VorV DD 3: The Greater Enedwaith Focus Tree

As promised, it’s focus tree day! A quick recap: Greater Enedwaith is divided into 6 regions/cultures, each comprising 4 tribes. They share the majority of their content and mechanics, including their focus. However, each region has some unique focuses. Today I’ll be going over Dunland’s focus tree. Unless otherwise stated, everything I cover today applies to all Greater Enedwaith countries.

This one’s a bit wordy, so I’ve included some helpful **TL;DR** recaps along the way.

Overall, Dunland has access to 103 focuses- comparable to Japan. 71 of these are part of the shared political branches, and 24 of these belong to the special development branches, leaving Dunlending tribes with these 8 unique political focuses:

Starting from the left, we have the development branches:

Each region has a unique development branch. The first 5 or so focuses are available to that region as well as all neighboring regions; we can see here that Dunland has access to focuses from Enedwaith (on the left) and from Eregion (on the right). The other approximately 10 focuses are only available to that region itself, as seen by the much chonkier center branch.

Every branch covers typical development branch territory– factory construction, research bonuses, army XP, but hinged around a couple regional themes. Enedwaith’s gives a lot of food and infantry bonuses. Dunland’s focuses on pikes and industry. Eregion delves deep into the worlds of archery and special forces.

To take any focuses in a regional branch you must control at least one state in that region, because the strength of every single development focus depends on how many states in that region you control. Construction focuses grant 1 building in each state of that region, research focuses grant 2 bonuses each of 20% times the number of states of that region you control. There are a few exceptions, such as ‘Workers of the South’ and ‘Warriors of the North’ which grant factories in the 2 southern or 2 northern Dunlending states, respectively.

**TL;DR: Each region gets unique development focuses, and they are more powerful  if you own more states in the region.**

We’ll cover Isengard’s *much* expanded content for interacting with Greater Enedwaith in a later DD, but for now let’s gaze upon our options for dealing with the White Wizard. The first three focuses on the left simply require you to not be at war with Saruman; ‘Guidance’ and ‘Wisdom’ both increase the popularity of Isengard’s ideology by 10% and provide 100 pp and 10% stab, respectively. ‘Innovations’ fires an event for Isengard; if they accept, they gain 5 army XP and you gain 2 industry tech bonuses. ‘Common Cause’ requires you to be in a faction with Isengard; it increases your trust of Isengard by 2 (thus giving them an easier time of vassalizing you), but rewards you with PP. ‘Study’ grants a research slot, ‘Oratory’ grants a prestige, ‘Plan our Enemies Demise’ gives you both military bonuses (with Isengard’s depending on your region). ‘Request Ancestral Lands’ lets you demand Isengard hand over any Greater Enedwaith states they own.

I want to give Dunlending tags a unique focus or two here to represent their closer relationship with Saruman, but I’ve not decided on what yet. Suggestions welcome.

If you’re not feeling so chummy, never fear, we have a whole path for that! ‘Reject Foreign Influence’ unlocks a wargoal against any foreigners who hold land in Greater Enedwaith, while ‘End Saruman’s Meddling’ directly gives you a wargoal on him. Once you reach Nan Curunir you can choose to either peace out or to press your advantage and place a defense-crippling modifier on Orthanc. If you have founded a faction through ‘<Insert region name> for <insert culture name>’ you can invite all of his Greater Enedwaith puppets to turn on their master and follow you instead though ‘Appeal to the Fallen’.

