Fairly straightforward question that I cannot find on the website (which seems pretty outdated, by the way... the latest updates on civilizations are a couple years old).

Can we use civilizations on a map that span multiple ages? For example, suppose we want to have Hobbits (a Thrid Age civilization) present as a race caught between the Númenóreans and Sauron (in the Second Age)?

Hmmmm. It wouldn't be thematic, but it would be pretty cool. I would assume it won't happen in the campaign(s?) but in a random map it could be good.

By the way, what kind of military will the hobbits have? Because they're not even very numerous...

Im pretty sure that you cant have civs from one age and civs from another age in the same game. Im not sure if you can mix ages in the scenerio editor there was a discussion about this before and I still think its undecided.

I reckon simply using units from a different age should be easy enough, and I'm pretty sure you can do anything with modding, so in a way I suppose this should be possible, even if the designers don't include age-mixng in the basic game.


NO!!! Please keep it out of RM. It would totally ruin the atmosphere of the whole thing.


Practically none I assume. If I recall correctly then they once sent a small troop of archers into a war (no idea which one though), and otherwise kept pretty much to themselves.

The Hobbits' tales say that they sent a company of bowmen to aid in the wars against the Witch King and the Fall of Arnor. The Dúnedain have no records of it (of course, their civilization fell, so the records may have just been lost). The Hobbits did form a militia composed mainly of archers to fight against Saruman's ruffians in the Battle of Bywater at the end of the War of the Ring. There is also a poem about Tom Bombadil visiting Farmer Maggot where some Bucklanders stuffed his cap with arrows.

Hobbits do not have much of a military, I think that is clear. Nonetheless, they should be able to produce the basic anti-rush 'guard' unit that everybody else can, and they should probably be able to produce some kind of archer, but not have the infantry or cavalry to support it.

If it is possible using the editor to make multi-age scenarios, that seems enough for me... particularly if the editor can use pregenerated random maps and modify them.

regarding the website: yes, unfortunatly it is outdated but the team doesnt have alot of time on its hand now so until somebody got the time it will remain so There has been talk of getting a tla-specific webmaster but nothing have come out of it yet.

regarding mixing of units: i haven't talked to the others in the team but this is another case of purity vs fun. it will be fun to see how different forces from different times would have done against each other, but it wouldnt be very tolkienish. since i'm not sure myself and havent spoken to the rest i can't say how it is going to be.

If I might make a suggestion, then: withing programming constraints (which I recognize are a very real issue), allow the editor to put units of differing ages on the same map. It will make the map less truly Tolkienian, but if a player wishes to play a more "pure" game, (s)he can play a map that is single-age.

No, the fundamental architecture of the game will make that impossible.

It will be possible to mod the civs themselves though to put whatever civs you want into an age.