History VideoGame / TheBattleForMiddleEarth

* AdaptationExpansion: Of the Peter Jackson films, as ''BFMEII'' features many elements of the Legendarium not in the movies, showing the battles of Dale and Mirkwood; and featuring Tom Bombadil, Gloin, Dain, and Glorfindel as heroes. The expansion pack has Barrow-Wights as an Angmar reinforcement summon.
** The second game’s plot is also an expansion on [[AllThereInTheManual Tolkien’s various writings]] about the northern theater of the War of the Ring, while its expansion covers the wars between Angmar and Arnor.

** Arguably, the premise of ''BFMEII'' can also be this, as it revolves around what happened in the north after Frodo and the Fellowship left Rivendell.

* AdaptationalBadass: In the original, Éowyn was in combat only once (but achieving more than most soldiers in middle earth, by killing the Witch-King). Here, once unlocked she can go to all the combats her heart cries for.

** Arguably the premise of ''BFMEII'' can also be this, as it revolves around what happened in the north after Frodo and the Fellowship left Rivendell.

* ActionGirl: Éowyn in both games, Arwen and Galadriel in ''BFMEII''. The Hero Editor of ''BFMEII'' allows to create one (Elvish Archer and Rohan Maid).

* AdaptationExpansion: Of the Peter Jackson films, as ''BFMEII'' features many elements of the Legendarium not in the movies, showing the battles of Dale and Mirkwood; and featuring Tom Bombadil, Gloin, Dain, and and Glorfindel as heroes. The expansion pack has Barrow-Wights as an Angmar reinforcement summon.

** During the campaigns of ''BFME'', this limit is gradually increased when controling specific territories. The maximum is the same as the multiplayer / skirmish one.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: All across the board, so much so that it's easier to list the exceptions. With the dwarfs, Gimili is a stronger fighter than their highest rank hero King Dain. In the Men of the West faction, Aragorn is the strongest melee fighter and has no official rank, his design being based on before he became king of Gondor.

* TheBerserker: It is one of the Isengard units. One of Gimli skills is also described like this.

* BlackMagic: The Angmar Sorceror unit is based on this; he's surrounded by a contingent of acolytes which he sacrifices to do things like make rotting corpses fall from the sky and suchlike.

** The ring power allows the player to be at one point of the map, and deploy temporary forces somewhere else: elves, rohirim, eagles, ents, ghosts, etc. The evil side only has the balrog, which is the most expensive power and can only be used late in the game. Keep in mind that the good factions' are supposed to balanced by their units being stronger and more expensive than the evil factions, these powers counter what is supposed to be the good factions' main weakness.

** In both games, most of them use the game engine. Some of the ''BFMEII'' ones include unmoving pictures from the game converted in a style reminescent of the [[http://www.john-howe.com/portfolio/gallery/ John Howe drawings]]

* DeathFromAbove: Eagles and Nazgûl mounting Fell Beasts in both games. ''BFMEII'' adds the dragon Drogoth for Goblins, the ability for the Mordor fortress to hurl a giant volcanic rock, and several general powers (burning sunrays, rain of arrows or burning rocks).

** Remember that part in ''Return of the King'' where the orcs launch severed heads at Minas Tirrith as a psychological warfare tactic? This is the Mordor Catapult's special ability in [=BfME2=].

** Gimili and the dwarf faction in the sequel as a whole.

* NotTheIntendedUse: Evil factions have an ability on thier basic infantry called "Bloodthirsty" which allows them to attack friendly units to gain combat experience. The thing is, the first reward for leveling up a unit is a standard bearer, who allows a unit to regenerate lost members. [[ButtMonkey And killing experienced units gives more combat expreience.]] Meaning that a viable way to powerlevel your basic troops is to get (or buy) a standard bearer then have other units take turns attacking it until they're all max-level. FridgeBrilliance kicks in when you remember that ''this is exactly how Uruk/Orc society functions in-universe,'' and that Orc medicine is very effective, which explains why your units keep coming back.

** Killing enemies and fulfilling some seconday objectives (in campaigns) grant experience to the general, which buys powers usable on the battlefield.

** Campaign map of ''BFME'' is like this. Appart from some imposed missions relating key events of the films (Helm's Deep, Isengard siege, Cirith Ungol, etc), the player can choose to conquest the region he wants. This choice influences the reward gained at the ending of the mission (general power point, increasing the ArbitraryHeadcountLimit, or increasing the rate of generation of money)

** Later on in the first game, the enemy faction will do at the beginning of each battle. Since your units will still have their upgrades from previous battles, this tends be just sad.

