[Gaming Staff] Of Forests and Fire - War in the North (GOOD SIDE VICTORY)
An uneasy wind blows out of the north. A biting chill which only the strong dare stand against. It carries the smell of ash, of evil reborn. All sense it. The desert sands of the east stir with marching footsteps. The great forests of Mirkwood and Eriador quiver restlessly. The wolves howl long into the night, their haunting voices echoing across the landscape, foretelling of the carnage to come. For a great darkness is nigh upon the inhabitants of the wild tracts of Middle Earth. The enemy will come, with sword and shield and fire. Only by casting aside old grievances and fighting together as one can the free peoples hope to retain what they hold dear. If they do not, all is lost.
This is total war. This is War in the North.
Map
Map Explanation
This game includes the entire northern half of Middle Earth, and is based on the highly successful Shadows of the North series of hotseats from years past. It is a world where teamwork is essential, and where even factions which start out small can rise to conquest and glory. Mordor starts out with only one region, but may receive addition units at the start to improve balance.
Players
The Alliance of the Free Peoples
Dale: Jadli
Dwarves: Jadli
Free Peoples of Eriador: VACANT
High Elves: VACANT
Silvan Elves: VACANT
There is a fairly significant learning curve with Third Age: Total War hotseats. To give players a resource for advice and answers to questions, each team will have an advisor.
The advisors are not here to tell you what to do. They will only give advice to those who ask for it. Their job is to answer questions and provide guidance to players who seek it, nothing more. It is our hope that people will ask questions and allow us to pass on some wisdom. We can assist with economic management as well as military strategy. Each team will have its own advisor (who are also the co-admins of the hotseat), so there will be no conflicts of interest. All requests for advice will be held in strict confidence by the advisors.
The Alliance of Free Peoples Advisor: Gandalf the Grey
Played by: Joerock22
“Hope is kindled.”
Gandalf the Grey. In many ways, he is not what one would expect of a wizard. Some say years of smoking pipe weed have dulled his mind, as evidenced by some his more eccentric tendencies, including his queer affection for the halflings of the Shire. But do not be fooled. Gandalf may be seem almost carefree during times of peace, but when the darkness arises once more in the evil corners of Middle Earth, he will stand tall and lead the forces of righteousness to victory. Through his travels he has gained an unparalleled understanding of Middle Earth and its various inhabitants. The Free Peoples would do well to put this knowledge to good use.
The Alliance of Evil Advisor: Saruman the White
Played by: Chieftain Khuzaymah
“There will be no dawn, for men.”
Saruman. Lord of Isengard, leader of the Istari, wielder of the White Hand. He is one of the oldest and wisest beings in Middle Earth, and among the most clever. For only a brilliant mind could comprehend the truth, that the Age of Men is over. Battles must still be fought, but no man, elf, or dwarf can stand against the power of darkness and hope to prevail. All the world will be covered in shadow. The orcs are not known for their intelligence, and would be wise to heed the White Wizard’s counsel. Against the iron fist of the orc and the singular mind of Saruman, there is no victory.
Guide
It is also highly advisable to check out this guide.
Rules
This is a good vs. evil hotseat. You cannot attack members of your team in any circumstances.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Map:
No capturing any settlements beyond the red line
There is no restriction on where you can move your armies/agents, however
Players may capture North Tharbad, but not South Tharbad
Administrative:
Long campaign
Manage all settlements
M/M Difficulty
General
You may reload your turn as many times as you want
Turns must be taken within 24 hours or 48 hours with notification. If you cannot play your turn, please make arrangements for subbing (preferably with one of your teammates!)
Please PM or VM the next player in line
Gameplay
You are not allowed to attack any human opponent on turn 1, unless that player has already played his turn. Attacking includes starting a siege. There is no restriction on where you can move your armies/agents, however.
No Invasions
You must autoresolve all battles against other players. Battles against the AI (rebels) can be fought
You may gift regions to another faction, but you must disband all but one unit immediately. This unit is considered a free "home guard" unit and cannot leave the settlement under any circumstances. The home guard unit must also be disbanded within 3 turns.
