![]() ![]() The defenses of Winterfell should have been set up something like this: Plains - spiked things - fire ditch - spiked things - catapults - wall - archers - spearmen. But rather than take full advantage of this benefit, Jon and Daenerys squandered this opportunity. Luckily, the Winterfell defenders had a fortified castle and many catapults, which should have helped in avoiding casualties because it would allow them to engage the enemy without having to expose their own troops to harm. So casualties should have been avoided at all costs. (That's what the British had at Waterloo, and the Romans at Cannae.) If the living then sacrificed their army - 20,000, like the French at Agincourt, perhaps? - they dramatically would augment their enemy's strength. But let's assume for the sake of this discussion that the army of the dead was finite and a somewhat reasonable number, say, 80,000. If it was functionally infinite, then there's really nothing they could have done - the Night King could just send wave after wave of wights at Winterfell until they buried the living (much like how he sacrificed many of them to create a bridge over the fire trench). This is especially true because they didn't know the size of the Night King's army going into the battle. None of the living want to be the Night King's federate troops, and so they needed to prioritize avoiding casualties. This is a huge advantage for the Night King, and why prisoners of war are so important in premodern armies - you usually just turn them into your own soldiers, reaping a double benefit. Every hero who died would only add to the enemy's strength. Given how the Night King can turn any corpse into a wight, Jon ( Kit Harington) and Daenerys ( Emilia Clarke) should have first realized that they couldn't afford casualties. ![]() Unfortunately, the army of the living not only failed at basic battle strategy, but they completely forgot to tailor their plan to take into account the Night King's unique abilities. I had high hopes going into Sunday's " Battle of Winterfell," not necessarily that the living would win, but that they might do our species justice when it comes to siege warfare - something that, for better or worse, humanity has spent a lot of time perfecting. As a historian, I am both intrigued by the ways that battles play out in Game of Thronesand excited for the show to get back to politics - and to Cersei ( Lena Headey), my queen (sorry, Senator Warren). ![]()
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