Improved Battle Plans - A Defense in Depth for the Battle of Winterfell

I'm a huge fan of Game of Thrones as well as military history the world of Ice and Fire features a lot of armed conflict which can be fascinating to examine in the lore there are tons of examples of impressive generalship which have even made it into the show and which are deeply satisfying for me to observe however the latest episode of Game of Thrones covering the Battle of Winterfell has left me wanting in this video I'd like to play the role of the armchair general and offer my own revised battle plans also if you want to avoid spoilers now would be the time to leave alternatively if you'd like to skip ahead then use these timestamps okay so the basic premise here is that the forces of the Living intend to make a stand against the forces of the dead while this video will primarily focus on the main confrontation between the two I can't help but start by commenting on the events leading up to the battle the force of the Living have known for a while now that winter is coming and have rallied forces to the north they assume that the wall will hold as a primary defense but that a long battle at some point will be inevitable their game plan essentially boils down to rallying forces and digging in ultimately they're being reactive rather than proactive this is a viable strategy but one which is a huge missed opportunity considering their greatest advantage at the moment is their mobility in the form of a Dothraki horde and two dragons if I were leading the forces of the living I'd employ the time proven strategies of history namely fabien tactics and guerrilla warfare both of which have their own precedent in the lore using phibian tactics basically means denying your opponent battle the name comes from the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus who famously avoided conflict with the dreaded Hannibal Barca and his Carthaginian army he did so to preserve the strength of his own troops while finding opportunities to undermine his opponents position such as cutting off logistical lines are attacking foraging parties this allowed him to control the moves of his enemy and gave Rome the breathing room it needed to recover from previous losses at Trebbia and Trasimene the way this would work in the case of the dead would be to deny them battle for as long as possible well there are no supply lines to cut you can starve them of their ability to raise more dead by a all civilians to protect the slow-moving convoys of non-combatants I suggest using hit-and-run guerrilla tactics strike opportunistically with your mobile elements at any exposed parts of the enemy horde dragon should help provide high-level recon and function as a heavy-hittin strike force where needed while the Dothraki should split up into smaller bands with guides who know the area to carry out localized harassment and escort missions this will all buy you time to seek out a more favorable engagement whitter fellows a decent location but ultimately falling back to and holding the neck at the twins sounds like a preferable solution if you need any in universe examples of this sort of strategy at play look at how the kingdom of Dorne withstood the invading Targaryen but with that said let's get the forces of the living a little slack the knight Kings destruction of the wall was sudden and did admittedly complicate long-term planning it was pencils down whether or not anyone was ready this now gets us to the Battle of Winterfell itself let's start by considering the plans as presented to us the night before the battle this is the map from the show and here's my translation of it in a more convenient format looking at the two armies let's do a little accounting the forces of the dad are deployed to the north they have a large body of at least 100,000 White's these are mostly composed of standard humanoids as well as a mix of larger creatures such as undead Giants mounted in the backline are about a dozen White Walkers and lingering somewhere above is the night King atop Vissarion the forces of the living are deployed to the south as follows at the front are some 10,000 oath rocky right cavalry under the command of Sir Jorah Mormont just behind them are a line of trebuchet x' and behind these roughly 8,000 unsullied led by grey worm on the left are several thousand stark infantry free folk and Knights of the Vale led by Brienne and torment on the right are several thousand more northern bannermen and members of the Brotherhood without banners inside a water fell are some additional reserves ready to man the walls with archers and the civilians taking shelter inside the two dragons regal and drogon are also positioned in a reserve finally we should mention that a perimeter steak line and trench was established in front of Winterfell but behind the army yeah more on this shortly now that the chips are in place let's get them in motion the fight breaks down into three basic phases one battle in the field two battle at the walls and three battle inside the walls here's my summary and critique of the plan for the Battle of Winterfell to kick things off the Dothraki light cavalry charge headlong into the enemy perhaps seven once heard King Robert extol their virtues in an open field and figured this was a good option it was not for starters cavalry should never be used like this even if it's broad daylight historically they've only ever been able to find success charging into loose formations or exposed flanks only then do they stand some chance of success by turning the enemy to flight and running them down in the retreat but against an enemy that will stand their ground and worse yet never buckle for morale this sort of blind charge to the undead was predictably suicidal next up is the artillery it seems to have been told to fire for effect and took this order quite literally they let loose one volley which beautifully arcs above the dothraki charged but then hold fire after that due to their forward placement and incomprehensible lack of defense the artillery is quickly overwhelmed by the enemy charge and silenced permanently historically artillery would have been placed in the rear atop fortifications this would not only give them protection but also the elevation and visibility to properly target the enemy large siege engines were rarely used in field battles and instead you might see smaller anti-personnel variants but again these would be located on some high ground with trenches fortified emplacements and guards anyways once the unprotected artillery gets wiped out the unprotected infantry are swept over by a literal tide of Undead which smashes through the front ranks reanimated peasants with bread knives cut through plate Armour like butter and the losses quickly add up only at this point do the dragons get deployed a bit late but sure I'll take it now they deliver devastatingly effective strafe Civ fire on the enemy lines unfortunately their efforts are too little too late and the forces the little living start to buckle a retreat is called which gets covered by the unsullied they're more disciplined phalanx coupled with aerial support fares a bit better yet by this point so many of the defensive forces have been squandered that holding the line becomes Wheatly untenable the unsullied - now attempt to retreat however due to the rear placement of the stake line all the forces of the living get funneled through a single choke point and many people are unnecessarily killed once inside Winterfell it's time to man the walls