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Description
The image above is from "The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth II - Rise of the Witch King"

The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth
During the hype of the Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy by Peter Jackson, there were two Real-Time Strategy games of note to be released during this period. The first was 2003's "The War of the Ring" by Sierra Studios and was merely an attempt to cash in on the hype of the LOTRs movies and was more in line with the books than the movies. However the following year, EA (back when it was still a respectable developer and publisher), developed the Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth, which gave players and fans of the Peter Jackson films a chance to command the armies of Middle Earth in line with the plot of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and using the Peter Jackson films as a visual basis. The factions in the first game were limited to the forces of Gondor, Rohan, Isengard, and Mordor while the sequel altered the factions into Men, Elves, Dwarves, Mordor, Isengard, Goblins, and the expansion to the second game added a seventh faction: Angmar.

The original game focused on the main battles of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, starting with the Mines of Moria as an semi-tutorial level, proceeding through the battles of the Two Towers including the Battle of Helms Deep and the Flooding of Isengard, before moving onto the battles featured in the Return of the King (Battle of the Pelenor Fields, Battle of the Black Gates) amongst other, smaller, battles. There is also an original "Evil" plot-line that explores Sauron's rise to conquer Middle Earth and reclaim the One Ring. The sequel explores an original plot focused on the Elves and Dwarves as they fight to repel a Goblin Invasion of the northern regions of Middle Earth. The expansion tells the story of the Witch-King of Angmar and his rise to power in the old Western Region of Arnor in the early Second Age (long before even the Hobbit takes place).

While gameplay between the original and the sequel doesn't change much, the base building mechanics differ greatly between the original and sequel. In the original, all the factions rely on controlling predetermined locations where they can establish their base, each base type providing a limited number of "build plots" to construct your base. Gondor and Rohan have the best base defenses twixt the four factions as their bases and camps have defensive walls and barriers. Castles have large walls that encircle the base and the walls can be climbed, making it a viable option for archers to defend the base. Camps are smaller and have walls. Mordor and Isengard however have completely open camps with only exterior rings of constructible defensive towers encircling the camp. However, most of their units are cheap and numerous, with Mordor's basic Orc units being free to build. The sequel however does away with this limited mechanic and allows bases to be built freely so long as the terrain permits it. Every faction has a fortress structure that can be upgraded with 6 to 7 expansions of varying types. Each faction has varying levels of defense. Men, Dwarves, and Angmar can construct full walls with wall mounted catapults or arrow towers along with gates and postern gates (small doors that only friendly units can pass through, albeit one at a time). Elves and Isengard can only build walls with gates in them (no towers or posterns), and Mordor and the Goblins have no defensive walls short of arrow towers.

The games uses the same engine and the same general gameplay mechanics as EA's other RTS title, "Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars" in that instead of a single unit trained at a time, most units are trained in squads or small hordes and that there is a single resource as opposed to multiple. The biggest difference between BFME and C&C however is that BFME has a population cap. In order to increase the cap, you have to build additional resource structures to provide for your army. Additionally, the game uses hero units such as Aragorn, Gandalf, Saruman, the Witch-King of Angmar, and many more. The best part is that these hero units use the likenesses and voices of the actors who played them in the films. Additionally you're treated to pieces of the original Howard Shore score for the trilogy plus a few original pieces for the games that sound strikingly similar to the movie scores.

Each faction has access to unique loadouts of different powers that they can use to help give them an edge in battle. Each power has to be unlocked by earning points through battle. Some powers are utility based such as a mass heal or a "reveal area" ability, destructive powers such as summoning the "Watcher in the Water" to lay waste to enemy units in an area, summon defensive towers or barricades, or call forth super powerful abilities such as summoning the Army of the Dead or summoning the Balrog to slaughter large swaths of the enemy army or bases. There's some crossover on powers depending on faction (Men, Elves, and Dwarves have a few crossover powers, while Isengard, Mordor, Goblins, and Angmar have some crossover powers).

One of the features added in the sequel though is the ability to create your own heroes! You can create as many heroes as you want from seven different hero classes: men, elves, dwarves, Wizards, Orcs/uruks, Trolls, or corrupted men. You can equip them with up to 5 different powers that can increase in strength with each level and also set their base stats. These stats and powers determine their cost so powerful bruisers will be very expensive while weak and powerless heroes are relatively cheap. (I ended up making Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy from the Narnia films and more). One thing to bear in mind is, that this game predates the Peter Jackson Hobbit Trilogy so while there are some characters that were around for the Hobbit in the game (Gloin and King Dain for instance), none of them use their Hobbit appearances or actors. In terms of realism, this game has an impressive physics engine. Perhaps the most noticeable example is how cavalry can trample enemy infantry much like in the movies.

Unfortunately, the Battle for Middle Earth (the original, sequel, and expansion) are hard to find these days as none of the virtual game distributors such as Steam, GOG, or even EA's Origin offer the games for sale. You would pretty much have to find actual CD copies of the game for purchase and would have to manually download and install the latest patches for the game as online update support has long since ended. There are some third-party sites that offer downloads of the games for free but these require mounting software such as Daemon software to install.

