HomeLAN - What can you tell us about the types of units that will be playable in the game and will we truly see thousands of units on screen sometimes during play?

Mike Verdu - All of the major characters and creatures from the films are in the game - including the Fellowship of the Ring, the Wizards, Ents, horsemen, soldiers, Orcs, Uruk-Hai, Trolls, Mumakil (the huge elephants you saw in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), Nazgul, Fell Beasts (the big flying dragon-like creatures). There are others as well... many others.

Gameplay for different units varies tremendously. Heroes will be very powerful and will have special abilities that can be upgraded throughout the game as they gain experience. Soldiers and Orcs can be found in large numbers and are commanded in formations. They fight hand-to-hand with swords, clubs, axes, and other melee weapons - although some are equipped as archers. Siege weapons like catapults and Trebuchets fire balls of burning pitch or rocks - but they are large and slow. Gandalf and Saruman can use magic. Big units like Trolls and Ents can actually use elements of the world as weapons: we call this our "interactive battlefield." For example, a Troll can uproot any tree and use it as a club. Trolls and Ents can pick up and throw rocks and boulders that lie scattered throughout the world. There are many other examples.

Finally, you asked about sheer numbers of units on the screen. Yes, those screenshots are absolutely for real - you can have hundreds and hundreds of units fighting in an epic battle.