Could the Dothraki take all of Westeros with 300000 men?

[the storm king returns]

I personally believe they could but they would first obviously require ships, which they receive from Bravos in return the Dothraki promise them all the gold in the Westerlands and Dragonstone.

Now with 300000 men Lets say 125000 horse which are provided by Rich men in Essos all who are promised land in return. They cross the narrow sea and begin raiding all of southern Westeros the Lords hide in there castles while the Dothraki raid and pillage all the small folk and take all the crops.

The Dothraki dont have siège weapons ..... But as Ghengis Khan has proved starvation is an easy way to destroy your ennemies patience is all that is required, all the Dothraki have to do is deploy there 300000 men all across southern Westeros as fast as possible and prevent any lord from raising a big enough army to stop the Dothrakis invasion. 10 years later all is conquered besides the Vale and the North but they would use ships to attack both at a later date.

[James Steller]

The Dothraki would wreak a lot of havoc, but even with three hundred thousand they would fail. First off, Westeros would unite against a common enemy as dangerous as that. And they all have far better quality armour and weapons than the Dothraki do. Plus what happens when winter strikes? Genghis Khan becomes Napoleon in a heartbeat.

[In A Coat of Gold]

The Dothraki have no taste for siegecraft. Pick your country dry and hole up in your strong castles. Let them starve themselves out.

[the storm king returns]

You have to remember these huge armys the High Lords have take a lot of time to assemble if the Dothraki struck first systematicly striking each lords lands no army could assemblé itself properly, maybe 5000 at the most which the dothraki would ride down with a huge advantage in numbers

[shmewdog]

Anyone without walls to hide behind would be doomed. The lords would be able to hold out after awhile but the peasantry would be devastated.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

No. Even 300,000 Dothraki, which by the way is about 10 times as many as Drogo ever had, won't.

For starters, they'd sail to Westeros in little batches of about 5,000 each. Have fun meeting Stannis, Victarion and Paxter Redwyne on the way.

Then they'd be spread all over the coast, where the local Lords will bleed them. After that, their horses and they themselves starve to death.

And as soon as they meet the 400,000-500,000 professional soldiers Westeros has neglecting the food issue for a moment, they'll get their rear kicked so hard they'll be tasting golden spurs on their tongues for the rest of their lives.

They could never win. What they could make is have the Westerosi Lords lose, by running away, surviving and raiding the populace, which in due time will raise up against the Lords who can't protect them.

[House Hendrix of Rock]

Gengis Khan was brutally effective in sieges, Chinese siege engineers are a big help.

They would not be able to hold the north and nor a region like Dorne and The vale for long, not to mention The II. The command structure use by Dorthraki is unfit for such campains. Depending on where they land High Lords would be able to raise portions of their superb armies.

[Universal Sword Donor]

That army would starve to death inside of a month. On top of that, they'd need something like a million horses. Okay, so maybe they wouldn't starve but their horses would.

If the Dothraki attacked the North or the Vale, they would die against MC or the Bloody Gate. Lizard lions and shadow cats would have a lot to eat.

In Dorne, they'd just died, either in the passes or the desert. They'd all keel over before they got to Godsgrace.

The Crownlands, RL, Reach, and Stormlands are all more vulnerably, but once again that army would starve itself to death. Fairly easy to keep people inside of the keep for a week or two and let the army move on.

The only way they would have any success is to split up into many khalasars. At least they wouldn't starve while they tried to lay siege to castles. That said, any Westeros army of remotely comparable size would likely scatter them. Their arakhs don't pierce armor. They don't wear armor. Their bows are outranged by Westerosi bows (according to JonCon). They could hit and run, but they aren't going to hold any lands.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

The only way they would have any success is to split up into many khalasars. At least they wouldn't starve while they tried to lay siege to castles. That said, any Westeros army of remotely comparable size would likely scatter them. Their arakhs don't pierce armor. They don't wear armor. Their bows are outranged by Westerosi bows (according to JonCon). They could hit and run, but they aren't going to hold any lands.

Make that any Westerosi army about a tenth of their number or better.

[Ingelheim]

Considering Westeros can raise more than 400,000 soldiers, far better than the Dothraki ones, and with actual armor and not-so-curved swords...no.

[Narvi]

If they come backed by dragons yes. Talk about a nightmare scenario.

[Lion Of The Night]

Calvery and mounted infantry can indeed devestate heavy armed knights, Ghengis Khan proved that.

However the Dothraki are not he Mongols.

The Mongols had effective siege weapons and were skilled in siege warfare, the Dothraki disdain sieges or at least have no skill in it.

Calvery are effective in flat planes, Westeros has many mountainous, forested, and boggy areas, which negates calvery advantages.

More important you have to get your troops there. Even if you can get enough transport, and had capable people to sail them (which they did not) yu still had the combined Westeros fleets to deal with. Even then, have you ever tried transporting a horse by boat, it doesn't go well, and they need time to recover. Besides even a small force can repel or at least delay an amphibious landing.

