Christopher Wright wrote:
Daniel Keep wrote:
Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
Walter Bright wrote:
...
It's like if you gave the Spartan Leonidas a Henry repeating rifle -
he still would have lost at Thermopylae. But there is little doubt
that one Henry repeating rifle is worth a hundred spear-chucking
wicker-armored immortals.
Sometimes I run these crazy calculations: how much modern firepower
would be just enough to turn the odds in a classic battle? At
Thermopilae, I think two Vickers with enough ammo would have been just
about enough. Also at the Lord of the Rings 2 night castle defense, one
machine gun would have sufficed (better protection and fewer
assailants).
Andrei
You mean the battle of Helm's Deep? I think you'd need more than one
machine gun. If the wall had held and the orcs had been forced to come
up the front ramp, then it might have been enough... but the bomb
Saruman gave them took out the wall meaning that you'd have two streams
of Orcs coming at you.
What bomb? There was no bomb at Helm's Deep.
The orcs assaulted the main gate and the walls, and eventually they
crawled in through a drainage pipe as well. It's strongly implied that
they had to go underwater for a significant way, which is why that route
was not at all defended or watched. Once that entrance was discovered,
the defending forces blocked it off with boulders. This blocked off the
orcs, but it also dammed the flow, so after that they were fighting in a
pond.
I seem to recall a bomb in the movie, but that was pointless frippery.
Well I'm not sure we're talking about the same battle. The one I talk
about takes place during the night; at the end, as the sun rises,
Gandalf rides down the ravine with reinforcements and saves the situation.
The bomb created a large breach in the wall and was a turning point in
the battle. Without it, I don't think the assailants could have made
much progress.
Andrei
