The Road to Edain 4.8: New Maps

[Elendils Cousin 3. Grades]

Greetings, companions of the Edain!

Behind today's door of our Advent Calendar hides an article where we want to present you three new maps that will be introduced in version 4.8 that are different from your ordinary skirmish maps. They include a new Belfalas map, a new horde map and a completely new type of map altogether.

Exploration - Belfalas: Loeg Waerin

This marshland at the coast of Belfalas is often taken by the tides and the flood brings many changes. Both a Belfalas map and a new map type, Loeg Waerin is our first Exploration map.
Exploration maps are shrouded from the start of the game. This means that the player has to explore where the settlements or outposts are, where wild lairs may ambush your forces and where the easiest path towards the enemy lies - hence the name. Therefore, scouting is an important part of the map. But this shroud is not the only thing making our Exploration maps unique. You might think this is easy to remember after playing the map once and thus the map might loose replayability; however, that's where the tides come in on Loeg Waerin. Every time you play the map, the layout will be slightly different, as well as the positions of the lairs, outposts and settlements.

Low tide, medium tide, high tide

Exploration: Mines of Moria

Another Exploration map, this time in the mines of Moria, where a small expedition has left the player in a wide hallway. Nothing here is certain, except that the goblins are soon to arrive. Drums in the deep...

In contrast to the Exploration map above, this one isn't designed to fight in a relatively normal skirmish setting against other players. Instead, the player has to survive against the goblins of Moria and everything else that dwells in those dungeons deep and caverns old. Resources are scarce and thus the player has to search the map for more.

Offering over a billion of possible layouts, the mines of Moria are seemingly endless and might be quite different from what you remember of your last game. Your expedition finds itself in different corners of Khazad-Dûm each time, so you have to explore them from scratch.

Just a couple of possible layouts

These exploration maps are quite experimental in many ways, so we are very much looking forward to your feedback after playing them!

Horde: Thranduil's Halls

This new Horde map is based on a map created by Brechstange and Halbarad. Depicting an attack on the Great Greenwood and the halls of the Elvenking, this is the first Horde map in Edain to feature the armies of the Misty Mountains as adversaries.

Thranduil's Halls might seem strongly fortified being an underground fortress that is only accessible through two strong gates; not to mention additional thick walls further outside that hinder anyone trying to approach them. And the goblins of the Misty Mountains seem particular ill equipped, having no siege weapons on their own and having to rely on monsters like Trolls and Great Beasts to even breach a gate. However, the player shouldn't underestimate the Goblin-town goblins, who might be weak fighters, but clever engineers.

Who needs to demolish a fortification when the tunnel-diggers can just tunnel through it?

Who needs to scale a wall when the goblin builders can build annoying scaffoldings and claim it that way?

Who needs to breach a gate when you can just find a secret entrance behind it?

Of course there are also the Troll-Drums and the infamous Spiders of the Mirkwood you should pay attention to. Rumour has it that this goblin raid may have even caught the attention of bigger, more dangerous beasts of the North...

But don't lose hope, as not everything is lost for the Elves of Mirkwood. Even in the waning days of the Third Age, they have hidden allies as well. If the player plays as Lothlorien on this Horde Map, they can build the Mirkwood Archery Range on settlements, allowing them to recruit Tauriel and woodelven fighters and archers.

Mirkwood allies

Can you withstand the Hordes of the Misty Mountains? Or will you only find death and destruction among the ruins of Thranduil's Halls?


Of course, 4.8 will bring many more fixes and improvements to other maps as well. "Mission: Watching the Shire" was fixed and should now work as intended, Argonath has been changed into a map that starts with castles instead of camps, and many more changes can be discovered.
We hope you will enjoy these new special maps and are interested to hear what you think about them.

Your Edain Team