* EvilVsEvil: The campaign of ''II'' features a battle between Isengard and the Goblins, and it's implied that Isengard may have been conquered by Sauron (they aren't present in any capacity in the final battle). One can also replicate these scenarios in the skirmish mode.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Remember that part in ''Return of the King'' where the orcs launch severed heads at Minas Tirrith as a psychological warfare tactic? This is the Mordor Catapult's special ability in [=BfME2=].

** Averted in the Good campaign of ''BFME'', in the Amon Hen mission rescuing Boromir before he is killed when protecting Merry and Pippin allows him to be used is the following missions of the campaign
** Also averted with heroes/enemies with relations to each other that have modifiers to ensure things go 'as they should'. For instance, The Witch-king, for all his power, can barely damage Eowyn at all. For her part, her moves have a massive damage multiplier against him, almost one-shotting him. Other examples include the Balrog having positive modifiers against Gandalf, and vice-versa. Lumberers, the weakest unit in the game, have massive damage modifiers vs Ents, and even a unique quote for the situation; "The tree's moving?!...KILL IT!"

* LastStand: The Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith missions in the ''BFME'' Good campaign are a nearly hopeless siege where the player, as the defender, must resist until TheCavalry (literally: both missions involves reinforcements from Rohan) comes. There is also the last mission of the campaign, where the player must survive against [[ZergRush endless waves of Mordor units]], until Frodo reaches Mount Doom and tosses the One Ring in it.
** Helm's Deep is vulnerable to SequenceBreaking though. The enemy waves are scripted for a straight siege and completely defenseless to cavalry raids; they can be annihilated before they reach the walls with little effort if you replace your starting structure with a stable. Even if you stay behind the walls, upgrading your archers with fire arrows allows you to set off all the bombs from a safe distance if you can stay focused, allowing you to defend indefinitely.

* NoCanonForTheWicked: Played straight with ''BFME'' and ''BFMEII'', averted with ''The Rise of the Witch-King'', being a prequel telling the story of the Witch-King of Angmar.

* CharacterNarrator: Saruman is both a playable hero and the narrator for the evil campaign.

* AdaptationExpansion: Of the Peter Jackson films, as ''BFMEII''features many elements of the Legendarium not in the movies, showing the battles of Dale and Mirkwood; and featuring Tom Bombadil, Gloin, Dain, and and Glorfindel as heroes. The expansion pack has Barrow-Wights as an Angmar reinforcement summon.

** Angmar is another major abuser of this, as the wars of Angmar are somewhat vaguely defined in canon, meaning the only named characters they had were the Witch-King and Hwaldar. The game [[OCStandIn characterizes one of the unnamed Ringwraiths as Morgomir]], and also adds in Rogash, and Karsh to represent the various Angmar factions (trolls, corrupted men, and the undead).

* GameplayAndStoryIntergration: Remember that part in ''Return of the King'' where the orcs launch severed heads at Minas Tirrith as a psychological warfare tactic? This is the Mordor Catapult's special ability in [=BfME2=].

** Any hero with the Terrible Fury skill qualifies, but special mention goes to the Fell Beasts. Expect terrified cries of "'''IT'S A NAZGUL!!!'''" from your troops whenever one shows up. [[OneManArmy And with good reason.]]

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: The games in this series are generally well received, getting decent scores from critics and fans alike.

* AdaptationExpansion: Of the Peter Jackson films. ''BFMEII'' shows the battles of Dale and Mirkwood; and features Tom Bombadil as a hero summon. The expansion pack has Barrow-Wights as an Angmar reinforcement summon.

** Arguably the premise of ''BFMEII'' can also be this, as it revolves around what happened in the north after Frodo and the Fellowship left Rivendell. Which was rarely if ever brought up in the movies themselves.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Grond, the huge battering ram used by Mordor during the Minas Tirith siege (''BFME''). It is huge, slow, very resistant, and very powerful. When the gate of the city is destroyed, Grond will stay there and block most of the path in and out of the city, providing a kind of unintentional useful device to the defenders. Grond can destroy only the door, it can not destroy the inner buildings, the walls, or even the annoying towers.

** Angmar is another major abuser of this, as the wars of Angmar are somewhat vaguely defined in canon, meaning the only named character they had was the Witch-King. The game [[OCStandIn characterizes one of the unnamed Ringwraiths as Morgomir]], and also adds in Rogash, Hwaldar, and Karsh to represent the various Angmar factions (trolls, corrupted men, and the undead).

