LoTR: Battle for Middle Earth 2 Preview

Another great change to the Battle for Middle Earth is the introduction of what Electronic Arts refers to as "tactical fidelity." Basically, it's a set of aspects of interfacing and gameplay that makes battles in the game more realistic. Starting a battle typically means putting it into formation, which you can do by just dragging the cursor upon selecting the location for a group of units to go in order to tell them the length of the line and direction that they're facing; they automatically organize themselves in formation with infantry in the front, ranged units in the back, and cavalry at the flanks. The possibility of changing the positioning of unit types is being considered by EA, which will be most useful.

Ew.

Putting a battle into motion can be done via the "planning mode." The planning mode lets to queue up a series of commands for individual or groups of units and then set all of the commands off at one time in order to execute a synchronized strategy. Whether or not players will be able to make the commands quickly enough to fight a battle effectively is unknown, but either way units are going to be duking it out. Units can fight under different stances which defer bonuses and penalties; the defensive stance gives units greater resistance to attacks but makes them less effective in attacking, for instance.

Bonuses and penalties are also deferred to units based on what direction they're being attacked from. Flanking units or attacking them from behind cuts their ability to defend themselves considerably, making it in the gamer's interest to fight with intelligent battle strategies and not just a jumbled mess of units. Additionally, units get bonuses when they're on high ground. Specifically, they have a greater sight range and attack range, the possibility of greater damage is being considered by the design team.

That's a cool lookin base.

But the final addition to tactical gameplay in Battle for Middle Earth 2 is certainly the coolest thing in the game, besides the dragons: fire. Fire can be created by the aforementioned dragons in addition to archers, siege engines, and certain spells and powers. And the best thing is, fire can be created on anything that would be flammable: grass, buildings...units. When, say, an infantry unit gets hit with a flaming arrow, he'll burst into flames and catch everything around him on fire, including the ground he's on. The fire will spread from the ground to other nearby units and buildings, burning for some time, typically based on the real world flammability of the object; dead trees burn far longer than green grass and anything else you would expect.

Among the coolest looking things to burn are the ships in BFME2. Naval warfare has been added to the game, and it's pretty cool just to watch. Sails burst into flames, masts break off, all kinds of fun is had. Plus, you can garrison units onto the ships; if you have archers on them, they fire a hell of a lot more arrows. Only thing is, naval battles aren't getting a whole lot of focus on the game, they almost seem like a side addition to the existing game. I get a feeling that there won't even be an islands map on its release, which would be disappointing.

Mirkwood archer, baby.

A side addition to the existing game that may be interesting is "The One Ring" game type, where you can decide to build up your base and train an army or spend those resources chasing around little ring-bearing Gollum, getting the ring, and using it to train an uber expensive Sauron or Galadriel. Either one can rip through an absolutely ridiculous amount of soldiers, and even better, Sauron explodes when he dies, like he did in the movie. Sweet action.

Next: Making heroes, Living World Map, and conclusion
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