The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II: Rise of the Witch King (PC) Preview
Posted by Armando Rodriguez on 11.14.2006
The game with the longest title ever!
The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II: The Rise of the Witch King has the longest title in the history of video games. But EA also hopes to extend the fun you had with LOTR BFME II with this expansion pack.
Instead of commanding Frodo and the gang, you will control an ancient evil army commanded by the witch king, head of the Nazgul in the movies. The story of the game is a prequel of sorts of the story of the movies and it takes place soon after Isildur defeats Sauron and then losses the One Ring. The Witch King has been commanded with establishing a new kingdom in Angmar and waging war against the kingdom of Arnor, the ancestors of Aragorn.
The most notable new addition in the expansion is the new Angmar faction, which consists of lots of powerful new units. The Angmar have two different types of trolls (hill trolls are used for countering cavalry, while snow trolls are good for everything else), dire wolves, Black Numenoreans (a human infantry unit), Dark Dunedain (a human archer unit), among others. Perhaps the most versatile unit is thrall master. The thrall master is a single unit, but it can summon a battalion of warriors, wolf-riders, spearmen, or axe throwers and then serve as the battalion leader. However, if the thrall master is killed, his battalion will be thrown into chaos. Another interesting new unit is the sorcerer, which is always escorted by acolytes. The sorcerer uses the acolytes to power his spells, so the more powerful the spell, the more acolytes the sorcerer must sacrifice. Angmar heroes include the Witch-King (of course), as well as a bunch of new faces that we've never seen before. There's Rhogash, a troll hero; Hwaldar, a tribal chieftain; and the Whisperer, a corrupted soul that serves the Witch-King.
The existing factions from Battle for Middle-earth II also get new units to even things out with the new faction. The most notable of these are the new minihorde units, which are sort of like heroes in the way they have special powers and can level up, except that they come in groups. So the Men of the West get the knights of Dol Amroth, the elves get Noldor Warriors, Mordor gets black riders, and so on. There are also improved siege weapons for the factions, because one of the goals in the game is to make sieges more significant.
The War of the Ring mode has also seen some improvements, most notably, now you can carry armies from one battle to the next, which eliminates the pain of having to start from scratch in every battle.
It is safe to say that if you enjoyed the original Battle for Middle Earth II, the expansion pack is a must have with it's new additions. Rise of the Witch King will ship later this month.
