1: SUMMARY
2: INTRODUCTION
3: INSTRUCTIONS
4: HINTS
5: SCOUTS
6: GENERAL INFORMATIONS
7: HEROES AVAILABLE IN THIS SCENARIO
8: APPENDICES
9: CREDITS

This guide gathers the official Instructions, Hints and Scout sections of "The Hobbit-marcknop" AOE2 scenario and the Heroes available but with better presentation and with illustrations extracted from the scenario, the LOTR graphic and data mod and The Hobbit J.R.R Tolkien's book and drawing and films trilogy by Peter Jackson.


Link to the scenario in Steam Workshop:

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1794646697

ENJOY!
marcknop, the creator of the scenario, february 2020

Ѯ

This scenario is based on the story from J.R.R. Tolkien in the book of the same name and the trilogy films of Peter Jackson.

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This scenario uses these two mods :
« The Lord of The Rings mod » and « The Lord of the Rings language(English and Chinese) » by TheDukeofHabsburg
links in Steam:
http://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1272363891&searchtext=the+lord+of+the+rings+mod
and
http://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1275067997&searchtext=the+lord+of+the+rings+mod

Subscribe them in community's Steam workshop and enable the second one in Steam workshop in the game, before playing it.
Don't forget to put English (or Chinese) language in options in AOE2 too, and restart the game.

THIS IS A SCENARIO FOR MULTIPLAYER IN AOE II « RISE OF THE RAJAS » EXPANSION.

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8 players  (7 human and 1 AI); Lock teams ; unexplored map.

NB: the team is automatic, don't select it (it will change in the game with some triggers and events).

Player 1 (blue): Human: Rivendell; Player 2 (red): Human: Dol Guldur; Player 3 (green): Human: Mirkwood; Player 4 (orange): Human: Misty Mountains; Player 5 (teal): Human: Dale; Player 6 (purple): Human: Gundabad; Player 7 (grey): Human: Iron Hills; Player 8 : AI (yellow): Erebor. 

NB: Considering the small time scale of the story, no building can be built (but you can still stock farms in mill and repair). No trade cart too.

NB : No mission garantees the victory on the strategical aspect, but can help a lot for it.
The player 1 is by far the player with the most of missions.

PLAYER 1 (Rivendell/Blue) :

MAIN MISSION 1 :
Send Gandalf (in Rivendell) and Thorin Oakenshield (In the Blue Mountains) in the Prancing Pony Inn (in Bree) for them to meet eachothers.

MAIN MISSION 2 :
Send Thorin back in the Blue Mountains to convince the other dwarves to join his quest (this will create all the other dwarves of the company).

MAIN MISSION 3 :
Send Gandalf to Bag-End in the Shire to meet Bilbo Baggins and convince him to join the company of Thorin as burglar.

MAIN MISSION  4 :
Send all the dwarves to Bag-End to gather the company.

MAIN MISSION 6:
Send in Front of Elrond's house (your wonder) in Rivendell, Elrond, Thorin and Gandalf for Elrond to decipher the map of Thorin given by Gandalf.

MAIN MISSION 7:
Find a way to cross the Misty Mountains safely to go East and to Erebor.

MAIN MISSION 8 :
Use Thorin to open the secret door of Erebor with the key given by Gandalf (Bilbo can help to find the door).

MAIN MISSION 9 :
Use Bilbo to steal the Arkenstone, in the treasure inside the Mountain.

MAIN MISSION 10 :
Use Bilbo to convince Thranduil and Bard to make peace with the dwarves.

See the other missions in « Hints » section.

SECONDARY MISSION 1 :
Find the treasure of the trolls, in a cave in the mountain behind their camp.

SECONDARY MISSION 2 :
Bilbo can find a way to go in Gollum's cave and steal his ring of invisibility (it is necessary to fulfill the main mission 9 and 10, and secondary mission 6).

SECONDARY MISSION 3 :
Go in Beorn's house with Thorin, Gandalf and Bilbo (after destroying the gate of his garden) to convince him to join you (instead to kill you).

SECONDARY MISSION 4 :
Send Gandalf in Rhosgobel (Radagast's House) to find the Brown Magician, Radagast.

SECONDARY MISSION 5 :
Send the dwarves and Bilbo on the Forest Gate and follow the Elf Path to cross Mirkwood (the old Forest Road is now dangerous).

