Quote:
Originally Posted by Belegorn
I'm not sure how this would turn out. The Dúnedain are too strong for Sauron by themselves. They would not even need the Elves to destroy Sauron's forces.
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But the Dunedain don't have much of a presence in Middle-earth at this point, not nearly as much as they did later in the age, anyway. Gil-galad eventually received aid from Numenor in the form of Ciryatur, who brought in a fleet to the Gulf of Lune and sent another up the River Gwathlo, to flank Sauron's armies from Tharbad. The maneuver was extremely effective, and left Sauron on the run with a much diminished force, which was reduced to nearly nothing by further action in Calenardhon.
Obviously, Sauron didn't consider the Dunedain a deterrent to war against the Elves, since said war occurred in the original timeline; he hadn't faced them in battle yet. It was only after this war in the original timeline that he began to consider them a serious threat.
Now, will the Numenoreans come in to save Gil-galad again? It's very likely. The butterflies from this point of departure aren't likely to affect the relationship between the Elves and Numenor, especially not by this point, and especially not in a negative way.
In fact, there are some that theorize that the shadow that fell over Numenor was brought on in large part by the Lord of the Nazgul, who was known to be a Numenorean Lord before he became a Ringwraith. Surely he would have acted in Sauron's interests once he succumbed to the Dark Lord's will; I imagine that Sauron was acting behind the scenes in Numenor for far longer than was directly indicated by Professor Tolkien in Akallabeth. There's a good case for it, anyway.