Lord of the RingsTM : The Battle for Middle Earth Full Strategy Guide Current Version : 1.

01 ***************************************************************************** Use Ctrl + F to search things up in this guide! Type the name of the area you want to find (e.g 1. Introduction) and you will find the section you want to view. Contents Table: 1. Version Info 2. Introduction i. Intro ii. Copyright iii. E-mails 3. Good Campaign Walkthrough 4. Evil Campaign Walkthrough ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** 1. Version Info ***************************************************************************** 1.01 Early version, the guide is far from finished. Try to remember that although I spend as much time as I can on the guide, I have schoolwork, a social life and a website to run, so please be patient with updates. I'm going to finish the Good Campaign Walkthrough and then the Evil Walkthrough before doing unit and hero information. The guide here is pretty detailed, which is another reason it takes a long time to get done. ***************************************************************************** 2. Introduction i. Intro Hi, and thanks for checking out my Walkthrough. I noticed there wasn't any guide s out for the game, so I thought I would make one, covering the games single player missions, basic strategies for multiplayer skirmishes and much more. It takes a lot of time from my already busy life to do this guide, so although updates will come as fast as they can be made, bear with me. Onto the game itself, Battle for Middle Earth is a RTS (Real Time Strategy game) for the PC, based on the Lord of the Rings film trilogy made by Peter Jackson. The game may not live up to the epic scale of the movies (or the epic scale we were expecting) but it is a well made, beautifully polished

game nonetheless. EA have a bad track record of leaving their games to rot, but we have been promised ongoing support for BFME into the distant (ok near) future. I started writing this guide at the end of December 2004, and at this point in time, we are expecting a patch in January, and are currently playing the original release of the game. The strategies written for the various missions in this guide are based on playing the game on normal, which wasn't the original plan, but the game on hard should be incredibly similar in objectives and planned events. Lastly, I hope you enjoy my guide, and be sure to e-mail me with any comments (Im not going to write a "what not to send" section, at least for now, but lets be sensible with the e-mails guys) and you will almost certainly receive a reply. Mentality, Michael Harris ii. Copyright This document is copyrighted material of Michael Harris and may not be used without the permission of Michael Harris. Anyone found violating this copyright is punishable by law and I will pursue any cases where my work is being used without permission so please don't! Copyright 2004-2005 Michael Harris iii. E-Mails I gladly receive any e-mails with regards to this guide, BFME or questions or comments covering various things, but if you send me an e-mail with an attachment it will not be opened, abusive e-mails will be read and will most likely amuse me, and will probably be forwarded for many others to laugh at, but any e-mails you do send WILL receive a reply. If you would like to host the guide on your site, then please e-mail me and I will most likely give you permission to use it. You can e-mail me at mentality[dot]bfmeguide[at]gmail[dot]com. ************************************************************************* ************************************************************************* 3. Good Campaign I'm writing this guide based on NORMAL difficulty mode, so if you are playing on a different difficulty level, and this guide seems to give incorrect information, that's probably why. The games AI is, to be totally honest, pitiful, and I would advise playing the game on hard. However, I expected most people would play the game on normal, so I chose to write the guide based on that. This is the contents page for the good campaign, showing the order of the battles you may take part in. At times you have choices to take part in various different ANCILLARY BATTLES. These are much like skirmishes. They give you various rewards, such as an increased pop limit, or evenstar power points. Towards the end of the campaign you get a chance to play every ancillary battles you haven't yet played, so at the points where you choose between battles to fight, I will write about which battle would be the best to choose, and then the guide for it. Not too difficult :D 3.1 Mines of Moria

3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.36

(Ancillary) Lothlorien (Ancillary) Amon Hen (ancillary) Eaves of Fangorn (ancillary) (ancillary) Helm's Deep Isengard Northern Ithilien (ancillary) (ancillary) Osgiliath Shelob's Lair Minas Tirith (ancillary) (ancillary) (ancillary) - 3.35 (ancillarys) Black Gate

