Edain 4.7: Dale

[Elendils Cousin 3. Grades]

Greetings, companions of the Edain!

After showing you our rework of the Lake-town outpost for the dwarves of the Ered Luin in the last article, we make our next stop at its Erebor equivalent: Dale. Same as Lake-town, it has received a complete visual overhaul, gotten several new upgrades and its own unique advantages to make it stand out from the standard dwarven outpost. Unlike Lake-town, it focuses on powerful defensive upgrades and trading with your settlements.

The new Dale outpost follows the same basic idea we introduced to you with Lake-town. You start out with a small, cheap structure that gains experience over time, eventually growing into a great city if Dale reaches level ten. You can again choose between four basic upgrades and four advanced ones, although Dale's final upgrade requires more than just a single basic upgrade, as you will see. We start out with these four upgrades that become available at level two:

Basic:
Warehouses: Constructs Warehouses that generate resources. Unlocks the Traders of Dale ability. Prerequisite for Dwarven Craftsmen.
Toymarket: Constructs a Toymarket. Generates resources. Increases the resources gained from Caravans returning to Dale. Prerequisite for Fountain.
Militia House: Constructs a militia house. Enables the recruitment of Dale's melee fighters and the hero Brand. Prerequisite for the Palace.
Watchtower: Constructs a defensive tower which fires arrows at nearby enemies. Drastically improves armor against melee attacks. Prerequisite for Windlance.

Just like Lake-town, the Dale outpost will also gain access to a new ability once the Warehouses have been constructed. Inspired by its description as a flourishing city near the great kingdom of Erebor, we implemented a system that connects the outpost to your settlements:

Traders of Dale: Requires: Warehouses. The city of Dale was a prosperous trade hub, its markets known far and wide and a destination for many. Sends a trader to a settlement to establish a trade route. If the settlement is reached, it will frequently send trade caravans towards Dale, creating roads on their path and generating money upon their arrival in Dale. Left-click on a Lumbermill, Mineshaft or Traveling Camp.

The more traderoutes you establish, the more money Dale will generate. These traders function on their own, automatically seeking out the settlement you chose and starting a frequent stream of traders returning to Dale until either the settlement or Dale is destroyed (or you win the game). On top of that, the traders returning to Dale will create roads on their path that offer additional advantages if you construct more advanced expansions:

Advanced:
Dwarven Craftsmen: Constructs a workshop for skilled dwarven smiths. Roads constructed by Dwarven Traders will now provide +25% movement speed to allied units, heroes and machines.
Fountain: Constructs a fountain. Units in the area are healed and regenerate fallen soldiers.
Palace: Constructs a Palace. Enables recruitment of Dale's elite archers. Prerequisite for Windlance.
Windlance: Constructs a Windlance. Powerful defensive artillery weapon that deals additional damage to monsters.

As you can see, the Windlance requires both the Palace and the Watchtower before it can be constructed, as it is positioned right on top of the Palace itself. It deals significant damage to its primary target and additional area damage around it, making Dale a formidable bastion - should you choose to go down this upgrade path. Plus, it can attack flying units.

Once again, you have plenty of different routes to take. Interested in strong ranged units to bolster your powerful dwarven frontline? Going straight for the Palace will allow you to recruit elite archers and support them with Brand. Need a defensive stronghold to repel enemy attacks? Watchtower and Windlance will make sure all enemies have to invest into strong siege weapons to attack your position. Creating a larger and more powerful economy is what you need? The Warehouses, Toymarket and Dwarven Craftsmen will generate more and more money, the greater your network of trader grows - and it even makes defending your settlements easier!

If you want to see some ingame footage of the new Dale outpost, check out our YouTube channel:

We hope you liked those insights into our Dale overhaul and are, as always, looking forward to your feedback!

Your Edain team