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

For those interested, I've published another battle plan analysis for the campaign to defeat Cersei and the Iron Fleet: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mxRgVtbZQYM.html

winterfell in the books has two layers of walls and a moat in between. winterfell is a formidable castle made puny looking in the show

If the battle went like this, and STILL went poorly, that would’ve properly raised the tension of the whole battle, without making the defenders look like idiots. 🤦‍♂️

we're fighting a necromancer lets hide in the crypts!

Aka “What Stannis would have done”

My battleplan would be: Tie dragonglass arrow tips on some raven heads. Let Bran fly them into the Night King like Kamikaze RC-Planes!

What do we say to good tactics and writing? GoT since Season 5: not today!

Here's the plan we're going to.. Dothraki "Leeeeeeroy Jenkins!"

Defense of Winterfell is based on classical strategy of Zapp Brannigan's Big Book of War. Send in wave after wave of men at them.

The long night never should have been a single episode, but since they did, they needed to make their own Helms Deep. They had a great opportunity to do so, but they discarded it for flashy CGI and subversive expectations.

"Reanimated peasants with bread knives cut through plate armor like butter'" Exactly what I thought when the Night King drove the broken, wooden spear shaft through Theon's plate armor.

IF my boi Tywin was there, battle plans would had be issued

Wait, do you not immediately sacrifice your entire cavalry for a cool shot? WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME

Dragonstone blades tied to ravens Bran does his thing Done with the night king

I believe the best strategy would have bin to kick D&D of the team and write a whole new script for the season ...

Walkers need revision as well, they had no reason to attack Winterfell. They couldve waited literally an eternity for them to starve or just ignore winterfell and raise a larger host

I remember two things right off the bat that bugged me while watching that battle. They sent their dathraki cavalry in first when they couldnt even see ....personally I would waited till they were attacking the walls and have them attack from the sides or rear. Which would of gave them more time to fire their trebuchehs ....i cant spell. And second was the trying to light the trench with a arrow on a windy ass battle field. What you need is a crazy dude with a torch lol cough helms deep cough lol

This was an excellent analysis/battle plan. I had no idea there would be this much in depth thought when I clicked on the vid. Keep up the quality content! 👍

Dead army: 100k Infantry 10 Generals 1 Giant 1 Dragon Jon's Army: 10k Cavalry 20k Infantry 20 Archers 2 Dragons 0 Strategist

Lets not forget about wildfire. You would think that it would be used on the dead and may hidden out in many places outside the wall, but it wasnt even mentioned

Any and all Total War players had a literal unironical mini-stroke when they saw this battle plan proposition

What do we tell to the God of logic and strategy? Not today....

Winterfell in the books had something like 80 foot high outter walls, then a deep wide moat, then like 100 foot high inner walls. Also, there are theories that because of the way winterfell was constructed using old god magic and the weirdwoods, that it is possible undead can't actually go within winterfell in the first place and would just pop like they did when trying to enter the Three Eyed Crow's place. Then the TV show does this...

Every Paradox player cringes at GoT's campaign strategy. Every Total War player cringes at GoT's battle tactics. Every RPG player cringes at GoT's use of heroes.

Uh ... As in most movie plots - like Star Wars - there is a single point of failure where the nearly defeated good guys can attack - that wipes out the enemy that had been winning. That single point of failure for the Army of the Dead - was the Night King. So your basic strategy here - is to delay the un-dead long enough to get at the Night King and kill him. 1) Your best weapons are fire, Valaryan (sp?) Steel and dragon glass 2) Have several lines of fire pits to delay the un-dead with Artillery in the Castle launching burning projectiles into their ranks as they bunch up at the obstacles. 3) Have the ground between the fire pits covered in something that would burn readily - such as straw - though with the snow that might not work but tree branches and anything else that would burn. 4) Have your cavalry stationed outside the battle area until the dragons located the Night King. The dragons drop off Arya and she tries to sneak up on the Night King and kill him from behind. If she fails the light cavalry and mounted nights attack. 5) Have the cavalry get around behind the army of the dead and hit the Night King from behind - using dragon glass arrow heads and Valaryan Steel. The thing here is that the writers - as did most writers of Disaster Films - have the good guys behave with utter stupidity - to set up the desperate dramatic situation that they want to achieve. Martin had written the books well and seems to have understood something about what he was writing about - but once the series ran out of his books the TV Writers gave us a demonstration of how good he had been in contrast to their feeble efforts. .