------------------------------------------------------------------------3.1 Mines of Moria - Guide the Fellowship through the halls of Moria - Gandalf and Frodo must remain alive - Destroy the Balrog Rewards : 1 Evenstar Point ------------------------------------------------------------------------After the long loading time, and the small video sequence, you find yourself in a small room, with the fellowship of the ring. Firstly you will want to group the heroes into small squads. Click on Gandalf and press ctrl + 1. Now, when you press 1 it will auto select Gandalf. Now set Legolas as group 2, and set Aragorn, Gimli and Boromir to group 3. Select each hobbit, and change them to rock throwing mode, and make them group 4. Generally in this mission, you will want the melee group (3) to attack, while 4 and 2 back them up, and Gandalf uses his magic. Gandalf is also a strong melee fighter, so use him in close combat too. Before you begin, click the Evenstar button in the bottom left (which has a number 1 on it) and purchase the elven gifts upgrade, which makes your heroes stronger. Anyway, onto the game. 1. In the room ahead of you there is a rank boosting icon, a shield with some spears behind it. Kill the couple of pathetic goblins with your melee heroes, or Legolas, or the hobbit or whatever, they are incredibly weak, and then allow Gandalf to pick up the upgrade, levelling him up to level 2. 2. Run forward and you will reach a bridge over a large pit in the ground,a mithril mine. At this point, you might want to try to spread the experience around. Try letting the hobbits get some of the kills, and ensure no hero is

left out. This allows them all to level up eqeually, although Legolas may get ahead, which is fine. Anyway, afew goblins run over the bridge, and set the hobbits on them, which their rocks enabled. 3. Once over the bridge, you will be attacked by a slightly larger group of goblins. You still wont need any of the heroes special powers, so set Legolas and the hobbits on them, while Gandalf and group 3 attack. Allow Gimli to pick up the nearby upgrade, meaning he can use his leap attack, which knocks back enemies in a certain area. Once the goblins are all dead, rest and make sure your heroes have their health at full before proceeding. 4. In the next room 2 hordes of goblins come your way, so use Gandalf and group 3 to take them out. Now send Gimli and Legolas (2) into the Northern room, using Legolas' Hawk Strike and Gimli's Throwing Axe to wound the troll. Now send the whole fellowship in there, and fight off the troll and the small group of goblins at the end of the room. Choose a hero to pick up the veterancy upgrade. 5. Head back into the room to the South, then continue West to encounter 4 hordes of goblins. Use Gandalf's Wizard Blast ability to send them flying to their deaths. Pick off the remaining enemies from a distance with the hobbits rock throwing abilities, and Legolas' skill with a bow. 6. Up the long set of stairs there is another veterancy upgrade, guarded by afew puny goblins. Send Legolas to despatch them and then if he isn't yet level 2, upgrade him. If he is, make sure Aragorn and Gimli are Level 2, and if they are too, pick who to upgrade. Now run down the steps, into Balins tomb to the East. 7. Things start to get a bit hectic now with hordes of goblins and the odd cave troll coming at you. Set groups 1 and 3 at the entry point to the room, to stem the flow of goblins, while groups 2 and 4 sit behind throwing rocks and shooting arrows at the swarming enemies. Use Aragorn's Blademaster ability if available to boost his strength, Gimli's leap for good area damage and Gandalf's wizard blast and lightning sword. When you see a troll, use Gimli's throwing axe and Legolas' Hawk Strike to weaken him. Once you have defeated this wave of enemies, the North East wall is smashed down, and more enemies enter. 8. Some cave trolls enter now, along with more and more goblins. Use whatever abilities available to you, including Aragorn's athelas if you are getting low on health. If you have another Evenstar point, buy heal, and use it if your heroes get low on HP. Have the hobbits throw rocks at the trolls, and then the goblins, and have Legolas do something similar. Once you have killed this wave of enemies, stay where you are until you have recovered your health. 9.

