History VideoGame / DivideAndConquer

* ChoosingNeutrality: While Bree starts off allied with the Northern Dúnedain, the former can break this alliance by choosing the Isolationist path when prompted, which is described in the accompanying description cards as the Bree-landers and Shire-folk deciding to prioritize their own interests over contributing to the greater war against the Shadow.

** The Northern Dúnedain are shown to have a starting army in the hundreds just like every other faction, whereas Aragorn's personal army in the books is likely no more than a hundred, given tha the number that can be mustered at moment's notice to come to his aid is 30.

** The Northern Dúnedain are shown to have armies in the thousands just like every other faction, whereas Aragorn's personal army in the book is likely no more than a hundred, given that 30 is the number that can be mustered at any given moment to come to his aid.

** The Northern Dúnedain are shown to have armies in the thousands just like every other faction, whereas his personal army in the book is likely no more than a hundred, given that 30 is the number that can be mustered at any given moment to come to his aid.

* AdaptationalBadass: The men of Dunland are described as lacking in armour and terribly armed in the books. In the mod, while that still holds true for their early-game roster, they also have access to several heavily-armored general units right out of the gate, including their king who has a cadre of nigh-invincible Orthanc bodyguards from Saruman.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The iconic Mûmakil look absolutely awesome on the battlefield, but their large size make them especially vulnerable to artillery, going down after a single hit from an onager.

** High Elves: This well-rounded faction goes all the way with the Elitist philosophy, as their units are the absolute best in the entire game at each tier (with the exception of their still-elite cavalry), but incredibly expensive and low in number. Of course, you still need to be smart, as they are hard to replace and you if you lose either Mithlond or Rivendell, you will lose a good part of your roster until you get them back.

It can be found [[https://www.moddb.com/mods/divide-and-conquer here]]. For more information, there's also the Website/YouTube [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8HWk4BpT_AP4tTGjF4O4GA/ channel]] of the sub-mod's current head.

** The Numenorean colonies south of Umbar, which receive only passing mentions in the books (with their biggest impact being where Queen Beruthiel hailed from), are turned into a full-fledged playable faction in the form of Ar-Adûnâim. In addition, while their culture goes unmentioned in the book, the mod makes it so that they are Numenorean supremacists hostile to both Gondor and Sauron, whom they despise for leading their old empire into ruins.

** The Numenorean colonies south of Umbar, which receive only passing mentions in the books (with their biggest impact being the homeland of Queen Beruthiel), are turned into a full-fledged playable faction in the form of Ar-Adûnâim. In addition, while their culture goes mention in the book, the mod makes it so that they are Numenorean supremacists hostile to both Gondor and Sauron, whom they despise for leading their old empire into ruins.

** The original faction of Ar-Adûnâim is a confederation of various Black Numenorean colonies south of Umbar, which receive only a passing mention in the book that they've been subjugated by Sauron. In the mod, which takes place before the War of the Ring (and possibly their submission to Sauron), these colonies are given their own identity distinct from Umbar, being Numenorean supremacists loyal only to their old empire and despising Sauron for leading it into ruins. As such, they can be hostile to both Gondor and Sauron.

** The original faction of Ar-Adûnâim is a confederation of various Black Numenorean colonies south of Umbar, which receive only a passing mention in the book that they've been subjugated by Sauron. In the mod, which takes place before the War of the Ring (and possibly their submission to Sauron), these colonies are given their own identity distinct from Umbar, being Numenorean supremacists loyal only to their old empire and despising Sauron for leading it into ruins. As such, they can be hostile to both Gondor and Sauron on their path to reforge their old empire.

** The Ar-Adûnâim is an original faction consisting of various Black Numenorean colonies south of Umbar, which exist but receive very little mention in the books beyond that they've been absorbed into Sauron's realm. In the mod, these colonies are instead Numenorean supremacists who despise both Gondor and Sauron, initially seeking only to carve out a new Numenorean Empire for themselves.

** The Ar-Adûnâim is an original faction consisting of various Black Numenorean colonies south of Umbar, which exist but receive very little mention in the books beyond that they've been absorbed into Sauron's realm. In the mod, these colonies are instead Numenorean centrists who despise both Gondor and Sauron, initially seeking only to carve out a new Numenorean Empire ruled by a descendant of Beruthiel.

** The Ar-Adûnâim is an original faction consisting of various Black Numenorean colonies south of Umbar, which exist but receive very little mention in the books. In the mod, they're said to be a group of Numenorean centrists, hating both Sauron and Gondor and loyal only to Numenor.

