Bay 12 Games Forum

I haven't read that one yet, but there's a similar comparison in a series about Battle of Gondor. He describes how Tolkien put a big emphasis on courage and morale of the troops of Free People, who despite superiority of the opponent hold their ground. How the shifts of battle changed depending on morale of both opposing armies. It was a battle between fear and terror against hope and virtue.

Whereas in the film it's more about a sheer advantage of brute force and war machinery. Trolls, mumakils, catapults, but also Rohirims cavalry and ultimately the army of undead. Still, Surons forces are not obliterated, as it's usually the case in modern productions. They fled.

"That focus on morale gets to a truth about warfare: the winner of a battle is not the one that kills the most, but the one who makes the enemy run away. And the winner of a war is not the side which kills the most, but the side which can break the will of the enemy to fight."

Author also notes that it's still relevant even in modern warfare, where an army with superior technological advantage struggles with an underarmed opponent who is highly motivated.

It's important to say, that Peter Jackson worked within constraints of a different medium and author does acknowledge that. Even more, he thinks very highly about the film. Still I definitely prefer Tolkiens vision of warfare.

I want to share with you a blog I have recently stumbled upon. Mainly, because I think it might be relevant to some of you, but also as means of supporting the author, as its spreading only by a word of mouth.

More to the point, a few words about the blog itself from the author, Bret Devereaux himself.

"What I aim to present here are a historian’s thoughts (more on me and my interests below) on depictions of historical and quasi-historical societies and militaries in popular culture.  Mostly this has been prompted by my response to how pre-modern battles are generally presented, but I hope to expand beyond just battles and armor, to also talk about historical societies and economies.

The goal here is to do something more substantial than the bevy of internet nitpicks, sins-lists and the like.  We’re going to discuss a lot of flaws here, but also where a given scene, book, or game succeeds in embedding some real sense of historical reality into a moment.  Negativity for its own sake gets boring: we’re as much about the good as the bad here."

"A Word About What is Historical: We’re not going to just talk about popular depictions of purely historical events: historical fiction and even speculative fiction and fantasy are fair game.  Fantasy literature in particular is frequently based in a ‘sense’ of the Middle Ages – often deeply flawed – worth interrogating.  Also, I love the hell out of works of fantasy, both high and low, and there is no way you are making me leave them out.  Fight me."

About the author, with his own words.

"Who am I?  I am an actual, professional military historian.  In particular, I am a specialist in the Roman army of the Middle and Late Republic, though I tend to wander chronologically and geographically quite a bit.  My interests focus on many of the practical concerns of life and battle in the ancient world: the cost, manufacture and use of weapons and armor, the economics of subsistence farming, etc.  My most recent research focuses on the development and cost of military equipment in the Middle Roman Republic, but I also have a running project in the background on the economics of household subsistence in the Roman agricultural economy."

I'm currently binge-reading it, but I'd like to tease you with just a two topics I have found most fascinating.

Collections: Armor in Order, Part I

https://acoup.blog/2019/05/03/collections-armor-in-order-part-i/

"This topic is coming as two posts: in this first one, we’re going to construct an ‘order of armor’ – the priority list for what gets covered in what order.  In a second post, we’re going to apply that heuristic to some TV, movie and video game armors and see how they hold up."

Collections: The Siege of Gondor, Part I: Professionals Talk Logistics

https://acoup.blog/2019/05/10/collections-the-siege-of-gondor/

"This is the first part of a six-part, series I expect to roll out taking a historian’s look at the Siege of Gondor in Peter Jackson’s Return of the King.  We’re going to discuss how historically plausible the sequence of events is and, in the process, talk a fair bit about how pre-gunpowder siege warfare works."

Perhaps you will find it as interesting as I have. I'm happy to share!