When you advance into this room, be sure to take your time. Sit near the entrance to the great hall, and let the first group of enemies come towards you. They make easy pickings for your front line of melee fighters, and the ranged units behind. Next, run ahead into the room, and use Legolas' Hawk Strik and Gimli's Axe Throw to damage the troll, and then finish him off with all your heroes. Destroy the goblins in which ever way seems best to you, and choose a hero to grab the veterancy upgrade. Now STOP and REST until your forces abilities have recharged, along with their health. 10. Run down the stone steps towards the birgde of Khazad-Dum, as Gandalf instructs you to. Once you reach the first turning point, some Goblin archers appear, but ignore them and continue running down the stairs, blasting the goblins who run towards you out with the way with Gandalf's Wizard Blast. As you reach the bottom of the steps, you reach a demon of the underworld, a Balrog of Morgoth. 11. When the Balrog rises up out of the ground, the Fellowship run over the bridge, leaving Gandalf to stay behind to battle this monster. This battle is very easy if you are careful. Start off by using Gandalf's Lightning Sword ability to deal damage to the Balrog. While it recharges, run around in circles, keeping the Balrog moving, and not allowing him to attack. Continue running away, using Lightning Sword and then running away again until he is brought down. If Gandalf runs low on health use the Heal power, which can be purchased, if not already, by clicking the Evenstar icon on the palantir (bottom left corner). Once the Balrog has been defeated you get a nice big blue sign saying "Victory". When you return to the world map choose Rohan as the territory to attack with Eomer's army. You should choose this because it has a decent reward for completion, 20 more command points.

------------------------------------------------------------------------3.2 Rohan - Destroy all evil forces - BONUS : Garrison the ruined towers with yeoman archers - BONUS : Rank Eomer one level Rewards : + 20 Command Points ------------------------------------------------------------------------This mission is quite important, as you can build the base of the army you will be using for many missions to come. Do NOT finish this mission until you have reached your command limit ONLY with Riders of Rohan. The Yeoman Archers you garrison do not count towards the limit, and if you save the peasants, then they should be sacrificed, so as not to waste the command limit. Also note that attacking units or buildings doesn't give experience DESTROYING does i.e the last unit to attack a building before it is destroyed gains the experience. Keep this in mind when ranking Eomer (let you army attack, but pull back and let Eomer finish the building off). 1. Start off by building two farms on plots in your base. Next, send Eomer and one

battalion of riders to the north east, where you can find another building plot, on which you should now build a farm. Now, using Eomer and the same battalion (which you can make into group 1, by highlighting and pressing ctrl +1) run South East, where you will find some peasants. Send the peasants back to you base.

2. Check your resources that have been collected. If you can afford one, build another farm in your base. Run South East with group 1 and you will find a small cave with goblins surrounding and defending it. Note you are close to the enemies base now, and you are highly likely to meet enemy units. If you do, tell your cavalry to run to a point slightly behind them, and they will run through them, bowling them over in the process. Destroy the goblins, and build a farm on the nearby plot. Now run back to your base. 3. Build another farm at your base, and then an archery range. Once the archery range is complete, send two battalions of yeoman archers towards the towers in the middle of the map, and garrison them inside. This completes the BONUS objective. Send some rohirrim to the south west to build a farm on the building plot, then move on again to find some peasants. Now you should be at/near your command limit, so send the peasants into the enemies base, ensuring they are killed in the process. This should free up some space, so build a stable at your base, and begin to build Riders of Rohan. 4. Once you are at your pop cap, and you have a small army of Riders, run South East and make an attack on their base. If Eomer is rank 1, make sure he gets ranked up by letting him destroy a couple of buildings on his own (let him finish them off). Destroy his base to complete the mission.

