Changelog:
Main new features:
6 City States got their own custom City State type, with various bonuses, and one new City State enters the party:
- Entwood now gives +1 gold from forest and less culture
- Eagle's Eyrie gives access to the Eagle's Escord Promotion when friend, and +1 production and no maintenance costs in Mountains tiles, while also giving less culture
- Beorn's Hall gives +1 culture from pastures, but less flat culture
- Umbar city State is new, replaces Crissaegrim
Cultured -> Mercantile
Reduces Naval Maintenance cost at friend level giving less Happiness, and gain ability to recruit barbarian water units when allied, instead of a unique luxury - Paths of the Dead gives 10% combat strength in Friendly Land at ally level, but gifts units slower at ally level
- Shelobs Lair gifts units less often, but increases melee unit production speed
- Dunland gives free unit maintenance and faster city razing but gifts units starting from ally level
Mercenary Units are introduced for these City States, mercenaries can be bought with Gold when allied and having the same allignment as the City State:
- Ents and Mirkwood spiders are now mercenaries capped at 8 per civ
- Corsair units introduced, stronger and more expensive Caravel, gets Coastal Raider I and the ability to capture defeated units. Capped at 6 per civ
- Beorning units added, stronger Longswordsman requiring no Iron, very expensive and has bonus against Mordor, Goblin civ and Barbarians, also increases Healing Speed of nearby allies. Can transform to Bear Form, capped at 3 per civ
- Bear Form has increased Movement points and excells at attacking, but is slower at healing and worse at defending. It gets bonus attacking strength at low health and heals 10 damage when killing a unit. Bear Form has increased maintenance costs. Can transform back to Beorning, and Beornings can be bought directly in Bear Form.
- Dunlending unit added, cheaper and slightly stronger Swordsman, can pillage for free, Ignores zone of control and can capture killed Barbarian units. Capped at 12 per civ
- Great Eagles added, more expansive Knight unit that can see over obstacles, withdraw from Melee and gets no penalty when attacking cities. Capped at 2 per civ
The Paths of the Dead receive a unique Mercenary system:
- Allying them during the 1st or 2nd Age gives you the option to build an Oath of the Mountain National wonder, giving 1 culture and costing 200 production
- Once you reach the Steel tech in 3rd Age and have the Oath built, you can construct the Stone of Erech World Wonder
- Stone of Erech gives 1 culture and production, is only available at war and triggers an alarm on build start. It spawn 7 free Dead Man of Dunharrow and boosts their movement by 1 point for 3 turns
- Dead Mean of Dunharrow are units with 2 Movement points and 20 combat strength, that are almost immune to damage. They cannot be defeated in combat, but lose health every turn until eventually fading away. They also lower combat strength of adjacent enemies by 20% and can pass all tiles for 1 movement point. They cannot be obtained in a different way, although the City State can regularly build them
Added a new Unit type: Flying
-Flying Units currently include Smaug, Nazgul Fellbeasts and the Great Eagles
-All tiles cost 1 movement for them
-They can travel on water tiles without embarking and gain no terrain bonus
-All flying units cost double maintenance
Promotions for Flying Units:
- Swift Wings I (can pass impassable tiles, 25% bonus to flanking)
- Swift Wings II (+1 movement, -25% maintenance)
- Swift Wings III (ignores ZOC, -25% maintenance)
- Sky Drop I (+15% Strength vs Ranged Land units)
- Sky Drop II (+25% Strength vs Mounted Units)
- Sky Drop III (+25% vs Ranged Land units when attacking)
- Fire Breath I (Only for Dragons, +20% Strength vs Cities, +10% Strength vs Land units when attacking)
- Fire Breath II (Only for Dragons, +20% Strength vs Cities, +20% Strength vs Water units)
- Fire Breath III (Only for Dragons, +20% Strength vs Cities, No Movement cost to pillage)
- Beak & Talons I (Only for Beasts and Eagles, +15% Strenght vs Melee Land units)
- Beak & Talons II (Only for Beasts and Eagles, +15% Strenght vs Land units when attacking)
- Beak & Talons III (Only for Beasts and Eagles, +15% Strenght vs Melee Land units)
- Hunter (requires any previous one on third level, +33% Strenght vs wounded Land units)
- Air to Air Combat I (requires any previous one on second level, +33% Strenght vs Flying Units)
- Air to Air Combat II (+33% Strenght vs Flying Units)
- Flying units gain access to Blitz promotion at 3rd level and Sentry at 1st level
Miscellaneous Changes:
- All civs now have access to Bombardment Archers after building a Castle, which has 14 Ranged Strength and 5 Strength
- Barricade Archer now replaces bombardment Archer, and melee Strength was changed to 5 be in Line
- Harad gains unique Mumakil Tower Archer, which replaces Bombardment Archer with only 10 Ranged Strength, but gains +25% Strength in Desert tiles and can transform to Haradrim Archer
- Mumakils can carry a Mumakil Tower Archer, which gains +50% Strength when stacked with a Mumakil
- Barricade was buffed to make up for the Bombardment change (production 0 -> 2, City Strength 3 -> 8, City Health 25 -> 50)
- Allying or Friending Eagle's Eyrie gives access to Eagle's Escort Promotion for Heroes and Melee Land units. This promotion allows passing impassable tiles and paradrop up to 3 tiles. It also gives 66% retreating chance below 20 HP
Balance Changes:
Buffs:
- Watchtower now provides 3 unit supply
- Indirect Fire Promotion now adds +50% Strength when attacking Flying Units
- Formation I and II promotions both add +25% Strength when defending against flying Units
- Melee Water Units can now attack over Rivers and across a Coast without combat penalty
- Gandalf, the White gains +50% Strength vs Nazgul Units
- Nazguls now have 3 movement points, up from 2
Nerfs:
- Nazgul Fellbeast Movement points decreased from 4 to 3
- Shirriff loses +25% strength vs Civs with more cities, instead they get +15% Strength decreasing with distance from capital and +10% Strength in Friendly Land tiles