Edain is a Game Mod for the real-time strategy game The Battle for Middle-earth II: Rise of the Witch-King. It draws its inspiration from the books by J. R. R. Tolkien, the film series by Peter Jackson, and various other parts of the the franchise. It takes its name from the Sindarin word for "Men", Edain (pronounced "Eh-Dine").
The Edain is being developed by a German team (known as the "Edain Team"). Originally released in German, it was later translated to English and continues to update in both languages. The Mod is still in development, but has completed the original Faction roster and added all three Campaigns from Battle for Middle-earth 2 and it's expansion.
The Edain Mod currently included 9 Factions, up from the 7 of the base game and it's expansion, with 2 Secret Factions planned for future releases. The current Factions included are:
- Gondor: The southern kingdom of Men. Gondor is a versatile Faction with emphasis on defense. Gondor can field a wide variety of troops and has elites in almost every category. On certain maps, Gondor will be replaced with its sister-kingdom, Arnor.
- Rohan: The home of the Horse-Lords. Rohan is an aggressive Faction with an emphasis on speed. Initially relying on drafted Peasants, Rohan can later field the most skilled cavalry in Middle-earth.
- Dwarves: The most stalwart and stubborn Race in Middle-earth, master craftsmen and miners. Dwarves are divided into three Realms, one of which can be chosen at the start of the game. All three Realms are similar in playstyle but each have their quirks; lead the offensive Erebor Dwarves, the defensive Iron Hills Dwarves, or the evasive Ered Luin Dwarves.
- Imladris: The Last Homely House and home of the Noldor. Imladris has little strength in numbers, but their units are more skilled compared to other Factions'.
- Lothlorien: Forest-home of the Sindar Elves, masterful archers adept at staying hidden. Lothlorien is the most aggressive "Good" Faction and excels at ambush-tactics.
- Mordor: The dark realm of Sauron and the heart of all evil in Middle-earth. Mordor commands legions of Orcs, Evil Men, Trolls and other evils into battle.
- Isengard: A growing war-machine ruled by the corrupted Wizard Saruman. The vast armies of Uruk-Hai march forth under the banner of the White Hand, clad in steel armour, wielding master-forged weapons, and leading advanced siege-engines to bring down their enemies.
- Angmar: The cold, dark realm of the Witch-King. Angmar commands Mountain Orcs, Hillmen, beasts of the North and even the spirits of the Dead to spread its chill across the land.
- Misty Mountains: The mountains and the lands around them teem with Goblins and wild, monstrous beasts. Under the iron-fist of Bolg, these hordes march to scavenge the land.
Edain takes the gameplay back to the fixed-building system of Battle for Middle Earth 1. Factions start the game with a single fixed base (either a Camp or a larger and more defensive Castke) and must expand their territory by capturing the Settlement, Outpost and Camp/Castle plots that are scattered around the map. The Mod has also expanded upon the way Spellbooks work and added many new Maps, among other changes.
It can be downloaded here
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The mod features the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Arwen, Eowyn and Galadriel, as in the base game. The Mod adds Tauriel, a character from the Hobbit movies, and Helegwen, a female Archer serving Angmar. The Player can also create their own with the Create-a-Hero feature of the base game, updated by Edain.
- Adaptational Badass: As with the base game, many characters and even entire kingdoms can count as this. Some notable examples:
- Arwen, as in the base game. In the source material, Arwen never engaged in combat. In-game, however, she can defeat many enemies alone.
- Bill Ferny, the spy stationed in Bree by Saruman in the Books. In the Mod, Bill can take out many enemies on his own, whereas in the Books he was defeated by a pony.
- Eowyn, as in the base game. The Witch-King is not the limit to what she can defeat.
- Grima Wormtongue, as in the base game, can survive against the like of Aragorn and the Witch-King much longer than in the source material.
- Hobbits in general. While not overly powerful, Merry and Pippin can take out hordes of enemies alone, including groups of possibly thousands-of-years-old Elven Warriors. Bandaboras Took (an Arnor-spellbook summon) can knock down any number of Villains, up-to and including the Witch-King, with little more than a wooden club.
