A Closer Look: Aramon 3rd Party

Aramon Teleport Tower

Um... sure.

-Is the unit simple or complex?
Simple - it is meant only to transport units over long distances. That's it. Now, what you can do with that is something else entirely.

-Is the unit effective?
Same general weaponry as the Guard Tower, so yes in that respect. It's transport distance is 2400. For comparison, the Ark transport distance is a little over 400. So... yeah, I guess. Plus it can cloak.

-Is the unit flexible?
Cheaper defense with cloaking and transport. A bit broken...

-Is the unit practical?
Its unnecessary, practicality or no. It takes out the whole reason for defensive walls and structures. Want to assassinate the enemy monarch? Build a forward base, build 10 of these towers, fill 'em all up, and bam - full scale assault into the heart of the enemy's base. Just... no.

-Is the unit creative?
Yeah... ish. If it could maybe be altered to be a sort of tunnel/gateway system where one tower is the front and the other is the back... that would make it more balanced and less bizarre.

3rd party buildings were always a little more absurd than the units...

Aramon Shadow Warrior

I wonder if this critter was like the nun, or if it was a serious unit.

-Is the unit simple or complex?
Simple - stupid fast weak melee which I think can cloak. I think...

-Is the unit effective?
Not in the least. Less than 1k HP, 130 attack, and 4.4 velocity just makes it an annoyance to the enemy. And just dumps experience points their way 2 at a time.

-Is the unit flexible?
No - cannon fodder, and bad cannon fodder at that.

-Is the unit practical?
Nope. End of story.

-Is the unit creative?
Just an excuse to create a unit, methinks.

Thinking about this one kind of makes my face hurt.

Aramon Veteran Knight

So you can create Knights, and when they kill enough enemies, they gain Veteran status - Bronze, Silver, and Gold. So... why exactly do you need these guys?

-Is the unit simple or complex?
Simple melee.

-Is the unit effective?
Nearly 3x the cost but with a reduced buildtime means they'll drain your mana quickly, same HP as regular Knights, but with .4 more velocity and their attack has +150 damage to it with reduced range. Their ONLY real perk is that Elsin himself can make them.

-Is the unit flexible?
As flexible as the Knight.

-Is the unit practical?
Not really; again the ONLY reason you'd want these guys is because Elsin can get them on the ground conceivably before anything else.

-Is the unit creative?
Nope. Not a bit.

I just don't really understand the impetus behind this guy.

Aramon Wizard

The Acolyte only WISHED he were this badass.

-Is the unit simple or complex?
About as complex as a non-monarch ground unit gets.

-Is the unit effective?
Highly. Tougher than the Acolyte, more mana, and faster. Plus, he gets the AdjustJoy benefit of the Acolyte - I'm assuming this was just an oversight in unit development. The real strengths of this guy, however, is his spell-casting.
-Earthquake is the exact same as the Acolytes except costs 50 mana more and does 50 damage more.
-Turn to Stone is really the best of the Wizard's options - cheaper per shot than the Acolyte's (200 to 750) and greater range (500 to 300).
-Fire Storm is the Acolyte's Hail Shower by another name, greater mana cost, greater duration, greater range, greater velocity - all of which are marginal - but the damage is the big thing. The Wizard's damage is 500 to the Acolyte's 70. Throw that in with the duration and it becomes Whoa-Scary!

-Is the unit flexible?
Very! You want some support for that nasty assault - bam! You feel you have a small hole in your lines - bam! You want to wipe out an incoming wave - bam!

-Is the unit practical?
Unneeded - it basically puts a Monarch's amount of magical damage into a guy who costs less than 6k mana.

-Is the unit creative?
Meh, marginally. It's an Acolyte with a boatload of damage potential instead of building capability.

I don't think Gandalf had this kind of power, but just think if he did!

That about does it for my Aramon 3rd party units - so far as I can tell, anyway - except for a few choice buildings which I skipped over since they served so little purpose (Temple of Anu, Mana Pyramid, etc).

They are mostly in Alphabetical Order, at least by filename, though some are no doubt missing or misplaced. My question now is which ones am I missing?

I still have the Raven Master pack to go about, and I lost the old player Knight of Aramon's Dwarf Pack (which was AMAZING! 10 years ago even by today's standard), but unless I missed some NPC or Monster units... that should take care of it.

Right?