* CutScenePowerToTheMax:

* GameMod: The game has had a ''massive'' reassurance in the modding community in the last few years, spawning several high quality mods, ranging from HD texture changers, to full on fanmade ExpansionPack, such as the famous ''Edain'' mod, and ''Age of the Ring'', which add dozens of new units, new factions, gameplay mechanics and advance graphical changes.

** One of the magical powers granted to a Good general allows to heal allied units in a small area
%%* MightyGlacier: Many being an RTS:
%%** Gimili and the dwarf faction in the sequel as a whole.
%%** Ents, especially Treebeard who functions like a stronger Ent.
%%** Trolls, particularly dangerous are Mordor's attack trolls in the sequel.
%%** Mumakils, who are by far the strongest non-special unit.
%%** The Balrog when not using his brief flight.
%%** Sauron is the top of the food chain in this.

* NoCureForEvil: The healing spells and buildings are specific to the Good factions, the only healing feature allowed to the Evil factions is the heroes automatic health regeneration.
** Angmar's sorcerer units in the third came have a spell that can heal their allies.

** Hero units, their level cap is 10, and they gain skills at specific levels
** In ''BFMEII'', players can create custom heroes (specific to each race), and choose to use one of them during multiplayer / skirmish game, and with the "War of the Ring" mode
** Most [[VeteranUnit units gain experience]] and regiments gain [[RegeneratingHealth the ability to replace fallen comrades]], their level cap is 10 in ''BFME'', and 5 in ''BFMEII''. Most units can be upgraded with gear better than their starting weapons / armors

** Killing enemies and fulfilling some seconday objectives (in campaigns) grant experience to the general, which buys powers usable on the battlefield

%%* TheSiege

* CanonForeigner: Several heroes of the evil factions: Gorkil and Drogoth for the goblins; Karsh and Rogash for Angmar.

** While Isengard remain a proper, fully playable faction in the second game, the faction only appears in a single mission in the campaign (as the antagonist).
** Gondor suffers from this too. While their units are still in the second game (the Human faction mostly consists of them, plus Rohan riders and Rohan heroes), the game is mostly focused on Elves and Dwarves (both in Good and Evil campaigns), and Humans are only playable in the tutorial.

* AscendedExtra: The Angmar hero Hwaldar was mentioned in passing [[AllThereInTheManual in the appendices]]. In the third game, he is a full-fledged hero with his own set of unique abilities and even a backstory.

** Played straight with Hero units, due to the Heroes' high hitpoints and fast out-of-combat regeneration. Even in the ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' Boromir was mortally wounded by one arrow, though he took three to the chest before he stopped fighting.

** ''BFME'' includes a few size-shrinked cutscenes extracted from the movies, displayed in the mini-map window without interrupting the actual gameplay

* OneManArmy: The Balrog, which easily wipe out whole armies or bases. Sauron is even more extreme: while he has an attack rate and movement rate so slow that he's practically taking his time with each swing, one hit from him will destroy anything a few swings at best, and he takes an absurd amount of damage before dying, and that's without using his abilities.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: The Good campaign of second game actually '''is''' the other story to the main plot line of TheLordOfTheRings, as it focuses on battles fought in the northern regions of Middle Earth just after the Fellowship left Rivendell.

* HumanResources: One of the Evil factions resource producing buildings is the slaughterhouse, which produce much when feed by your own troops. More, Mordor basic infantry is literally free: one practical way to gain easy money is to build Orc infantry, just to send them to the slaughterhouse. This only applies to the first game as resource production buildings in ''BFMEII'' with the exception of the Evil lumber mill are split by faction, with Isengard getting the furnace, Mordor retaining the slaughterhouse, the expansion-exclusive Angmar faction having mills, and Goblins getting tunnels and the Mordor basic infantry now cost money to build.

* HumanResources: One of the Evil factions resource producing buildings is the slaughterhouse, which produce much when feed by your own troops. More, Mordor basic infantry is literally free: one practical way to gain easy money is to build Orc infantry, just to send them to the slaughterhouse. This only applies to the first game as resource production buildings with the exception of the Evil lumber mill are split by faction, with Isengard getting the furnace, Mordor retaining the slaughterhouse, and Goblins getting tunnels and the Mordor basic infantry now cost money to build.