Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
One that I do think would be more lethal is the mounted Gatling M134 (that Terminator made famous), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minigun. That fires up to 6000 rounds/minute which is pretty crazy. I think a salvo of that would have made a trench through the Orcs, the same bullet killing or maiming several of them.
MythBusters did an episode where they chopped down a mesquite tree with a minigun to verify the Predator myth. Very impressive.
I also briefly wondered why the defenders didn't use anything like Pitch... other than deference to the Ents :-) But one underlying theme in LotR is that only the bad guys use advanced technology. The good guys were more clinging to the old ways.
