Will all the Dothraki simply starve when they land in Westeros?

[Craving Peaches]

Massive food shortage already + casually bringing over tens and thousands of Dothraki = problem.

Also with winter coming ground will be hard and frosty so horses will have difficulty grazing. Can't really forage for much food either as that's what everyone else has been doing and so there's not going to be much left.

They can brutalise the smallfolk all they like but that doesn't change the fact that I doubt there will be enough food for them.

It's not like Daenerys can bring over masses of food from Meereen.

[Corvo the Crow]

1 minute ago, Craving Peaches said:

Massive food shortage already + casually bringing over tens and thousands of Dothraki = problem.

Also with winter coming ground will be hard and frosty so horses will have difficulty grazing. Can't really forage for much food either as that's what everyone else has been doing and so there's not going to be much left.

They can brutalise the smallfolk all they like but that doesn't change the fact that I doubt there will be enough food for them.

It's not like Daenerys can bring over masses of food from Meereen.

Dany will do food drops with Dragon. It is known.

[Craving Peaches]

This may sound bad but I kind of hope the Dothraki just die before reaching Westeros. The Smallfolk have suffered enough.

[LongRider]

The logistics of bringing such a large army, and all that entails, plus the number of horses they would need, poses so many unsurmountable issues.  The Dothraki don't seem to be ground troop trained, so without their horses?  They are in trouble.  

[Corvo the Crow]

54 minutes ago, LongRider said:

The logistics of bringing such a large army, and all that entails, plus the number of horses they would need, poses so many unsurmountable issues.  The Dothraki don't seem to be ground troop trained, so without their horses?  They are in trouble.  

Dothraki don't seem to be anything trained.

They just charge en masse while screaming and displaying their butt naked bodies. The nerve of these exhibitionists!

[Craving Peaches]

2 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

They just charge en masse while screaming and displaying their butt naked bodies. The nerve of these exhibitionists!

All should be put to death for conspiracy to corrupt public morals! 

[astarkchoice]

1 hour ago, Craving Peaches said:

This may sound bad but I kind of hope the Dothraki just die before reaching Westeros. The Smallfolk have suffered enough.

Maybe they will

I think dany will be badly treated by the dothraki but perhaps learn something about dragon control.from the valryrian relics at vaes dothrak...then shel burn it tot he ground  and their one cultural anchor will be gone pretty much ending them as a people!

[Alester Florent]

It's not really clear how the Dothraki haven't already starved to death en masse. As a society, they don't work. Whatever weird magic sustains them on the Dothraki Sea will no doubt continue to do the same in Westeros.

[astarkchoice]

5 minutes ago, Alester Florent said:

It's not really clear how the Dothraki haven't already starved to death en masse. As a society, they don't work. Whatever weird magic sustains them on the Dothraki Sea will no doubt continue to do the same in Westeros.

They are nomads with horses apparently replacing sheep,cattle , goats as the food source so yeah for all the flaws  grmm wrote with them  food should be plentiful,medieval nomads would eat better than most medieval settled peoples ... despite the stereotype most interaction between them would be trade of raw foodstuffs for more refined / luxury goods.

If anything their capture of slaves and trading them makes less sense , they have everything they need.

[Corvo the Crow]

23 minutes ago, astarkchoice said:

They are nomads with horses apparently replacing sheep,cattle , goats as the food source so yeah for all the flaws  grmm wrote with them  food should be plentiful,medieval nomads would eat better than most medieval settled peoples ... despite the stereotype most interaction between them would be trade of raw foodstuffs for more refined / luxury goods.

If anything their capture of slaves and trading them makes less sense , they have everything they need.

Nope nope nope nope. Nomads in our world wouldn't roam around in hundred thousand or they would eat the country side bare almost irreversibly so. they would be divided into smaller and smaller groups, milk based food would form a huge part of their diet, yoghurt for example comes from Nomads. Dothraki are just plain stupid in both the sense how they were written(like how stupid you must be to charge straight into a spearwall) and how they act.

"Horselords" of our world would also have other animals beside horses like oxes, sheeps, etc. and even camel, the popular image of a camel with two humps is a Bactrian camel which has nothing to do with Arabia etc. which had one humped camels.

[SeanF]

If one were to go by real world history, (I'm not sure if Martin will) I could not see Dany bringing more than 30,000 soldiers of all kinds with her, at the very maximum.  And, only states that were superbly organised for war, like the Roman or Ottoman Empires, could project that level of power across the Sea.

30,000 soldiers need a similar number of sailors, to man warships and transports. They also need a similar number of horses, both for riding, and for use as draft animals, and a similar number of servants, sutlers, blacksmiths, carters, fletchers, bowyers, prostitutes, etc.

Sending 30,000 soldiers across 1,500 miles of sea (the distance from Volantis to Westeros) is a massive undertaking.  It's doable, but it needs a hell of a lot of planning, on the scale of the Ottoman siege of Malta, and Belisarius' capture of Carthage. If Dany has taken Volantis, then she should have the resources.

