Edain 4.7: Rise of Angmar Campaign

[Elendils Cousin 3. Grades]

Greetings, Companions of Edain!

As we work on finalising the release of 4.7 we wanted to talk a bit about another addition that will be released with 4.7: the converted RotWK Rise of Angmar Campaign. Our older fans will remember that this is not the first time that this campaign has been released for Edain. In 2018, Necro and SilverElf converted it and released it as a submod which we showcased here. Now that Necro has joined the team, the campaign has been converted once again and officially added to Edain alongside the BFME2 good and evil campaigns.

The converted campaign will let you relive the glory of plunging the realm of Arnor into chaos (if you're into that sort of thing). At the head of your army, the reworked Witch-king, will bring the proud sons of Numenor to kneel. With every mission he is in, he will be able to pick a different sub faction of Angmar to bless, granting his favoured and himself various boons. Of course, the troll Rogash and the hillman chief Hwaldar will also be joining you in your adventures, their thirst for bloodshed and riches renewed with their Edain concepts.

Converting the campaign to Edain does mean having to say goodbye to a dearly beloved character: Morgomir. He will be replaced by Mornamarth, the actual second in command to the Witch-king in Edain's Angmar. However, do not expect these replacements to be one-for-one. We have made use of Angmar's extended roster of heroes to provide the player with a more diverse playstyle. The appearances of heroes will be based on their background and lore. Who better to venture into the North with the Witch-king to found his Kingdom than Durmarth, who tamed trolls in his past? Who better to convince the men of Rhudaur to join their cause than Zaphragor? And of course, who better to perform abhorrent rituals atop the barrows of Cardolan than Gulzar, the Sorcerer of Carn Dum? Many more changes have been made in terms of hero distribution and they are for you to discover.

Let us not forget to state the obvious, the campaign has been entirely converted to the fixed build plot system. In the past when you had builders you will now be given outposts, camps and settlements to gather resources. Be wary, your opponents will have often settled these plots ahead of time and you will have to claim them back in order to use them. As a bonus, a few of the spells and abilities of heroes have been changed specifically for the campaign to better fit.

We have balanced the campaign to the best of our ability, lower difficulties will allow the player to enjoy the story and usually resolve most problems with a single attack-move. On the other hand, enabling the Ring Hero mode will up the difficulty to Brutal. Enemies will be more numerous, better armed, use more abilities and come at you more often. You can make full use of the AI difficulty level and handicap bar to fine-tune the campaign as you want.

The campaign contains a total of 10 missions, one more than the vanilla campaign. A hidden unfinished mission has been polished and added to the list. You will be able to lead Rogash and his brethren on their quest to "convince" the orcs of Gundabad to join the Witch-king. Those who finish all 9 missions of the campaign will be able to turn their coats and lead an army of Elves and Men against the forces of Angmar, featuring the reworked Guards of the Fountain Court!

As a small preview, we played through the first mission of the campaign. You can check it out on YouTube:

Converting campaigns to work with the WotR system has been quite a challenge but opens up many possibilities for future additional campaigns and we are excited to present our ideas to you in the future. As always, we look forward to your feedback!

Your Edain Team