The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth is a city building simulation game developed by Kabam, where you will have to balance your resources in order to build both your empire, as well as your army. This is done to defend your land against invaders, plus take on forces surrounding your kingdom. It is a game that was based on the Lord of the Rings mythos, and you will also be able to see and interact with several characters from both the movie and the novels as you perform different tasks for the glory of your land.
Gameplay
The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth lets players build their empire. They have complete control over taxes, the population, and which structures to build within the land. Buildings are responsible for creating resources as well as for the creation of your army which you could use to both defend your land as well as attack other territories. The requires a good balance of resource management as well as patience due to buildings and research having different build times, and the game only allows one action to be done at a time.
Currency
Mithril is the premium currency within the game. This is used to purchase special items which would further improve on your kingdom, and it also helps in speeding up the completion of structures within your empire. There are several ways to earn mithril, but this comes in limited quantity so make sure to spend them wisely.
Resources, in turn, are used to build structures that would help on expanding your empire. There are several ways to earn resources, and several building types would be able to produce these items regularly as well.
Building
There are several building types that you can construct within Middle Earth. Some serve the purpose of increasing population, training troops, speeding up travel time, as well as production of resources. Each particular building requires certain resources such as gold, logs, and bread, and they also take different times to complete, although mithril can be used to speed up construction.
Building upgrades are also available which would help improve on existing buildings, although the base building would have to be constructed first for this to become available.
Research
Research can be done in order to improve factors such as the time it takes to train troops as well as to increase travel speed. This can also be used in order to improve other aspects such as attack and defense capabilities. Research, like buildings, take time to complete and could also be sped up using mithril, and players must mind researching only those things that are necessary for the moment as buildings and research can only be done one at a time.
Quests
Quests are tasks that are part tutorial and part opportunities to earn bonus resources and other items. Taking on quests will teach you on the things that you would have to do to further improve on your empire, and completing these tasks will earn you certain bonuses as well as inform you of the many things that you can do within Middle Earth.
Alliances
Players are given a one week grace period to build up on their kingdom before they could be attacked by other armies. With this, it would be prudent to join an alliance so that you will be given adequate protection once invaders attack. On the other hand, you may also opt to create an alliance of your own and have other people join you. This allows for greater protection for your territory as you will be cooperating with other players when defending your land. The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth provides an in-game chat function so that you may be able to communicate with other players as well.
Attacking and Defending
By moving out of your territory, you can attack and invade other lands in order to expand your territory. You can also earn a lot of bonus resources this way. However, it is important to train your troops enough so that your troops will not be wiped out by the enemy’s defense. It is encouraged that players send a scouting party first in order to assess the enemy’s strength, unless of course you are confident that your troops would not be defeated.
Similarly, you can also be attacked by enemies. Thus, it would be wise to build structures such as walls and have your troops trained adequately as well. It is also recommended that you join an alliance so that others can help you in defending your territory.
Bonuses
There are various ways that you can earn free items within this game. Playing Gollum’s Riddle is a great way to earn additional resources. You can play this game once each day for free, and additional play will cost you some mithril. Similarly, you can also earn mithril by either creating a Kabam account or by linking the game to your Facebook account.
Another way to increase your gold is to increase your tax rate. This will earn you more gold, but the higher your tax rate, the less happy your people would be, which may cause a decrease in the production of resources. Thus, it is important to balance out tax rates to a justifiable degree so that the population remains happy while you would still be able to earn a considerable amount of gold.
Conclusion
The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth is a great game to play even if you are not a fan of Tolkien’s works. It brings to life the characters that you have loved and rooted for and you will get the chance to live within the fantasy World of Middle Earth. There are various tasks that you can perform in order to further expand and build on your empire, and you would certainly enjoy the social functions within the game as you make allies as well as bitter enemies. The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth is a complete strategy game that will require you to both think of ways to improve on your own empire while enhancing your army for both offensive and defensive capabilities.