Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-25947183-20150315101555/@comment-27723099-20150315111816

Believe it or not but chariots, writing, ships, and battering rams were all invented in the late bronze to early iron age. It's much easier to let horses draw a chariot forward that to tame it to keep a rider on the back. Greek fire represented the first bomb-like weapon. That being said, the wainriders of Rhun much less advanced than the humans of the west, as they still use chariots and bronze.

Gondor has an early feudal political structure. The technology and culture of Gondor also fits to the early to high feudal age. The northmen were more separated and had more single towns than one empire. That means they are politically more primitive.