In this scenario, Helm's Deep is attacked by Thano's Outriders from Avengers Infinity War instead of the overwhelming force of Uruk-hai. There are only 5,000 Outriders in this battle instead of the 10,000 that assaulted the castle in the movie, but all of the same soldiers from the Two Towers are present, with Aragorn, the Elves, and then Gandalf coming in at the last minute with Eomer. The Outriders all start out 5 miles away and their only goal is to kill every last person defending the castle. If the men and Elves can last the night, Gandalf comes with reinforcements. All of the preparation is the same for the defenders of the castle and they have a basic knowledge of the enemy they are facing.

Who wins and why? If you think 5,000 of them is too much of a stomp in the Outriders' favor, I'll edit it to a lower number.

Outriders.

@thevivas:

Who wins and why? If you think 5,000 of them is too much of a stomp in the Outriders' favor, I'll edit it to a lower number.

A handful of Outriders took down the Hulkbuster/could ragdoll Super soldiers, how would this possibly be fair?

The Outriders have been the most impressive of the fodder non-human footsoldiers in the MCU, to the point of them not being fodder, this is a total mismatch.

Arrows, no armor for Outriders, no easy way to get past the wall besides climbing it, no way to blow up the wall, etc. If 5,000 is too much, what would be an appropriate number to make the fight interesting? @lucano: I'll pose the question to you too.

@thevivas:

Arrows, no armor for Outriders,

They took multiple shield/knife stabs to go down and ran at full speed despite either being on fire or mutilated from the forcefield, literally every single one of them would be harder to put down than the torch Uruk and they're a lot faster too.

no easy way to get past the wall besides climbing it, no way to blow up the wall, etc.

Given how they moved in the forest I doubt it'd be an issue, but a wooden gate isn't stopping them for more than a few moments given what they did to the Hulkbuster.

If 5,000 is too much, what would be an appropriate number to make the fight interesting?

Like, a hundred. They overwhelmed a much better equipped, larger force with named characters far, far above what was at Helms Deep in no time flat, they're gonna stomp any battle in LOTR unless you drastically nerf their numbers.

@buildhare: Alright, I’ll edit it a bit later.

5000 is a mismatch. That is like 5000 Bloolust Brainwashed Captain America attacking them

Gimli solos

Outriders would overwhelm

Outriders easily. They've got superhuman speed, durability to withstand blasts from Wakandan spears and multi-hundred ft falls and can leap dozens of meters easily. They would overwhelm everyone.

Helms Deep holds.

@lucano: True statement. The Chitauri and Ultron’s bots were jokes, but the Outriders were actually effective.

Well, until Thor showed up and cleaned house.

@kingcrimson: Interesting you seem to think they can defend against the Outriders. How come?

Outriders stomp.