Balance of Power in Skyrim: Complete Quest Guide & All Choices Explained (2026)

The Balance of Power quest sits near the end of Skyrim’s Civil War questline, and it’s where your faction choice finally pays off in blood and territory. Whether you’ve been fighting for the Imperials or the Stormcloaks, this repeatable quest determines which holds fall under your faction’s control through a series of military campaigns. It’s not the final quest, but it’s the meat of the endgame, commanding troops, capturing forts, and watching the political map of Skyrim shift with every victory.

This guide breaks down everything you need to complete Balance of Power for either faction, including exact battle sequences, hold targets, dialogue choices, and combat strategies that’ll keep you alive when arrows start flying. We’ll also cover the bugs that can tank your progress and how to fix them without starting over.

What Is the Balance of Power Quest in Skyrim?

Balance of Power is a repeatable military quest in Skyrim’s Civil War storyline. It appears after you’ve completed the initial faction quests and starts the endgame push to control all of Skyrim’s holds.

The quest structure is simple: your faction leader assigns you a hold to conquer. You rally troops, assault an enemy-controlled fort, kill or rout the defenders, and claim the territory. Once complete, the quest repeats with a new target hold until your faction controls eight of the nine holds (Haafingar for Imperials or The Pale for Stormcloaks remains under enemy control until the final quest).

This quest is mechanically identical whether you fight for General Tullius or Ulfric Stormcloak, only the targets and NPCs change. The battles themselves play out as large-scale skirmishes with friendly AI soldiers fighting alongside you, though you’ll do the heavy lifting.

How to Start the Balance of Power Quest

Prerequisites and Requirements

Before Balance of Power becomes available, you need to progress through the Civil War questline for your chosen faction. The exact prerequisites depend on whether you’ve completed Season Unending (the peace council during the main quest) or skipped it by finishing the Civil War early.

For Imperials:

• Complete Joining the Legion and The Jagged Crown
• Finish Message to Whiterun and Battle for Whiterun
• Complete Reunification of Skyrim (if you skipped Season Unending) or Liberation of Skyrim (if you did the peace council)

For Stormcloaks:

• Complete Joining the Stormcloaks and The Jagged Crown
• Finish Message to Whiterun and Battle for Whiterun
• Complete Liberation of Skyrim (if you skipped Season Unending) or Reunification of Skyrim (if you did the peace council)

Once these are done, Balance of Power becomes the primary repeatable quest for capturing the remaining holds.

Finding General Tullius or Ulfric Stormcloak

General Tullius can be found in Castle Dour in Solitude. Enter through the main gate of Solitude, head straight through the courtyard, and enter the stone fortress on the left. Tullius is usually in the war room on the upper floor, standing near the strategic map.

Ulfric Stormcloak stays in the Palace of the Kings in Windhelm. Enter Windhelm through the main gate, head straight into the palace, and you’ll find Ulfric either on his throne or in the war room to the right of the throne hall.

Speak to your faction leader to receive your next target hold. They’ll brief you on the battle plan and send you to rally troops at a nearby military camp.

Understanding the Quest Objectives

Regaining Lost Holds

The core objective is straightforward: take control of enemy holds by capturing their strategic forts. Each hold in Skyrim has a corresponding fort that serves as the military strongpoint. When you capture the fort, the hold’s jarl is deposed (if they’re hostile to your faction) and replaced with a supporter.

The game tracks which holds each faction controls. If you open your map, holds controlled by the Imperials show Imperial banners, while Stormcloak-controlled holds display Stormcloak banners. Balance of Power continues until your faction holds eight of the nine.

You can’t choose which hold to attack, your faction leader assigns targets based on strategic proximity and the current political situation. The quest is designed to push your faction’s borders outward in a logical military progression.

