In The Battle for Middle-earth II, Electronic Arts tells the War of the Ring's story from a different perspective. This time, in The Rise of the Witch-king expansion, players are taken back centuries before the War of the Ring begins. Sauron was defeated by the Last Alliance and presumed dead, but it turned out that he was only cast into the shadows. Following the defeat, mankind enjoyed 1,000 years of peace until a sorcerer known as the Witch-king rose to power in the northern land of Angmar. He amassed an army and waged a 500-year war against Arnor, Aragorn's ancestor. Players take command of the Witch-king's forces and play through a campaign to regain Sauron's strength.

This expansion adds the Witch-king's forces into the mix, which include corrupted men and trolls. It turns out there are more species of trolls than the boulder hurling, club carrying type seen in the movies. With the exception of Snow Trolls, which are faster but less hearty. Trolls specialize in brute strength and can lay waste to most units. The main problem with them is they're practically blind and need to be really close before they realize a threat is present, even when arrows are raining down on them.

Other interesting units include the Thrall Master, who can summon an army type (orcs, spearmen, dire wolf riders) in an instant, making them extremely versatile. Unlike the wizards and sorcerers players have been accustomed to, the Sorcerers in the Witch-king's army travel with an entourage of acolytes. They must consume one of them in order to cast a spell, but not to worry -- new ones take their place over time.

Throughout the course of the single player campaign, players battle men and elves. To keep things from getting boring, the developers created some difficult scenarios, such as dropping players at their adversary's doorstep without enough resources to build a fortress and then expecting them to gather resources and build up an army from scratch. There is one mission where the player has to gather up pieces from a broken orb before the enemy does, all the while defending their base from relentless attacks. Overall game mechanics haven't changed much. Resource buildings (in this case, mills) require plenty of open space to function at maximum efficiency. Placing them out in the middle of nowhere makes them difficult to defend.