if you're talking about Balin's mission, then nothing is difficult there, just stand on the defensive and wait for the orcs to come and die. You can increase the army with gold, but then they won't attack in my way. Recruit more knights. With Elrond, you can generally capture their cities later

Use the 200 gold you receive after unpausing to add 2 more units of skirmishers to your men-at-arms. There is no real benefit to 'winning' this war, so just white-peace the orcs once they've lost troops against you.

There is an element of RNG in which 3 tribes attack, but generally even if the strongest one (the guys to your south) come you should be fine if you just sit tight. Allying with Elrond & the Dunedain is still important for preventing the AI from starting new wars after this one ends.

That should get you through it and into the even less fun experience of having your entire settlement wiped by the Balrog.

Well I tried again but this time I managed to get defensive alliances with Elrond and and Elven courtier of Galadriel and Aragorn himself, my army hold long enough for them to arrive in time, I managed to win the wars.

It was hard then to rebuild, but I destroyed the strongest goblin faction in the south.
Balin and my heir, Dwalin died, and Gimli became king of the Moria, sacrificing himself to kill Durin's Bane, so now i'm playing Gimli's son, Gimli II, king of the Moria.

It took a bit of RNG but that was actually fun !

Helloooo ! Balin is the best in Diplomacy, so try to make an alliance with the dwarves (they come every time). Aragorn is a good choice too.
After that, you have 30/100 of chance to kill the Balrog, and 65/100 to die in the battle. You need to wait his sleep, and need also 2000 of glory. Nothing change this rating.

So, after waiting a long time, after your sucess (wonderfull), the Mordor come for you. So don't take the colonies close to the borders, be safe, we don't know.

HAVE FUN (yeah, I recreate Khazad-düm)

Anyone know how to find Durin's helm and Axe? I've played several playthroughs as Balin's Expedition and haven't found them once.

Originally posted by ScottybeGamin:

Anyone know how to find Durin's helm and Axe? I've played several playthroughs as Balin's Expedition and haven't found them once.

Durin's Helm is given to one of Durin's Line somewhere at the start of the game I believe. The Axe... I think I got by conquering Erebor as an Orc, so likely starts with Dain?
The Diplomacy buy artefact claim perk is so useful for this.

Originally posted by ScottybeGamin:

Anyone know how to find Durin's helm and Axe? I've played several playthroughs as Balin's Expedition and haven't found them once.

I just know that the ring of Dain is in Mordor, so you need to win against Sauron. And the Axe arrive after you rebuild the Hall of the Moria.

I just completed this myself took a bit but its 100% doable, I didn't have the helm of Durin though so my best shot was at 35%, took 2 attempts and 200 years but got it :D

I completely control the struggle region, have military and prowess stats of around 30 and 60 respectively and I have an Elven friend but my success chance is only 13% when I feel it should be higher. I don't have Durin's helm but even so

Originally posted by agbirdsall:

I completely control the struggle region, have military and prowess stats of around 30 and 60 respectively and I have an Elven friend but my success chance is only 13% when I feel it should be higher. I don't have Durin's helm but even so

So I've found out with my own testing even with max stats and both the Helm and Axe the game says you only get about a 60% chance to kill the Balrog.

Out of about 100 attempts with max stats, a high level elf friend and the Helm and Axe, the character attempting has died every single time, and the Balrog survived 90 or so times. Much MUCH higher than the 60% the game says.

Hope this helps people.