Favourite Faction?

[TW-fanboy]

I find this forum a bit empty, given the brilliant quality of the mod. So which playable faction do you like most?
Every faction is fascinating, but it was the unique gameplay of the non-mannish factions that really made me fall in love with the game.
Deciding between Dwarves and Elves is really hard for me, but I think that I will go for the Elves.
The dwindling numbers combined with the strongest warriors, the possibility to rebuild Eregion as a multicultural center and Imladris as a highelven stronghold, the regional rooster that shows the cultural differences of the various elven realms (though the dwarves ahve that feature aswell)...

[webba84]

I'll always have a soft spot for the Elves since I was most involved in designing firstly those units, and later on some changes to the roster itself, but right now I find myself really enjoying the Tharbad roster for some reason. It's quite unique, thematic, and really well balanced. Just about every unit has a place or a situation where it's most useful, but the whole is a bit underpowered, making for an enjoyable challenge.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

I've always had a soft spot for the Dwarves, ever since my wee avatar was one back in my LOTRO days- something about the idea of hunkering down in mountain fastnesses while the wars of Men rage without delights me very muchly. Plus the Dwarven Wain Bows are just about the funnest things ever to use on an all-infantry Beorning force- happy, happy, happy days. My dream is to make an entire twenty-unit army comprised entirely of 'em. The elves just shred through my dudes though which is a pity, hopefully outfitting them in mithril will help. One of the great things about this mod, though, is that there's really no "filler" faction- even factions like North Rhun have their own flavor. So I'd probably love the Dwarves even if they weren't so well designed- if I had to choose which faction I thought was the best designed then, well, yeah... nope, can't do it. Happinessjoy!

[TW-fanboy]

I'll always have a soft spot for the Elves since I was most involved in designing firstly those units, and later on some changes to the roster itself, but right now I find myself really enjoying the Tharbad roster for some reason. It's quite unique, thematic, and really well balanced. Just about every unit has a place or a situation where it's most useful, but the whole is a bit underpowered, making for an enjoyable challenge.

If you designed the elven units, then rep to you! The different aesthetics and fighting styles of the elven realms give you the feeling of different cultures/people: The heyve infranty of Lindon, the heavy riders of Imladris, the Galadhrim guerillia tactics and the most numerous and warlike Mirkwood elves, fighting with two handed axes and bows alike.

[webba84]

Glad you like them! I'm quite satisfied with the Imladris Lancers especially, that was a difficult unit to decide exactly what we wanted it to be and how it should look but in the end it came out rather nice.

[TW-fanboy]

Yes, the Noldorin/Sindar units (Noldor riders and swordsmen, Lindon Guards, Imladris lancers and mariners) aswell as the elven retainers are my favourites.
Also the design of the dwarven units, the Reunited Kingdom units and the new settlement battle models (Dwarven, elven and dunedaic) are marvellous (of course all units are well made, those are just my favourites).
With every mod your team creates you astonish me (have been playing Viking invasion, Gods and fighting men and Norman Invasion). You always manage to bring an atmosphere and immersion to the game, that few mods have. Except for EB, no RTW mods dragged me into its world such as yours.
What I find fascinating aswell is that you manage to keep your mods with few scripts, but yet the gameplay is so different form vanilla and polished (in VI, the Danes would send small marauder parties into Wessex, without any scripts).

[Nytem4re]

Hmm. For some reason I can't vote, so I'll just go ahead and say I quite enjoy playing as the Kingdom of Dorwinion, despite my first impressions of the faction. I had generally played dale and reunited kingdom mostly, but I felt dale was a bit too easy and reunited kingdom a pain in the ass to manage. RK felt like the western roman empire of BI, and I wasn't too fond of it. I generally like to build up an empire, and Dorwinion peaked my interest with their halberd units.

Despite a criminal lack of cavalry, in my current play through I've managed to conquer North Rhun and Rhovanion, and I've found myself allied with dale and the dwarves. This has allowed me to launch an in progress invasion of the chiefdom of rhun. My treasury is also overflowing, having stabilized my current holdings.

It wasn't easy though. North Rhun was persistent, and their horde almost managed to conquer beregant, my capital. They had surrounded the city with five stacks of hordes as well. But in Dorwinion's darkest hour, one of my generals had his finest hour, leading 1331 men against a horde of 3085 men. The Dorwinion army came out on top with 2298 kills, and 1013 survivors, which would go on break the siege and basically ensure that Dorwinion in my play through would become an emerging superpower.

I plan to retake Minas Anor from Harad, as I have always had a soft spot for the gondorians, who managed to defeat Adûnabâr but fell to the Empire of Harad. Not sure if I'll beat back the horde, but I'm having a blast.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

I'd just like to observe that the fact that you've recieved seven different answers to this question truly speaks to the diversity and balance of this mod.

[webba84]

Nytem4re, I think you need about 5-10 more posts and then you will be able to vote.

Really appreciate the compliment, Tulkas! A really big team effort went into the design and balance of all the factions and there are good ideas from everyone involved (including and especially our beta testers, closed and open) all through them.

[CountMRVHS]

Impossible for me to pick a permanent favorite, but I voted North Rhun, as I always like their position way up there in the wilderness, their extremely basic units, and the combat bonus in snow.