Balrog

[Alex-ander]

I am playing as the SE and am about to siege Moria. But when i do i will get the dreaded Balrog. I saw the thread on dealing with Trolls i could not find on on dealing with Balrogs.

I don't really have a problem with Trolls but whats the best way of dealing with Balrogs?

[Darner]

Maximize the size of your army and siege them.

[Wolfsblut]

Maximize the size of your army and siege them.

right

siege, use one or two units to keep the balrog buisy while finish off the rest of the enemy and then swarm them with anything you got.
the losses maybe high, but they will fall.
I beat them once with 2 generals (r.i.p. haldir) and warends / tier1archers and sentinels only, i dont got much troops left but the balrog was vanished.

not the badest idea too, to got some reserves behind the first army to reinforce moria after the conquer if its not oomms last stand.

[SinerAthin]

Ballistas and Catapults.

Ballistas are lethal against trolls and ents. Usually one shot one kill.

Catapults tends to oneshot Mumakils(or two-three shot).

I recommend trying to combine these two and maybe you'll find something that works.

Just tie the balrog up with some disposable cannonfodder unit.

[Loki_999]

I did some testing with Balrogs. An entire army (full stack) of Elves got massacred by 2 units of balrogs with barely a loss to the balrogs. However, with ballistae the balrogs were wiped very quickly.

[Seleukos_I.]

You should also make use of Beornings. They are the only ap-unit available to the Elves.

[Saddletank]

whats the best way of dealing with Balrogs?

The best way is not to fight them at all...

So...

I heard that the Balrog unit comes on as reinforcements so, although its a bit of a cheat/gamey approach, one tactic is to use the biggest siege force you can and hit the city hard, smashing your way in as fast as you can, occupy the plaza and hope the timer runs out before the Balrog gets there. Delay them with some expendable units meanwhile.

Another option which worked for me as Ered Luin dwarves using FROME was to (quite accidentally) kill all the Misty Mountain generals and the faction goes rebel, then you can walk into a Balrogless Moria any time you like

[traxx91]

Simply use AP. Balrogs are some kind of stronger trolls. Units that can kill trolls can kill the Balrogs too. In your case use Beornings, as Seuleukos said.

[Ciryatur]

bit of a cheat but my usual way of taking moria if i'm a little short on troops or AP units Silvan elves) is to wait until the ootmm have a stack just outside the city. That way if you attack the outside stack, the garrison comes on as reinforcements but without spawning the balrogs. Simply mop up the armies and walk into an emtpy moria. This is a little more difficult as the dwarves if you dont have dale cavalry although obv as the dwarves you have plenty of AP units anyway so balrogs aren't as much of a problem.

if not AP such as beornings etc or siege weapons are the way to go. one mistake i did make was sending ents against them and then weeping as they were all slaughtered very quickly !

[Lioncross]

I am playing as the SE and am about to siege Moria. But when i do i will get the dreaded Balrog. I saw the thread on dealing with Trolls i could not find on on dealing with Balrogs.

I don't really have a problem with Trolls but whats the best way of dealing with Balrogs?

Get yourself a crappy general with about 3-5 random units your strongest spear men and 2 units of mounted archers. Then, seige Moria from the northeast, stack your general at the highest point you can find with the 4 units, at least one archer unit, and the 2 horser acher units and one spearman unit to the other side of the map.

Once Moria is empty and marching upwards towards your general, rush your 2 horse units with the one spearmen unit to the gates from an opposite direction, now nail with your archers the closest snaga troop and rush it with your general, they will rout. If done correctly the snagas with enter back into the city as your horses arrive, make sure to save your arrows. Inside the city place your horses at the square in loose formation and the spearmen in a stack protecting the street.

Any routing unit entering the city will be blocked by spearmen and sniped by your horses. After 3 minutes the city will be yours and you wont have to worry about Balrogs ever again. I've done this twice and it worked like a charm, I used few units because I was broke.

Now, if you think you are Clint Eastwood than use ballista while you have them distracted with disposable units, like mercenaries.

[Golden Hawk]

Personally, I think the best way to deal with a balrog is an army that consists of some of your best troops(Silvan Heavy Spearmen, Silvan Heavy Swordsmen, Any kind of archers), and then 3-4 units of Beorning mercs with 2 sets of ballistas. The balrog usually is bit overconfident so he'll most likely charge you alone. Now Charge all your beornings around the balrogs, enveloping them in a cloud of axes. Now order your sniper accuracy ballistas to fire fiery death at the balrogs. They usually drop dead pretty fast and the rest of your army can concentrate on singing and dancing on the orc corpses... "I kill two orcs in the morning'... I kill two more at night..."

Siege is also quite effective, but they'll sally eventually anyway...

[Vaz]

Never send ANY kind of Spears anywhere near the Balrog - spears suffer a hardcoded weakness against Infantry and bonus against Cavalry.

You'll need a load of the Sentinels - hihgly accurate and damaging they can do fair bits of damage.

[WARdrobe]

Just borrow Gandalf from Eriador and make him smite them in the abyss...

Or listen to the "full stack with ballista's" advice.

[pako]

It's possible to have just one balrogs ? Why there are 8 balrogs at time in the battlefield ?

[Lordinquisitor]

It's possible to have just one balrogs ? Why there are 8 balrogs at time in the battlefield ?

The answer to the second question answers the first.

[Baywatch]

Just remember the Balrog is a single unit that can only be obtained once in the entire course of the game. Just devote all the resources at your disposal to bring it down. Even if it costs you the battle, it's worth it to make sure you don't need to worry about it more than once.

I just treat them the same way I treat trolls but with much more necessity. AP units and siege weapons are your best defense against them.