Lord of the Rings‘ told the story of a massive conflict between the forces of good and the armies of Mordor. The war of the ring inspired a mod for the game Total War — but if an official licensed game were to be made, that is not the time period it should take place in. After all, that conflict was mostly contained to a few key battles and didn’t last for all that long.
Instead, The Silmarillion would be a stronger candidate for a Total War adaptation. The book covers the entire history of Middle Earth up until The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and, unlike the prior books, it contains events that are of a much grander scale than those in the main novels. The conflict is based around the Silmarils, three jewels coveted by the Dark Lord Morgoth. There are a number of wars between numerous factions, including some familiar faces. The parts of the book that focuses on the battles make it the perfect source for a Total War game, at least in comparison to the main novel.
One major aspect of any Total War game is the combination of a campaign map and battle map. The player spends seasons on the campaign map, organizing their settlements and training new units. The Battle map is where the player controls their units to fight their opponent using strategy to win. However, one of the biggest draws is having a variety of civilizations on the main campaign map. The forces are usually varied enough that playing them is a different experience, but when it comes to the Simalrillion, each army is radically different.
The forces of Morgoth are a mix of orcs, dragons and Balrogs while the forces of Sauron are more monstrous. There are also more options for the forces of good, with there being elves, dwarves and men. The Lord of the Rings had very clear-cut sides, but it wasn’t so simple in The Silmarillion. The good armies occasionally came into conflict with each other, and some of these could have turned into wars — which provides more gameplay opportunities regarding diplomacy and conflict.
As a series, Total War is mostly focused on historical battles, and The Lord of the Rings is certainly more realistic than The Silmarillion. It has forces of orcs facing men, but the armies march and fight in a similar manner to most armies from history. The armies in The Silmarillion are considerably more fantastical, with single elves fighting against groups of dragons and troops of Balrogs charging into a burning city.
Still, Total War has recently worked with more fantasy-based gameplay with Total War: Warhammer. The game introduced magic and monsters into the franchise’s gameplay, tweaking them to fit comfortably into its systems. With how popular the series is, it would make sense to use that tested gameplay with another licensed property, and while it would be possible to adapt the better known war of the ring timeline, doing so would provide the developers with less freedom and variety when it comes to some of the more exotic creatures.
Total War games are not just focused on small-scale engagements; instead, they work over long periods of time from months, years to even centuries. If such a game was made based on The Silmarillion, it would have a much broader timescale to work with, at least compared to that of The Lord of the Rings. This would also allow players to work on their chosen races’ genealogy and family as they work to help save (or conquer) Middle Earth, with more variety in regards to the settlements and lands for each race.
The mod for a Middle Earth-based Total War game is quite popular, but this isn’t the same as having a focused game that adapts part of the franchise. With a series in the works from Amazon and an anime coming as well, it is the perfect time to think about new games based in The Lord of the Rings universe, and the underrated Silmarillion would be a perfect match for the Total War series..
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