Mod: Kingdom of Angmar - Version 0.52 available

[LumenPlacidum]

I have no modding skills and no real graphical skills, but I thought it would be a really awesome thing to try to mod a nation based on Tolkien's works. In selecting a nation which I could aspire to create, I wanted to try to emulate some of the dominions feel of having older nations and myths and concepts of which many people are unaware.

Nine for mortal men, doomed to die.

So, I thought of the Angmar, founded by the Witch King of Angmar (the lord of the Nazgul). It would be a MA nation (with a nod in the direction of having Morgul be the LA variant and Mordor be the EA variant), and would be based on the evil human kingdom in northern Middle Earth. Since this kingdom is in the Misty Mountains, there is certainly the possibility of goblins and trolls.

Notable Figures:
The pretender selection for Angmar will be pretty limited, perhaps being restricted only to various forms of Sauron. Currently, there are a number of possible ones, which need to be fleshed out: Dark Lord (titan SC), Eye of Flame (immobile), Lord of Gifts (forge bonus, stealthy, corruption?), The Necromancer (archmage style), Master of Shapes (can alter between vampire, great wolf, and bat forms).

One thing that would make Angmar have a different 'feel' from other nations would be the inclusion of a heavy thug with the starting commanders, the Witch King of Angmar. This is a pretty big benefit, since it automatically supercharges expansion, but much of the magical potency of the nation would be focused in this unique unit. So, it's not so much a question of his presence overpowering the nation, but the fact that he can only do so much keeping the nation balanced.

I'd like to have the eight other ringwraiths as either unique summons or essentially as the result of artifacts. The unique summons seems like it would be relatively easy. However, I'm wondering if it's possible to do something like the lycanthropos amulet or the pebble skin suit and have a MR-based chance of turning into a Nazgul each turn when the artifact is worn. Obviously, these would be the nine rings of power intended for human hands.

Magic Diversity:
I'm thinking Angmar would have three magical paths as primary things: death, astral, water and fire. I think having very few sacred units (just priestly commanders and the nazgul themselves) would help to prevent it from being one of those mod nations that makes a race that can do everything.

National Units:
For units, I think the wild and barbarian-like human kingdoms of Angmar and Rhudaur as well as the orcs of Mt. Gundabad would provide sufficient variety. I'd imagine the Angmar humans to be elites with good equipment and stats, but costing lots of resources and a fair bit of gold. The Rhudaur humans would have furs and axes and would probably have a small berserk bonus. Finally, the orcs of Mt. Gundabad could be the capitol-only troops, supplying cave trolls and warg riders.

Anyway, suggestions are very welcome.

Version 0.5 - All national units done. No national spells complete and no heroes available yet.

Version 0.51 - Nazgul heroes added. Some units changed for gross balancing efforts (national mages made not quite so sucky)

Version 0.52 - Three national spells added, along with Barrow Wights and Uruloki.

[LumenPlacidum]

A little research into Tolkien mythos indicates that the Witch King was essentially on his own as a Nazgul until Angmar was destroyed and he fled to the Morgul Vale, when he met up with the other 8 ringwraiths. As such, perhaps he should be alone as a unique summon for Angmar.

All of the nine would be available for a LA Morgul nation, if I manage to piece together stuff to construct all of this.

Is it possible to have a recruitable unique? Or, can you set the starting commanders for a nation independent of what they can recruit? It would be very different if Angmar had this one immortal big thug chassis that it could use at the start of the game, but didn't really have any good recruitable mages otherwise, except as really mild support or for pretty poor research. It would be almost like having two pretender gods.

Magical beings disintegrate on the battlefield if there's no mage that can lead them, right? If so, I can have trolls as magical beings, and if you kill the mage who's exerting influence over them, they succumb to the sun and turn to stone.

[Zargen]

The Witch King would be more along the lines of a pretender.

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by LumenPlacidum

Is it possible to have a recruitable unique? Or, can you set the starting commanders for a nation independent of what they can recruit? It would be very different if Angmar had this one immortal big thug chassis that it could use at the start of the game, but didn't really have any good recruitable mages otherwise, except as really mild support or for pretty poor research. It would be almost like having two pretender gods.

Magical beings disintegrate on the battlefield if there's no mage that can lead them, right? If so, I can have trolls as magical beings, and if you kill the mage who's exerting influence over them, they succumb to the sun and turn to stone.

1) Yes.
2) Yes. Although I am inclined to agree with Zargen that the witch king should be more like a pretender than a recruitable.

3) Yes.

[Attle]

I think there is a mod which enables the player to summon a commander based on a Nazgul/witch king. Or rather, I know there is a mod but I can't find it now. Maybe someone else here knows which mod it is?
You should check it out.

[Burnsaber]

It's mytheology, IIRC

[rdonj]

Trumanator was also working on a mordor mod that has the nazgul as unique summons.

[Redeyes]

Angmar and Mordor was active at different times, at the events of the Lord of the Rings Angmar was already of the past. Anyway, Angmar lies in the Frozen lands beyond the Misty Mountains - unlike burning Mordor. Aligning their casters with water/ice and giving their troops frost resistance might be an interesting choice if you want to differentiate the nation from Mordor.

I like the idea of having unique recruitables/summons, partially because I think pretenders are a bit out of place in most of Middle-earth. You could weaken the pretenders by inflating their costs so high paths become impossible to by. You could even take them out altogether by making them immovable & feebleminded (Steward of Gondor?).

[Trumanator]

I actually have a mordor mod nation about 50% done, but my inability to understand sprite editing has left me there for the last few months.

[BigDaddy]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

I actually have a mordor mod nation about 50% done, but my inability to understand sprite editing has left me there for the last few months.

You could release an alpha with stock sprites, or some with color replacement. Color replacement can do the job of making it look unique, without much work... but obviously you don't get novel work from it.