Third Age 3.2 help against Sauron

**ziedonis** · September 17, 2014, 01:56 PM

Hi,
Im playing as the silvan elves and im holding the Black Gates and im being attacked by Sauron with a full stack of orcs, uruks and 2 units of olog hai. I have a full stack of 9 general units and elite infantry, no siege weapons. The AI is stupid and just marches its army next to the gate and stands there (im playing on VH/VH) i can kill everyone but Sauron before i run out of arrows, but then my entire army dies fighting him, if i use all of my archers on sauron directly he doesnt even seem to notice and i still lose fighting him.
I have balista towers and no battle time limit. Can anyone give me any tips?

**insolent1** · September 17, 2014, 02:51 PM

There isn't much you can do apart from have all your army fight him but only use 1 unit at a time and hopefully you can kill it. Ideally you want catapult/ballista to deal with Sauron.

**Funeh** · September 17, 2014, 03:02 PM

1 most important rule - never play with no battle time limit

**Veteraan** · September 17, 2014, 04:57 PM

Try to keep the big guy busy in melee fighting and constantly charge and retreat with the units that have the best charge bonus. It's been ages since I played vanilla TATW but IIRC the Silvans have no cavalry generals. That makes the charge tactic a bit less effective but it is still worthwhile trying. Especially if you have some armor piercing units among your infantry.

**LuckyPistol** · September 17, 2014, 07:27 PM

Your question has been answered in the firs two posts:

1. No Battle Time Limit

2. Ballista. Ballista, ballista, ballista!

To Add

3. Swarm him with Spearmen, as I'm almost positive he is a Heavy Cavalry unit!

So in essence, make sure you don't have a time limit. If you do, its going to be tough to win. While pelting him with ballista shots, make sure he is swarmed by spearmen, like at least 5 units worth (keep your ballistae protected with some decent units just in case). The spearmen will get a bonus against him and pin him down somewhat so he is an easier target

**Withwnar** · September 17, 2014, 11:56 PM

With no battle time limit he might survive the battle. And if he doesn't then you miss that epic moment of seeing him fall.

For the record he's an elephant.

**Macilrille** · September 18, 2014, 01:10 AM

Originally Posted by Funeh

1 most important rule - never play with no battle time limit

I disagree, always play with no battle time limit. Soldiers usually did not go home after a certain time of fighting, only as darkness fell.

And he cannot change that anyway now without starting his campaign over.

As for Sauron, as Withwnar says, he is an elephant.

My advice to you now is pull back and get some Ballistae, accept a setback now and then, hard as it may be.

**Funeh** · September 18, 2014, 02:18 AM

Yes but sometimes the battles are bugged and you cant do anything about and you are stuck... So for me, I will always play with battle limits, its not like its too short or something, but it does make sure your battle will eventually end sometime when you dont need to sacrifice yourself because of stupid AI

**insolent1** · September 18, 2014, 06:47 AM

Originally Posted by Macilrille

And he cannot change that anyway now without starting his campaign over.

You can change it at any time on the campaign map. I prefer to have timelimit on(stuck unkillable buggy units have wasted enough of my time) but for large siege assaults I always turn it off so I can take my time and use up all my ammo

**ElvenKind** · September 18, 2014, 02:22 PM

Before you enter this or any battle in your campaign, press ESC on your keyboard, and in Options you can turn on/off Battle Time limit.

For me, battle time limit is useful when you play against an AI, when you play against some other human then you should not need it. Humans usually are smarter than AI.. ?