the defensive plan here seems to have been to have the footman contest the ramparts with Archer and dragon fire support this is pretty reasonable but again could have benefited from much better preparation in the form of robust siege works to repel invaders in this case there was just a basic fire trench setup which proved predictably inadequate even when it was finally lit after some difficulty it only took a couple minutes for the enemy to figure out just how to get past it by literally clogging the pit with their corpses Mongol style this outcome was not helped by the fact that the living took this time to ogle at them rather than shoot the sitting duck targets anyways once the single outer defense was batted aside the assault against the walls could begin in earnest however due to previous tactical blunders the ranks of the defenders were so thinned out at this point that they were quickly overwhelmed historically once an enemy breached your walls it was game over military and civilian forces were generally inclined to surrender and seek the mercy of the attacker however in cases where no quarter was to be expected the fight could carry on here streets would be barricaded buildings reinforced and defenders from all walks of life placed on the battle lines rather than having your non-combatants huddled down in some crypts they could be used to hurl projectiles down on attackers from above this could be anything from javelins to stones bricks roof tiles and even furniture the bloody sieges of Carthage and Jerusalem went on for many days like this thus in the case of Winterfell another defensive opportunity was wasted luckily the remaining survivors would be saved by plot armor and some serious deus ex machina but without relying on such uncharacteristic gameofthrones cheats I propose a different strategy let's now rewind the clock back and take a second crack at that battle plan on a macro level the commanders of the living were onto the right idea killing the night king is the key however doing so requires time the more time you give yourself to hunt or trap him the your chances of success are and unless Pyrrhic the victory thus the most obvious revision to the plan would be to implement a proper defense in depth the goal would be to slow down the enemy as much as possible whilst maximizing the killing power of your own forces this can be done through fortifications rather than a small measly trench and propose several lines of defense the first one will be an unmanned barricade about 250 meters out from the castle walls its purpose is to break the enemy charge and force them to bunch up pooled against this defensive dam the undead will be perfect targets for pre-sighted artillery fire and Dragons drapes the greater the extent of this outer fortification the better if you're short on time don't bother with anything too fancy send ax men to fell trees in the nearby forest and harness up some Dothraki horses to halt bees into place you can leave all the branches on for now these teams should be working continuously as you just want to get as much on the field as possible additional workers should be ready to start chopping off branches and sharpening them to service stakes much of this work can be performed by the women and children rather than having them cooped up in the crypts after all nothing helps award against depression better than action and morale would certainly improve with all this work going on you'd actually be surprised by how much can be accomplished with the manpower available at Winterfell for context the Romans built over 10 miles of wooden fortifications at Alesia in just a few weeks within the outer perimeter I'd leave about 150 meter gap this area will be kept clear on purpose to allow the Dothraki to do their thing now with proper outer defenses and room to maneuver they can live up to the reputation here they can rapidly roam their sector over the battlefield to pick off any undead that trickle through the outer firewall using bows from range if this trickle becomes a torrent the cavalry have plenty of room to maneuver to perform cycle charges or fall back entirely without trampling their allies again the idea here would be to inflict maximum damage but sound the retreat before losses mount next at about a hundred meters out will be a trench this will be excavated to build the next line of fortifications but will itself serve the purpose of once again damming up the enemy this time within an archer range I would be sure to have some large retractable gangplanks ready to allow troops to retreat across the ditch when necessary finally at about 50 metres out would be another line of fortifications this time manned the purpose of bees will be to hold up the enemy for a fight within the close support of the castle adequate room behind them will allow for the proper movement of troops for reinforcements or retreat the fortifications here should be built as a series of Chevron's made of staked mounds meant to funnel the dead into the gaps between them here massed infantry can form up to hold them within bottlenecks thus archers positioned within the Chevron's and on the battlements above will have an easy time delivering supporting fire onto the enemy flanks when the time comes to retreat once more a flaming trench similar to the one in the show should be lit however rather than it being behind the fighting troops it should be positioned just in front of them there should be multiple redundant systems for lighting it as well once the flame slowed the enemy a general retreat should be sounded back to the walls before they are extinguished for this last phase of battle inside the battlements of Winterfell the area should have been pre-prepared to repel an assault the earth should be piled up behind the walls to reinforce them and vulnerable areas should be bricked up as much as possible to minimize the number of approaches available to the dead as for the defenders on the walls I'd give them a few more tricks up their sleeves to prevent the undead from getting up long Spears and hooks should be great for sweeping back creatures trying to escalate the stones while cranes and other devices could help push them off projectiles should also be kept in constant supply to rain down on the attackers if things get really compromised it'll be time to abandon the outer walls and fall back to the inner keep at this point there really isn't much more strategically to be done other than to get every able-bodied person involved in the defence the ultimate fate of the siege at this point would rest in the hands of the team charged with killing the night game but hopefully if you followed these steps you will have maximized the time for them to work miracles that's it for my analysis I hope you've enjoyed this discussion I know I certainly have let me know what you think and definitely let loose with your own battle plans in the comments below see ya down there

Channel: Invicta

Views: 2,950,728

Keywords: game of thrones season 8, game of thrones, battle of winterfell, battle of the long night, improved plans for the battle of winterfell, analysis of the battle of winterfell, review of the battle of winterfell, game of thrones season 8 trailer, the long night, the long night analysis, night king, night king battle, night king battle plan, night king battle episode, game of thrones battle plan, game of thrones startegy, defense in depth, a song of ice and fire

Id: EA5mJRFaI8c

Length: 13min 23sec (803 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2019