THANK YOU. This. Was. So. Therapeutic. I wanted to yell at my tv screen when i saw the god awful defenses from the show. Also (after the first trench) I would have had several pits and traps dug and have the pits lined and covered with spikes, tar, pitch, oil, wildfire, and anything else remotely combustible. I would conceal the pits so the enemy couldn’t see them. Then would have ordered the archers to rain fiery hell on the undead as they fell into these pits. This could have been done! Honestly getting these materials should have been the first thing on Jon’s list when he first went on his quest to go south and get dragonglass! I mean hello derrr let’s get the stuff that lights on fire derrrr. These writers make Jon and his advisors look so stupid it’s sickening! Even for a fantasy show it is universally stupid on every level!

"dragons providing high level recon" - no because that would make sense

Realistically, the Unsullied didn‘t even have 8000 men. They had 8000 men when Dany first got them, but I‘m inclined to believe that probably around 2000 of those had already died during mereen,casterly rock, etc. Which makes it even more ridiculous that in ep.6 they just suddenly have like thousands of men again after literally almost all of them died lmao

So what are we going to do to win "ah charge weak light cav into strong heavy soldiers a blissfully great idea!"

Honestly, the background music was the best thing about this episode.

I expected the *Battle for the Dawn* to be more than the mess we got. The defenders should have made more fires to be able to see the enemy approach and measure distance. The Free folk and Crows should have been manning the walls. And the civilians should have been evacuated to White Harbor. A huge mess and waste, made so that the plot keeps moving forward. I thought Tormund, Sam, Podrick and Grey Worm were definitely gonna die.

Taking into account how hard it is to dig into a frozen soil, i wouldn't have focus much effort into digging a single trench. However, the unmanned barricade would be a "must have". However, i would equip the dothraki with slings : easy to make, relatively easy to aim at a literal wave of undead ; the dothrakis could serve as a first artillery line and throw all kind of makeshift projectiles from at least half a kilometer away from the wall. Once the undead within reach from the main artillery weapons, the dothrakis could abandon their slings and switch to skirmishing the vanguard of the undead army. The next barricade line wouldn't be a trench, but rather, a frozen snow wall : easy to make, it would consist of simply pilling up as much snow as possible and simply water ovee the exterior side, to make it as slippery as possible, while strenghtening it. The snow wall would have to be intermittent, as we don't want the undead to get around the fortification ; but rather clog up their advance toward the last barricade. Built within archer range from the walls, i would double their line with slingers pulled from all the able bodied within the walls. The third barricade woud be composed of pyres ; to disrupt the ranks of undead, and offer visibility to the archers on the walls ; and wooden stakes, disposed in chevrons, littered with bundles of dry wood/forage, soaked in oil. The defenders could then lit the barricades themselves, before retreating, earning some time to regain the wall. Once the infantry retreat within the wall, the unsullied should take the vanguard and bloc every street with shield wall, will other fighters would join the walls and repel the enemy there. From the south, the dothrakis cavalry could re-enter the castle. Within the narrow streets, their cavalry charges would be enough to trample stranded, scattered undeads. breaching the unsullied lines of defenses. From the rooftops, women, elderly and children could throw whatever at hands on the undead too. And if that's not enough, too bad, we're fucked. Obviously, both dragons would be used to swipe the flanks and the vanguard of the wave of undead, to stay out of reach from the ice javelins, and keep the undead from following te dothrakis in their retreat. They would also serve as an asset to keep the zombie dragon busy, while avoiding direct confrontation, once the second barricade is reached, as we don't want them melting down the snow-wall...

