Dagor Bragollach (version 4.02, 1/28/98)

BACKGRND.TXT

This scenario is really designed to be the most fun while
playing the Noldor.  However, you might (and hopefully will)
find entertainment value in the other "cultures."  Only the
Noldor have been extensively playtested.  If you decide to
play the other civilizations, please let me know how it
went!

Following is a list of victory conditions, a description of
each "civilization" in the game, a list of city
improvements/wonders available, and finally, my design notes
that I could remember.

Victory Conditions:

Morgoth and the Forces of Darkness are the Antagonists in this
scenario.  He has amassed such a force that it is inevitable
that he will make some conquests.  However, the goal of the
Free Peoples of Beleriand is to save the parts of Beleriand
that can be saved.  For, if sufficient forces are available,
in the year 473, the Union of Maedhros will be formed, and the
Fifth Battle in the Wars of Beleriand will be fought.  If the
forces of the Free People are able to attain either a Decisive
Victory or a Marginal Victory, this battle will remain
possible.  However, if the Dark Forces are victorious, all
hope will be lost and the possibility of any future victory
will be gone forever, save with the help of the Valar.

Decisive Victory:  Morgoth holds less than 3 objectives
Marginal Victory:  Morgoth holds less than 6 objectives
Marginal Defeat:   Morgoth holds at least 7 objectives
Decisive Defeat:   Morgoth holds at least 15 objectives

Please Note:  If you get soundly beaten, play again.  The CPU
never plays the same way twice!  I have been beaten soundly
*and* I have served Morgoth a decisive defeat.  Fortune has a
lot to do with it.  But you must also use your skill to exploit
favorable situations when they occur.  For example, one time,
Morgoth stacked *20* Balrogs!  You can bet I sent my eagles
into that fray!


Kingdoms:

Important:  To understand the following background, you must
be aware that Elves are not subject to death by old age or
ailment.  However, they are not immortal, for they can be
slain.  Also, it should be pointed out that "Tolkienesque"
Elves are very different from the pixies and other tiny,
pointy-eared creatures that appear in many children's stories.
Tolkien's Elves look exactly like men, yet are the Firstborn,
so are greater in stature, strength, wisdom, etc.


Noldor:

	One of the three hosts of the Eldar (Elves who accepted
the summons to Valinor) to make the journey from the East of
Middle-earth, across the Great Sea, to Valinor.  The Noldor
have great love of knowledge and craft and thus were ensnared
by Morgoth's fair words when he was unchained in Aman.  His
lies caused the Noldor to become discontent in Aman and, when
Morgoth darkened that land by destroying the Two Trees and
stealing the Silmarils, the Noldor forsook the Blessed Land and
pursued Morgoth to Beleriand in Northwestern Middle-Earth.
This they did against the will of the Valar and thus earned
their anger. A long age would pass before the Valar would
forgive them and allow them back into the Blessed Realm.
	The High King of the Noldor is Fingolfin at his capital
on the Lake of Mithrim.  To the East of his city, on the Eastern
side of the mountains of Ered Wethrin,  lies the fortress of
Barad Eithel, from which the cavalry of the Noldor patrol the
plains before Morgoth's great fortress of Angband.  Barad Eithel
is held by Fingolfin's son, Fingon the Valiant.  To the
South of Barad Eithel, where Sirion passes between the 
Ered Wethrin and the Western end of the Highlands of Dorthonion,
Lies the City-Fortress of Minas Tirith upon the isle of Tol
Sirion.  Here at first Finrod dwelt, but now it is the
stronghold of Orodreth, his brother.  Finrod, the son of
Finarfin, brother of Fingolfin, foresook the Northlands and
the seige of Angband when he was warned by the Vala Ulmo himself
to seek a hidden place of strength.  Finrod did so, and founded
the city of Nargothrond which remains hidden from Morgoth.
	Likewise, Turgon, son of Fingolfin, received this
warning as well, but did not turn to the southlands for safety.
Instead, Ulmo himself guided Turgon to a hidden vale within
the mountains of Western Dorthonion.  There, Turgon built his
realm of Gondolin, the fairest city of the Eldar East of Aman.
The Eagles of Manwe watch over the city and only they can come
and go from Tumladen, the Hidden Vale, without the leave of the
king.  Only when Turgon deems the time to be right will he
bring the Hidden People forth to do battle by the side of their
kin.  
	Finally Angrod and Aegnor, sons of Finarfin, hold the Highlands
of Dorthonion, the place in most peril of an attack from Morgoth
in Angband.


