MOS Changes

For the first "actual" post of this blog, I’m going to bring you up to speed on some of the changes MOS brings to the Third Age mod. It SERIOUSLY changes gameplay and if you’re coming fresh off of dominating a very hard - very hard TATW campaign expecting to grab a new faction and whoop ass, you are about to be rudely awakened. First off, the latest MOS version changes the map - a lot. Just north of Dol Amroth, in Gondor,  there is a city with a few Bandits in it. Build a few units in Dol Amroth and take it as soon as possible. Also, near the mountains in the northwest of Gondor, there is a settlement Rohan will take after a few dozen turns if you don’t take it. don’t forget to get Annulond in the far southwest of Gondor. The region near Osgiliath has been significantly shrunk. Note that with roads you can now maneuver all around that area in one turn. moving armies between Cair Andros and East Osgiliath to use them as one army is a feasible tactic, but beware, as Osgiliath has no battle map and you must autoresolve its sieges.

To the far northwest, up in the dwarves’ territory, there is a new island. It has a settlement on it. Near the City of Isengard, the gap between Helm's Deep and Isengard has been seriously shrunk.

Nearly all the units have seriously lowered attack stats and upgraded defense stats. 
Mordor can train Black Numenorians right from the start of the game. They are a new and very powerful heavy infantry unit.
On the far west of the map, the dwarves get a settlement to the south of the high elves. Also, directly west of the dwarves most northwestern settlement is a small town that can be upgraded to a prosperous mining city.

The mercenaries in MOS do not cost upkeep. This may be changed in future updates but as of 1.6, you can travel around grabbing foreign mercenaries if your nation is weak. -Sapoman