Military Strategy and Fort Locations

Each hold has one primary fort that determines control. Here are the key fort locations by hold:

• Whiterun Hold: Fort Greymoor (west of Whiterun)
• Falkreath Hold: Fort Neugrad (southeast of Falkreath)
• The Reach: Fort Sungard (southwest of Rorikstead)
• Hjaalmarch: Fort Snowhawk (south of Morthal)
• The Pale: Fort Dunstad (southeast of Dawnstar)
• Winterhold Hold: Fort Kastav (east of Winterhold)
• Eastmarch: Fort Amol (southwest of Windhelm)
• The Rift: Fort Greenwall (northeast of Riften)

You’ll meet your troops at a military camp near the target fort, receive your orders from a Legate (Imperial) or Galmar Stone-Fist (Stormcloak), then march to the fort for the assault. The battles are scripted, your soldiers will charge the gates, and you need to fight through defenders to reach and clear the fort interior.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough for Imperials

Target Holds and Battle Sequence

If you’re fighting for the Empire, your target holds depend on what you gained or lost during Season Unending (if you completed it). Typically, you’ll be assigned to capture Stormcloak-held territories in this order:

1. The Pale (Fort Dunstad)
2. Winterhold (Fort Kastav)
3. Eastmarch (Fort Amol)
4. The Rift (Fort Greenwall)
5. The Reach (Fort Sungard, if lost during negotiations)
6. Hjaalmarch (Fort Snowhawk, if lost)
7. Falkreath (Fort Neugrad, if lost)

For each battle:

1. Speak to General Tullius in Castle Dour to receive your orders
2. Travel to the Imperial camp near the target fort (marked on your map)
3. Report to the Imperial Legate at the camp
4. The Legate will rally the troops and lead the assault
5. Follow your troops to the fort and fight through the exterior defenders
6. Clear the fort interior, usually 6-10 Stormcloak soldiers and a commander
7. Return outside and report to the Legate
8. Fast travel back to General Tullius to complete the quest and receive the next assignment

The battles follow a predictable pattern. Your Imperial soldiers will charge the gate while enemy Stormcloaks fire arrows from the walls and courtyard. Once you breach the interior, it’s close-quarters combat in tight corridors.

Key NPCs and Dialogue Options

General Tullius delivers mission briefings with military efficiency. He doesn’t waste words and expects you to follow orders without question. Dialogue options during briefings don’t affect outcomes, they’re flavor text.

Imperial Legates (like Legate Rikke, Legate Adventus Caesennius, or Legate Emmanuel Admand) lead the actual assaults. They’ll give a short speech before battle, then command the attack. You can’t skip these speeches, but they’re mercifully brief.

After capturing a fort, the Legate will sometimes comment on the battle or upcoming strategy. Again, these are non-interactive, just acknowledgment of your progress. The real reward comes when you report back to Tullius, who marks the hold as Imperial territory and assigns the next target.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough for Stormcloaks

Target Holds and Battle Sequence

For Stormcloak players, your targets mirror the Imperial campaign but in reverse. You’ll be taking Imperial-held territories, typically in this sequence:

1. Falkreath Hold (Fort Neugrad)
2. The Reach (Fort Sungard)
3. Hjaalmarch (Fort Snowhawk)
4. Whiterun Hold (Fort Greymoor)
5. The Rift (Fort Greenwall, if lost during Season Unending)
6. Winterhold (Fort Kastav, if lost)
7. The Pale (Fort Dunstad, if lost)

The process for each battle:

1. Speak to Ulfric Stormcloak in the Palace of the Kings
2. Travel to the Stormcloak camp near the target fort (quest marker shows the way)
3. Find Galmar Stone-Fist or another Stormcloak commander at the camp
4. Listen to the pre-battle orders
5. Storm the fort alongside your Stormcloak allies
6. Clear the interior of Imperial Legionnaires and their commander
7. Report your victory to Galmar outside
8. Return to Ulfric in Windhelm to complete the quest and get your next target

Stormcloak battles have the same mechanical flow as Imperial ones, exterior skirmish, interior fort clearing, report to commander, return to leader. The main difference is aesthetic: blue Stormcloak uniforms instead of red Imperial armor, and Ulfric’s more passionate rhetoric compared to Tullius’s cold pragmatism. Many players incorporate proven combat approaches to survive the chaos of these large-scale engagements.

