Would the Essos Storyline be more interesting if the Villains had more Depth?

[astarkchoice]

4 hours ago, SeanF said:

WRT the siege of Meereen.  

Camping in a plague spot of their own making seems stupid on the face of it, but perhaps can be explained by a lack of knowledge of germ theory.

The siege is pretty half-hearted, at least until the end of ADWD.  That could be explained by a real worry about urban fighting (8,000 Unsullied, plus thousands of freedmen could put up a ferocious defence).  A prolonged effort to starve out the defenders could see the besieging army starve first (quite often, besiegers ran out of food before the defenders did, and had to march away).

The rotating command is idiotic, as are the soldiers of Yunkai.  In fact, it's stupid that the generals of New Ghis, with six legions of well-trained soldiers, are not taking the lead in this.  

 

Yeah but to be fair from their perspective its all but won! Theres a highly effective slaver insurgency in the city and when they initaly arrive pro slavaery hizzadar is in charge (i dont think  hes the harpy but feel hed have opened the gates and let his allies cull the anti slavery forces in the city!!) As for food they seem.to have shipping routes  utterly covered and a vast fleet to supply them (new ghis and yunkai are close too)

They already have trenches, catapualts  scorpions and of course 6 trebuchets outside to help threaten the city (new ghis legions would make more sense for this excellent siege prep than slave troops...unless many are engineers )  so they have incomming ally  legions  , a khalsassar and a gigantic volentese  fleet with mrines  on the way.....shit even quarths camel corps are on the outskirts probably more for any freed slaves trying to make for the dessert!

The fact new ghis legions arent in charge doesnt make sense but i suppose by that stage the slavers feel they have it won and will be allowed into city any day now so arent concerned  (might explain rotating command they all want the glory of being the commander who 'took mereen back') plus if the bulk of the forces are under the yunkai slavers maybe that explains it  or maybe the new  ghis commander becomes is one of the commanders rotated in charge!!!

 

Note again it would be interesting to see why exactly new ghis alone has this system  to raise so much military might...they dont seem to have many enemies !

[Aldarion]

11 hours ago, SeanF said:

The rotating command is idiotic, as are the soldiers of Yunkai.  In fact, it's stupid that the generals of New Ghis, with six legions of well-trained soldiers, are not taking the lead in this.  

 

Rotating command may be idiotic, but it may have been unavoidable. Roman Republic actually had rotating command - which doomed them at Cannae, when one consul wasn't an idiot and decided to wait, but the second consul was an idiot and decided to attack Hannibal at a place of basically Hannibal's choosing. Sparta had two kings, and until 6th century BC both would go out on campaign, while after 6th century one would lead the campaign while the other would remain in Sparta.

I had impression that slaver cities were rivals, if not enemies, and so while they did see the need to unite, giving authority to one city over all the others would likely have been politically unpalatable. Giving generals of New Ghis overall command may have been militarily wise choice, but remember that military campaigns are always primarily political in nature, and many militarily less than optimal choices had to have been made due to political considerations.

So I am not sure you can really call rotating command "idiotic". "Bad", maybe, but if it is the only option that lets them work together, then "idiotic" probably wouldn't apply.

[astarkchoice]

9 hours ago, Aldarion said:

Rotating command may be idiotic, but it may have been unavoidable. Roman Republic actually had rotating command - which doomed them at Cannae, when one consul wasn't an idiot and decided to wait, but the second consul was an idiot and decided to attack Hannibal at a place of basically Hannibal's choosing. Sparta had two kings, and until 6th century BC both would go out on campaign, while after 6th century one would lead the campaign while the other would remain in Sparta.

I had impression that slaver cities were rivals, if not enemies, and so while they did see the need to unite, giving authority to one city over all the others would likely have been politically unpalatable. Giving generals of New Ghis overall command may have been militarily wise choice, but remember that military campaigns are always primarily political in nature, and many militarily less than optimal choices had to have been made due to political considerations.

So I am not sure you can really call rotating command "idiotic". "Bad", maybe, but if it is the only option that lets them work together, then "idiotic" probably wouldn't apply.

To be fair the romans had a habit of assinging blame for military disasters to a rotating command structure usualy onto the man with the less prestigious family (as they did with cannae)...in reality hanibal was gonna hammer whoever held command.

Yeah there seems to be a rivalry as well as  deep family and buisness connections. It may be as simple as the fact theres a general feeling no strict command structure is needed as this is a 'slam dunk' easy win now danys gone!!

In terms of leadership its maddness !!! Theres like 40 commanders  each with various amounts of slave troops making around 20-36k of them before we talk the hiring or around 6-7k mercs (ie who personaly is each sellsword companys contract with?) , the quartheen allies, the new ghis legions (and their elephants) prob have commanders, the allied niche missle troops(crossbowmen and slingers) , a khalassar comming and thats before we talk the enormous fleet inbound!!

 

[SeanF]

Arausio was lost because an overbred idiot (Caepio) refused to take orders from an underbred idiot (Mallius).

[astarkchoice]

Yeah the odd thing is the other time we see the yunkai in battle is vs dany  and the 1st time to be fair they put together a solid plan with none of the b.s extravangance.

Itd be interesting to know exactly why new ghis needs such a  large military force too...perhaps based on spartans keeping helots in line etc ...Or in case some idiot khal decides to bite the hand that feeds them.! 

We know drogo had dreams of sacking a major city  in the east and now we know what would have been brought agaisnt him and dany had he tried.

[Aldarion]

23 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

we know what would have been brought agaisnt him and dany had he tried

Yeah. Absolutely nothing until he came to New Ghis.

[astarkchoice]

12 hours ago, Aldarion said:

Yeah. Absolutely nothing until he came to New Ghis.

New  ghis is across the water theyd never have gone near it....the legions would have probably been dispatched had he besieged yunkai or mereen

astopor however would be easy...... unless he decides to be a moron like khal temmo!!

 

Def a very interesting 'what if'