------------------------------------------------------------------------3.3 Lothlorien Move the Fellowship to Lothlorien Build a barracks and train Elven Warriors Prepare for an attack by Goblins and Cave Trolls Destroy all Lumber Mills

Rewards : + 50 Command Points and + 1 Evenstar Point -------------------------------------------------------------------------When you start at Lothlorien, group your heroes in a similar fashion tothe groupings in moria. Set Gandalf to hotkey 1, Legolas to 2, Aragorn, Gimli and Boromir to 3 and the hobbits to 4. When the elven warriors arrive to escort you to lothlorien, set them to group 5. 1. As soon as the mission starts, afew hordes of goblins attack from the North. Have the hobbits attacking with rock, group 3 fighting with Gandalf and Legolas

and the elves supporting. Easy. 2. Move South down the path towards the bridge into Lothlorien and you will be ambushed. Kill these pathetic goblins easily, then continue down the path, till you reach the bridge which is guarded by Elven warriors. As soon as you get over the bridge, build an elven barracks, and set a hobbit to group 6, and send him around the map to collect treasure to fund more elven warriors. Now get one battalion of elven warriors guarding the south west bridge to cross the bridge, and head west, and destroy the lumber mill. Tell the elves at the North East of the level to cross the bridge and attack the two lumber mills at the top of the map. 3. Build a second elven barracks on the building plot slightly to the east of the first one, and start producing elves. Send your troops to the north west bridge, making all the elves group 5. Soon a small evil army will attack, pushing across the bridge. Use the elves, legolas (use Hawk Strike) and Gimli's axe throw to kill any trolls, while your melee fighters kill the puny goblins. When you get a second, send the hobbit hotkeyed to 6 to collect some more treasure, and ensure the elves at the west and north of the map pick up the treasure left by the lumber mills. 4. Soon a second wave of enemies will cross the north western bridge. Use Aragorn's athelas ability if needed, and use all your heroes powers to stem the flow of trolls and goblins. 5. One more wave of trolls and goblins come at you now, so use the same tactics as before to destroy them. Soon you will be warned of an attack on the South West bridge, so move your armies down there. 6. Use the same tactics as you are used to here and you should have no problems. Soon after, run to the north west bridge, where you should use all available abilities to take down the enemies rushing towards you. I like Aragorns blademaster ability here, along with gimli's leap and all the others we've come to know and love :). Once you destroy this wave, the game is over, unless you didn't destroy the lumber mills earlier. If you didn't, go find them! ------------------------------------------------------------------------3.4 Westfold - Destroy all Evil buildings - BONUS : Build Six farms - BONUS : Level up Eomer one rank Rewards : + 10% resources

-------------------------------------------------------------------------This mission is very important, as you can now begin to upgrade your troops! I can't emphasize enough, how much easier the game will be for you if you end this mission with a full army of fully upgraded troops. You can't get fire arrows, so don't try ;) 1. Build two farms, send a scouting party out to the plot to the south-west, you know the deal. Destroy the lumber mill, to start on the destroy all evil buildings objective, and build a farm. 2. Head North West to destroy another lumber mill and build another farm. Now go North East and destroy that lumber mill, and build a farm. Do the same with the plot to the North West. You should have a fairly good economy now (if you have built acouple more farms in your base) so build a stable when you can. Get two battalions of Rohirrim archers, and make the rest of your army normal rohirrim. 3. When you have a fairly large army, take the outpost to the left of the first expansion you took, or the East of the last one you took. Either way, build a couple of farms, and an armoury, and get all the possible upgrades, and upgrade all your troops. DO NOT DESTROY THE ENEMY UNTIL YOUR ARMY IS FULLY UPGRADED. Please :). 4. Once you have a full army, fully upgraded with heavy armour, forged blades (Where applicable) and banner carriers, go and destroy the enemy. You should have no problems taking him down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------3.5 Amon Hen - Frodo and Sam must survive Rewards : + 20 Command points -------------------------------------------------------------------------I like this mission, I like most of the heroes only missions :). Be sure to use your heroes abilities to full effect, and the heal power can be very useful if you have it. The enemies are incredibly weak, and if your Legolas is level 4+ (like mine) he will take Uruks out with one arrow. Ouchie. 1. You start the mission on a hill top with Gandalf, Aragorn, Frodo and Sam. Set the hobbits to rock throwing mode, and make Frodo and Gandalf group 1, and Sam and Aragorn team 2. Put one team on each side of the hill, one fighting enemies on the east side, one on the west. Don't use Gandalf's Wizard Blast, but you can use Blademaster if you want :).

