Greetings, companions of Edain!
Today we bear good and bad news for the community.
On one side, unfortunately, we must inform you that the next 4.6 version will not include the Misty Mountains. Some of the reasons lie in the simple fact that our current ‘graphics situation’ is still quite problematical, as one may have read in our “
We are looking for talents” article. On the other side, none of our modellers is currently motivated enough to work on the Goblins, and, since all of this is nothing more than a hobby and fun activity of ours, we cannot force anyone to do anything at all, if a team member does not feel like embarking on whatsoever demanding task.
Anyhow, given that we did want another faction to come with the next patch, we conducted a survey among our modellers on what they were willing to pour their effort and energy in, and we found out that they were particularly interested in the following things:
* “
I find Variags and Khand interesting.”
* “
I would be glad to work on Dark Númenóreans.”
* “
I would like to create war chariots.”
* “
I would overhaul Men of Dunland and Rhudaur.”
Furthermore, we decided to give way to public suggestions and present the community with a very clear, final response to those who have been proposing concepts on new factions until now, the majority of whom have expressed in favour of exploring the lore of both Rhûn and Harad.
Hence, we ultimately agreed to answer people’s requests and our own team’s needs with the addition of a brand-new faction.
Wild Men
Wild Men are not a lone faction, but, rather, they comprise a diverse ensemble of sub-factions:
* Harad
* Rhûn
* Variags
* Dunland
* Rhudaur
* Charioteers
* Vales of Anduin
* Lossoth
* Umbar
The whole system has its advantages. If we had implemented one or two of the said sub-factions as independent features, we would have lacked loads of lore references to base anything on, resulting in us having to fill all gaps with made-up heroes or units and thus missing out a lot on what concerns canons (books and films). However, thanks to sub-factions, we can easily circumvent the aforementioned risk and simply stick by lore-accurate material.
We also happen to have a few models ready for use, and this relieves our modellers from extra burdens, while they are allowed more spare time to concentrate upon what they really want to do.
Lastly, there’s an exquisitely unique element to the entire structure of the main faction, which revolves around and depends on the sum of its varying parts, and such a solution is shown to differ considerably with anything we have ever seen in Edain. It is our view that the said high degree of diversification makes the Wild Men a great asset for the modification.
The sub-factions
You may notice how the number of sub-factions equals that of all the other factions existing in the game as we speak. In no way is this a coincidence: the Wild Men do not choose their sub-factions freely, as Dwarves would do, but they pick them according to their opponent’s choice.
Our goal is to offer an enough challenging game to the player and force him out of his comfort zone, because the situation compels whatever established strategy to change and permits people to be far more creative in their own playing style. From their viewpoint, Wild Men embody a brutish, barbaric rabble of savages, who are only so much efficient in countering the adversary’s moves, instead of planning extravagant tactics on their own.
Namely,
Harad is thought to represent the natural foe of
Gondor: the former’s troops are very good at negating leaderships, neutralising heavy armours, and disrupting the latter faction’s formations, for they deal damage that cannot be reduced in any way.
Dunland, from its part, proves very much effective against
Rohan: the player has immediate access to spearmen who make it hard for cavalry to determine the fate of the game alone, whilst looters interfere with farms and the spawning of peasants (acting in a manner which is not so dissimilar from early-game siege machines).
When it comes to
Charioteers, though, their lethality towards archers of all kinds renders them the perfect weapon to throw in battle against
Lothlórien (the fact that chariots are equipped with shield-bearers helps to shield them from enemy volleys, too).
This being but a small overview on sub-factions, we’re going to provide you with several other details very soon. Just, we would like to highlight the role of
Umbar, which is the sub-faction you play with when your opponent is also playing with Wild Men. Our first idea was to give players a full array of options from all sub-factions, but we had to ditch initial plans due to the high specialisation of every sub-faction and the prospect of being trapped in a loop of pre-determined games, as our early tests have revealed. So, Umbar was specifically designed to be the all-rounder of the case, allowing for standard units who are available from the very start.
Alliances
Wild Men fall naturally short of wide ranks of troops and unit types (Variags, to cite an example, are left without ranged units); they don’t fare any better in regards to siege weapons, either (people from the Vales of Anduin have none). To obviate such underlying issue, Wild Men make either short or long-lasting alliances.
Alliance of Peoples
One good example is the central spell “
Alliance of Peoples”, which is envisioned to unlock further sub-factions and therefore make up for your disadvantage or exploit that of the opponent at his own expense, as it gets much easier to switch strategy and tailor your game on any specific eventuality.
Via the “
Mercenary” spell, on the defensive tree, you may recruit troops belonging to other sub-factions in the selected military structure, though at a 50% higher cost.
Overall, we deem it a well-thought spell-book, able to interact quite well with the holistic mechanics at the root of Wild Men and work in synergy with every soul of this multifaceted world. We are looking forward to telling you about spells in more lengthy fashion in future articles.
Buildings
All buildings that have been agreed upon were made after the most neutral architectural style possible, and this is subject to Wild Men being a rather simplistic folk and not so much skilled in construction. Consequently, most structures come in the form of tents or basic dwellings.
The Dunland camp at game start with a Tent of Warriors
In the
Tent of Warriors, for example, you can find your relative melee fighters and those from other sub-factions that are temporarily or permanently unavailable. As the game goes on, the player will upgrade the barracks and unlock elite units (or other bonuses connected with different sub-factions).
The same applies to the Training Place, where you call upon the aid of bowmen, the Workplace, for siege machinery, and the Stables. However, not all sub-factions begin with every single one of the listed buildings.
Additionally, each sub-faction is granted a special building both in camps or in settlement areas.
Here is a quick glimpse into the Wild Men’s camp:
Because of our modellers having just recently begun to work on Wild Men, bear in mind that it is still work-in-progress content, and is the only thing we can show you, for now.
We hope you enjoyed the read and look forward to your precious feedback.
Your Edain Team
Thema: April fools 2020 (Gelesen 1951 mal)