Posted: February 04, 2000 at 22:16:54: by Gorthol
Do not forget the fact that Sauron controlled his troops by his very "will". JRRT only makes reference to this once, but when the Ring is destroyed by Frodo and Gollum, his armies stopped, because he had forgotten them. His whole mind was bent upon the terrible danger he was in. Think about the same thing, except a couple of days earlier. Aragorn wrentched the Palantir of Orthanc to his will, and also revealed the last decendent of Elendil to Sauron. Sauron at that point pushed the troops he could to Minas Tirith with all his will in order to crush the point of maximum resistance fast. But even his will could not get all of the troops he could spare to Minas Tirith in time to beat the Heir of Elendil there.
Or, Sauron held troops back in case 1) the first wave was enough, they would have mop-up duty and supply/logistics jobs; or 2) In the instance someone of great will/power revealed themselves (as was his greatest fear), and stuck their head out too far, he would still have a large army to strike with.
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