2. Now your drawn over to Legolas and Gimli who are fighting of Uruks and need your help immediately (despite the fact they are clearly coping just fine) so head over to them. On the way you will meet two trolls. Use Gandalfs powers to deal with them, with the hobbits giving support with the rocks. Now WAIT. Let Legolas and Gimli fight off the Uruks until they stop coming, and wait again until your units are healed and abilities are recharged. 3. As soon as those Uruks have been killed, you are attacked by Wargs. If your heroes are decently levelled, this should be a breeze. Legolas could easily take them out alone, but use the others so the experience is shared. 4. Soon after the Wargs are defeated, you hear Boromir calling for aid and some orcs running towards you. DON'T PANIC, and don't run off to boromir. He will not begin losing life until he enters your view, so take your time. Kill any nearby enemies, and begin to move forward. Uruk crossbowmen will attack you from a hilltop, so deal with them with your ranged units. When you are READY, move forward towards Boromir. You will see him being attacked by Uruks and frozen to the stop. First thing to do is to get Gimli to use his Axe Throw and get Legolas to use his Hawk Strike on Lurtz, while you use Boromir's Horn of Gondor or Frodo's Phial of Galadriel to scare away the Uruks. Then concentrate your ranged units fire on him (keep the hobbits out of the way here). If Boromir gets low on health, use Aragorn's Athelas or your heal ability. Finish off anyremaining units, then stop and wait till abilities / health have recharged. 5. You are now told to secure the boat in the North-East corner of the map, so Frodo and Sam can escape across the river. Make sure your units are all fully healed and have fully recharged abilities, and run North-East to encounter a seemingly powerful army. However, with all your heroes at hand, the fight is easy. Sit the two hobbits behind your force of heroes, and set them to rock throwing mode. One of the biggest faults you could make here is to underestimate the power of hobbits. They can do serious damage at higher levels, killing many units with one rock. Now, don't run forward, let the enemy run to you. Use Gandalfs Wizard Blast, Gimli's Leap, Gandalf's Lightning sword, Aragorn's Blademaster, Gimli's Axe throw... You get the idea ;) Just kill the army, and then run Frodo and Sam to the boat completing the mission. ------------------------------------------------------------------------3.6 West Emnet - Destroy all Evil Forces - BONUS : Purchase Heavy Armour for three battalions - BONUS : Level Eomer up one rank Rewards : + 20 Command points and +10% Resources -------------------------------------------------------------------------I chose the West Emnet mission due to the much better rewards than the other option. This mission is where ancillary battles get EASY. If my tactic doesn't work for you, you could always dig in, build farms, build units, whatever. You

should have absoloutely no problems in this battle. 1. You SHOULD start the level with a large army of fully upgraded units. From now on, in every mission where you aren't at your command limit, build Rohirrim archers instead of Rohirrim. Although they may seem weak at the moment, eventual they will be upgraded with fire arrows, at which point they can be almost unstoppable in numbers. Anyway, go for the 2 farms as usual, and build a stable ASAP. 2. While these creeps, and a battalion Due to your are building, send Eomer and some Rohirrim Archers out to kill the rank Eomer up a level, or begin to. Once the stable is ready, build of Rohirrim Archers, then attack his base at the North of the map. huge army of upgraded Riders, this attack should be incredibly easy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------3.7 Eaves of Fangorn Destroy Destroy Call in BONUS : BONUS : all Evil Forces and Buildings Lumber Mills to get Ents Eomer's army when he arrives Rescue Merry and Pippin Level up 3 battalions

