End of the Third Age

[Zim]

All across Middle Earth armies are mustering. In Mordor the Orc tribes gather into mighty hosts led by the Nazghul, chief among the servants of Sauron. To the northeast the tribes of the Rhun ride forth while to the southeast the Haradrim gather to march against their enemy Gondor once more. Meanwhile Saruman has revealed the armies of half-orc, half human creatures he has created, though whether to aid his master Sauron or himself is unclear.

Arrayed against these forces are those of the free peoples. Gondor, ever the front line against Mordor, raises troops to defend its borders. Rohan's king Theoden has shaken off the malaise that had taken hold of him and cast away the vile Wormtongue, and now prepares his horsemen. The High Elves still left in Middle Earth have decided they will not remain uninvolved, and have joined Gondor and Rohan. Even the formerly quiet and scattered settlements in Eriador have begun to band together under the leadership of the Rangers in response to orcish incursions. The Third Age is coming to a close, but it is unclear which side will come to dominate the Fourth.

End of the Third Age is a Third Age: Total War hotseat played with the 2.1 version of the mod, with the upgraded barracks events disabled (allowing high tier troops to be built as soon as the infrastructure for them is complete).

Settings are as follows:
TATW 2.1 with barracks events disabled
VH/VH
Huge army size

Players:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Free Peoples:
1. Gondor: Zim
2. Rohan: Mithridate
3. Eriador: Rougeman
4. High Elves: Myth
5. Sylvan Elves: Slysnake

The Servants of Sauron:
5. Mordor: Nightbringer
6. Isengard: deguerra
7. Harad: LooseCannon1
8. Rhun: Thanatos Eclipse

Players are split into two teams (Free Peoples of Middle Earth and the Servants of Sauron), with each side having its own victory conditions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-The Free Peoples must take and hold for ten turns each the settlements of Barad Dur, Isengard, Hyarmen and Mistrand. All settlements must be held at once to achieve victory but each only has to be held for ten turns a single time (i.e., if Isengard is taken by Rohan and held for ten turns then briefly lost. It most only be recaptured to apply to the victories conditions, and not held a further ten turns).

-The Servants of Sauron must take and hold for ten turns the settlements of Minas Tirith, Edoras, Imladris, and Bree. Like the Free Peoples, they must hold all of their target settlements simultaneously to win but need only hold each for ten turns a single time in the game.

Rules:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-Battles are fought by the attacking player. Battles against rebels or between armies where one has a massive advantage in the number of units can be autoresolved (TATW's makers explicitly state autoresolve is a bit off in their mod still)

- Players shall post a link to the save game in the main game thread and also send a private message to the next player in line to alert them that it is their turn.

- Players have 48 hours to play each turn, with extensions granted at request. The GM will skip a players' turn if the deadline is missed with no communication and a sub allied to the player cannot be found.

- No spies may be used to open the gates of settlements or forts.

-Assassins are limited to sabotage missions only

- No destroying buildings for cash under any circumstances.

-Catapults and trebuchets may both be used to assault settlements with wooden or stone walls on the turn of the siege. Ballistas are not usable to assault settlements on the turn of the siege.

- If an army is beaten in battle by a faction that is after them in the turn order that army may not move on the following turn. The player that defeated them should post which armies were beaten to make it easier to follow this and the following rule.

- An army which is beaten in battle may not be attacked on the following turn (because it is immobilized either by the game mechanic or by the rule above) by any faction unless it has retreated to a fort or settlement.

-Evil armies may join "crusades" but not call them. Armies that have joined can only attack the target city.

- No exploits, including (but not limited to): no merchant forts, no surround-and-destroy, no reloads, no tribute deals that deliberately put you into debt greater than 10k, no deliberate diplomatic exchange of territories just to get a free garrison, no attacking ships in ports. If you are unsure if an action would be considered an exploit check with me.

[Zim]

First save for Gondor

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...id=205&id=9501

[Myth]

And so it has began...

By the way, taking a look at each starting position, two evil human factions have a button of provinces. This will be hard. Especially if Thanatos becomes a fourth for them. In such a case I'd want a fifth for us, one to take the wood elves.

[Thanatos Eclipse]

Did you get me down for Rhun?

Slysnake said he also wanted to play in the other thread, so he could be a 5th player for the Free People to balance out Mordor

[slysnake]

lol didn't realize that the other thread was actually for picking factions to >.<

EDIT: Looks like I'm taking Sylvan Elves? :)

[Zim]

Sorry Thanatos, I knew who were playing but didn't get it in the first post.

New save with Silvan added. It's now Rohan's turn!