- Tom Bombadil has been toned down from his original army-destroyer role from the base game, but he can still sing-and-dance his way through hordes of enemies.
- Adaptation Expansion: As with the base game, the Edain Mod greatly expands upon Tolkien's lore and that of the Films, adding its own where needed.
- One notable example of this is the Angmar Faction. In the Books, Angmar was little more than a mention, with no named leaders aside from the Witch-King. The Mod expands on the old Faction, including various original characters with rich backstories, from the Sorcerer Gùlzar to the Enforcer Dùrmath. Angmar's forces are also expanded, including Turncoats of Arnor and creatures such as Werewolves.
- Various characters from Tolkien's lore are expanded upon and given important roles in various Factions. Characters such as Gildor, the Elf the Hobbits meets on the borders of the Shire, and Cirdan, Lord of the Grey Havens are made Heroes equal to other major characters.
- Adaptational Wimp: For balance-reason's, some characters are weaker than in the source material. Some examples include:
- Glorfindel, who killed a Balrog and was able to send the Nazgul running, can easily meet the same fate against either enemy.
- Sauron, in his Shadow Form, can be defeated by a Hobbit like Merry or Pippin or even a weak man like Wormtongue where in the films it took Galadriel to cast him out.
- The All-Seeing A.I.: As in the base game, fog of war is little more than a formality for the AI.
- All There in the Manual: The manual being the books or films. Somewhat averted, as Heroes and Units have a bit of information in their description cards.
- All Trolls Are Different: Trolls generally keep to the Tolkien model of large, strong and unintelligent, but they tend to differ in some ways between Factions:
- Mordor has Mountain Trolls, which serve as their main shock-troops. Unlike in the base game, they cannot throw rocks or eat hapless Orcs, but are now able to be equipped with armour and weapons. Mountain Trolls can be given a mace, giving them increased area-of-effect attack, a sword, increasing damage against heroes and other monsters, or a hammer, increasing their damage against buildings. Mordor also has Drummer Trolls, which increase the morale and damage of nearby allies and can cause enemies to flee in terror, but are ineffective in combat. Lastly, there's Mollok, based off the Troll Aragorn fought at the Black Gate (which itself is based on the Troll-Chieftain Pippin killed in the Books). Mountain Trolls are also used to operate Catapults, Siege Towers and Grond.
- Misty Mountains utilizes several different breeds of Troll. Cave Trolls can be trained from the Monster Cage of the Moria Camp, and function the same as in the base game, able to throw boulders or use their bare hands in combat. Stone Trolls are recruited from the Troll-Lair Settlement Building, and cannot throw rocks. Mountain Giants can be accessed from the Fissure Outpost Building, and can hurl large boulders over long distances, or engage in Melee and scatter enemies with their Stomp ability. Lastly, Tom, Bert and William, the Three Trolls from the Hobbit, can also be recruited from the Troll-Lair, and serve as the damage-absorbing Hero for the Misty Mountains.
- Angmar can summon Hill Trolls from their spellbook. Hill Trolls are taller and leaner than other Trolls, and have green skin. The Hill Trolls Angmar can summon wield hammers in combat, and are effective against most enemies and structures. The same spellbook power will also summon Rogash, an original character from the base game. Rogash is a large armored Hill Troll who carries a sword and can leap into enemy armies to knock them away. If the Witch-King grants his Favour to the Beast's of Angmar and finds the One Ring, the Player can also recruit Snow Trolls. Snow Trolls are smaller and faster than their cousins, covered in white fur and carrying bladed-pickaxes. They serve as a form of Cavalry, something which Angmar lacks.
- Annoying Arrows: Mostly averted, like in the original game. Most units will die to a single arrow (or volley of arrows). Most Monsters Units, such as Trolls and Mumakil, will take more arrows before going down.
- Played straight with Heroes. It can take several groups of Archers to take down some Heroes, and even a volley of arrows won't do much lasting damage.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: As in the base game, there is an imposed limit in all game modes. All Factions can increase the limit by purchasing the "Increased Pantry" upgrade found in the Citadel (or the Sanctuary in the case of Lothlorien).
