Bloody Balrog

[PSYCHO V]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So my High Elves had taken the fight to the Eastern Orcs and seized their capital.. Marching down the Misty Mountains toward Moria, enemy army after army is dispatched. I now have a full stack at the gates of Moria with a long train of reinforcements tailing all the way up to Goblin Town. Awaiting us is a full stack of Orcs in Moria plus a another stack in close support, around 6,000 orcs in all.

"No problem" I think to myself. If 1,700 Elves had previously dealt with around 9,000 Orcs, surely 2,400 could handle 6,000? "Onward men... to glory, let us put an end to this evil blight on the land".

Then all hell broke loose! The sounds of war apparently awoke the Balrog who came to the aid of their kin. Now these guys look badass but I was still confident that a full stack of triple gold chevron Elves and my elite general Manwe, would carry the day. How wrong was I. When I engaged the Orc archers on the walls from range ... the Balrog came storming out of the castle gates. "Perfect" think I, hoping to isolate and deal with them before the push on the castle.

Half the Elven army are archers, so I form a skirmish circle around the Balrog and pour volley after volley into them. If the Balrog move to engage in any particular direction, that unit withdraws. Volley after volley and nothing happens. After considerable time... all ammunition is exhausted. "Ok, so maybe they are immune to missiles ... to melee!!" The whole army of 2,400 is sent in to attack at close quarters.

About 40-50 mins later the remnants (a few hundred) of a once proud army rout. The Balrogs had killed 90% of my army before losing only five of the ten. The general too falls in a desperate attempt to try and strike a blow. The Elven advance has come to an end,

So the question is ... what's the best way to kill Balrogs?. Will the Balrogs now join the Orc army and follow my retreating force up the Misty Mountains or do they stay on the defensive in Moria? Do they return to their lair after a while?

[Brego]

If I remember correctly the balrog isn't able to move while controled by the AI.

[PSYCHO V]

If I remember correctly the balrog isn't able to move while controled by the AI.

So If I attack an army in front of Moria and the Moria garrison join in, will the Balrog join as well?

[HolyDevil]

IM still to encounter those guys, but i heard they can not leave moria...

Btw dont ever try to pepper arrows vs trolls or balrogs waste of ammo and time, max it does, is tickle them....

Best of the best you have available, is siege...

Other than that, the only tips i've read so far say to simply melee them.... with what, only they know....

[Brego]

I'm not sure, haven't even met the balrog in battle yet

[PSYCHO V]

I'm not sure, haven't even met the balrog in battle yet

As one not familiar with Middle Earth lore / geography.. you could imagine my surprise at having to face these guys. For some reason I thought the Balrog resided around Mordor.

[Jean=A=Luc]

So the question is ... what's the best way to kill Balrogs?

More meat in the grinder by the sound of it. Well, lame as it sounds again AP unit are probably best.

[PSYCHO V]

More meat in the grinder by the sound of it. Well, lame as it sounds again AP unit are probably best.

Sorry..AP? How well do catapults and balista do against them?

[HolyDevil]

What Jean meant.... TONS AND TONS AND TONS AND TONS AND TONS and... well u got it?

I mean you need a lot of sacrifice, and that is facing them alone.... so make sure you manage to get them alone somehow, and, again, dont bother with range units against them, only siege and AP

AP= armor pierceing (?)

All units that have "Effective against armor" thing...

[Jean=A=Luc]

I haven't faced Balrogs yet but it seems like common sense to me. They prolly have a huge armour value so AP is the natural way to go.

I guess you could also try tons of ranged units, expend your ammo, hopefully kill a few then retreat. Rinse and repeat.

edit: Oh wait, Balrog's a general. That means all the "bodyguards" regenerate. How evil. Use assassins then.

[intel]

edit: Oh wait, Balrog's a general. That means all the "bodyguards" regenerate

Lolwut

Oh, that's really bad for you But I guess a full stack of gold chevroned warriors of mithlond/oliphants/trolls/olog-hai/khazad guards will do the job

[ElDanny]

Lolwut

Oh, that's really bad for you But I guess a full stack of gold chevroned warriors of mithlond/oliphants/trolls/olog-hai/khazad guards will do the job

Trust me, they won't.

I've battled the Balrog with Erador. Bad Move.
I'm playing with the One Ring mod installed, I've found the Ring and plan on hiding it untill I reach Mount Doom to destroy Mordor. In my quest to reach Mount Doom I weas forced with an early desision. To fight though Isenguard or take Moria, seeing Moria is just the one settlement I thought it'd be easier, bad move.