Sons of Feanor:

	The Sons of Feanor are Noldor, but have decided that it
is best to dwell with their followers some distance from the 
rest of the Noldor.  Feanor had wrongfully perceived Fingolfin
and Finarfin to be rivals for his father's love.  This belief,
fed by the lies of Morgoth, eventually led to threats of violence
against Fingolfin, and Feanor's eventual betrayal of Fingolfin
with the burning of the ships at Losgar.
	However, the rift in the House of Finwe was healed to a
great extent by Fingon's rescue of Maedhros.  Maedhros, eldest
son of Feanor, in gratitude, abdicated the Kingship of the Noldor
in favor of Fingolfin, the eldest of the House of Finwe (Feanor
having been killed when he drew too far ahead of his forces while
pursuing the forces of Morgoth).
	Maedhros then, both thinking it best to put distance
between the estranged factions of the Noldor, and also eager to
have the largest portion of danger put upon himself and his
brothers, settled to the East of Dorthonion.  There, the
mountains taper off to only small and difficult to defend hills.
But the Sons of Feanor dwelt there nonetheless, for they had
taken their father's Oath, the Oath of Feanor, to pursue with
vengeance and hatred anyone who should hold or keep a silmaril
from them.  Thus, though this made them untrustworthy and often
irrational, it made them all the more eager to fight Morgoth, the
Black Enemy.
	Maedhros built his city upon a hill called Himring.  To
the West, his brothers Curufin and Celegorm held the pass of
Aglon with great force, protecting their dwellings in Himlad.
To the East of Himring, the hills failed altogether and this
place was called Maglor's gap, for Maedhros's brother Maglor
held this plain with great force of cavalry.  Caranthir, held
the Eastern side of the gap where the hills resumed and led into
the mountains of the East, the Blue Mountains (Ered Luin).  He
had his dwelling on the South shore of Lake Helevorn and keeps
strength of war on the Western side of Mount Rerir.  Finally,
Amrod and Amras dwelt further South, not taking up a position in
the seige of Angband, but always aiding their brothers in war,
for they were not allowed to forsake their Oath.
	The other inhabitants of Beleriand look upon the Sons of
Feanor both with admiration, because of their valor, and
distrust, because of the lengths they will go to in order to
fulfill their Oath.


Sindar:

	Thingol rules the Grey-Elves (Sindar, Elves of the
Twilight).  They never came to Valinor or saw the light of the
Two Trees, save Thingol, who was one of the first Elves to see
them, having been brought to Valinor first so that he could then
encourage his kinsmen to follow.  However, during his return
journey with his kin to Valinor, while wandering in the woods of
Doriath, he caught sight of Melian, the Maia (Lesser Vala), and
loved her.  Standing for many years enchanted by her beauty, his
friends and kin could not find him and some journeyed on to
Valinor while some, loathe to leave their lord, stayed in
Middle-earth.
	Upon awakening, Thingol made his home in Menegroth, a
fortress of stone under the woods.  In the construction of this
palace he had the help of the Dwarves.  Thingol is lord of all
the Eldar of Beleriand and he controls the havens of the coast.
Thingol has no great love for the  Sons of Feanor because of the
kinslaying of Alqualonde, where, in order to obtain the ships
that were later burned, the Noldor attacked the Teleri of Aman,
Thingol's kin.  However, he still considers the Sons of Feanor
his allies against Morgoth, and would dare not make war upon
them while the Black Enemy resides in the North.
	Although Fingon took part in the kinslaying, he did so
only because he did not rightly understand the circumstances of
the situation when he came upon a battle underway between the
followers of Feanor and the Teleri.  Therefore, because of this
and also because the House of Finarfin can claim close kinship
to him, Thingol is still on friendly terms with the Noldor.
	In the Dagor Bragollach, Doriath was never in danger of
direct assault due to the power of Melian's Girdle.  Melian,
Thingol's wife, used her power to enchant the borders of Doriath
so that no being might pass into Thingol's realm without the
King's leave.  Those who attempted to overcome this barrier were
overcome with bewilderment and fell into a daze. . . unless that
being came with a power greater than that of Melian or a high
doom drove them.