SECONDARY MISSION 6 :
Bilbo can free the dwarves from the Elves if he got the ring of Gollum (the Dungeon's key is in the Cellars).

SECONDARY MISSION 7 :
Send Gandalf to Dol Guldur to find the Necromancer and Radagast in Lorien, to warn Galadriel that the Necromancer can be Sauron himself and Gandalf seeks him.

SECONDARY MISSION 8 :
Free Gandalf from Dol Guldur's prison, by destroying the Dol Guldur Wonder.


SECONDARY MISSION 9 :  
Attract Smaug into the forge of Erebor after making a trap for him with 5 dwarves (except lords Thorin, Balin, Gloin and Dwalin).

SECONDARY MISSION 10 :
You can find excellent weapons and armors in Erebor's forge, but only king Thorin will allow you to take them.

SECONDARY MISSION 11:
If Smaug leaves Erebor by fulfilling Secondary Mission 9, you will take back its main gate and be able to repair it.

NB : The Elves don't have access to trebuchet's technology but they have unique Elven longbowmen after developing their unique technology.

Some other secret unexpected events can be triggered.


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PLAYER 2 : (Dol Guldur/Red) :
You got a new warg pit on Weathertop in the ruin of Amon Sûl great tower, in Rivendell region: use it wisely!
Make your unique hero Azog in your wonder in Dol Guldur (the prison) to become the general of your army.
If Gandalf comes in your fortress, Sauron's spirit will beat him and he can also summon his servants if Gandalf is released from your prison.
You can't have access to trebuchets technology, but you got giant spiders, and their nests (which are like castles). Use the spiders webs as spies to know every person passing in Greenwood.
Cannibalism: each enemy killed will give you 100 food.


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PLAYER 3 : (Mirkwood/Green) :
Try to clean Mirkwood from the abominations coming from Dol Guldur.
Don't annoy the dwarves too much (they can become allies and it will be better for you so).
Leave the triggers do their job (don't try to block them or the company of Thorin).
You can make Prince Legolas (unique hero) in your wonder (Thranduil's Throne Hall).
You can pass units in and out the Mountain, through some towers.
You can farm in the Mountain because there are holes on the top leaving water and light entering in.
There are a lot of wild animals to hunt in the forest and you got also a town out of the mountain.
The Elves don't have access to trebuchet's technology but they have unique Elven longbowmen after developing their unique technology.
You don't have a siege workshop neither, but strong defense.
You can trade with the men of Laketown, thanks to cogs on the forest river (don't make too much of them or they will block eachothers).


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PLAYER 4 : (Misty Mountains/orange) :
You control two seperated cities: the mines of Moria (low levels) south-west and Goblintown in the north.
You don't have access to trebuchet's technology, but you can train cave trolls in the castle of Moria.
Beware of who falls in your front porch trap.
Beware of Beorn next to the other door and try to keep it secret.
The goblins can't farm green vegetables in the dark caves where they live, but they know how to grow mushrooms.
Cannibalism: each enemy killed will give you 100 food.

For the other players, look in "Scout" section.

PLAYER 5 : (Dale/teal) :
The city of Dale is now in ruin (it was burned by Smaug the dragon): you can't produce units in it, only in Laketown, but its stone defenses remain strong and you can garrison units in them.
You can send a villager in Dale Great Hall to train and equip him as Dale militia with abandoned weapons and armors (meaning +6 attack, +40 HP, +2 armor). If he goes back to work, he will lose the bonus but he can train again and again after working (it's like conscription: take up arms when needed and go back in civilian activity after, bringing back the military equipment, etc).
Make Bard in your wonder (the Laketown Town Hall). He only can transport the dwarves and use black arrows fited for dragons.
Send him to the jetty on the forest river, to lead secretely their transport ship (transformed in your color) into your town.

Land Thorin, Bilbo and Bard between the town center and the town hall for Thorin to plead his case to the Master and people of Laketown (Blue will then become an ally). If they land elsewhere, they will be shooted by the towers or attacked by the guards of the city.

If Smaug attacks your city, Bard can take the last black arrows from his father in his house (in the south east corner of Laketown).

