The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth is a real-time strategy game set in the Lord of the Rings universe and makes use licensed elements from Peter Jackson's film trilogy.

The game features four factions: Gondor, Rohan, Isengard, and Mordor. Bases are comprised of a fortress structure, a limited number of nodes upon which other buildings can be constructed, and surrounding walls with gates. Farm-type structures bring a constant income and raise the population cap. Further nodes can be found on the map to create more structures, either new fortresses or just farms. Unit production structures can level up with usage in order to gain access to more powerful or specialized unit types and upgrades.

Regular units (with the exception of artillery) are trained in squads, and much like in WarCraft III, heroes can be trained. Heroes can gain up to 10 levels through experience in combat, and as they level up, they get new abilities and spells to cast. The player can also gain experience points in combat, much like in this game's immediate technological predecessor, Command & Conquer: Generals, which can be spent to unlock support powers from the Palantir, which in turn form a special tech tree as they act as prerequisites for each other.

The game has two singleplayer campaigns, one for the Good factions and one for the Evil ones. Both are played on a meta-map, as the player chooses which area to take control of next, and each area bringing a different bonus for future skirmishes. The storyline follows the events of the Lord of the Rings films, and some key moments feature clips from the films themselves in the control interface.