On arrival, 30,000 soldiers, a similar number of horses, and a similar number of camp followers, will need about 150 tons of food and fodder per day, or else they will starve.

So, Dany will need allies, both in terms of providing food, and in terms of providing manpower. And, the landing place will have to be in an area of great fertility.

[Loose Bolt]

What makes Dothraki dangerous is their ability to replace all their losses very quickly. For instance in TV serie their horde lost about 99,99 % of their screamers and horses in one massive kamikaze attack against Army of Death. But just some weeks later their horde had enough riders and horses and so was again ready for battle.

[Craving Peaches]

15 minutes ago, SeanF said:

on the scale of the Ottoman siege of Malta

Which failed anyway.

[Corvo the Crow]

17 minutes ago, Loose Bolt said:

What makes Dothraki dangerous is their ability to replace all their losses very quickly. For instance in TV serie their horde lost about 99,99 % of their screamers and horses in one massive kamikaze attack against Army of Death. But just some weeks later their horde had enough riders and horses and so was again ready for battle.

Yes at room temperature they can double in number every 24h.

[Corvo the Crow]

1 hour ago, astarkchoice said:

If anything their capture of slaves and trading them makes less sense , they have everything they need.

Oh also, slaving was something how some groups sustained themselves. Crimean Khanate took the slave trade right where Venetians/Genoese (can't remember which, prehaps both) left it when they settled in the area and it was a huge part of their economy. Obviously, before settling in the area they weren't trading in slaves or at least weren't doing it any more so than other medieval states but once they settled in that area it became a huge part of their economy. They would capture slaves themselves and Ruthenians were the most popular but they would also buy Finnish etc. slaves from other groups like Rus'.

[astarkchoice]

52 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Nope nope nope nope. Nomads in our world wouldn't roam around in hundred thousand or they would eat the country side bare almost irreversibly so. they would be divided into smaller and smaller groups, milk based food would form a huge part of their diet, yoghurt for example comes from Nomads. Dothraki are just plain stupid in both the sense how they were written(like how stupid you must be to charge straight into a spearwall) and how they act.

"Horselords" of our world would also have other animals beside horses like oxes, sheeps, etc. and even camel, the popular image of a camel with two humps is a Bactrian camel which has nothing to do with Arabia etc. which had one humped camels.

Drogos is listed as 40k but yeah id say just as with real nomads theyd be spread out with loose comms between groups to keep them roughly together and heading same directions (i think  id read ghengis had 20-30k vs roughly same numbers vs his merkit rivals )  yeah milk and meat (and blood)  so the dothraki would be horse milk (apparently.sweeter than cow)

 

Yeah the dothraki just eating horse and horse related food seems a little bland unless they trade those slaves for other food tonadd variety ...that said we also know they take peppers to make their own beer (wiki) 

[astarkchoice]

10 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Oh also, slaving was something how some groups sustained themselves. Crimean Khanate took the slave trade right where Venetians/Genoese (can't remember which, prehaps both) left it when they settled in the area and it was a huge part of their economy. Obviously, before settling in the area they weren't trading in slaves or at least weren't doing it any more so than other medieval states but once they settled in that area it became a huge part of their economy. They would capture slaves themselves and Ruthenians were the most popular but they would also buy Finnish etc. slaves from other groups like Rus'.

Some yes,  it seems to be massively lucrative in essos. 

[Aebram]

It occurs to me (and I'm probably not the first to suggest it) that the whole idea of using the Dothraki to conquer Westeros was a lie from the start.

Illyrio would have been aware of the huge logistical and cultural challenges of such an endeavor; but Viserys and Khal Drogo probably would not. Illyrio may have told the tale to both of them just to get them out of the way of his real plan: to put Young Griff on the iron Throne. He probably expected that Viserys and/or Daenerys would die somewhere on the Dothraki sea, or that Drogo would never take his khalasar to Westeros.

[Alester Florent]

1 minute ago, Aebram said:

It occurs to me (and I'm probably not the first to suggest it) that the whole idea of using the Dothraki to conquer Westeros was a lie from the start.

Illyrio would have been aware of the huge logistical and cultural challenges of such an endeavor; but Viserys and Khal Drogo probably would not. Illyrio may have told the tale to both of them just to get them out of the way of his real plan: to put Young Griff on the iron Throne. He probably expected that Viserys and/or Daenerys would die somewhere on the Dothraki sea, or that Drogo would never take his khalasar to Westeros.

It seems the idea was sufficiently serious that he told the Golden Company to expect Viserys and Drogo to join them.

[Corvo the Crow]

14 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

Drogos is listed as 40k but yeah id say just as with real nomads theyd be spread out with loose comms between groups to keep them roughly together and heading same directions (i think  id read ghengis had 20-30k vs roughly same numbers vs his merkit rivals )  yeah milk and meat (and blood)  so the dothraki would be horse milk (apparently.sweeter than cow)

 

Yeah the dothraki just eating horse and horse related food seems a little bland unless they trade those slaves for other food tonadd variety ...that said we also know they take peppers to make their own beer (wiki) 

40.000 warriors, 100.000 total.