Quote:
|
No infantry army could withstand a charge by mounted knights.
|
That's probably true in many instances. Although it has something to do with the exceedingly poor quality and discipline of most of the infantry during much of the Middle Ages. They tended to break and run before the cavalry would impact, which was actually worse for them than if they had stayed in formation. Horses are, by and large, smarter than the men riding them, and even at a full gallop they will try to avoid obsticles, like a formed body of men, rather than just crash into them. The main purpose of cavalry, with regards to infantry, always was pursuit after the enemy had been disrupted and/or broken. They were less successful against infantry formations that stood their ground and kept their shieldwall intact. However, the primary opponents of cavalry were enemy bodies of cavalry.
And, the Rohirrim were not heavily armored knights in the way that it is commonly conceived. They were not nearly as heavily equipped; just wearing hauberks of mail, a helmet, with lance, sword, and shield. They had far more in common with the Norman knights of 1066 than with anything that came later.
Perhaps a historical instance of what I am talking about will be illuminating.
At the Battle of Hastings the Norman knights failed to breach the line and were driven back with heavy losses, several times. They were not really intended for "shock" charges being too lightly equipped, they were charging uphill against an enemy shieldwall, and they had that problem about their horses being smarter than they were and not wanting to charge the English shieldwall. The reason why they won the battle was the English would not keep formation. The undisciplined English fyrdmen kept breaking formation to pursue the retreating Normans. Then the cavalry could, and did pounce on them and cut them to pieces. As a matter of fact, William saw this and deliberately retreated from his attacks to draw more of the gullible fyrdmen down to be killed. Eventually there were too few Englishmen left to defend the hill and they were outflanked. The English still kept their formation until Harald was killed by an arrow. That's when they broke and the Norman cavalry could finally do their thing.
Back in Middle earth, the Gondorian infantry would want to place themselves on a steep hill, thus slowing any charges made at them, and they would want to have woods or something on their flanks and in their rear to prevent being encircled. Their own cavalry would probably be on the flanks of the infantry to help secure them, but would probably want to avoid a head on clash with the Riders since I personally would rate the Rohirrim as better cavalry. The Rohirrim had infantry, but it was not their primary military arm. Their infantry could attempt to skirmish with the Gondorian line to disrupt it before a cavalry charge, but in the end it would probably come down to a shield-wall vs. cavalry charge clash in which if the infantry could keep together they stood a fairly good shot of winning.
The basic trick would be to advance along the line of the White Mountains and stay out of the plains altogether. Why go to the plains at all? Most of the important settlements were in or near the mountains. There would be little reason to leave the area where your army would have the advantage in a pitched battle, so there would be little danger of getting caught in a disadvantagous position for fighting.
[ July 26, 2002: Message edited by: Kuruharan ]