This story began a long time ago.The beginning of "Battle for Middle Earth". This battle is horrendous.....Pigfeet is on the menu tonite boys.......You must maximize your resources to determine the outcome of this battle. Positioning your troops is paramount.You have a tactical advantage....the design will give you.You must achieve the 25% bonus right away for your forces.Believe me when I say ,this is not a lead pipe cinch at any rate.I think it was the most fun I ever had with a scenario. Enjoy,geta glass of ice tea and lose yourself for a while......nogold
First couple times I played this map I got massacred! Attack of the Mordor brings tremendous numbers of enemy troops on to the field - pikemen, swordsmen, crossbowmen and more. In defense you have only moderate stone fortifications and some natural barriers. Fortunately, the path to the keep is long.
After seeing the enemy hordes rush into my keep a couple times I was thinking the map had serious balance problems (too hard!) but then I saw some errors in my strategy and began to find ways to win. Unfortunately, since stone is provided and stone wall construction is enabled there are some easy win options – blocking the path to the keep will confuse the AI and slow the enemy units. (I was able to win - after 2 or 3 attempts - without doing this.) The player could even take down existing walls and rebuild much stronger fortifications though I did not try this. I suggest that these options be eliminated by disabling stone wall construction. There is also a problem that the knights cannot cross the bridge made from lowered walls. These issues affect the score.
Still a fun challenge which I enjoyed playing. Balance – 3.5, Playability – 4
The map design is fairly basic and it looks like little time was taken to produce it. Some use of rocks, plants and such but also there are big patches of unadorned low ground. Water was placed on the low ground without much of any effort taken to make it look realistic and water flow didn’t seem right. The designer has produced a couple nice bridges but overall the structures are basic. Also the buildings within the castle grounds are just stuck there on the grass without trying to make them fit in. Map design – 2.5, Creativity – 3
The story gives background for game from LOTR along with a few good strategy suggestions. I would have liked the map itself to somehow look more like it came from LOTR. Story – 3
Nogold – I had fun playing this and in terms of sheer blood and guts it is more battle than I have seen in any map I’ve played recently. (I wonder how many enemy units in total are in the invasions?)
But the terrain needs much more work to make it look realistic and there are the few other issues I mentioned above. I suspect you were focusing on scripting the invasions (which are well done!) more than on map design. It takes time but your map will be much better for it.