- Arrows on Fire: Most Factions' Archer units can get these as an upgrade to increase their damage. Elven and Angmar archers are exceptions to this.
- Also applies to Siege Weapons, with some Factions' missiles being lit on fire.
- Ascended Extra: Many barely-mentioned characters are given prominent roles in the Mod:
- Imladris has Gildor, an Elf the Hobbits meet on the borders of the Shire and who does not appear again.
- Lothlorien has Rumil and Orophin, Haldir's brothers who only appear for a short time in the Books.
- Isengard has Bill Ferny, who only appears once or twice in the Books.
- Misty Mountains has The Moria Chieftain, who is the Moria Orc that pierces Frodo with a spear in the Books (this role was taken by the Cave Troll in the films).
- Angmar has Hwaldar, who was mentioned but not named in the appendices.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- As in the first game, Grond is this. Despite the immense damage it can cause, it is still slow and hard to maneuver.
- The Mumakil still somewhat suffer from this due to their weakness to pikes and archers.
- Beast of Battle: Every Evil Faction has at least one of these, and even Good Factions get in on it sometimes:
- Dwarves use large Goats to pull their Siege Engines.
- Mordor makes use of Trolls as shock-troops and to operate their Siege Engines, and Giant Spiders as Anti-Cavalry. They can also summon humongous War Elephants called Mumakil to trample their foes.
- Isengard uses gigantic wolf-like Wargs as mounts and even trains some to act as guard dogs.
- Misty Mountains uses Trolls and rhinoceros-like Great Beast's for siege. They also employ Dragons to scorch enemies.
- Angmar makes use of Trolls for operating their Siege Engines, and also use Dire Wolves for attacking and as mounts.
- The Berserker: One of Isengard's units. Bolg can also summon hordes of these.
- Black Knight: As in the base game and it's predecessors, the Nazgul, the Mouth of Sauron, and Sauron himself count as this.
- Mordor also has the Morgul Riders.
- Angmar has many heroes and units themed like this, particularly their heroic units; the Shadow Guard and their mounted variant.
- Black Magic:
- The Sorcerers of Angmar, as in the base game, use their Acolytes to perform spells.
- Angmar's hero Zaphragor, an original character of the Mod, uses his own lifeforce to cast spells.
- Blown Across the Room: Some heroes such as Faramir possess long-ranged abilities that can launch targets a fair distance.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Some heroes (Faramir, Lurtz, Halbarad, etc) can switch between bow and sword.
- The Cameo: Saleme, a character from The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, makes an appearance as a pre-made custom hero.
- Cannon Fodder: The standard strategy for Mordor and Misty Mountains. Angmar and Rohan can also do this.
- Canon Foreigner: Most of Angmar's heroes are characters created by the Mod. The only exceptions are Hwaldar, Karsh and Rogash, who are original characters from the base game, and the Witch-King.
- The Cavalry: One of Gondor's final spellbook powers summons an army of Rohirrim.
- One of Arnor's final spellbook powers, which summons an army of Gondor, counts as this as well.
- Cavalry of the Dead: Gondor's other final spellbook power summons the Army of the Dead.
- Character Narrator: Elrond for the base Campaigns of Battle for Middle Earth 2 and Glorfindel for the Expansion's Campaign, all three of which can be played in the Mod.
- Command & Conquer Economy: As with the base games, there is only one resource used to train units, recruit heroes, build structures and purchase upgrades.
- Competitive Balance: All 9 playable Factions are mostly equal. Even exceptions like most Good Factions' bases having walls where Evil Factions' bases don't is countered by Evil Factions' generally having cheaper early defenses such as spammable units or unique defensive structures.
- Cool, but Inefficient: Naval Combat, as in the base game. The cost of Ships, in both resources and command points, and the scarcity of maps with Shipyards means most Players will likely never engage in this.
- Damage Is Fire: Some structures will gain burning effects after falling below a certain health threshold.
