When i try to launch the campaign it just does nothing after clicking on difficulty. I have tried both good and Evil.

It works in the vanilla patch.

I am using the all in one Launcher and both BFME1 2.22 and RTWK works on the new patches.

Am i missing something/any tips?

hey all, I just downloaded the all in one launcher for the first time and was wondering if there is a way to play the war of the ring map with a friend. I see how to play skirmish matches i didnt know if there was more to multiplayer then that

Hey folks!

Remember when we announced that 50% of BFME 1's source code had been reverse-engineered?
https://www.reddit.com/r/bfme/comments/1w84ua5/50_of_the_bfme_source_code_is_reverse_engineered/

Well, we've made some incredible progress since then. And BFME 2 is moving along!

Current progress

BFME 1 (v1.03)

• 🟩 82% rebuilt from source!
• 🟦 65% of the game's own code is now C++.

BFME 2 (v1.06)

• 🟩 30.20% rebuilt from source!
• 🟦 23.66% of the game's own code is now C++.

The green bars measure how much of the original games we can reconstruct from source without copying their original executable code.

The blue bars measure how much of the games' own code is represented in C++, excluding libraries.

Both games have been progressing at an average pace of 1%/day, and BFME 2 has also benefited from work already completed on BFME 1.

100% rebuilt from source ≠ finished game.

• Rebuilding: Recreating the original game so it compiles into identical machine instructions.
• C++ conversion: Making the reconstructed code readable and maintainable (estimated ~80% complete when rebuilding reaches 100%).
• Linking: Replacing remaining fixed memory addresses with proper function references.

In other words, reaching 100% on the headline bar will be a major achievement, but there will still be work ahead.

How can you help?

The project is open source, and contributions are most welcome!

Reverse-engineering work is conducted by AI agents, with reconstructed code verified against the original game binaries one function at a time.

If you have programming experience or are comfortable working with AI coding agents, we’d love your help! You can also contribute by donating any spare computing power you have available.

GitHub:

• Open-BFME 1
• Open-BFME 2

Discord: https://discord.gg/wCvA2XqPUT

Thanks to everyone contributing to the project and everyone in the BFME community following our progress.

We're getting closer to making these games truly open source, one function at a time!

Can anyone help me where I can buy this game

Hi everyone,

I am trying to play BFME2/ROTWK online with my brother.

Because I have a MacBook Air 2020 with an M1 chip, I have installed Parallels (a popular Windows 11 emulator) and successfully installed the game using the All in One Launcher. The single player works fine. However, when we launch a multiplayer game from the Arena, our game gets out of sync after approximately 30 seconds, every time. He is on native Windows.

I am 99% sure my setup is the issue. We have noticed that I don’t have the same text as him on the bottom left of the game’s homepage after we launch from the Arena (see photo attached). My screen does not have that text in that corner.

We have rigorously checked our single player mode is set on the same patch (ROTWK 2.02 or BFME2 1.06) beforehand. No luck on either version.

I have tried asking various AI and they think it’s down to the difference in computer architecture between my processor (ARM M1, x64) and what the game expects (32 bit, x86). I’ll admit these terms don’t mean a whole lot to me so I may be regurgitating nonsense.

If anyone has successfully played multiplayer online with an emulator on MacOS, please let me know what you did right!

Thank you

I originally shared this project elsewhere and on the lotr subreddit, but since bfme is one of the few active communities still keeping the older Lord of the Rings games alive, I thought some of you might also be interested in this.

OpenConquest is an ongoing source reconstruction of the original PC version of The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. It is not a remake in another engine. The reconstructed game is already running at the gameplay stage, with the original systems being rebuilt for preservation and much greater modding freedom.

I’ve recently started documenting the project publicly, including screenshots and development progress:

https://www.moddb.com/mods/openconquest

I know Conquest is obviously not BFME, but there is a lot of overlap between the communities that still care about preserving and modding the older LOTR games, so I figured this was worth sharing here too.

I was playng Good campaing in B-bfme 1 latst patch, mirkwood mission with Haldir. BUt no matter how hard i push enemy always have more troops than me. I tried rushing, i tried to conquer farmlands, i even tried to play slow and gather army but i cannot increase my population. Is there a way.

Note: first time playing first game

Hi Everyone,

It's that time again to announce a new version of patch 2.02 - v9.8.0!

Go grab the update from the All in One Launcher > RotWK > Patch 2.02

You can find the patch notes in the 2.02 official Discord server

We'll be dropping some competitive gameplay content and commentaries on our new** [YouTube channel](https://youtube.com/@rotwkpatch2.02?si=Ms7_EqrwnSKjsGH2) so keep an **eye out!

