The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II - The Rise of the Witch-king

How to Play

The game with official patch version 2.01 and NoCD has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 10, works with no problem. We also tested the game with unofficial patch version 2.02 on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 10, works good too. Here's video guide by The Emulation Portal, if you prefer videos over text. You may experience some troubles during the installation and playing, so don't forget to check our Notes

Install & play guide:

• The game requires the installed The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II version 1.06 for the launch, so first install BFME II and patch it to version 1.06
• Mount the ISO disc image of DVD. You will need the utility for mounting disc image files, like WinCDEmu, UltraISO, Alcohol 52%/Alcohol 102% or Daemon Tools Lite
• Install the game (if it doesn't run - simply launch the installation from Setup.exe inside the disc, run it in compatibility mode with Windows XP).
• It is recommended to install the game in the path by default 'C:/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king'. Skip the registration at the start, click on "Register later"
• Also it is recommended to install DirectX 9 from the disc (if you're using Windows 10 - enable DirectPlay, read this or this guide how to do it)
• After that install the official patch version 2.01
• Then install NoCD (simply copy game.dat from the archive and replace the original file inside the game folder)
• Don't launch the game yet, first check C:/Users/"Username"/AppData/Roaming/My The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king Files folder and look if the installer created Options.ini file inside. If there's no such folder or file - downloads Options.ini file (from Downloads section) and put it there manually
• Open the directory with the game and find lotrbfme2ep1.exe. Right click on lotrbfme2ep1.exe - Properties - Compatibility - Set "Run this app in compatibility mode with Windows XP SP2" and "Run as administrator"
• Launch the game and play. If the game doesn't work - try to launch the game, then open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del by default) and check for processes lotrbfme2ep1.exe and rundll32.exe. Close lotrbfme2ep1.exe but don't touch rundll32.exe (it's a Windows app for running old apps from 32-bit operational systems, most old games running through rundll32.exe). Now try to launch the game again, it must work. Don't forget to close rundll32.exe process in Task Manager after finishing playing

How to play The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II - The Rise of the Witch-king in multiplayer today:

First you need to install the game version 2.01, then install unofficial patch 2.02 version 8.0.0 and version 8.5.0 (the patch is still being updated, check here for most actual version). After that go to T3A: Online website or join their Discord server, to find multiplayer server. You can check step by step tutorial at Revora Forum, how to install the game for multiplayer, they also has download mirrors

For multiplayer games, download T3A: Online Launcher, with that Launcher you can play all three Battle for Middle-Earth games in multiplayer, on free custom online servers hosted by community

Notes:

• If the installation doesn't start - try to launch Setup.exe in compatibility mode with old version of Windows (98, 2000 or XP)

• If none of serial keys is working - use multikeygen for EA games. Don't worry, it is safe to use, even though it shows a lot of warnings on VirusTotal

• During installation you may see error "A problem occured when trying to transfer the file 'D:/Support/sv/lasmig.txt' from the media". It happens because lasmig.txt file is actually läsmig.txt, with ä symbol. The work around for this is to copy all installation files to the hard drive, rename läsmig.txt to lasmig.txt and install the game from the hard drive

• The game is using SafeDisc DRM protection, which doesn't work correctly on modern systems, so use NoCD, that NoCD "breaks" DRM protection and allows the game to work on modern systems

• The game probably won't work on integrated Intel graphics cards, unfortunately. You can try to work it around with 3D Analyzer utility but we haven't tested it. Visit this thread for more info

• It is highly recommended to install DirectX 9 for the correct work of the game. If DirectX 9 installer on the disc doesn't work - use DirectX 9 for 64-bit systems installer (we added it to Downloads section). If you're using Windows 10 - enable DirectPlay, read this or this guide how to do it

• If you have troubles with running the game on modern systems - you can try to run it through dgVoodoo (copy the dll-files from the MS/x86 folder, dgVoodooCpl.exe and dgVoodoo.conf to the game folder, then open dgVoodooCpl, find DirectX tab and set the desired settings). The game with dgVoodoo has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 10 with AMD and Nvidia video cards, works with no problem (please note that dgVoodoo doesn't work on Intel graphics cards). If you have troubles with launch - disable all custom dgVoodoo settings (open dgVoodooCpl, go to DirectX tab and put all settings to default)

• If the game does not start but shows "Exception" or "Game crash" errors - it is because the installer didn't create Options.ini file inside C:/Users/"Username"/AppData/Roaming/My The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king Files folder. You can manually put Options.ini file there (available in Downloads)

• Also, you can use Startup Fixer by Turin Turumbar, it is small utility that fixes that problem automatically, works both with BFME II and addon The Rise of the Witch-king

• The game supports widescreen, to change the resolution go to C:/Users/"Username"/AppData/Roaming/My The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king Files and open Options.ini. Find the following line and set it to the desired value: Resolution = YourWidth YourHeight (in example, for 1920x1080 screen it will look like Resolution = 1920 1080)

• If you're playing in widescreen resolution - additionally install widescreen patch for version 2.01, it fixes stretched UI in widescreen resolution

• If you have a problem when your units and buildings start to disappear after 3-5 minutes of the game or you automatically lose the game - it happens because of DRM protection, here's methods how to solve it:

• use Auto-defeat fix by withmorten (simply copypaste files from the archive to main game directory) or CDKeyFixer utility (it's on Russian but we added an instruction on English, inside the archive)

• install unofficial patches

• Unofficial patch 2.02 disables DRM, fixes some bugs and imbalances, plus adds widescreen support; it must be installed over the game version 2.01. With that patch you can play on T3A: Online multiplayer servers. Please note that The Rise of the Witch-king with unofficial patch 2.02 still requires BFME II v1.06 for the launch

• With patch 2.02 you can install RotWK: HD Edition mod that updates all in-game graphics

• Check PCGamingWiki for more information about unofficial patches