The most difficult evil faction to fight.

[Komnenos1100]

In my Eriador campaign, ive managed to reduce the orcs of gundabad to 1 region, effectively defeating them, beaten the men of dunland and am currently destroying the OOTMM.
But Isengard have taken over most of rohan, and are so far the most difficult evil faction i have had to fight.
In YOUR opinion, who which evil faction is the most difficult.
So far its isengard for me

[Macilrille]

Just you wait till you move further east and south...

[ThaDoews]

When i play as Eriador i often make an alliance with Dunland very early in the game, so i don't have to fight on that front! If the dwarfes don't start to fight with me i then only have to fight with easy orcs
This scenario is good, but have a very bad disadvantage... Dunland starts to spam stacks and often have +15 full stacks before i can turn my attention towards them! Though they are not hard to fight with Arnor troops - which i usually have at that point - they really exhasut my troops and therefore i need atleast 3-4 full stacks to beat theirs many stacks!

I never found Gundabad, Misty Mountains nor Isengard very hard to beat even though they have lots of settlements. Mordor, Rhun and Harad are really the hardest evil factions to face!
Mordor has stronger orcs than their northern counterparts, Rhun has their oversized economy and therefore spam elitetroops and Harad is a big pain in the ass when they get their Mumakils!

I really HATE Mumakils! If you have no javeliners, catapults or ballistas, then don't engage an army with a Mumakil in it! Even on easy one regiment of Mumakils can annihilate your best full stack! If they don't run amok you have no chance ;/ Though i hate them, they make up a good challenge!

Oh yeah! Isengard has their grenadiers! Don't engage them with an elite unit!! Use some trash units with spread formation to hold them, then send in your topguns!

[Kabeloko]

i get you, been there before; its always harder in far regions, especially when your fancy aor units are too far from the frontlines to be viable.
just wait till you try to destroy the ring, i required 2 stacks and a third one with support units to do so.

[Loki_999]

I'd probably say Harad. Troll-men, Corsairs, Mumakil, not to mention a variety of Cavalry. Love playing as Harad, hate facing them.

[riuk881]

I'd say Harad. As Loki said they have Trollmen, Mumakil, Serpeant Guard and a good Economy. I blitzed them as Gondor but even though I've only played two campaigns so far (silvan and on Gondor) I've seen enough lets plays and read enough to know they are a major pain in the late game.

[LuckyPistol]

It depends on what point in the game you are, for example:

Early Game- Rhun and Harad. They can spam decent to great units (lets not even begin with scripted Corsairs). But if you're West or North of Rohan, you don't have to worry
Mid-Game: Isengard joins the ranks with Rhun and Harad if they can overcome Rohan/not be completely wiped out before Barracks event
Late Game: MORDOR. Mordor Mordor Mordor. Even though they even usually lose favor with The Dark Lord and other evil factions attack them, late game Mordor is a factory of Uruks and Trolls that practically absorbs every settlement in its path. Its the Majin Buu of Factions

Orcs of Gundabad and Misty Mountains shouldn't give ANYONE trouble Early, Mid, or Late (Balrog being the only exception)

[FC Groningen]

It depends on what point in the game you are, for example:

Early Game- Rhun and Harad. They can spam decent to great units (lets not even begin with scripted Corsairs). But if you're West or North of Rohan, you don't have to worry
Mid-Game: Isengard joins the ranks with Rhun and Harad if they can overcome Rohan/not be completely wiped out before Barracks event
Late Game: MORDOR. Mordor Mordor Mordor. Even though they even usually lose favor with The Dark Lord and other evil factions attack them, late game Mordor is a factory of Uruks and Trolls that practically absorbs every settlement in its path. Its the Majin Buu of Factions

Orcs of Gundabad and Misty Mountains shouldn't give ANYONE trouble Early, Mid, or Late (Balrog being the only exception)

I'd like to respond to this post in particular as I'd like to use the same format.

