Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-32013442-20180411141633

I have long been thinking about a way to make the armies of this mod more lore friendly, and thanks to the lord of the rings strategy battle game created by games workshop, I think I have finally found the solution. Warbands!

Warbands are groups of hired units kept in a contained and controlled format to prevent players from simply spamming an army of op units. This will allow factions such as the elves and dwarves to reach their full potential at last. Warbands are hired from captains/lords/etc. But they are not going to give you their soldiers without proving yourself as a worthy leader. The captain will require a letter of commendation before he lets you lead his warriors into battle. Letters of commendation are earned by completing quests given by captains/lords etc. Once you have a letter of commendation, you will unlock a warband for use. Your maximum number of warbands depends on your alignment. Each player will have a limited number of warbands available to them based on how much alignment they have. At 10 alignment, you can field 1 warband. At 100, you can field 3. At 1,000 you can field 5. And finally, at the amazing 10,000 legendary alignment mark, you can field a host of 7 warbands! If players attempt to earn a commendation when they already have the maximum number of warbands available to them, they will be denied, saying something along the lines of "The lives of our people are not to be spent lightly (player name)." An elf obviously. Or even "By the blood of our people, are your lands kept safe (player name)!" Gondorian captain.

But wait a minute! How does this work? Let me explain it with a picture.

This is the simple structure of warbands in a captain type npc's hiring menu for a player with 3 warbands. Each warband will have it’s own page. The number of points you have left to spend, aka the total space in a warband, is shown on the bottom right of the page. The specific number of units you have in a warband, whether it be 5 soldiers and 2 archers, 3 cavalry and 2 archer cavalry, etc, are listed in the middle of the page. The warband name is of course shown at the top of the page. Which warband you are using is shown on the bottom right of the page. The arrows on either side of the warband’s name are used to move between your different warbands.

You can populate your warband with a variety of units. All warbands have a point limit of 30. Each unit in a faction has a certain value depending on it's strength. Ologs are one of the most expensive units, costing a whopping 10 points, while generic orcs cost 1 measly point each. This means that a warband comprised entirely of ologs will only field 3 units, while a full Orc warband will consist of 30 bloodthirsty savages.

Unit costs: Orcs, regardless of faction: 1 Humans: 2 Dwarves/Uruks/warg/spider: 3 Any mounted unit save elves: 4 Elves: 5 Elves mounted: 6 Troll/mountain trolls/Ologs: 10 Any unit that carries a bow adds an extra point onto their unit cost. Elves are exempt from this rule. So orcs cost 2, humans 3, and so on.

Max human: 15 Max dwarf/Uruk/Warg/spider: 10 Max mounted: 8 Max elf: 6 Max elf mounted: 5 Max troll: 3

This system will ensure that we retain the lore friendliness of the mod without breaking Java.

Also, as a side note, trolls need to be immune to knockback. Same goes for balrogs. They are too large to be knocked about by our pointy sticks.

I look forward to seeing this added in the future. 