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Background Information
The information on this page is derived from the BACKGRND.TXT file included with the scenario. Some minor modifications were made to improve organization and clarity. For instructions on installing and getting started see the Getting Started Guide. Table of Contents
Victory Conditions Morgoth and the Forces of Darkness are the Antagonists in this scenario. He has amassed such a force that it is inevitable that he will make some conquests. However, the goal of the Free Peoples of Beleriand is to save the parts of Beleriand that can be saved. For, if sufficient forces are available, in the year 473, the Union of Maedhros will be formed, and the Fifth Battle in the Wars of Beleriand will be fought. If the forces of the Free People are able to attain either a Decisive Victory or a Marginal Victory, this battle will remain possible. However, if the Dark Forces are victorious, all hope will be lost and the possibility of any future victory will be gone forever, save with the help of the Valar.
Please Note: If you get soundly beaten, play again. The CPU never plays the same way twice! I have been beaten soundly and I have served Morgoth a decisive defeat. Fortune has a lot to do with it. But you must also use your skill to exploit favorable situations when they occur. For example, one time, Morgoth stacked 20 Balrogs! You can bet I sent my eagles into that fray! Cultures and Kingdoms Important Note: To understand the following background, you must be aware that Elves are not subject to death by old age or ailment. However, they are not immortal, for they can be slain. Also, it should be pointed out that "Tolkienesque" Elves are very different from the pixies and other tiny, pointy-eared creatures that appear in many children's stories. Tolkien's Elves look exactly like men, yet are the Firstborn, so are greater in stature, strength, wisdom, etc. Noldor One of the three hosts of the Eldar (Elves who accepted the summons to Valinor) to make the journey from the East of Middle-earth, across the Great Sea, to Valinor. The Noldor have great love of knowledge and craft and thus were ensnared by Morgoth's fair words when he was unchained in Aman. His lies caused the Noldor to become discontent in Aman and, when Morgoth darkened that land by destroying the Two Trees and stealing the Silmarils, the Noldor forsook the Blessed Land and pursued Morgoth to Beleriand in Northwestern Middle-Earth. This they did against the will of the Valar and thus earned their anger. A long age would pass before the Valar would forgive them and allow them back into the Blessed Realm. The High King of the Noldor is Fingolfin at his capital on the Lake of Mithrim. To the East of his city, on the Eastern side of the mountains of Ered Wethrin, lies the fortress of Barad Eithel, from which the cavalry of the Noldor patrol the plains before Morgoth's great fortress of Angband. Barad Eithel is held by Fingolfin's son, Fingon the Valiant. To the South of Barad Eithel, where Sirion passes between the Ered Wethrin and the Western end of the Highlands of Dorthonion, Lies the City-Fortress of Minas Tirith upon the isle of Tol Sirion. Here at first Finrod dwelt, but now it is the stronghold of Orodreth, his brother. Finrod, the son of Finarfin, brother of Fingolfin, foresook the Northlands and the seige of Angband when he was warned by the Vala Ulmo himself to seek a hidden place of strength. Finrod did so, and founded the city of Nargothrond which remains hidden from Morgoth. Likewise, Turgon, son of Fingolfin, received this warning as well, but did not turn to the southlands for safety. Instead, Ulmo himself guided Turgon to a hidden vale within the mountains of Western Dorthonion. There, Turgon built his realm of Gondolin, the fairest city of the Eldar East of Aman. The Eagles of Manwe watch over the city and only they can come and go from Tumladen, the Hidden Vale, without the leave of the king. Only when Turgon deems the time to be right will he bring the Hidden People forth to do battle by the side of their kin. Finally Angrod and Aegnor, sons of Finarfin, hold the Highlands of Dorthonion, the place in most peril of an attack from Morgoth in Angband. Sons of Feanor The Sons of Feanor are Noldor, but have decided that it is best to dwell with their followers some distance from the rest of the Noldor. Feanor had wrongfully perceived Fingolfin and Finarfin to be rivals for his father's love. This belief, fed by the lies of Morgoth, eventually led to threats of violence against Fingolfin, and Feanor's eventual betrayal of Fingolfin with the burning of the ships at Losgar. However, the rift in the House of Finwe was healed to a great extent by Fingon's rescue of Maedhros. Maedhros, eldest