"Why so many Rohan foot?" Topic

If the Rohan are a horse people, why do the boxed sets appear to be so foot heavy? Is it to give players more figures up front, and they can buy cav as the want to?

Helms deep – and other strongholds of the Mark – were mostly defended on foot.

Quite hard to form a shield wall on horse back.

Not everyone in Rohan could afford a war horse.

I also think it is the Helms Deep effect.

Ah, that makes sense. I presume an army in the field would have more horse.

Other thpoughts –

Cavalry aren't so great in dense woods, or on mountainsides, or towns and cities.

The town guard probably are better off on foot.

Eomer's reconnaissance force was all horse – but if they ever wanted to hold somewhere, they'd have to dismount. Similarly, the expeditionary force to support Gondor was all cavalry because they wanted to get there quickly, and as a Gondor ally, the main specialty they brought was cavalry filling a vital niche.

In the Return of the King there are several instances which refer to dismounted Rohirrim:

1.) At the battle of Pelennor Fields, Eomer prepares to gather his men to form a shieldwall on foot and do a last stand, when all hope seems lost.

2.) During the battle of Pelennor Fields, many Rohirrim lost their mounts, but survived to fight themselves. Of the Rohirrim that accompany the expedition to Gates of Mordor, half are on foot due to having lost their mounts.

3.) For the battle at the Gates of Mordor, it seems that the whole force dismounts to form a defensive position around the two small hills, though this is not entirely clear.

Tww other boring reasons:

All-horse armies with typical rules don't work well for many reasons.

All-horse armies are expensive, both in dollars and points.

Mostly I think it's the first.

You could set up two factions for a Civil War game – the horse-riding Rohan & the Foot-bound Rowan.

The latter group inspired by Saruman?

Should also be pointed out that Erkenbrand of the Westfold and his thousand warriors who relieved the siege of Helm's Deep were all on foot (Gandalf on Shadowfax was the only rider among them).

The king was there so he had his guard on foot.

One of the lost tales / posthumous books describes Rohan infantry types in a bit of detail.

T probably erred by not giving the Rohan multiple horses per man – historical horse armies tended to do this, with an established system to allow re-mounting mid battle – at least for the better off classes.