Description
The image above is from "The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth II - Rise of the Witch King"

The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth
During the hype of the Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy by Peter Jackson, there were two Real-Time Strategy games of note to be released during this period. The first was 2003's "The War of the Ring" by Sierra Studios and was merely an attempt to cash in on the hype of the LOTRs movies and was more in line with the books than the movies. However the following year, EA (back when it was still a respectable developer and publisher), developed the Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth, which gave players and fans of the Peter Jackson films a chance to command the armies of Middle Earth in line with the plot of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and using the Peter Jackson films as a visual basis. The factions in the first game were limited to the forces of Gondor, Rohan, Isengard, and Mordor while the sequel altered the factions into Men, Elves, Dwarves, Mordor, Isengard, Goblins, and the expansion to the second game added a seventh faction: Angmar.

The original game focused on the main battles of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, starting with the Mines of Moria as an semi-tutorial level, proceeding through the battles of the Two Towers including the Battle of Helms Deep and the Flooding of Isengard, before moving onto the battles featured in the Return of the King (Battle of the Pelenor Fields, Battle of the Black Gates) amongst other, smaller, battles. There is also an original "Evil" plot-line that explores Sauron's rise to conquer Middle Earth and reclaim the One Ring. The sequel explores an original plot focused on the Elves and Dwarves as they fight to repel a Goblin Invasion of the northern regions of Middle Earth. The expansion tells the story of the Witch-King of Angmar and his rise to power in the old Western Region of Arnor in the early Second Age (long before even the Hobbit takes place).

While gameplay between the original and the sequel doesn't change much, the base building mechanics differ greatly between the original and sequel. In the original, all the factions rely on controlling predetermined locations where they can establish their base, each base type providing a limited number of "build plots" to construct your base. Gondor and Rohan have the best base defenses twixt the four factions as their bases and camps have defensive walls and barriers. Castles have large walls that encircle the base and the walls can be climbed, making it a viable option for archers to defend the base. Camps are smaller and have walls. Mordor and Isengard however have completely open camps with only exterior rings of constructible defensive towers encircling the camp. However, most of their units are cheap and numerous, with Mordor's basic Orc units being free to build. The sequel however does away with this limited mechanic and allows bases to be built freely so long as the terrain permits it. Every faction has a fortress structure that can be upgraded with 6 to 7 expansions of varying types. Each faction has varying levels of defense. Men, Dwarves, and Angmar can construct full walls with wall mounted catapults or arrow towers along with gates and postern gates (small doors that only friendly units can pass through, albeit one at a time). Elves and Isengard can only build walls with gates in them (no towers or posterns), and Mordor and the Goblins have no defensive walls short of arrow towers.

The games uses the same engine and the same general gameplay mechanics as EA's other RTS title, "Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars" in that instead of a single unit trained at a time, most units are trained in squads or small hordes and that there is a single resource as opposed to multiple. The biggest difference between BFME and C&C however is that BFME has a population cap. In order to increase the cap, you have to build additional resource structures to provide for your army. Additionally, the game uses hero units such as Aragorn, Gandalf, Saruman, the Witch-King of Angmar, and many more. The best part is that these hero units use the likenesses and voices of the actors who played them in the films. Additionally you're treated to pieces of the original Howard Shore score for the trilogy plus a few original pieces for the games that sound strikingly similar to the movie scores.

Each faction has access to unique loadouts of different powers that they can use to help give them an edge in battle. Each power has to be unlocked by earning points through battle. Some powers are utility based such as a mass heal or a "reveal area" ability, destructive powers such as summoning the "Watcher in the Water" to lay waste to enemy units in an area, summon defensive towers or barricades, or call forth super powerful abilities such as summoning the Army of the Dead or summoning the Balrog to slaughter large swaths of the enemy army or bases. There's some crossover on powers depending on faction (Men, Elves, and Dwarves have a few crossover powers, while Isengard, Mordor, Goblins, and Angmar have some crossover powers).

One of the features added in the sequel though is the ability to create your own heroes! You can create as many heroes as you want from seven different hero classes: men, elves, dwarves, Wizards, Orcs/uruks, Trolls, or corrupted men. You can equip them with up to 5 different powers that can increase in strength with each level and also set their base stats. These stats and powers determine their cost so powerful bruisers will be very expensive while weak and powerless heroes are relatively cheap. (I ended up making Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy from the Narnia films and more). One thing to bear in mind is, that this game predates the Peter Jackson Hobbit Trilogy so while there are some characters that were around for the Hobbit in the game (Gloin and King Dain for instance), none of them use their Hobbit appearances or actors. In terms of realism, this game has an impressive physics engine. Perhaps the most noticeable example is how cavalry can trample enemy infantry much like in the movies.

Unfortunately, the Battle for Middle Earth (the original, sequel, and expansion) are hard to find these days as none of the virtual game distributors such as Steam, GOG, or even EA's Origin offer the games for sale. You would pretty much have to find actual CD copies of the game for purchase and would have to manually download and install the latest patches for the game as online update support has long since ended. There are some third-party sites that offer downloads of the games for free but these require mounting software such as Daemon software to install.