Would the wildlings have even been able to do much

[hannibals war elephants]

okay everyone who finishes the books knows that wildlings south of the wall is not a good thing. But even with a massive numbers advantage, mammoths, giants, and only the crap of westorosi society behind a massive wall to deal with, they still got smashed when stannis and maybe 2 thousand of his men charged them. If they actually breached the wall and attacked the north, first northmen would fight back, second tywin would probably want to remove them as a threat as there presence south of the wall ment that the kingdom was breached and the king must react. Because of that I think they would probably get wiped out instead of populating the North like Jon thought they would. They wouldn't even be able to resist because tywin and roose would just go in like they do in every military campaign, rape, burn,murder, and set the mad dogs on 'em, and i'm sorry I don't think they would even want to stay if they saw what ramsay liked doing

[Game Of Thrones]

The wildlings would have scattered into thousands of bands the moment they breached the Wall. So it would have taken decades to kill all the wildlings. And the Northmen, too, would have taken serious casualties, like 10,000.

[JoeyBanana]

Yes.

Once they're south of the Wall, there's no need to engage in open battle anymore and Mance is smart enough to know that. It would have been a long and hard war during the winter with many casualties on both sides. I don't think the South would care anyway.

Roose & friends would have to deal with them alone, all Mance would have to do is promise Stark restoration like Stannis does and half the North is now against the dynamic Dreadfort duo.

[Free Northman Reborn]

They would have become the equivalent of hundreds of roving bands of outlaws preying on lone travelers, small villages, and unprotected peasants.

The North as a whole would have become a whole lot more dangerous to live in. But they would not have been able to take over any regions to carve out political territories for themselves.

[hannibals war elephants]

Yes.

Once they're south of the Wall, there's no need to engage in open battle anymore and Mance is smart enough to know that. It would have been a long and hard war during the winter with many casualties on both sides. I don't think the South would care anyway.

Roose & friends would have to deal with them alone, all Mance would have to do is promise Stark restoration like Stannis does and half the North is now against the dynamic Dreadfort duo.

that means that people like the umbers won't just start killing them right away, they may hate boltons, but there hate of the wildlings has generations of pressure.

also they would need to stay together or the north men would kill off all the little bands after a bit, they don't know the land like a northman would and they won't get a chance to learn

[Sullen]

It would have been a disaster for the smallfolk, which could have eventually led to a serious weakening of the North in general.

I highly doubt they'd be able to capture castles before several years, decades, even.

[RainGhost]

The castles would have been fine, the remaining northern forces would deal with some of them. The small folk would have been vulnerable but the wildlings are not much different to other northmen, they probably would have just integrated, intermarried and maybe just been a bit more unruly than other northmen. There were plenty of children, who wouldn't have been a threat.

[Makrell]

They would probably have been split witht heir objective seemingly secure they would probably be split, and wouldnt capture many castles. They would be hard to remove to though, so i think they wouldve stayed throughout winter, being slaughtered by kneelers band by band.

[GrandPoobah]

They would have become the equivalent of hundreds of roving bands of outlaws preying on lone travelers, small villages, and unprotected peasants.

The North as a whole would have become a whole lot more dangerous to live in. But they would not have been able to take over any regions to carve out political territories for themselves.

Yup, there'd probably be more outlaws outside the towns than regular citizens inside them!

In a nutshell, it'd basically be like Skyrim!

[JoeyBanana]

that means that people like the umbers won't just start killing them right away, they may hate boltons, but there hate of the wildlings has generations of pressure.

The hate for the Boltons is juicy fresh and very recent, Mance hasn't butchered and/or betrayed the majority of Northern nobility...yet.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

Yes, they'd be a serious threat to the northern economy (and the smallfolk of coure).

They'd split into a thousand small bands, roaming the countrysider murdering, pillaging, raping. Burning farmsteads and small villages, avoiding the soldiers out to hunt them for years and decades.

Northern economy, taxation and winter stores would take a serious hit.

The Wildlings could never win, but they could make the North lose, dragging it down with them.

also they would need to stay together or the north men would kill off all the little bands after a bit, they don't know the land like a northman would and they won't get a chance to learn

That would only make killing them all off way easier. There are roundabout 15 Lords in the North alone who could field larger armies than Stannis, and you know how much of a curbstomp he gave their entire army.

[RainGhost]

If I was a northman and I had a choice between thousands of wildlings, a Lannister army, an Ironborn army or Ramsay Snow, Roose Bolton and the Freys running amock in the north, I would choose the wildlings every time.

[Julia Martell]

It would probably be comparable to the barbarian incursions into the Roman Empire, with all the subtleties and complexities that entailed as well.

My guess would be that the greatest consequence would be a decentralization of the political structure and a localization of the economy, which, given the climate and whatnot of the North, would probably result in a substantially lower standard of living and a greater reliance on substance agriculture by a greater portion of the population.

There's no question that the Wildlings would eventually integrate into the North, but they would change it irrevocably doing so.