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

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth is a real-time strategy game developed by EA Los Angeles and released in 2004 for PC. Based closely on Peter Jackson's film trilogy, it incorporates footage directly from the movies and follows their events across two distinct campaigns — one in which players command the forces of good through the War of the Ring, and another in which they lead the armies of evil across Middle-earth. Gameplay blends large-scale army management with hero units in a style comparable to the Warcraft series, allowing players to direct both massed troops and named characters from the fiction. The game features multiple factions drawn from across Middle-earth, a spell tree system for customizing strategic options, and a structured base-building layout that differs from conventional RTS conventions of the period.