"War of the Ring" is a Total Conversion of the game "WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness", and the expansion pack "Beyond the Dark Portal". It will feature new units, graphics, and missons based on the triology "Lord of the Rings" by the late Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. The conversion is not ready yet, but a multiplayable beta will hopefully be released very soon.

Berendir: Is the WarCraft II Conversion a commercial product?

Gurthaur: No it is not. The WotR team are only doing this for the fun and experience, and LotR fans or WarCraft fans will not have to pay to play this conversionat all, considering they already have paid for "WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness" and the expansion pack "Beyond the Dark Portal". The only ones really making a profit on this TC is Blizzard Entertainment as you will have to buy theirgame to play our Total Conversion.

B: Is this a legal project?

G: Accoring to Blizzard Entertainment, it is. As they said in their FAQ:"Can I do a total conversion of your games? Yes. We've seen some very polished and fun conversions for our games, and have no problems with total conversions so long as they are for personal use and do not infringe our End User License Agreement included in our games, nor the rights of any other parties including copyrights, trademarksor other rights. "

B: What units will there be?

G: We are trying to keep the units described in LotR and other Tolkien books as much as possible. The orcish basic units are trolls and orcs, or "Ologs"and "Uruks" in Black Speech. The Olog can be upgraded into a stronger and more durable unit, the Olog-Hai, and in addition to the Uruk you can train a stronger Uruk-Hai as soon as you have built a Fortress. There are all so other varieties of uruks, like the Uruk Spearfigher and Spearthrower. Asfor the spellcasting units we have made the Nazgúl and Mewlip able to research various spells to use on their human foes. As for the human units, we have focused on the units in Gondor's armies.The basic Foot Soldiers are heavy armoured units and the foundation of a basic human army. You can still train knights, but they are expensive,considering horses was not commonly used in Gondor. But if you still want to control some people sitting on horses, there's always the Eorlingas Riders, or if you like the darker side better, the Black Riders..

B: What changes will there be in the conversion, from the originalWarCraft II?

G: A part from new graphics and Singleplayer Campaigns, There will be new music and (some) new unit sounds. The music consists of known movie scores and music from the prequel to WarCraft II; "WarCraft: Orcs and Humans". If someone has suitable battle music they would like to contribute, just contact Gurthaur.

B: How soon can we expect to be able to play the game?

G: The public beta version will be out very soon, this is only a matter of weeks. We hope to make it down loadable within February/March.

B: Will a player be able to produce more then one hero unit, for instance two Prince Imrahils, or an army of Theoden's. Also will these characters from the books be given greater fighting ability then the normal soldiers?

G: Not unless he/she starts hacking the game himself, and even then it can be tricky. There will be an option to make your own maps and place the heroes there yourself though, and then you can have as many heroes as you wish.They will also have greater fighting ability and armor, all depending on the hero. This will also be an option to alter when creating your own PUDs.

B: Will there be any built in scenario's in the game with story lines following the Lord of the Rings? Or will there be completely different scenario's to choose from?

G: There will be a mixture of levels; some are only briefly mentioned in LotR, some are only mentioned in Appendix B where we have mostly used our own imagination, but there will also be levels with P.O. Ents on their way to Isengard, where you will have to guide Gandalf safely to Dol Guldur, attackMordor, attack Gondor, hold off the siegeing orcs from Gondor until your in the next level can rescue Gondor with an army of Eorlingas...

B: Are there any other Conversion projects you have worked on, or would like to work on in the future?

G: Almost everyone in the WotR team are also orking on one or more other TC's; "the Star Wars TC", "WarCraft II: Special Edition", "WarCrafII:Eternal Wars".. I myself are also doing odd jobs for other TCs:"DeathCraft", and "ElfCraft". This works mostly both ways as an exchange of favors.