Also have the Dothraki use their superior mobility to try and locate and kill the White Walkers. Each of them killed would take down hundreds, if not thousands of zombies. For that reason, the NK would try to keep them safe in the rear, but with the bulk of the dead committed to attacking the castle, they would thus be (comparatively) lightly defended.

I lost my shit when I saw that masterpiece depicting Arya flying through the air with doves attached killing the night king with bran in the corner 😂

I can’t believe I only just discovered your channel. Brilliant.

the best cavalry defense in history is the japanese army in the battle of sekigahara. they literally kited their enemy. volley and volley of arrows while encircling their enemy with mounted bowmasters. the enemy wasn't able to catch them. while riding, 100 archers randomly shot their arrow. then they leave, and another platoon of archers would take their place. it went on and on until their enemy retreated.

I've often wondered what King Stannis Baratheon's battle strategy would have been.

the battle of winterfell was tactically underwhelming. am glad i wasn't alone in this feeling.

Your strategy would have worked perfectly and I'd expect before they start to piling up on the walls their numbers would have decreased to half or even a quarter. When the dead pass the last outer barrier to the wall, after most of them piled up send the dothraki to flank them again a bit further from the back, and archers fires arrows around the clock and spill some oils from the top of the walls and ignite them when they start to stair up the walls. With perfect positioning of the dothraki won't get caught by the livings' attacks. Follow the instructions perfectly and I dare to say 80-90% chance the wights wouldn't have enough numbers to counter attack the flank groups nor siege the walls, meaning the battle inside the wall part is unlikely to happen

The problem with Thebean tactics and guerilla warfare is that the Dead have neither logistical line nor foraging parties. They don't need them. The problem with most tactics is that they are designed to break the enemy, without killing the Night King the undead simply don't break. Ever. At all. They would fight to the last zombie, even in attack. They cannot be made to fear, they cannot starve, they cannot run out of water. They will just keep coming and absolutely will not stop. It's why Arya's training as the faceless man, and the ability to move silently even to the undead, were so important - so she could evade and penetrate the Night King's forces to slay the Night King.

This is actually really great. I'm trying to learn more about tactis and strategy for roleplaying/writing reasons, but I must admit that when I was watching that fight I thought "there is no winning strategy here, the horde of dead is just too big, you just can't win this battle", though I did noticed some really stupid choices like the suicidal charge of the dothraki. I'll admit that you are a fine strategist in my eyes, and I'm suscribing and clicking the bell xD

Cool names for your series: „ this plan sucks, your grace“ or „ if I may, your grace“ You need to find a way to light the battlefield without blinding your own troops. Also, once the nk summons his blizzard the riders become useless. This is why they NEED to operate in close vicinity of the castle.

Very nice analysis indeed!! Actually a few night ago I was again contemplating about the battle between living and the dead, and was thinking the best thing the living should have done is to constantly harass the dead army, evacuate everyone and retreat towards Moat Cailin and further south towards The Twins where the decisive battle should have been fought. They should have mined the crossing and when it was full with dead men just blow it up. The idea was to make sure that the Night King crosses the bridge before, which he would have done if Bran was there. While a well trained guard was defending Bran(not some children and a dickless guy) the main bulk of the army should have engaged the dead on the other side of the river. If everything was properly planned the living should have been able to kill the Night King in combat, either using dragon glass or Valeryian steel(perhaps all the Valeryian steel holders should have formed a squad) not mysteriously by an adolescent jumping 500 meters and stabbing him. The dead were know for their stamina, fearlessness and partial immortality but were basically stupid, charging without keeping ranks and could not overcome water lines. These advantages should have been exploited by the living and the fact that were not it's a great tragedy indeed.

