Give them Muskets, in LOTR

[Captain Smith]

Looking at the thread of Amazons vs. Elves, I've always pondered why the LOTR type universes were frozen in technology for thousands of years at basically Middle Ages tech (excluding magic). There's an interesting interest of how tech took off in Europe while Asia and the Middle East lagged behind.

In any case, let's assume that about 100 or so years before the LoTR quest, the Gondor and Rohan folks have a tech breakthrough in weapons design and come up with musketry - let's say BP, Minie balls, rifles and similar flintlock handguns. No primer fired weapons. They equip their infantry and cavalry with such. How does this change the battles of LoTR, attack on Gondor, Helm's Deep, March to Mordor.

Note, I haven't added artillery. If you want as a second path, add such and mobile guns such as Gustavus Adolphus used for the Swedish Armies.

Sauron had explosive but in general that tech was not used much.

[Jackalope89]

The heavy armor of the Uruk Hai would be null and void at Helm's Deep. Provided, it also depends on how widespread it is amongst the populace. Because if militias have basic training in it, as well as rank fire, Helm's Deep is not so heavily stacked. Odds are still with the Uruks simply because of numbers, but their heavy armor isn't so effective.

Pelennor Fields, with the kind of guts that the Gondoran soldiers had (films did them a major disservice), plus a lifetime of fighting, means volley after volley rips through the Orc ranks. Even the mumakil are vulnerable. Though, for them and possibly the trolls, you may need at least small artillery.

What about the Dwarves of Erebor and Dale?

[Sharpandpointies]

I feel that the thing to remember is that the battles in Lord of the Rings weren't won by grinding out a win against another army - they were battles that should have been flat-out lost by the good guys, but the win comes from some deciding factor suddenly changing the situation. Muskets are likely not going to change a whole lot against the sort of stuff the good guys were up against.

1. Helm's Deep. The deciding factor of Helm's Deep was Gandalf showing up with Erkenbrand and the Huorns. The Rohirrim were outnumbered 10:1. The muskets make some difference, but insufficient - in the end, it again comes down to Gandalf showing up with Erkenbrand and the Ents sending the Huorns.

2. The Pelennor Fields. Again, this is a siege where the defenders are grossly outnumbered, plus they're facing a powerful supernatural foe against whom the muskets will be useless. The Witch-King was responsible for the breaking of the gates in the book - his spells and such were what weakened it to the point where the ram could break it in (the gate being Númenorean work). The Witch-King could also use his supernatural presence like a psychological hammer against the defenders, doing stuff like literally stopping the entire battle for a length of time, everyone frozen with fear. Between the numbers and the Witch-King, I feel the muskets basically just make things harder for Sauron's army - they don't change the result. It is going to again take Merry and Éowyn ganking the Witch-King and Aragorn showing up with a whole whack of reinforcements right when the enemy army is reeling from the loss of their supernatural support.

3. The Battle at the Black Gate. For a third time we're in a situation where the army is horrifically outnumbered. Aragorn's army is basically 'what we have functional after the seige of Gondor' and it's up against another of Sauron's ginormous armies (we have actually more than 10:1 numbers happening here). Only this time, they're effectively on an open field and surrounded by forces that include Olog-hai. The muskets mean that, again, Sauron's forces are going to take more losses, but it's going to be their win unless Gollum bites off Frodo's finger before falling into Mount Doom with the Ring.

Mileage may vary!

[Captain Smith]

OK, next time - it will be the new Sig XM5 6.8 mm rifles and lots of Carl Gustav AT-4 rocketry. Stingers for the flying Nazgul? Just kidding. Might as well have a F-35 nuke Saruman.

I always thought it would be fun to have our world open a gate to LoTR and say - hey, here's a lot of techy primitives sitting on lots of minerals and probably oil. Oh, here's a dictator - watch the cruise missiles from your fortress! Sort of like the anime "Gate".

Of course, the Elves and deities over the seas might get excited by nuclear carriers and Arleigh Burkes sailing around. Probably start praying for some more divine intervention to close the gates.