Early game: Rhun because the factions that face them don't really have the right units to face them. Neither the Dwarves, Dale or the Silvan Elves have great cavalry counters; especially in the early game. The only solution you have is to fight Rhun in settlements so they can use their cavalry decently. You're also forced to take them on early on as these factions can't afford a strong Rhun which will happen if you leave them alone.
Mid game: Isengard. They grow rather fast and then also field quite some spear units or infantry units heavy enough to withstand most frontal cavalry charges. If you face them as Rohan, they simply need to be destroyed as soon as possible, which can be around turn 20 or even less. Eriador isn't very well suited to deal with them too. Only the High Elves have a relatively easy time to fight them, but their heavy armour makes the bow quendi units less efficient.
Late game (I consider this turn 80/90 and beyond): Harad by far. By then, they start to spam out Mumakil units which, as many said already, can destroy your entire army if you're unlucky and/or not prepared. Because of their many regions they usually own by then, they can spam more full stacks than any other faction. The moment they start to expand into Gondor, which usually happens around that time alongside with Mordor, you're officially in the ****. They are also very active on seas by then and even naval campaigns might be doomed to fail as it's hard to bypass them and you can't afford a big fleet to deal with them. I've seen screenshots of Harad having about 50 fullstacks running around at turn 120/130. Most of the times, I go out of my way to destroy Harad the moment I felt I've secured my "home territory".

Mordor on the other hand, I never found a problem. By then, they usually lost some Nazgul. If not, the AI isn't too bright and they can be killed. Their trolls are a nuisance, but not as overpowered as the Mumakils and apart from that, they simply send junk. Considering that most of the Mordor armies consist of junk, I rather deal with them than a "decent late game harad stack". I've also never seen them spam so many full stacks as Harad did. And if they do, they at least spread them out more.

[LuckyPistol]

I'd like to respond to this post in particular as I'd like to use the same format.

Early game: Rhun because the factions that face them don't really have the right units to face them. Neither the Dwarves, Dale or the Silvan Elves have great cavalry counters; especially in the early game. The only solution you have is to fight Rhun in settlements so they can use their cavalry decently. You're also forced to take them on early on as these factions can't afford a strong Rhun which will happen if you leave them alone.
Mid game: Isengard. They grow rather fast and then also field quite some spear units or infantry units heavy enough to withstand most frontal cavalry charges. If you face them as Rohan, they simply need to be destroyed as soon as possible, which can be around turn 20 or even less. Eriador isn't very well suited to deal with them too. Only the High Elves have a relatively easy time to fight them, but their heavy armour makes the bow quendi units less efficient.
Late game (I consider this turn 80/90 and beyond): Harad by far. By then, they start to spam out Mumakil units which, as many said already, can destroy your entire army if you're unlucky and/or not prepared. Because of their many regions they usually own by then, they can spam more full stacks than any other faction. The moment they start to expand into Gondor, which usually happens around that time alongside with Mordor, you're officially in the ****. They are also very active on seas by then and even naval campaigns might be doomed to fail as it's hard to bypass them and you can't afford a big fleet to deal with them. I've seen screenshots of Harad having about 50 fullstacks running around at turn 120/130. Most of the times, I go out of my way to destroy Harad the moment I felt I've secured my "home territory".

Mordor on the other hand, I never found a problem. By then, they usually lost some Nazgul. If not, the AI isn't too bright and they can be killed. Their trolls are a nuisance, but not as overpowered as the Mumakils and apart from that, they simply send junk. Considering that most of the Mordor armies consist of junk, I rather deal with them than a "decent late game harad stack". I've also never seen them spam so many full stacks as Harad did. And if they do, they at least spread them out more.

