WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH - tips on playing the game

    (the following is from a post on the Lexicon Exchange - 213-690-6326)

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The object:  Defeat Sauron and his forces.

How to do it:  Move your characters around, and avoid the baddies.  Drop the
Ring in Mount Doom if possible.

You can send your people to different locations on the map, and in some places
you'll meet other character (Go to Buckland and meet Merry.. go to Bree and
gain Aragorn.. go to the forest and meet a couple elves, get to Rivendell and
gain Gandalf, Legolas, Boromir, Gimli..

You can also get special objects whcih are located in locations here and there
around the game.  This is the tough part of the game.  Send a character (or
group, in case they get attacked) to the location and then zoom in so you have
a closeup (Seeing the characters walk).. this part is slow and a pain, but then
you can pick up items.  Get more items, and you can start controlling forces of
humans, rangers, calvary, dwarves, and elves.

I found a way to get going fairly well.  Send your hobbits straight to Buckland
and get Merry.  While they're travelling, have the two forces of yours to the
far south (Faramir and 200 rangers, Eomer and a bunch of Calvary) come up and
join with your hobbits.  After you've given the commands, hit the hourglass and
turn stuff up to "very hasty".  When your hobbits get to Buckland and get
Merry, go sit in the middle of the forest there (in the square east of Buckland
there is a nice staff whcih someone can use as a weapon).  Have them sit and
wait in the middle of the forest (so the Nazguls don't get you) until your
Rangers and Calvary come up from the south.  Join them togethr, go get Aragorn,
and head east to the forest.

By this time, the Nazguls have all vanished.  When you exit the forest and
cross the river before Rivendell, they will re-appear, and will wipe out your
party under most circumstances.  This is where your Farramir/Rangers and
Eomer/Calvary come in.  Use the combat command to have all your characters
"withdraw", while you let the calvary "Charge" and the rangers "Engage" or
"Charge".. nine nazguls are no match for 300+ battle troops.  I lost about 17
altogether.

From that point, things get a bit easier.  You can walk around without fear of
the Nazguls and locate some objects to get some troops.  Look in these
locations for some helpful objects:

South of Ost-In-Edhil (South of Buckland)
North of Erebor (far east, where the Dwarves are parked).  Dwarven hammer.
East of Mt. Gundebad (east of Mt. Gram.  Orcs sitting here).  Treasure.
South of Mt. Gram. (north of Rivendell).  Mithril Armour, Red Arrow, Black
        flask.  Red Arrow is important, as it gets humans in on the action.
North of White Towers (east of Buckland/Hobbiton).  HEaling potion.
Forlond (Northwest of Hobbiton).  Palantir, which tells you where to find other
        things.  South of Forlond.
West of Annuminas (due north from Hobbiton).  Gold Sceptre, gets more humans
        in on the action.

Also look at Michel Delvins, Tuckborough, Grey Havens, Belegost, and there is
also a dagger west of the Barrow Downs (east of Buckland).

It is an enjoyable game if you can get into it, and have something to read for
the slow parts of the game.  The word protection doesn't pop up too often, but
is a pain in the ass.  I modified my game to work on a hard drive to speed
things up.



The Byter

To instruct your people to go to a location, get to the small map (not the big,
overall one).  USe the red arrow (click on it), then point and click on the
character group you want to redirect, and point and click to the location you
want them to go to.

When you get into combat, the combat options will appear.

