could Dalinar use armored bridgeman?

[Straff Venture he/him]

Why risk the lives at all when you have a different method even if it is a bit slower? I have a feeling the gem-style chasm runs are pretty much a thing of the past at this point, especially once Dalinar is named High Prince of War.

Maybe, maybe not. I doubt there would be the element of speed and racing that was in the plateau assaults, but that doesn't mean the bridges aren't still useful. Sadeas' new bridgemen could speed ahead and his troops could act as a vanguard unit for the whole army (or maybe actually trusting Sadeas with something isn't a good idea )

[Observer]

We could go back to Kaladin's idea of Parshendi-carapaces. Those proved unsafe under a ahil of arrows, but a few adjustments and a lot more people could fix that. Run those in front and the bridgemen don't need armor

And if they traded off, got paid well, and volunteered for the job, I'd have no problem with bridgemen

[Voidus]

We could go back to Kaladin's idea of Parshendi-carapaces. Those proved unsafe under a ahil of arrows, but a few adjustments and a lot more people could fix that. Run those in front and the bridgemen don't need armor

And if they traded off, got paid well, and volunteered for the job, I'd have no problem with bridgemen

That's what I thought too, just field twice as many bridgemen and have them lightly armoured with a quarter or so in heavier armour and with parshendi-carapace as distractions. With so many decoys the arrows are spread out a lot more and you could armour them heavily enough that they are much better protected. (Although this would reduce mobility and their ability to dodge, so it depends whether it's better to dodge or just take the hits)

[hoser he/him]

Why he didn't considered armored bridgeman?

The bridgemen in the Way of Kings are an expression of the Alethi concept of honor as interpreted by Sadeas. I completely agree that it is just a failure of Dalinar's imagination that he doesn't separate the implementation from the execution and see the effectiveness of light, portable bridges in moving forces quickly.

The bridgemen are just part of the army. There are many non-bait ways to use portable bridges. Since untrained slaves can carry the bridges effectively, you could have your regular soldiers carry them and just train more soldiers to allow for some of them being exhausted at the beginning of the assault. The soldiers carrying the bridge can have their armor carried by others until the final approach. Units could also take turns carrying the bridges.

The Alethi are currently besieging an enemy, without the part of a siege where you pin down your enemy.

Amen! If Dalinar becomes Highprince for war successfully and survives Szeth's assassination attempt things will presumably change. I imagine that there will be a period of force integration and retraining before a systematic campaign will push to the center of the Shattered Plains and attempt to engage the Parshendi at their bases.

The bridges are a metaphor that do not bear too careful examination anyway. Consider what happens when you push a pencil over halfway off the edge of the desk. As soon as the center of gravity is over the edge, the bridge wants to fall into the chasm. There would have to be downward force on the back of the bridge. Otherwise the bridge would have to be about twice as long as the width of the longest chasm it would have to span. Neither of these matches the descriptions from the Way of Kings.

The Parshendi, for their part, should be pushing the bridges sideways when they reach the Parshendi side of the chasm. If the bridges drop into the chasm, no cavalry charge. They could also concentrate their fire on one side of the bridge as it is being pushed across. The bridge would have to slow to accommodate the losses on one side and it would be easier to push the bridge to that side as it approaches.

[name_here]

Roshar has lower gravity than Earth, and the bridges are made of an exceptionally light but strong type of wood, quite possibly Soulcast. The Alethi archers open up an especially heavy volley on the Parshendi as the bridges are being lowered, suppressing them to allow the cavalry to cross the bridge before it can be pushed clear.

[Observer]

Roshar has lower gravity than Earth, and the bridges are made of an exceptionally light but strong type of wood, quite possibly Soulcast. The Alethi archers open up an especially heavy volley on the Parshendi as the bridges are being lowered, suppressing them to allow the cavalry to cross the bridge before it can be pushed clear.

From what I gathered from Kaladin POVs, they may be lighter than normal wood, but they're still heavy, massive, and particularly evil varieties of lightweight wood.

[Glaring at the Survivor he/him]

They'd still hurt bridgemen, unless he made them different than Sadeass.

[Cromptj he/him]

I always thought Dalinar used siege bridges to show that he was different from Sadeas and did not just waste lives.

[happyman he/him]

I always thought Dalinar used siege bridges to show that he was different from Sadeas and did not just waste lives.

That's part of it. We were just wondering if he could also save lives and be more effective. Sadeas uses bridgemen for a reason. It's a badly immoral, and frankly self-defeating in the long term, but it is effective. We just feel that "effective" and "moral" might be a false dichotomy.

[name_here]

In fact, converting to an armored bridgemen model might save lives overall. The reason Sadeas uses them is that they allow him to arrive sooner. While he mainly wants to beat his competition to the plateaus, arriving earlier means the Parshendi have less time to get set up and occasionally even mean the Alethi get there first. And assaulting across bridges means being surrounded to start, probably interferes with formations, and generally makes the battle much harder.

There's a reason Dalinar's officer suggested the man-carried bridges for the crossings before the final assault. That attempt failed to create one that could support the weight of a siege bridge while still being portable, but it was a solid idea.