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The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle Earth II: Rise of the Witch King Review
User Submitted The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle Earth II: Rise of the Witch King Reviews
Date: 2008-05-24
An excellent addition
While the witch king does not dramatically change game play, it does add to the original game.
The Angar faction is a wonderful addition. They have added new, much needed, units to the other factions, additional maps, and beefed up the create a hero system. They also added a few heroes to some of the factions, like the Dale hero from the dwarven side.
I heard that the War of the Ring additions are also great, but I haven't had a chance to dig into that.
Overall, this expansion has peaked my interest in playing the game. I mostly play it on skirmish mode with other players. If you like the original, you will definetly like the additions with this expansion.
Date: 2008-04-25
Unable to play due to errors
After receiving and installing the game was unable to play due to an dat.error. Apparently this is a known issue from EA forums that many people experience after instillation. DO NOT recommend buying as EA has not released a fix. The only way is to download a torrent with a no cd crack which is not a fix.
Date: 2008-02-27
Astonishing level of detail given to terrain, story line, and characters makes this game a winner
The level of detail that went into the planning of this game is extraordinary.
I haven't played the War of the Ring, so can't comment on that. Frankly, for *me*, it's too massive and time consuming, and I just don't have the requisite time/energy/desire to take it on. But anyone can see from the reviews posted here that it's a remarkable feature of the game. (Which just makes the game seem that much more incredible to me.)
What I can comment on is the Campaign, and the Skirmishes, and how true to Tolkien's Middle-earth the game is.
The Campaign is that of the Witch-King's successful attempt to destroy the realm of Andor, a northern kingdom in Middle-earth. One of the lead reviews posted here mentioned that even on the "easy" setting, the Campaign was extremely difficult. I'd have to agree with that. I slowly made it through on the easy setting, and I won't be going back for more. It was interesting, but not quite interesting enough to do what I would think of as torture--try and try again to beat a game that will always beat me.
The Campaign is interesting in that it presents a new faction: Angmar, and the Witch-King is a major character in many of the tasks that comprise the Campaign, although he seems to be (in the Campaign and the Skirmishes) a bit on the weak side. More so as a hero in Mordor, where he rides the winged beast (he has the option of dismounting), than in Angmar, where he sits a horse. All of the new additions are carefully thought out, and while they all don't follow the canon of LOTR, the direction of the Witch-King's assault on the kingdom of Andor does, and that in itself is impressive. In the Angmar faction, the "heroes" are not canon, with the Witch-king's notable exception. The others have clever backgrounds, that do reflect canon, but they're fictional-fictional creations. One, Morgomir, is said to be one of The Nine (he's not), and when using him as a hero, he is, at times, much more effective than the Witch-king himself, with "powers" that have a more direct impact on the game. That's mostly true if you're playing against the computer, but if you're playing against another person, who would ostensibly know how better to deploy heroes (i.e., send them out with troops, have them fight alongside troops, and try to stay alive to level up and reap the benefits of higher-level powers, as opposed to acting like kamikazes), then the Witch-king's major power, a resetting of all heroes special powers to "used", is actually a major power.
Along with Angmar come new troops: Thrall Masters, Black Numenoreans, Dark Rangers (who fire bolts of ice, rather than silverthorn or fire), Dire Wolves, Snow Trolls, Hill Trolls, Seige Engine, and, the newest introduction to the entire BME universe, Sorcerers who, if used correctly, can be devastating.
Also, the walls that Angmar builds are strong. They can be upgraded with "ice", and once done are very difficult to knock down.
All of the other factions received upgrades/changes; most importantly, they each received elite infantry units, with limits to the number you can have on the field. For the Elves, there are Noldor Warriors. You can have three units on the field at a time. They come fully upgraded with banners (though one isn't visible), silverthorn arrows, and armor. They can also switch to fight with swords at close range. Used correctly, and leveled up, they are a mighty force.
The Men of the West get Knights of Dol Amroth. Only three units can be on the field at a time, and if you pair them with other units on horseback, and, say, Eomer as a hero, once the knights level up appropriately, they lend extra experience to surrounding troops and can make for daunting cavalry.
Dwarves get Zealots. I haven't played the Dwarves, so can't comment on them.
Isengard gets Uruk Deathbringers. Played correctly, they are fearsome.
Mordor gets The Black Riders. Only one Black Rider at a time may be in play. In reality, it's six horsed men in black--the Nazgul--and again, they become more and more terrible as they level up.
Goblins get Fire Drake Brood. Only two may be on a field at a time, which amounts to 6 individual fire drakes. Like others, they are more effective as they level up, but are too easily dispatched. Best to pair them with a summoned Fire Drake from the Goblin fortress.
There are other additions and changes to units and buildings, but that's a long enough list.
In the first Battle for Middle Earth, the Campaign was much more exciting, as it followed the story of The Lord of the Rings reasonably well--it certainly followed the movie. The skirmishes were less exciting, as the terrain didn't change much from one place to another, with minor exceptions, and that's where BME2 and BME2RWK really shine.
