8 Best Lord Of The Rings Strategy Games, Ranked

There are very few fictional worlds as entrancing as Middle-Earth and few franchises as exciting to fantasy fans as The Lord of the Rings. One of the most popular book series of all time, only made even more culturally relevant by its film adaptations, this magic land of good versus evil has been the setting for plenty of video games.

The franchise’s massive battles are always climactic and memorable, so it made sense that there would eventually be strategy games set in the same universe. There have been strategy games based on LOTR since long before the movies were even in production, and then there have been plenty since, pulling from the visual style Jackson established. Games where players can insert themselves into the action that they’ve seen or read about and experience new conflicts made more cinematic than ever.

8 J. R. R. Tolkien’s Riders Of Rohan

2/5 in Computer Gaming World Magazine

• Released: 1991
• Developer: Beam Software
• Platforms: MS-DOS

The spiritual successor to War in Middle-Earth which will come later on this list, this 2D strategy game for IBM computers is for super fans only. The game is brutally difficult, requiring players to know exactly what happens in the books to be able to succeed.

Plus, due to the technical limitations of the time, the story is nonexistent, so even when players do beat levels, they will still need an encyclopedic knowledge of the source material to know what they accomplished.

7 War In Middle-Earth

3/5 in Computer Gaming World Magazine

This 1988 title is somehow not the first LOTR video game, but it is one of the first to be a success. It’s a fully 2D RTS, where orcs and knights move all over the screen in a side-scroller fashion.

It manages to include army management, heroes, a battle map, and combat animations, all cutting edge at the time, and still worth taking a look at now just to see this weird artifact in action.

6 Lord of the Rings: Tactics

64 on Metacritic

• Released: November 8, 2005
• Developer: Amaze Entertainment
• Platforms: PSP

Bizarrely, the first of two portable exclusive tactics games on this list. This PSP game plays out like Final Fantasy Tactics or X-Com, with the player controlling a squad of units and heroes in turn-based skirmishes.

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The 3D looks nice and the gameplay is shockingly deep, with a high variety of units, multiple versatile maps, and some satisfying combat animations that make the battles feel as intense as a LOTR battle should.

5 Lord Of The Rings: War Of The Ring

67 on Metacritic

• Released: November 4, 2003
• Developer: Liquid Entertainment
• Platforms: PC

Technically a reskin of an RTS game called Battle Realms, which itself was mostly considered a ripoff of Warcraft 3, this is the series’ first modern real-time strategy game. The player builds bases and develops units, then attacks and defends simultaneously using their newly formed army.

They can then also summon heroes to change the tide of the large battle. The game was a success, with players being excited by the LOTR coat of paint over familiar strategy mechanics.

4 Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (Gameboy Advance)

67 on Metacritic

While the console version of the same name was a turn-based RPG, this game was a turn-based tactics game more akin to Fire Emblem or Advance Wars. Players command squads of soldiers, often having a hero character in their party as well.

They move their troops around a 2.5D grid, and then they attack enemy troops, triggering short battle animations that take place on a different screen in rough 3D. The game is weirdly deep for a GBA exclusive and still worth checking out.

3 Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth 2 – The Rise Of The Witch-King

78 on Metacritic

Technically an expansion and not its own game, it still deserves recognition since it has an entirely new campaign and more than ten hours of new content. This expansion to the hit RTS allows players to get evil.

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Players can play as the evil side, controlling armies of orcs and other beasties. Summoning evil heroes like the Nazguls and the Balrog and watching them lay waste to human armies is an unbelievable sight that makes this expansion truly stand out as its own unique experience.

2 The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth

82 on Metacritic

The definitive LOTR RTS until, well, its sequel. This game allows players to experience the large-scale war of the franchise unlike any other, controlling a massive number of troops, defending bases, and attacking enemies all simultaneously.

Defending Helm’s Deep or battling across Gondor feels as high-stakes and large-scale as it does in the films, as heroes annihilate waves of enemy grunts. It’s no shock that this game was a massive hit.

1 The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth 2

84 on Metacritic

This follow-up had a lot to live up to, and somehow more than delivered. It brings back all of the features from the first, with tweaked mechanics and plenty of new units and structures. It also brought the franchise to consoles for the first time, by getting Xbox 360 players in on the action.

Maybe most importantly, the game ran smoother and looked better than any before it, meaning the already cinematic battles somehow reached new heights.

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