Played Tolkien's War of the Ring by Yurian Stonebow?

[Steven Aus]

If so, I'm wondering what you thought of it. It was released in February this year.

[Steven Aus]

I am really enjoying the map, it's fun having a LOTR-themed H4 "heroes in combat" romp in the Lord of the Rings world. When a hero "dies" I consider that they have just been incapacitated and when they are "resurrected" they are just healed back to full strength. And a similar logic can apply to the Resurrection skill - bring back creatures from the brink of death that would otherwise die.

Anyway, if you are interested see also: "viewtopic.php?t=15204".

NOTE: Yurian Stonebow has also made some Middle Earth maps for H3 - I am talking about the H4 version here. But then I suppose those who read this post in this thread would have realised it. =) I didn't know he had made H3 maps at the time I started this thread, as I was searching for H4 maps only.

[Steven Aus]

I had a really close battle with the Rohan heroes and some other troops (including Leprechauns) and a fairly big stack of Crossbowmen, against two stacks of Ice Demons (one might have been 7 and the other 8, or both 8) and 2 stacks of 15 ghosts. I didn't have any healing spells, but I did have Holy Word and Song of Peace. I had to do lots of reloading, and eventually I started using Holy Word on the second stack of Ice Demons. There was one time when one of my heroes fell and sometimes he killed the single Ice Demon, sometimes he didn't. Then there was an attack by one of my heroes on a Ghost stack with two remaining, and if I didn't kill 1 ghost then they would easily do 2 damage to finish Eowyn off.

With 1 ghost I was able to get it to do 1 damage, leaving Eowyn with 1 HP. A second hero fell from the second stack of Ice Demons, but I had enough time to get away and use my last spell points to cast two or three more Holy Word spells on the Ice Demons, killing almost a full one each time. In the end I lost a stack of leprechauns, Theoden and Hama and one stack of Pikemen. But two of my heroes, Eowyn and Eomer, had 1 HP left and got the experience, and by splitting them off from the Crossbowmen (I had about 55 left - in the battle they had completely run out of arrows) I was able to capture the Gold Mine that turn.

I am playing on Expert difficulty in Equilibris - Champion stacks were just too big, but I managed to get a foothold in Expert by lots of reloading (including in close battles) and expert tactics, fast and sensible town capturing (Bree for the Elves - using Elrond and Arwen casting lots of summoned units - also beat two big stacks of zombies and two stacks of mummies with a single real unit lost). Also, I use the tactic of disposable units collecting resources and gold chests next to monsters (mostly I didn't collect them with heroes because gold was more important and heroes started at level 5), and heroes picking up artifacts then running to the nearest town.

In the area of Legolas and Gimli, I stole a Pike of the Swiftwatch with Gimli from one powerful enemy and ran to Lorien. Legolas stole a Breastplate of Regeneration which Gimli now uses, along with the powerful Swiftwatch weapon that counters first strikes, and when attacking you can hit any enemy without retaliation apart from Pikemen or those with the same Swiftwatch weapon. Plus it also gives you +2 Speed. I would say the Swiftwatch and the Regen Breastplate are ideally suited for a Barbarian base class hero like Gimli and really suit an all hero army with summoning and healing capacity.

So I have a four hero hero-only army - Galadriel, Celeborn, Legolas and Gimli - Galadriel has Nature and Chaos Magic, Celeborn has Nature Magic and the Wand of Healing, Legolas has scouting and a powerful ranged attack, while currently in game Gimli has those two artifacts mentioned above plus high Combat skill, 50% magic resistance (Advanced) and Expert Melee, so he has first strike. So he does the heavy lifting. Galadriel helps with summoning Leprechauns, the Speed or Haste spells, plus Bloodlust for Gimli, and Celeborn helps with Stoneskin, summoning spells, plus what could be the most useful wand - the Wand of Healing - which not only can heal units but can remove Poison and Plague like the Heal spell.

Plus it can be used two rounds in every three, and regenerates its own supply of spellpoints in battle (4 spellpoints it starts with, the Heal spell costs 3 and it regens 2 points per round), so it never runs out while the hero is active. I have done lots of reloading and backtracking in this game because the random elements all fell into place perfectly. And you need to do a lot of reloading when on Expert or Champion anyway, but Champion was just too hard for the stacks you start with and the time pressure in the map.

It is a really fun LOTR-themed romp. As I've said before I treat hero "deaths" as the heroes being incapacitated and then taken away to be healed. I like that heroes don't have to be standing for you to continue the game. So you just heal them up and continue.

[Steven Aus]

Great map. I gave it a 10. There was one minor inaccessible area in the underground, but nothing gamebreaking.

I was really impressed by this map. It has the LOTR flavour, as well as the HOMM4 flavour. It is a great LOTR-themed romp, and it's fun taking the enemies down with your heroes and army of doom in a faithful world map based on the one Christopher Tolkien released from JRR's works.

[Karmakeld]

thx for the review. might just have to look into this map once I have the time :-)

[Steven Aus]

I've just made a small edit when I fixed the small inaccessible area of underground by removing one square of rock. That's the only change I made. If you would like to have that version, just post here. Hopefully the author is still around and he can fix it. But the map is definitely worth playing, even if it has that one small inaccessible area.

[Karmakeld]

you should just send him an email or pm. I'm pretty sure he's still active in on this forum. and better the author updates his map so that all can get it.

[Steven Aus]

I sent an email to the both his hotmail and gmail addresses, the hotmail one worked but AFAIK I haven't heard back from him.

[Kalah]

His presence is sporadic but he will probably pop by sooner or later.

[MadMax]

As a "Co-Worker" of Yurians, I know 100% surely that he is active, I had a conversation with him last night, I will tell him to check this thread out later tonight!

[Steven Aus]

Note that this is about the HOMM4 map (heroes in combat and all that). I know that he made version/s for H3, but I am talking about the version for H4.