Crayz9000 wrote:About the only way I can see Sauron stopping the Prussian Army is if he triggered a well-aimed pyroclastic flow from Mt. Doom. Unfortunately for him, a pyroclastic flow would also wind up wiping out his own army.
The whole force wouldn't come into Mordor and cluster around Mt. Doom and Barad-dur; I highly doubt they could supply them all over that distance in that terrain. They'd easily leave a couple hundred thousand to watch their lines of communication, guard Condor and secure the North. Those troops would be more then enough stamp out Sauron after such a trick.
Though I doubt he could do it, even if he has complete control over the mountain it would take some time to build up the necessary energy and the thing was active at the time, which helps relive pressure
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
Crayz9000 wrote:About the only way I can see Sauron stopping the Prussian Army is if he triggered a well-aimed pyroclastic flow from Mt. Doom. Unfortunately for him, a pyroclastic flow would also wind up wiping out his own army.
This assumes that Mt. Doom is capable of a pyroclastic flow. Mt. Doom seems to be a very small volcano and of, based on the scenes of lava in the movies, and in particular the descriptions in the books which imply you can get very close to or inside the crater, a less energetic type. I suspect that any eruption of Mt. Doom could be diverted by the placement of barriers of rock and cement, which the Prussians could easily throw up given enough warning--this was actually done in Iceland (back in the 60s IIRC) to divert a volcanic flow from a whole city with several days' warning. Obviously it would not work for a pyroclastic flow, but, again, I suspect Mt. Doom is not capable of producing one, and a lava "river" can be diverted.
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Well, Sauron was capable of making Mt. Doom spit out a lot of volcanic ash and then changing the wind patterns to blow it all toward Gondor. So there is quite a bit he's capable of, although a pyroclastic flow might be a bit of a stretch.
How good was the Prussian army at fighting in darkness, by the way?
The Duchess of Zeon wrote:[
I suspect that any eruption of Mt. Doom could be diverted by the placement of barriers of rock and cement, which the Prussians could easily throw up given enough warning--this was actually done in Iceland (back in the 60s IIRC) to divert a volcanic flow from a whole city with several days' warning.
They also in one case stopped a very slow lava flow using huge pumps and a vast array of pipes and bulldozers to spray water on it. They've also since built huge barrier out of ash and rock to deflect flows but in all three cases they had the advantage of modern heavy machinery. A few hundred thousand men with shovels can accomplish a lot but they need weeks not days.
Though Italy has had some luck using explosives to divert flows, but placing those without modern drilling equipment would be pretty hard.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
