(LOTR: BFME2: AOTR #1) Age Of The Ring Mod Intro, Overview And The Battle Of Azanulbizar
0Yeah, this is before the whole Bilbo journey. I'm sure the LoTR lore lovers will know exactly what and when it is, but I'm here to play the mod. Full game title for this is The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth 2: Rise Of The Witch King: Age Of The Ring Mod, but that seems like a bit of a mouthful! I would also like to say that if there's mid-roll ads on this video, those aren't from me. It's from the copyright holder for the music, who may be monetizing it themselves, or who might end up asking me to take it down in the long run. Fair warning!
This mod's custom campaign is likely going to be a bit difficult if this level is anything to go by. Even in the normal, base game campaigns with all the changes, hero deaths still cause game ends, and the mod makers made the counter system more pronounced, so 5 star Pikemen will absolutely wreck your heroes. I'll probably lose a lot just from a goofy hero death where I looked away for 2 seconds. Fair warning! I'll have chapter's for where things happen so you can get right back to where I left off.
This game was ahead of it's time in so many ways. Auto-cast abilities, a pre-grid unified hotkey system for abilities/units, double click formation creation in real time, flank bonuses, upgrade systems, a general powers-esque system, 3 separate stances changing unit behavior and giving various bonuses/maluses, a map creator, a Risk minigame(my parents did buy the LOTR: Risk board game when I was a kid, but we usually used the pieces for our own fortresses we'd create using Mahjong tiles with our own custom rules and the like). I think it's a shame there was never another sequel or spinoff developed. Aside from the awful unit control, it's actually a solidly fleshed out RTS game with a few rough edges.
Played on 8.3.1. All the relevant links for what you need to know about this mod are all below. Feel free to check them out!
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Chapters: 0:00 Intro And Mod Overview
9:09 Battle Of Azanulbizar
30:20 Post Boss Attempt 1
32:02 Attempt 2
37:36 Attempt 3
38:48 Attempt 4
39:37 Attempt 5
43:03 Finishing Up
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They have a Discord, look for Age Of The Ring Community if you have it!
FAQ Page(Probably the most useful link): https://aotr.fandom.com/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions
Where to get the mod:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-horse-lords-a-total-modification-for-bfme
Read me and overview of the mod: https://docs.google.com/document/d/155S9syWSwgGCsrQSjHHp7u611MdkJWjTC84BqVTNToE/edit?tab=t.0
Link to original site for modding resources and other things: https://www.the3rdage.net/
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Here's the backlog/tracking spreadsheet if you want to check it out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gy7BoR1tceBkeXQ7C3Ghmv8IZ-dWOsjfrc-Fq4M2hzs/edit?usp=sharing