WoodlandGuard
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I have loved The Battle for Middle-earth ever since I was introduced to it, yet there are many shortcomings in said game series. Thankfully it's been easy prey for modders, as EA have left it wide open to modify and many wonderful (and necessary) modifications have been made. However over time I've come to see that one of the three remaining factions of the Elves in the Third Age has been poorly treated, and continues to be so treated, and it happens to be the one for which I harbour a great love. And so it is that I continue to search for a faction made up entirely out of the Elves of the Woodland Realm in The Battle for Middle-earth. I've created this profile to represent them, and I hope any of you who come across this profile and feel a similar way will join me in my plight to see them done justice, and support the profile.
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The board is set, the pieces are moving - we come to it at last: the Elves of the Woodland Realm in Edain 4.
They have been released!
These are my first thoughts.
Unfortunately, as I already expected/suspected, the Woodland Realm has been severely marginalized. One can even choose to completely exclude them from gameplay, which adds insult to injury in my opinion. I believe that the current edition of the Woodland faction has been left severely lacking, and here are the first few reasons why:
- Absolute and utter number one on my list is the exclusion of the Woodland Guard on a permanent basis: it is not possible to recruit Woodland Guards permanently, only to summon them - and when one does this they are on the battlefield all too shortly and can hardly be used to make an impact
- The Woodland Realm can only recruit Tauriel in Mirkwood, which I believe is just another diminishing and marginalizing blow to the faction: making them smaller than they ever deserve to be made up as
- The Woodland Realm barely has any abilities or aspects of stealth, which I think is severely undeserved and completely unjustified: if there is one thing the Woodland Realm should be characterized by it is stealth and not including it is yet another condescending blow-off to the faction
- The Woodland Realm is further reduced to being Lothlórien's servants by giving Thranduil his armour through Galadriel's Gifts, as if this is really something that Thranduil would only come by through her
- When the Woodland horn sounds as part of the "Border Guard" summonings and Thranduil's Mobilisation Orders it is noticeably and unaesthetically cut off for absolutely no reason - I have two video examples which showcase the full version: one even better than the other - whereas Lorien's horn is sounded out 'til completion. As far as I'm concerned another diminishing and disrespectful blow-off
And now for the few positives there are, most of which I'd already listed in earlier articles/blogs:
- The Woodland Realm's citadel/fortress looks stunning, it's a shame you can't see more of it though
- The Woodland Warriors and Palace Guards look great, and are reasonably strong from what I've seen
- The Woodland Elkriders which I was opposed to originally are to my mind not exactly the biggest problem to be tackled - far from it - and do add a certain aesthetic to the Woodland Realm, though I still think Thranduil's Elk should be the only one in the game... But there you go: for now it adds some consolation and therefore my current verdict would be to let them go: the more Elks the merrier
There's still a lot of work to be done, and soon enough I will start submitting my comments and complaints to Edain's forum because it seems that is the only way things get done around the Edain Mod / Edain Team.
To be continued.
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Hello. I have been reading through your blogs about the current state of the Woodland Realm in Battle for Middle-earth and the various mods in which it is somewhat included. I also read of your dismay and your attempts to convince the Edain team to further expand on the Silvan realm. What I wanted to ask you was, have you heard of The Age of the Ring mod? It is a mod for Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king and they have included both the Woodland Realm and Lothlórien as two separate factions. At the moment, they have released 5 factions (Gondor, Lothlórien, Mordor, Isengard, and the Misty Mountains), and they are currently working on Erebor. It is an excellent mod, and is of superb quality in both aesthetic and originality. They have posted a faction write-up of all the intended factions, really just to show the community what their plans are with each of the 11 or so planned factions, and the Mirkwood one has been up for a while now. It is really a great read, and it is very original and lore accurate. They have also posted a few images of the forthcoming Mirkwood faction, and they are simply exquisite. That is all I wanted to ask, since I also love the Woodland Realm, and have always lamented the fact that they are almost nonexistent in nearly every Battle for Middle-earth mod. Finally, there is a mod of excellent quality who is going to add the Wood-elves of Mirkwood into a fully independent faction, and is giving them the care that they truly do deserve.