Rivendell/Imladris Units/Mechanics/Tactical&Strategical Suggestions

[Aize]

I loved Imladris from 3.8, and they have the best mechanics in terms of Units and upgrades. But I would like to suggest a different approach to them in Edain 4.0, the only thing I didn't like is that I would need to get lots of battalion to have a fair elven army, unlike the Lorien battalions which had a fair amount of units in them. And I know it states in the lore that there are very few quenya elves but if you could make this as an exception adding 1 more row of battalion.

So my solution would be:

Just like the starting battle of 'The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring'', you would see that the Elven Archers would be aligned behind the elven spearmen, this suggestion is only IF you can do it, make the Elven Archers or Elven Spearmen join battalions just like the Barricade-shielded Uruk-Hais with other Heavy Uruk battalion, it would be awesome to see the Elven Archers shoot an orc battalion from afar whilst the Elven Spearmen/Elven Swordsmen would ready to have defensive tactics of decreasing melee damage as well as range damage but decreases in input damage.
The thing that would isolate this tactical advantage from the other factions would be that you could combine each unit battalions; Elven Archers with Elven Champions, Elven Champions with Elven Spearmen, Elven Spearmen with Elven Swordsman and vice versa.

And another addition with Rivendell units would be the Instrumentalists that played in The Hobbit, they could be a similar unit like the singing bards of Lothlorien. But I wouldn't know about the music implementation, but it would be really cool if they were playing music (re-enacting drummers of war) AND they could also be merged into a battalion. Music is something that the Noldor loved, and having that as an addition within the Imladris faction, it would be a pretty perfect.

And lastly if you guys aren't already considering it, but if you can add heavy armor looking options in the Customized Heroes it would be pretty awesome if I could create the High Elven Kings of old, with their awesome golden heavy armor and spear.

Everything else seemed balanced for me or I could be overlooking things since the mod is so epic! I already voted for you guys, good luck! And stay Epic and Awesome!

[™Æ¿® Aragorn £ ‡™]

I agree with your suggestion, but why harps when you have...

https://www.google.com/search?q=Elrond+holding+a+guitar&biw=1600&bih=809&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEuIeW2NDJAhWHeCYKHTswBi4Q_AUIBigB#imgrc=skfucq9YgeFzjM%3A

[The_Necromancer0]

I agree with your suggestion, but why harps when you have...

https://www.google.com/search?q=Elrond+holding+a+guitar&biw=1600&bih=809&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEuIeW2NDJAhWHeCYKHTswBi4Q_AUIBigB#imgrc=skfucq9YgeFzjM%3A

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA 

Just like the starting battle of 'The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring'', you would see that the Elven Archers would be aligned behind the elven spearmen, this suggestion is only IF you can do it, make the Elven Archers or Elven Spearmen join battalions just like the Barricade-shielded Uruk-Hais with other Heavy Uruk battalion, it would be awesome to see the Elven Archers shoot an orc battalion from afar whilst the Elven Spearmen/Elven Swordsmen would ready to have defensive tactics of decreasing melee damage as well as range damage but decreases in input damage.
The thing that would isolate this tactical advantage from the other factions would be that you could combine each unit battalions; Elven Archers with Elven Champions, Elven Champions with Elven Spearmen, Elven Spearmen with Elven Swordsman and vice versa.

I agree with this, back in BFME 1 you could pretty merge anything with anything, elves with elves, soldiers with archers, pike men with uruks, and even peasant with cavalry although i never saw the idea behind it. I think that this could be one major feature of Imladris, the ability to merge to create stronger battalions.

In 3.8.1 you could already merge the mages together to unlock new abilities, so why not expand? I say keep the battalions sizes the same but allow units to merge and cancel out each others weakness E.G spearmen and swordsmen cancels out weakness to cavalry and swordsmen but makes them slower.

Just my two cents, eager to listen to what other people think about it.

[Spacetyrant93]

Late comment is late, but...

I have to say your idea is very interesting. From the previous versions, the main feature of Imladris was that its soldiers need no experience, as they have trained in martial arts for centuries, and so are pretty much the strongest base combat units. I don't know if that will be changed, but the concept was perfect.
So, given their ability to fight, it would make sense for them to be able to fight mixed together, spearmen defending their archer companions and so on, as the feature was already present in mages, so it's not out of place. And one would imagine that being few in numbers and training for so long, they got used at working all together. This is a feature that would indeed differentiate Imladris even more from all other factions.

On the music, I wouldn't know, as it currently is very implemented in Lothorien, and while Galadriel has her Chanteuses, Imladris's special units are the Scholars, whose deep immersion in the studies of various arts give the faction all the power it needs. While it would be an interesting concept, I don't really see Rivendell's musicians running to the battlefield with heavily-armored troops (unless they look like this http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101004125356/saintseiya/images/b/bb/Silver_-_Lyra_Orphee.jpg XD ), and that would be kinda too similar to Lothlorien. I admit I would like to see the music implemented, but also Imladris has the Song of Luthien as a music-related spell, so I really wouldn't know.
Perhaps the musicians could be part of an extension of the fortress (like in previous versions there were the mages atop towers) that give it extra defense slowing and debuffing enemy units. That is IF there will be any fortress extension, as there could be other options for such buildings: a Sacred Fountain (sacrileged by Dwarves XD) to heal closeby units, Resting Areas (more CP), and so on. I'm just throwing concepts out there here, but I hope you get what I mean.

