Middle Earth - Battle for Arda (v3) - Official Thread
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(This is the forum thread for version 3 of Battle for Arda (v3). For discussion of the older version 2, see this forum thread.)
A Good vs. Evil conflict in Middle Earth. 8 players on both sides, each with a unique set of units with various abilities, and complex interactions between them.
This map (v3) is a continuation of Battle for Arda (v2). Currently in development. This is an early beta version.
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Map Status (as of 2026-10-13)
You can now download the map from the game.
The in-game game notes are outdated at the moment. I think I explained mostly everything in my video updates (#7, #8 and #9 should cover most of it), though this obviously isn't the greatest arrangement.
The map is mostly playable, but the balance isn't very good. The unit abilities and related mechanics still need some more thought. Quite a few new units will still need to be added.
My current plan is to periodically release smaller updates as I implement new stuff.
Known Bugs (as of 2026-10-23)
- Rivendell is not a hill
- Character / hero units can submerge when attacking
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Version History
Version 3.0 (2026-10-11)
- Initial beta release
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A alkexr referenced this topic
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@alkexr hi gent, I’d like to report 2 issues
1: Saruman’s mountain troops are unable to pass through friendly mountainous territory to launch an attack. Is this intended behavior? same thing happens in mordor's turn when a non-mountainer tried to move and attack gondor.
2: i think the acient tower and acient walls and fortress are goood in old versions, why are u removing them?btw, i'd like to join the map test if u agree.
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Hey @alkexr
A friend and I have been testing out v3 and compiling feedback as we play it. We have played v2 dozens of times and are excited to play v3. I'll have more detailed feedback on the balancing as we play a couple more games of v3, but here is what we have so far.
We really like the new map layout. Rivendell seems stronger and not guaranteed to fall. Rohan is more open and harder to hold, but giving Arnor Tharbad counters Saruman well with this. I also like the new Gondor terrain and love that Cair Andros is a settlement now. We also really like the new units like the White Wolf and Ice Drakes.
The new Orc Holds faction is fun, but doesn't seem to add anything new from when it was controlled by Angmar. It also doesn't have any counter to Dwarves. As a result, it doesn't really go anywhere and ends up fortifying on Goblin Town and Mount Gundabad until a doom stack of Dwarven Halberdiers come.
Combining the Woodland Realm and Lorien into the Silvan Elves was overall a good choice since the Woodland Realm in v2 didn't really do anything unique for Good.
-Winged Nazgul (and maybe all flying units) prompt the attacker if they want to submerge submarines each combat round. This never happened in v2 so likely a bug from reworking the units.
-Settlements need a visual indicator for how many units can be placed on them. v2 had this.
-Rivendell visually had hills, but is not a hill terrain tile.
-Angmar and Moria might need a starting minor settlement because its pretty easy to max out their spawns on their capitols the first few turns until they expand.
-Druadan Forest in v2 used to be a neutral tile that shortened the route for Rohan to send reinforcements to Minas Tirith. This made the tile strategically valuable and worth fighting the neutral archers there. In v3, the shortened path is replaced by a hills tile already controlled by Gondor. This now makes the forest just another tile. Personally, we liked the unique value that the Druadan Forest used to have.
-We like that mountains and marshes slow down movement, but maybe it shouldn't slow down Dwarves as an added benefit for their race?
-Angmar and Orc Holds orc units are too similar of color. Since they often have overlapping frontlines against Arnor, the only way I can tell them apart is from the tooltips. The same applies for Mordor and Dol Guldor orcs now that Mordor has a settlement closer to Dul Guldor.
-The Gondor settlement of Calembel has an extra 1 income marker on it bordering with North Lamedon.
-Add the archer unit to the Gondor roster since Rangers don't have Anti-Air anymore.
-Spearwall ability references a Werewolf unit that doesn't seem to be in the map.
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Combining the Woodland Realm and Lorien into the Silvan Elves was overall a good choice since the Woodland Realm in v2 didn't really do anything unique for Good.