You have no access to trebuchets technology but awesome archers (Esgaroth is the first Laketown city name before it burned).
You got few farms but lot of fishes and fish traps on the lake and lumber camps across the lake.
You can trade with cogs with the Mirkwood Elves thanks to the forest river (don't make too much of them or they will block eachothers).


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PLAYER 6 : (Gundabad/purple) :
Make your unique hero Bolg in your Wonder (« Gundabad keep ») and support other orcs armies (Misty Mountains and Dol Guldur). Only your orcs can make trebuchets.
Some of your units got a restricted area to stay in.
You guard the north path between West and East on the top of the Misty Mountains, taken from the dwarves.
There is a pass to the east on the north of Erebor, but beware of the white wargs when you go in the Grey Mountains.
Cannibalism: each enemy killed will give you 100 food.


VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

PLAYER 7 (Iron Hills/grey) :


Protect Thorin if he takes back Erebor's Throne. Don't try to take it for him. Defend your land. You got no archers, nor cavalry but amazing infantry, siege weapons and stronghold.
Your land is not under the mountain, but behind the mountains, so you got farms. Don't forget to make your unique hero King Dain in your wonder.

NEW UPDATE (version 24):
Now the dwarves (Player 7, Iron Hills) can take back Gundabad and Moria mines by gaining a damaged castle (-4000 HP) when Gundabad keep (P6 wonder) or Durin's Throne hall (P4 castle) is destroyed, at their location.
Almost all other buildings can be converted but it felt unfair to me that they couldn't get back their main mining city's buidling from the orcs and goblins.
Both are not only strong defensive buildings but give 30 pop more each for the dwarves to regain strength and create elite units on strategical corners of the map.
You can repair them by any allied villager (on condition to have stone in stock of course).


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PLAYER 8 (Erebor (AI)/yellow) :

the missions will be triggered for AI by the other players.


ALL :
If you destroy the gate of Erebor, Smaug will surely be awaken by the noise. Erebor's throne is a monument that every player can take and take back forever. Every minute, his owner will gain 200 gold from collecting Erebor's treasure (the equivalent of seven relics).

Copyright : marcknop, July 7, 2019.

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Only men, elves, hobbits and dwarves races ( Rivendell (and Shire, Blue mountain and Bree here), Mirkwood, Dale and Iron hill here) gain experience thanks to better intelligence than goblins, orcs, trolls, spiders, dragons and other monsters (Dol Guldur, Gundabad, Misty Mountain and Erebor).
They gain more precision depending on general kills score of the player. This means that for each 100 kills, all military units present on the terrain will gain +1 attack bonus. The limit gain is +10 (after 1000 kills score).
Iron Hill got a unique capacity to improve even civilians attack (because of mining, jewelry and blacksmith exceptional skills, using hammers).
Note that an experienced unit doesn't benefit anymore new regular attack improvement from blacksmith and can't no more be upgraded in buildings. In fact, an experienced unit is like a new unit for the game.
This is true also for heroes which are military units (with an attack) which generaly doesn't improve. Buildings attack will also be affected (which is acurate: arrows are actually shot by living persons).

Update 25, published the december, 12 , 2021

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VERY IMPORTANT BEFORE TO PLAY THIS SCENARIO: 
Remember that all civilizations, stats, units, heroes and technologies are almost changed here. You can see their names only with the language mod. So don't play without it (all instructions needed to enable it are in the first lines of description of the scenario here, and it is very easy and fast to do it, when you know exactly what to do).


WHEN YOU PLAY THE SCENARIO :
Wild animals are more nasty and strong in this scenario : they get more hit points and attack according to their size, which I find more realistic and fun.

Bannermen are like monks (they can heal, convert (but not the heroes or elite units) and can transport relics).

All elite units are regenerating, and can't be converted, like heroes.


No unique hero (the one made in wonder for example) can be created a second time. They die forever. So be very careful with them. 

All spearmen line got one range.


Big units like trolls, dragons, and even heavy cavalry (with horse only, not wargs), make trample (splash=around them) damages.

Lancers are special heavy cavalry with bonus against other cavalry, even mumakils (they are based on AOE2 camels). Some cavalry civilizations like Harad, Rohan or Dale, have access to them in stable simply by reaching the third age (LOTR imperial age).

The elven civs got access to mighty elven longbowmen after they developed their unique imperial age technology. They got huge range, attack and armor (they are based on skirmishers and thus, made in archery range). It is compensate by the fact they don't have access to trebuchets in this scenario.

