Re: Gaining Levels
 

Come to think of it, what is Sauron if not a Pretender? The One Ring should fit right in with the other artifacts. Say, +4 Defense and automatic Mistform (to represent the "shift" into the spirit world), +1 to all sorcery paths, +4 to MR.

-Max

Re: Gaining Levels
 

The one ring sounds more like Kurgi than anything else. Superpowers, ethereal, attracts evil things...

Re: Gaining Levels
 

A ring called 'precious' is already in the game, actually. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Gaining Levels
 

I actually went as far as contacting Tolkien Enterprises asking for approval on creating a nation called MORDOR based on the Tolkien writings/movies.
Let's face it... how many wouldn't want to play against MORDOR or play as MORDOR. Naturally the nation would have been slightly stronger than the other nations.
Anyways despite my friendly and well crafted words they had to say no because all gaming rights have been given to another company.
I'll probably still create the nation for my own personal use, but I won't be able to give it to anyone.

Re: Gaining Levels
 

At first it does sound scary, but it seems to me that a stealth body-slot item could even be construction 6 and be balanced (then again, I'm a bad SP player).

Here is a stealth item that might be interesting:

Cloak of the Unknown - Construction 2 or 4, something like 1N 1D, Cursed, Causes the wearer to receive automatic feeble mindedness and (maybe?) gives a slight chance the commander will be lost forever. To stop SC's from using it just give -5 MR.

Armour slot, protection 0, defense 0, encumbrance 0.

On the plus side it gives stealth 0 to the commander and up to 10 troops under his/her command.

Another possibility:

Unique Artifact - Sword of Darkness. Maybe 4 or 5 D? 2 hand slots. Cursed, ! automatic Darkness in battle !, blindess on hit? and gives 10 or 20 stealth, and -5 MR again. Att 0, Def 0, Dmg 10, Len 3.

I think the fact this weapon is more or less limited to those with dark vision makes it limited usage.

Re: Gaining Levels
 

Not necessarily. Darkness is great for almost anybody against, say, Helheim or Pangaea. Effectively it halves the difference between your units' attack and his units' defense. E.g. a regular spearman vs. a W9 Van:

Without darkness, (spearman) attack 10, (Van) defense 23, difference = -13 = 1% chance of hitting.

With darkness, (spearman) attack 5, (Van) defense 11, difference = -6 = 11% chance of hitting.

Of course the swarm factor will play into this too, but the point is that Darkness is a way of levelling the playing field, so it's useful against anyone who plays with elite units. Unless those elites have Darkvision, of course.

It also works great against arrows and spells, since it cuts precision by 75%.

-Max

Edit: hey, is R'lyeh freespawn upkeep-free? It might be really interesting to see R'lyeh casting Utterdark. Unexpected, anyway.