Laiquendi:

	On the long journey to the coast of Middle-earth, some
of the Eldar on the way to Aman foresook the journey.  However,
many eventually came over the mountains of Ered Luin in later
days.  The Laiquendi are such a people.  These people fought
bravely in the Battle-Under-Stars, the First Battle of the Wars
of Beleriand.  However, their losses were so  heavy that they
vowed never to go to open war again.  Instead, they are a
peaceful people, less wise or noble than the Eldar from Aman or
the Sindar.  They inhabit Ossiriand, the Land of Seven Rivers,
in Southeast Beleriand.

Edain:

	These are the Secondborn of the Children of Illuvatar.  
They are called Men in the common tongue.  They awoke in the
East at the rising of the sun and were drawn to the West as it
originally rose from there.  Crossing the Ered Luin three
hundred years after the return of the Noldor, they quickly
became allied to the various Houses of the Eldar.
	Though they were not at first numerous, they were brave
and strong (though not as strong as the Eldar).  They quickly
were enamoured of the nobility of the Eldar and supported their
forces in the Seige of Angband.  The First House of the Edain
(the House of Beor) after leaving their first encampment,
settled in Ladros in Eastern Dorthonion.  There they supported
the Sons of Finarfin.
	The Second House of the Edain, the Haladin, left the
region of Thargelion South of Lake Helevorn and settled in the
Forest of Brethil to the West of Doriath (Though Thingol would
not suffer a mortal to enter the portion of his realm that was
protected by the Girdle of Melian).  Some also journeyed farther
West and founded settlements on the Guarded Plain, Talath
Dirnen.
	The Third House (the House of Hador), became beloved of
the House of Fingolfin, and Fingolfin gave to them the region of
Dor-Lomin Southwest of Mithrim in which to dwell.
	The Edain are on good terms with most, save the Sindar,
and the Laiquendi.  Thingol has no love for them for he sees
their mortality as something strange and as a force that could
drive some men to great evil.  The Laiquendi love Men not, for
it was Ossiriand where Men first crossed into Beleriand, and the
Men who crossed the mountains cut trees and troubled the
Laiquendi greatly.  However, since the Houses of Men have moved
on from that region, tempers have cooled.
	The forces of the Edain are not as strong as those of
the Eldar, yet they are becoming more numerous as the Edain
settle in more and more towns and villages.  Though the Eldar
are more hardy and fell in war, the strength of the Edain should
not be overlooked in fighting the vast armies of Morgoth.


Dwarves:

	In the First Battle in the Wars of Beleriand ere the
rising of the sun or moon, the Sindar had the aid of the
Dwarves (Naugrim in the Dwarve's own tongue).  The Dwarves
are even more hardy than the Eldar, being made during Morgoth's
first reign over Middle-earth.  Aule made sure that they could
endure great hardship.  The Dwarves had been made by Aule the
Vala against the will of Illuvatar, but, because Aule did so
with no evil intent, Illuvatar accepted his plea that the
Naugrim be allowed to live.  Yet, he would not accept that the
Naugrim should inhabit Arda before the Firstborn and so cast
them into a long sleep beneath the mountains until their proper
time to awaken.  Awake they did, and they found friendship among
the Sindar, with whom they traded from their Mountain cities of
Belegost and Nogrod.
	The Dwarves, being stout and strong, are difficult to
assail.  They are strong on defense, yet not very effective in
attacking.  Woe to any force who tries to assault their mountain
strongholds.


