"Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo"


Wars of the Firstborn is a modification based on the discontinued Ridder Clan Mod for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II and for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II - The Rise of the Witch-King, which focuses on bringing to life as much of the Elven world from Tolkien’s epic as possible.


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Hello followers,

Today we are going to speak about something that has always been a fascination to me. Since we see the golden army of the Last Alliance and then again the Elven Army at Helm's Deep, I can never not be amazed of the splendor of their banners and general heraldry. It is something that has stuck with me since day one and even the producers themselves took care into transmitting this to the screen. So now, unapologetically, I always associate elves with beautiful heraldry.

Unfortunately, The Hobbit movies left a bit of a sour taste since the Woodland Realm heraldry shown in these films seems dry or even absent. There are some elements present but it really shows that this time, it was not on their priority.

Luckily, in a mod you can (almost) do whatever you wish! And so I embarked on a journey to try and bring life and some color to the Mirkwood army! This came into 4 steps:

  1. Designing the heraldry of Mirkwood
  2. Designing the Banner Carriers
  3. Giving it a purpose in the game
  4. Creating new animations to fit the design

Designing the heraldry of Mirkwood

The base inspiration for the heraldry was rooted in what we see in the movies and how Tolkien designed the devices for the elves (Which is also present in the mods main logo). Also took various inspiration from the art online and even from some other games. Then I played around with the shapes and tried to create banners that can be distinguished easily and used for different roles of the faction.

mirkwood banners

Designing the Banner Carriers

Because I wanted to add my own touch of Mirkwood character design to the faction, I decided the banner carriers will be personal designs that will match the 3 armor types in the mod. All the designs are personal and inspired more by the LOTR trilogy movies and less by The Hobbit ones. Each type of banner will be present based on the armour upgrade of the battalion, so if you upgrade with Brass armor a battalion, the banner carrier will be upgraded with the respective armor (Right design).

The designs were also inspired by the seasons of Middle-Earth, a subtle nod to the crowns of Thranduil. The Light designs draws upon raw nature colors of the Spring (while still remaining a relatively stealthy palette), the Medium from mid-summer forests and the Heavy from the red leaves of the autumn oaks. The winter colors are represented by the current Palace Guard.

banners art

Giving it a purpose in the game

Naturally, the designs of the banner carriers were made with the armor system in mind, and so they have been attached to the corresponding battalion that reflects their design. However, their flags will be based on the unit type, so no matter what armor upgrade your battalion has, archers will always have their green banner with it's bow and quiver symbol. And so wardens and warriors also have their respective banners.

light swords banner

medium spear banner

heavy bow banner

In total, this yields 9 possible combinations depending on the armor and unit type.

banner army

migthy banner

Also, the banners have been marked with weapon symbols. This has been made to relatively ease the player into better identify their troops on the battlefield. It's not the best way but it is a plus than without them.

Creating new animations to fit the design

You probably have noticed that the banner does not follow the standard, good-sided, banner carrier skeleton. Instead of being positioned horizontally, it's actually on vertical. What did this mean? You guessed it, a new custom animation set. While the base animation is taken from another unit in-game (Let's see if you guess it), it has been heavily customized with elements found on the new banner carrier designs, such as sleeves animations, cape animations and the actual banner animations. Obviously, many animations had be to adapted since, no animation set in the game has a pole and a sword in hand. In the end, I created a new animation set containing 22 new animations, for each state of the banner carrier.

banners move

banners attack

Lastly, some of you might know that, in the spell book, there is an ability that will grant a battalion, a lieutenant, to hold the banner. Yes, he is still here (So that makes 10 possible combinations).

lieutenant banner

I hope this sparked a new curiosity for the mod,( and specifically for the Mirkwood faction) and I also hope that you enjoy these new ideas and designs that I try to implement, to make the Mirkwood faction, the best possible.

This is all for now but more news about Mirkwood will come in the coming weeks. You can share your thoughts in our discord channel you can find the link on the main moddb page or at the bottom of this article. Also, we share there bonus stuff in the #sneak-peek channel for the very curious ones.

Discord icon

Sincerely,
NewErr and the Wars of the Firstborn team

Wars of the Firstborn: Year Three

Wars of the Firstborn: Year Three

News 4 comments

Today, Wars of the Firstborn mod celebrates 3 years since it's announcement. We will discuss a bit things that were, things that are and some things that...

Wars of the Firstborn Year 2 and More

Wars of the Firstborn Year 2 and More

News

Welcome to the new year and it seems it might be an interesting ride foreword. Mod of the year is behind us, Wars of the Firstborn is almost 2 years old...

Mirkwood BFME1 Showcase

Mirkwood BFME1 Showcase

News

It's MOTY and time and even if I'm on small break you are due an update. I will probably have a more elaborate "year in review" article these weeks, where...

Fan playtest: Matt playing Wars of the Firstborn Beta

Fan playtest: Matt playing Wars of the Firstborn Beta

News 2 comments

One of our fans, Matt, that eventually became our beta tester, shares his review of the Mirkwood faction and his playtest of the mod.

