| The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle-earth |
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''The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth'' ('''BFME''') is a '', was released on March 2 , 2006 . While there have been numerous other games based on '''' even down to the power point system which allows players to earn special powers as you destroy more enemies. The powers that can be earned range from summoning elven allies, calling Eagles , all the way to bringing out the Army Of The Dead or the Balrog . The name of this game comes from a quotation by is over; ''the battle for Middle-earth'' is about to begin." GAMEPLAY The game fuctions much like other RTS games; the player must manage an army taking control of economy and unit production. How BFME differs from other RTS titles is that buildings can only be built on set points; sites for building structures already exist and are scattered around the map. These range from an outpost (three building points) to a full fledged '' is a recent example of this). This RTS features an Evil and Good campaign set in the War Of The Ring -timeline as directed in the Trilogy By Peter Jackson with a few game adaptions. Like many other RTS-games, this feature two opposite endings dependent on which side the player join. The Free Peoples (Gondor and Rohan) focus on their numerous heroes, like Gandalf, Aragorn, Théoden, Éomer, etc. On the other hand, the Forces of Darkness (Mordor & Isengard) depend mainly on their hordes of Orcs, Uruk-hai , and Evil Men, and creatures such as trolls and '' Mûmakil ''. The finale of the Good campaign is to assault the Black Gate of Mordor, to buy Frodo time to destroy the One Ring; the Evil campaign's finale is to lay siege to and destroy Minas Tirith , the White City and capital of Gondor. Economy is managed generally by building farms (Good side) or blacksmiths (in the case of Gondor); slaughterhouses, lumber mills and furnaces (Evil side) on the predefined slots to gain resources. There're also upgrades and special powers to increase the speed of obtaining resources. Each production building reduces the cost of either upgrades or the production of certain troops. Each map throughout the campaign is named after well-known and lesser-known regions of Middle-earth such as the Westfold, Eastern Rohan, Mirkwood and even to the far-eastern locales of Rhûn and Harad . While the game authentically follows the story in proper order with special events like the Battle Of Helm's Deep , Isengard , Moria and Minas Tirith , the in-between gameplay rests, as said, upon the regions of Middle-earth, encompassing in the West from Pelargir to Mirkwood, eastmost to Rhûn and all the way south to Mordor and the far reaches of Near Harad . In the campaign's world map, players can view famous locations like The Shire , Rivendell , Barad-dûr and Mt. Doom , among others. When players scroll over locations and armies, depending on the context, a short video clip will play on the lower left hand corner of the screen, showing the actions of the armies or the locations as seen in Peter Jackson's movie trilogy. BFME also features a somewhat unique repair system. Buildings cannot self-repair if they are under attack (with the exception of the Gondor faction). Also, heroes self-heal and groups repopulate only when they are no longer under attack. Narrations in the game are done by Ian McKellen (Good side, as Gandalf) and Christopher Lee (Evil side, as Saruman). UNITS Rohan Units
Heroes Gondor Units
Heroes ]] Isengard Units
Heroes Mordor Units
Heroes
The Fellowship Of The Ring Heroes
Other units
BUILDINGS There are 4 types of sites: settlements, outposts, camps, and castles. Of the 4, only settlements do not have a central citadel. The citadel is important for two reasons. One: Your heroes are recruited and revived in citadels. Two: If the citadel is destroyed, construction or self-repairs of buildings within the site will stop.
UPGRADES The upgrades available in the game are fairly universal. Mordor has the least upgrades (only banner carrier and fire arrows). Do note that, apart from some exceptions, you will need to research the upgrade first and then purchase it for each individual group you have.
Interestingly, Gondor has certain unique upgrades which display their achievements as a great nation of Men.
BONUSES Sometimes, by building structures, players can gain discounts on the cost of producing troops or building structures. Most of the time, you need more than 1 building to gain a discount and the more buildings you have, the greater the discount.(There is a limit to the discount, however).
CRITICISM Some have criticized the game for recycling old concepts such as hero (found in ''''), making the player field small armies (limited by Command Points) and being too simple compared to other real-time strategy games, among other things. However, the fielding of smaller armies can be explained by the fact that doing so will allow players with older computers to play smoothly in multiplayer. (Official maps support up to a total of 8 players.) Also, considerable liberties were taken with Tolkien's works for the sake of gameplay. For example, the Shield Wall formation should be used by the Rohirrim , not the Gondorians , since the former were inspired by Germanic Peoples such as the Angles and Saxons who were famous for such tactics. Also, Éowyn does not fight in each and every battle, and Orcs and goblins were not distinct races ("Orc" and "goblin" are just different terms for the same creatures). SEE ALSO
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