[OT] [I mean totally OT] Re: What can you "new"

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

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