Dothraki dragon glass chariots/ muddy trenches to slow down giants and enemies/u shaped fortification to blob up the enemy and then bombard with artillery/ utilize long spears/ bunch of wooden logs spiked with dragon glass placed on top of the wall to be set on fire and hurled towards the dead/ reserve dragon fire until the enemy is near the walls send Dothraki chariots on the flanks for cycle charges /try to break up the castle into sealable compartments, if over run seal and set on fire/ designate and establish a secondary fortification within the castle and escape route if needed. the only thing that's really a game-changer is the undead dragons mobility I think if the walls are able to succeed at holding back the horde of the dead the night king would try to attack the wall, a hit and run tactic from the 2 dragons would work in that scenario.

Dothraki: Khalesi, the cavalry is going to charge into complete darkness? Danny and Jon: Yeah lol Dothraki: Could you at least light up the first wave so we can see? Danny and Jon: nah we are going to hold our d!cks and watch all your little lights go out from a nice spot on the safe cliffs Dothraki: you guys are d!cks. It is known.

The Suicidal Jon Snow Plan vs. the combined King Robb/Stannis strategy. King Robb would have done very well with the Fabian tactics given his character stats (trickster & cavalry) in Crusader Kings 2 & Stannis's unyielding combat record would have made Winterfell a hard nut to crack for the dead to attack. The show really wanted Jon to lead everything, but unlike Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, Jon didn't have that strategic mindset.

a 10 year old gamer kid has way better battle war tactics than the old hag writers of GoT.

Now make a video about how u would attack Winterfell & the living if u were the Night King

Here's the best OP tactic of all player.additem ObsidianArrow "999999"

I think the original plan is great but the only mistake that the living made is they let the dothraki savages to march directly in enemy lines when they can join the unsullied forces to hold the entrance of castle and protect the retreating men.

The winterfell battle was the equivalent of pressing "Auto Resolve" in Total War.

Forget historians, even a mount and blade player could devise a plan better than this

"Dragons should provide high-level recon", we just found out that apparently they can't spot a fleet of ships until they're in ballista range.

Or you can just use a trebuchet to launch Arya directly at the Night King.

Imagine if in the battle of Gondor, Gandalf sent out majority of his army outside the wall to battle against the much larger forces of Mordor .

The final season reminded me of writing a 1000 word essay in school. You’re getting in depth telling a story and look down at your word count and realize you’re already at 996 words so you just say “Everyone died. The End.”

_Any_ battle plan would be an improvement.

Ned Stark always said that 500 men could defend Winterfell against 10000... He apparently never explained Jon how

the funniest part of this entire battle is the defenders miraculously only lost 50% of their forces LOL

The best part, is the fact that the Dothraki were originally going to do their derp charge into the pitch black void, until Milisandra showed up lol....

*Sun Tzu rolling in his grave after seeing episode 3*

Remember when the dothraki died during the siege but somehow regained their forces in the next 2-3 episodes.

the writers of GOT certainly don't play totalwar lol

While the dothraki army died in five seconds, Samwell Tarly, Jaime Lannister and Jon Snow survived being attacked for more than 10 deads at same time

ARTILLERY IN THE FRONT LINE!? my god the total war in me cringing.

This defense plan would've been *much* more exciting to watch! Imagine wave after wave smashing against defense after defense...that would have been an epic battle that would've made both sides seem so much more intense and exciting! Ah, well. :)

Here is my improved battle plan: Knowing the new GOT plot armor is so THICC, have all the main fan characters charge into the army of 100,000 undead and defeat them all. Sparing the lives of all the soldiers who did not even need to take part of the battle

*Ser Davos:* Excellent plans, your grace, but what will we do about the Dothraki raping and pillaging the North when the dead are gone? *Jon:* Don’t worry, I’ve got it figured out.

When I saw the Calvary charge head on into battle, I yelled "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!!!!!!" at my TV.

Imagine if the Night King just didn't show up.

Show costs millions upon millions of pounds. Can we afford to hire anyone who's ever played a single wargame ever? Nah...

