Gameplay Tutorial

**This tutorial assumes that you have played vanilla BFME2 and are familiar with the mechanics of the game**. Edain is quite a departure from the vanilla games and as such new players can tend to get lost, especially with the recent 4.5 update. Edain becomes ever so much its own game and less and less a mod of ROTWK, with its own mechanics. This page will go over the foundations of playing Edain and explain a few faction-specific concepts.

## Command Points

Command points in Edain are not earned by building additional economy buildings; instead, they are bought from the Citadel (with the exception of Lothlorien, which purchases them at the Sanctuary). The **Expanded Storerooms** upgrade, as it is called, is permanent each time it is purchased and nothing can take away command points except defeat. It increases command points by 200 and can be purchased five times (for 500 resources each time) for a total of 1,000 command points.

## Economy Upgrades

Economy buildings in Edain do not level up over time like in vanilla; instead a certain prerequisite must be met which will level up all economy buildings of a certain type. For most factions, it is a matter of researching the upgrades known commonly as Economy Upgrades in a technology building. You can read everything about the upgrades and where to get them here.

There are two factions which have unique system for leveling up their economy which does not require the user to buy Economy Upgrades. Mordor relies on Sauron to level up its economy: to level up internal economy buildings (Tribute Camp and Arsenal) you have to cast **Influence of Sauron** once on each. For example, casting it on the Tribute Camp will level up all Tribute Camps and Arsenals by one, but casting it again on a different Tribute Camp will do nothing. Instead, you must cast influence on an Arsenal to level up the internal building once more. The external economy buildings (Slaughterhouse and Slave Camp) work similarly, casting influence of Sauron once on each will grant you level 3.

Imladris is the other exception. In their case it is much simpler: Buildings will all level up once you research the appropriate research in the Library.

 **Insight** - The Library can research studies to enable different abilities and effects for the units of Rivendell. Once the library is fully built, Erestor becomes available. Completed studies upgrade structures to higher levels.

## The One Ring

In Edain, there are two major differences from vanilla when it comes to the Ring. The first is that when Gollum is killed, the ring does not stay forever. Instead, it stays for a short duration before Gollum returns to steal it back. The second difference is that regular units cannot pick up the Ring, only certain heroes can pick up the ring and wield it. A full list of these heroes can be seen here.

## Recruiting Heroes

Since 4.5.3, heroes are no longer all recruited in the Citadel, they are now spread amongst buildings where they would normally reside when they are not busy fighting for their faction. Pay close attention to the recruitment location of a hero when browsing their page on the wiki, as they not only require a specific building but sometimes even also require certain upgrades to have been researched.

## Wells

As of 4.5.3, wells no longer replenish troops by default, they only heal missing hitpoints. The player must activate the ability on the well in order to allow it to replenish troops for a short time.

## Pikemen Flanking

In Edain, pikemen cannot be flanked. This was a change made to help render them more consistent in their damage output when countering cavalry. Before that, the janky implementation of flanking meant that there was a high chance for the pikemen to not properly deal their revenge trample damage because the attack was still considered a flanking attack or on the contrary, deal massive damage because the pikemen had only recently turned around and were still considered to be facing their attackers.

## Siege Engines

Ranged siege engines in Edain are locked in place for 3 seconds after firing, this is to stop the strategy of siege dancing, where a catapult would fire and instantly start moving again to dodge incoming siege. This made it hard for defenders to defend as their siege was often immobile while the attacker's could freely move around.

## Hero Roles

Heroes in Edain have "roles" which define their strength and weaknesses, most heroes have a primary and a secondary role. Knowing which hero has what role is essential to playing the mod, not all heroes are created equal and getting a more expensive hero is not necessarily the best choice. For example, in single combat, Theoden, who costs 2800, would most likely lose to Eowyn, who costs much less. This is simply because Theoden's role is to support troops while Eowyn excels in Hero Slaying. Below the role are listed with a short description:

* Mass Slayer: Heroes that excel at outputting damage to a large number of units, the more units are around them, the more damage they can output
* Hero Killers: Heroes that excel at outputting damage to single or few units, excellent at killing heroes but struggle against large amount of enemies
* Interferers: Heroes that excel debuffing units, heroes and buildings. This can range from reducing simple stats like armor or damage to hindering their movement, slowing their ability cooldown or disabling them entirely.
* Supporters: Heroes that excel at buffing units, heroes and buildings. Ranging from increasing stats to reducing their cooldowns or granting them powerful upgrades that unlock new abilities.
* Building Destroyers: Heroes that excel at dealing damage and destroying buildings, either through direct means (like Gloin) or indirect (like Theodrer)

## Faction Specific

Certain unique mechanics are only specific to a particular faction. They are listed below here.

### Troop Recruitment in Lothlorien

Troops of Lorien are all recruited from the citadel but only if the correct building has been built in the fortress. If the building is destroyed you will no longer be able to build the units that require it. For example, you need the Border Guardhouse in order to recruit Lorien Pikeguards; if the building is destroyed, the recruitment will stop.

### Lumber Mills

 Lumber mills of Isengard and the Dwarves are not affected by **Supply Routes** (inflation) like other resource buildings, but their laborers require command points. At five workers, the lumber mill will function at full capacity and produce more resources than other economy buildings.

### Tribute Carts

Angmar recruitment buildings do not level up by producing troops like Mordor, it cannot be individually upgraded by buying an upgrade like Gondor, and it doesn't research a central technology like Isengard. Instead, it levels up by sacrificing the Tribute Carts produced by external economy buildings and outposts. These tribute carts appear every 3 minutes from the time that the building finishes construction. For most buildings, a single cart is enough to reach level 2 but two carts will be required to reach level 3. The outpost cart counts as two carts. You can read more about the individual requirements of each building on their respective pages.