The Fourth Age: Total War - The New Shadow Released!
The Fourth Age: Total War Development Team are proud to present:
The Fourth Age: Total War – The New Shadow (2.0)
‘Strategists and Lord of the Rings fans should immediately download this mod.’ – PC Games, on ‘Forth Eorlingas’
‘The Fourth Age: Total War – The New Shadow’ is a modification for ‘Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion’ (v1.6). TNS is the third instalment in our successful series of releases, begun with ‘Corsair Invasion’, and followed by ‘Forth Eorlingas’, which have been downloaded by over 60,000 people. CI was given coverage in the PCGamer and PC Action magazines, as well as being 'Mod of the Week' on krawall.de. It was also voted 'Best BI/Alexander Mod' by the users of Total War fansite totalwar.org. FE has been mentioned by PC Games, GameStar.de, 4players.de, and was voted 'Best RTW/BI Fantasy Mod' & 'Best RTW Battle Map Experience' by the users of the TW fansite twcenter.net.
‘Class mod for Rome: Total War … Very Good’ – PC Action, on ‘Corsair Invasion’
One of the main goals of FATW has been to faithfully portray the lands and inhabitants of Middle-earth in the Fourth Age, and immerse the player in the world that Tolkien created. We hope and believe that we have achieved that goal. ‘The New Shadow’ is a provincial campaign taking place on a map that is roughly half that of the full map of Middle-earth. Players can choose between six factions: The Reunited Kingdom, The Kingdom of Rohan, The Empire of Harad, The Chiefdom of Rhūn, The Kingdom of Adūnabār, and The Chiefdom of Dunland. In addition there are three new factions playable in custom battles: The Kingdom of the Elves, The Kingdom of the Dwarves, and The Kingdom of Dale. You will be treated to a whole host of new features including a new alignment, over 50 new units (more Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, & Trolls), a complete overhaul of the unit & faction balance systems, new animations, new traits and ancillaries, new music, and more.
‘Impressive…’ – PCGamer, on ‘Corsair Invasion’
It is the 238th Year of the Fourth Age of the Sun, and over 200 years have passed since the Return of the King, and the downfall of the Dark Lord. The Reunited Kingdom is beset on all sides by foes, and now even her own people are rebelling. The new Kingdom of Adūnabār has seized Mordor and all its lands to the East of the Anduin. Their alliance with Rohan is faltering, as the Rohirrim are in open war with the Dunlendings. To the East the hordes of the Easterlings are once again moving, and the Haradrim are mustering their forces for yet another invasion. And as if that was not enough, rumours of a dark cult have been spreading through the lands of Gondor…
‘Countless descriptions, graphics, and even quotes from the books escort you through the whole game to get you in the right Lord of the Rings mood.’ – www.krawall.de
For a sample of FATW gameplay, check out 'The New Shadow Action Trailer' by Crian. For more information on The Fourth Age: Total War please visit our homepage and accompanying forums at: http://www.thefourthage.org
The New Shadow includes:
- One new faction playable in the campaign: The Kingdom of Adūnabār, in addition to the The Kingdom of Rohan, The Chiefdom of Dunland, The Reunited Kingdom, The Empire of Harad, and The Chiefdom of Rhūn.
- A map incorporating roughly half of western Middle-earth, including Minhiriath, Enedhwaith, Dunland, Drśwaith Iaur (Old Pśkel-land), Rohan, the Brown Lands, Emyn Muil, Dagorlad, Gondor, Mordor, Near & Far Harad, Khand, southern Wilderland, and the areas just south of the Sea of Rhūn.
- Over 50 entirely new units, for a total of 150. Orcs & Wargs are recruitable by Dunland and Adūnabār (who also get Trolls), the Reunited Kingdom starts with one Elven archer unit, and Rohan starts with one Dwarven unit. This does not include levies and assimilation units.
- A complete revamp of the unit balance system, and many improvements to campaign balance.
- Three historical battles: The Battle of the Crossings of Poros, The First Battle of the Fords of Isen, and the Battle of the Cloven Way (Faramir’s ambush of the Haradrim).
- Around 50 entirely new traits (for a total of 200), and 50 (total 350) new ancillaries (including many new images); plus many tweaks to the triggers and effects of current traits and ancs requested by the community.
- A new alignment has been implemented, and loyalty activated for the two Dśnedanic factions.
- New formations that will make the battles even more challenging than before.
- New armour/weapon upgrade system that now utilizes recent coding discoveries that allow units to be blocked from being recruited if technologies are not available.
- A custom-designed 'area of recruitment' system called MEZoRS, or Middle-earth Zone of Recruitment System. Goes far beyond the standard faction-specific recruitment buildings by creating a system of levies (local troops levied from conquered regions) and three region types: homelands, fiefdoms and outlands which affect such things as public loyalty, happiness and how long it takes to build your tech. trees. Also includes access to 'assimilation units' when you conquer designated 'chief cities' of major sub-cultural areas.
- Five Wonders: The Stone of Erech, The Ruins of Osgiliath, Edhellond, The Treegarth of Orthanc, and The Argonath; three Unique Cities: Minas Tirith, Helm’s Deep, and Edoras; three Marvels (wonder-like structures): The Sea-ward Tower (Tirith Aear), The White Tree of Gondor, and The Gardens of Ithilien.