Don't forget to hunt, fish and eat cattle : there are lot of that kind of ressources on the map.


You can't build farms but you can queue them in a mill (all players got one mill at least) for automatic replant.
Make sure to collect other kind of food first, for instance berries and have enough villagers before to send them on your farms, because if one farm is exhausted and there is a farm with no farmer on it close, the idle farmer will take it and the previous farm will be destroyed forever, even if there are farms stocked in your mill.

Click on all buidlings : their shape can be strange for you at first : read their function.
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They gain 100 food for each enemy killed.

The tribute (given by Gaia) will be done every time you reach the double of the previous number of kills, starting with 1.

So at 1 kill score (giving 100 food), 2 (=2x1, giving 100 food again totalizing 200), 4 (=2x2 giving 200 food), 8 (=2x2x2 giving 400 food), etc untill 2048 kills giving 102400 food.
This amount is balanced by less farms for those factions or less strong units and the share of the number of enemies killed.

(48 unique (who can't be remake) heroes in total if I count well)

1: Bilbo Baggins (at young age, a hobbit (« halfling ») who can be boosted by finding the Elven magic short sword « Sting » (+10 attack) in the loot of the cave of the trolls and receiving Thorin's mithrill shirt in Erebor forge; only him can find the ring of invisibility in Gollum's cave (and even enter the cave), open the gate of the Elvenking's dungeon and free the dwarves and steal the Arkenstone to Smaug with it, and also enter in Dale even in war to give the Arkenstone to Thranduil and make peace between the men of Laketown, Wood elves and dwarves ; Bilbo is necessary to tame Beorn, convice Laketown men to help the company of Thorin (instead to kill them at sight), trigger the Goblin trap to enter in Goblintown by the front porch of the west and find the hidden door of Erebor. Quite a « key » character for blue player, so don't lose him and leave him back!).

2: Gandalf the Grey (a strong and wise wizzard, who can be boosted by finding the Elven magic long sword « Glamdring » (+10 attack (beware : considering the fact that Gandalf is strong enough with regular stats, and he got them for the next scenario at start (« The Lord Of The Rings ») with Glamdring, he starts here with -10 attack but substraction of stats by trigger is not shown when you click on a character in the game) in the loot of the cave of the trolls ; he is the trigger of many missions here like the first one, by giving Thror's map and the key of the secret door to his son, Thorin ; if he is emprisoned, he can also be rescued).  

3: Thorin Oakenshield (the dwarven king under the Lonely mountain, Erebor, that he must reclaim and free from Smaug the dragon ; he can be boosted by finding the Elven magic broad sword « Orcrist » (+10 attack) in the loot of the cave of the trolls, or taking a king's plate armor and sword in Erebor forge ; he triggers many missions and only him can use the Thror's map or the key of the secret door of Erebor (after Gandalf gives them to him in Bree), or give Erebor armors to others).

4: Lord Elrond on a horse (first a strong heavy cavalry hero present at start in Rivendell in front of his house; he only can decypher the Thror's map ; he goes in Lorien to warn Galadriel and Saruman after and can come back as warrior on feet to rescue Gandalf from Dol Guldur's prison).

5: Dwalin (a strong dwarf lord hero with splash damage (thanks to a twirling battle axe): he can be boosted by better armor and weapon in the forge of Erebor like all the company of Thorin, by Thorin himself)

6: Gloin (another dwarf lord, the father of Gimli with the same stats (notably a huge piercing armor))

7: Balin (last dwarf lord in the company, the oldest and the weakest).


8: Nine other dwarves (which are boosted in HP elite dwarf noblemen of Erebor: Oin, Kili, Fili, Bofur, Bombur, Bifur, Dori, Nori and Ori).

9: Beorn (a wild skin changer in a gigantic bear, who can be converted by going in his house, for Gandalf, Thorin and Bilbo ; his attack is big and hit points too ; he can match pretty much all unit in one on one combat, even the nazguls, but not sauron or Smaug ; he is first restricted in the area around his house but after the war is declared between dwarves and men and Green Elves with the death of Smaug and the rivality coming from the desire to take the treasure of Erebor, he joins the battle against orcs transported by a great eagle and can go everywhere on the map)

10: Radagast the Brown (a distrustful wizzard who is known by Beorn and can only be triggered by Gandalf, as friend and collegue ; he got a powerful telekinetic attack and quite big magical armor).

