The Battle of Five Armies bata4.6 RotWK
HowTo README

Extract from Tolkein's The Hobbit

"Suddenly a darkness came on with dreadful swiftness; but it did not come with the wind, it came from the North, like a vast cloud of birds, so dense that no light could be seen between their wings.

'Halt!' shouted Gandalf, appearing suddenly within the ranks of Dwarves and Elves, "Dread has fallen upon you all!  The Goblins are upon you!  Bolg of the North is coming.  Behold!  The Bats are above his army like a sea of Locusts!  They ride upon Wolves and Wargs are in their train!  Come, there is still time for council.  Let Dain son of Nain come swiftly to us!'

So began a battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of Five Armies, and it was very terrible.  Upon one side were the Goblins and the wild Wolves, and upon the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves.

Ever since the fall of the Great Goblin of the Misty Mountains the hatred of their race for the Dwarves had been rekindled to fury.  Messengers had passed to and fro between all their cities, colonies and strongholds; for they resolved how to win the dominion of the North.

The council's only hope was to lure the Goblins into the valley between the arms of the mountain; and themselves to man the great spurs that struck South and East.  Yet this would be perilous, if the Goblins were in sufficient numbers to overrun the Mountain itself, and so attack them also from behind and above.  On the southern spur the Elves were set, and upon the northern spur were Men and Dwarves. 

Ere long the vanguard swirled round the spur's end and came rushing into Dale."

The Battle of Five Armies is a map based completely and faithfully on the extract of above and in other parts of Tolkein's 'The Hobbit', as well as from a highly useful and accurate map of the battle which I found on Google Images :P The map is currently in it's beta4.5 stage. 

Things that (unfortunately) cannot be added to the map at this present moment:

* Beorn cannot become a hero as he is simply an enlarged Bear model from Worldbuilder given to the good player, however in the next beta he will still arrive on the map at the right time in the battle and be a part of the good team's army

Things that have are different from the BFME II version of this map

* The Isengard Warg Riders with Angmar's Goblin Wolf Riders, which are Tolkien-canon
* The Moria Goblin Warrior forces have been replaced with Angmar's Gundabad Orcs - Tolkien-canon once again as Moria Goblins were such a small minority of the Goblin forces in the battle they were barely noticable, the true Goblin forces all came from Gundabad and the surrounding cities.  Also the fact that a Gundabad Orc is the same thing as a Goblin.
* The evil fortress is now defended by a team of Goblin Archers with flaming arrows, which is war-strategy canon (this will be implamented into the BFME II beta4.7 version as well)
* There is now a mix of Dire Wolves (of varying colours and sizes) and wild Wargs in the evil forces, which is Tolkien-canon
* The two forces of Goblins that start at each side of the Lonely Mountain are now all archers (this, also, will be implamented into the BFME II beta4.7 version)
* Bolg's Guard have been replaced by scaled down Half Troll Swordsmen, which look better and are more Tolkein-Canon and Bolg's Bodyguard were described as having swords in 'The Hobbit'
* Thorin Oakenshield and Bilbo Baggins have now been added. Bilbo can be found next to Gandalf and Thorin can be found next to Thorin's Wall next to the rest of the Dwarves and has golden (mithril) armour
* The Mirkwood forces have now been bolstered with Spearmen, as these were said to be present at the Battle of Five Armies
* Thorin's Wall is now slightly easier for your units to cross

HOW TO PLAY THIS MAP (In order to get the most out of it and re-enact a proper Battle of Five Armies-style battle!)

1) Turn off CaH and Ring Heroes in the Skirmish menu screen.
2) When choosing what faction to be in the game's Skirmish menu screen, choose Dwarves (you can, alternately, choose Goblins - if so, then proceed to step 6), make your colour green and the Goblins grey before going into settings and put your CP limit to 100X and put your rescource point starting value to 4000.
3) Battle away at the Goblins.  A while into the game you should then use Thorin and the other heroes in front of Thorin's Wall to keep the Goblins at bay before they ovverun you. - Hint: These Dwarves are useful at destroying Bolg's Bodyguard!
4) Even later in the game you should turn to Gawahir, the Eagle located at the bottom of the map.  Now, charge this Eagle and the other three around him into the remaining Goblin forces and decimate them where they stand!
5) Send the last of your army in to destroy the two Goblin camps at the bottom of the map and destroy the enemy's fortress before it has a chance to build up another army.  Once this is complete, you've won the battle!
6) As Goblins, you have two divisions of your forces, one on the right side of the River Running (which also contains two units of Bolg's Guard (Half Troll Swordsmen) and Bolg) and one on the left side.  Use each side to attack the forces facing you on each side of the river, but be warned that the left side of the river also has Gandalf, Bilbo and the Elfking which you'll have to defeat, and Gandalf is a very powerful hero.  The right side shouldn't be a problem to use in battle as
they will only be fighting a couple of measly Dwarves and Men of Dale, but be warned about King Dain and his bodyguard which are incredibly strong.  Use Bolg and his bodyguard to remove these pests from the map!
7) Once you have defeated all of the enemy's units, charge your remaining forces into their fortress and destroy it.  You have now won the battle!

Credits
Sgt. Angel (map's creator)

Special Thanks
Professor Tolkein!
New Line Cinemas and Peter Jackson!
EA for their brilliant game the Battle for Middle Earth II and it's expansion!
Everyone at Revora Forums for their praise and helpful comments on the map in the Battle of Five Armies thread!

Look out for future releases by Sgt. Angel:
Smaug's Lair - due November 2008
Goblin Gate - due January 2009
War of the Ring - due December 2008
The Barrow Downs - due November 2008
Gollum's Lair - due 2009
Dragon's Gate - due 2009