Forces of Darkness:

	Morgoth hates every and all living creatures.
Morgoth was originally the most powerful of the Ainur,
the Holy Ones of Eru, the One, who is called Illuvatar in Arda.
However, Melkor was not content to play his part in creating
Arda (the world).  Instead, he wished to make things of
his own mind, and in time, desired to be called Lord and have
dominion over the wills of others.
	Eventually, he was chained by the rest of the Valar
(the Ainur who took up the guardianship of Arda), but was
released  after three ages of penance when he convinced the
Valar that he had repented.  But, instead, his hatred and
ambition had only grown in his solitude in the Halls of Mandos.
After sowing discontent among the Noldor with lies couched in
fair speech, he slew Finwe, the High King of the Noldor, stole
the Silmarils, and fled to Middle-earth.
	When the Noldor pursued him, he attempted to throw
them back into the sea with the forces he had used to besiege
the Sindar.  Yet, the Noldor were more powerful in war than he
had foreseen, and his force was utterly destroyed.  He then
sent forth token forces to test the Eldar from time to time.
However, for centuries he built his forces and awaited the
time when he could destroy the Eldar utterly, for he hated the
Elves most of all.  Finally, four hundred and fifty-five years
after the return of the Noldor to Middle-Earth, his patience
could not withhold his anger any longer and he unleashed his
massive armies. . .      


The Following Wonders and City Improvements Have Been Renamed:


Name			Possessor

Airport
to
Eagle Eyrie		Noldor


Great Wall
to
March of Maedhros       Noldor


Hanging Gardens
to
Gardens of Yavanna	Noldor


Oracle
to
Oracle of Manwe		Noldor


Sun Tzu's War Academy
to
Feanor's Oath		Sons of Feanor


SAM Missile Battery
to
The Will of Maedhros    Sons of Feanor


King Richard's Crusade
to
Aule's Love		Dwarves


Marco Polo's Embassy
to
Rescue of Maedhros	Noldor


Michaelangelo's Chapel
to
Temple to Manwe		Noldor


The RULES.TXT file has also been modified heavily in the @COSMIC,
tech, city improvements, units, terrain, and kings areas. See the
RULES.TXT file and compare it to your backup for more details.
There are too many changes to detail here (this file is too long
already and I'm  working under the memory limitations of notepad.
I would love to put this in Word format.  But unfortunately, not
everyone has that.).


Design Notes:

UNITS THAT CANNOT BE PRODUCED
	Because the First Age of the Sun was a time of heroes,
the vast majority of the units in this scenario cannot be
produced by cities.  Instead, you are given a set number of
certain units at the beginning of the scenario and you must
use these resources wisely, for there will be no more!  For
example, you only get one Fingolfin, the High King of the
Noldor for the simple reason that there *was* only one Noldor
lord named Fingolfin.  Likewise, you get three Eagle units
that begin their turns in the city of Gondolin.  You will get
no more if they die, so use them wisely.  After all, the Noldor
couldn't just "build" more Eagles when they needed them.
	I created the first version of this scenario with
unbuildable units and thought I was quite clever.  Unfortunately,
it appears everyone else is clever as well, because by the time
the scenario was ready for public release, there were already
scenarios out there that did similar things. 

UNIT SPEED
	As I'm sure everyone has noticed, the units all move
faster than in standard CIV2.  This came about because I realized
that Beleriand is really not very large.  But, more importantly,
I wanted to accurately reflect that Orcs are faster than men
(see the book: The Two Towers) because they run instead of march,
and that, of course, horses are faster than orcs and men.
	
