Show Notes
Bret Devereaux examines the Battle of Helm’s Deep through military history, Tolkien’s books, and Peter Jackson’s films. All eight parts, in order, explore campaigning, armies, fortifications, weapons, morale, and the strategic choices behind the battle. * 00:00 - Introduction * 00:04 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part One: Bargaining for Goods at Helm’s Gate * 07:52 - Operations by the Book * 21:51 - (Fully) Operational Castles * 38:14 - Operations in Film * 48:02 - Conclusions * 54:42 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Two: Total Warg * 57:16 - What To Expect, When You Are Not Expecting Wargs * 01:14:14 - Warg and Blade: Wargband * 01:24:57 - Spears! * 01:34:12 - Impact * 01:44:07 - Conclusion: Towards a Better Charge * 01:50:50 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Three: The Host of Saruman * 01:54:09 - Organizational Systems * 02:00:41 - Uruk Squares * 02:08:56 - The (not) Drilling Uruk-Hai! * 02:21:16 - Major Lurtz, Captain Uglúk? * 02:36:55 - Conclusion: The Greenest Orcs * 02:41:31 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Four: Men of Rohan * 02:44:02 - The Lords of Rohan * 02:56:49 - Ninth Century Rohirrim * 03:05:39 - Men of Rohan! * 03:23:42 - The Elves * 03:35:57 - Conclusions * 03:39:42 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Five: Ladders are Chaos * 03:41:04 - Investing in Preparation for your Prepared Defenses to be Invested * 03:51:12 - Ladders * 04:05:25 - Battering Rams * 04:14:59 - Blasting Fire * 04:23:15 - Grapples, Catapults and Large Ladders * 04:28:09 - Hasty and Deliberate Assaults * 04:31:51 - Conclusions: Saruman Is Not Very Good At This * 04:38:25 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Six: Is This a Good Sword? * 04:40:00 - Swords Out of Central Casting * 04:50:38 - Some Not Very Good Swords * 05:01:23 - The Worst Armor * 05:09:53 - Pikes in the Deep * 05:21:27 - Conclusions * 05:24:49 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Seven: Hanging by a Thread * 05:26:17 - The Battle Speech * 05:37:17 - A Battle Speech By the Numbers * 05:47:10 - Hollywood Battle Speeches * 05:53:15 - The Unintentional Battle Speech * 05:59:42 - Speaking from the Page * 06:08:14 - The Breaking of the Host * 06:20:23 - Cohesion and Failure * 06:26:44 - In the Hand or in the Mind? * 06:29:39 - Collections: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Part Eight: The Mind of Saruman * 06:33:55 - What is Strategy? * 06:42:56 - The Plan * 06:49:01 - Certainty of Death? Small Chance of Success? What Are We Waiting For? * 06:52:51 - Wizard Needs New Strategy, Badly * 07:01:41 - Gnawing at Old Plots * 07:07:37 - The Power of Magical Thinking * 07:12:39 - Conclusions https://acoup.blog/category/collections/the-battle-of-helms-deep/
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