Frequently Asked Questions

Hello! here are some of our most frequently asked questions by the community regarding the mod. Enjoy!

What is the goal of this mod? The goal is to bring the events of the mythical First Age to life in an authentic (not necessarily accurate) way. I care about the story and I use it to inform a huge number of decisions made for the direction of the mod, but at the end of the day what I care about more is gameplay and how fun/balanced it is. To that end my goal is to make each faction unique with distinct strengths AND weaknesses that genuinely matter and change the way players approach certain challenges. I'm also a big critic of rosters with a lot of redundant (see: wasteful) inclusions, so I try to make every unit for every faction worth including at least some of the time. The end result is that our factions have smaller rosters than other mods you may have played as you won't find 3-6 different kinds of shielded swordsmen. The final major feature I want to talk about is replay-ability. By this I mean a breadth of challenging, but still distinct experiences every time you load up the mod, and this percolates downwards into many choices we make, from map design, to unit variety, to faction concept. Specifically as regards map layouts, I'd like people to be able to play the same map many times over with a fresh way to experience it, but I also don't want players to focus on playing one map forever.

-

What factions will be playable (both multiplayer as single player)? There will be 17 factions in total encompassing all of the major players in Beleriand at the time of the War of the Jewels. All factions, with the exception of Valinor, The Brood of Glaurung, The Avari of Taur-im-Duinath, The Elves of Mithrim, and Nan Dungortheb, will be playable in the grand campaign mode. Before you ask, no the Petty Dwarves will not be a faction. Campaign however also feature a large assortment of units to represent characters, or groups which played a role in the events of the First Age. The Petty Dwarves will play a part in the campaign, either as mercenaries, or as some kind of script.

-

Will the mod have flying units? We get asked this one a lot and I understand why; The First Age has a lot of fantasy creatures like vampires and dragons. Unfortunately Medieval II doesn't handle these units well in my opinion. I have no interest in including a half-baked or gimmicky features in the mod simply for inclusion's sake, so I decided early on that we would not include flying units. Sorry Angcalagon fans!

---

When will the campaign come out? When it's ready! I realise that's a non-answer that satisfies nobody, so I'll explain a little further: Silmarillion: Total War is very quality focused project, as you can probably guess from the above answer about flyers. When we're certain that the campaign is stable and feature dense enough to be worth testing then we will release a closed campaign alpha and I will put out a call for singleplayer testers. Once we've bug hunted and refined faction campaign mechanics then we will release the campaign V1 publicly. That's really all I can see for the time being.

Can dwarves have cav? I get asked this question a lot regarding Dwarves, or Finarfin, and really any faction who has a noticeable gap in their roster. The answer is usually "No." Not because we aren't open to feedback, or unwilling to improve the factions we have, but because this mod is very gameplay focused and the rosters reflect faction concepts that were established as far back as 2019. The goal of Silmarillion: Total War, aside from the obvious of bringing Beleriand to life in an authentic way, is to create factions which are unique and shine in their particular field of expertise, while also challenging the player to work around built in weaknesses. That being said, Legendary Companies (LCs) exist for a reason which we'll talk about later on. Additionally campaign will bring mercenaries and faction or character specific AoR units which will expand the base rosters somewhat. We'll see what that ends up looking like later down the road. For now, in multiplayer at least, if you want a faction with cavalry then the Naugrim might not be for you.

-

Are fire weapons ap? Generally (as in 99.9% of cases) they are not. The only exception are the Ashpriests of Tol-in-Gaurhoth who have a unique fiery projectile, as well as the Hishtbukraz za Gulkalab. Both of these however merely use fiery visuals and don't behave the same as other fire weapons/monsters such as Uruloki, Mangonels, or Firepike troops. As a rule of thumb fire weapons have high damage potential which they deal in a large area. This can be blocked by shields and especially by armor. Therefore fire is best used against lightly armored troops, or large blobs of enemies. Functionally they're a tool to punish blobbing and infantry deathstars.(modifié)

--

What are Legendary Companies (LCs)? Legendary Companies are somewhat analogous to Warhammer: Total War Regiments of Renown. I liked the idea, but felt that the implementation fell short sometimes. As such in the mod they're a way to expand faction toolkits in order to make certain tough matchups more berable. Each LC differs from one another in that they all supply a new choice to the player in an interesting, generally lore-friendly, and immersive way without breaking my rule about maintaining faction concepts.(modifié)

I'll use the Accursed of Alqualonde, the LC for the House of Feanor, as an example: House of Feanor is a faction that focuses primarily on well armored/shielded soldiers and cavalry supremacy. While testing the faction they began to fall into fairly static army compositions which heavily, heavily relied on their cavalry. That's a good thing, right? They are the premiere Elven cavalry supremacy faction after all. Well yes and no. The result was that Feanor became somewhat predictable and more easily counterable. Accursed of Alqualonde are a powerful unit with an alternate stat line to their Defenders of Aglon counterparts in that they focused even more heavily on armor at the expense of melee defense while causing fear and have no block animations, making them effectively immune to being staggered in melee unless knocked over. This made them terrors in close-quarters at the cost of being extremely vulnerable to armor piercing damage, or high damage attacks, such as those from lower/mid tier shock units to a degree that surpassed the baseline Defenders of Aglon while opening up the possibility for new infantry centric comps for House of Feanor. This brings me to the next major feature of LCs: They're not replacements for baseline units, nor are they just another generals bodyguard. They have real strengths and weaknesses that don't make them suitable for every army and every opponent.(modifié)

-

What are Detachments? In the most general sense, detachments are half strength units which you can purchase for half the regular cost. Some detachments offer different features from the full strength unit, while others do not. Usually this is indicated in some way on the unit's stat card in the custom battle screen. They add variety and spice to your multiplayer armies and I expect will be useful as garrisons in singleplayer.

-

What will this War of Wrath campaign be about? Well, it'll be about the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age. Nothing is set in stone, but the campaign will pit Valinor and the Remaining First Born/Edain against the combined might of Angband and Tol in Gaurhoth. That's all I can say for now.