Tyrion: The enemy knows every one of our battle plans Dany: you look surprised Blackadder Blackadder: I certainly am your grace, I didn’t realise we had any battle plans

The writers should have played a round of plants vs zombies at least, before making this plan . Palmface

D&D: “We basically see the end of the Dothraki essentially” Greyworm literally an episode later: “hAf aR GoN”

This was amazing. Unfortunately their original battle strategy was to get rid of the overpowered forces of Daenerys as quickly as possible, so there can be some more drama about how to defeat Cersei.

My plan would be to load Bran into a catapult and deliver him directly to the Night King.

every military unit wears a dragonglass earring - impossible to raise the dead. EZPZ

Needlessly sacrificing 10,000 Dothraki calvary for a beautiful but extremely brief visual was the dumbest thing I've ever seen produced on this show... The existence of Daenery's dragons was more realistic than the thought of a bunch of experienced generals and soldiers coming together and agreeing on that asinine and nonsensical move.

Better plan: 1. send Bran on a carriage to the undead army 2. have Arya hide on it 3. nothing personnel night king 4. profit

Great! Can you do another one, called How Not To Get Ambushed By A Ship?

Everyone: Jon, your plan lead to the death of every single Dothraki! Jon: Yeah lol, but didn't they look cool tho?

If the Romans saw this, they would've probably would've went 4th wall against them.

I'm surprised that the US military doesn't equip every soldier with plot armor. They'd be so OP.

Dothraki did a LEEEROOOOY JENKINS!!

Drogon can burn down a whole city with a million citizens and also dodge giant bolts shot from like 50 scorpions but not burn 100,000 undead whytes and dodge ice spears hurled at him?

"reanimated peasants with knifes cut through plates like butter" ok i laughed :D

Only problem with your plan is that it makes sense.

Remember when Theon said that Ned Stark always said that a 100 men could hold Winterfell against 10000?? But apparently 25-30000 men can’t stop an army of 100000 zombies!!!

My strategy: everybody leaves for Essos and drop Bran at King's Landing

All you need to win: 1) bran waiting under the tree 2) arya hiding in its branches... The rest can wait in the south...

The Dothraki mounted archers should have been equipped with dragonglass arrows. they could ride around the force of wights and go directly for the white walkers in the rear. That would maximize the damage to the enemy.

7 seasons: winter is coming 1 stab later: well that's it, pack it up boys

The battle plan was exactly like the writing quality of the final season, absent.

Someone should make a game called "How I would do it". In which it simulates a WhiteWalker attack and you are to set up your Winterfell defense. Everytime a strategy worked the game takes a screenshot of the successful formation and it automatically get tweeted to Benioff and Weiss with the caption "Like this for example you idiots".

Dothraki: FLAMING BLADES!! WOOO!!! CHAAAAARGE!! Jorah: Hol up, I didn't give the command to charge Dany: Did you tell them to charge? Jon: I thought you did.

Woah, I'm blown away by the feedback so far and the very inventive battle plans you've all posted below. Given the positive feedback I'd like to consider making this a recurring series. Any ideas on a name for the playlist? "Hand of the King", "Back to the Drawing Board", "Your Plan Sucks"... ?

"Reanimated peasants with bread knives cut through plate armour like butter" :)

Jon: let's put our scorpions and trebutchet in front of our infantrymen. Guy:...uhmm my lord Jon: Winter is here. Guy: yes, but...the artillery. Jon: this a fight for survival. Guy: yes I understand that, but maybe our artillery can just move back- Jon: We need to build a trench around winterfell. Guy:oh okay, that helps if we get our men- Jon: the trench needs to be small enough to allow only a handful of men to run between. Maybe six men a breast at most. Guy:what? Trenches are meant to be behind- Jon: then the dothraki will charge the center. Guy:...you're not listening to me are you? Jon: This it, the final battle between the living and the dead Guy: I'm not even here am I? Jon: now our final watch begins Guy: were gonna die here.

Jon Snow at the tactical meeting said.."we can't beat them in the straight fight".. And yet,still sending dothraki riders into the pitch black battle..

When you let the guy who "knows nothing" plan your battle.