Key NPCs and Dialogue Options

Ulfric Stormcloak delivers his orders with fiery conviction. He views each battle as a step toward true Nord independence. His dialogue is more emotional than Tullius’s, often referencing Skyrim’s sovereignty and the perceived Imperial betrayal. Like the Imperial path, your dialogue choices here are cosmetic, you can ask clarifying questions, but the mission remains the same.

Galmar Stone-Fist is Ulfric’s right-hand man and leads most of the actual assaults. He’s a gruff warrior who delivers blunt battle commands. After capturing a fort, he’ll acknowledge your skill with a sentence or two, then tell you to report back to Ulfric.

Other commanders like Yrsarald Thrice-Pierced or Hjornskar Skull-Smasher might appear depending on the specific battle. They’re functionally identical to Galmar for quest purposes, deliver orders, lead the attack, confirm victory.

Combat Tips and Strategies for Quest Battles

Recommended Builds and Equipment

Balance of Power battles are chaotic but not particularly difficult if you’re properly geared. The biggest threats are getting surrounded in tight spaces and taking stray arrows during exterior sieges.

For Melee Builds:

• Heavy Armor is strongly recommended. You’ll be tanking hits from multiple enemies.
• Bring a shield for arrow mitigation during the approach to the fort.
• One-handed weapons with high DPS work better than two-handers in fort corridors where you’re constantly bumping into friendlies.
• Stamina potions help maintain power attacks when mobbed.

For Ranged Builds:

• Light Armor with maxed Archery perks lets you snipe defenders from the walls before your troops engage.
• Bring paralysis poisons or frost enchantments to slow down melee rushers.
• Stay behind your allied soldiers and pick off enemies as they engage.

For Magic Builds:

• Destruction magic with area-of-effect spells (Fireball, Chain Lightning) clears clustered defenders fast.
• Restoration keeps you alive when arrows fly. Fast Healing or Close Wounds are essential.
• Illusion spells like Mayhem can turn enemy groups against each other, though this sometimes confuses your allied AI. Players exploring different playstyles often reference advanced combat methods to maximize efficiency.

Universal Recommendations:

• Bring healing potions, at least 10-15 per battle. You can’t rely on allied healing.
• Resist Magic or Resist Frost potions help against enemy mages (common in Imperial forts).
• Follower support is allowed. Followers like Lydia or J’zargo add significant DPS and distraction.

Surviving Large-Scale Battles

The battles look impressive but are mechanically simple. Here’s how to avoid unnecessary deaths:

Exterior Fort Assault:

• Let your allied soldiers charge first. They’re expendable: you’re not.
• Use the shield wall (literal shields if melee, or allied bodies if ranged) to block incoming arrows.
• Target archers on the walls first, they cause the most damage to you and your allies.
• Don’t rush ahead of your troops. The game spawns enemies dynamically, and charging solo can trigger more spawns before your backup arrives.

Interior Fort Clearing:

• Fort interiors are linear dungeons with 2-3 rooms and narrow corridors.
• Doorways are chokepoints, use them. Stand in a doorway, block, and let enemies funnel to you one at a time.
• Allied soldiers will follow you inside, but they’re less useful here. Don’t count on them to kill commanders.
• Enemy commanders (marked with better armor and higher HP) usually wait in the final room. They’re not boss-tier, just stronger regular enemies. Focus them down fast to end the fight.

General Tactics:

• Quicksave before rallying troops at the camp. If the battle goes sideways, reload rather than wasting potions.
• Shouts like Unrelenting Force or Elemental Fury are effective but can ragdoll allies. Use carefully.
• If you’re struggling, come back at a higher level. These battles scale, but not dramatically, level 30+ characters with decent gear should steamroll them.

Modding communities on platforms like Nexus Mods have created AI overhauls that make Civil War battles more tactical, if you want a stiffer challenge.

Rewards and Consequences of Your Choices

Faction-Specific Rewards

Balance of Power doesn’t offer unique loot per battle, your rewards are gold and the gradual shift of political power. After each successful fort capture, you receive a modest gold payment (usually 200-400 gold depending on your level).

