[en] Edain Mod > [Edain] Lothlorien Suggestions

Unit Proposal: Woodmen of Anduin

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Fredius:
Woodmen of Anduin

Greetings ladies and gentlemen :),

Today I would like to present to you a new addition to Lothlorien: the Men of the Vale of Anduin, also known as the Woodmen of Anduin. In this proposal I will go through the reasons why we should add them to the faction (both lore- and gameplay wise), how we should implement them (and their role in the mod), and how their visual design should, in my opinion, look like. Now, this might look like a wall of text, but please bear with me, it's worth it xD.




--- Zitat ---Most of the Men of the northern regions of the Westlands were descended from the Edain of the First Age, or from their close kin.[...]Of this kind were the peoples of the upper vales of Anduin: the Beornings, and the Woodmen of Western Mirkwood; and further north and east the Men of the Long Lake and of Dale.
--- Ende Zitat ---
—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age", "Of Men"

ReasonNow, on to the matter at hand: why should the Woodmen be added to Lothlorien, on a lore wise perspective? The first and most important argument is that the faction of Anduin is already present within the faction. The Men of the Anduin also consist of the Beornings, and they are already present within the faction. Adding the Woodmen, whom saw Grimbeorn as their chieftain, to the mod would just be a way to expand the role of these people in the faction, for I believe they deserve to be mentioned in the mod as well.

It may be obvious, but it’s important to know that there live common Men, who are not gifted with some mystical power like the Beornings, within the Vale of Anduin and Greenwood (now Mirkwood). They might not have been a powerhouse like Gondor or Rohan, but they were very capable of defending themselves. I quote from Tolkien Gateway: “The Wargs and the Orcs of the Misty Mountains usually did not dare to approach as they were brave and well-armed”. Thus I believe it would be appropriate to include them in a military sense.

Lothlorien isn’t a faction that only has the Kingdom of Lothlorien among its ranks. The faction consists also of the Kingdom of Mirkwood, Beornings and the Ents (plus Huorns), therefore I see Lothlorien as a faction that encompasses several independent kingdoms who do not belong to either of them; they’re very similar to the Imladris faction on that matter.

Now, gameplay wise I think the Beornings are a bit overrepresented in the mod. In my matches against Lothlorien, I’ve seen the AI send countless of Beornings to the battlefield almost as easily as building regular Elven troops. Don’t you think it’s weird to be able to get an army of Beornings at your disposal? My belief is that they should be a rare elite unit, and not just cannon fodder. Thus I propose that the Woodsmen of Anduin should be the main representation of the Anduin Men, and the Beornings should be changed to elites, as they should be.

ImplementationHow should these Men be implemented into to the mod? The most logical way would in my opinion be via the Beorning Homestead. Once you build the Homestead, you can only recruit the Woodmen, and you can’t build the Beornings until you reach level 3. From there on you can build the Beornings as a late game tank. The role of the Woodsmen will be that of Medium Infantry; more armoured than the Lorien Elves, but less armoured than the Mirkwood Elves. I will expand upon their role with the unit designs.

Visual DesignNow I will explain my view of the unit’s visual design. Since the Men of the Anduin share a common ancestry with the Rohirrim, I figure the Woodmen should have a similar appearance in their armour, but still different. The Rohirrim’s armour are based on Norse and Viking armour, and I’d like to keep that motive in the design of the unit. From what I’ve seen in the movies is that the Rohirrim either wear scaled armour, or a leather cuirass. So I thought, why not combine these two styles, and what came out of it is a Viking leather Lamellar armour piece!



A combination of the scale-style small pieces of armour, but made of leather instead of metal. Ofcourse some Middle-Earth influences would probably suffice, but I would let the team decide on that.
From what I can see is that the Rohirrim helmets are also based on Viking helmets, but luckily there are a lot of different Viking helmet designs that are unused in the movies. Some examples that I found:






I think either the second or the third helmet would fit perfectly with the leather armour, but I don’t think a metal helmet would be inappropriate; it would look just fine. Just like with the armour, the helmet can also use some Middle-Earth influences on it.

Unit role and WeaponryNow comes the design of the weapons. Here I will also explain the role of the unit. From my own matches with Lothlorien I always had trouble defending both the base and my settlement plots. An early game Orc rush, combined with Mordor’s many heroes, requires a lot of troops to defend all my inner and outer buildings. When I build a Beorning Homestead or an Entmoot, I need to send Lorien troops to defend it from enemy spam attacks, but at the same time I leave my base defenceless, because a Beorning or Ent quickly dies without support. Unless I build a Mirkwood outpost as soon as possible, I can almost guarantee that I will lose the match. This is where the Woodmen come in. Since they are medium armoured, they are far better suited to defend the settlement plots than the very light Lorien units. Troll and cavalry rushes are especially dangerous, so I would equip the Woodmen with a polearm. A polearm also fits the lifestyle of Men who live in the woods as hunters or farmers, but are also a great defence against Monster units or cavalry. So summed up, they will be Lorien’s early guard units.

As for weaponry, we don’t want them to carry a “generic” spear, but rather a Middle-Earth inspired one, I chose to use a gisarme or a fauchard fork as their weapon. To me, they look as outlandish as one could expect from a weapon straight out of Middle-Earth, and are, again, a great counter to cavalry and Monster units:



Finally, the upgrades. I don’t want to make this unit too complex, so I won’t give them any unique upgrades apart from Banner Carriers and Forged Blades. However, I’d like to give them a passive power, which strengthens the idea that they are Men from the woods. I call it “Born Hunters”, they have the ability to stealth themselves between the trees, and are excellent at hunting Monster creatures like Trolls, spiders, and ofcourse cavalry as well.

So let me know what you think of them, and if they are a worthy to be implemented into the mod! Ofcourse everything I described above is up for debate, and if you have other alternatives for some ideas then feel free to post them. I for one would love to see as much of Middle-Earth as possible, and this includes the Men of Anduin as well xD.

Sources:
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Woodmen
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Men_of_the_Vales_of_Anduin
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Vales_of_Anduin

Players IN FAVOR of the concept:
Fredius
Julio229
Lord Aytugar
lordoflinks
LordDainIronfoot
The_Necromancer0
Die Walküre
kingsjewel
lahe95
Dain@
Ectheldir
FilipGeorg95
OakenShield224
Elessar_The_King
Hamanathnath
Tirano
Garlodur
Slawek56703
Tolgayurdal
Dkbluewizard2

Players AGAINST the concept:
TheDarkOne

Julio229:
This is an amazing proposal, Fredius! It is really well researched and has a clear purpose in gameplay. I agree Beornings are too common in Lothlorien right now, and if they are going to get a buff with the Gifts of Lorien proposal, it can only be good that they are changed to be late-game units. It also helps representing one of the areas of Middle-Earth that hasn't got a lot in the Mod, the Vales of the Anduin.

Lord Aytugar:
Good job Fredius! The implementation and visuals are decent. They are part of Middle Earth and they need to present. Of course i support this proposal :)

Fredius:
Thanks guys xD!

I knew you'd like it Lord Aytugar, at first I had a different idea in mind but your idea to have them build from the Beorning Homestead was much better, thanks for that :).

lordoflinks:
This concept goes above and beyond what is needed for a single unit.
I fully support this, as not only does it allows beornings to gain their elite status, it gives representation to the vale of anduin.

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