Just as in writing, it's all in the details.
When you skirmish in Lorien, the colors of the forest are gorgeous and alluring, as in the Shire and Rivendell. The maps, and the lands portrayed within the maps, are much so more detailed than those in BME1, and your ability to customize the terrain to your liking (choosing where to build structures, how many you want to build) is greatly improved.
Good is represented by Dwarves, Elves, and Men. All have their good and bad points. With the elves, you can upgrade to "silverthorn" arrows, and once you have an armored group of archers with silverthorn arrows, the game turns in your favor pretty quickly. Elves are the premier archers of the game. They have three different types. Lorien archers, Mirkwood archers, and Noldor warriors. The more elite the archer unit, the further back the archers need to be to hit their targets. (Compare this with goblin archers who seem to need to run up to the enemy and French kiss them before firing.) With elves, if you develop your archers quickly, get them the silverthorn upgrade as soon as possible, and purchase Haldir as a hero, pretty soon you'll be ruling the battlefield. The drawback to the elves is that it's difficult to raise resources. Other factions have ways to generate extra resources. Mordor and Isengard have lumber mills in addition to their main resource generator, and Isengard has a power that, when selected, allows you to raise the output of a slaughterhouse by 300% for the duration of the game. Add that to the lumber mills, and you're raising money quickly.
But the bad guys need the extra resources, because they can't heal. Their bannered units don't replenish as quickly as the good guy's bannered units do, and there's nowhere for them to go (no Mirror of Galadriel, or Well of Healing) to quicken their healing. If you're playing the evil side, and find yourself run over by a bunch of horsed lancers, your forces take a serious hit. The harder the game selection, the more forces will be thrown at you, so you don't have idle time to wait for your troops to heal. You need to create new troops, purchase new banners, armor, arrows or weapons, etc.
Evil is represented by Isengard, Goblins, Mordor, and Angmar. If you play the Goblins, watch when you build a tunnel--you'll see two goblins kind of playing catch, although they're supposed to be working. One is throwing rocks out from inside the tunnel, the one on the outside is catching them. When the goblin on the outside loses track of what he's doing, the one from the inside comes up, smacks him on the head, and they resume their tasks of throwing and catching rocks. Like I said--details.
If you capture the ring, you get to call out Sauron himself. He's pricey--10,000--but has an insane amount of health, 15,000, and must be wearing armor that's stronger than mithril. He's nearly impossible to hurt if he's being utilized correctly, and if you're playing an evil group and get the ring, make sure you bring Sauron out. He is the one character in the game--the only one--who can change the tide of a battle. I was playing level 1 Goblins against level 4 elves, and while not being soundly trounced, I was definitely losing. That is, until I captured the ring. As soon as Sauron came out, the tide shifted, and I won. He's not terribly quick on his feet, or speedy with his mace, but once that mace connects to anything, watch out. He can cause whole battalions to become airborne.
Compare that to calling out Galadriel, who is the hero that the forces of good can call upon when they've captured the ring. Her health is 5,000. You can custom-make heroes that have more health than Galadriel. She's not a game changer. She has some cool powers--fear, and a wicked tornado that picks up virtually everything, and that, when positioned over an enemy's fortress can cause severe damage--but the way they've drawn her character she looks more like Stevie Nicks throwing karate kicks than the Queen of the Elves.
My only real beef with this game is that patches to the original version weakened some heroes. Gandalf, for instance, wouldn't stand much of a chance against the Black Riders of Mordor, and we know from the books that he's more than a challenge for any of them. He also can't stand up to the Witch-king, which is absurd. (If all you know is the movie, what happens between Gandalf and the Witch-king in Gondor in the Extended Version of ROTK could not possibly have happened.) Gandalf is better matched against the Balrog that the evil forces can call upon, but even the Balrog is weaker than it should be. Remember: Gandalf, the Balrog, Saruman, and Sauron all share a similar origin. They are all Maia, essentially angels (or fallen angels). No man should be able to withstand Gandalf's wrath, especially when he returns as Gandalf the White. Yet many can.
Still, that's not much of a beef.
When playing equal sides, level 1 Goblins against level 1 elves, it's usually a cake walk for the goblins, with me playing the goblins and the computer playing the elves, for example. It's not quite so easy playing it the other way, playing the good guys. But that's fine--that's canon. Evil was stronger than good, and the "forces of good" really had to dig down deep to pull out a victory.
All in all, a terrific game.
Date: 2007-12-17
Not a Bad Deal
If you enjoyed battle for middle earth II then I would recommend this expansion, as long as your not paying more than about $15. It takes care of a lot of the glitches and balances the civilizations a bit, while adding a new civilization that has powerful, but expensive troops. This is about all it does though, graphics and AI remain about the same. Overall I truly enjoyed the original and this addition certainly does not detract from it, just don't expect too much from it.
Date: 2007-12-13
Review
Great Game, Much more difficult than the other Battle for Middle Earth Games. Still not much different then the others, the only draw back is that you can only be the Witch King for the Campain.
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