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The wise (i.imgur.com)
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[-] mabd@kbin.social 148 points 1 year ago

I mean, generally speaking, sending pikemen against a people famous for riding horses sounds smart to me lol

[-] ikiru@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I don't understand why people are confused by this. Haha

[-] i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca 52 points 1 year ago

It is said he rejected reason for madness.

[-] GreenMario@lemm.ee 46 points 1 year ago

He had sappers. And yeah Pike beats horse.

[-] potterpockets@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago
[-] ratz30@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

I'd hate to climb a ladder with a pike

[-] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

Climb the ladder and have your mate pass up the pike.

[-] GreenMario@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

This is an accident waiting to happen. Is this ladder even OSHA approved?

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Nah, you throw your pike straight up and then catch it when you reach the top of the ladder.

Ez

[-] ratz30@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Except when there's light in the pikemen's eyes apparently

[-] misterundercoat@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

"Captain Ugnark, should we be worried about leaving our rear open to a cavalry charge?"

"Gobruk, you fool! That's a 60-degree slope, there's no way that horses could safely charge down it."

[-] happyhippo@feddit.it 6 points 1 year ago

This is AoE 101

[-] GenderIsOpSec@hexbear.net 39 points 1 year ago

meanwhile Gandalf makes a cavalry charge down a waaaaaay too steep hill towards the aforementioned pikemen thonk

[-] Norgur@kbin.social 24 points 1 year ago

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 14 points 1 year ago

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 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

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

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

[-] utopologist@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

We need to resist the hegemony of the wizards, these guys clearly have no business making decisions for the rest of Middle-earth

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Shit worked, didnt it?

Wizard apparently knows a thing or two.

[-] silvercove@lemdro.id 24 points 1 year ago

The Battle of Helm's Deep is full of very obvious errors. There is an awesome Dutch historian, Roel Konijnendijk, who trashes movies for fun that talks about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPGdOXstSyk

My favourite one is when they are shouting orders to eachother. There is no way for the Elven archers to hear Aragorn's commands, or for Aragorn to hear Theoden's fallback order.

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 15 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=xPGdOXstSyk

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[-] Gsus4@feddit.nl 7 points 1 year ago

Um, piped stopped working for me on all instances a few days ago, anybody else noticed this?

[-] Nelots@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Something to do with API changes on YouTube I believe. For whatever reason, https://piped.mha.fi/ still works.

https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped/issues/2809

[-] 30p87@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

Yep. Same with apps like LibreTube, YouTube broke something (Diese Fotzen)

[-] topinambour_rex@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

I thought Legolas had a superior hearing, didnt he ? If yes, the elves could have heard Aragorn.

[-] stephan262@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Me and a friend discussed this and it led to an ongoing joke of pole vaulting pikemen.

[-] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 year ago

Wise. A wizard.

Not exactly a very experienced war lord

[-] misterdoctor@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

More like Saruman the fool

[-] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago
[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago
[-] fujiwood@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Saruman the Unwise

[-] ComradeSpood@lemmyunchained.net 2 points 1 year ago
[-] nonagonOrc@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Saruman the Silly

[-] bobshmow@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Saruman the silly

[-] Norgur@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

Every Total War Player knows how this feels "let's take this city real qui... Wait?! Who the fuck put the pikes into this army?!"

[-] davepleasebehave@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Wise once there is a breach. which is what they planned for.

[-] HumbertTetere@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

Here's an eight part series by a historian on which parts of the battle are realistic within the world and which are not, in case that kind of thing is interesting to you:

https://acoup.blog/2020/05/01/collections-the-battle-of-helms-deep-part-i-bargaining-for-goods-at-helms-gate/

[-] eendjes@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago

I’ve already read it before, but it’s so so good.

[-] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

Maybe the walls finished constructing while he was sending his troops across the map. Happens to the best of us.

[-] epyon22@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Forgot to build that siege workshop and just decided to send it

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

They said the keep had held for 800 years...

[-] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago

That's like 5-10 turns tops in the early game!

[-] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago

Pikes beat horse dudes, Rohan has horse dudes. Unbeatable logic. Dev did not code for horse dudes having different armour off horse.

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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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