Even our historians wonder how effective the Mongols would have been against europe with deep forests and countless fortifications. The Dothraki who are less capable than they would fail in Westeros.

[hodorisfaclessman]

'Numbers alone confer no advantage '

It depends on how well led they are , if well led then even dragos smaller khalassar could have done it...if they have an idiot like at the battle of qhohor then then it might as well be 3 million they will still lose.

They are logisticaly a nightmare to take across the water but once there they are a mobile force of nomads used to harsh enviroments relocated to a large land of lush grass , rivers , forrests and farmlands so feeding isnt going to be a problem

Strategicly they are also a nightmare given they are a 100% cavalry force so nailing them down to battle with the largely infantry based westerosi military will be tricky

[Lord Reaver]

Calvery and mounted infantry can indeed devestate heavy armed knights, Ghengis Khan proved that.

No, he did not. Genghis never encountered heavy cavalry. As for his successors, they didn't encounter knights in significant numbers during their invasion of Hungary and Poland, either. Most of the armies they defeated were poorly equipped infantry.

[Universal Sword Donor]

'Numbers alone confer no advantage '

It depends on how well led they are , if well led then even dragos smaller khalassar could have done it...if they have an idiot like at the battle of qhohor then then it might as well be 3 million they will still lose.

They are logisticaly a nightmare to take across the water but once there they are a mobile force of nomads used to harsh enviroments relocated to a large land of lush grass , rivers , forrests and farmlands so feeding isnt going to be a problem

Strategicly they are also a nightmare given they are a 100% cavalry force so nailing them down to battle with the largely infantry based westerosi military will be tricky

Feeding is most assuredly going to be a problem. They have no supply lines and 300K men and a million or so horses (multiple mounts for each Dothraki) are going to take a lot of food. Water, like you said, isn't really going to be an issue. Clean water might if they stay in one area for any length of time.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

'Numbers alone confer no advantage '

It depends on how well led they are , if well led then even dragos smaller khalassar could have done it...if they have an idiot like at the battle of qhohor then then it might as well be 3 million they will still lose.

They are logisticaly a nightmare to take across the water but once there they are a mobile force of nomads used to harsh enviroments relocated to a large land of lush grass , rivers , forrests and farmlands so feeding isnt going to be a problem

Strategicly they are also a nightmare given they are a 100% cavalry force so nailing them down to battle with the largely infantry based westerosi military will be tricky

Rivers, forests, mountains, hills, all that allows to nail them down.

And yes, farmland is actually bad for horses. Because while grass grows most of the year, grain doesn't.

[Universal Sword Donor]

No, he did not. Genghis never encountered heavy cavalry. As for his successors, they didn't encounter knights in significant numbers during their invasion of Hungary and Poland, either. Most of the armies they defeated were poorly equipped infantry.

Pretty sure the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Knights fought the Mongols when they invaded Hungary, at least closer to the end of the 13th century.

[hodorisfaclessman]

Feeding is most assuredly going to be a problem. They have no supply lines and 300K men and a million or so horses (multiple mounts for each Dothraki) are going to take a lot of food. Water, like you said, isn't really going to be an issue. Clean water might if they stay in one area for any length of time.

Supply lines + clean water are more of an issue for a fixed force not a bunch of mobile bands of nomads

They have all of westeros to forage over unless westeros applies a huge sorched earth policy pre invasion , but then theres only so much you burn and take into castles etc and westeos is supposedly like south america size wise.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

Supply lines + clean water are more of an issue for a fixed force not a bunch of mobile bands of nomads

They have all of westeros to forage over unless westeros applies a huge sorched earth policy pre invasion , but then theres only so much you burn and take into castles etc and westeos is supposedly like south america size wise.

...and only so far you can ride in a day.

[assjfjgjsgjljljglgjfjsduar]

I agree with BBE. Just getting that many Dothraki over to Westeros is a logistical nightmare and almost an impossibility. 300,000 Dothraki might leave Essos, but that number almost certainly wouldn't make it over. A good chunk of the ships would be taken out by the weather or by Westerosi naval forces.

I think the one factor people underestimate in Westeros is the terrain. The Dothraki have thrived in a steppe environment, which provides ample feeding grounds for the horses and little in the way of geographic barriers to the hordes. But Westeros's environment isn't like that.

The Riverlands, with all the ... rivers ... would be a bitch to navigate with a huge number of horses if you weren't familiar with the geography. The Stormlands don't have much fertile grazing ground. Dorne is full of mountains and deserts. The Vale is mountainous and the Dothraki would be pretty useless at sieging the Eyrie. The Iron Islands are, uh, islands. The North is absolutely huge and its capital is far inland, meaning you'd need to set up long supply lines, and good luck with it in the winter. The Westerlands are rocky, which would probably result in a ton of lame horses if the Dothraki tried to cover it en mass. The Reach is probably the most hospitable region in terms of geography, but also home to the most knights capable of running the Dothraki off.