11 : Saruman the white (the strong leader of the wizzards of Middle Earth with huge armor and far range telekinetic attack, triggered by Radagast in Lorien forest).

12 : Elrond on feet (triggered in Lorien forest by Radagast to free Gandalf from Dol Guldur's prison)

13 : Galadriel (she is the strongest unit after Smaug here, even more than in the data mod and The Lord Of The Rings scenario ; she is triggered again to save Gandalf by Radagast (in fact, all the last 3 heroes and Gandalf are nicknamed the « White Council ») ; she has a huge attack capable to kill even strong units in one blow and even repel the lord of evil Sauron easily but is weaken and go back to rest after his death (with Elrond and Saruman) and beware, she makes also splash damages on allies, and is relatively fragile, so use her carrefully).


1: An orc chieftain (strong infantry hero in Dol Guldur ruins guarding its prison).


2: Azog (the pale orc champion, leader of the army of the orcs of Sauron of the North ; he is made in Dold Guldur's wonder, the prison ; he is a strong infantry warrior hero).

3 : The 9 nazguls (on feet, they appear in Dol Guldur close to the statues of them after Gandalf is released by destroying the Dol Guldur's wonder ; note that the Witch King of Angmar (with same look : Black Numenorean) is stronger than the others and that they all don't make splash damage because are not on horse, unlike the black riders of the Lord Of The Rings scenario (and they have less armor and speed than them, but better attack and HP)).

4: The Necromancer (in fact Sauron in semi physical form : less strong than the integral physical form of him in The Lord Of The Rings scenario (he receives here no boost on the original mod), if he get back his ring, he is still quite strong but less than Galadriel ; he appears after all nazguls are dead ,on the statue in the center of the Dol Guldur's ruins and got no limited area, so don't resign too easily and protect at least one regular unit to not be defeated by the destruction of all your production buildings; if Gandalf comes in Dol Guldur, Sauron's mind will automatically emprison him in your wonder (he is released but wounded after its destruction) ; know also that the white council (Saruman, Elrond and Galadriel) comes in Dol Guldur to save Gandalf and thus, got a restricted area around Dol Guldur and Lorien: you can flee them!)

1: Thranduil (the eternal Elven king, on feet, at start in front of his wonder, his throne ; he is one of the strongest infantry in the game and thus a good complement of any kind of Elven Bowmen who can shoot from behind him to support his charge and he is resilient enough to be their shield against entire armies)

2: Tauriel (the captain of the Mirkwood Elves guard of king Thranduil: an archer hero with fast attack but low range).

3: Legolas (the prince of Mirkwood, son of Thranduil, he can be made in the wonder ; he got huge and far range attack but is quite fragile compared to other heroes).


1: The Great Goblin (king of Goblintown, the underground city of goblins in the tunnels of the Misty Mountains ; monstruous infantry warrior with splash damage and lot of HP but low armor)

2: An orc chieftain (in the low levels of Moria).



Bard (a strong archer hero made in wonder (Laketown Town Hall) ; he can lead the dwarves safely in Laketown and must be present to convince laketown to ally with them ; he can also get the special black arrows from his father Girion with a huge attack boost to kill Smaug (if he arrives in Laketown)).



1: Tom, Bert and William (3 mountain trolls heroes escaped from Gundabad, with different HP boosts, restricted in a forest between Weathertop and the Bruinen ford ; they guard a treasure in a cave, north in the Misty Mountains)

2: 2 orc chieftains (one per gate and castle)


3: Bolg (a strong orc chieftain, the corrupted son of Azog, general of Gundabad army, in the north, in a former dwarf mine taken by the Witch King to make it the entrance of the kingdom of Angmar and his forge of weapons ; Gundabad was purified by the dwarves but left in ruins and taken back not long ago by the orcs leaded by the Necromancer (Sauron) so nobody is aware of it except the orcs).




Dain Ironfoot (the dwarf king of Iron Hills valley, with a fortified citadel, a mine and strong gates in the entrance of the valley ; he is made in the wonder (Dain Throne Hall) and is a strong infantry with high armor).


