Engaging Expansion to an Already Great Game
The new faction is great. It's added a little something extra. It's about the only faction i've played on this expansion. The new campaign revolving around this faction is quite interesting. It gives you the chance to explore the northern regions in a time shortly after the Last Alliance including Amon Sul, Mount Gundabad, and Carn Dum the Witch-King's stronghold. That being said, the new maps are great. New fortresses and cities make for more of that beseiging fun. And some of the terrains are great for the skirmishes.
The War of the Ring has had some improvements. When your AI enemy is outnumbered or thinks its not going to win, it will retreat right off and save both of you the trouble of losing units. It gets a little frustrating when you can't kill your opponents but it adds a bit of "realism." There is also the new advantage of being able to move over two territories that are controlled by friendlies. There are also historical campaigns that are kind of fun to play through. There are some new heroes, not to mention all the new heroes from angmar. The Witch-King is about the only hero in angmar worth having, he is now land-based and rides a horse and is pretty nifty looking, and the massive amounts of damage he deals out are definetly worth having him around for. The other factions also recieve some new heroes. Isengard recieves Wormtongue, Goblins get Aazog the goblin king of the north. The Angmar heroes are lacking, most are slow and don't deal out very much damage at all. About the only two good ones are the Witch-King and the Troll hero, but other than that you're better off with a create-a-hero.
And yes, Create-A-Hero does have some new options. There are some new options for appearences and a couple of new types including Snow Trolls. There is also a new price base system that determines how much a hero costs to create by what skills they have.
Each faction recieves some new units. Men get Knights of Dol Amroth and a new spearman class. Goblins have Half-Troll swordsmen that are quite impressive looking. Mordor has new units that are creatable in the Haradrim palace, archers. And thats just to name a few.
Overall it is very much the same as the original with a couple of improvements and a new faction that is very much worth playing. If a person were to want to enhance their experience it is worth the low price. I personally enjoy the new improvements and look forward to many more hours of enjoyment.