Fulfilling Saruman's ambition...

[Lord Dakier]

So let's say you've done your job as big'ol beardy and wiped Rohan off the map. You've taken a significant step in the two sided war of good vs evil, huzzah! But what if Saruman continued down his intended path of allying himself with the dark forces until they was no longer needed. Saruman and Sauron want different things and as Isengard I want Saruman to be the god-king that is supposedly Sauron. So to do this I need some ingredients for my recipe.

01 - Really and ideally the one-ring would look better on Staruman than it would Sauron or Yolo Swaggins so question is being as I've never really got that far into campaigns on TATW or MoS... what does the one ring actually do for Saruman. I mean I know I can return it to Sauron but could I also destroy it or have use?

02 - I like Uruk-Hai. They're like breeding in Pokemon to get the ultimate monster just in a really mashed up kind of parental advisory way. Can Isengard really stand against all the dark forces or should it look to realign with the good guys... better yet can it?

I'm all about bending the rules and lore me so if anyone has any other crazy ideas I can try fire away!

[Flinn]

Hi there mate

01 - Really and ideally the one-ring would look better on Staruman than it would Sauron or Yolo Swaggins so question is being as I've never really got that far into campaigns on TATW or MoS... what does the one ring actually do for Saruman. I mean I know I can return it to Sauron but could I also destroy it or have use?

afaik, you can only destroy the Ring if you play as a good faction and you can only deliver it to Sauron if you play as an evil faction. You can keep for you the One both if you play as a good or as an evil faction, the result will be the whole world declaring war on you (almost )
unfortunately keeping the ring will only give bad traits to your general, no powers or positive traits; before you complain, it has been noticed many times, but nobody actually changed it.. sooo the short way to have it improved is to try to mod it yourself

have a look in the spoiler for all the details on the One in Vanilla TATW, quoted from FAQ's from Jean=A=Luc

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Q: How do I acquire the One Ring ?
A: Through events in your campaign you will be automatically notified where the One Ring might be located. If you conquer the settlement in question (the event will tell you which one) within the given time limit, your general will acquire the One Ring. When this happens an event will automatically pop up explaining you have successfully acquired the One Ring.


Q: What happens if do not acquire the One Ring after receiving several messages about its location ?
A: If you play as a good faction, the One Ring will always somehow end up in the hands of its former master Sauron. When Sauron is resurrected, he will be introduced on the campaign map in the form of a unique and powerful general. Mordor will also become stronger when this scenario becomes a reality. Your relations with other good factions will be penalized for the fact you haven’t tried to prevent Sauron from regaining the One Ring.


Q: When do I have to take the One Ring to the White Council ?
A: You must have the One Ring for at least 10 turns in possession when playing as a good faction. After this an event tells you, you have to bring the One Ring to the Council. Based on certain conditions, this can be at (the event will tell you where): Imladris, Mithlond or Caras Galadhon.


Q: Do I have to bring the One Ring to the White Council within the given time-limit with my ringbearer ?
A: It is a requirement if you want to have the possibility to destroy the One Ring later in your campaign. If you fail to meet the demands of the Council leader to show up at the meeting in time, the relations with other good faction will be less good as a result.


Q: What happens if the One Ring gets stolen from my ringbearer ?
A: You will have to be patient and wait until your spies report to you where the One Ring might be located.


Q: What is up with these reduced movement points of my ringbearer ?
A: The closer the One Ring gets to Mount Doom the more it can influence the One Ringbearer. It will become harder and harder to reach Mount Doom. These effects to do not apply to the Nazgûl and Sauron.


Q: When I reach Mordor controlled regions with my ringbearer, they automatically declare war to me. How is this possible ?
A: Mordor and more specifically Sauron want to have the One Ring back. Unconditionally.


Q: How do I destroy the One Ring?
A: You must play as a good faction and you must have accepted the task from the White Council to destroy the One Ring. Bring you ringbearer to Mount Doom and keep him there for more than 5 turns.


Q: What happens if I managed to destroy the One Ring ?
A: Mordor will lose all of their armies on the campaign map.


Q: How do I resurrect Sauron when I play as an evil faction (not when playing as Mordor) ?
A: First you must acquire the One Ring. Second you will be informed through an event that you have to take the One Ring to Sauron. You can achieve this by positioning your ringbearer in front of the Black Gate. Ensure that the Black Gate and Barad-dûr is controlled by Mordor! If you succeed, Sauron will be very pleased and will reward greatly for bringing the One Ring to him.


Q: What happens if I fail to give the One Ring back to Sauron within the given time-limit ?
A: Sauron will give the order to the other evil factions to take the One Ring from you. They will as a result all declare war to you. You will also lose the Dark Lord’s protection.


Q: How do I resurrect Sauron when I play as Mordor ?
A: Acquire the One Ring and take it back to Barad-dûr with your ringbearer.


Q: What happens if I let Sauron get killed ?
A: Besides losing a extremely powerful general , your economy will take a serious ''hit''.

