LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth

Cozmo · Dec 16, 2004

Has anybody played this game yet? What do you think of it?

God bless!

Dracil · Dec 16, 2004

Nice effects. Extreme resource hog (1GB of RAM for the battle of Helm's Deep?!). Extremely incosistent. Yeah, we wanna follow the movie, that's why you can't have people dying off early in the story and gone forever, yet we will include battles that never happened in the movies and allow Boromir to live past when he died.

Macewindu77815 · Dec 17, 2004

^Dude its video game, an RTS at that...its not gonna follow the movie perfectly....if it did there would be like 5 levels...

Psalms34 · Dec 17, 2004

That's put out by EA games? Hrm... EA is ebil! You know, if any other company put this game out, I'd already have it. You know, I'd really like to play a good Middle-earth game, but I know if it's an EA release it prolly has little to do with Tolkiens stories. Well enough dishing on EA...

Nah, haven't picked up the game. Is it any good? You know, I think... I played the demo some months back... gee if it was, must not have been memorable.

Dracil · Dec 17, 2004

Macewindu77815 said:
^Dude its video game, an RTS at that...its not gonna follow the movie perfectly....if it did there would be like 5 levels...

See, but then their excuse for having no Shire razing levels was that they were forced to fllow the movie.

Ginsu · Dec 17, 2004

The game is really solid. I'm impressed. Any RTS and LOTR fan will like this one. Oh and it will chew away at your PC.

kit_iv · Dec 18, 2004

I think the game is pretty cool, so far my favorite side to play is Isengard, the campaigns were ok, I was a little dissapointed with each campaign ending but the online play makes up for up

InnerPhyre · Dec 18, 2004

I'm kind of wary to buy this game after I saw the utter abortion that was The Third Age. I feel that EA really undersestimates the average gamer. They made TTA and marketed it as an RPG, but it was basically an action game with stats because they "didn't want to alienate the action fans".....as though people don't play more than one genre of video game. I heard BFME is heavy on eye candy, light on strategy.

CeeBee · Dec 20, 2004

hmmm, what do you mean hurts the computer???

Ryder · Dec 21, 2004

It's pretty easy to dominate in multiplayer so far...

A battle guide, by me.

Tips to win every multiplayer game you play,

Play Mordor.

Build 2 slaughterhouses right away.

Explore two little building spots to build 2 lumber mills right away (try not to use both of the little spots right near you, you'll need your own woods for something else and it's better to cut down a distant woodlot).

Build another slaughterhouse, on a little spot or your base, whatever.

Build some defense towers and a troll cage.

Get 3-4 trolls, equip them with trees, and leave them in the center of your town.

Equip all trolls (except drummer trolls of course) with trees for clubs at all times!

When attacked, allow enemies to engage your perimeter towers a bit, then rush trolls out with an "A" move to their furthest back archers (They'll kill the melee guys on the way, donna worry).

An A move is a general attack move that allows units to decide for themselves what to attack along the way to a location where theyll continue attacking. Done by selecting the units, clicking the A key, then right clicking the target land (dont mess with selecting enemy units/structures).

Work your base to get 2 troll recruitment buildings and all the rest of the big circles as slaughterhouses, get all the little towers up if you haven't already.

Keep parking trolls in the center of your town and defending as outlined above.

Remember to get your trolls trees to use as clubs, but get them back into the center of your base to park them afterwards.

Look for another big base with 3-5 trolls, leaving 3-5 behind to guard your first one, at the center of town.

Do not build up the little 3 spot (4 counting the outpost building) bases if you can avoid it, they aren't cost effective. I wouldnt worry about attacking them too much either.

Get another big base, build it up identical to your starting base (assuming you are not on a packed, or small, map there should be an open one out there. Otherwise you'll have to use the little 3 building outposts, just build 3 slaughterhouses).

Every big base should acquire 10 trolls and 2 drummer trolls. You will probably need to empty one bases army to attack one enemy base successfully. No sense in emptying all your bases of units. If needs be, another army can always clean things up. Replace like mad while your on the offense, but generally leave replacements at home to gear up with trees and accumulate in numbers.
A golden rule for trolls is that they work better and better in larger and larger numbers!

Build 2-3 catapults if required (only required if enemy has a walled castle, just substitute one slaughterhouse somewhere for a siege works, or 2 siege works could be used for speed if you have 2 big bases, or insane resources).

If you have to break a wall, hold the troll army in reserve defending the catapults while you do this. Once the wall is breached (if you even had to breach it) put the eye of Sauron on the breach (it'll be a choke point) otherwise put the eye in the town, halfway to the center along the path they'll take. Order the 10-12 trolls and 2 drummer trolls to "A" move to the ground next to the town's center building (don't order them to just attack the center building). Now ignore them.