**TL;DR: The left side helps you befriend Saruman, while the right side helps you kick him out of Greater Enedwaith.**

‘Invoke Unifying Kings of Old’ sets you down the path to, you guessed it, unify Greater Enedwaith under an Opportunist monarchy, but not much more. It unlocks a very cheap wargoal against other tribes and lowers the world tension threshold for declaring wars by 25%– very useful for Opportunists, who normally need 25%. ‘Invoke their Sovereignty’ boosts Opportunism. ‘Invoke Conquering Kings of Old’, ‘Invoke their Glory’, and ‘Commission Songs of Ancient Conquests’ boost Conquest and war support. ‘Invoke their Prowess’ gives division attack and ‘Study Historical Battles’ helps kickstart your military innovation. ‘Invoke their Heritage’ decreases the cost to core high-compliance states by 25%

‘Claim Dunlending Blood in Grima’ makes Rohan more friendly so long as Grima is around, which might be particularly useful if, after ‘Remembering’ that you have a core on Nan Adorn, you demand that they return it. If they refuse, you’ll have 45 days to take it before they can raise their fyrd or call in allies– if you succeed in this time frame you get to keep the state and end the war. This isn’t the only way you can cross swords with the Rohirrim– ‘Sing of Eastern Wars’ grants you a wargoal and a mission to use it or else lose war support (‘Southern’ and ‘Northern’ do the same for Gondor and Arnor). If you do end up at war with Rohan, the bottom two grant an attack bonus against them and significant attrition to defenders of the Hornburg. ‘The World for <insert culture here>’ forms a faction.

‘Sing Tales of Numenor’s Villainy’ de-boosts Freedom and Isolationism. The next two boost Melkorism, ‘Make Common Cause with the Orcs’ invites the Orcs of the Misty Mountains to your faction, and ‘Send Tribute to Barad-dûr’ unlocks decisions to pay consumer goods to Senpai Sauron– he may reward you with all kinds of tasty mana.

**TL;DR: You have many ways to be evil and conquer your neighbors.**

Every tribe has a pre-set ancestral friend and ancestral enemy. The left side helps you conquer your enemy– and then your other neighbors. The right side helps you diplomatically subjugate your friend– and then your other neighbors. Short, sweet, to the point.

‘Repair the Númenórean Road’ unlocks Repair the Royal Road decisions– which, yes, also now work properly for Gondor. Why didn’t I have those implemented for release even though a Gondorian focus claims to unlock them? IDK, forgot probably. ‘Seek Gondor’s Protection’ asks Gondor to guarantee your independence– a key part of another feature I’ll explain when I cover all the new content for the majors.

The left-central branch here primarily grants PP and unlocks some advisors. ‘Recall Shared Victories’ decreases the cost to increase other tribe’s trust. The right branch boosts Freedom support and unlocks/grants wargoals vs evil forces in the region. ‘Train Crebain’ grants LaR users a free operative slot, just like Isengard’s focus, and ‘Reclaim Angrenost’ grants a core on Nan Curunir at the cost of half its population. As of now, this branch is not mutually exclusive with the Opportunist ‘War with Saruman’ branch, since they synergize pretty well, though they do cover some of the same ground.

‘Power in Unity’ forms a faction and ‘Commission Songs of Alliance’ allows you to apply the Freedom Drift idea to your neighbors. If you can make them like you enough to join said faction, ‘Establish Council of Cooperation’ will double the same faction bonus to Blood Oath acceptance, and ‘Ties That Bind’ will decrease their autonomy every day once they submit.

**TL;DR: Being good helps you diplomatically, but you can still beat people up– as long as they’re the right people.**

The royal branch only unlocks once you’ve ascended into your regional formable, which requires you or a subject to control 3 of the region’s 4 states. This branch is a little mix of everything; the initial focus increases compliance on all your same-culture states, decreases autonomy on all your same-culture vassals, and increases trust with any not yet vassalized. The left side grants stability and PP, the center invests in your economy, and the right buffs your army. ‘Hire <insert region here>’s Brightest’ unlocks 3 more advisors, and ‘Put their Minds to Work’ grants a research slot. ‘Summon Isolated Tribes’ calls 2 million free population out of the wilderness.

**TL;DR: Uniting your region unlocks some powerful focuses**

That’s the entire tree as it stands right now. Depending on how development goes, next week will either cover the variations between regional content or the updated content for majors. Please let me know what you thought of the tree while there’s still time to change it!