DESCRIPTION:
   The Wrath and Ruin modification changes/enhances the game playing experience of the LOTR: The Battle for Middle-Earth, published in
   2004. Generally speaking, the WAR-Mod is based upon a leisure "WHAT-IF" approach.

   First, the Elves join Gondor and Rohan and actively "fight alongside men once more" against Mordor and Isengard. The Elvish factions,
   Loth Lorien and Rivendell, possess an impressive amount of infantry and cavalry units. Similarly, Gondor and Rohan have mustered an
   extensive array of army units to face Evil since "the enemy has grown stronger ....".

   Second, Isengard and Mordor joined by Rhun and Harad have built up their armed forces, too. Many infantry and cavalry contingents will
   launch a fierce assault upon Middle-Earth and "they must be stopped". Therefore, all factions have a wider perimeter and can act aggressively
   on each map or during a mission while attacking each other.

   Serving as a tutorial, I created 4 showcase-maps which gives you the time to build and explore all mod items. These maps helped me to test
   and develop my modification without the hassle of "fighting off" Orcs & Elves. As a bonus I built a contained combat zone on these maps
   where you can skirmish to your heart's delight. Have Fun - it's clobbering time ....

   Admittedly, this approach is a "leap of faith" and stretches the original story to some degree. However, I believe that it does provide a greater
   diversity and a maybe richer experience as far as game-play is concernded. Since the AI will build all newly added units for non-player
   factions and will continously get reinforcements, you might have a much harder time to prevail. Numbers and good tactics "win the day".

INSTALLATION:

   This mod is compatible with BFME1 version 1.3 and does not correctly play along
   with any other mods. It simply requires of you to copy the provided files into your
   BFME1 installation directory.

   Prior to installation, save all the files marked with <!> to a backup folder outside
   or above the main BFME1 directory on your system. Afterwards, copy all mod
   files into your BFME1 folder.

   On removal of this mod, delete all 8 files from your BFME1 directory and restore
   the backup files to your main BFME1 folder. That's it ....

   You have to run this game in Windows 7 compatibility mode with administrator
   privileges set (click your symbolic link and select Properties, etc.).




REQUIREMENTS:


   At the moment, I am developing the WAR-Mod on a rather low-end system.
   By having limited all textures to 128x128 pixels without an alpha-channel,
   I cut the strain on the game's resource consumption. If you want more units,
   HD-textures with 512x512 RGBA equal to 1MB(!!!) per file size will be not
   the direction to take. Remember, BFME1 consists of low poly models.

   I also removed a lot of "noise" from the INI.files because they were littered
   with tabs and spaces. Strangely enough, the game has to parse many files in
   order to get all its parameters. Thus, I eliminated the "noise" to relay the
   "signal" and relieved this embedded parser from all the clutter.

   During my extensive test cycles, I got a reasonable FPS rate and acceptable
   visual results. Thus, let's see what some of my faster systems will render ....

REFLECTIONS:
   At the moment, I have no particular plans for the future. Whether I will utilize all my models and assets for creating a modification for
   BFME II or not it depends on my available time and motivation. Regarding the efforts and undertakings for my present modification, I am
   not inclined to do it all by myself again.
   Nonetheless, I enjoy the work, the research and look forward to the final result. A playable and hopefully error-limited version of my
   modification will personally reward me because I am close to finishing a project of tremendous proportions. For a single person the sheer
   amount of work seemed overwhelming to begin with. It repetively made me think "Are you out of your mind" for tackling such a demanding
   task.

   You will find explicit information on the current status and useful applications on the pages Tasks & Tools. Wow, I did not evade this
   very challenge. Prior to project start, my life was very complicated because I was recovering from a very perilous leucemia and a stem-cell
   transplantation. However, I was determined to survive and to see the day when my imagination will have materialised at all Middle-Earth
   maps in game. After over 12 years of acribic research, dedicated work, sheer bliss and woe let alone my intermittent medicinal roller-coaster
   rides I am about to finish my project. {{:-)