Yes, ignore them, they'll do the rest. The little bit of efficiency you might add by micromanaging a fight is pointless, even dangerous. Get your attention back to the more important matters of preparing the next army, resource management, and possibly defense.

Other things to do

You only need the Eye of Sauron, Scavengers, The Darkness thingy, and the Balrog from your ring powers.

Use the Eye a lot, but dont micromanage it, itll take up to much of your precious attention (a much underrated factor in these games).

The Darkness thingy is great; it doesnt take up any of your attention! Use when in big fights, defensive or offensive, or whatever (I dont pay much attention to this power really though).

Build the Witch King and the other 2 Nazgul only when your resources are running insane and your army and bases are doing ok. They are pretty much useless on the offensive as archers make mince meat out of them, but they are great to hold in reserve to defend a base. Just allow the enemy to start engaging your towers first, then jam the Nazgul in there for added carnage. Remember to pull them out when theyre running red.

Dont micromanage the Balrog, the Balrog ring power is primarily a nuclear weapon, for all intents and purposes. Its used to greatest affect when summoned right under a large group of enemy troops sitting still somewhere outside of town. Itll kill them all just coming up. After that its unlikely youll do as much damage with the entire remaining time of the Balrog. You can also get good at summoning it just ahead of moving units and still hitting them. After its up, just A move it somewhere, like an enemy town, and forget about it.

Do not bother with anything not mentioned here, all the other buildings and units are essentially useless, and their distraction and resource consumption (and space consumption too) will just detract from this strategy. After they satisfy their exploration purposes, let the 2 starting Orc battalions die, they just waste command points.

Oh, another note. It is extremely important to build 2 or maybe 3 lumber mills quickly as outlined above, for fast resource production early on. But no more! If they break, good. Replace them with slaughterhouses later on. Their laborers just waste command points and they gobble up trees your trolls might need for clubs. Dont forget, do not build lumber mills on both of your starting little build spots right by your starting town, you need trees close to home left standing for your trolls!

If you can, get an ally to bust enemy walls for you (why should you have to build siege garbage).

Things that will hurt you (every strategy has some downsides)

Ents, while not too dangerous as theyre slow and few and far between, they can be a pain. Dont give in to the temptation to build archers; itll just scramble the effectiveness of your overwhelming resources & trolls grand strategy. Just take it like a man, and route out Entmoots wherever they are found.

Treebeard & the Balrog, their summon can be like an A-bomb, hence why Ive recommended that you stow units not currently on the offensive inside your town, at the center actually. They cant target your town for a summon.

Gandalf, can be a pain for bunched up trolls. Oh well.

Other Mordor players, your defeats will probably only come from this direction, owing to their trolls and Mumakils to some extent.

Basically all the other units are a breeze, and Im not kidding!

Have fun! I hope this helped!

Ryder · Dec 23, 2004

Oh, a side note, catapults could help with the Ents (I wouldn't go nuts though or build too many of their buildings either). Park them in the center of town.

And the Dead army will really hurt you, but they really hurt everyone so there isn't anything really relevant here. Just thought I'd mention that.

Ryder · Dec 27, 2004

Ok, my strategy got some holes punched into it by a friend. He kills me now with Gondor horses (the melee kind), Gandalf, and the Dead army. The horses patrol better; because they're faster. Gandalf takes care of the Nazgul, and puts a pretty big dent in the Trolls as well. And he never needs to lay siege to my bases because the Dead army one-times 'em! The Dead army is also 10 points (once you get down the chain of powers to it) versus 20 points for the Balrog. So basically I'm losing a lot now.

It's all good though, it's still a great game!

Btw, can anybody come up with a good strategy for defeating a Gondor player like that?

TheTempleTeam · Dec 28, 2004

I think it's quality I got it at Christmas and I'm already ready to attack the Black Gate (Good Campain). But it doesn't seem to let me, it says, 'When you're ready, attack the black gate'. Do I have to fight more battles to let Frodo and Sam closer to Mount Doom? Cheers

Ryder · Dec 30, 2004

Sorry, no idea. I don't play the single player campaigns much.

TheTempleTeam · Dec 30, 2004

This is driving me insane, I've won nearly every area and i still can't attack, I can't have to win every terretory... can I?!

koppee1 · Dec 31, 2004

I just played the single player campaigns. awesome game.
Especially the first mission when you play good. It's just like the movie. That's actually my favourite level.

TheTempleTeam · Dec 31, 2004

Anyone know what you need to do to attack the black gate? All I'm getting is... 'When Ready, Attack The Black Gate'? Do I have to have conquered all the terretories? If so, I've got a little work ahead of me, I won at Minas Tirith without having to use any power points, I've got 42! lol!

LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth

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