son of Feanor, in gratitude, abdicated the Kingship of the Noldor in favor of Fingolfin, the eldest of the House of Finwe (Feanor having been killed when he drew too far ahead of his forces while pursuing the forces of Morgoth). Maedhros then, both thinking it best to put distance between the estranged factions of the Noldor, and also eager to have the largest portion of danger put upon himself and his brothers, settled to the East of Dorthonion. There, the mountains taper off to only small and difficult to defend hills. But the Sons of Feanor dwelt there nonetheless, for they had taken their father's Oath, the Oath of Feanor, to pursue with vengeance and hatred anyone who should hold or keep a silmaril from them. Thus, though this made them untrustworthy and often irrational, it made them all the more eager to fight Morgoth, the Black Enemy. Maedhros built his city upon a hill called Himring. To the West, his brothers Curufin and Celegorm held the pass of Aglon with great force, protecting their dwellings in Himlad. To the East of Himring, the hills failed altogether and this place was called Maglor's gap, for Maedhros's brother Maglor held this plain with great force of cavalry. Caranthir, held the Eastern side of the gap where the hills resumed and led into the mountains of the East, the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin). He had his dwelling on the South shore of Lake Helevorn and keeps strength of war on the Western side of Mount Rerir. Finally, Amrod and Amras dwelt further South, not taking up a position in the seige of Angband, but always aiding their brothers in war, for they were not allowed to forsake their Oath. The other inhabitants of Beleriand look upon the Sons of Feanor both with admiration, because of their valor, and distrust, because of the lengths they will go to in order to fulfill their Oath. Sindar Thingol rules the Grey-Elves (Sindar, Elves of the Twilight). They never came to Valinor or saw the light of the Two Trees, save Thingol, who was one of the first Elves to see them, having been brought to Valinor first so that he could then encourage his kinsmen to follow. However, during his return journey with his kin to Valinor, while wandering in the woods of Doriath, he caught sight of Melian, the Maia (Lesser Vala), and loved her. Standing for many years enchanted by her beauty, his friends and kin could not find him and some journeyed on to Valinor while some, loathe to leave their lord, stayed in Middle-earth. Upon awakening, Thingol made his home in Menegroth, a fortress of stone under the woods. In the construction of this palace he had the help of the Dwarves. Thingol is lord of all the Eldar of Beleriand and he controls the havens of the coast. Thingol has no great love for the Sons of Feanor because of the kinslaying of Alqualonde, where, in order to obtain the ships that were later burned, the Noldor attacked the Teleri of Aman, Thingol's kin. However, he still considers the Sons of Feanor his allies against Morgoth, and would dare not make war upon them while the Black Enemy resides in the North. Although Fingon took part in the kinslaying, he did so only because he did not rightly understand the circumstances of the situation when he came upon a battle underway between the followers of Feanor and the Teleri. Therefore, because of this and also because the House of Finarfin can claim close kinship to him, Thingol is still on friendly terms with the Noldor. In the Dagor Bragollach, Doriath was never in danger of direct assault due to the power of Melian's Girdle. Melian, Thingol's wife, used her power to enchant the borders of Doriath so that no being might pass into Thingol's realm without the King's leave. Those who attempted to overcome this barrier were overcome with bewilderment and fell into a daze. . . unless that being came with a power greater than that of Melian or a high doom drove them. Laiquendi On the long journey to the coast of Middle-earth, some of the Eldar on the way to Aman foresook the journey. However, many eventually came over the mountains of Ered Luin in later days. The Laiquendi are such a people. These people fought bravely in the Battle-Under-Stars, the First Battle of the Wars of Beleriand. However, their losses were so heavy that they vowed never to go to open war again. Instead, they are a peaceful people, less wise or noble than the Eldar from Aman or the Sindar. They inhabit Ossiriand, the Land of Seven Rivers, in Southeast Beleriand. Edain These are the Secondborn of the Children of Illuvatar. They are called Men in the common tongue. They awoke in the East at the rising of the sun and were drawn to the West as it originally rose from there. Crossing the Ered Luin three hundred years after the return of the Noldor, they