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Hwaldar was the Head hillchief of many tribes in Rhudaur, one of the three ancient kingdoms of Arnor. As Rhudaur was secretly in league with the Witch-king of Angmar, Hwaldar paved the way for Angmar's invasion, intending to evade capture from the clutches of the soldiers of Arthedain. He held the moniker of "the Brigand".
Hwaldar is non-canonical, though based on an unnamed character from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.[1]
In adaptations
Biography
King Argeleb of Arthedain reclaims the throne of all Arnor due to in Rhudaur and Cardolan Isildur's line fell long ago. Cardolan is not opposed but Hwaldar and the hillmen of Rhudaur begin to expose their plans, some time before that the Witch-king sent emissaries to Rhudaur. They decided to cause a rebellion in Rhudaur against their 'masters', Arnor. Without knowing anything about Hwaldar's alliance with Angmar, Argeleb chained Hwaldar and built fortifications all over Rhudaur in order to silence the rebellion.
Some time after, Morgomir convinced the Witch-king to send an army to rescue Hwaldar. They attacked Arthedain's outpost where Hwaldar was chained, ending his imprisonment with Morgomir's blade. Hwaldar found himself rescued and was sent with soldiers of Angmar to demand allegiance from the nearby Hill-men tribes. Those that rejected, where slaughtered, and their tents plundered. The army continued after constructing a minor fortification to cross the river to the west, therefore attacking Arthedain's two outposts, in the process of the march to the second outpost, King Argeleb arrives and threw in his share of reinforcements. The battle of Rhudaur ends with the Witch-king conquering Rhudaur and slaying King Argeleb.[1]
Gameplay
Hwaldar is an early Hero geared towards being used in the beginning of a fight and rapidly bringing in resources while harassing the enemy without engaging in full on warfare against heavier units. His first ability is a passive that boosts the attack, defense and experience gained of all hill-men by 20%, which is weaker then the usual 50% associated with most heroes but is offset by how easy it is to spam the hill-men. His second ability is also a passive, any hill-men including Hwaldar that kills any units gains that units build pay returned to the player. The ability allows Hwaldar and a large amount of hill-men to rapidly build up the resources of the Angmar faction and get an early start on mid-game and even end-game powers and units. His third and final ability allows him to summon hill-men upon command, and while it is gained at level 5, it summons a larger amount of units the higher Hwaldars level is.
While these attributes make Hwaldar a threat to opponents and an extremely useful Hero in the beginning, he will begin to rapidly lose effectiveness by about mid-game and become fairly useless by end-game. Hwaldar is a very soft target, making it easy to bring him down with advanced weapons, and as more powerful infantry begin to appear in the fight his buffs on his infantry begin to be outclassed by more powerful hero abilities of the opposing faction (Lurtz, King Dain, etc.) and his hill-men allies will be easily slaughtered. However if used correctly he can be useful even in the end game, as his summon hill-men ability can be used as a meatshield to protect the more powerful and expensive infantry and offer a potential cash boost if they kill any units near him.[1]