Hello Edain community! Today I'm hoping we can have a nice discussion on what to do about Imladris' siege engines/mechanic. A few months ago there was a fairly large discussion on Moddb about it, with the general consensus being that the Lightbringers (3.8 siege 'wizards', for those who don't know) aren't consistent with the lore and that Imladris could probably do with a new siege.
So, I though to put it to a poll, to see what the general consensus on here is. These are the general options I feel are realistically possible.
Option 1: Keep the Lightbringers. Exactly what it says, we keep the lightbringers as the siege, lore issues and all. Some people thought of them as the most iconic and different part of the 3.8.1 faction, so its not outside of the realm of possibility that they remain the siege if there is enough support for them.
Option 2: Develop a uniquely elven siege engine. We design a new siege engine to match thematically with the Imladris faction, that would function the same as the siege for any other faction. I personally have no thoughts of a siege design that would look suitably Elven, but I'm interested to see if anyone has any ideas, because this seems the simplest solution to the problem.
Option 3: Unit Upgrades. Essentially give the Imladris melee units the ability to upgrade to have increased damage to structures. These would function essentially the same as the Dwarven Siege hammers, but would apply to all melee units. Imladris is already planned as a Infantry-Heavy faction, so this could work well with their play style.
Option 4: Put the siege engines in with the Dunedain. The Dunedain Camp on the settlement is designed to help supplement the Imladris faction's weaknesses, and the Men of the North could bring their siege engines to compensate for the Elves lack of them. Personally I think this idea is the worst, due to the fact that it would basically require an Imladris player to build the Dunedain camp to gain their siege.
If you have an idea for a solution to the siege issues, just say it.
Hope we can all have a nice discussion.
VectorMaximus