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Westeros vs. Southern Song or Yuan Dynasty


nicephorus_phocas

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So if a force of 100000 from the Southern Song or a slightly larger force from the Yuan invades Westeros by sea somewhere in the Crownlands or the Riverlands, will Westeros be able to repel the invasion force? Assume that Dorne and the Iron Islands stay neutral. In terms of army the Southern Song are basically made up of peasant levies, that are of the same quality as Westerosi levies, though maybe they have slightly better armor, though inferior to European late medieval plate armor. The quality of the Song cavalry is not that good due to southern China not being able to breed good quality horses, and they do not have cavalry that is equivalent to what the Westerosi heavy cavalry have. The Chinese do have some firearms but they are very primitive, they do not have guns or artillery in the modern sense of the word. And what they have is closer to a bamboo tube that can shoot out explosives, basically a fire lance, and primitive but reliable grenades. The Yuan army will basically have the same composition as the Southern Song army except for somewhat better and more numerous cavalry. Basically it will be identical to what Kublai Khan sent to invade Japan.

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I'm not really sure the Yuan and Song would be that similar. Kublai doesn't just have local levies at his disposal, if he wants, he can summon levies from dozens of far-flung cultures. Even if they're mostly still peasants, you wind up with a force that has some variation in tactics that might make it pretty capable.

I think we can't assess how well the Yuan or Song would do without knowing or making assumptions about their commanders, supplies, objectives, and key assets such as ships and firearm reserves. If an army of 100k led by a skilled general invades out of the blue with ships and discipline, I expect it might be like a larger-scale version of JonCon's Stormlands campaign, with numbers and alien weapons replacing surprise and professionalism as the key advantages. Since we don't know the ultimate outcome of JonCon's campaign (I tend to think he wins some nasty battles taking and holding Storm's End, then falls on King's Landing after winning enough Reacher support, making a quick victory - before getting annihilated by Euron / Stannis.)

An army with any kind of planning and geographic awareness and those numbers landing unexpected that close to King's Landing should be able to topple the throne, simply because no force can possibly organize to defend in time. That doesn't solve the problem of feeding themselves, language barriers, cultural barriers, or how to rule a country of tens of millions with a force of a hundred thousand peasant levies from another world.

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