Rewards : + 30 Command points and +10% Resources -------------------------------------------------------------------------This mission is quite hard to write a guide for, due to the complicated style of play, having to go around killing different Lumber Mills. If you followed my advice in previous missions when Eomer's army arrives you should have a very powerful army, with many fire archers, and regular rohirrim. During the mission, don't attack with your Ents and rohirrim at the same time! The area damage of the Ents can be INCREDIBLY damaging. If you see any Uruk Pikemen you MUST USE YOUR ARCHERS TO KILL THEM. Rohirrim will be totally slaughtered. 1. You start off with a small "scout party" riding ahead of Eomer's army. Do NOT lose these soldiers. They are faster, so they can run away! Make use of this. Until Eomer's army arrives, grab the outpost to the east of where you begin. Build two farms and a well. The well is extremely useful in this mission. retreat here if you have any trouble. Begin attacking the enemy expansions. There's one to the South East of the outpost. Run in, destroy it, and run away. You now have your first Ent. 2. Use the Ent to go East, and destroy some Lumber Mills on the East of the river. There's also some cave trolls at the very South East of the map you could take care of now. Use your Rohirrim to head west from the outpost, to find another outpost, which you want to build a farm, a well and an heroic statue. DON'T cross the river to the North. 3.

After Four and a half minuts, Eomer arrives! USe his army to cross the Northern river and find Merry and Pippin. Attack the nearby Uruks, making sure any pikemen are taken out by archers. This allows Merry and Pippin to escape into the forest. While you send your Ents to attack any remaining Lumber Mills at the North East of the map, use your Rohirrim to easily destroy his base. If any of your battalions get damaged, send them back to a well. You don't want to let your experienced upgraded battalions die! 4. After you have destroyed his base, run around the map searching for any surviving Lumber Mills. Destroy them, and the mission is finished! ------------------------------------------------------------------------3.8 East Emnet - Destroy all Evil Forces Rewards : + 20 Command points -------------------------------------------------------------------------This is another turning point in the game. For one thing, this guide takes a route you might not want to take. This is the path of fire arrows. Fire arrows do a huge amount of damage when used correctly, but if you want you could just stick to regular Rohirrim. The choice is yours, but if you follow this guide, you should have no problems with the game :) On another note, wild wargs roam the area, so if you leave any exapnsions or your base undefended it could become an easy target. 1. Start off by building ALL farms in your camp, while expanding. This should be one of the last missions where you need to build up, so have some patience :P Careful for the wargs, and ASAP find the two outposts to the right of your main camp, and build a well, archery range, and armoury. Check your pop cap. You need at least 15 slots free, which should be fine because the last mission awarded you with 20. Once you have some cash, order 4 battalions of Yeoman archers from the Archery Range. As soon as one is built, throw it at the enemy, so it doesn't waste your population cap. Trust me. 2. After 4 battalions have been built, the archery range will move to Rank 2. Now, finally, you can purchase the fire arrows upgrade. Buy it, and move the nearby outpost, and build a farm, well and stable. Fill the rest of your pop cap with Rohirrim archers. Ideally, you would have an army thats half fully upgraded Rohirrim, half fully upgraded Rohirrim Archers, so purcahse all upgrades from the armour, and try to make this happen. 3. Now you have a strong army of Rohirrim (make sure all yeoman archers are dead) you can attack the enemies base. Hopefully you have afew battalions of very strong Rohirrim by now (rank 3-7 hopefully) and some strong fully upgraded Rohirrim archers. This should be a breeze :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.9 Eastfold Destroy BONUS : BONUS : Bonus : all Evil Forces and Buildings Defeat Uruk-Hai reinforcement army Purchase Heavy Armour for Three Battalions Level up Three Batallions

Rewards : + 20 Command points and +10% Resources -------------------------------------------------------------------------This mission can be difficult. Although you are a fair away from your pop cap at this point, it's not wise to let the reinforcement army arrive. There's lots of pikemen, so it is best to just attack his base from the start. 1. The best option here is to run STRAIGHT to his base in the very top left of the map, so head that way, building farms in your base in case something goes wrong. Attack his base with your large army and don't let any battalions die. It SHOULD be very easy. 2. If his reinforcement army arrives, then run to your base, and try to use your Rohirrim archers to kill the pikes, while you don't let them reach you. Hopefully you won't need to do this however.

************************************************************************* 4. Evil Campaign Walkthrough ************************************************************************* **Finishing Good campaign walkthrough first :D***