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...id=205&id=9503

Here are directions for removing the barracks events, courtesy of the mod's FAQ. This will allow everyone to build advanced units as soon as they have the barracks for it, rather than waiting 32 turns for the last event. This should be connected to the save (meaning only I should have to do it) but just in case here's how it's done.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

M2TW/mods/Third_Age/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/descr_events.txt
Delete everything in this file, and save it.
M2TW/mods/Third_Age/data/export_descr_buildings.txt
Open this file with notepad and press CTRL+H. In the "Find what" field, type

"event_counter large_city_barracks 1" Leave the "Replace with" field blank, and click "replace all"

Repeat the process, but this time type

and "event_counter huge_city_barracks 1" in the find what field.
Save the file and you're done!

[CROPrasec]

How do i know if i have to do this or not?? :P

[Myth]

sly you can take another good faction if you like. But the Sylvan Elves will really aid us because of their starting position.

[Zim]

Scratch that, false alarm.

[Zim]

Try this save skipped ahead. There's no pw (I started it as a hotseat game but only picked Gondor). If you can build the next barracks in Minas Tirith then we have the barracks event disabled. If not everyone will have to edit or I'll have to redo my turn with the event on.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...id=205&id=9505

[deguerra]

Ok guys. Zim and I have checked, and it's best we all modify our files. I figure its easiest if I just upload the relevant ones. Here is what to do.

1. Backup the file "M2TW/mods/Third_Age/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/descr_events.txt"
Backup the file "M2TW/mods/Third_Age/data/export_descr_buildings.txt"

2. Download the attached file EotTAfiles.rar and extract it to your Third_Age folder. When it asks to overwrite, say yes.

That should be all. Yell if there are any problems.

Edit: If you want to double check, download Zim's save from the post above and make sure that you can build the next barracks in Minas Tirith. If you cannot, something is still wrong.

[slysnake]

I'm more than happy playing Sylvan Elves - you just can't beat their OP archers :D

[CROPrasec]

But in this save a drill square is allready built..don't understand?

[CROPrasec]

ok..i did that and it's working ;)..can i start now with Rohan save??

[deguerra]

Yep. Go from Zim's save here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local_...id=205&id=9503

[Thanatos Eclipse]

I got a question with turn order. If all the free people play first, then they'll have the strategic advantage of knowing how far the mordor forces can travel. Wouldn't it be better to have each team play every other turn, making an exception of course for the fact that the free people have an extra member?

[phonicsmonkey]

In some mods you can change the turn order just by editing the order of playable factions in the descr_strat file. Of course this can only be read once at the start of the game so it would mean a restart here.

[Thanatos Eclipse]

I'm not dead set on this, but movement info can often be a big help in strategy. It just appears to be playing out in the normal game order which is free people first, evil second; so I thought I'd bring this up before we got any further.

[CROPrasec]

Eriador up

TATWEriador-1.rar

[Zim]

Does anyone else feel strongly about this? We're just two turns in so it would be an easy redo.

I actually kind of like going later in turn order because it means I get to go after others have made their moves.

Thanks for the info, Phonics. I was thinking the only way to mess with the turn order would be to change factions around between being player led and not (Turning them AI and back sticks them at the end of the list).

[phonicsmonkey]

(Turning them AI and back sticks them at the end of the list).

I think you have to let the turn pass once for each change in that method. Meaning about 9 turns would go by before you got the right order. Could be wrong though, I have never tried to do it on purpose.

[Myth]

I do't object to shifting the TO around, one extra player is no small advantage. Since I'll be modding my TATW install anyway I will be discouraged to play in SP (same as with the Teutonic install) untill we finish the game.

[Rougeman]

better to shift it now then wait 15 turns eh?

ill wait to play the turn till this is sorted out

[Zim]

Sorry everyone. It looks like this isn't one of those mods. I switched the descr strat order so that each side had every other position in the turn order and then started up a new game. It still cycled through the factions in the same order as with a nonmodded descr_strat.

In some mods you can change the turn order just by editing the order of playable factions in the descr_strat file. Of course this can only be read once at the start of the game so it would mean a restart here.

[Myth]

I'm away for the whole day tomorrow and can't be sure I'll get on Thursday evening (just FYI)

[CROPrasec]

Let's justt playyyy

[Nightbringer]

Let's justt playyyy

How very naive. We don't actually play games here, other forums simply outsource the preparation to us and then we ship them the ready to play game. :)


In all honesty though, I think things will be fine and we can get started now. The turn order thing is unfortunate but it won't break the game.

[Thanatos Eclipse]

Sorry everyone. It looks like this isn't one of those mods. I switched the descr strat order so that each side had every other position in the turn order and then started up a new game. It still cycled through the factions in the same order as with a nonmodded descr_strat.

Then I guess this is a non-issue and we can just play :)

[deguerra]

Let's justt playyyy

What he said.

[CROPrasec]

What is this then if it's not playing a game??