- Three Landmarks: The Beacons of Gondor, Barrows, and Fortresses; six new trade resources: gemstones, sheep, fish, ivory, horses, and cattle.
- Completely revamped technology trees for all 6 factions including many new building complexes such as Memorials, Wonder Capture buildings, Courts & Gardens, and Places of Mirth as well as faction-specific recruitment complexes.
- City Development: Engage the City development process and gain access to a choice of over 25 Diversification Buildings across the 6 campaign factions. These buildings will powerfully develop your city by way of trade, military strength, naval power, and so forth.
- Regional Buildings: Each sub-cultural area has its own unique Regional Lore building which gives you access to information about the area, its fertility, the native inhabitants and their stance toward your faction and other useful information to help you know whether to settle, move on or simply dominate the region.
- A custom-designed menu interface, featuring original artwork by Anke Eissmann and Peter Xavier Price.
- New music by David Arkenstone, complementing the artists such as: Justin R. Durban , Jonas Fancony, Matti Paalanen, Tapani Siirtola, and Matias ‘Amppi’ Puumala.
- New interfaces for all campaign cultures.
- 19 loading screens, and 228 loading-screen quotations.
Download links:
The New Shadow | Mirror 2 (239 MB)
Musicpack:
The New Shadow Musicpack | Mirror 2 | Mirror 3 (192 MB)
Installation Instructions for The New Shadow (FATW 2.0)
The New Shadow functions from a mod folder ("ci") that sits under your "bi" folder. The mod in no way overwrites or spills into your RTW or BI folders. It will thus not affect your original games. It is compatible with any other mod that works from within its own modfolder. It can be uninstalled completely simply by deleting the "ci" folder should you wish to grab back space from your hard drive.
Brief Instructions (for advanced users):
1. You will need a clean (i.e. unmodded) installation of Rome Total War - Barbarian Invasion version 1.6
2. After downloading the 2.0 executable, click on it to run it and follow the installation process; you must make sure the installation path is correct
3. When the files are extracted you will exit the installer and a dos window will run for approx 6 minutes. Leave this to run and it will disappear when its work is done.
You should now be ready to play The New Shadow - just click The New Shadow shortcut that should now be on on your desktop! (Do not click this before the dos window closes!)
Elaborations (for those new to installing mods):
1. In-game in Barbarian Invasion click on the Options menu item and you will see the version number in the top right of the screen. If this is not 1.6 you will need to patch it up by using the official SEGA 1.6 patch. This can be found the following link: http://www.sega.com/support/support....upport_patches
2. In most cases the default path of "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War" will be fine, but in cases where the Gold Edition of RTW are used (or where you have changed your directory names) the path must reflect that. The installation path will always be the directory that holds the RTW-BI.exe
3. Some users have problems with the dos window, this may be because of an unusual or varied setup on your PC. Please visit out support forums at thefourthage.org if you have problems.
Special Thanks:
To the Creative Assembly for making quite possibly the best strategy game out there, and for allowing us to mod it. (www.totalwar.com)
To the entire modding community for making wonderful tools, and generally being great chaps.
To Vercingetorix for making xpak, xidx, and the cas exporter.
To Europa Barbarorum (and Bouchious specifically) for allowing us the use of 50 de-tattooed Barbarian portraits (we are told the barbarian leaders did not complain too much despite this painful process, though one member of EB was rumoured to have received a rather nasty axe wound to his shoulder and was unable to mod for 8 weeks) - (www.europabarbarorum.com).
To Alin and EB for use of their mounted standard, 2-handed foot spearman, 2-handed mounted spearman and gladius skeletons and animations.
To Teleklos and Shifty (both of Europa Barbarorum) for their work on and permission to use the palm-forest mod.
To Burns of ME:TW for creating Osgiliath for us at late notice.
To Middle-earth:Total War for use of their Argonath and Edoras strat-map models. (http://www.chamber-of-records.com/fo...splay.php?f=95)
To Myrddraal (Wheel of Time: Total War) for his gemstones model. (http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=99)
To The Lordz for granting the use of their realistic skies clouds. (http://lordz.thelordz.co.uk)
To Sinuhet for his AI Formations. (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=130)
To Uranos for doing many unit cards at short notice.
To Justin R. Durban, musical artist, for the use of a large number of his great songs. (www.edgen.com)
To Simon Daum, musical artist, for letting us use his song, 'The Return of the King', as the signature music for the mod. (www.simondaum.com)
To Tapani Siirtola, musical artist, for permission to use some of his wonderful music in the mod. (www.mikseri.net/artists/?id=37335)
To Matti Paalanen, musical artist, from 'The Celestial Aeon Project' for permission to use some of his songs in the mod. (http://www.mikseri.net/artists/celes...ject.48147.php)
To David Arkenstone for the kind use of his music - (www.davidarkenstone.com)
To Xerex & Aradan for their unrelenting commitment to engage in months of research and testing to create the most rigorous and accurate unit balance system of any mod out there!
To Crian for his beautiful mod-enhancing videos.
To Christopher Tolkien for revealing more of the wonderful world of Middle-earth in his 'History of Middle-earth' books.
And last, but certainly not least, to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien for creating the greatest fantasy epic of all time.
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