quickly became allied to the various Houses of the Eldar. Though they were not at first numerous, they were brave and strong (though not as strong as the Eldar). They quickly were enamoured of the nobility of the Eldar and supported their forces in the Seige of Angband. The First House of the Edain (the House of Beor) after leaving their first encampment, settled in Ladros in Eastern Dorthonion. There they supported the Sons of Finarfin. The Second House of the Edain, the Haladin, left the region of Thargelion South of Lake Helevorn and settled in the Forest of Brethil to the West of Doriath (Though Thingol would not suffer a mortal to enter the portion of his realm that was protected by the Girdle of Melian). Some also journeyed farther West and founded settlements on the Guarded Plain, Talath Dirnen. The Third House (the House of Hador), became beloved of the House of Fingolfin, and Fingolfin gave to them the region of Dor-Lomin Southwest of Mithrim in which to dwell. The Edain are on good terms with most, save the Sindar, and the Laiquendi. Thingol has no love for them for he sees their mortality as something strange and as a force that could drive some men to great evil. The Laiquendi love Men not, for it was Ossiriand where Men first crossed into Beleriand, and the Men who crossed the mountains cut trees and troubled the Laiquendi greatly. However, since the Houses of Men have moved on from that region, tempers have cooled. The forces of the Edain are not as strong as those of the Eldar, yet they are becoming more numerous as the Edain settle in more and more towns and villages. Though the Eldar are more hardy and fell in war, the strength of the Edain should not be overlooked in fighting the vast armies of Morgoth. Dwarves In the First Battle in the Wars of Beleriand ere the rising of the sun or moon, the Sindar had the aid of the Dwarves (Naugrim in the Dwarve's own tongue). The Dwarves are even more hardy than the Eldar, being made during Morgoth's first reign over Middle-earth. Aule made sure that they could endure great hardship. The Dwarves had been made by Aule the Vala against the will of Illuvatar, but, because Aule did so with no evil intent, Illuvatar accepted his plea that the Naugrim be allowed to live. Yet, he would not accept that the Naugrim should inhabit Arda before the Firstborn and so cast them into a long sleep beneath the mountains until their proper time to awaken. Awake they did, and they found friendship among the Sindar, with whom they traded from their Mountain cities of Belegost and Nogrod. The Dwarves, being stout and strong, are difficult to assail. They are strong on defense, yet not very effective in attacking. Woe to any force who tries to assault their mountain strongholds. Forces of Darkness Morgoth hates every and all living creatures. Morgoth was originally the most powerful of the Ainur, the Holy Ones of Eru, the One, who is called Illuvatar in Arda. However, Melkor was not content to play his part in creating Arda (the world). Instead, he wished to make things of his own mind, and in time, desired to be called Lord and have dominion over the wills of others. Eventually, he was chained by the rest of the Valar (the Ainur who took up the guardianship of Arda), but was released after three ages of penance when he convinced the Valar that he had repented. But, instead, his hatred and ambition had only grown in his solitude in the Halls of Mandos. After sowing discontent among the Noldor with lies couched in fair speech, he slew Finwe, the High King of the Noldor, stole the Silmarils, and fled to Middle-earth. When the Noldor pursued him, he attempted to throw them back into the sea with the forces he had used to besiege the Sindar. Yet, the Noldor were more powerful in war than he had foreseen, and his force was utterly destroyed. He then sent forth token forces to test the Eldar from time to time. However, for centuries he built his forces and awaited the time when he could destroy the Eldar utterly, for he hated the Elves most of all. Finally, four hundred and fifty-five years after the return of the Noldor to Middle-Earth, his patience could not withhold his anger any longer and he unleashed his massive armies. . .