- Death from Above: Eagles and Nazgul mounted on Fell-Beasts attack from the air. There is also Smaug and maximum-level Fire-Drakes.
- The Dreaded: Some heroes and units can weaken enemies with their mere presence. The Nazgul are a good example.
- Other heroes and units can emit screams or roars to cause enemies to flee or even become paralyzed in fear. Again, the Nazgul are a good example.
- Dungeon Crawling: A special map created by the Edain Team, Path of the Edain, is one of these. In it, you and other Players each control a Custom Hero and explore the darkest depths of Mount Gundabad.
- Easy Logistics: As in the base game:
- There is only one resource, which generates automatically when the player owns specific buildings. Units don't require food, buildings don't need wood, stone or steel to be built/repaired.
- Ranged units, defensive towers, and siege units have unlimited ammunition.
- Buildings are automatically repaired after a while when damaged.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: The Angmar Faction is centered around ice, with most heroes, units and powers having a freezing effect. All the better to cover the land in an eternal winter.
- Evil Overlord: Sauron and Saruman, as in the lore. The Witch-King also counts in the Angmar Faction.
- Evil vs. Evil: Can be done in Skirmish Maps.
- Faction Calculus: The Edain mod breaks up a few factions and retools others, resulting in some shifts from the base game. While Gondor and Angmar remain Balanced, Mordor remains Horde, Isengard remains Powerhouse and Misty Mountains remains Subversive, Rohan is a mix of Horde (its infantry) and Powerhouse (its cavalry). The Iron Hills Dwarves remain Powerhouse with a focus on defense, while Erebor takes on aspects of Cannon and Ered Luin takes on bits of Subversive. Lastly, Lothlorien is a mix of Cannon and Subversive, while Imladris is a pure Powerhouse.
- Gameplay and Story Integration:
- A Mode in most Gamemodes features a Wandering Gollum who carries the One Ring. Unlike in the base game, claiming the Ring will not result in summoning Galadriel for Good or Sauron for Evil. Instead, specific heroes are able to claim the Ring for themselves, gaining power equal to their will. A man like Boromir will drastically rise in power, but will be corrupted and die after a short while. Gandalf will be corrupted if he claims the Ring while still "the Grey", but will master it as "the White". Elrond will summon the Fellowship instead of taking the Ring himself, etc.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation:
- If Angmar's Witch-King finds the One Ring, he will use it himself instead of taking it to his master Sauron.
- Theoden can claim the Ring and become quite powerful with little real downsides and no threat of corruption.
- On the other hand, Wormtongue can claim the Ring. If Rohan's Corrupted Theoden finds it, Wormtongue will become King of Rohan and Theoden will become a slave to him. Note that Grima will not be corrupted in the same way as Boromir at any point, despite being a weaker man who should, by all accounts, become a creature like Gollum.
- Giant Flyer: The Eagles, Fell-Beast's, and Smaug himself. The Fire-Drake's of the Misty Mountains Faction also count once they reach their maximum level.
- Giant Spider: Shelob and her brood, summoned by Mordor's spellbook. The Mirkwood Spiders from the Dol Guldur Outpost and the Spiders summoned by the Misty Mountains also count.
- Giant Squid: The Misty Mountains can summon the Watcher in the Water.
- Hero of Another Story: The Good campaign of the second game, which was redone for Edain, actually is the other story to the main plot line of The Lord of the Rings, as it focuses on battles fought in the northern regions of Middle Earth just after the Fellowship left Rivendell. The Epilogue Mission to the redone Angmar Campaign is also this.
- Human Resources: All Factions can return some of the resources spent on units by "returning" them to the Citadel. Mordor can feed their units into one of their resource buildings, the Slaughterhouse.
- Hero Unit: Lots. Almost any character from the Movies and Books is one, and some original characters as well.
- Last Stand: The Mod adds special "Horde" Maps, which are essentially non-Campaign versions of the first Game's Helm's-Deep and Minas Tirith missions with more difficulty and other changes.
- Lethal Joke Character: Tom Bombadil, a summonable Hero for Imladris.
