Mass Combat: What's up with Titans?

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

Oh, I dunno about that. The Rangers of the North were certainly played up pretty heavily when they showed up in the books. I wouldn't rate the rangers of Ithilien quite that high, but there were only 30 Rangers, and people still talked about how much it would help their fight.

Perhaps viz RETURN OF THE KING, the rangers would qualify as Medium Cavalry (probably with a terrain advantage)::

"A little apart the Rangers sat, silent, in an ordered company, armed with spear and bow and sword. They were clad in cloaks of dark grey, and their hoods were cast now over helm and head. Their horses were strong and of proud bearing, but rough-haired..."

They're helmed, at least some are in mail (see later description), and they're equipped with spear, bow, and shield. Moreover, these aren't any horses they happened to pick up at random:

"indeed the love that the horses of the Rangers bore for their riders was so great that they were willing to face even the terror of the Door..."

Given that the horses are being compared to those of Rohan in the above passage, this suggests they were likely trained cavalry horses.

So as far as rangers go, think "the Lone Ranger" with faithful steeds... The books aren't clear as to whether they deployed from the corsair ships as cavalry or infantry; given there's little mention of archery, they probably dismount as either high-quality bowmen or as spearmen, however; I doubt they carried both weapons when not fighting from horseback.