RELATIVE UNIT STRENGTH
	One of the things I debated was the relative strength of
Balrogs and Dragons.  I finally decided that Balrogs were shock
(air) weapons and very powerful on offense.  Something different
in version 4.0 is that Elf Archers now defend at twice their
normal value against Balrogs.  This allows you to build Elf
Archers to try to keep some of the heat off your Elf Lords.
Conversely, you can build Elf Warriors, which are now as strong
on defense as Elf Archers, to take the heat off of the Archers
and Elf Lords when fighting Orcs.  Elf Warriors are best for
this because they are *not* x2 versus Balrogs.  Please note
that when I refer to Elf Lords in this file, I am no longer
referring to the generic Elf Lord unit from previous versions
of this scenario.  Instead, I am referring to any of the 15
units that comprise the lords of the Eldar.
	I would have liked to make Elves, Orcs, and Men more
dissimilar.  In the books, Orcs never stand a chance in a fair
fight against Elves.  However, when I tried to represent this,
the Orcs became a nuisance who simply committed suicide runs
on city walls.  To rectify this, I had to make them almost as
strong as Elves and Men for the sake of the "fun factor."
In general, orcs are faster than Elves or Men on foot.  Elves
are more powerful than Men or Orcs in combat, though not by
as much as I would have liked.  I even had to raise the HP of
orcs up to 2 just so they would do some damage before dying.
This was unfortunate, because until this time, I had tried to
make HP denote race.  2 for elves, 1 for Men and Orcs.  Orcs,
put simply are much more powerful than they were in the books
in some ways.  But it had to be done.
	Sauron and Glaurung are quite simply super-units.  I
have struggled with how powerful to make them.  You will never
win a fight against either one as long as they are at anywhere
near full strength.  However, you might be able to wear them
down and hinder their progress by making them attack sturdy
targets.  Then, throw everything you have against them when
they are weak!  I'm looking for feedback on this.  I personally
think they may be too powerful, but I have been persuaded that
this is as it should be.
	I finally decided against making Sauron immortal.
I found, in the pre-release version of v4.0, that he was quite
simply too powerful and made the game more of a chore than fun
Therefore, I made it so that he would die forever (like Glaurung)
and took his strength down a few notches.  Sauron didn't fight
armies, like Glaurung.  Rather, he led them.  This is supported
in the books.

HIDDEN MAPS
	One of the most tedious things I had to do was to "black
out" the map for each individual civ.  I felt this was important
because of the role hidden cities play in the Silmarillion
(eg Gondolin and Nargothrond).  Morgoth *cannot* see these
cities, nor much else for that matter.  I allowed him to see
only those areas of Beleriand where his forces had traveled
prior to the return of the Noldor.  This mostly consists of a
narrow strip down the vale of Sirion to the Havens of the Sindar,
and another strip down through Maglor's Gap to the hill of
Amon Ereb.

THE MAP
	This map was made by me from scratch using the Atlas of
Middle-earth and the map from the Silmarillion itself.  The two
biggest flaws in it are:  (1)  Angband is a little too far south
and juts too far out into the Ard-Galen.  (2)  The area of the
havens is a little compressed.  Other than those, though, this
map is *very* accurate to the books.  Every river I saw on the
map or read about is in there (along with every hill, forest,
lake. . .)!
	As of version 4.0, the terrain on the map is much more
varied.  I was convinced by many people, but most notably Harlan
Thompson, that the terrain in pervious versions was too plain.
So, I went all the way back to the map editor and placed forests
and plains, and tundra, etc wherever I could find justification
in the sources.  This entailed redoing the entire scenario, but
since I knew of other things I wanted to do better as well, I
didn't mind too much!
	The Dwarf roads have also been extended.  This is due
to information gleaned from "The War of the Jewels."  Their
placement is definitely justified in this book.  Again, thanks
to Harlan Thompson for pointing me to this source.

