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Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim
Sometimes, fantasy can look a little lame, though, when we see how freakin' amazing and unstoppable! something different to swords and spears are. Don't get me wrong, I much prefer the old-style of battles. But today's audience can see that scene and ask Well, if one little magic explosion — a bomb, by another name — is so amazing and deadly in fantasy land, why didn't the bad guy just use a load of them?
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Even Superman is weakened by Kryptonite. Saruman's bomb production was non-magical, unlike his orcs, and untested. He may have been limited by the amount of raw materials on hand. Plus, I think that Saruman creates the bombs when Wormtongue returns to Orthanc. He could have started creating the bombs first and ended up with ten thousand of them, but may have made only 10 Uruks, and so that wouldn't have worked.
Plus, this devilry from Isengard worked so well as no one knew what those large spikey containers were, and also seemingly these devices need the 'running orc' to detonate them. Even an Elf would figure out that he/she should shoot any Uruk with an odd torch after that...
I think that the reason that the bombs are so effective is that they are placed in the culvert/tunnel underneath the wall. Not sure if they would have had the same devastating effect next to the wall. Also, using them against the gate may have made matters worse for the attackers. It could have brought the wall down on top of the ramp and/or destroyed the ramp. Did Saruman use the bombs only as a way of breaching the wall as he wanted to both capture the fortress and, as stated, keep it as intact as possible?
I would note that in the EA game, the Uruks have more bombs in carts, and these are continually used against them.