I am about halfway through the series, and I see what you mean about the timeline of Saruman's orcs, Kuru. Regardless of the exact nature of Saruman's genetic engineering, those orcs have been around for longer than just a few months, and the industrialization of Isengard too. Firstly, there are a few key observations from Gandalf's visit. The gates are "strongly guarded", in a tone that suggests they previously weren't - in retrospect, possible evidence for militarization. From the top of the tower, he is able to see the entire valley, which is already "filled with pits and forges", and housed wolves and orcs. Why did he not see them on his way into Orthanc? Not because they weren't there, but likely because he didn't see the entirety of the valley, plus nighttime setting in (he arived late in the evening), plus his urgency and preoccupation with his own thoughts. But most importantly, because Saruman was expecting him - the guards are specifically on watch for him, and Saruman is ready for the reception seemingly without being notified by his servants. With the benefit of reader's hindsight, I suspect the palantir at work to warn Saruman of Gandalf's coming. Saruman had time to prepare. He would still be sharp enough to know that a prominent display of orc drilling would immediately turn Gandalf against him, and he would have less hope of luring him into the tower and no hope of converting him. How easy is it for Saruman to send the bulk of his in-house troops out of sight for one evening, either confined to their barracks or out on a field trip? In other words, I do not interpret Gandalf's observations as Saruman developing and building all these changes
during his imprisonment, but rather that he noticed more and more horrible details as he spent more time on the observation deck. At the very least, I see it as a plausible alternative.
The other two arguments are weaker, and require a little broader text digging. Firstly, how likely are all of Saruman's "professional" (Uruk) armies to reside in Isengard at all times? Given how much Mr. Devereaux spoke preciously about provisioning large armies, it makes me wonder where their food is coming from. Not the Shire produce - that was only to treat Saruman himself and a small force of Men. Perhaps Dunland contributions. Certainly, with the valley industrialized to be a maze of forges, it's impossible to grow sufficient food locally. Is it possible that at least some of Saruman's army was always abroad in the form of small scattered units for the purpose of foraging or self-feeding without drawing too much premature attention? It's possible that the mustering that Gandalf sees really is a
muster of units previously scattered over Eriador, and merely brought together rather than bred feom scratch. These units would have to have stayed far away from Lorien, and not yet given Rohan too much concern, and not been in sufficiently large units as to alarm Elrond's scouts. Could they have passed off as "your usual orc raiding parties from the Mountains"? Is that too constraining? On the plus side, some Dunlennish stationing would give the two troops to get used to each other before they have to cooperate on the field - not to the point of working smoothly together, but to the point of knowing each other's basic styles and not killing each other on reflex.
The other questionable objection that occurred to me is that of the Ents. Given their speed, how long would it take for them to accept the new reality of how their forest was treated? Or the new reality of what Saruman did? How long does it take for the cup to overfill by the time Merry and Pippin arrive to inflame and direct their anger, even with the atrocities of good trees left to rot etc? I have vague recollections that Treebeard's account of the change in Saruman seemed to span more than just a few months, but right now I am not up to reading the Ent chapters for clues o that timeline.
I also had an objection to another one of his premises, that an army of orcs would need extensive training to create cohesion. But I wonder if that is such a big factor in orc armies as it is in Men armies. Firstly, the force that seems to consistently drive all of the "professional" orc armies is not comraderie or respect or good military habits or any other positive thing, but the fear of what their Boss (and Boss's Boss, etc) will do in the event of failure. As long as there is central control exerted over the army, they would rather die than face the consequences of not giving their 100% best effort. We see this with the WK's forces, and with the orcs driven by Sauron's will, but in a reduced scale with the smaller units, like Ugluk's forces and the garrison at Cirith Ungol. There's a reason that the commanders are also the orcs that give the greatest fear to their fellows; it's a fear-based and strength-based hierarchy. The moment the Boss Who Will Make You Regret It loses the control of the situation / does not seem as scary / has no means of carrying out the threat, there is no cohesiveness, they scatter in a disorganized every-orc-for-himself sort of way. Even at the Black Gate, where they still have every opportunity to overwhelm Aragorn by sheer number and no reason to doubt victory. In the best of scenarios, orc armies rely on fear to drive competence on the battlefield; this just seems to be how theh function, not only in Saruman's case. Do they need extensive training for skill? Well, we're told that they were used pretty much as arrow fodder; they went in for the dangerous jobs like they were possessed (check) and died by the dozen and had fresh volunteers on the ready. Never are we told that they were skilled fighters. Rather, they seem to be used as an inexhaustible force that can suffer enormous losses and it won't matter, they win by numbers rather than the skill of their fighting. Saying that, in Minas Tirith they do an impressive fast job of setting up camp and seige equipment - but then those orcs really
would have been preparing for a long time. I get the feeling that the bulk of orc armies was trained to a barely mediocre level, a "kinda know what to do, be passably skillful at it, don't jave the misfortune to get underfoot, and most importantly DISPLAY LOTS OF ENTHUSIASM DOING IT OR ELSE" level. Their purpose seems not to be that of an efficient force rather than an "easily assembled in great numbers just to be expended" force. I don't know if such a force would need as much "professional tradition" as the more efficient model of greatest function from fewer men. There could also have been better trained units; perhaps Ugluk's was one such, it would make sense for Saruman to send something above average for such an important mission. So, all in all, I wonder if the orc armies needed as much drilling as Mr. Devereaux believes based on Man-society models (where you generally have more competent soldiers who are less expendable and are not as readily controlled by fear of fate worse than death), but this is all speculation and I could be entirely wrong.
(There is also a certain inverse relationship between expendability and function; we see consistenty that the life value of Men in the baddie armies is worth more than Orcs, and they seem to be more functional, though there may be different reasons for that. Still, surely there had to be
some elite orc forces which had more experience and skill, and would be deployed with less disregard for their fate? Or was that treatment reserved for Men? Are Saruman's orcs really that different culturally from other regular troop orcs - and thus, is the problem with Saruman's training plan, or with orc nature, or just that neither Sauron nor Morgoth before him thought to actually make their armies
good and he just unthinkingly plagiarized their design?)
Saying this, I am really enjoying the series. I learned a lot from his Minas Tirith series, and this one is equally entertaining and educational. I highly recommend a read to anyone who hasn't seen them yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin
But in that case you don't send your exploitation reserve to the end of the logistical tether; you keep them near a supply base. It would make perfect sense for the W-K to keep his battle-reserve at Osgiliath, as in the book, and his exploitation-reserve at Minas Morgul where they could eat without burdening the system, while still being just a day's march from the crossings of Anduin.
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Fair enough, I see your point. Mind, there
was a reserve force in Osgiliath, which Gothmog advanced when the WK fell. But your point still stands: if not all the troops were needed for the seige, they did not need to be at the seige itself. Except for - as a stretch - for the fear factor, and possibly the seemingly amazing speed of digging all those fire trenches.