The Military uses of the Palantiri.

[JeffF.]

I don't think that was as great a problem as you state, take Umbar Any gathering of the Corsair fleet or preparations for war would take place in that great harbor. If the Haradrim invaded they must use the river crossing of the river Poros. The great nations of the various Haradrim & Easterlings must have had large cities, at least capitlos, these also would be known and the centers of marshaling any great hosts. Finally Barad-dur was known and the passes out or Mordor. These would all be focal points for observation.

[Boromir88]

That still leaves the other limitations, which I would stress more than first knowing where to look. The palantiri were mysterious and perilous objects, even in the hands of the rightful owners they were feared to be used. Why do you think Denethor was the only Steward who ever dared to use it? It is because Denethor believed he had the will and strength to do it. In some ways he was accurate, but mostly he foolishly over-estimated his strength, which leads to his madness. Aragorn feared to use it, and Gandalf continually stresses the danger.

They are objects that people should all in all, stay away from, and it should only be used by 1. the rightful owners and 2. those who were strong enough. Even then, they should only be used in the most dire situation, as when Aragorn decided he should reveal himself to Sauron. The bottomline is they were dangerous objects that someone needed to know how to use, but most importantly not abuse. With the palantiri it's like a "look at your own peril" kind of thing, because if you under-estimate the dangers who knows what you will wind up doing to yourself.

To me, that makes them poor for military purposes, much better, safer, and probably would get more reliable info just to use commando Rangers and spies.

[JeffF.]

One of the points made in UT was that Denethor was not trained in the use of the stones therefore the strain on him was greater. i think that each warden of a stone would have had assistants to minimize the strain on each individual using them. The special training would probably result in a special, secret (from the public) guild whose loyalty to the kings was proven and who were given many years of training. The stones were too valuable to use for mere communications, and after all they are called 'seeing stones' not talking stones. It would have been irresponsible to not use them. In fact there may have been too much dependence on them, the INTEL chiefs of the kings may have preferred info from what was seen rather than what traders, explorers, sailors, scouts and spies reported (rather like our own dependence on spie satellites in the mid 70's when we allowed other sources of INTEL to be dismantled).

[Andsigil]

I'd like to again point out that, while they have shortcomings as intelligence gathering devices (the ME equivalent of spy satellites) the Palantiri would be invaluable communication devices (the ME equivalent of a cell phone).

Imagine how much better coordination and response time would be between two allied kingdoms, each with a Palantir in the throne room. Mutual support would not depend on horsemen, carrying messages days or weeks old (the Red Arrow) or upon semaphore beacons, hours old which only give generic calls for aid instead of specific messages (the Beacons of Gondor).

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

I'd like to again point out that, while they have shortcomings as intelligence gathering devices (the ME equivalent of spy satellites) the Palantiri would be invaluable communication devices (the ME equivalent of a cell phone).

Imagine how much better coordination and response time would be between two allied kingdoms, each with a Palantir in the throne room. Mutual support would not depend on horsemen, carrying messages days or weeks old (the Red Arrow) or upon semaphore beacons, hours old which only give generic calls for aid instead of specific messages (the Beacons of Gondor).

That's true, however still I believe that except for really urgent cases, one would still use the good old-fashioned way. "Hello my dear cousin, I hope everything's going fine in your land, we have produced five hundred tons of grain this year" is not necessary to transmit via the Palantír, and as it's been pointed out, the strain of using it, even by a king who had the right to it, would not be worth it in such simple cases.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

That's true, however still I believe that except for really urgent cases, one would still use the good old-fashioned way. "Hello my dear cousin, I hope everything's going fine in your land, we have produced five hundred tons of grain this year" is not necessary to transmit via the Palantír, and as it's been pointed out, the strain of using it, even by a king who had the right to it, would not be worth it in such simple cases.

I would think the Palantíri would have been certainly much used even in matters of routine discussion between Gondor and Arnor, considering the great distance seperating the two kingdoms.
The 'strain' of using the Stones was much greater when one used them as viewing devices. In mere comunication between two Stone, especially when both were in 'accord', I think the tax on the surveyors' minds would have been less.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I would think the Palantíri would have been certainly much used even in matters of routine discussion between Gondor and Arnor, considering the great distance seperating the two kingdoms.
The 'strain' of using the Stones was much greater when one used them as viewing devices. In mere comunication between two Stone, especially when both were in 'accord', I think the tax on the surveyors' minds would have been less.

Was it possible to use the Palantíri just without visual contact? No video, just sound? That sounds weird to me.