1: Beorn (look player 1 for more infos)


2: Gollum (restricted in his cave, only Bilbo can come in it and steal his ring, when he get it, he becomes blind to him by becoming in stand ground stance ; he will try to kill Bilbo at sight and beware, is more strong than him even if he got Sting)

3: Smaug (the last Dragon of Middle Earth ; he is very old, greedy, selfish, nasty (that's why only ai must play him: because he won't team anybody even for his own interest), big and strong ; he guards the infinite treasure of gold of Erebor (which is here symbolized by a monument (« Erebor Throne Hall ») giving the equivalent of the gold of seven relics to whom owns it) ; he guards also the arkenstone next to him and only Bilbo can find it and take it under his nose if he got the ring of invisibility found in the cave of Gollum ; the dwarves can prepare a trap to weaken him in the forge of Erebor if they lit it and lure him to it ; first, he is asleep (symbolized by a very restricted area on the loot under the bridge, in the underground of the Lonely Mountain and on non attack stance) ; anyone who will break the main gate or pass close to him will awake him (delete the restricted area and non attack stance) except Bilbo with the ring of invisibility who will awake him few second later thanks to his smell)

marcknop, march 2020

PS: if you want me to play as blue with all the missions (even secrets) in my head (even not easy for me, I forgot sometimes some (about 200 triggers here)!) ask me for friend, I will invite you if you are in the aoe2 game when I host one. You can also join my group created in that purpose too and the host of my other Tolkien inspired scenario : « The Lord Of The Rings » (showing all events of those books: see the workshop page: https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1318231947 )  : https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/groups/LOTRmarcknop
I will make an anouncement every time I host this scenario or the other.
I add that this work is a very professional work: I got a professional degree of space design and made a lot of researches on LOTR. No detail here is random. I want to thank particularly John Howe and Alan Lee for their awesome work on The Lord Of The Rings films by Peter Jackson, who inspired a lot my design here, not only the graphic mod.
For the story part, all events in The Hobbit book are almost depicted, and even some not in the book but added by Peter Jackson in his films Trilogy (essentially because this time it was only from one book and not three) like the Smaug's trap, the Goblins trap and Sauron and the nazgûls trap with the help of Galadriel, Elrond and Saruman (which I found very acurate and fun to represent here by triggers, and it was quite complicated, you can believe me). All of this makes a strong coherence with the first scenario about the Lord of the Rings, which follow the events in a perfect logical continuation and show the other part of the Middle Earth (the south) except the Shire, Bree, Weathertop, the Trollshaws, Rivendell, etc (Eriador in fact) which are just copied and making thansition with the two stories and land (South (for The Lord Of The Rings) and North (for The Hobbit), Eriador being obviously in the north in the first scenario and the south, for the second (which is the prequel, in fact, like for the films)).

Finally, you can get The Hobbit Peter Jackson film's soundtrack (composed by Howard Shore) in the game by subscribing and enable this mod:
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1226679742&searchtext=THE+HOBBIT+SOUNDTRACK

CARPE DIEM!
marcknop, feb 2020

All photos of real world (actors, sets, miniatures ("bigatures"), costumes, special cpu effects, real lands, animals, making up, etc) come from the films trilogy of The Hobbit directed by Peter Jackson and produced by New Line Cinema and MGM (I hope they will enjoy the huge free artistic work that I made to promote them, but they can ask me to take the photos out if they want me to do it!). They were all meticulously chosen by me for symbolic and illustration purpose only, and for their beautiful composition (and I dare to pretend that those choices in a movie with hundreds of thousands of changing images is already an artistic work! I hope you can appreciate it too here (I got also a master degree of plastic art, not for nothing)!).

All other images come from the graphic mod mentioned in instructions and my scenario layout ("map", which is an organization of elements in perspective of the game, and quite "professional" here: I got a space design degree and studied a lot Tolkien's work to be the most acurate possible to it; it demanded more than hundred of hours of meticulous work: not one tree or bush was randomly and automatically placed here and all was tested to have a result as beautifully natural as practical to play it with fun (like for instance, empty tiles between trees in all forests to figure the possibility of going through them without following a road, like in real life and in the story to hide from the giant spiders for instance!); I precised already that I was inspired by the Peter Jackson's films designers (and even quoted their names) but there is no literal copy here (and it actually couldn't be in this game) and I add that I have my own artistic point of view of how should be designed Tolkien's Middle Earth world to be the more coherent, fun and credible possible; in other terms: I got my own architectural urbanistic ideas and can justify them strongly in a professional practical realistic way (like for instance the farms and mills in Iron Hills valley, its multiplied gates and walls, the layers of gates in Elvenkings halls, mushroom farms in Goblintown, the towers protected by rocks in Gundabad, like if they were on them, the gates and tombs, in Dol Guldur, how golden statues protects dwarven towers, the secret gates in Elvenking's mountain thanks to towers, etc)).

