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Battle of the 9 Armies



Wait that's not right...
Well you get the idea.
The 9th faction will be Erebor, faction of the shaving adversed.

Erebor has been the faction I've wanted to release most but at the same time it has always been the faction with the largest workload.
Finally Erebor has started progressing enough to be released in the nearish future.





Erebor are a powerhouse infantry faction fielding a large number of strong infantry units for both attack and defence.
Familiar faces will make up the hero list like Gimli, Gloin, Dwalin and King Dain Ironfoot.
Via the spell store other dwarf heroes will also be making an appearance such as Thorin Oakenshield and his ill fated companions.

Breaking with tradition Erebor won't be coming alone they'll be released at the same time as the Strongholds.

Beta 0.2 News and the next Faction

After giving it some thought I've decided to skip Beta 0.18 and jump right to Beta 0.2 which is more or less ready and is being uploaded.
Due to my circumstances it will take a few days to get the Beta up and running since I have to upload it piece meal.

I've done pretty much everything I had set out to do with Beta 0.2 and the faction is mostly complete in about the same stage as Dunland was with 1.55 with only minor fixes to go.



So the next faction will be The Strongholds.
Not exactly shocking I know, but currently it is the evil faction most complete and I want to try and keep to the good-evil-good-evil pattern of faction releases.

So as I mentioned in the announcement news for Strongholds the faction is the combination of the Deep and Dol Guldur factions.
I showed a couple preview images a couple days ago to whet your whistles.
Now I guess I'll reveal the tech tree.

Strongholds

Units

Moria Goblin Warriors
Moria Goblin Archers
Moria Goblin Spearmen

Dol Guldur Soldiers - Strong Infantry units
Dol Guldur Strongbows - Strong Ranged units

Warg Riders -

Cave Troll - 
Stone Troll - Ranged Troll/Artillery unit
Olog Hai - Powerful elite unit.

Great Spider - Fast moving unit that can auto heal and weakens enemy when attacking.

 

Buildings

Deep work Pit - Primary resource building.
Dol Guldur Forge - Resource building that provides upgrades at level 2.
Moria Deep - The main building for the Moria units trains Goblin Warriors, Archers and Spears/
Dol Guldur Barracks - Trains the Dol Guldur Soldiers and Strongbows.
Wolf Meet - Trains the Warg Riders.
Troll Cave - Trains the Cave Troll, Stone Troll and Olog Hai
Spider Nest - Buildable from the Economy plot after the Brood Faction Upgrade has been purchased.
Towers - 
War Works - Battering Ram,Ladders

 

Heroes

Lug - Early game hero
Mashduk - The spontaneous one
Mashgur - Archer hero
Gurguk - My favourite Orc and sometimes Forum lurker. 
Gimbul - Goblin Leader
Bolguk - Goblin Leader 
Blackmaw - Great Warg
Brood Mother - Queen of the Mirkwood Spiders available with the Brood Faction Upgrade.
 

Spells

Call of the Deep - Targeted Work pit gains double experience for a short time.
Befoul - Similar to Taint - -50% armour and removes fear resistance

Azog Lives - Summons Azog
Bounty - Upgrades the Work Pit and Forge to provide upgrades
Rally

Swarm - Permanently increases the movement speed for Moria and Mountain Goblins
Darkness
Drums in the Deep - (Call the Horde)

TBA
Dark Influence
Nazgul Summon

Balrog


Upgrades

Basic Training - 
Tainted Arrows - (additional damage to units)
Heavy Armour - 
Deadly Blades - 
Troll Training - Ranks up Ettens and Olog Hai

Faction Upgrades

GKU
Murder Holes
Tower Tainted Arrows - Tower arrows slightly slow and weaken armour
Strength Training - Improves the firing rate and range of Stone Trolls
Broods - Unlocks Brood Mother and spider units

News wrap up.

Beta 0.155 is slated for the 17th of January which is only 3 days away.

News article with details of Beta 0.155 including some information on Dunland 2.0 Part 1 which will start to introduce a few changes to Dunland.

