Twenty years on, the licensed real-time strategy spin on Middle-earth still holds up better than its reputation suggests

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II arrived in 2006 with a problem the first game never solved. Electronic Arts had a film trilogy to lean on and a strategy series to grow, and the sequel finally stopped treating Tolkien’s northern map as a footnote. Developed by EA Los Angeles and published by Electronic Arts, the game shipped for PC in March 2006 and for Xbox 360 that July. It is a real-time strategy title, and it is the best one the license has produced.

Trailer, via NickRTSC.

Glorfindel and the Mouth of Sauron

The story splits into Good and Evil campaigns. The Good campaign follows Glorfindel, an Elf warned of a planned attack on the Elven sanctuary of Rivendell. With the Dwarves and other Good forces, the Elves set out to eliminate Sauron and his army. The Evil campaign runs the other direction: Sauron sends the Mouth of Sauron and the Nazgûl to gather wild Goblins, then moves to destroy the remaining Good forces in the North.

Neither campaign is a retelling of the films, and that is the point. The game sets itself in the northern regions of Middle-earth during the War of the Ring, and it takes liberties. Tom Bombadil, a merry and mysterious hermit who never fights in the novel, is given a combat role here. The Hobbit supplies the Giant Spiders of Mirkwood. Nine fixed missions per campaign, on Easy, Medium or Hard, are stitched together with narrated cutscenes.

Building Without Limits

The mechanics are where The Battle for Middle-earth II separates itself from its 2004 predecessor. Players build a base with structures to produce units, gather resources, research upgrades and mount defenses. Victory comes from eliminating every enemy unit-producing structure. The change that matters: you can build an unlimited number of structures anywhere on the map.

That freedom reshapes how matches play. Walls exist, but only within a certain proximity to your fortress. Arrow and catapult towers go up on building plots around a fortress for defensive support. Each faction’s fortress carries a unique power unlocked by buying the necessary upgrades. The HUD, called the Palantír, tracks hero units and their abilities, a mini-map and objectives.

Infantry, Pikemen, Cavalry, Siege

Units fall into classes: infantry, ranged, pikemen, cavalry or siege. Each has strengths and weaknesses, so matching units properly in battle decides fights. Hero units are limited to one of each. The roster pulls from the novels — Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Saruman, the Nazgûl, the Mouth of Sauron, Arwen, the Witch-king of Angmar, Shelob — alongside creations like Gorkil the Goblin King and Drogoth the Dragon Lord. The Hero Creator is only accessible via the PC version.

Kill Gollum, a non-player character, and you are rewarded with the One Ring.

The Northern Theater

Defend or overtake never before seen lands such as Dol Guldur, The Misty Mountains, and Mirkwood as you unleash powerful new weapons and abilities, such as summoning dragons.

That line from the game’s own description is not marketing noise. The northern theater is the sequel’s real subject, and the Elven, Dwarven and Goblin factions are what the campaigns are built around. The first game retread ground the films had already covered. This one goes where the films did not.

The Multiplayer Problem

Reviews at the time praised how well the game folded the Lord of the Rings universe into a real-time strategy frame. The criticism landed on multiplayer balance. That complaint holds up. Unlimited construction anywhere on the map gives aggressive players tools that defensive players cannot reliably answer, and the faction differences that make the campaigns interesting make competitive matches lopsided.

A Collector’s Edition shipped alongside the standard release with bonus material and a documentary about development.

Why the North Matters

What The Battle for Middle-earth II gets right is scope discipline. It lets you command the Elves and Dwarves rather than watching them. Summoning dragons, fighting through Dol Guldur and the Misty Mountains, fielding heroes the trilogy never put on screen — this is the license being used instead of displayed.

The liberties are the interesting part. Bombadil in combat is a strange call, and it will bother anyone who wants the game to respect the text. But the game is not pretending to be the book. It is a strategy title wearing the book, and it wears it well.

The balance issues are real and they are not small. A strategy game lives on its multiplayer, and this one’s is uneven enough that the campaigns carry more weight than they should. That is the difference between a great game and a very good one.

Two years after EA’s first attempt at this series, The Battle for Middle-earth II is the version of the idea that works. The base building is freer, the map is new, and the factions finally feel like choices rather than skins. The multiplayer keeps it from the top tier.

2006 games · EA Los Angeles · Lord of the Rings · Middle-earth · retro review · RTS