Epic battles, well-done controls, and LotR, all make a great game.
All the fractions(armies) are, said different. The Men of the West are about the even fraction, powerful in all places. Elves are fast, swift do good damage, but are weak in health, their best place is archery. Dwarves are tuff, damage giving fighters, but their slow, they have the best catapults, and other forgery. Mordor is a cheap, army building race, who build their armies almost faster than all the others, and the have the trolls. Isengard is alot like the men, about even in all places. Goblins, are very fast, cheap and arguably the fraction.
All armies have 1 or 2(basic and/or elite) type of the following, Pikemen, Swordsmen, Archers, Horsemen, canapults, some of the fractions have battering rams, and of coarse Heros. All have their uses such as Pikemen will destroy Horsemen, or archers will pick off swordsmen.
Heros are a cool part of this game, all fractions have 3 to 7 of them, most seen in the movie Aragorn, Legolas, the Witch King, Shelob, Gimli, etc. There are even some that appear in the book, such as Gloin and Glorfindel, or some are exclusive to the game such as Gorkil or Drogoth. All the Heros have 3 to 5 special powers, such as Lurtz has a Cripple Shot, which pins heros in place, or Gandalf has wizard blast, which blows and usually kills all enemys in front of him.
Building are in it just like all other RTS's such as a barracks or a farm(money producing structures)
Powers to cast are in this that you buy with "power points" which you earn by having your armies fight with opponents. Powers are different skills to cast, some are more points than others, cheap ones such as heal(which heals your troops) or more expensive one such as rain of fire or earthquake.
There's a lot in this game to enjoy, and like me you may be playing it for years. The controls in this game are great, and easy to learn, they just feel right.
Gameplay: 9.25
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 8.75
Replay Value: 9.0
Overall: 9.0