I noticed nobody has made any mention of this mod yet so I thought I would share it you all. For those of you who have not seen or heard, Third Age Total War is a complete conversion of M2TW based on Lord of the Rings. After installing tonight, I can gladly say I no longer have any need to go spend 90 bucks on ETW for at least another 6 to 12 months. This mod is insane!
This mod was released only five days ago and still in its infancy - and to be honest it does require some unit re-balancing and a little fine tuning (but that will all get fixed in the 1st patch no doubt), however checking on that "other" forums visitor lists, TATW has been striking more interest than ETW has. Just as another sparkle of info for you all is that this was primarily put together by King Kong, the man who gave us Stainless Steel 6.1, so you know straight away the quality and time has been put into this - something like 2 years worth of work.
You can choose between 12 factions, They are - Gondor, the Dwarves, High Elves, Silvan Elves, Eriador, Rhun, Harad, Mordor, Orcs of the Misty Mountains, Isengard, Rohan & Dale
First up I played a couple of custom battles, the most exciting part I couldn't wait for was to control the Giant Mumakil and drive them through an army of Rohan Horses. Below are some sample shots of my deadly trail of destruction:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I was LMAO right here, I didn't realise I had picked so many Mumakil. Oh well, look out men of Rohan!
The batlle begins
Next up, I really wanted to see what those Olog-Hai and Cave Trolls were like in action against the tiny tinmen of Gondor. I really enjoyed this part too.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
These Dudes mean business.
The army of mordor march towards the men of Gondor
Gondor opens fire
My Cave Trolls charge for the kill
Olog-Hai charge Godorian Swan Knights
Gondor Charges in retaliation
The melee begins
Check the cool flagbearers
Finally Gondor is beaten to a pulp and they retreat.
The Age of Man is over. The Age of the Orc has Begun!
Finally, I began a campaign as Mordor and gotten about 10 turns in. A LOT of effort has been put into the campaign map, as you can see below.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Barad-dur and Mount Doom.
The Black Gate
Minas Morgul
Osgiliath - They split this into two cities which is rather cool. As you can see Gondor have already taken the West, I ended up taking the east and because you are automatically war with each other Gondor spent no time in attacking me. I'm currently under siege so that will be interesting.
Minas-Tirith in all its glory.
If you've also downloaded and played this mod, share your thoughts. If you haven't, its definately worth a look at. Highly Recomended!
Here is a battle where I fought some orcs as The Elves.
I ended up winning after a long battle.
sorry for the crappy quality ,lots of units on the field.
This mod is fantastic. Haven't played Empire since it came out.
How'd you deal with those trolls, melee or ranged? I haven't played as a good faction yet, just Rhun and Mordor, but having fielded trolls in battle, I know they are monstrously good.
Originally Posted by DisruptorX: This mod is fantastic. Haven't played Empire since it came out.
How'd you deal with those trolls, melee or ranged? I haven't played as a good faction yet, just Rhun and Mordor, but having fielded trolls in battle, I know they are monstrously good.
I would try to hold them up with a large infantry unit and then charge with calvary to the rear,make
the calvary retreat and charge again.
Arrows seem pretty useless against them, but flaming artillery fire works.
Wow, I must say I've been awaiting this mod for a long time, since I saw that it was work in progress, with much anticipation. It doesn't look like it will disapoint. Thanks for the heads up, I simply must play this.
Your screens really resemble the movie Galain =)
Have you fought any sieges at special places like Minas Tirith? Have they managed to not get the generic cities? That would be immense. I know there was talk about unraveling the code of how castles are built on the battle map but never heard the end of it, only that it was hellishly hard to mod.
Originally Posted by Dead Guy: Have you fought any sieges at special places like Minas Tirith? Have they managed to not get the generic cities? That would be immense. I know there was talk about unraveling the code of how castles are built on the battle map but never heard the end of it, only that it was hellishly hard to mod.
Unfortunately they haven't figured that out yet. So sieges are in generic castles. Osgiliath is landlocked, etc. There's many things that can be made better, for example, changing the voices so that the orcs don't address you as Kaiser, Easterlings don't praise Allah, and orcs don't fight during the day. But given that its a mod, that's kind of nitpicking.
Originally Posted by DisruptorX: Unfortunately they haven't figured that out yet. So sieges are in generic castles. Osgiliath is landlocked, etc. There's many things that can be made better, for example, changing the voices so that the orcs don't address you as Kaiser, Easterlings don't praise Allah, and orcs don't fight during the day. But given that its a mod, that's kind of nitpicking.
I agree. It is still very, very impressive work. Would have been epic with custom cities.
i was wondering too why nobody yet mentioned this mod. I have installed it for like 2 weeks now. Playing as dwarfes is fun. The map is a beauty, so are the units and the music. It is worth a try, even if you are not the biggest LOTR fanatic.
Been playing it for a few days now and it is incredible. Its obvious how much love and attention have been lavished on it. The graphical models are simply out of this world.
There are still lots of little things that need tidying up and tweaking (massively underpowered dwarves for example), but given the immensity of the mod and the fact that it is only version 1.0 it is a truly immense achievement.
Now if this doesn't make CA look into doing Middle Earth: Total War, I don't know what will!
Originally Posted by Mount Suribachi: Is there even a playable version of EB yet? Or is it still Europa Crashtodesktoporum? I got bored of waiting through all the hype.
Highly nerdifiedly accurate historical wargames that are full of bugs don't have quite the selling power as anything with Middle Earth on the cover
i dont think a patch has been released for EB in at least 2 years, and it has been as bug-free as possible since.
Originally Posted by Mount Suribachi: Is there even a playable version of EB yet? Or is it still Europa Crashtodesktoporum? I got bored of waiting through all the hype.
Highly nerdifiedly accurate historical wargames that are full of bugs don't have quite the selling power as anything with Middle Earth on the cover
Originally Posted by Mount Suribachi: Is there even a playable version of EB yet? Or is it still Europa Crashtodesktoporum? I got bored of waiting through all the hype.
Highly nerdifiedly accurate historical wargames that are full of bugs don't have quite the selling power as anything with Middle Earth on the cover
Originally Posted by antisocialmunky: ... It was finished like 2 years ago, dude ...