Should Saruman have accompanied Mauhur and his "lads" ?

[Andsigil]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

While the battle of the Fords could have been (and was) minimised in importance by Wormtongue for a while, a large force crossing the West Emnet, that for all the Rohirrim could have known was an invasion army, probably would have been quite concerning to all, including Théoden. Even if Wormtonge was still managing to stonewall Théoden, I can see the Rohirrim, under the threat of a large enemy army riding through the heart of their realm, taking some sort of drastic action against Wormtongue to silence him, and then convincing the King that the 'invasion force' must be stopped. The Rohirrim were a warlike people. Saruman's plans depended on their not being roused to respond to him militarily until it was too late.

I still get the impression that Saruman was being hesitant as a commander. Again, if the Ring is the supreme objective of his entire campaign, his strategy of sending a (comparatively) puny contingent under Mauhur to recover it seems half-hearted.

If this were an espionage mission or a reconnaissance, then it would be more appropriate. But to send the force he did seems like waffling: "Well, I need that ring- if I get it, the war is won! Buuuut, hmmm. I don't want to alarm anyone, either..." [At this point, if I were his Captain, I would be jumping up and down, saying, "Sire, make a @#$% decision! Are these the hobbits or not?!? And are we getting the ring or not!?! Because if they are the hobbits and if we are getting the ring, then we damned well better act like we're going to!" Anyway, back to Saruman's thoughts...] "...So, instead of sending thousands I'll just send..... Oh... Decisions, decisions... a few score under Ugluk... Curses! That might not be enough. Sooooo, I'll send a few score more under Mauhur to, ummm, rendezvous. Yeah, that's it!"

Saruman's plan seemed to have all of the simplicity, coordination, and clarity of a joint Swiss-Mongolian amphibious assault.