Guide: Making Fwends.
To Aradan. If this is not Kosher. You are welcome to remove it from your sight and chide me greatly
To the Fourth Age Total War Community. Stealthevo productions brings you a second guide. This one will not be covering any screenshotted material but how to maintain and make Friends. Not Real life friends. Thats easy.
Go to a pub. Get some beers and dont leer at people.
No this guide covers
Elf Friends and Dwarf Friends.
There has been some speculation about these traits, how they work, what they do and why they are so awesome you have to get them. I will hopefully address these points. But first. A Foreword
Foreword
This guide is intended for educational and informative purposes only to enhance the gameplay options of Fourth Age : Total War. There will be no direct exploration of the Trait system, nor do I encourage such behaviour due to it ruining the many surprises within the relevant files. This guide will potentially become eventually outsourced with the release of Fourth Age: Total War 3. This is also not an oppotunity to discuss the vauge and hypothetical terms used. I have kept them intentionally vauge as I do not to spoil the fun. Or hold your hand. If your old enough to play Rome Total War, your Old enough to discover things on your own.
Introduction
So what are the Elf/Dwarf friend traits. In short they are a simple +1 Influence trait that simply declares the Family Member/General as a friend of either of the two races. Sometimes both if your incredibly lucky. I've never had it. But it is theoretically possible I think. Pretty sure it is. They don't conflict. They also provide a unique Epithet. IE Elf Friend or Dwarf Friend. However the introduction of this trait allows for some fairly hefty bonus's to be applied to the relevant family member.
Dwarf Friend
So how to become a Dwarf friend? It's quite simple. At present it requires you to have a Family Member/General from the Re-United Kingdom that was not bribed from any of the sterotyped evil factions. That said they are not fond of heavy political inference and tend to live a simple life. If a Rohan General does enter your family. They will not be strongly opposed of such a merger of military strength. They also treat Sons like their fathers
What does being a Dwarf Friend do to your family?
If you happen to find a dwarven settlement somewhere on the map. And there are certain other conditions met regarding to the choice of building structures. Then you can expect a number of happy Dwarfs to join your entourage. Their Companions are good miners and builders. You can also expect them to be wielding an ax for you. But only in defence of a town. Their merchants are capable traders and happy to lend a hand with any business you have going at the moment. Sometimes a specalist miner will join the entourage naturally being a Dwarf and being a miner thats just asking for Ore to be provided rapidily. Finally a Smith might decide to join your Family members routine and provide a fantastic suit of armour that will keep your general alive and in good health for many years to come. Even going as far to being on call to make repairs if the fighting gets rough! If you are lucky enough to be considered a true friend to the miners. Expect a master Stonewright to join you. His skills at construction far outweigh that of a man. And his plans are Unit defences are akin to a master strategist.
In loose summary. Expect a high influx of trading and mining if you happen to have a Dwarf Friend that is willing to spend time with his fwends.
Spending time in a Dwarf settlement can however provide your general with rare and powerful artifacts. A Dwarf Sword, Helm and Hauberk might find their way into personal inventories. All providing a powerful increase to the lifespan of the Dwarf Friend in question.
Elf Friend
Now onto the really exciting stuff! Elf Friends.
Unlike the Dwarf friends. The caliber of an Elf Friend is a bit more selective. However once you happen to re-claim some gardens planted by Legolas himself. You might find they are more accepting of your populace. Like the Dwarf's they do not take kindly to the Men of Darkness or the Shadow Cult. However they unfortunatly do not like the men of Rohan either. So do not expect a man of Rohan in your Family lineage to make friends with an Elf. Similar to the Miners of the earth they do not take kindly to political deceit even if you have spent time admiring the aforementioned gardens. However they do take kindly on likewise sons if a father is considered a Friend to their kin.
What does being an Elf Friend do to your family?
Unlike the limited exposure the Dwarf's like to show. A large number of the Elven community might decide to join your faction on your quests for Glory and expansion. They are not limited to any provinces. However it is strongly advised that you keep the Gardens in good condition!
The archers of the Elves enjoy training with your own men. Expect a strong scout if one decides to join your Elf Friend in battle. If an Elven cloak is presented and accepted then an assassins blade will be unable to find a target easily. A strong manager in his own right. Some men are blessed to make the permenant companionship of the Elves and have one offer to assist him with administrative duties! In rare cases an Elf friend will befriend one of the Guardians and Wardens of the Elf Gardens themselves and be blessed with their agricultural knowledge. To those family members that do not possess the healing skills of the King and in a healthy settlement the skills of an Elven healer might be attracted. Provided unbested service in both personal health and communal health matters. Provided that a Scholar that has befriended the Elves maintains positive relations with the Gardens expect a Lore Master to take an interest. The debates and sheer prowess of the Lore Master are not to be dismissed easily! Having both an Elven Bard and Elven Singer can make even the unobstrusive men famous within his own kingdom. But there does need to be a place for the Elves to rest after performing in the gardens. Like their Dwarf equivilant the Elven Smiths are capable of producing fine works of art with metal that provide similar but not superior protection to the Dwarf suits of armour.
Likewise to the Dwarven equivalent merely being an Elf Friend can reward you with a Sword, Helm and Hauberk of your own. Not as strong as the Dwarf varients they are still strong enough to ward even a Nazghúl's Dark Blade from a strike!
Conclusion
As always, thank you for reading my guides. I don't do them for Reputation. I do them because I feel that with the unfortunate state of Mod Realms, there does need to be some form of guides availible for the Community. I find writing them and seeing the joy in your eyes a worthy reward. Hopefully this solves the mystery of the Friend Traits and being vauge enough not to ruin the fun in finding them.
Any questions or complaints. Feel free to ask.
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Originally Posted by StealthEvo
