The Rise of the Witch King

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The Rise of the Witch King

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This add-on to The Battle tor Middle-Earth II explores the events between the fall of Sauron and the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring

A rich world to play in


It can safely be said that J.R.R. Tolkien's books, and the trilogy of recent films based on The Lord of the Rings, have earned a large following of fiercely loyal fans. It follows that gamers would be treated to a plethora of games dedicated to this theme, and that developers would be looking for ways to deliver several different varieties of Middle-Earth adventure. Electronic Arts, with its license to develop games based on the films, has been very active in creating new games and story-lines to further the experience for fans of the genre, as well as for newcomers to Tolkien's universe.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II: The Rise of the Witch-King is more than just a candidate for the longest game title of the year. It is an expansion of the real time strategy game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II, which came out earlier this year. TBME II gave strategy fans an opportunity to not only re-create the famous battles from the films, it also gave them complete control over numerous factions in an effort to gain complete domination of Middle-Earth. Players could command armies from the lands of Rohan, Mordor and Gondor, to name a few. It was set in the same time frame as the films, and like most good RTS games, required the players to manage their economies, build their structures and cities, and engage their enemies with massive armies of fantastic characters and creatures.

Year 1300 of the Third Age


The Rise of the Witch-King will take us back to the far reaches of history in Middle-Earth, to the thousands of years between the Battle of the Last Alliance, when Sauron was defeated and the One Ring was lost, and the War of the Ring that takes place in the events of the films. Since this is a time period that was never fleshed out in the movies, EA has been able to create a completely new vision of Middle-Earth, with evils and heroes who will be new to those not familiar with Tolkien's books. Also, gamers will be playing a single-player campaign in the role of a truly evil character, and feel the heady rush of world domination!

Evil forces of Angmar


The Witch-King is known as the most powerful of the nine Nazgul, the fearsome Ringwraiths that terrorized the Fellowship in the original trilogy of films. He is the leader of one of the new game factions, the Angmar. They are a strong, slow and yet powerful faction, similar in respect to the Dwarves in the original game. But they are actually made up of several different races, and they wield fierce and powerful new abilities. There are snow trolls, serving as monstrous cavalry. Hill trolls are able to carry siege weapons and use them on the battlefield. New units have been introduced as well. Sorcerer units roam the field surrounded by a crowd of hapless apprentices, who serve as human shields. However, more powerful magic spells will actually draw energy from the apprentices, and thus deplete their numbers, exposing the sorcerers to more danger. New spells allow dynamic control over the battle, letting players freeze units in place, or sweeping units into piles for easier targeting.