Dúnedain of the North [WIP]

**smoesville** · July 02, 2011, 04:47 PM

This is the proposal; a Rangers of the North faction. The roster for the moment will have one or two new units in it, light cavalry, and a melee unit; Dúnedain Swordsmen. There is also an elite unit of AP Rangers thanks to Louis Lux and his Beastslayers (Veteran Dúnedain Rangers)

Faction name:
Dúnedain of the North

Culture:Northmen
Religion:Dúnedain/Numenorian
Faction Leader: Chieftain Aragorn
Faction Heir: Ranger-Captain Eldarion
Territory: Amon Súl, Annúminas, Fornost (Capital)
Colour: Dark Green (main) and Light Green (border)
Icon:

Faction Banner in-game along with faction icons (screenshot) with the banner:

Roster:

Dúnedain Ranger BG (Archers)

These excellent archers are the heirs of Arnor. While their Kingdom has gone, they remain, and they remain to protect the people of Eriador. As only swords seem to draw Sauron's attention to the life of Isildur's heirs, bows don't, but maybe they should! These men have specialised in lying ambushes and they'll shoot and kill any orc or troll entering the lands of Eriador.

Excellent heavy archers, capable of terrifying ambushes.

Dúnedain Rangers (Archers)

Even though the Dúnedain have taken a more open and upfront position in their fight against evil many have retained their ranger life styles where they can lend their expertise to fighting guerrilla wars in and around Eriador disrupting hostile armies. Their aim with the longbow and great familiarity with woodland lore and survival techniques can make for devastating ambushes and create chaos in enemy ranks as they struggle to determine which direction the attack is coming from, all under a hail of deadly arrow fire. Swords, skill and courage make these men worthy melee combatants but do not commit them to close combat needlesly as their numbers are few and precious. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Highly skilled archers, capable of terrifying ambushes. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Dúnedain Swordsmen (Swordsmen with shield)*

Even though the Dúnedain are few and prehaps better suited to fighting from a distance to preserve their numbers, these men have equipped themselves as best they can to fight in close quarters. Once operating secretly as rangers to safeguard the people of Eriador these men have now stepped forth and revealed their Dúnedain heritage. They have taken up their arms and armour, ready to move out from the woods and face the darkness in open battle. Coming out at this critical moment in a time of strife they bring hope to the free peoples of Eriador. Hope that might be just enough to turn the tides on evil that presses from all sides. They are carriers of the proudest Edain legacy and this is reflected in their stature as well as their marshal ability. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Highly skilled swordsmen, small in number and armed with sword and shield. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Battle Ready Dúnedain (Double-Handed Swordsmen)

"Where now are the Dúnedain, Elessar, Elessar? Why do thy kinsfolk wander afar? Near is the hour when the Lost should come forth, And the Grey Company ride form the North!" Once operating secretly as rangers to safeguard the people of Eriador these men have now stepped forth and revealed their Dúnedain heritage. They have taken up their arms and armour, ready to move out from the woods and face the darkness in open battle. Coming out at this critical moment in a time of strife they bring hope to the free peoples of Eriador. Hope that might be just enough to turn the tides on evil that presses from all sides. They are carriers of the proudest Edain legacy and this is reflected in their stature as well as their marshal ability. As heavy infantry and horsemen these Dúnedain are a very valuable addition to Eriador's assortment of armed forces but as a symbol of renewed hope and victory they are beyond price. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Dúnedain infantry of great strength and skill bearing two-handed swords. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Mounted Battle Ready Dúnedain (Heavy Cavalry)

"Where now are the Dúnedain, Elessar, Elessar? Why do thy kinsfolk wander afar? Near is the hour when the Lost should come forth, And the Grey Company ride form the North!" Once operating secretly as rangers to safeguard the people of Eriador these men have now stepped forth and revealed their Dúnedain heritage. They have taken up their arms and armour, ready to move out from the woods and face the darkness in open battle. Coming out at this critical moment in a time of strife they bring hope to the free peoples of Eriador. Hope that might be just enough to turn the tides on evil that presses from all sides. They are carriers of the proudest Edain legacy and this is reflected in their stature as well as their marshal ability. As heavy infantry and horsemen these Dúnedain are a very valuable addition to Eriador's assortment of armed forces but as a symbol of renewed hope and victory they are beyond price. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Dúnedain heavy lancers mounted on war steeds. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Veteran Dúnedain Rangers (Beast Slayers)**