IMPASSABLE TERRAIN
	As of version 4.0, the "wide" parts of rivers and the
middle of mountain ranges are covered with a new unit called
"impassable terrain."  This was necessary because Beleriand
is a land of high mountains and impassable rivers.  However, in
earlier versions, the human and computer player could just
wander wherever they wanted.  I remedied the problem through a
rather complex procedure.
	I picked the Dwarves to be the owners of all the
impassable terrain because:  (1) They are not a "primary" player
in the scenario.  (2) They are on friendly terms with all of the
"good" forces.  Therefore, the zones of control (ZOCs) that the
unit put off would not hinder the movement of any other civs.
However, I also had to give all the Forces of Darkness units
"ingore ZOC" powers so that they would not be hindered either.
I also had to inflate the friendly feelings between the Dwarves
and all the other cultures (save the Laiquendi and Morgoth) to
alliance status so that the Immobile units wouldn't interfere
with city working radii or troop movements.
	I then made the unit extremely powerful on Defense.
However, this did not deter the Balrogs from attacking it, so I
eventually came up with the idea of making it an immobile air
unit.  I thought they would run out of fuel, but they do not as
long as their movement rate is set to zero.  I was as shocked as
anyone when they just hung there, perfectly safe, and very
effective.  If you don't give them fuel (a set number of turns
they can be away from base), however, they will be helicopters
and can still be attacked by any unit.
	I then had to make sure that no unit in the game had
air-to-air capability.  (Note:  Sauron may attack air units,
but, luckily, he appears to be too smart to attack the
Impassable Terrain units.  If you notice him doing so, please
notify me immediately as I will have to fix it.  Sauron needs
to "Attack Air" so that he can attack Eagles that the human
player might use to block his path.)  With this move, the
Impassable Terrain unit became totally safe for everyone
involved.  Nobody tries to beat down any walls because it is
impossible to attack them.  Once I changed the "Only Fighters
can attack aircraft in flight. . ." dialogue in the GAME.TXT
file, everything was perfect.  Now, when you try to walk onto
one of these units, it says:  "That terrain is impassable."
Cool.  The only drawback is that the Dwarves now have a
distinct advantage in that they can hang out under these units
with impunity until they feel the time is right for attack.
However, they are so far to the East that this has no effect
on the game unless you are playing as the Dwarves, and playing
the Dwarves is not recommended.
	One tricky part is that you want the player to know if
a mountain he can see is "impassable" without having to try to
wander over it.  For this reason, you have to make sure that
each one of these units has been "seen" by walking a unit past
them for each civ that has discovered that area.
	The unit is made invisible by just putting a blank unit
box there (using the pink transparent color) and placing the
shield as far down and to the left as it will go.  As Harlan
Thompson taught me, the shield location is controlled by the
two blue dots, one above, and one to the left of each unit
along the green border.  Where a line from these dots
intersects is where the shield will hand down (from the its top
left corner).
	You might ask:  Why didn't I just use ocean squares as
impassable river squares.  Well, to be blunt, I didn't like the
way it looked.  But in the future, I may use ocean squares in a
way related to the Crissaegrim method described below.

GONDOLIN AND THE CRISSAEGRIM:
	I've alluded to it many times, so for those who can't
wait, here's the way Gondolin opens.  It is surrounded by
Impassable Terrain units.  However, one is a barbarian,
so you *could* attack it were you to have an air-to-air unit.
Fear not, on a randomly chosen turn (1 chance in 25), this unit
will be created and a dialogue box will tell you what to do.
On the given turn, you will be able to destroy the unit and the
forces of Gondolin will be able to march forth.
	The Crissaegrim squares are totally due to the genius of
Harlan Thompson.  With Gondolin surrounded by Impassable Terrain
units, there was no way to get the Eagles out to do battle with
the Balrogs.  If I deleted the Impassable Terrain units, its
forces would have been available in the beginning of the scenario
which was not historically accurate.  Therefore, I had to change
the terrain of the unit to keep both enemy *and* friendly *land*
units from passing through.  Of course, ocean comes to mind.  But
ocean would look lame right there, right?  Well, not if you use
Harlan's idea of putting a railroad over that ocean (put the RR
first, then change it to ocean) and then change the TERRAIN1.GIF
file so that the RR segment looks like a mountain.  Voila!
Eagles can now pass through and, thanks to the Crissaegrim unit
which is really just a renamed Impassable Terrain unit, it still
holds back Morgoth's forces.  