Check it out here.

The launcher has gotten a major overhaul since Beta 0.15 with a lot of being streamlined and automated.

You will no longer have to set your game irectory manually the launcher will handle that even for custom directories.

The launcher will also automatically check that, first the game is installed and then if you have patched the game to 1.03, if you haven't patched it will automatically run the game's patch checker it will also check if you have T3A online installed and adjust accordingly.

I've added the Game mode code to the main menu and removed the Starting menu so everything is handled from the one menu.

Added a new game mode help option to the launcher "gmhelp".

Adding 3 new Game Modes:

1. noheroes which removes all buildable heroes.
2. gollumwars which removes all buildable heroes and gives each faction 5 Gollums to build
3. gollzilla which replaces the final spell for each faction with the massive Gollzilla.

I've created a Google doc for users to post bugs found here.

If enough bugs are reported by the 17th I'll reveal some juicy information on future plans for Return of Shadow.

A new map is coming for Beta 0.155

Overbourn Marshes

2 Progress shots of the new map in the works for Beta 0.2

Lower Methedras

Step 2

Gollzilla

Return of Shadow Beta 0.15

You can download it here.
Simply download and install with the installer then follow the prompts in the launcher.
This version is stand alone and does not require the previous Beta or patches, it's recommended you uninstall Beta 0.1 before installing this beta.

It's been almost 6 months since Beta 0.1 was released and it's come a long way.
I'm happy to present Beta 0.15.
The main feature of this version is the new faction Dunland.
 

Of Dunland and ancient hatred

Dunland is the land to the south of Eregion and the west of Rohan home to descendants of the folk of Haleth.
The people of Dunland hold a long grudge against both the Numenoreans and the Rohirrim who drove them out of the land of Rohan.
While the Dunlendings are usually content to keep to themselves Saruman and his agents have gone amongst the Dunlendings and spread discord and talk of war and riches among the villages of the Dunlendings.
Saruman has managed to stir up an old hatred and direct it towards the Rohirrim.
 
Dunland is different from the other factions in Return of Shadow this faction relies more on fast moving light infantry and raiding attacks to win.
They have the fastest infantry in the game allowing them a useful advantage balancing out their weaker than normal defences.
Through the use of their upgrades and units they can completely overcome a battlefield in a short time by building Wildmen from outlying Farms in fast speed through the use of the Gather the Clans spell.
Combined with the Fire Torches upgrade Dunland can make quick work of enemy farms and other outlying buildings.
Dunland also has the useful War Hound horde which is a pack of fast moving dogs that can chase down enemies and harass them.

Inspiration for the Dunlendings came from the Celts and Scots and they use similar strategies as those armies do in other RTS games.
 

Outside Dunland

Lorien has also undergone some work.
Edhellor has been tweaked to be more of a Warden style hero with 2 new abilities Wind Piercer replacing Shatter Armour and Siege Breaker replacing Gate Breaker.
Galadriel has a new skill replacing Haven of Light which allows her some more offensive power.
Lorien also now have a Statue to provide leadership.
They've also received some aesthetic changes to their bases making them look better than ever.

Rohan,Gondor and Isengard have had only minor changes since Beta 0.145
Lurtz gained a new skill Slam Shooter which adds a knock back to his ranged attack.

Mordor has received some attention and getting quite a few bug fixes.

The Campaign has had some work done on it as well with some common issues being resolved.
But it's still an ongoing process but I hope to have the 2 campaigns fully operational by Beta 0.2.

With Beta 0.15 comes  some new maps 2 maps set in Dunland Vale of Wulf and Northern Dunland and a couple more Fredius' Glanduin, and 2 more of my maps Thrain's Vale and Wilderland Plains.

 

The Road leads ever on

Beta 0.2 is up next in roughly a month and with it will come the 7th faction Rivendell.
A lot of the ground work has already been done on Rivendell as you can see in recent news and images but you will have to wait till then to see them in action.