Sauron as new DLC final boss for Skyrim

[ArlEammon]

Sauron from Lord of the Rings finds himself banished to Skyrim in the Sea of Ghosts after being defeated in Middle Earth. Sauron has his fair, beautiful body in this vs. How does he fair against the various enemies there? Alduin, Harkon and Miraak? Keep in mind that he's capable of corrupting Alduin's soul via magic, as if he were a Dragonborn. While Alduin has his dragons, Harkon has his vampires, and Miraak has his dragons and cultists, Sauron has his versions of Orcs, while promising the Orsimer that he will rebuild their city state to the West. Sauron also has his goblins, an army of Easterlings and trolls, as well as all his usual assets. However he doesn't have quite the number of soldiers needed to conquer Middle Earth, his army has shrunken to less than one hundred thousand, anywhere from fifty thousand to eighty thousand soldiers in total, perhaps with some of Shelob's brood.

[Tvtyrant]

I think the issue with using Sauron in anything is that he is successful as a result of being immortal, charismatic and patient. He is content to wait thousands of years between wars waiting for entropy to break his enemies down for him. When he does launch his big attack he does so when it is virtually certain he will win, and only a succession of weird, unlikely interventions has saved Middle Earth.

Destroys the Elves of Holly, conquers mankind and then is defeated by the Numenoreans, who may have been using machine guns and steam ships at the time.

Gets them to kill themselves by attacking the gods of the west, begins reconquering middle earth and is defeated by an alliance between the elves and refugees from Numenor.

Creates a series of evil kingdoms focused on defeating a single nation each, once they have mostly collapsed begins his conquest again, would have won except for hobbits and a perfectly timed earthquake.

The point is, he would likely take one look at the opposing forces and then run off to wilderness/underground and begin working to play them off against each other and help other nations until his rivals are dead. Sauron would likely set the empire against them, help the empire while mind-altering its leaders with rings, and then finally take over 2,000 years later.

[ArlEammon]

Yet Sauron was definitely more powerful even than Gandalf, as one of the most powerful beings of Middle Earth at the time.

[The Glyphstone]

It's not the power that is in question, it's his preferred tactics. Sauron just doesn't engage in straight-up battle, even army-to-army, unless he's already so thoroughly prepared the strategic situation as to make his victory essentially guaranteed - throwing an army at someone is as good as admitting that he's failed in his favored strategy of manipulation and corruption from within. And he'll spend as many years/centuries/millennia as he needs to for that, since it's all the same to him.

[Mando Knight]

The point is, he would likely take one look at the opposing forces and then run off to wilderness/underground and begin working to play them off against each other and help other nations until his rivals are dead. Sauron would likely set the empire against them, help the empire while mind-altering its leaders with rings, and then finally take over 2,000 years later.

He'd probably target/back/corrupt the Dominion first: their pride and thirst for magical power make the Thalmor particularly vulnerable to Sauron's preferred means of gaining control, especially if he can avoid being categorized as a Daedra (which should be a simple task for one so specialized in deception).

[Eldan]

Let's see.

Sauron has an army, but he won't just march in. After all, so far, no one has a proper reason to fear him. Sure, he has an army of monsters. But then, as per Morrowind at least, the high elves use goblins as battle slaves too. Orsimer and Sauron's orcs have pretty much nothing in common but the name, so I don't think that's going anywhere. He goes after people who are proud, power-hungry and easily misled, so I suppose his first target would be Ulfric Stormcloak.

Sauron's most immediate problem is that he can't feed his troops. The Sea of Ghosts is very hostile. So he would have to either get trade going quickly or invade some place fertile.

[Keltest]

Yet Sauron was definitely more powerful even than Gandalf, as one of the most powerful beings of Middle Earth at the time.

That's not actually all that true. Gandalf and the other Wizards are on about the same power level of Sauron, but they aren't allowed to match his power with theirs, because it would be super destructive and quite possibly wouldn't resolve anything anyway.

[Seppl]

If Sauron is back in his fair, beautiful body he would probably just try his ring scheme again. Given that the people of Tamriel are much less perfect than the Elves of Middle Earth, it is improbable that anyone would resist the temptation of the rings, except some of the super-natural entities like Alduin or the Daedric Princes. With all the mortal races united under him and all the greatest heroes, mages and leaders wearing a Ring of Power, those entities should not pose much of a problem.

[Tvtyrant]

He'd probably target/back/corrupt the Dominion first: their pride and thirst for magical power make the Thalmor particularly vulnerable to Sauron's preferred means of gaining control, especially if he can avoid being categorized as a Daedra (which should be a simple task for one so specialized in deception).

Absolutely. Sauron would offer protection to spriggans and giants in return for their aid, try to find and corrupt the Dwemer, make deals with Daedra, and above all keep himself out of the lime light.

[Traab]

Yeah like has been said, sauron isnt the go to guy for a brawl. He is the master manipulator. He would not only arrange for a multiple way civil war, he would keep it going by carefully weakening any faction with an advantage until they are all so beaten down and weak he can stroll up and take over with the army he has been building in the remotest portion of the map he can locate.

[Eldan]

Absolutely. Sauron would offer protection to spriggans and giants in return for their aid, try to find and corrupt the Dwemer, make deals with Daedra, and above all keep himself out of the lime light.

Maybe not the Daedra. They are already mostly immortal and near omnipotent in their spheres, so I don't think he could offer them much. And several among them are corruptors and tempters themselves, so they might see through him.