Defending a Dothraki invasion

[James Arryn]

... OK. Where are they going to water their horses in Dorne?

I don't think they'll need to concentrate on Dorne any more than Westeros does, but if they do it would probably be in smaller numbers.

How are they going to cross the rivers en masse in the Riverlands?

Fairly easily, I d guess. Unarmored horses cross rivers better than people. The Mongols/Huns etc. faced all kinds of rivers in their advances; never had an impact. They were used to rivers. So much so that they used the frozen rivers of Russia as their highways during their conquest. (sorry to keep using same models, but we don't really have any alternatives.)

How are they going to sack the Iron Islands?

The sea is their weakness; that's why I mentioned kamikaze. I don't think they'd bother, though, tbh. I wasn't counting them, but if so, yeah, that would probably be a factor in terms of not extending the conquest to the islands.

How are they going to successfully besiege the Eyrie or even get to it through the mountains?

The mountain passes would be an issue as much as for anyone else; the Dothraki wouldn't be distinct in this way. I imagine they'd go around either by way of Saltpans/Redfort/Gulltown, or via Coldwater.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the Dothraki are used to a flat, grasslands situation in Essos and Westeros doesn't really have comparable geography in that sense, on a large scale. It's one thing to pillage easily when you're wandering around a giant, mostly flat steppe. It's another thing to do it in a climate that's pretty different from anything they're used to. But hey, even if they work out well down south, there's still the Moat Cailin causeway to look forward to.

Yeah, but the real world models of Steppe tribes pretty universally adapted extremely well. Wide open spaces actually emphasizes smaller horses; smaller horses are better adapted to various terrains. Wide open plains/Steppes actually expose you to pretty extreme weather in either direction. I agreed about the Neck, though.