Do you think Winterfell is not practical as a base of operations?

[ninewinter]

The final season seem to show Winterfell as the base of operations for a 80-120k army of the living, and I think it's relaly far from being practical. Please share your thoughts as well, but here's one o the points why I don't think Winterfell is the ideal location. 

1. The size of the force of the living and the resources of the North. Army of the living composition might be 10k Northmen, 7-10k Unsullied, 20-30k Soldiers of the Vale, 60-80k Dothraki, and 5-10k sellswords and other southron bannermen that join the cause of King Jon and Daenerys Stormborn. With such a large army, how could the food deprived North feed them in Winterfell who have seen destruction just a few months ago? 

2. White Harbor is a better location so supplies can easily be gained from the South. 

3. More importantly it would have been better if Dany simply capture Kings Landing and thus solidify her conquest to Westeros. Make a vast exodus of all the northern army and population,down south, and hold Moat Caillin. 

 

[The hairy bear]

Any general or leader whose first suggestion on the face of a foreign invasion was to retreat and abandon half of the realm wouldn't be very popular. Most of the Northmen would just ignore whoever suggested that. And in any case, evacuating all the population of a place as vast as the North would not be feasible.

 

[nyser1]

18 hours ago, ninewinter said:

The final season seem to show Winterfell as the base of operations for a 80-120k army of the living, and I think it's relaly far from being practical. Please share your thoughts as well, but here's one o the points why I don't think Winterfell is the ideal location. 

1. The size of the force of the living and the resources of the North. Army of the living composition might be 10k Northmen, 7-10k Unsullied, 20-30k Soldiers of the Vale, 60-80k Dothraki, and 5-10k sellswords and other southron bannermen that join the cause of King Jon and Daenerys Stormborn. With such a large army, how could the food deprived North feed them in Winterfell who have seen destruction just a few months ago? 

2. White Harbor is a better location so supplies can easily be gained from the South. 

3. More importantly it would have been better if Dany simply capture Kings Landing and thus solidify her conquest to Westeros. Make a vast exodus of all the northern army and population,down south, and hold Moat Caillin. 

 

I think that they need to be fairly north in order to stop the theoretical increase in size of the Night King's armies from the dead all over the North. Let them go beyond the North and it is a much bigger game. Plus they can spread out (and again raise more undead).

 

Winterfell is off of the Kingsroad which allows it to be supplied from the South.

[ninewinter]

On 3/8/2019 at 6:56 PM, The hairy bear said:

Any general or leader whose first suggestion on the face of a foreign invasion was to retreat and abandon half of the realm wouldn't be very popular. Most of the Northmen would just ignore whoever suggested that. And in any case, evacuating all the population of a place as vast as the North would not be feasible.

 

Ahh Yeah. I didn't think of it for a second. Further evaluating on this, and I think it's possible that the Battle for Winterfell will be like Jamie's own field of fire last season where they show a big battle but not the last one. I figure they might fight the battle of winterfell, lost and go back to King Landing where Dany/Jon's remnant force will destroy Cersei's Lannister/Greyjoy/Golden Company force with the help of dragons and ultimately wait until the Night King comes south. I hope forces from Volantis and Braavos and other free cities will join as well, but if not, I'm sure expecting it will be the best battle scenes since Lord of the Rings. 

[ninewinter]

@nyser1 Yes that must be their reasons and since they can't massively evacuate all the people from the North might as well fight to defend it. And to think about it, they must have felt their numbers is  enough. I'm excited what can other military leaders think about it like the Onion Knight or Jaime in their war council. 

[nyser1]

19 hours ago, ninewinter said:

@nyser1 Yes that must be their reasons and since they can't massively evacuate all the people from the North might as well fight to defend it. And to think about it, they must have felt their numbers is  enough. I'm excited what can other military leaders think about it like the Onion Knight or Jaime in their war council. 

I am too. I wish we had more characters from the ASOIAF universe and more air time to go, but 6 episode are better than 0 :).

[summitxho]

Interesting question. I think in season 5 it was when Ramsay and Roose Bolton were discussing Stannis's army approaching, Roose had mentioned something along the lines to Ramsey that you would be a fool to abandon the walls of winterfell and meet their foe in the field. This suggests to me that when the Boltons went back to Winterfell, it was also well stocked for the coming winter and that they could sustain a prolonged assault. I think they have large food stores, that while the incoming armies will quickly consume, it should last long enough to see the outcome of the battle with the WW. The nights watch I can also see coming into play with this, who are also known to have food stores. 

When you consider that dragons will be a big strategic advantage, the lands around Winterfell seem to be the perfect place for dragons to lay siege to an army, nowhere to run and hide, good terrain for an assault from above.