Single Unit Heroes

[Withwnar]

Yeah, I did some research and as far as I can tell, one of the newer patches for TATW includes a "one man unit fix" for Sauron and the Belrog (human player).
...Couldn't find Moneybag's mod.

Moneybags figured out how to get single soldier units, by using elephants with "soldiers 1" in the spawn. Before then it was not possible at all so until then TATW's Balrog was actually 8 Balrogs (or whatever the number was). The "one man unit fix" was to use Moneybags' findings to allow a single Balrog and Sauron. It was then found that sometimes this method gives us 3 Balrogs/Saurons ... to that there is no fix yet, as far as I know.

Moneybags' tutorial: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ts-in-Campaign
Cause of the "3 Sauron" issue (later in that thread): http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post11982551

I assume it means that only when the player is controlling the unit is it a one man unit.

That's right.

EDIT: to clarify: the Balrogs are spawned under two different circumstances and in two different ways. One way does not allow the "soldiers 1" parameter so cannot create a single man unit. It has nothing to do with it being under the player's control.

[leo.civil.uefs]

I think any of these proposed solutions are better than 3 balrogs or 3 saurons on the battlefiled, Id rather like to have no balrog or no sauron than 3 of each, is a immersion killer.

I dont think that invisible bodyguard are a problem, even if the enemies would seem to be hitting the air while fighting them. We must accept our engine limitations, and oh... lets be honest, that does not seem that bad, they are very rare units and who the hell will stay 100% zoomed on it to see the issue?

[Ngugi]

If someone want to make it, they can make it. I'm just raising the point that a solo hero must be either mainly pointless cosmetica for the sake of having a solo hero, have a decent sized invisible BG and/or be a combo of a Marvel super hero and Sonic the Hedgehog; non of it I would want in a game I play, but I care not if someone else make it and use it.

[Coastalaxe]

@ Ngugi

The value of a single man unit/hero would be the moral boosts that generals bring. Perhaps that boost could be bolstered further to make that unit more valuable. Also, giving these single man heroes more "abilities" would also compensate for their lack of overall killing power (unless you tweaked their stats enough to make them able to one-shot dudes every 1 or 2 seconds, then they would be pretty potent I think).

[Ngugi]

That you get and can get from a normal hero unit too without any of mentioned side effects, so it is no argument neither for or against having a single hero unit trough any mentioned solution.

Again, I don't try to hinder anyone from making this kind of unit, this is a modding community and no one can make me to use anything I don't want to; I am just clear on what will be the disadvatanges to expect next to the percived gain with a unit of this kind.

[Coastalaxe]

@Ngugi

My point wasn't to say that the general buff would make a hero unit MORE useful than anything else, I was simply explaining that even if that hero unit couldn't kill a single enemy unit, it still has utility. Maybe not over anything else/a regular general, but it still does have a use. And as I stated in the OP, I prefer the LoTR heroes to be solo units rather than have 70+ bodyguards all the time. For immersion (simply because of my memories of the film. I know these heroes as solo fighters who fought both small and large skirmishes, and so that's how I want to use them).

[Coastalaxe]

@Withwnar

Thanks a lot for posting the link to the tutorial!

[Jmonstra]

Cavalry units don't seem the suffer the same "punching bag" problem as infantry. Small units of cavalry then could be viable for hero units. Like Theoden, and co as well as Gandalf mounted on Shadowfax.