No gifting settlements at risk of capture
No heroic victories unless it is impossible to achieve a different result (at least 5 reloads)
Post screenshots of all battles against other players: deployment screen and results screen. I think this makes following a hotseat much more interesting. Note – you do not need to post screenshots for lopsided battles, i.e. 1,000 vs. 100, but please mention the battle in your post
No Assassins
No surrounding armies with smaller stacks to deny a retreat. You are allowed to block bridges or river crossings
Players are not allowed to siege a settlement in order to prevent enemy units from retreating inside it
No mercenary transport ships
All crossings points of the Anduin are in play
Units defeated by a player coming after you in the turn order may not move or attack on your subsequent turn
Bribing is allowed
Sallying from a settlement under siege is not allowed if it results in the settlement falling to the besieging force immediately thereafter (on your turn)
You are not allowed to lure an ambushing army a tile further to bring it in range of more of your forces. If all forces wishing to attack are within range of the ambushing army then it may be brought out of ambush and attacked with those forces.
Buildings
No destroying any buildings if the settlement is at risk of capture
Exterminating settlements is not allowed. You may sack or occupy
On the turn you capture an enemy settlement, you are only allowed to destroy inns and cultural buildings. This rule stays in effect until you have held a captured settlement for 3 turns
After you hold a captured settlement for 3 turns, buildings can be destroyed without restriction (provided the settlement is not at risk of capture)
Spies
Whether a spy may open the gates of a settlement depends on the size of the settlement’s garrison. If a settlement is defended by 720+ elves, 900+ men, or 1500+ orcs, then spies may NOT open the gates. If a settlement is defended by fewer than this number, then spies may open the gates without restriction
Note – Isengard must have 1500 soldiers in a settlement before it is safe from spies, even if some of those soldiers are dunlendings (men). This is because the standard unit size for Isengard is 250 across the board. Rhun, on the other hand, falls under the 900 man category because its standard unit size is 150
The purpose of this rule is to allow players to defend their settlement without fear of losing their garrison due to spies. Its justification is that a settlement with more defenders has better surveillance and it would be harder for spies to operate. I also want to keep the rule simple, which is the reason for the hard limit. So basically if you defend a settlement with 6 full units worth of troops, you are safe from spies
Spies may open the gates against the Rebels (AI) without restriction
Rules are open to change based on a vote by a majority of players
Last edited by joerock22; September 30, 2018 at 05:01 PM.
Reason: winner declared
Re: [Gaming Staff] Of Forests and Fire - War in the North
We should be starting soon. I made a slight change to the map, and an important change to the rules. Players can now fight out battles against the AI if they want to. This will make it much easier to capture rebel settlements. All battles against other players must still be auto-resolved.
Also, one final administrative note. The Witch King is not meant to participate in this hotseat, but I was unable to get rid of him on the descr_strat because it caused the game to crash. So Mordor will need to suicide him against the nearby rebel army on his first turn. It will take all of two mouse clicks. Mordor's FL is Khamul and his FH is Grishnakh.
Last edited by joerock22; July 09, 2017 at 10:48 AM.
Re: [Gaming Staff] Of Forests and Fire - War in the North
We are instituting a one turn peace rule to match the other new hotseat. I don't think it will affect anyone in this hotseat. Everyone starts pretty far away from other players in this setup.
Re: [Gaming Staff] Of Forests and Fire - War in the North
I don't know what to tell you. I downloaded the Dale save from the thread and it works fine. You need Third Age 3.0 (both parts) and the 3.2 patch. All links can be found here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...and-other-Info
Re: [Gaming Staff] Of Forests and Fire - War in the North
Right i forgot about this turn and i forgot to download the mod will be up as soon as possible the morning really sorry you can skip if this is to slow
Last edited by JCdestr0yer; July 17, 2017 at 07:53 PM.
[Gaming Staff] Of Forests and Fire - War in the North (GOOD SIDE VICTORY)