And I agree on the CaH thing of having armored units. Well, even having melee Elves wouldn't be so bad

[Aize]

Witnessing that other people agrees with me assures that I'm not alone on this concept.  It's  a promising idea that I hope the ET would really consider trying to implement. I'm already picturing the formations I'm going to be merging whenever I play lothlorien elves, that's how excited I am with this!

Regarding the muses for Imladris, I do agree, they aren't necessary, at the time I thought it'd be a cool addition because I was playing Lothlorien every single day, and the chanters are amazingly good against heroes as well as siege with merely three infantry battalions they can accompany with. And having Luthien in the field should be enough for Imladris, and I was blown away to how accurate it was in Edain 3.8.

And another reason why I want a merging battalion relates to one of the minor problems I had with 3.8, as we are all obviously aware with how the goblins faction spam it's army, it's really daunting, even if it's a 1v1, the goblin spam is intended to swarm the enemy, and I love that, but in the case of Imladris units, It's annoying to only cover so little ground with the battalions, I want to feel the immovable formation that the Elves' are known for, and merging battalions is the solution. And as you pointed out, it really does differentiate, not only in style but also in gameplay. For example, would you merge units to create a compelling army to go frontal assault on the enemy? or will you just send and reinforce bands of units across the map to get minor control over the enemy.

But i would like a negative take on this, so far all I could think about is how it's going to be implemented.

[Spacetyrant93]

It indeed is a really promising idea, I too hope the Team will consider it

Indeed. Isn't there Gildor as well that sings? That guy scared me with his singing the first time I used it XD

Agree on everything here.

Well, a negative could be that it would possibly be kind of complex to implement for the Team, as every combination would mean a new number of pros and cons, and while functional, it would perhaps be laborious while swarmed by Goblins. One could say you need the Scholars to unlock the troop's ability to mix, or like the mages, to unlock particular abilities (if any). That is, if Imladris's not complex and different enough from the others. I suppose we'll have to see.

[Melkor Bauglir]

I have to say, I don't really like this combination feature if it isn't for a certainly unique system (like Isengard's Shield-Uruks, Imladris' Lightbringers or Mordor's Orc-Overseers).
Mainly it has the advantage of getting heavily reduced upgrade costs because you don't pay double. I actually think, this was the reason why it was implement at all in Battle for Middle Earth, because e.g. Isengard relied heavily on their upgrades, but they were super expensive. (And OK; some archer units could be protected in that way, but the game didn't rely as much as Edain on big battles.)
I don't think those features are really fitting for the high Elves of Imladris and one of their main concepts (the abilities, they get from upgrading the library) would just be unable to be used rightfully, because the palantirs don't have that much space.

Greetings
Melkor Bauglir

[Sir_Stig]

If it isn't too hard to code, could you maybe give it to the beta testers and see how it plays? it might be way too strong, or not beneficial at all, but the idea itself would be very cool to see, and movie accurate as well.

[Walküre]

This proposal kind of interests me, indeed, and it's backed by more or less valid reasons, at least on a pure and basic logical aspect.

Nevertheless, it doesn't really convince me completely.
The special characteristic of the Noldorin soldiers of Imladris is already well represented by their limited number, which already marks a clear distinction from the other factions as well (along with other features that involve the core of Rivendell's warfare, the infantry).

And, I agree with the problematics raised by Melkor Bauglir.
In simple words, I don't personally see it as a concept which could see light in the Edain Mod; I believe that this system might disrupt the common premises that tie together the gameplay aspects of the game (that still have their importance, albeit each faction's diversity).

Greetings 

[NetoD20]

As a huge Imladris fan I LOVE this idea. I think it's a perfect fit with their non-experience gaining concept. I would love to pair archers/spearmen and mages/weaponsmasters and so on (and that would be great to fight off siege tower incursions).
Still think that Imladris battalions should still be made of only one roll of soldiers (until the moment you pair two battalions together, of course). I loved how I only needed a small army to defeat much more numerous foes in the field, it was so badass to play Imladris on 3.8.1.

[Aule the creator]

all of imaldris units have there own abilities when you use scholar on them unless you can use them both when u put them together then yes if not then that will prolly ruin their way of fighting  imaldris really strong

[NetoD20]

all of imaldris units have there own abilities when you use scholar on them unless you can use them both when u put them together then yes if not then that will prolly ruin their way of fighting  imaldris really strong

Yes. I was all in favour of the attaching mechanic, but I have to agree with the man ^

[Aize]

I got another solution for that. I mean why stop there when its just 3.8 mechanic. Whole point of 4.0 is because its new, what if, we can have two options at start for Imladris, the third age way which would be what is in 3.8, or the second age, which would be the merging units, granted, its a prob gonna be a difficult implementation, but i just want a new mechanic that works, and having both play styles to choose from is really what makes Imladris versitile in terms with gameplay in comparison with the other factions. It, among the goblins, being ancient and so respectfully great, we can have these two playstyles called as Strategic Imladris where u can merge units to gain defensive capabilities as well as sustainability and/or Tactical Imladris which adds variety of knowledgable skills to gain the upperhand onto the enemy. I say the Edain Team can do it without a doubt, this can remove the trouble for the old mechnic merging with the new mechanic.