That's quite a bit But that must be a game where they never challenged Mordor. More often than not, Mordor and Harad break alliance and kill each other IF they manage to take out Gondor (which is a 50/50 chance in Vanilla, in MOS Gondor usually falls), and the winner should be the one holding Minas Tirith, which is usually Mordor. The only factions I've ever seen destroy Mordor are Dale (I was sooooo lucky to be playing Eriador in that campaign ) and Gondor, Harad's lighlty armored unites usually get their sandy cheeks kicked by troll/uruk stacks. Speaking of which, most of the late game Mordor stacks consist Oloh Hai's, uruks, Morannon Guards, troll catapults, and maybe a few archers. Their "junk" stacks usually die out and are replaced with good units by turn 80 or so.

But then again, arguing this is pointless since every game is different

[skullripper]

once isengard get the urakhai pikemen, it is hard to kill them

[Aldor]

Mordor and Harad.

If you let one of those grow you will get swarmed with stacks. Sure you can beat them easily most of the time, but you'll suffer at least some casulties per stack. In the end it all adds up which makes it rather challenging.

Mummakils, cavalry and trolls will make casulties.

once isengard get the urakhai pikemen, it is hard to kill them

Archers. Even crappy ones will eventually pierce their armour.

[Wizad]

Factions by strength:
Elvish factions, High Elves are the strongest because of their mounted bodyguards
Mannish factions with mounted bodyguards
Mannish factions with their generals on foot
'elite'-Orcish factions, think Mordor and Isengard
nothern Orcs, the OoG and the OotMM

[Jmonstra]

Rhun is by far the hardest faction for me to fight. Their troops are well trained, well armoured and numerous and it takes nothing short of a meteor strike to stop their Kataphracts, who are easily among the best cavalry in all of Middle Earth.

[Lortano]

Is it just me, or are Trolls easier to kill in MOS than on vanilla? Just seem to be able to crush them easily with archers.

Anyway, Rhun is a huge pain in the early game, especially as the dwarves. Why? Because Rhun has a huge mobility advantage, and javelin men can mess up Dwarven armour. The lack of cavalry (Even with Dale riders on MOS) and the slow speed of dwarves mean that your battles with Rhun are going to be frustrating and long.

Mordor though. Mos campaign with the Silvan Elves was a nightmare, I drove Mordor out of Mirkwood and toggled the FoW to see how Gondor and Rohan was doing. Rohan had disintergrated and was occupied by isengard and Mordor. Basically, if Minas Tirith falls, you are going to be in for a miserable campaign trying to hold back Mordor's endless stacks of doom. Mind you, I did activate the 'Eastern Shadows' script for MOS, so that probably hastened the fall of Gondor.

[kyfohatl]

Is it just me, or are Trolls easier to kill in MOS than on vanilla? Just seem to be able to crush them easily with archers.

You know I've been getting that feeling too. I picked OOTMM and despite their crappy goblin troops I thought trolls should be able to get me lots of wins, but they seem to be weaker than trolls in vanilla I think

[Wolfeson]

You know I've been getting that feeling too. I picked OOTMM and despite their crappy goblin troops I thought trolls should be able to get me lots of wins, but they seem to be weaker than trolls in vanilla I think

I really haven't found this to be the case, though granted I've only been playing against Mordor. There are a couple of new MOS units that are great against trolls, but for the most part they seem as strong as ever. As Arnor, I had fun wrecking them with the Elite Rangers (archers with ap), but currently as the Elves of Lorien, they're as devastating and hard to kill as ever, even when I focus my archers on them.

[riuk881]

Is it just me, or are Trolls easier to kill in MOS than on vanilla? Just seem to be able to crush them easily with archers.

you could always go into the program files and check. i don't have mos but I could compare what you find to my files.

[Shingen]

Mordor is the definitely the hardest.

6 trolls + 2 troll catapult

[ThorHa]

With THAT Elven army the result of a fight should be 1:0 Elves, own losses 30%, enemy losses 99%. Yes, even against 8 trolls

Regards, Thorsten

[CatoTheYounger]

Rhun early. Mordor late.