This game, back in the times when you were not able to get out of a game but by switching off the computer, was a complete improvement of the gaming world. The isometric, the godlike powers, the artificial intelligence of the followers (individual), as well as playability itself, made this a game you can not live without if you want to learn about gaming history, despite its commercial success.
It is one of the three games that make my youth: Master of Orion, Civilization and Lords of the Realms (with Centurion and Panzer General a bit behind)
This (LOTR 1) is one of the best managing game I've ever played at, and I'm very fond of having bought it. You can forget micromanagement (but don't forget to check every county from time to time) once you have stewardship, but the point is that the game has one of the widest difficulty settings I've known: it is very easy to win on the easy ecenomy level and easy/medium war levels (easy, but you're not allowed to become stupid), and quite hard in the hardest combination of levels and fog. It's delicious, and dangerous: you can forget you need to sleep.