These men represent the veteran rangers who have mastered the manufacturing and handling of the famed Numenorean steelbow. Men used to long periods of time in the woods and facing all kinds of perilous creatures, including the resilient trolls, their weapon of choice is a two handed axe that is swung with great might. Emphasising mobility and skilful attacks over armour these veterans operate best out of ambush in wooded areas or in combination with heavy line infantry to distract or pin down the enemy though their fighting prowes makes them potent in most situations. They carry large black-shafted axes, somewhat more elegant than those a lumberjack would use, with one curved axeblade. They also carry the steel bow, a weapon as hard to draw for most men as longbow would be for a child. This powerful bow is little affected by changes in temperature or humidity and provides superior accuracy and draw weight which coupled with the heavy steel tipped arrows used by these Rangers provides it with extraordinary penetration. Left unchecked these marksmen will wreak havoc on the enemy's toughest troops but be sure to choose your targets and positioning wisely. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Elite ranger marksmen equipped for taking out large and heavily armoured targets. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Mounted Rangers (Light Cavalry)*

These men typify the Rangers of the North, they patrol far and wide alone or in small groups to hunt orcs and any other threats that lurk in the wild, killing those they encounter or, if the threat is too great, riding with all haste to warn others of what approaches. These rangers are chosen for their knowledge of the terrain and endurance and survival skills, considering they are almost constantly on the move and spend most of their time in the wild. Though outnumbered and unthanked by the people of Eriador, these men provide the Dúnedain with early warning, many potential disasters have been averted by these Rangers timely interventions. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

Fast-moving, lightly armed mounted rangers. REQUIRES DUNEDAIN REGION

* With permission from King Kong

** With permission from Louis Lux

As of yet i've not done any banners for the units as i play without them but when i've sorted out the models and textures i'll look into these.

Credits
beastslayers (renamed veteran rangers); Louis Lux (models and skins)
Rangers, BR Dúnedain; KingKong (models and skins)
Bloodlines code; Kiliç Alì

Permissions

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Ngugi** · July 02, 2011, 05:31 PM

Could you add for us the concept/idea of each of your colors and whole composition - as I assume they are picked not just at random? What lore do you base the options upon?

**smoesville** · July 02, 2011, 05:59 PM

I'll be honest and say the green one is just an attempt to use a different colour to isengard eg on the campaign map. The middle one is the empty army version of the first one (i don't really know if that was clear, it was clear to me when i did it but not so much now

). Mostly i based it on the elendilmir as the symbol of kingship (or the vestiges of it hence no reference to the sceptre of annuminas). The square field is from some other devices i've seen, mostly first age elvish or edain, which helps to seperate and stops it looking so plain, though i may go back to just the elendilmir. The black is from the banner of kings which you may remember was elendil and had the crown and 7 stars (arnor) and the tree (gondor) afaik.

Edit:
Edited the OP.

**Withwnar** · July 03, 2011, 12:20 AM

In my game I have the brightness turned down. I suspect that these would appear as black, or so close to it that I couldn't really tell the difference. Even on this computer I'm using now the left ones appear as very near black.

**smoesville** · July 03, 2011, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by Withwnar

In my game I have the brightness turned down. I suspect that these would appear as black, or so close to it that I couldn't really tell the difference. Even on this computer I'm using now the left ones appear as very near black.

The left ones are black

After looking here i decided to change it a bit and also do up a shield style emblem for use as the faction icon (at end of turn, when picking faction etc.). I'm not sure how accurate it is lorewise but that site does mention that arnors banner was a single five pointed star.

Edited the OP with updated banners.

**Louis Lux** · July 03, 2011, 12:33 AM

I like the 2 in the middle but the green should be a bit brighter if you decide to use them.

.dds converter? Do you mean .texture to DDS? Think not, most ui elements are .tga and one or other .dds as I recall.

