The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II brings extensive changes compared to the original.

The storyline follows the lesser known story of the War of the North, which took place at the same time as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The game makes use of the book license in addition to the existing license of Peter Jackson's film trilogy, which also results in some characters which were not seen in the films being present in this game. Also included are some original characters, like Gorkil and Drogoth. The campaigns are once again split to the Good and Evil, but instead of taking place on a meta-map, they are entirely linear in nature.

The game features six playable factions: Men of the West (combination of Gondor and Rohan from the first game), Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Isengard, and Mordor. The base system has been completely overhauled, allowing for free-form construction around the map. Resources are still primarily gathered by farm-type structures, but they have to be built far from each other and on suitable terrain for optimal income. Some neutral buildings like beacons, taverns and shipyards can be captured by infantrymen, much like tech structures in the later Command & Conquer games. In addition to this, production structures (unlike farm-type ones) have to be manually upgraded to be able to train higher-tier units. More units are available per faction, new support powers can be selected in the Palantir, and custom heroes can be designed and trained in skirmish and multiplayer. Taking the One Ring (from a killed Gollum unit which can occasionally appear on a map) to a fortress will allow the player to train a Ring Hero - Galadriel for the Good factions or Sauron for the Evil factions, both heroes being more powerful than any other unit in the game.

A new game mode is introduced - the War of the Ring, which is available in singleplayer and multiplayer. The player chooses a meta-map scenario and the armies which will be present on it, after which the game is played in a turn-based fashion over the regions of Middle-earth, where players establish bases and task forces. Battles between opposing factions can be resolved automatically or by loading a usual real-time mode map and playing a modified skirmish match with starting units and/or structures which match the state on the turn-based map.

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Screenshots

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II Windows In the process of building a base with the Mordor faction. I have just recruited some new orcs.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II Windows Treebeard and the ents can throw giant boulders. They are very effective against enemy buildings.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II Windows I have summoned a balrog, and the humans are trembling with fear!

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II Windows Galadriel using one of her special abilities, creating a tornado.

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Promo Images

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

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

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Trailer

Alternate Titles

"魔戒：中土戰爭Ⅱ" -- Traditional Chinese spelling
"指环王: 中土战争 II" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
"Властелин колец: Битва за Средиземье II" -- Russian spelling
"Władca Pierścieni: Bitwa o Śródziemie II" -- Polish title
"Ringenes Herre: Kampen om Midgard II" -- Norwegian title
"Ringarnas Herre: Slaget om Midgård II" -- Swedish title
"Pán Prstenů: Bitva o Středozem II" -- Czech title
"O Senhor dos Anéis: A Batalha pela Terra Média II" -- Portuguese title
"Le Seigneur des Anneaux: La Bataille pour la Terre du Milieu II" -- French title
"Il Signore degli Anelli: La Battaglia per la Terra di Mezzo II" -- Italian title
"เดอะลอร์ดออฟเดอะริงส์: แบทเทิลฟอร์มิดเดิลเอิร์ธ II" -- Thai spelling
"El Señor de los Anillos: la batalla por la Tierra Media II" -- Spanish title
"Der Herr der Ringe: Die Schlacht um Mittelerde II" -- German title
"BFME2" -- Common abbreviation
"A Gyűrűk Ura: Harc Középföldéért II" -- Hungarian title

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User Reviews

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Critic Reviews

PC Games (Germany)	Windows	Feb 20, 2006	91 out of 100	91
Gameplay (Benelux)	Windows	Feb 27, 2006	88 out of 100	88
411mania.com	Xbox 360	Jul 18, 2006	8.5 out of 10	85
ActionTrip	Windows	Mar 06, 2006	85 out of 100	85
Joystick (French)	Windows	Mar, 2006	8 out of 10	80
GameSpy	Xbox 360	Jul 07, 2006		80
Yahoo! Games	Windows	Mar 01, 2006		80
Gamesmania.de	Xbox 360	Aug 07, 2006	76 out of 100	76
Jeuxvideo.com	Xbox 360	Jul 13, 2006	13 out of 20	65
FZ	Xbox 360	Jul 13, 2006		60

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Trivia

Online Servers

Electronic Arts closed the game's online servers for the Windows version on 31st December 2010 and for Xbox 360 version on 11th January 2011.

Awards

Computer Games Magazine
- March 2007 - #3 Game of the Year
Games for Windows Magazine
- March 2007 - #7 Game of the Year
PC Powerplay (Germany)
- Issue 03/2007 – #2 Strategy Game in 2006 (Readers' Vote)

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