- Arnor's summon, Bandaboras Took, can also count as this.
- Magic Knight: Many heroes, particularly those belonging to the Elvish Factions and Angmar, count as this. Some examples include:
- Elrond and Glorfindel for Imladris. Elrond is able to summon a flood of water horses and later a tornado, while Glorfindel can wield power light magic.
- Celeborn for Lothlorien is able to use air magic to some extent.
- Angmar has Zaphragor, who uses his own life to perform frost spells and is scarily effective in melee, carrying a massive sword that could cleave a man in half.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Whenever a particularly scary unit like a Giant Flyer or a Monster shows up, all nearby non-hero enemies freak out, visibly cowering and wailing in terror. This even extends to some hero abilities, which outright paralyzes them with fear. The weather abilities some Factions have can have this effect as well, but Rohan's "Cloudbreak" is the best example.
- The Medic:
- The Good factions have specific buildings which have this role.
- Some heroes have abilities that can heal other heroes or Units
- Imladris' spellbook power "Miruvor" can heal units in a small area.
- Mighty Glacier: Some Factions have a specific "Tank" Hero who is more durable than others, but typically slower:
- Gondor has Boromir, Arnor has Arvedui.
- Rohan has Hama.
- Imladris has Glorfindel.
- Lothlorien has Thranduil.
- Misty Mountains has the Three Trolls.
- Angmar has Karsh.
- The entire Dwarf Faction can be considered this as well, but special mention goes to the Iron Hills.
- Some units, like the Fountain Court Guards of Gondor, are also this.
- No Cure for Evil: Mostly played straight, but averted with Isengard, as one of their heroes possesses a healing ability.
- Plunder:
- Eomer, Thorin Oakenshield and the Great Goblin have abilities that give resources when they or nearby allied units kill enemies. Bill Ferny also has a similar ability that only affects himself.
- The Wildmen of Dunland and Goblin-Town Goblins have an ability that gives them resources for attacking buildings.
- One of the spellbook powers of the Misty Mountains causes all units to gain resources from killing enemies.
- One-Man Army: Most Ring-Heroes count as this, being able to wipe out armies with their abilities and even basic attacks. The Balrog-summon from the Misty Mountains spellbook is also this.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Every Dwarf.
- RPG Elements: As in the base game:
- Hero units, their level cap is 10, and they gain skills at specific levels.
- Players can create custom heroes and use them in most game modes.
- Most units gain experience and regiments gain the ability to replace fallen comrades at level 2, with a maximum level of 5 for basic units and 10 for Heroic battalion (some can even reach level 20!). Most units can be upgraded with gear better than their starting weapons / armors.
- Some buildings can level-up and gain defensive towers.
- "Risk"-Style Map:
- The redone Campaign's of the base game and it's predecessor are like this, being styled after the first game's Campaign, though unlike the first game, it isn't possible to conquer other regions beyond the mission areas.
- The "War of the Ring" mode of the base game is included in the Mod.
- The Siege: Skirmish Maps can be set up like this.
- Most "Horde" Maps works like this, allowing you to relive the Battle for Helm's-Deep and Siege of Minas Tirith in-game.
- Siege Engines: Each Faction has various siege weapons specific to them:
- Gondor and Arnor can field Roofed-Battering Rams, Siege Shields and Trebuche.
- Rohan can use flaming Hay Carts and Onagar.
- Dwarves have Chariot-like Battle Wagons, Steel-Roofed Battering Rams called "Demolishers", Catapults, tunneling Dwarven Miners and Earth Hammers.
- Imladris has Catapult and Battering Rams.
- Lothlorien has living siege weapons in the form of Ents.
- Mordor has Battering Rams, Catapults, Troll-operated Catapults and Siege Towers, and a massive Batteing Ram named "Grond".
- Isengard has Battering Rams, Ballista, Siege Ladders and Explosive Mines.
- Angmar has Troll-operated Battering Rams, Siege-Slings and Siege Towers.