* DropTheHammer: Maces and hammers are another common armor-piercing weapon, with Khazad-dûm in particular favoring their use. However, the true masters of the hammer (besides Sauron's bodyguard, of course) are Imladris's Smiths of Eregion, who are even more powerful than they were in vanilla ''Third Age'', to the point of being probably the strongest non-monstrous unit by far in all of [=DaC=].

* EnemyExchangeProgram: The Northern Dúnedain's Beacon of Hope mechanic allows them to recruit units from other Mannish factions (except Gondor and Dol Amroth) as mercenaries in these factions' heartlands. Enedwaith and Dunlending units are always available; good non-Númenórean units requires the Northern Dúnedain to be allied with the corresponding faction; Númenóreans and evil Men require a barracks built in their lands.

''Divide and Conquer'' (or [=DaC=] for short) is an extensive sub-mod of ''VideoGame/ThirdAgeTotalWar'' (a ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''-based mod of ''[[VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms]]''). This entirely campaign-focused sub-mod not only adds a massive amount of new content (such as units, factions, scripts, maps, etc.), but substantially overhauls pretty much everything inherited from the original ''Third Age''. Currently, ''Divide and Conquer'' is on Version 4.5.

Unless noted otherwise, all tropes pertain to Version 4.5.

* EnemyExchangeProgram: The Northern Dúnedain's Beacon of Hope mechanic allows them to recruit units from other Mannish factions (except Gondor and Dol Amroth) as mercenaries in these factions' heartlands. In some cases, the corresponding faction must not be at war with the Northern Dúnedain (Bree, Rohan, Dale, Dorwinion and Anduin) or must have been already defeated (Harad, Rhûn and the Ar-Adûnâim).

* AnAxeToGrind: Axes are the most common armor-piercing weapon, with Erebor in particular favoring their use to the point where even their primary ''ranged'' weapons are throwing axes.

** The Blue Wizards were only briefly mentioned in the books and given a small amount of development in Tolkien’s supplemental writings. While we know that they were sent east to help organize rebellions against Sauron, the mod builds on this by having them directly approach the ruler of Khand in an effort to recruit his people. Should a Khandish player accept their offer and turn against Sauron, they gain access to powerful units from the (also barely-developed-in-canon) eastern Dwarven clans who have joined forces with the Blue Wizards. Main downside of this, You are now have to fight off 4 different factions.

** Mordor's mightiest warriors are the Temple units, darkly-clad Black Númenórean knights of great valor who emit a terrifying aura; fittingly, every Nazgûl directly controlled by Mordor gets them as their bodyguard. Once revived, ''Sauron'' himself will take to battle clad in the black plate he wore during the War of the Last Alliance, accompanied by a unique bodyguard composed of fanatical cultists wearing dark, spiked platemail and maces comparable to his own. It's a pity they are rare enough that you can't field a whole army of them without cheating. (Just save before you do so, you may break your game if you do so)
** Angmar's higher unit tiers fields several companies of these, such as the Witch-Knights, a dark order of hooded Knights pledged to the Iron Crown. Most notable are the Guardians of Carn Dûm, who are this trope crossed with HornyVikings; as the Witch King's most loyal barbarian retainers, they ride might steeds, are clad in heavy black plate, and wield thick iron shields. The Northguard are high level Rhuaduar units.

** Harad: Probably one of the most Technical factions in the game, as their units move fast and hit hard, but have very low defensive stats and are particularly vulnerable to missile fire. Good micromanagement becomes particularly key after the Barracks Event, as their late game units have low troop counts and high costs even compared to Dúnedain counterparts, but are still less durable than even many equivalent orc and wild men units. Even the mighty mûmakil will require some finesse to achieve their full effectiveness in battle.

** Wild Men: In general, Middle-earth's three most primitive Mannish factions are Guerilla Spammers whose greatest strengths are numbers and stealth. Though they may not be ''quite'' as quantity-over-quality as the orcs, the wild men are definitely solid runner-ups; in particular, they arguably have the worst late-game rosters in all of Middle-earth, since the relative quality of their units starts to really fall behind once the Barracks Event hits.
*** Dunland: Very much a Brute faction that relies on overwhelming the enemy in close combat, Dunland actually has some pretty decent mid-tier melee units (though they still lack any real "elite"-caliber ones). However, their roster has rather pitiful ranged capabilities and is not quite as stealthy as the other wild men's, though this can be somewhat compensated for if Dunland manages to complete the "Unite the Clans" script and starts recruiting from Enedwaith's more skirmish-oriented roster.

