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Originally Posted by Kuruharan
I’m afraid I disagree with you on this, particularly on the use of orcs. They are in many places portrayed as raiders and I believe that this was the area of warfare in which orcs excelled. They are not such great stand-and-fight soldiers, by and large.
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I'm not quite saying they couldn't raid, and nor am I really saying that standard infantry types don't engage in raiding. However, orcs do not seem to be very good at guerilla warfare. Guerilla warfare and raiding, while not mutually exclusive, are different in certain respects.
Raiding is very much a piece of guerilla warfare, but it is not the entire puzzle. This sort of activity can be engaged in by traditional armies, and actually is quite often. It serves as a method of procurring provisions and loot when both are low in supply. I agree orcs could excel at this particular piece of the puzzle. And while they are able to terrorize, they are not so good at carrying at the other aspects of a guerilla war.
Guerilla fighters are not entirely self-sufficient. They often resort to using a sympathetic populace to feed them when they are on the move. Orcs, in contrast to this, are brutal, and in-fight amongst each other even when united by a power like Sauron. This greatly reduces their effectiveness in garnering supplies from a partly willing populace. And with Mordor mostly desolate, I see it being very difficult for them to win over Easterlings or Haradrim. That sort of thing is left to the Nazgul.
The Nazgul, too, I do not see being very good at guerilla warfare. It is rather difficult for them, it would seem, to engage in it effectively with their...unique...physical properties. And this manner of warfare goes against the very tactics we see the Witch-King using time and again.
Based on the types of forces he might have at his disposal, and the way the Witch-King himself is portrayed, I find the proposition of a "Haunting" to be highly improbable. Maybe the action was part of a lesser form of intimidation, but his tactical mind does not seem to be set for a guerilla-type war. The most probable explanation of Tolkien's writings, to me, then seems to be what he wrote, that it was certainly a siege in the traditional use of the word.