The real rewards come from the faction questline completion:

Imperial Rewards (after final victory):

• Access to Legate Rikke’s armor if you pickpocket or loot her (not recommended unless you’re roleplaying a traitor)
• Imperial faction quests remain available for minor bounties and patrols
• Windhelm becomes Imperial-controlled, and a new jarl is installed
• Ulfric Stormcloak’s unique armor can be looted from his body after the final battle (Battle for Windhelm)

Stormcloak Rewards (after final victory):

• Solitude falls under Stormcloak control with a new jarl
• General Tullius’s armor is lootable after the final battle (Battle for Solitude)
• Stormcloak faction quests for minor bounties and missions remain active
• Ulfric becomes High King (implied, though the game doesn’t show a formal coronation)

Neither path offers game-breaking unique items. The Civil War is about narrative and world-state changes, not loot chasing.

Impact on Skyrim’s Political Landscape

Completing Balance of Power reshapes Skyrim’s political map. Every hold you capture installs a new jarl loyal to your faction. This has several consequences:

Jarl Changes:

• Hostile jarls are exiled to the opposite faction’s capital (Solitude or Windhelm) and hang out in the palace basement, bitter and powerless.
• New jarls offer different radiant quests and dialogue. Some are more interesting than others (Jarl Balgruuf’s replacement in Whiterun is widely disliked by players, for example).

City Guards:

• Hold guards switch to your faction’s uniforms and dialogue. Imperial guards in Stormcloak cities (or vice versa) are replaced.
• Bounty and crime systems remain unchanged, guards still arrest you for stealing sweetrolls.

Thane Status:

• If you were Thane of a hold before the jarl changed, you keep your Thane status under the new jarl. Your housecarl and player home remain accessible.

Quest Impact:

• Some radiant quests and minor NPCs reference the Civil War outcome. Dialogue updates to reflect who controls what.
• The main quest and other major questlines (Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Companions, College of Winterhold) are completely unaffected by Civil War outcomes. Many newer players benefit from understanding these interconnected systems through resources like beginner-friendly guides.

Immersion and Roleplay:

• The biggest reward is seeing the world reflect your choices. If you’re roleplaying a Nord nationalist, watching Stormcloak banners fly over every hold is satisfying. If you’re an Imperial loyalist, unifying Skyrim under the Empire completes your arc.

There’s no “correct” choice. Both factions are morally gray, and the game doesn’t punish you for either path.

Common Bugs and How to Fix Them

Quest Not Progressing Issues

Balance of Power has a reputation for bugging out, especially on older console versions (Xbox 360, PS3) and unpatched PC installs. Here are the most common issues:

Bug: Faction leader won’t assign new targets

• Symptom: You complete a fort battle, report to Tullius or Ulfric, but they only offer generic dialogue and won’t give you the next Balance of Power quest.
• Cause: Quest stage tracking glitch, often related to completing battles out of sequence or fast-traveling at the wrong time.
• Fix (PC): Open the console (key), click on the faction leader, and typeresetai. If that doesn't work, use setstage CWObj 200` to manually advance the quest stage. Warning: This can break the questline if used incorrectly. Quicksave first.
• Fix (Console): Load a save from before you completed the last fort battle and try again. Avoid fast-traveling immediately after reporting to your commander outside the fort, walk a few steps first, then fast-travel.

Bug: Friendly troops won’t attack the fort

• Symptom: Your allied soldiers stand at the camp or on the road and refuse to assault the fort.
• Cause: Pathing AI failure, sometimes triggered by killing enemies before your commander gives the attack order.
• Fix: Reload the autosave from when you arrived at the camp. Wait for the commander’s full speech, then let them charge first. Don’t engage enemies prematurely.

Bug: Fort commander won’t spawn

• Symptom: The fort interior is empty or the final enemy commander doesn’t appear, blocking quest completion.
• Cause: Rare spawn failure, often related to clearing the fort before officially starting the assault.
• Fix (PC): Use console command player.moveto [RefID] to teleport to the commander (requires looking up the specific NPC’s reference ID on the UESP wiki). Alternatively, use completequest CW to force-complete the current battle (risky, can cause progression issues).
• Fix (Console): Reload an earlier save. Avoid entering the fort before your commander orders the attack.

