Since I first read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, I fell in love with the wonderful universe create by J.J.R Tolkien, and so I decided to create this thread to discuss with you. Let's talk from a military point of view about famous battles from Tolkien's works. About strategies, favourite armies, units or what tactics would you use for specific armies, such as the Dwarves, Elves or Orcs? But first, which is your favourite battle featured in the Silmarilon, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings universe?
I think I expressed myself wrong. I mean if you were commanding a Dwarf, Elvish or Orc army from Tolkien's universe, what strategy would you use, considering that it is placed in an alternate middle ages...
There is a thread on Tolkien - ww2 - and the Lord of the Rings: Tolkien, WW2 and the Lord of the Rings Not sure why you assume someone would be "commanding an army" ;-) I think usually people (and orcs etc.) end up rather more in the rank and file... rank and file noun the ordinary members of an organization as opposed to its leaders. "the rank and file of the Labour Party" synonyms: other ranks, soldiers and NCOs, lower ranks; common/ordinary/private soldiers, soldiers,men, troops "both the officers and the rank and file" ordinary members; grass roots "the rank and file of the organization" These sorts of images caught my eye a while back:
I didn't know there is s similar topic on the forum. At least, which is the battle from these books that impressed you most?
I'm not super keen on getting into "what if" tactics but I really like the Battle of the Five Armies.
This: Aragorn (Lord of the Rings) In a one-off bumper edition special episode we review Aragorn (AKA Strider, Elessar, etc.), one of the main characters in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. As a special birthday request, we decided to give Aragorn the usual Rex Factor treatment meted out to kings and queens, going over his life and reign before reviewing him by various factors before deciding whether he had the Rex Factor. One of us is a LOTR fan and the other is not, so will Aragorn be able to win both of us over? Covers Aragorn (including such parts of his earlier life as when he went to Rohan and Gondor under his alias Thorongil - dealt with in passing in Appendix A of the Lord of the Rings). I can't say I specifically have a "favorite" battle though there are quite a few youtubers that play Lotr versions of the Total War games - i.e. Third Age Total War: Divide & Conquer - Khazad-dûm Campaign Third Age Total War: Divide & Conquer - Khazad-dûm Campaign - YouTube & for example too... LEGENDARY BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES - Total War Rise Of Mordor Gameplay I also recently (in the last year or so) saw that some had started doing Lotr sea battles - again using the "Total War" game engine - and modifications that "add in" fleets etc.
Standard Tolkien: Just wait for the Eagles to write oneself out of a tactical/strategic/plot corner. Those bloody films. I cannot forgive them. The skateboarding Elf made a bit of sick come up. Peter jackson should've stuck with Bad Taste & left my childhood alone! If anyone feels like a modern filming of White's The Once & Future King, please see me. I have knives.
I've never read the books or watched the films. I tried to read The Hobbit once but gave up. The kids watched the films when they came out on DVD but I never paid any attention to what was on TV.
I love Tolkien's books and have somewhat mixed opinions about the Lords of the Rings films. The Hobbit films were NDG, though Freeman was very good. Anyway, there is a LOT of stuff about Middle Earth wars on the net. Much of it seems to be freely made up with only a tangential relationship to the sources in the books. To tell the truth, Tolkien left some big holes in the military side of his story. As a veteran, Tolkien can write well about the psychological realities of combat. He's also very good on terrain and weather and he has the real soldier's eye for ground. I think he is less good on the mechanics of battles and the relationships between weapons and tactics. He is not very good at all on organization, on how armies are articulated and troops are maneuvered. I think he could have written well about these things if he had cared to but he was writing a saga, not a military history. I may have more to say on this but our house almost burned down tonight so I'll get to it later.
I've not watched any episodes of Game of Thrones either but have met one of the minor characters at work who was an agency lorry driver. Lorren
OK, I'll stick my neck out.....The Hobbit was written for children and LOTR was the Twilight saga of it's day! If you want real, grown-up fantasy and adventure then you need to read this.. When LOTR was published this was the book it was compared to and it is a far, far better book. (Sticks head back below parapet. Waits for Tolkien fanboys to start throwing rocks )
I wached the first film went on for days and did thnk at the time if only Tolkien had battlefield nuclear weapons it would have been all over in seconds and middle earth would be no more
Completely agreed, and although I have no examples to hand, I do also recall his being good at describing the way in which battles are 'phased' and how the initiative can flow from one force to the other as the consequences of individual actions radiate outwards. I would say that for the actual fighting, I prefer his small skirmishes: Weathertop and Ithilien (was that where the oliphant turned up?), for instance. He conveys the shock, chaos and urgency of single combat most evocatively. The Battle of the Fords of Isen was one such on a larger scale.
Actually, I never knew about this book. Thank you for sharing the information. After a bit of reading about, it sounds very interesting.