Miscellaneous Design Notes Modifications to RULES.TXT The RULES.TXT file has been modified heavily in the @COSMIC, tech, city improvements, units, terrain, and kings areas. See the RULES.TXT file and compare it to your backup for more details. There are too many changes to detail here (this page is too long already!). Units That Cannot Be Produced Because the First Age of the Sun was a time of heroes, the vast majority of the units in this scenario cannot be produced by cities. Instead, you are given a set number of certain units at the beginning of the scenario and you must use these resources wisely, for there will be no more! For example, you only get one Fingolfin, the High King of the Noldor for the simple reason that there was only one Noldor lord named Fingolfin. Likewise, you get three Eagle units that begin their turns in the city of Gondolin. You will get no more if they die, so use them wisely. After all, the Noldor couldn't just "build" more Eagles when they needed them. I created the first version of this scenario with unbuildable units and thought I was quite clever. Unfortunately, it appears everyone else is clever as well, because by the time the scenario was ready for public release, there were already scenarios out there that did similar things. Unit Speed As I'm sure everyone has noticed, the units all move faster than in standard CIV2. This came about because I realized that Beleriand is really not very large. But, more importantly, I wanted to accurately reflect that Orcs are faster than men (see the book: The Two Towers) because they run instead of march, and that, of course, horses are faster than orcs and men. Relative Unit Strength One of the things I debated was the relative strength of Balrogs and Dragons. I finally decided that Balrogs were shock (air) weapons and very powerful on offense. Something different in version 4.0 is that Elf Archers now defend at twice their normal value against Balrogs. This allows you to build Elf Archers to try to keep some of the heat off your Elf Lords. Conversely, you can build Elf Warriors, which are now as strong on defense as Elf Archers, to take the heat off of the Archers and Elf Lords when fighting Orcs. Elf Warriors are best for this because they are not x2 versus Balrogs. Please note that when I refer to Elf Lords in this file, I am no longer referring to the generic Elf Lord unit from previous versions of this scenario. Instead, I am referring to any of the 15 units that comprise the lords of the Eldar. I would have liked to make Elves, Orcs, and Men more dissimilar. In the books, Orcs never stand a chance in a fair fight against Elves. However, when I tried to represent this, the Orcs became a nuisance who simply committed suicide runs on city walls. To rectify this, I had to make them almost as strong as Elves and Men for the sake of the "fun factor." In general, orcs are faster than Elves or Men on foot. Elves are more powerful than Men or Orcs in combat, though not by as much as I would have liked. I even had to raise the HP of orcs up to 2 just so they would do some damage before dying. This was unfortunate, because until this time, I had tried to make HP denote race. 2 for elves, 1 for Men and Orcs. Orcs, put simply are much more powerful than they were in the books in some ways. But it had to be done. Sauron and Glaurung are quite simply super-units. I have struggled with how powerful to make them. You will never win a fight against either one as long as they are at anywhere near full strength. However, you might be able to wear them down and hinder their progress by making them attack sturdy targets. Then, throw everything you have against them when they are weak! I'm looking for feedback on this. I personally think they may be too powerful, but I have been persuaded that this is as it should be. I finally decided against making Sauron immortal. I found, in the pre-release version of v4.0, that he was quite simply too powerful and made the game more of a chore than fun Therefore, I made it so that he would die forever (like Glaurung) and took his strength down a few notches. Sauron didn't fight armies, like Glaurung. Rather, he led them. This is supported in the books. The Map Authenticity This map was made by me from scratch using the Atlas of Middle-earth and the map from the Silmarillion itself. The two biggest flaws in it are: (1) Angband is a little too far south and juts too far out into the Ard-Galen. (2) The area of the havens is a little compressed. Other than those, though, this map is very accurate to the books. Every river I saw on the map or read about is in there (along with every hill, forest, lake. . .)! As of version 4.0, the terrain on the map is much more varied. I was convinced by many people, but most notably Harlan Thompson, that the terrain in pervious versions was too plain. So, I went all the way back to the map editor and placed forests and plains, and tundra, etc wherever I could find justification in the sources. This entailed redoing the entire scenario, but since I knew of other things I wanted to do better as well, I didn't mind too much! The Dwarf roads have also been extended. This is due to information gleaned from "The War of the Jewels." Their placement is definitely justified in this book. Again, thanks to Harlan Thompson for pointing me to this source. Hidden Maps One of the most tedious things I had to do was to "black out" the map for each individual civ. I felt this was important because of the role hidden cities play in the Silmarillion (eg Gondolin and Nargothrond). Morgoth cannot see these cities, nor much else for that matter. I allowed him to see only those areas of Beleriand where his forces had traveled prior to the return of the Noldor. This mostly consists of a narrow strip down the vale of Sirion to the Havens of the Sindar, and another strip down through Maglor's Gap to the hill of Amon Ereb. Impassable Terrain As of version 4.0, the "wide" parts of rivers and the middle of mountain ranges are covered with a new unit called "impassable terrain." This was necessary because Beleriand is a land of high mountains and impassable rivers. However, in earlier versions, the human and computer player could just wander wherever they wanted. I remedied the problem through a rather complex procedure. I picked the Dwarves to be the owners of all the impassable terrain because: (1) They are not a "primary" player in the scenario. (2) They are on friendly terms with all of the "good" forces. Therefore, the zones of control (ZOCs) that the unit put off would not hinder the movement of any other civs. However, I also had to give all the Forces of Darkness units "ingore ZOC" powers so that they would not be hindered either. I also had to inflate the friendly feelings between the Dwarves and all the other cultures (save the Laiquendi and Morgoth) to alliance status so that the Immobile units wouldn't interfere with city working radii or troop movements. I then made the unit extremely powerful on Defense. However, this did not deter the Balrogs from attacking it, so I eventually came up with the idea of making it an immobile air unit. I thought they would run out of fuel, but they do not as long as their movement rate is set to zero. I was as shocked as anyone when they just hung there, perfectly safe, and very effective. If you don't give them fuel (a set number of turns they can be away from base), however, they will be helicopters and can still be attacked by any unit. I then had to make sure that no unit in the game had air-to-air capability. (Note: Sauron may attack air units, but, luckily, he appears to be too smart to attack the Impassable Terrain units. If you notice him doing so, please notify me immediately as I will have to fix it. Sauron needs to "Attack Air" so that he can attack Eagles that the human player might use to block his path.) With this move, the Impassable Terrain unit became totally safe for everyone involved. Nobody tries to beat down any walls because it is impossible to attack them. Once I changed the "Only Fighters can attack aircraft in flight. . ." dialogue in the GAME.TXT file, everything was perfect. Now, when you try to walk onto one of these units, it says: "That terrain is impassable." Cool. The only drawback is that the Dwarves now have a distinct advantage in that they can hang out under these units with impunity until they feel the time is right for attack. However, they are so far to the East that this has no effect on the game unless you are playing as the Dwarves, and playing the Dwarves is not recommended. One tricky part is that you want the player to know if a mountain he can see is "impassable" without having to try to wander over it. For this reason, you have to make sure that each one of these units has been "seen" by walking a unit past them for each civ that has discovered that area. The unit is made invisible by just putting a blank unit box there (using the pink transparent color) and placing the shield as far down and to the left as it will go. As Harlan Thompson taught me, the shield location is controlled by the two blue dots, one above, and one to the left of each unit along the green border. Where a line from these dots intersects is where the shield will hang down (from the shield's top left corner). You might ask: Why didn't I just use ocean squares as impassable river squares. Well, to be blunt, I didn't like the way it looked. But in the future, I may use ocean squares in a way related to the Crissaegrim method described below. Gondolin and the Crissaegrim I've alluded to it many times, so for those who can't wait, here's the way Gondolin opens. It is surrounded by Impassable Terrain units. However, one is a barbarian, so you could attack it were you to have an air-to-air unit. Fear not, on a randomly chosen turn (1 chance in 25), this unit will be created and a dialogue box will tell you what to do. On the given turn, you will be able to destroy the unit and the forces of Gondolin will be able to march forth. The Crissaegrim squares are totally due to the genius of Harlan Thompson. With Gondolin surrounded by Impassable Terrain units, there was no way to get the Eagles out to do battle with the Balrogs. If I deleted the Impassable Terrain units, its forces would have been available in the beginning of the scenario which was not historically accurate. Therefore, I had to change the terrain of the unit to keep both enemy and friendly land units from passing through. Of course, ocean comes to mind. But ocean would look lame right there, right? Well, not if you use Harlan's idea of putting a railroad over that ocean (put the RR first, then change it to ocean) and then change the TERRAIN1.GIF file so that the RR segment looks like a mountain. Voila! Eagles can now pass through and, thanks to the Crissaegrim unit which is really just a renamed Impassable Terrain unit, it still holds back Morgoth's forces. Known Bugs Although the EVENTS.TXT file (for those with the scenario CD) says that the Forces of Darkness should declare war on all other civilizations each turn, about half-way through the scenario, it states that many of the wars have "ended." However, all civs continue to act as though they are at war with Morgoth. Therefore, gameplay is unchanged. In addition, it is now confirmed that the MOVEUNIT command in the EVENTS.TXT file does not work in the least! This is unfortunate because it makes it very hard to get the correct towns to be attacked by Morgoth. Also, the ONLYONCE command in the EVENTS.TXT file doesn't seem to be multi-play session aware. If you are lucky enough to have Turgon open the leaguer of Gondolin and then you save the game and turn off the computer, upon reloading you may see it happen again. Just delete the extra "Opening of the Leaguer" units you may or may not get. Strategy/Additional Tips Elf Lords are the only unit that can reliably defend against Balrogs. However, an Elf Archer can take the heat for them and die in their place when the Elf Lord gets critically injured. Use Eagles to pick off Balrogs when you see them on clear terrain. But don't use them to attack Balrogs on mountains. A heavily damaged Eagle should head back to Gondolin where the Eagle Eyrie will heal them quickly. Sometimes, the best thing to do when you see Sauron or Glaurung coming is to run for it! Orodreth fled Minas Tirith and Curufin and Celegorm fled from Himlad. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. But if you must attempt combat with them, try to wear them out by forcing them to attack fortified units on mountains. Then hit them with everything you've got. It may cost almost all your offensive power, but you'll have saved the city. And besides, maybe Turgon will open up the leaguer of Gondolin soon. . . Dragons are just plain tough to kill. A few mounted Elves might wear one down. But it's better to just let it wear itself out on your city walls. Be careful that one dragon doesn't destroy an entire expeditionary force. Don't be foolhardy enough to attack Morgoth in Angband. Although I would consider destroying him to be a victory, I really don't think it's possible especially now that orcs come streaming out of Angband every turn thanks to the EVENTS.TXT. He's just up there to look cool and discourage you from taking his most productive city. The fact that he does not move or come out to fight is true to the book. Dorthonion seems to be a lost cause for the Noldor, as it was in the books. It's tough to get Angrod and Aegnor out of Dorthonion. You can try to get them back to their kin at Barad Eithel or at Minas Tirith, but that way you risk Orc and Balrog attack. There is also the darkness of Nan Dungortheb and the Ered Gorgoroth to the South, but few can survive such a journey. My Biggest Concern? Well, quite frankly, that you won't have fun. I'm concerned that either it will be too easy or too hard towards the end. I really can't predict with any degree of accuracy what will happen in any single game. After the first two or three turns, it is impossible to predict how the computer will react. It all depends on how each human player plays and I have no way of knowing how you will respond to various situations. I hope that there isn't a drop in the fun factor if all you see is Morgoth taking town after town and you feel helpless to do anything. However, those familiar with the books may be gratified to feel what Fingolfin must have felt when he went to challenge Morgoth to single combat. Likewise, if you develop a strategy that I haven't foreseen and just start wailing on the Forces of Darkness and save all your Elf Lords and go kill Morgoth (impossible?), well, I guess you should let me know. I'll fix it! Sid Meier's Civilization is a registered trademark of Microprose Software, Inc. The author of this web page is in no way affiliated with the publishers of The Silmarillion or the Tolkien estate. |
