Middle-earth with decent AOR (or more variety)

[TesalionLortus]

Hello everyone, I wanted to get back to TW Middle-earth after a long break and obviously TATW + submods is the only available choice for Medieval. There are some great submods in the thread here. Plenty of new units, more factions, it all sounds really cool, but it doesn't really work for me anymore if there is little-to-no variety in terms of more realistic auxillary/vassal units (from conquered lands/cultures). Maybe it's my passion for things like Europa Barbarorum II (their AOR system) but also due to lack of time - so I'm looking for something where I can immerse myself with single long playghrought but still get to experience other cultures and some of their roster through means of conquest. So decent AOR - not generic mercenaries to hire anywhere in Middle-earth (like it used to be in LotR TW for Rome, for example). Any good suggestions?

So, whether I conquer Gondor with Mordor, Isengard or Harad, I want to be able to recruit indigenous auxiliary units. Obviously I won't be able to recruit traditional Gondorian infantry because that would be unrealistic and lore-breaking (unless there is an "auxillary evil version" of them). But you get the idea, unique auxilary units unique to different regions (or specific cities) and available to most factions once the region is aquired and/or faction eliminated and incorporated into your empire. So then, whether I play as Isengard, Rhun or minor Orc faction, I am able to create an empire with diversivied roster and let's say, gather conscripted forces from all corners of Middle-earth and different races. For lore reasons, elves wouldn't be recruitable for most other factions, but if I aquired Erebor, I would have some dwarves serving under my Reunited Kingdom or the White Hand Empire. Same thing for recruitable regional Haradrims and so on, so it's possible to create a diverse roster for your empire. One or two AOR units that get unlocked. Sometimes. Obviously I can't expect the amount of detail and complexity that was put into something like EB2. But is there... something? Anything?

I was thinking of Dagor Ennor but it hasn't been updated for years so still pretty much a work-in-progress, with most units being vanilla TATW (from what I gather), and not even sure whether it has a nice AOR. I'm not saying all other mods are bad, many of them look amazing and the amount of work is outstanding, just not what I'm looking for. Sadly, my experience with Total War Middle-earth was always like this: 1) faction roster is limited to their own units or AOR system isn't really THAT fascinating to me because it is based on the premise of the movies (the age of orcs is coming, we'll eat them all -> where Sauron's rule = apocalipse for a good faction when entire human civilisation collapses, bascially) and 2) the idea that "good" factions wouldn't really enforce consription on conquered or "recaptured" lands. Due to the nature of Harondor and Gondor/Harad borders, I'm sure there is always something with recruitable Haradrims at least. But I would love it for entire Middle-earth, such AOR immersion

That being said, I gotta admit I'm also pretty tired of seeing movie based units Same Gondorian armor, same Rhun armor, Gothmog-orc for Mordor general etc. So I wouldn't really mind the lack of more immersive AOR system if I got to play an original book-based mod, with completely different take on units and factions. But... I guess they don't really exist huh? I liked Rome's Fourth Age for some of its varety and originality but enough of old Rome TW engine already xD Maybe in the future I'll come back to it, but not yet.

Anyway, please give me your best mod suggestions and discuss what you enjoyed about it when it comes to units/AOR. I'm really eager to hear about your experiences and haven't seen it being discussed anywhere yet.

[Araval]

Hi!

I don't think any mod around here has replaced movie designs with something else.

As for AOR, maybe look into TATW Realism+ or AOR submod for FRoGS 2.1. I haven't played them myself but maybe other people's feedback helps.

[TesalionLortus]

Thanks, I heard about AOR for FRoGS but good to know TATW Realism includes AOR system. Can someone compare them? I'll pick one tomorrow maybe. But it would be great to know some Area of Recruitment feedback and how many units they have.

[orclover]

The TATW realism was my mod of choice for a couple years until DAC started taking shape into its current forms. DAC has everything you really want if you choose the Northern Dunedain, Ar-Ardunaim, or even Bree-Land. The Northern Dunedain start as a nomadic type of folk, very poor but warrior culture, and if all goes right you will basically unite all of the good portions of middle earth, you are able to recruit a dozen or two dozen auxiliary troops as mercenaries while having your own semi-professional army. The AA are the roman analog as you conscript troops throughout middle earth in a more forceful way...their armor designs even change to match your colors once you conquer them. And Bree can take a mercenary path that allows them to recruit mercenaries from all over middle earth. DAC also have an updated campaign map, with the best map assets and battle maps of any M2TW mod...and nearly all of the 20+ campaigns are unique....as are the rosters. And DAC V.4 is set to come out very soon, so a good time to try it.

Concerning the movie units: The movie only showed about 15 units...and a couple of heroes...a mod like DAC has literally 500 units in the game, and many of them have multiple armor variants so you are looking at about 1000 armor designs in the game. I've watched the movies about 30 times, and played DAC about 2000 hours and I do not think movie ever when I am playing. In fact it really has its own universe because it is so expanded.