Add file RSS Files
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V3.01 Full installer

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RC Mod V1.07 - RCModUpdater1.07.exe

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This is for people with previous versions... It should update your .BIG files with the ones from V1.07. People who have no problem installing the "RC...

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 2,455)
Werminardd
Werminardd - - 50 comments

Hi bro? When first release! Even betta

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NewErr Creator
NewErr - - 828 comments

Hi bro, no idea yet.

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nelsonmax
nelsonmax - - 104 comments

The revelation about the Mirkwood heroes is really exciting. I can't wait to test King Thranduil, Tauriel and the others.

Curious to see if you can work too, with the enemies that appear in both the "The Hobbit" books and films.
In "Lord of the Rings", they only appear in the books, as in the films there would not be enough time to work with the characters and the battles of so that it could have a beginning, middle and end... it would only be possible, if each Lord of the Rings book was a separate trilogy, then we would have 9 "Lord of the Rings" films, how crazy. Well, I would definitely watch it, we would have King Thranduil on the scene again hehehehe.

The enemies I'm referring to are: Dol Guldur and Gundabad.
As you intend to work with Dol Guldur and Gundabad, do you already have any plans?

Possible suggestions:
* Will be incorporated into an orc faction, containing construction extensions for them...
or
* Make a sub-faction within an Orc faction (As an example of this, in the Edain mod there is the Dwarvens faction, which consists of several sub-factions within the same one.... just select in the command center which path you want to follow.) I think This is the most interesting option, but also more laborious, but it would bring many more buildings and new units.

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NewErr Creator
NewErr - - 828 comments

Dol Guldur and Gundabad units will be present only in existing evil factions.

The main focus of the mod is the elven factions.

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nelsonmax
nelsonmax - - 104 comments

Cool, thanks.

Referring to the civilization of Rohan. I don't know if you can respond or not on this subject...
--> Will the Heroes: Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli, be present individually?
Because, I love controlling Legolas and Aragorn individually. I wouldn't like to see the 3 heroes stuck together as if they were a single hero, as is seen in some mods.
Currently I play a lot of a mod for BFME1 where Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli can be controlled individually, it's very cool and satisfying. xD

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NewErr Creator
NewErr - - 828 comments

I see no reason why we would stack them together.

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nelsonmax
nelsonmax - - 104 comments

Cool, I'm happy.

I will be waiting for new updates in the near future. Thanks.

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nelsonmax
nelsonmax - - 104 comments

Incredible work. Looking forward to one day being able to play in BFME1 Style.

I love these Orc/goblin factions in the wilder/rustic style.

I would like to know if there are plans in the future to add the Goblins/Moria or Gundabad faction???

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NewErr Creator
NewErr - - 828 comments

Hey, thank you for the kind words! We hope BFME1 will be much fun for everyone.

All future new factions will be based on elves.

Reply Good karma+2 votes
nelsonmax
nelsonmax - - 104 comments

Cool, the new factions will be focused on Elves. Very cool, they really look very well crafted.

Now I'm curious. Will the old factions still exist? For example: Gondor, Rohan, Mordor, Isengard?

Another question, will the Goblin faction present in BFME2 also be added to the Mod?? (although, Goblins were only playable in BFME2 or in BFME1 Mods.... so I don't know if they will exist in your mod)

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NewErr Creator
NewErr - - 828 comments

Thanks! Put a lot of effort in the new faction.

The original BFME 2 factions will be kept and contain some changes. However, Goblins faction is removed and Rohan is added as sub-faction for Men of the west. The goblin units will be spread among other factions and will probably still have a presence in other parts of the mod. So unfortunately goblins will not have their own faction with BFME1/BFME2 mode.

Reply Good karma+1 vote
nelsonmax
nelsonmax - - 104 comments

Thank you for the responses.

It's a shame there isn't a pure Goblin faction.

Well, as you mention....
if perhaps there is some special construction intended for the manufacture of goblins and their variants, even if they are within another Orc faction.... For me it will be enough to have fun.

NOTE: there are some mods that I will not mention their names here. In which they bring "special constructions", where it is possible to manufacture only that sub-species of goblin with its variants... it is likely that you will do something similar.
It would be a tactical way of playing, where the player can opt for slow orcs or fast goblins depending on the choice of initial construction.
Who knows, maybe even place some goblin heroes inside these specific buildings, with the aim of benefiting the goblin troops.
Thank you for your attention.

-------------------
last curiosity.....
Can you give an approximate release date... let's say if the initial version will be released in 2024 or 2025 or 2026 or ___?

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NewErr Creator
NewErr - - 828 comments

Best I can say about your question, the next beta will be released when it will be done. Too many factors are involved for me to estimate it.

But progress is done daily so you can follow our page/discord. Exciting news ahead.

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nelsonmax
nelsonmax - - 104 comments

Thank you very much. I will follow.

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