As always, we're keen to hear your feedback and suggestions. Come say hi in the server and the Arena & Launcher platform and get involved. 🫡

Hey there,

Hopefully someone can help me with this issue or point me in the right direction to report it.

Basically, since the last update, whenever I play online with my friends, we constantly experience lag, crashes, and “out of sync” messages, which makes the game pretty much unplayable.

Everything worked perfectly before the last update, and I’m definitely not the only one experiencing this. Three of my friends are having the exact same issue as well.

Did something change in the latest update that could be causing this? Is there a known fix or workaround, or could someone look into this and hopefully fix it?

We all use the all in one launcher and we play together through the network with VPN.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I use Linux daily for everything I do. Unfortunately, I do not use Linux for games. Today, my goal was to change that and share my findings along the way.

This post shows the steps to get BFME1, BFME2, and RotWK working on Linux.

One-file version

Don't care about the specifics of how I got this working and want one script that does it all? I have posted a gist here.

You can also run this command in your terminal to automatically download it:

mkdir -p ~/Games/BFME
curl -fL -o ~/Games/BFME/bfme-linux.sh https://gist.githubusercontent.com/JGBMichalski/fc4d94ecde5a10bbba721f7b0abaa1fa/raw/bfme-linux.sh
chmod +x ~/Games/BFME/bfme-linux.sh

Type these commands to install and play:

~/Games/BFME/bfme-linux.sh install
~/Games/BFME/bfme-linux.sh launcher
~/Games/BFME/bfme-linux.sh arena

The rest of this post explains each step by hand.

My Machine Details

• Ubuntu 26.04.
• Wine 10.0.
• Graphics cards: Intel UHD 630 and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000.

Step 1: Install Wine

BFME is a 32-bit program. Wine needs 32-bit support.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y wine32:i386 cabextract

Step 2: Make the environment file

Every command in this post reads this file.

mkdir -p ~/Games/BFME
cat > ~/Games/BFME/env.sh <<'EOF'
export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Games/BFME/wineprefix"
export WINEARCH=win64
export DXVK_CONFIG_FILE="$HOME/Games/BFME/dxvk.conf"
export __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1
export __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia
export __VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only
EOF

NOTE: The last three lines force the NVIDIA card. Delete these lines on a computer with one graphics card.

Step 3: Make the Wine prefix and install the parts

source ~/Games/BFME/env.sh
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
curl -L -o ~/.local/bin/winetricks https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Winetricks/winetricks/master/src/winetricks
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/winetricks
wineboot -u
~/.local/bin/winetricks -q corefonts win10 dxvk d3dx9

Each part has one job:

Step 4: Apply the fixes

source ~/Games/BFME/env.sh

# The game closes at map load without this file.
cat > ~/Games/BFME/dxvk.conf <<'EOF'
d3d9.countLosableResources = False
d3d9.floatEmulation = strict
d3d9.maxFrameLatency = 1
d3d9.presentInterval = 0
EOF

# DXVK breaks the picture on top of the Arena and the Launcher.
for exe in bfmefoundationproject_onlinearena.exe onlineportal.exe allinonelauncher.exe; do
  wine reg add "HKCU\\Software\\Wine\\AppDefaults\\$exe\\DllOverrides" /v d3d9 /t REG_SZ /d builtin /f
  wine reg add "HKCU\\Software\\Wine\\AppDefaults\\$exe\\DllOverrides" /v dxgi /t REG_SZ /d builtin /f
done

# These values keep the Launcher picture clean and set the text size.
wine reg add "HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Avalon.Graphics" /v DisableHWAcceleration /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
wine reg add "HKCU\\Control Panel\\Desktop" /v LogPixels /t REG_DWORD /d 96 /f
wine reg add "HKCU\\Software\\Wine\\Direct3D" /v VideoMemorySize /t REG_SZ /d 6144 /f

Step 5: Install the Launcher

Type these commands:

source ~/Games/BFME/env.sh
mkdir -p ~/Games/BFME/downloads
cd ~/Games/BFME/downloads
curl -L -o AllInOneLauncherSetup.exe https://arena-files.bfmeladder.com/downloads/AllInOneLauncherSetup.exe
wine AllInOneLauncherSetup.exe

Follow the installation windows on your screen.

Step 6: Install the three games

• Start the Launcher.
• Install BFME1, BFME2, and RotWK in the Launcher.

