this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
489 points (98.6% liked)

Lord of the memes

8255 readers
122 users here now

The Lord of the rings memes communitiy on Lemmy. Share memes about Lord of the rings and be respectful.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Norgur@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

but he had the power of "making it really bright" on his side, and we all know that this is the achilles heel of all pikemen everywhere!

[–] Hank@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Aren't Uruk Hai really sensible to light? So the riders had vision, the high ground, morale and momentum on their side.

[–] Norgur@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Pikes are pushed against/into the ground, so neither morale nor momentum will do you any good against them. Discomforting the pikemen will also not do anything, since pikes and their use in formations are designed for that to happen. If you get charged by a fuckton of cavalry, you are bound to flinch anyway and you weren't supposed to actually do anything with the pike but push it into the ground if you were charged. The momentum is provided by courtesy of the attacker. So the downhill movement and the momentum are a disadvantage against pikes.

And I'm not even counting the fact that horses will not charge walls of spiky things. They are living beings with a mind of their own. A fact that we tend to forget nowadays. But I'm willing to let that one slide, perhaps there was some super special sauce training only known to the horse freaks of Rohan that made them go through with the charge.

[–] null_recurrent@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago

"Then he must be a noble beast indeed," said Aragorn; "and it grieves me more than many tidings that might seem worse to learn that Sauron levies such tribute. It was not so when last I was in that land."

"Nor is it now, I will swear," said Boromir. "It is a lie that comes from the Enemy. I know the Horse Freaks of Rohan; true and valiant, our allies, dwelling still in the lands that we gave them long ago."

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ghandalf did not pass through fire and death to bandy words with a witless worm such as yourself. It was magic light, that did magic things. Okay?

[–] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Uruk-hai were more tolerant of daylight than other orcs. I think it was mentioned a couple of times by the fellowship folks, and there was also a scene when they had captured Merry and Pippin and had to keep running day and night. The commander made fun of the others for being weaker against the daylight.

Also, cavalry can generally defeat a pole arm formation by flanking and using a combined arms operation. They need projectile weapons (arrows/muskets/cannon…) or infantry to keep the pikemen engaged. If the pole arm unit forms a square, it’s largely protected against cavalry but has increased vulnerability to missile weapons and is fairly immobile.

Or just send in the ents.

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Man, making me wanna install Third Age Total War.

[–] DavidGarcia@feddit.nl 5 points 1 year ago

obviously Saruman the 4D-chess-mover predicted that Gandalf would flank them with cavalry and that's why he brought pikemen to a siege