I'm not a player of this map (yet) and do not know much about the lore of the game (and have no problem believing that the merge is good for game-play), but I've two doubts based on lore and realism.
- Shouldn't they be two separated realms (players) because they are actually separate polities with separate non-subordinate rulers? (I mean, the fact that they are both elves should not matter, or else there would be a single realm (player) for all humans.)
- Even if it would make politically and socially sense for them to be the same realm (player), this is economically particularly absurd as it is hard to think that resources collected in one can be used to raise armies in the other one. (I get that this is generally true for whatever player and that game-play dynamics can assure fair distribution in the use of resources.)
On the other hand, I can imagine that it is particularly absurd that the two elven realms (or whatever they are: I know very little about the lore) cannot attack together if divided (but this is really a problem of TripleA which goes as far back as Classic, with British and Americans being unable to invade Western Europe together, which is however not usually solved by merging British and Americans into a single Anglo-Americans player).
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i think that aura is also very important, which swan knights used to have.
the spiders are too cheap and very good in defense.
These two units now require some adjustments. -
Saruman’s mountain troops are unable to pass through friendly mountainous territory to launch an attack.
Mountains and marshes cost 2 movement now.
The good units has lost too many skills and attributes, such as ranger and swan knights; it feels a bit unbalanced imo and very pro evil.
Yes, a lot of things are unbalanced.
The new Orc Holds faction is fun, but doesn't seem to add anything new from when it was controlled by Angmar.
The idea behind the Orc Holds is to help with canopeners. Angmar was in a really tough spot alone against 4 players who could use canopeners with impunity.
It also doesn't have any counter to Dwarves.
I haven't worked on Orc Holds units yet. They just have whatever I've copied from Moria for now.
Winged Nazgul (and maybe all flying units) prompt the attacker if they want to submerge submarines each combat round.
Not all flying units, I suppose it's character / hero units, they are now effectively submarines. They probably shouldn't be able to submerge when attacking though, I don't see why you'd want to do that.
Rivendell visually had hills, but is not a hill terrain tile.
Nice catch!
Druadan Forest in v2 used to be a neutral tile that shortened the route for Rohan to send reinforcements to Minas Tirith. This made the tile strategically valuable and worth fighting the neutral archers there.
In LoTR the Drúadan allow the Rohirrim to pass their forest, and they even fight orcs that enter their lands. I don't want a fight between them and Rohan/Gondor.
The Gondor settlement of Calembel has an extra 1 income marker on it bordering with North Lamedon.
I haven't properly placed income markers yet, it's the game's auto placement. I think Dwimorberg's ended up in North Lamedon.
Add the archer unit to the Gondor roster since Rangers don't have Anti-Air anymore.
Gondor will have some new units, including an archer with anti-air.
Spearwall ability references a Werewolf unit that doesn't seem to be in the map.
I don't know what dark magic you used to notice that, but yes, werevolves are one of the units I've been working on. They aren't ready yet.
Shouldn't they be two separated realms (players) because they are actually separate polities with separate non-subordinate rulers?
The Grey Havens are independent from Rivendell, the Dwarves have 4 independent realms (Iron Hills, Erebor, Grey Mountains, Blue Mountains), the Fangorn forest is independent, Bree-land and the Shire are separate, etc. I think 16 players is plenty.
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Probably off topic, but I was wondering if you ever thought about making the game heavily unbalanced in favour of evil but with a victory condition for good that they should hold on to something until some round in order to win, this to represent that the normal victory for good would not be on the field (military resistance being just for buying time for the quest at Mount Doom, not for achieving a military victory). Also, how about Horsed Nazguls and Sauron as an immobile unit which always stays at Barad-dûr? (I don't know much about the lore, so I'm not sure if there were non-winged Nazguls at the time and if it would make sense to have Sauron at all.)
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@Cernel The map isn't based on the events of LotR. At the time of the War of the Ring there was no Arnor or Angmar, for example. BFA is basically a patchwork of different time periods. I'm not sure what you mean by adding horsed nazguls, that's just regular nazguls that Angmar and Dol Guldur already have.
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