KNOWN BUGS:
	Although the EVENTS.TXT file (for those with the
scenario CD) says that the Forces of Darkness should declare
war on all other civilizations each turn, about half-way
through the scenario, it states that many of the wars have
"ended."  However, all civs continue to act as though they
are at war with Morgoth.  Therefore, gameplay is unchanged.
	In addition, it is now confirmed that the MOVEUNIT
command in the EVENTS.TXT file does not work in the least!
This is unfortunate because it makes it very hard to get
the correct towns to be attacked by Morgoth.
	Also, the ONLYONCE command in the EVENTS.TXT file
doesn't seem to be multi-play session aware.  If you are
lucky enough to have Turgon open the leaguer of Gondolin
and then you save the game and turn off the computer, upon
reloading you may see it happen again.  Just delete the
extra "Opening of the Leaguer" units you may or may not
get.

	
ADDITIONAL TIPS
	Elf Lords are the only unit that can reliably defend
against Balrogs.  However, an Elf Archer can take the heat for
them and die in their place when the Elf Lord gets critically
injured.  Use Eagles to pick off Balrogs when you see them on
clear terrain.  But don't use them to attack Balrogs on
mountains.  A heavily damaged Eagle should head back to
Gondolin where the Eagle Eyrie will heal them quickly.
	Sometimes, the best thing to do when you see Sauron
or Glaurung coming is to run for it!  Orodreth fled Minas
Tirith and Curufin and Celegorm fled from Himlad.  Sometimes
discretion is the better part of valor.  But if you must
attempt combat with them, try to wear them out by forcing
them to attack fortified units on mountains.  Then hit them
with everything you've got.  It may cost almost all your
offensive power, but you'll have saved the city.  And besides,
maybe Turgon will open up the leaguer of Gondolin soon. . .
	Dragons are just plain tough to kill.  A few mounted
Elves might wear one down.  But it's better to just let it wear
itself out on your city walls.  Be careful that one dragon
doesn't destroy an entire expeditionary force.
	Don't be foolhardy enough to attack Morgoth in Angband.
Although I would consider destroying him to be a victory, I
really don't think it's possible especially now that orcs come
streaming out of Angband every turn thanks to the EVENTS.TXT.
He's just up there to look cool and discourage you from taking
his most productive city.  The fact that he does not move or
come out to fight is true to the book.
	Dorthonion seems to be a lost cause for the Noldor, as
it was in the books.  It's tough to get Angrod and Aegnor out
of Dorthonion.  You can try to get them back to their kin at
Barad Eithel or at Minas Tirith, but that way you risk Orc and
Balrog attack.  There is also the darkness of Nan Dungortheb
and the Ered Gorgoroth to the South, but few can survive such
a journey.

MY BIGGEST CONCERN?
	Well, quite frankly, that you won't have fun.  I'm
concerned that either it will be too easy or too hard towards
the end.  I really can't predict with any degree of accuracy
what will happen in any single game.  After the first two or
three turns, it is impossible to predict how the computer will
react.  It all depends on how each human player plays and I
have no way of knowing how you will respond to various
situations.  I hope that there isn't a drop in the fun factor
*if* all you see is Morgoth taking town after town and you
feel helpless to do anything.  However, those familiar with
the books may be gratified to feel what Fingolfin must have
felt when he went to challenge Morgoth to single combat.
Likewise, if you develop a strategy that I haven't foreseen
and just start wailing on the Forces of Darkness and save 
all your Elf Lords and go kill Morgoth (impossible?), well,
I guess you should let me know.  I'll fix it!

Thanks!

Brian
http://www.silcom.com/~hurin
hurin@silcom.com
