Not very impressive....
War of the Ring controls were very similar to Battle Realms but personally I did not have much to gripe about Battle Realms except for the campaigns getting ultra hard. It did not really bother me that there were no air units in the game.
But the War of the Ring is another thing. If it is to be faithful to the trilogy, air units should have been included (e.g. the nazgul and the eagles) and the undead to aid the good side particularly because the good side's units are outnumbered by the bad side and also surpassed in clobbering ability by the presence of the stonethrowers.
I hope just like what happened with Command and Conquer Generals that did not have initially have sea units but provided an expansion that had them, the War of the Ring could have an expansion containing the said units I mentioned above.
These would definitely bring the game to a new level and would increase its novelty. That's all...