Console Commands and Workarounds

For PC players, console commands are a lifesaver when Balance of Power breaks. Here are the most useful:

General Commands:

• setstage CW [stage number] – Advances the Civil War questline to a specific stage. Use with caution: incorrect stages can permanently break the questline. Check the UESP wiki for exact stage numbers.
• resetquest CW – Resets the entire Civil War questline. Extreme measure, only use if the quest is completely unrecoverable.
• completequest CWObj – Marks the current Balance of Power objective as complete. Useful if you’ve cleared the fort but the game won’t register it.

NPC Commands (click the NPC first):

• resetai – Resets the NPC’s AI. Fixes leaders who won’t talk or soldiers who won’t move.
• enable and disable – Toggles NPC presence. Can fix missing commanders.
• moveto player – Teleports the NPC to your location. Useful if a quest-critical NPC is stuck somewhere.

Workflow Example:

1. Quicksave before every battle.
2. If the quest bugs, try reloading first.
3. If reloading doesn’t work, use resetai on the quest-giver.
4. If that fails, consult UESP for the exact quest stage and use setstage.
5. As a last resort, skip the broken battle with completequest and move to the next hold.

Modding tools on Nexus Mods include unofficial patches like the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch (USSEP), which fixes many Civil War bugs. Install it before starting the questline if possible. Sites like RPG Site also maintain up-to-date bug reports and community workarounds for stubborn issues.

What Comes After Balance of Power?

After capturing enough holds through Balance of Power, your faction leader will assign the final assault quest to end the Civil War:

For Imperials: Battle for Windhelm

• You’ll lead the assault on Windhelm, the Stormcloak capital.
• The battle is larger in scale than standard Balance of Power fights, with multiple stages: exterior siege, city streets, and finally the Palace of the Kings.
• Ulfric Stormcloak and Galmar Stone-Fist make their last stand in the throne room. You fight them both.
• After their defeat, General Tullius delivers a speech, the war ends, and the Empire controls Skyrim.

For Stormcloaks: Battle for Solitude

• You storm Solitude, the Imperial capital, in a parallel assault.
• The battle flows through the city gates, into the streets, and culminates at Castle Dour.
• General Tullius and Legate Rikke face you in the war room. Killing them ends the war.
• Ulfric claims victory for Skyrim’s independence.

Both final battles are more cinematic than Balance of Power’s repetitive fort sieges, with unique dialogue and cutscene moments. After the war ends, the Civil War questline is complete.

Post-War Skyrim:

• You can still explore and complete other questlines. The world doesn’t lock you out of content.
• Faction radiant quests (patrols, bounties) remain available but offer minimal rewards.
• Jarls and guards reflect the war’s outcome in dialogue.
• No post-war reconstruction quests exist, the conflict’s resolution is final but static. Skyrim doesn’t rebuild or evolve after the war.

Some players use the outcome as a roleplaying springboard. Others find the ending underwhelming because Skyrim’s world doesn’t change much beyond banners and jarls. Either way, Balance of Power is the grind that gets you there. Players looking to explore the full breadth of content after the Civil War often turn to comprehensive overviews or endgame strategies to maximize their playthrough.

Conclusion

Balance of Power isn’t Skyrim’s most memorable quest, but it’s the backbone of the Civil War endgame. It’s repetitive by design, capture a fort, report, repeat, but the payoff is watching your faction’s influence spread across the map. Whether you’re securing Skyrim for the Empire or liberating it for the Stormcloaks, the quest delivers a satisfying sense of military progression, even if the actual battles can feel samey after the third or fourth fort.

The bugs are real, especially on older versions, so save often and keep console commands handy if you’re on PC. And once you’ve conquered your eighth hold, prepare for the final push, because Windhelm or Solitude is waiting, and that’s where the Civil War truly ends.