Dragon Heroes: Smaug or Drogoth?

[goat stealer]

It's common knowledge that concerning Misty Mountain heroes, Smaug is going to replace Drogoth as a recruitable dragon hero and it's a fairly popular decision. After all Smaug is the iconic dragon of Middle Earth whereas Drogoth is non-canon and exists only in BFME2, between that and the fact that Smaug actually has a personality it's not hard to see why such a change would be implemented.

But despite that I can't help but wonder whether or not Smaug would be more fitting as MM's dragon hero/commander.

Lets take a quick look at Smaug: Last great Fire Drake who took Erebor and sat on it's vast treasures until Thorin came along but until then, he was content in ignoring whatever nonsense went on outside the mountain. His love of gold is enough to spring him into action as evidenced by his original attack and his later attack on Laketown so it could be argued that he could be bribed into fighting for Sauron but ultimately he comes across as a dragon who's only allegiance is with himself, I've only found one suggestion that he was going to throw in with Sauron and that was from Thrain before he wilhelm-screamed to his death in Desolation of Smaug.

Then there's Drogoth who really doesn't have a lot going on for him outside of the narrative cutscenes in BFME2 and to be fair, he is ultimately persuaded into serving Sauron through reward but regarding the evil campaign mission that centralizes around his recruitment, Sauron saw a potential ally in him and the other dragons due to their intense hate for dwarves and had his orcs free the captured drakes in an attempt to win favor with him - Again it's not a whole lot to go off on but to me it makes Drogoth seem like more of a fitting hero/commander for Sauron's hordes than Smaug.

Lastly I also feel like his Edain mod 3.81 incarnation is/was too good to simply throw out the window. I know a lot of people don't care too much for him both inside and outside of Edain but I'm certainly fond of him, had a lot of fun with him in 3.81 as well. This isn't to say that Smaug wouldn't be an awesome MM hero or that he shouldn't be included, I just believe that he'd be better off as the faction's ring hero and leave Drogoth to be recruitable like before.

What do you guys think? Who'd you prefer?

[The_Necromancer0]

It's a bit far to theorize in the future but sure. Definitely Smaug. Mostly for the cannon cs non-canon thing but also just because it feels more right to have Smaug instead of some random creation of a company drunk with it's own glory. In addition, as far as I know, Smaug is the centerpiece of MM but he's definitely not the commander. The minor commanders were the Goblink King (Goblintown), the Defiler (Gundabad) and whoever is planned for Moria.
So definitely Smaug, also, having two dragon heroes might be a bit too much don't you think? But I definitely think that the lack of cannon of Drogoth will push the Edain Team to quickly discard him unless there is some vital need of him.

[hoho96]

You can discuss all you want in the thread but the poll is really pointless since the team's already taken a decision and are going with Smaug.
He's going to be like the MM super weapon, not a commander per say. As Necromancer said MM will be commanded by Bolg. The other heroes will represent their mini factions.

[Walküre]

With the due respect for the time spent on this post and the relative thoughts lying behind it, not only do I too believe that the poll was quite meaningless, but I also think that the topic itself is not conceptual enough to remain open.

As it's written in the very first post, from the very author, removing Drogoth was a very reasonable choice and backed by strong motivations. There is a very explanatory article on ModDB about it. The Edain Team has thus already given the proper answers and defined concretely the guidelines of what was and will be the shaping of the new Misty Mountains faction. The fact that the faction is not available yet doesn't obviously impose strict restrictions on the Community's discussions, but these are very clear points indeed.

Also, regarding the Edain Mod 3.8.1, I always thought that (albeit respecting and admiring that version) it was often kind of chaotic in its game architecture and a bit confusing due to the many details involved, combined with the free building system (that gave the version a distinctive 'loose nature', with positive and negative outcomes). Especially, the Misty Mountains faction was probably the most evident evidence of that; the faction was exactly conceived as the gathering place of the foulest and most horrible beasts of Middle Earth, and many not canonical elements still had a prominent role in the gameplay (but, we know that most of that was also naturally caused by the scarce material from the Hobbit trilogy that was available at that time).

Therefore, the new Misty Mountains faction has necessarily had to get rid of some of its parts that couldn't be fitting at all in the new rational spirit of the 4.0 version. Not to mention all the precious pieces from the Hobbit trilogy that were added and other ones that might still need to be included in the game. Drogoth symbolises the past, and I think it would be better if we focused on the future (a more lore accurate and consistent future).

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