Review of The Last Days (of the Third Age)

The Last Days of The Third Age is, if not obvious enough by title alone, a modification of M&B and Warband in the setting of the heartland of the Middle Earth, during the war that will se the end of the Third Age and beginning of the Fourth.

In this mod, you can play either side. For the Dawn of a New Age (Good), as a man of Gondor ('s various fiefs), Rohan, Vale, Dale or Dunedain (under Imladris); an elf of Mirkwood, Lothlorien or Imladris; or a dwarf of Erebor or Iron Hills (under the banner of Erebor). Said forces will work together until the annihilation of the evil invaders, at which point the game will end.

The Twilight of Man (Evil), though, has two major sides in it, lead by either Sauron or Saruman. These will contend for supremacy over Arda after the free peoples have been subjugated, but will work together until it happens. Under Sauron you can play as an orc of either Mordor or Dol Gudur; an uruk of Mordor; or an evil man of Rhun, Khand, Harad (and Far Harad), and Umbar, or an ancient and powerful Black Numenorean under Mordor. Saruman have a better selection of starts for orcs, being either in Isengard, Moria, or Gundabad; their Uruk-Hai in Isengard; but the only men under his command are the Dunlendings.

Either side you pick will grant you a deceptively peaceful start, in which you are strongly encouraged to do as many quests for lord and gather as many companions as you can, for the war will start, by default and changeable in mod option, when you reach level 8. At this point, the previously seemingly barren world map will be crawling with scouts, raiders, patrols, warbands and prisoner trains of all factions, as well deserters from the evil armies defeated in battle. This is the moment the mod blossoms, because the aimless sandbox exploration with low risks that characterizes most mods and the vanilla experience clearly does not exist there. You are free to help the war effort of your side the way you wish, but if you do not, the results will be felt in a matter of in-game weeks. Your territory will soon be crawling with enemy raider parties, more of you commanders will be defeated (and killed, for good!), more of your camps/settlements will be besieged, and if your capital(s) is gone, your faction is gone, for good. You may continue your war as an ally for the remaining factions, though.

All of this functions with a system of factional strength based on the number of parties roaming on the map, the number of battles won or lost bay said parties, and the number of standing settlements. All of that will contribute to the faction strength (that can be seen at the reports menu), which influences things as which minor parties will be spawned, sizes of the armies of the lords, and their general behavior, including if they are going to campaign at all or not. Note that sieging, being important as it is for the progress of the war, is not an option available to the player at start and not easily available after either, but considering that you are the major driving force in cultivating your faction strength and sabotaging your enemies', means you are easily the most influential party in the entire game. You are the only one, after all, capable of reinforcing NPC parties and towns, using far-away parties as reinforcements in battle, and finishing battles instantly (as far as time goes in strategic maps) before the enemy can receive reinforcements. Use these traits exclusive to the player well.

Not only your faction's standing in the war is measured, but also your character's standing within all factions of your side. Whenever you complete quests and win battles with/near NPC parties of a faction, you will be awarded resource points, rank points, and more rarely and in much lesser quantity, influence points.

Resource points are a substitute for money, exclusive to each faction and used for all applications money usually is in the game. A very, very large quantity is also used to allow the player to lead a campaign later on, being capable of sieging enemy centers and quickly causing drastic changes to the war, for a time. A player will receive a daily allowance of resource points depending on rank, for each faction whose rank they're above 0. The resource points may also be transferred between factions by requesting the faction leader to deliver a gift/bribe to another faction leader. That will trigger a quest (with unlimited time) to talk with the target faction's leader and present your gift/bribe, increasing your resource points with the target faction by the same amount of resource points spent on the gift by the source faction.

Rank points are a general measure on how important the faction consider you. After accumulating enough to reach a threshold, you will raise in rank level. Each rank level increases your party size (by 2 with starting faction, by 1 with any other), resource allowance, available special rewards, which and how many minor parties you can ask to follow you temporarily, suggesting courses of action to lords, and upon reaching rank level 8, conferring with the faction leader on a war council to suggest a campaign target, or even, to lead a campaign yourself. Your faction will have exclusive rank level names, while all the others will be generic. Rank reward items will be unlocked from rank level 2 to rank level 10. Note, though, that you can keep raising levels indefinitely after 10 (by a fixed, much lower threshold of rank points), that will keep awarding you with increased allowances and party size.

Influence points are a very special faction exclusive currency used for most appliances regarding rank points. You use it to request special reward items from the faction leader, tell minor parties to follow you, give orders to lords, and start war councils. Don't expect every minor battle to award you influence points, but you can increase the rate you get it substantially via mod options if you want to be less frugal with it.

All of what was said barely scratches the surface of all mechanics available to this mod. Night fighting, traits, oaths of vengeance, without even mentioning all the unique models, scenery, score. It truly deserves to be called a complete overhaul, a true war experience with visible risks and odds, with 650ish in-game days playthroughs that will hardly get stale with lack of bloodshed.

The fact that even the smallest battle you win for your side will remind you that even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Submitted October 22, 2018 at 12:54PM by RodriguesCIA https://ift.tt/2NXn13r