I beseiged the castle with a full stack lead by Aragorn (my Ring Bearer) and Gandalf. I also had a half stack of Silvian Elves as reinforcements. Their army made the 1st move and struck out, the Balrog lead the charge, but I managed to keep it ocupied with my spamable troops (2 units of town miltia and 1 suburb miltia) Their main army hit my lines soon enough with the Elves still far off from joining the combat, I soon routed all their units but The Balrog keeping a great casualty ratio of 10% to 90+%. Woo! I thought, time to finish this. Turned all my Melee units but my cavalry into the Balrog, soon the casualty ration was 40-90% and not a single Balrog fell and the Elves were still not past the castle. In the end I used my cavalry and Gandalf to rush the center, what was left of the Orc/Goblin army was nothing capible of takling my cavalry, then The Elves finally showed up, but with no intention of helping my forces hunt the Balrog. Then the Balrog obviously figured out what I was up to and tried to reach the castle, then the 1st Balrog fell! For the rest of the battle the Balrog tried to fight its way though the Elves. Finally, when the final timer was up only 4 out of 10 of the Balrogs had fallen, and I had a final casualty of ratio of over 65%.

Final result, the Balrog managed to destroy over 50% of mine and Elven armys. thats well over 1500 poor souls lost, and didn't even lose half its unit.

But damn was it fun.

[Bela]

Lolwut

Oh, that's really bad for you But I guess a full stack of gold chevroned warriors of mithlond/oliphants/trolls/olog-hai/khazad guards will do the job

Or just 4 units of Troll-men of Harad (have tried it in a custom battle and it was a clear victory).

[Elfhelm]

In my 'suppose Dunland became good campaign' using FROME I have just seen the Balrog wander out of the mtns with a stack of heavy goblins and waste OstN Edil which was cool as it had gone rebel against the elves who I'd just given it to and was now fully loaded with bloomin trolls so I was steering well clear of it.
Shortly after relieving said settlement of Trolls the shadowy culprit was last seen walking in an aggressive manner towards Rivendell.
Its the first time Ive encountered the Balrog outside of Moria, I was shocked and stunned! Its OUT THERE!

[trueblaze]

Funny when I fought the Balrog it wasn't that hard. I'm using normal unit sizes as the Sylvan Elves so the Balrog only has 5 max though, but I am using VH/VH.

First I sieged Moria until the army came out to play, this inturn killed nearly half the Balrogs before I even fought them (down to 3). When the balrog came out I sent my two horse, five spear, and four sword units to attack it while my ranged units killed the other orc units. After a while all enemies were dead except for two Galrogs and about half of my army was gone. At that point I said F it, and charged one of my archer units into the castle to begin the take over count down. The Balrog sencing this, turned and tired to head back to the castle, but my units kept it pinned in place for a while causing it to switch between running and fighting. During this I managed to kill one of the remaining two. Then it finally broke free and made a B line for the gate so I charged my melee units after it and began peppering it with what was left of my arrows. Amazingly, after two vollies of arrows to the back, the final Balrog fell to the ground and I won.

[Russian Gondor]

Sorry, I have not encountered these yet. Still running on v 0.2

[Silmaril03]

When i first encountered the Balrog screen I said oh crap and retreated because I had only 8 units total, then I'm guessing the Silvan killed them because they disappeared, but I reloaded so I could fight them with a full army.

My best tactic is to form my infantry up have my archers shooting everything else so thats just my army vs the balrogs then send in the infantry. I stop firing arrows then send my bodyguards or other horseman charging from the balrog rear. usually they will only catch 1 or two with each charge but they can do a lot of damage or even kill one with a single charge. I think in total I lost 400 infantry, 100-200 archers, and 50 horseman, going against 4000 orcs and the balrogs. and this army was made up of tier 3 infantry and archers

I usually don't like using siege because they are slow when moving on the campaign map, and they are unpredictable at best in a battle. I once wiped out 50 elves in a single volley because the idiots couldn't shoot correctly off a little hill and hit my front line. I think trolls and balrogs are easy enough to kill without them, however Mumakil are another matter...

[Maiden_Ante]

I'm sorry for being such a douche, but I really laughed out loud when I read Jean's comment about balrog regeneration. I have yet to encounter them, but I fear that moment will come since I'm playing Gondor. I'm thankful Minis Tirith have fortresses surrounding the city now.

[Smaug]

Does anyone know the reason why The Balrog's bodyguards are not trolls as KK originally planned it? That would make a lot more sense than having 10 balrogs going frenzy in The Third Age when there are very few left who can beat even one?

[damnmap]

From what I have seen they are not a great deal better than mountain trolls... so pin them with a melee and fire ALOT of fire arrows into their backs. I think fire arrows are more effective could be wrong