It's a bit hard to distinguish that this is all supposed to be taking place in the distant past of Middle-earth. The Angmar faction doesn't look or feel all that different from the existing evil factions in Battle for Middle-earth II. The men and elves that you battle against are also almost the same as before. Meanwhile, the graphics, while still pretty, haven't changed much. If you were hoping for a more epic feel to the gameplay, you'll find that the scale remains the same. You command armies that consist of battalions of a dozen or more units each. This is in line with the previous Battle for Middle-earth games, though nowhere near the scale of the battles seen in the movies.
The turn-based strategic layer sports a few improvements, notably the ability to transfer armies from real-time battles to the strategic map.
The War of the Ring dynamic campaign, which lets you try to conquer all of Middle-earth as one of the factions, has been improved to eliminate some of the issues found in the core game. For instance, armies can now move twice per turn if in friendly territory, which helps eliminate some of the tedium of moving armies around the map. There's also some persistence between the real-time battles and the turn-based strategic campaign; you can transfer units created in battle to the map, provided that you have enough money to support them. This helps address one of the biggest issues with the original campaign because there was a very sharp disconnect between what you did in battles and what you did in the strategic campaign. Still, this isn't a particularly deep campaign when compared to some of the turn-based strategic layer found in something like Medieval 2: Total War. For example, the scale of the overall campaign isn't that large, considering the number of provinces and the fact that there are only two or three build slots in each province. The campaign does offer a dynamic single-player experience, and you can play a number of War of the Ring scenarios (based on the events of the movie) or the historical Arnor campaign, which features Angmar, men, and elves.
The single-player skirmish mode lets you pit all the factions against each other, and you can play with up to seven other artificial intelligence factions. Multiplayer supports online skirmish for eight, and that's certainly where the bulk of the action will be found. Battle for Middle-earth fans will appreciate the Angmar faction and what it brings to the skirmish table. The addition of dwarven heroes and other units for the existing factions helps balance things out even more. Meanwhile, the dynamic campaign remains playable in multiplayer as well, though the amount of time required makes this an option for only the most serious and dedicated of players.
If you enjoy playing Battle for Middle-earth II online and want to keep up with the rest of the multiplayer crowd, purchasing the expansion is a no-brainer. For casual fans, this expansion is purely optional. For single-player fans, there's nothing here that's particularly compelling, unless you're a huge fan of Middle-earth.
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