What would Sauron be?

[Kyutaru]

Assuming one wanted to play as Sauron the Deceiver, and there's a helmet model that supports it, what would his leadership look like?

First off, what race? Orcs or Goblins? Orcs are traditionally more of what he fielded while Goblins favor the Blight territory he resides in. Orcs are the melee superiority that you might fear seeing at the gates of your city with a few trebuchets while Goblins are tricksy hobbitses making ample use of the anti-life nature of our villain.

Then, what class? Warlord or Necromancer? While Necromancer by trade and sporting wraiths and he rushes cities razing them to the ground, he doesn't quite employ an all undead strategy. He's something of a caster but doesn't summon enough for a sorcerer or druid playstyle, preferring to raise an army of his own. The Warlord leads great armies as he once did and has a variety of troops and buffs for his minions but its weakness is scouting... the one thing Sauron is not bad at. Dreadnought and Sorcerer were other considerations with their production and mana focus but too far removed from his nature to consider with very strange playstyles.

What mastery? Destruction or Shadowborn? Granted he's the very embodiment of everything Shadowborn calls out for with servants Dedicated to Evil but unless we're repainting that Angel as a Balrog and hand-waving all this lifedrain then it's still odd. He's something of a ruiner with his sorcery and capable of Destruction's blight encouragement and exploiting weakness with Wreck and Distintegrate just lauds over his fearlessness of any mortal.

Clearly the other skill will be the Adept of the one he doesn't choose unless you think he benefits more from an Empire upgrade path.

[Lars]

Orc Warlord Destruction Mastery + 1 point in Shadowborn sounds like its not too far off the mark. Alternatively Fire instead of Shadowborn. Sure, its not a magic user class type, but in the books his power comes primarily from his armies. Just the leader and occational hero handling the magic sounds fairly 'legit' to me. :)

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

Agreed. Orc Warlord with Destruction mastery.

Sauron may be called "the necromancer" but apart from the Ringwraiths, that doesn't really suit his modus operandi.

In the books, he fields giant armies of Orcs, and his main power is to instill despair in his enemies and embue his slaves with far greater strength of will and discipline than they otherwise would have had. The Warlord class fits this exactly, with the various empire upgrades you get as well as spells like Berserk and Intimidation, as well as the economy boosts that will let you field the giant armies you need to be a proper dark lord.

Destruction Master will let you cover the whole world in Blight, which is the perfect representation of the corrupting influence of Sauron, and lets you turn your empire into a Mordor-type wasteland. Shadowborn will further add to the evilness and help you field a giant horde of troops.

As for race, Orcs or Goblins could both work. Goblins are a bit closer to Orcs in the LotR books, with the exception of the black Uruks of Mordor and the Uruk Hai, perhaps, and they work better with Blight and help with the whole "giant horde" thing. But on the other hand: they're just too silly. Swarm darters have no place in Sauron's hordes, nor do Big Beetles. (Trolls are just right, though. But you can always have Warbreeds stand in for them.)

Orcs just look right, particularly if you bring on Berserkers and Phalanxes with Tibbles' racial class units mod. And it will make your Sauron look big and imposing and terrifying, rather than a hunched little goblin-Sauron.

For best effect, you'll just need to find a Goblin town and use that to produce lots of cannon fodder Marauders, Warg Riders and Goblin Berserkers, and use just a small core of proper Orcy troops. (Berserkers, Shock Troopers and Phalanxes. And maybe warbreeds.) Add some humans mounted archers and Berserkers as well to represent easterlings. If you can, find an Archon dwelling and build some Wraith Kings to represent the Ringwraiths. Loot, exterminate or migrate everyone else.

Too bad the Azracs/Nomads are no longer in the game, or they'd have made for great Southron stand-ins.

[Chthonic Guardian]

I agree about his army being Orc's.

As for Sauron himself, do not be deceived by the movie version. He was a fallen Vala, Melkor's lieutenant. After Melkor was defeated and imprisoned Sauron went into hiding, and eventually came back to forge his rings with the Elven Smiths. He slew them and fled again with the rings, giving them to various Lord’s, who became over time his servants and wraiths.

He was one of the most powerful figures, who could only be matched by Galadriel if she was in her homeland with her Elven power ring on. He took all of his power and put it into his final ring, the one to rule them all. So he really was not a powerful figure anymore, certainly not the powerful giant in the movies. His ring contained his power and he was without his ring.

Maybe some kind of black/ dark version of the summoned phantom warrior would be my choice. I don’t know if that could be mod’d or not.

[Sam Hotte]

Originally posted by nemman63:

He was a fallen Vala,

Nope. He was Maia (though a powerful one); in principle of the same origin as Gandalf, Saruman and the Balrog.

To add another point of view on the AoW3-Sauron: Corrupting existing creatures is the way, Sauron (and to a much greater extent his "Boss" before him) creates his followers and armies. So Necromancer is not too far away, IMHO. "Ghouled" Elves is just the way the Orcs came to existance in the LotR universe and Sauron was the necromancer in Dol Guldur. The Morgul Blade nearly ghouled Frodo at the weather top ....

OTOH, Sauron works a lot with deception, as the forging of the rings and the Nazguls prove, as well as the way, he fled his imprisonment on Numenor. So, he's sort of a Rogue as well.
Shadow stalkers resemble Nazguls a bit and mass panicking is the way they fight, also sadism, night wish, iron grip and age of deception ARE Sauron, no?

So how about an Orc Rogue with master of destruction and shadow born?

[Gloweye]

Could make a nice mod adding it all together...

[Sam Hotte]

I do recall there was a mod doing middle earth during 3rd age for AoW2:SM which let you play the war of the rings. Was pretty fun. :)