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- The Battle of Winterfell in the latest episode of Game of Thrones was a strategic and tactical disaster.
- The living made at least 5 big mistakes in their battle against the Night King.
If you haven't yet seen the third episode of the final season of Game of Thrones, then stop reading this, go watch it, then come back and finish reading this. If you have, and you were reasonably frustrated for most of the episode, then this posting is for you. Be sure and comment about the tactical and strategic decisions you would have made. They can't be much worse than the brain trust running Winterfell right now.
Strategically, their premise was flawed. They hinged their success on killing the Night King, something they could only do if he revealed himself, if they could kill him at all. Everyone else was expected to just fall back to a series of positions, expecting to be overrun. This plan fell apart immediately, except for the plan to fall back expecting to die – that part went just as they all thought it would.
1. They deployed their maneuver forces first.
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Not only did they send the Dothraki horde against the undead, the Dothraki were sent charging in head-strong against an enemy they couldn't even see. The Dothraki have zero experience fighting in the dark, in the cold, or against an army that isn't already afraid of them by the time they arrive. There was no reason to send them into the fighting first or to rely on them to do much damage to an overwhelming undead wave.
Reliance on maneuvering troops in an overly surrounded stronghold is what ended the French Army in Indochina, and it almost ended the army of the living.
2. They made little use of air superiority.
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Everyone talks about these dragons as if they're going to level the playing field or give Daenerys Targaryen the perpetual upper hand. And if I were a ground troop at Winterfell, I would have felt pretty good about the dragonfire death from above we had at our disposal. So what were Daenerys and Jon Snow waiting for? Dany was the least disciplined person on their side anyway, so once the plan went out the window, the dragons should have been playing tic-tac-toe all over the undead horde.
The enemy dragon didn't show up until halfway through the battle and was using undead dragonfire like it was the key to beating the living because it was.
3. They had no eyes on the battlefield.
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Every time the dragons lit up part of the enemy, it not only took enemy soldiers off the battlefield but it gave them living targets for their artillery and archers. A huge chunk of Winterfell's defenders were barely used because they couldn't see the incoming enemy. The Dothraki rode straight into the swarm, quickly overrun by a force they couldn't fight because they couldn't see them.
The only time the living army had any kind of chance or was able to use their natural abilities to their advantage was when they could see the enemy to shoot at them. Ask Theon Greyjoy and the crew from the Iron Islands as they stood around defending the group project's least productive partner. They made every arrow count. If Arya Stark hadn't actually killed the Night King, then Melisandre would have to be Winterfell's MVP – she actually gave the defenders light to see.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- Inside Kim Jong Un's personal train — which is bulletproof, has all-white conference rooms, and its own red carpet ramp
- Russia and North Korea have a tiny shared border, which Kim Jong Un just crossed — and you can take a look around on Google Maps
- Here are 8 weapons of war China showed off during its massive naval parade
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