The Dothraki Gave Their Advantage

[Runaway Penguin]

9 hours ago, Sophist said:

The dragons were very active burning wights until the storm came in, so I don't know what it means to say they weren't. 

But they were still underused. They burned wights without much planning and preparation. Simple obstacles to channel/pile up the undead would help here (and as for waiting for NK, simply have dragons take turns - one burns, one flies top cover, rinse and repeat).

9 hours ago, Sophist said:

Dany and Jon were restricted in their positioning by the need to track the NK. The whole problem faced by the living was that they could not win unless they killed the NK. All the discussion of tactics beyond that is academic.

Arguably, they could win without killing NK. What would he do if he was unable to raise more wights because the defenders actually fought smart and reduced own losses not to feed him. The wights are a finite resource.

Stopping the wights dead and then luring him to a personal duel might have been a better option.

9 hours ago, Sophist said:

Arakhs are useless against zombies. We've seen repeatedly that ordinary weapons don't slow them down even in the slightest. Sending the Dothraki south would make sense in summer, but it's a long way to Moat Cailin with nothing in between. Most of them and their horses would have starved.

Sending Dothraki south would reduce amount of fresh bodies available to the NK significantly. That would be the main point.

9 hours ago, Sophist said:

Setting the forest afire might have been possible with dragon fire, but it's doubtful. It's the middle of winter and the NK called up a storm. Only magic got the trench lit, and that was built to burn.

Many other suggestions assume unlimited time and materials, which they didn't have.

They had materials enough for a fiery moat and cheveaux de frise inside Winterfell. Same resources could be used to build at least two layers of obstacles that might not be flammable, but would stop the initial rushes of zombies. 

NK called in storm when the WW were threatened. His reaction to zombies being burned was rather indifferent - and again, any wights burned away from Winterfell reduce pressure on the defenders.