02 - I like Uruk-Hai. They're like breeding in Pokemon to get the ultimate monster just in a really mashed up kind of parental advisory way. Can Isengard really stand against all the dark forces or should it look to realign with the good guys... better yet can it?

Isengard troop rooster is perfectly able to win you any battle, actually they have the best "orcish" infantry, with a full balance between light, medium and heavy; plus, you got decent archers and good crossbowmen, and you can also deploy some wargs. The only thing you really need is a solid economy to maintain your stacks, that's why you need badly to conquer Rohan, thus I advice you not to piss off Sauron before you are able to field and maintain 3 full stacks of mixed troops (meaning, not only uruks but snagas too), because you'll surely have to hold on 3 fronts.

any question, feel free to ask it, though I also suggest you to have a look on the guides subforum for more suggestions on Isengard

[Lord Dakier]

Naa not having any effects from the ring I can deal with as only Sauron really can wield it's power.

One thing I've never tried and I'm curious to know if it's possible is can Isengard join the forces of good in the sense of ally with the other forces and end it's war with Rohan?

[Flinn]

actually yes, it is possible for Isengard to ally with good faction, provided that

- you are on neutral terms with that faction and the relations good enough for them to accept
- you are not at war with any ally of this faction
- this faction is not at war with any ally of yours

in TATW the diplomatic relations are locked, so once a faction is allied with another one there is no way to step back (only Invasions might force a war between two allied factions).

Isengard actually starts (IIRC) with war with Rohan, so potentially you can sign truce with them, work your way up to increase relation with them and then sign alliance; while you have an alliance with a good faction and you have some wars with evil ones, your relations with good factions will improve and you'll get more chances of signing new alliances (though it will take time, money and patience).

Naa not having any effects from the ring I can deal with as only Sauron really can wield it's power.

up to you, but I won't leave it to Saruman then

[Lord Dakier]

Awesome I might try an Isengard good-guy goes evil campaign.

[Lord Dakier]

Just reading about the ring and came across this segment which would be awesome if incorporated into certain heroes like Saruman and Galadriel once they become the ring-bearers.

To fully master all of these abilities, a wielder of the Ring would need an extremely disciplined and well-trained mind, a strong will, and a high degree of spiritual development. Those with weaker minds such as Hobbits and lesser Men, would have gained very little benefit from the Ring, let alone realize its full potential. Even for those with the necessary prerequisites it would have taken time to master the Ring's powers to the point at which they would be strong enough to overthrow Sauron, and, hypothetically, bring peace. Whilst this is a tantalizing prospect for some, in the end, the Ring's inherent corruption would have twisted its bearer into another Dark Lord as evil as Sauron was, or worse, regardless of their intentions at the outset..

[Wizad]

In general the people here dislike the content from lotr.wikia, a lot of the content is made up and is not compatible with the real lore.

[Lord Dakier]

I don't know enough about LOTR lore to know what's true and what's fictional fiction. Surely there's a mini-mod which makes the ring a bit more effective.

[Petite Wolf]

Apparently in the Divide and Conquer submod you can keep the One Ring for yourself and gain some kind of benefit if you play as Isengard. I've never played an Isengard campaign in DaC myself, so I can't say 100% if it's true or not, but it'd be worth a try methinks.

[Lord Dakier]

I do have DaC installed but haven't gotten round to playing it yet. I think it's rather stupid that Isengard should have to return the ring to get any sort of benefit when Saruman clearly tends to try and harness its power.

[Petite Wolf]

I'm sorry, I didn't state what I meant very clearly. I think in DaC Saruman can gain benefits for keeping the Ring for himself. As I said I don't know whether he can or not. All I have to go off is this post here, in which SudoKnight says:

Isengard can keep the Ring and gain huge benefits from it. Of course, most of the factions declare war on you: but the first major benefit is that you get the Nine Nazgul. Eventually you get a regular supply of free troops, who you have complete freedom to use. Not sure if there's anything else to get, but my point still stands.

[Lord Dakier]

I'll have to check it out. Maybe it will give me an excuse to start a new campaign lol.

How easy would it be to make some changes of my own to the rings scripts?

[KhalFrodo]

Oh, never before thought of "the good guy" Saruman, this would be great! Im trying it tonight.

[Lord Dakier]

I was trying it in DaC, but Rohan kind of kicked my ass on C:VH and B:H. I couldn't hold the ford of Isen. I tried it with MoS and it works well if you can impress Gondor diplomatically. Get their relations to reasonable then offer trade rights, alliance and a gift of map somewhere in there. In DaC they didn't want to know me. I want to push good guy Isen with DaC though cause when they have the one ring they get the Nazgul from Sauron and some other goodies.

I also don't think it's too far fetch. well maybe it is but I don't care. An Uruk-Hai verse Uruks battle Gondor and Rohan would much rather see than Minas Tirith with Isengard there too.