- Misty Mountains has various living Siege Weapons in the form of Trolls, Great Beast's and Mountain Giants, as well as Goblin Tunnelers.
- Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: This is a mechanic all the way from the first BFME that the Mod reintroduced for the second game. These plots can be captured by bringing units near to them, allowing you to build one of a selection of structures in its place. Once the structure is destroyed, the plot returns to being captureable by any Player. There are three types of captureable plots:
- Settlements are the smallest and most common types. All Factions' can most commonly build two types of resource-producing structures and one-to-two types of defensive or support buildings. Gondor, for example, can choose to build a resource-producing Farm, a resource-producing/unit training Ranger Camp, and a unit-producing Signal Fire.
- Outposts are larger and less common. Most maps only have two. Factions' can use these to build either their own Outpost (which serves as a base with less building options) or other types of fortresses, usually belonging to sub-Factions. Taking Gondor as another example, which can build a Dol Amroth Border Stronghold, allowing recruitment of Dol Amroth units and Heroes.
- Lastly, there is the Camp/Castle plot, which allows the main base of a Faction to be built. These only appear after destroying a Player's base (or if a Player-slot is left empty when beginning a game).
- There are also captureable Shipwrights in certain maps. These can be gained control over by sending a unit to capture the structure flag.
- Tactical Superweapon Unit: Ring-Heroes are this. If you manage to find and kill Gollum and bring a Hero (specific to each Faction) to the Ring, expect to destroy nearly anything that comes your way. Some examples include:
- Gandalf the Corrupted, the result of Gandalf the Grey being tested by the temptation of the One Ring and failing. His mere presence terrifies friend and foe alike, and his once light-themed powers have turned to fire.
- On the other hand, there's Gandalf the Challenge-Master. Where Gandalf the Grey failed at mastering the weapon of the enemy, Gandalf the White managed to succeed. He now glows with the power of the Maiar. Nearby allies will gain hope and be continously healed, and his powers will cause enemies to cower in fear.
- Storm-Queen Galadriel. Much like Gandalf the Corrupted, this is what happens when a powerful being falls to darkness. In this form, "terrible as the seas" and "stronger than the foundations of the earth" can be taken literally. As in, the Storm-Queen will literally drown her enemies in a flood while burying their castles beneath the ground.
- Saruman will randomely take one of two forms when he gains the Ring. "Saruman the Blessed" hurls lightning bolts and empowers his forces, whereas "Saruman the Cursed" unleashes fire and has fallen fully into industry, using his new power to advance his structures.
- Sauron, the Lord of the Rings himself. Most Heroes, even Ring-Heroes, have only five powers. Sauron? He has ten! This includes taking control of enemy armies, calling down flaming meteors from the sky, and the ability to summon his terrible fortress from the first age!
- Some ultimate spellbook-summons are also this. One notable example is the Balrog, summoned by the Misty Mountains, which is able to lay waste to armies in only a few seconds.
- Tunnel Network: Possessed by the Dwarves and Misty Mountains, as in the base game, with the difference being the Goblins have far more tunneling options.
- Angmar also has a version that can only be used by Barrow Wights.
- Veteran Unit: See RPG Elements above.
- Also taken literally with the Veterans of the Last Alliance and Veterans of Khazad-Dum Heroic Units of the Imladris and Dwarf Factions.
- Victory Pose: The troops cheer after defeating an enemy or winning a match. They will also cheer if a hero runs near them. Which makes sense for, say, Aragorn or Théoden, but not quite as much for Heroes such as the Hobbits or Bill Ferny.
- When Trees Attack: Lothlorien can train Ents, giant walking tree-men which can throw rocks or crush things with their gnarled hands. They can also summon a ring of Huorns, which are essentially sentient trees, to entangle enemies and tear them apart.
- Rohan can summon the Last March of the Ents as one of their final spells.
- Zerg Rush: The main strategy of Mordor and the Misty Mountains, as they both possess cheap (free in Mordor's case) Infantry which can be spammed to overwhelm the enemy. Angmar can also do this at a greater cost, and so can Rohan.
- The AI tends to do this with all Factions.
