Plenty of imagination had to be used to implement the story's heros. One interesting twist is that heroes in the game don't really die, they can always be resurrected back at the castle - for a price, of course. In skirmishes you will find Rohan fighting Gondor, Saruman scrapping with Nazgul, and even Gandalf throwing fireballs at himself. All of this results in some delightfully unthinkable senarios for a Lord of the Rings purist, but it a can be terrific fun watching an Ent smash Pippin with a boulder.
It wouldn't be Lord of the Rings without a vast array of magical spells and special abilities at your disposal. On top of the fancy moves of the Heros, you have the Powers of Good and Evil, which are the fantasy equivalent of the nukes and ion beams of earlier strategy games. These powers are earned through combat, and range from temporary production increases to summoning a Balrog to breathe fire on the enemy.
To be honest, I'm not a big fan of nuke-like powers in multiplayer RTS games. These games should be about strategy on the battlefield, not simply a race to reach a certain tech level. With all its Heros and Powers, BFME doesn't completely avoid this problem, but at least they haven't put in a bunch of direct-damage Powers akin to those of C&C Generals. While you commonly summon allies to come to your aid, once they appear it is up to you to see that they are deployed effectively.
I do have some doubts about just how balanced the various sides in this game are. Wins and losses on the official ladder are quite evenly distributed right now, but I would say winning with Mordor is more difficult than winning with Gondor. Gandalf is arguably the best Hero in BFME, which wouldn't be so bad if he weren't reinforced by certain Powers of Good that seem considerably better than anything available on the Evil end. While Gondor and Rohan get useful bonuses like Heal, Elven Allies, Rohan Allies, Ent Allies, Eagle Allies, and an unstoppable Army of the Dead, many of the evil powers simply boost production, which is perfectly useless when you've reached your command limit and you need to bust a castle.
In any case, considering the wide range of units in BFME, it plays out better than you might expect, partly because the Command Point system. Since your army can only be so big, it's necessary to conduct attacks in a timely manner with the right combination of soldiers and Heros, or you may fall just short of your objectives. After players reach their Command limit they tend to accumulate large reserves of cash, which allows them to rebuild quickly unless completely vanquished. Subsequently, a match between 2 veteran players can easily drag on for hours in a sort of stalemate before one side cracks. It can, however, create some really captivating siege situations for everyone involved, and it's remarkable how reminiscent some of them are of Helm's Deep, albeit scaled down to RTS proportions.
The Bottom Line
BFME might not have enough depth to satisfy hardcore strategists, but the multiplayer portion of the game is solid, and will give most Lord of the Rings fans many hours of entertainment even if the single-player campaign doesn't appeal to them. There is something irresistable about taking control of Middle-earth in this manner, and it's hard to describe how thrilling it is to watch a veteran Troll smash its way through a group of archers, sending them flying in all directions with every swing. While is doesn't really break any new ground, or live up to Tolkien's fantasies, BFME comes through with the character and gameplay it needs to make it fun, and that's what counts.