If the story part was twisted and changed, it was mainly because of the limitations of AOE2 game editor but I can discuss on this changes to find better solutions to figure out better the original story (which is already more precisely shown than in the book, thanks to the Peter Jackson films scenarists, like the dwarven gigantic golden statue melting on Smaug by a trap in the forge or the white council attacking Sauron and the nazguls in Dol Guldur).

I precise that my goal here in a real time strategy scenario game, was not to make all players follow the exact story by making a kind of "tunnel" role playing game (even if this scenario got a lot of role playing aspects, like the missions and scenario chats, often quoted from Tolkien's book, like the exact Great Goblin song), but leave the possibility of alternative actions and interactions, trying just to make possible the events shown in Tolkien's book with the most of acuracy and credibility possible, without unbalancing the whole game for a player or another, which was very hard to achieve and not at the first released but after tens of tests with real human players too (for instance because some story characters are very powerful like Galadriel, so it is compensated with less houses and thus, less population limit, which is quite realistic for Elven eternal population).

If on the opposite I prevented all buildings to be build, it was to not be able to twist the shapes of cities, block paths (when it shows hundreds of km valleys: all is symbolic here and the cities are made like kind of zooming, to show tactical typicities, like the big city on the Long Lake or the halls in mountains) and also to respect Middle Earth geography (fill for instance the land with farms in the snow of Grey mountains, the forest of Mirkwood, or the darkness of mines of Moria, would have been totally inacurate in the story and unbalanced all). And like I said at start, it would be ridiculous in a few weeks story to build stone castles or even a simple stone house or kms of walls. Also, I didn't want to leave the possibility to the elves to cut all their beloved forests, even if they need some wood to make bows and arrows.

I add that I found myself lot of conceptual ideas in design to figure the typical Tolkien's world, one of the main being to cut horizontally the mountains to show internal parts (with for example cuted columns figured by obelisks, walls or towers) or even the bridges in Laketown (with shalow, to show that you can pass under with ship and over by feet), a classical way to represent and design architecture (coming naturally from my architectural training).

The photomontages of screenshots of my map (separating the chapters of this guide and showing cities in their entirety to demonstrate their acuracy, coherence and beauty) were made by me too like this entire guide (text and layout).

Another kind of ideas was to make symbolic links with practical architecture, like the 9 points and rooms in Dol Guldur, figuring the 9 nazguls surounding their chief, Sauron, giving an overall shape of a sorcerer evil summoning star but also giant spider or web. The general shape looks like a classic Vauban fortress with concentric star shapes to be able to shoot on attakers of the wall, from the wall itself. For Moria: it is the design of a dwarf King, the eyes are the statues surounding the gate of the great hall of Durin, the crown, the columns of the hall, the Khazad-dûm bridge being his neck, columns behind like a necklace and finally the columns right like a hand holding a war hammer with its head being the castle (Durin's throne hall). You can see the shape of a dark warg in Gundabad, of a tree in Elvenking's halls (the trunk being the bridges), a fish in Esgaroth (its tie being the bridge and houses on land), a ram for Iron hills (with its horns designed by the entrance pair of castles), a cross for Dale, a hand for the Lonely Mountain.

I made also a lot of 3d illusions like the stairs figured by cliffs or rocks turning, like in Goblintown (with tunnels and bridges being often like Escher illusions: a path starting higher and finishing lower, or crossing under another, or the fall in the Goblin's trap with an attracting looped trigger) or Erebor, with the impression that Smaug and the treasure is in the deep, under the bridge, or the Forest River falls which you can cross.

No reproduction of this guide or my scenario can be made for money and publicly without my written permission, except for Steam and Google of course!

marcknop, the creator of the scenario, feb 2020.