Are any of you guys exited about this? I'm really looking forward to it coming out, even if I don't have BfME 2....I love to read all the strategies and how players of different factions try to counter each other.

Anyways, for those who don't know about it:

The Rise of the Witch King is the new Expansion Pack for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth II. It will contain an entirely new faction, and at least two new units for each existing faction, along with additional heroes for certain ones, at least (Mordor, Goblins, and Dwarves, for sure).

Angmar (the Witch-king's faction) will be a slower, more dwarvish faction, with slow but powerful units.

The currently known units for Angmar are:

Gundabad Warriors: Orcs/Goblins from Gundabad in the Misty Mountains, who fight for the Witch King. They are the basic infantry.

Rhudaur Spearmen: Evil hillmen of the kingdom of Rhudaur, which allies itself with Angmar. They are the basic anti-cavalry.

Rhudaur Axethrowers: Evil hillmen of the kingdom of Rhudaur. They act as the basic ranged unit.

Wolf Riders: Presumably weaker than Warg Riders, Wolf Riders ride on Wolves, which are generally light-colored, and smaller than Wargs. They are the basic cavalry.

Thrall Master: A new, unique unit, the Thrall master has the ability to summon a horde of troops to the battle, but only once. The units available to him are Gundabad Warriors, Rhudaur Spearmen, Rhudaur Axethrowers, and Wolf Riders. Presumably he is the only way to obtain those units.

Sorcerer: Another unique unit, the Sorcerer has the ability to cast three spells (two minor, one powerful), each of which costs the life of one of the ten-or-so acolytes around him, that eventually respawn. If all the acolytes are dead, he's supposedly easy to kill.

Dire Wolves: A unit seemingly a lot like Spiderlings, the Dire Wolves don't have any riders, though in screenshots they are roughly the same size as the mounts of the Wolf Riders.

Dark Dunedain/Black Numenorians: The elite infantry for Angmar, these swordsmen were former Numenorians who fight for the Witch-king, against their brethren.

Dark Rangers: The elite archers of Angmar, not much is known about these units except that they are former Numenorians who fight for the Witch-king, and have a unique upgrade - ice-tipped arrows.

Snow Trolls: These will be the Elite cavalry of Angmar, with mattocks and small shields. It can be assumed that they will have reasonable speeds, too.

Pike-trolls (name unknown): The elite pikemen of Angmar, these trolls have long-handled mattocks which they can use to great effect to knock horsemen off their mounts and crush them.

---Heroes---

The Witch-king: It has been confirmed that the Witch-king will now be a hero for both Angmar and Mordor, though how that will play out is yet to be known, though they supposedly are drastically different in use. The Angmar version wields a mace, though it is not on a chain, like the Mordor version.

Known Powers:
Mount/Dismount - lvl1? The Witch-king mounts or dismounts his horse.

Rhogash: A Troll general of the Witch-king's army. Massive in size, this brute wields a large, single-edged sword.

Known Powers:
Leap Attack - lvl? A larger version of Gimli's attack, Rhogash can use this to great effect.

There are three other heroes, with unknown powers: Hwaldar, a chieftain of Rhudaur; Morgomir, one of the Nazgul, who rides with the Witch-king; and the Whisperer, a formerly-celebrated Captain of Arnor, who was stabbed by Morgomir and turned into a wraith.

-----Known Powerpoint Spells----

Avalanche - causes an avalanche of snow and rocks to fall on a specific target. It is strong enough to destroy a fortress easily.

Shade of Wolf - summons a giant blue werewolf to fight for your army, with several powers including 'Call the pack' which is very short, but summons a small pack of wolves briefly, which rip through any enemies in front of the Wolf. It also has a power with which it can eat enemies to replenish its health.

Fell Wind - draws all the enemies inside the radius into a small area, where they are ripe for a spell like Avalanche or Rhogash's Leap Attack.

----------Units for Other Factions----------

MotW:

Rohirrim Spearmen - not much is known about these guys beyond the name and the fact that MotW is getting them.

Knights of Dol Amroth - Coming in Battalions of five, these heavily-armored knights are the elite cavalry for MotW, and maybe the entire game, as well.


Elves:

Noldor Warriors - Dressed in the armor of the Prologue (in FotR), these units come in battalions of five, and will be the elves elite units. They have bows at least, and possibly swords, too. They have a special ability to heal themselves when not in combat.

Mounted Bowmen - In the full battalion size, these elves are on horses and with their greatest weapon - the bow. This unit should pwn the dwarves, especially when paired with Lancers and Arwen.

Mordor:

Black Orcs - Mordor's new elite infantry unit. I don't know anything about them except the name and their group.

Haradrim Cavalry - Full battalion size, these will presumably be light cavalry, and definately look Haradric (they are in a few screenshots).

Gothmog - Mordor finally gets him! w00t!

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That's about all I know so far, that's really worth disclosing. All I have time for, anyways. Enjoy, and be exited!!!!!!!!!!

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SKoDA? Is that something-Knights of Dol Amroth? They look pretty sweet.

I really like the look of the Noldor Warriors. They look sweet. Got any ideas for an elite 5-soldier Dwarven unit?

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I had thought of like, Iron Hill's Shieldbreakers or something - really strong, trample-resistant, with two-handed axes (sort of like what the Khazad Guards have). For their special ability they could have "Weapon Volley" (they throw their axes for high damage). Then they would have a response to faster units like the Mounted Bowmen that the elves are going to get.

I can't think of a new normal-sized unit for the dwarves, though. A lot of archer ones have been suggested on various forums, but nothing really great-sounding.

I haven't got a clue about what units the Goblins and Isengard are going to get, though. That's a tough one.

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I was cured all right.

This is info from the GameReplays.org forums (note - it was translated from a german website, so not everything is in understandable English):

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And more:



And now we know the names and relative abilities of the new Elite Units (w00t!).



I think the Elves and Dwarves units look awesome.

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Lol....Dark Rangers don't sound very creative. They look like Ithilien Rangers, but with red helmets.

The Black Numenorians are a cool idea, though, even if they should really have been fighting against Arnor (there weren't that many of them....).

Thrall Masters are a cool idea, too, but so far, it seems as though Angmar has no weaknesses besides their speed. They've got a counter for everything, it seems.

I noticed one thing, though - now Mordor will be the only evil faction without a 'riderless' cavalry unit, like spiderlings, or Dire Wolves, or Riderless Wargs. Kind of odd.

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