* HeelFaceTurn: Around turn 40-50, Khand will get the option to turn against Sauron by allying with the Blue Wizards. Doing so will net them two powerful armies commanded by the Blue Wizards themselves and allow them to recruit Orocarni Dwarves and the Uushixià Stormriders (powerful chariot-mounted crossbow[wo]men).

* JavelinThrower: Many factions have at least one unit of javelinmen, who will likely be your best counter against mûmakil and other elephant-derived units like chariots. Enedwaith in particular is built around javelins; despite being as cheap as dirt, their javelinmen as a whole have the highest ammo count, damage output, range, and accuracy out of all the factions, and all of their best units (including their generals' bodyguard) are primarily javelinmen.

** Additionally, a handful of generals come with unique (and ''very'' powerful) bodyguards that are 100% unrecruitable otherwise; Aragorn gets the Grey Company (melee infantry armed with a variety of weapons), Saruman has the Guard of the Hand (shielded crossbow/mace infantry), Elrond gets Gil-galad's Company (shielded bow/sword infantry), Balin has (of course) Balin's Guard (hammer-and-shield infantry), and Sauron (should Mordor manage to recover the Ring) is protected by shield-and-mace pseudo-wraiths.

** The Blue Wizards were only briefly mentioned in the books and given a small amount of development in Tolkien’s supplemental writings. While we know that they were sent east to help organize rebellions against Sauron, the mod builds on this by having them directly approach the ruler of Khand in an effort to recruit his people. Should a Khandish player accept their offer and turn against Sauron, they gain access to powerful units from the (also barely-developed-in-canon) eastern Dwarven clans who have joined forces with the Blue Wizards.

** Mordor's mightiest warriors are the Temple units, darkly-clad Black Númenórean knights of great valor who emit a terrifying aura; fittingly, every Nazgûl directly controlled by Mordor gets them as their bodyguard. Once revived, ''Sauron'' himself will take to battle clad in the black plate he wore during the War of the Last Alliance, accompanied by a unique bodyguard composed of fanatical cultists wearing dark, spiked platemail and maces comparable to his own. It's a pity they are rare enough that you can't field a whole army of them without cheating.
** Angmar's higher unit tiers fields several companies of these, such as the Witch-Knights, a dark order of hooded Knights pledged to the Iron Crown. Most notable are the Guardians of Carn Dûm, who are this trope crossed with HornyVikings; as the Witch King's most loyal barbarian retainers, they ride might steeds, are clad in heavy black plate, and wield thick iron shields.

*** Dol Amroth: Their low/mid-tier roster is probably the most Generalist out of all the Númenóreans, being solid but not particularly spectacular outside of their excellent lancer cavalry. However, Dol Amroth's elite units are a whole 'nother story, with their elite cavalry in particular being the best Mannish horsemen in the entire game. In fact, Swan Knights and their Royal counterparts and obiliterate entire stacks of enemies when played correctly.

** While Bree starts off allied with the Northern Dúnedain, the former can break said alliance by choosing the "Isolationist" path when prompted, which is described in the accompanying description cards as the Bree-landers and Shire-folk deciding to prioritize their own interests over contributing to the greater war against the Shadow.

* MoraleMechanic: At each basic tier of morale (Low, Average, Good, etc.), Orcs have the lowest, Elves and Dwarves have the highest, and Men are in between. Enedwaith and Moria in particular have such low morale that they each have a unit specifically dedicated to maintaining morale(the Warchanters[[note]]which Dunland also gets[[/note]] and Uruk Taskmasters respectively).

** Additionally, a handful of generals come with unique (and ''very'' powerful) bodyguards that are 100% unrecruitable otherwise; Aragorn gets the Grey Company (melee infantry armed with a variety of weapons), Saruman has the Guard of the Hand (shielded crossbow/mace infantry), Elrond gets Gil-galad's Company (shielded bow/sword infantry), Balin has (of course) Balin's Guard (hammer-and-shield infantry), and Sauron (should Mordor manage to recover the Ring) is protected by shield-and-mace pseudo-wraiths, who are yet to get a name.

* {{Treants}}: Ents can be recruited from Isengard by the Silven Elf factions, and are just as powerful as you'd expect. Also, they've been changed so that the game's engine counts them as infantry instead of elephants, meaning that, among other things, they're far less likely to cause a crash.

* ZergRush: Orc and Wild Men factions are very much built around the principle of drowning your foes in a sea of disposable bodies. This tactic usually works, but not unless that tide is going through a canal/chokepoint directly into a wall of pikes/swords/axes/arrows/horseis/pain and suffering. A.K.A Elite Units