12:31

But then I thought ... I should finish what I start in life, so I decided i'd come back and finish the map

I appreciate the mindset, that's what always got me success in life.

Are you going to make Dorthonion and Hithlum Mountains no-go zone? That would be cool.

You can also check Pyrrhus' Return of the King (look at Mirkwood) and see how he drew the forest, maybe Doriath can be made the same way? It will emphasize the hard conditions to fight in the forest, between thick trees lines and leafs covering the light.

It's cringe but i must admit i overplayed Angmar War (war in arnor), because it is good story(and map) but it also reminds me of Beleriand (evil from the north invades the south), so that was the best and closest i could get to experience and feel the First Age xD