11 January 2008

By: Calin Ciabai, Games Editor
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth Strategy (PC)
Gondor, Isengard, Mordor, Rohan and Western Emnet strategies
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (BFME) is a real-time strategy (RTS) game for the PC developed by EALA. It was inspired and licensed from Peter Jackson's recent adaptations of the famous books by J. R. R. Tolkien and also features a number of the voice actors, including all the hobbits and wizards. It uses the Sage engine from Command & Conquer: Generals and was released on December 6, 2004. The sequel, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, was released on March 2, 2006.While there have been numerous other games based on The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and its film adaptations, Battle for Middle-earth is unique in the fact that the developers intended to bring the feel of a "living" Middle-earth to the PC through impressive graphics and special effects, as well as to push the genre beyond the RTS niche market by introducing a more intuitive system.(Wikipedia)STRATEGYGondorAn effective siege strategy for Gondor is to build a good sized unit of Tower Guards (four or five battalions recommended) and as many Archers as possible. Put the Archers into one group and the Tower Guards into another. Make sure both groups are fully upgraded if possible, but choose Heavy Armor if you can only have one. Then, put the Tower Guards in front, with the Archers trailing close behind. Once you find an enemy encampment, have your Tower Guards move toward it and put them into Shield Wall formation once they get very close. Your Tower Guards can absorb an incredible amount of damage while in Shield Wall and will take the brunt of enemy attack, leaving your Archers free to wreak havoc.Close your front gate and build all Farms and one Marketplace (the Grand Harvest can multiply your food production) inside your walls. Rely on your Towers and/or Trebuchets to defend until you have a considerable amount of resources. Once you have enough resources, demolish two of the Farms and build an Archery Range and a Barracks. Create Archers and Swordsmen. When you have about four or five battalions of Archers and Swords, send them out to raid Warg and Goblin camps to gain levels. Also look for settlements and camps. When your resources reach about 20,000 (which they will very quickly), delete two more Farms and start creating Horsemen and Trebuchets. By now the enemy has probably attacked you more than once. Start trying to destroy the enemy castle or camp piece by piece. Eventually you will win by force. Note: this an excellent strategy in multi-player, especially if you are on teams with someone and are placed on the edge of the map. IsengardSimilar to Mordor, Isengard relies mostly upon a brute force with some variety. Always have at least six Siege Ladders and three Battering Rams. Make sure to have several combo battalions. Since you haven no castle walls like the forces of good, you will need a few Keeps and Guard Towers. Once you have all of this completed and about 100 to 150 Uruks, begin with the upgrades; they are essential to a swift victory.MordorMordor relies heavily on massive armies and blind destruction. However, you are limited to only so many command points you have. You must create variety in your troops when needed. On most levels, you will have to siege some kind of castle. Always have a few Catapults and Battering Rams (a Siege Tower or two would not hurt). Always devote about 50 to 100 command points to siege weapons, as this makes most online players easy prey. For the rest of your command points, make a lot of Orc Warrior-Orc Archer hordes and several Trolls. Once you have this completed, spend your resources entirely on upgrading your troops and base.RohanBuild six Farms so that you can get resources faster. Then, build an Archery Range and make four battalions of Yomman Archers. Put the archers on the wall and close your gate. This will take a while. Wait until you get 3,000 gold, then get Legolas. Put Legolas on the wall and get rid of the other archers. Destroy one Farm and build an
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Armory there. Save up and make Fire Arrows, Heavy Armor, Banner Carriers, and Forged Blades. After you do that, make six Elven Warrior Battalions. Give them all the upgrades you just made, then combine them so they are three big groups. Legolas should be at rank 10 by now. Bring him down and have him lead your Elven warriors to the enemy base and destroy it. This works best if your enemy is Isengard.Western EmnetThe key to winning this level is to capture a base early. When the mission starts, build two Farms in your main base. Send Eomer and his horsemen either to the mid-west edge of the map to take out a main base (harder, more men die, but less trouble in the long run); or to the south-east edge of the map to take out a large outpost (easier, less men die, but more trouble in the long run). When one of the two has been destroyed, send two full groups (or the two largest groups) of men into the castle and close the gate. When you have 1,600 resources, build two Defense Towers in the front of the castle. When everything within the whole of enemy attacks and resources is concerned, built a Rohan Archer Range and a Stable anywhere within your castle. Any leftover resources should go to the production of Farms in your captured base. When you have enough resources, build a Healing Well to replenish your troops' life. When construction of the well is done, move all the horsemen into the castle to heal. Fend off the next enemy attack (enemies will now have to wait for units to rebuild while you go out and attack them). Slowly make your way up to the mid-northern edge of the map where one of the two remaining large bases is located. When you finally take that base over (you should have plenty of resources if you built enough Farms), build a new castle there when available. Upgrade it with defensive towers. Build up another army and attack the remaining base with everything you have. If you fail when attacking that base, do not worry - you can do it again. Note: This map is difficult, especially under the medium and hard difficulty settings. It will require much skill, patience, and thought. This map will take some time to win. Here is the official game trailer:

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