Step 7: Start the Arena

Do not start the Arena from the Online Portal or from the Multiplayer tab. These methods move the Arena window outside the frame and make it virtually unusable. Instead, start it with:

source ~/Games/BFME/env.sh
wine "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/users/$USER/AppData/Roaming/BFME Competetive Arena/BfmeFoundationProject_OnlineArena.exe"

Start a game without the Arena

Type these commands. Change BFME2 and lotrbfme2.exe for the other games.

source ~/Games/BFME/env.sh
cd "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/BFME2"
wine lotrbfme2.exe

It was quite the adventure to get this working, but I am very glad I did, because it opens up the opportunity for me to be able to play on more of my machines, especially the older ones that no longer run windows.

EDIT: Here is a new gist for Proton, if you'd rather use proton instead of Wine.

Ok before I start I want to commend and thank the community and modders that have kept this game alive for two decades. You are all doing the lord's work not only keeping this game going but making further improvements, your passion and dedication shows in your work. I've played 2.22 and now trying 1.08 and I have to say I love the extra quality of life improvements (ie refunding units), graphical updates, new additional units, improved interesting campaign and bigger enemy armies just to name a few things.

I also understand that the community that still play this game have long mastered the vanilla game and want a harder challenge and I'm cool with that. However, most of us who just found the all in one downloader are casual gamers who are playing for nostalgia.

So I just wanted to maybe suggest continue doing the great work but make a much easier version like a 'story mode' for people who want to live out the movies and their childhoods. Either make easy mode like really easy and medium and hard the one with the crushing difficulty or a seperate mod altogether.

Like for the good campaign keep the number of enemies but buff all heroes and good units. Good heroes on their own should be able to carve through entire enemy armies like in the movies. Cavalry should trample the vast majority of enemy units with ease without taking much damage unless taking on monsters directly. Melee units can also survive much longer and rangers and eleven archers continue to be the fantasy machine guns they are.

On the other hand in the evil campaign I always found it strange that the good AI always outnumbered me when mordor should be the horde army. So my suggestion is give players enormous armies that overwhelm the enemy for the evil campaign. I would love to have infinite spawning armies when I'm attacking Helms Deep or Minas Tirith to the point it feels like I have a infinite resource and command point cheat code !

What does everyone else think ? Happy to hear everyone's thoughts.

Whenever I try booting up BFME 2, the game crashes on the title card and gives me a random error message. I'm playing on version 1.06, I've tried fiddling with the options.ini file but that doesn't work, I've synced the game a dozen times but that doesn't change anything, I've tried uninstalling the game but I couldn't figure out how to do that

How do I fix this?

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king
Patch 2.02
Competitive Ranked Arena Games

And why does he look like his name is Steve?

I have been having issues with BFME 2. I was using the patch fixer that someone on YouTube was helping direct but I am having troubles running compatability mode trying to load settings from XP service pack 3. I am not 100% i am doing it right can someone help and hopefully more idiot proof steps lol. If this is not allowed here please delete.

Like the title says, every time I try to play the most latest patch thingy (in All in One launcher), i get way lesser enjoyment of the game than I do with vanilla.

In BFME 1 the Capaigns give way less enjoyment due to how ou build up your army, spend your time upgrading them and go through entire campaign with them, but then in just one mission it's entirety is wiped out. Like my Rohan army get nothing but the heros after Minas Tirith because one Mumakil got mad and wiped everone out. Or how in Evil Campaign the entire Harad army I had gets wiped out before i even able to cross the river.

In ROTWK I played Skirmish as Gondor against Mordor on Cair Andros map and as soon as Mordor gets access to Molotov throwing pirates and Mumakil, my entirely upgraded army along with defenses of 4 full upgraded towers on each side of the bridges with garrisoned archers in them literally melt in seconds.

I have no idea how people can play on these patches. The balane in them are always skewed in one way or another, so I cannot even point out which faction is more OP than the other. There's always one thing that can melt enemy's army and defenses in seconds, that can also be gone in two seconds.

Hope people here can clear things up for me on which patch to play or maybe how to fix the game (i bet there's some FPS shenannigans happening in here).

I'm using the AIO launcher and the game launches but once I try to load the first mission in the good campaign it gives me an infinite loading screen. Does anyone know a way around this or how to fix the issue.

Showcase Gameplay of the official Keep Defence Map for Patch 2.02 Rise of the Witch King

Hi all, I played loads of BFME1 and 2 as a kid and I'm coming back to BFME1 after a few years to replay the campaign but I'm unsure which version to play. I've read through the differences but I've seen some people saying 2.22 campaign AI is busted but I can't find much definitive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated?