The War of the Ring

skies and spread terror & destruction wherever they go. Sauron is amassing a dreadful army of Southrons with their enormous Oliphaunts to supplement the horde of Orcs, Trolls, Goblins he has sent to smash the remaining resistance in Gondor. Convinced that the Dark Lord will win in the end, Saruman has shifted allegiance and now prepares for open war against Rohan with his army of Uruk-Hai. The In desperation, the Wise have sent a small fellowship on a quest to take the One Ring to the only place it can be destroyed -- Mt. Doom, in the heart of a Mordor, the stronghold of Sauron. But the Fellowship is broken and scattered. Boromir is dead. Merry and Pippin have narrowly escaped into Fangorn Forest. Aragorn, Gimli & Legolas stand with Rohan in the ancient fortress of Helms Deep. Gandalf is desperately trying to find and rally the scattered & leaderless horsemen of Rohan. Frodo and Sam wander in the Emyn Muil, with no hope but to trust the treacherous Gollum to be their guide. Lord of the Rings fans - get ready to re-enact the major battles of the War of the Ring in a single, combined, epic scenario involving all the main players in the struggle for the fate of Middle Earth. AoM fans - get ready to experience \'the best scenario ever written\' for AoM. The map itself is based directly on Tolkien\'s original, and covers (roughly) an area stretching from Isengard & Helm\'s Deep in the west to Mordor in the east. From the north, you can follow the course of the mighty Anduin past the massive Argonath, the falls of Rauros, Cair Andros, Osgiliath, MinasTirith and finally Pelargir before it empties into the sea in the extreme south of the map. The map is true to Tolkien & rich in detail, yet optimized to minimize lag (i.e. this is not just another massive Helm\'s Deep lag-fest). Months in the making and heavily tested for balance & playability, the War of the Ring can be played over and over and over again, with the outcome up for grabs each time. Although the fighting is epic in scale, it is not just a giant slug fest. With dozens of key objectives (to reflect the richness & complexity of Tolkien\'s world), it is possible for each of the five players -- Gondor, Rohan, the Fellowship, Isengard, Mordor -- to play the decisive role. Visually inspired by Peter Jackson\'s movies but faithful to Tolkien, great care has been taken to keep everything balanced and extremely authentic. Gandalf & Aragorn are powerful, for example, but not supermen with thousands of hitpoints who can take out entire armies by themselves. Their greatest strength lies in using them to unlock other forces that can turn back the tides of darkness. Even Merry & Pippin can become major contributors by staying long enough at Entmoot to convince all the reluctant Ents to actually DO something about Saruman. And of course there is Frodo, who has the toughest but most important task of all How to get it: Go to http://www.geocities.com/mikeaspaco/War_of_the_Ring.html and download it or go to the Download section here at Aomfiles(once it has been updated) and download it here. Make sure you DL the two music files as well -- it really sets the mood and makes the opening cinematics worthwhile. Note: unfortunately, a pre-release copy has found it\'s way onto ESO (one of our testers just couldn\'t wait). This rogue copy has some bugs (and a very long opening cinematic which has been improved & shortened in the release version) How to play it: DL the map, host a game, and fill slots 1-5 with human players (don’t bother using computer players – they will sit and do nothing). Slot 6 should always be a computer, as it controls the \'neutral\' characters. Difficulty level does not matter, and neither does team choice (players 1, 2 & 3 are automatically put on the same team, while players 4 & 5 are put on the opposite team. God choice is important (primarily for visual purposes), but is simple to remember -- use Kronos for everyone except player 2, who should use Thor(for optimal visual appearance, the opening cinematic states who you should be). The breathtaking opening cinematics (courtesy of our trigger & cinematics guru, pacosgames) gives a summary of the most important tasks for each player, and you can always get a complete objectives list in game from the objectives banner. But there is a short guide to the basics of each player (for full details, read “the Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien) to be released sometime in the near future. Enjoy!! [/quote]
[quote] It is April 3019 in the Third Age of the Sun. The One Ring has been found -- and the Ring\'s master Sauron has once again arisen in East. The Nine (the dreaded Nazgul) have taken to the