**Dutch-Balrog** · July 03, 2011, 11:42 AM

i say the first 1

**smoesville** · July 03, 2011, 06:34 PM

Thought a poll might make it easier to decide

**TNZ** · July 04, 2011, 01:31 AM

Smoesville: This one, but with a black background, and if possible can the emblem be moved to the centre of the banner?

**smoesville** · July 04, 2011, 02:32 AM

You mean like this:

**TNZ** · July 04, 2011, 03:34 AM

Originally Posted by smoesville

You mean like this:

Yes.

**smoesville** · July 04, 2011, 05:20 AM

I think i agree with you TNZ, it has the added bonus of adherring to the heraldic code (i'm not sure if it's lore accurate or fan fiction but it looks nice) and i can put Option G on a shield for the faction icon.

**_Tartaros_** · July 04, 2011, 07:32 AM

voted for c
i like the dark green and black.

**TNZ** · July 04, 2011, 09:25 AM

Maybe this:

**Dimppa** · August 10, 2011, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by TNZ

Maybe this:

Original is better (my opinion)

**smoesville** · July 04, 2011, 09:31 AM

I'm not sure, there are a lot of black factions already and the white/silver star on black carries the arnor part better i think. Plus the green suits a ranger (he could have the black emblem sown to his green cloak) since black isn't really a very good colour to blend into the terrain.

Added a screen to the OP.

**TNZ** · July 05, 2011, 11:56 PM

smoesville: Now that I think about it, I think that none of the existing factions have a banner with a white background, maybe a white banner with a black emblem on it might work? For the faction’s colour, maybe you could use white or off-white if you can get it look different enough from the colour used by the Dwarves.

I have always thought that the Dúnedain should be a separate faction from the Eriador faction. What I was going to do was to make another custom campaign in which you could only play as the Dúnedain faction. In the course of the campaign you would have been able to reform Arnor and become King of Gondor.

The Dúnedain faction would have started with the provinces of Lake Evendim, Weather Hills and Arthedain, with the Eriador faction retaining the rest of its original provinces. At this stage it gets interesting because the Eriador faction would not be to recruit any units, they would only have units from the garrison script and those units would be destroyed after every siege. Both factions would have the same culture (religion), the Dúnedain provinces would start with a culture level of 60%, while the Eriador provinces would be near to zero.

Naturally, over time, the cultural level in the Eriador provinces would rise. When a province’s culture level got to 60% that province would be turned over to the Dúnedain faction. Initially the Dúnedain faction would have a very limited ability to recruit units and they would need to build up their infrastructure from scratch i.e. no buildings in their provinces.

Obviously, this would have needed to be a heavily scripted campaign, but none of the scripts needed would be too hard to write. I just thought this idea might be of some interest to you.

**smoesville** · July 06, 2011, 02:34 AM

As far as Eriador goes, i've already changed mine so that all the troop types need hidden resources to build. Only breeland troops get recruited in staddle, archet and bree while hobbits are in the shire and staddle, I also added Archet. Those are the only places they can get troops unless it changes to Arnor which i want to change so the two factions can combine.

Edit:
I also would like to edit the bloodline trait for Stainless Steel and use that as a way of allowing arnor to be created so long as an heir of isildur lives and is faction leader. If i get it to work i might make the elendilmir hereditary and add a condition to the arnor script saying the leader also has to be of the royal line.

**Shadowlair** · July 06, 2011, 04:13 AM

really love a northern dunedain faction, but if you go on with making an heir of isildur a must for surviving, how will you deal with the m2 heir/wife picking?

**smoesville** · July 06, 2011, 04:42 AM

Originally Posted by Shadowlair

really love a northern dunedain faction, but if you go on with making an heir of isildur a must for surviving, how will you deal with the m2 heir/wife picking?

Do you mean the way that the engine picks the man with the highest authority to be heir? And i'm not sure what you mean by "a must for surviving"? It would only be a must for creating Arnor, you can still survive without it as the dunedain you just would have no claim to the kingship of Arnor.

Also since it's a trait i could make give higher authority giving the line of isildur a higher chance of being heir.

Edit:
I'm wondering if any of you generous and lovely people would be able to help and convert the ranger battle model to a strat model? I have looked into it and i would have to say i'm not likely to even understand or do the tutorials