Even though Lord of the rings may have definitive good and bad factions, something like that is more suited to the total war formula imo.

The appeal of that world isn't the big battles anyways imo, it's the character driven intrigue and politics. If you're going to just make it basically be a historical total war that also leaves out significant elements of the world. All of the early Total War games from before Rome II are worth playing for. If you set it in the distant past when fantasy stuff was more prevalent, you're missing all the characters most people know, and it's just Warhammer lite. Total War: Shogun is the game that started it all, but it does not make the.

You've got like 5+ factions that are just samey regular people, maybe with somewhat distinct armor but that's it, then one faction with zombies and giants and ice spiders, one faction with dragons and dothraki and unsullied, and that's kind of it. If you include the fantasy stuff (ie give the white walkers their full book army, the dragons etc) some factions are just much more interesting than others unless you toss the lore out the window.

Game of thrones total war rome 2