Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-32865299-20170909170357/@comment-26890432-20170917010421

I'm not underestimating them: to insist that they are a potent tool on a medieval battlefield is wildly overestimating them. Let's examine the tactical aspects of a chariot: Slower than conventional cavalry, not nearly as manueverable thanks to stirrups, the horses stretched before the vehicle are very vulnerable to arrow fire and any polearms with sufficient reach, and you are using a whole team of horses for the conveyance of just 2 people, one of which is occupied in driving.

There are very good reasons why chariots weren't used as direct combatants past 83 AD(Battle of Mons Graupius: they were not even used in a combat role then). Their brief period of battlefield dominance came when foot-soldiers were very lightly armoured, and lacked long polearms and powerful bows. Their repeated mention in the passages is probably to highlight how outlandish the practice of the Wainrider Chieftains' use of chariots was to the Gondorians. Even though they probably were not used in combat, their presence on the battlefield would nonetheless pique the interest of Gondorian observers.