User blog:Glflegolas/Region spotlight -- Issue 22 -- July 3, 2017

Happy Canada Day, LotR Minecraft Mod Community!

Wait.... that was two days ago. Looks like I'm behind on the 8 ball again. Well, that's all right, as today, there's a new region spotlight, just in time for the Fourth of July!

...I'm a day early for that aren't I? I can never get timing right these days...

Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business. This issue, I'm featuring a region of Middle-Earth where it's always dark, trees are virtually nonexistent, the very air you breathe is poisonous, and there are more Orcs than there are megabytes of speechbanks in the mod. That's right, this time Mordor is in the spotlight. Let's open the door, and enter this dark land...

Where is it?
If you seriously don't know where Mordor is, then I strongly suggest you need to read LotR, or Google the subject. But, if you're unwilling to do either of those, Mordor is located just east of Ithilien, which in turn is located east of Gondor. In the height of Gondor's power, this region was not evil. But Gondor's power declined over the years, allowing Sauron to reclaim Mordor. Today, Gondor doesn't even try to control the lands east of Minas Morgul, although the Rangers of Ithilien do occasionally lead attacks on marauding bands of Orcs between the Anduin and Mordor.

What do you like about this region?
As I've never played as an evil player, I honestly can't say that I like this region at all. It's simply too dangerous to enter. Not even with a thousand Men of Gondor would I try to invade this region. As if dealing with tons of Orcs wasn't bad enough, the Olog-hai are simply too darn powerful, and discourage any attempt to lead an invasion.

If you're aligned with Mordor, though, this region is the perfect place for you; lots of Orcs for hire, difficult to enter, no sun to debuff your units, and an abundance of Morgul Iron Ore and Gulduril for creating weapons and armour, not to mention bombs.

Any advice for travellers?
I don't generally take Boromir's advice, but he was right when he said "One does not simply walk into Mordor." Unless you're truly an evil player, don't even think of entering this land, as the Orcs will attack you if your alignment isn't high enough, even if it's positive, and for good players... well, you won't really last very long.

If you're evil, this is not the case at all. The abundance of Orcs and resources will be very helpful. You might want to bring some extra wood before you enter, along with some food, as otherwise you'll have a hard time finding either of those two things. Ithilien is a good place to find both of those things, but watch out for the Rangers! They don't take kindly to those who enter their land...