Great reply video from BanditIncorperated. It’s true that castles would be very effective if you can keep on top of the wights numbers, it’s when you get overwhelmed that castles become a death trap for yourself which I kind of expect with the wight army. He also brings up a great point that obsidian might not even work against the Night King, he has a hunk stuck in his chest already. in that case I share my solution in the comments of his video. ruclips.net/video/ddqG85ETJAA/видео.html
@@mastatheif9909 powdered obsidian would be like mustard gas. If the wind changes, those particulates could fly right back into your face. Let's just say there's a good reason why glass cutters wear personal protective equipment, you do NOT want glass particles in your eyes and throat.
Obsidian loaded fragmentation grenades. I don't watch game of thrones but I'm sure they have some understanding of black powder or at the very least an understanding of ethanol's explosive capability. Also, have a front line spear head of men with steel armor with obsidian fragments worked into the metal. No wight could touch you. Apply the same idea to heavy cavalry. Coat/embed horse armor with obsidian flakes, get the biggest heaviest draft horse you can, get a well armored guy on it with the same kind of armor, and just push your way though the lines, with infantry support following behind to finish off knocked over or damaged wights. Just push your way to the front, and hopefully your archers will be close enough to take shots at the leaders. Heck even if they run, that must have some effect like a lack of control or inability to reanimate the dead, making the mop up wore easier.
Or you could just send your light cavalry to their death, us your heavy cavalry as normal infantry, place your siege weapons infront of the army, then place the burning baricade behind the army, and have no soilders in the castle they are protecting.
To be fair; the reason the trenches were behind the soldiers was to keep the circumference as small as possible so that they could finish it quickly. They also had so many soldiers outside because they knew that they would be overrun no matter what so they had to do their best to thin the numbers before becoming trapped in their death box.
@@ShellShock794 Wouldn't it make far, far more sense to use the death box to thin numbers, and to use the mounted forces to harass the opposition, not just while it was attacking the castle, but also afterwards? I mean, to me, that just seems much, much smarter than throwing them away in a suicidal charge that didn't do much to reduce opposition numbers, because every soldier you lose is a reinforcement for the enemy.
Yeah that whole battle was just 1 big joke. I also thought they had been mining dragonglass for months. So you have tens of thousands dothraki which are basically mounted archers. The first mistake they made was basicaly staying at Winterfell. Ow yeah lets figth in a castle that can be completely surrounded. (and not a very good castle either).
Yes indeed, the dragons would be extremely effective against the White Walkers and Wights (unless they're javelined and turned into an undead dragon, then you got problems, but generally, yes, very effective) and really anything for that matter, because DRAGONS! but in this video I wanted to explore the best historical medieval weapons and tactic, thanks for watching guys!
@@eldrenofthemist2492 yes but you cant run away forever because you have to protect your peasants. Also Wight archers could decimate your troops heavily.
Ever since I was a young lad, I've had this one question on my mind; what exactly would be the consequence of having a moat made of oil and fire instead of your typical water and spikes? I'm also applying this thought to combat against the undead in game of thrones... or any force to be honest.
Here is an idea: attach obsidian tip to crows beaks, Bran takes over, flies beyond their lines, snipes white walkers and Kamikadzes them - game over (NPI)
@@Bluargh02 and do what? He might notice it but i doubt he will be able to understand what their plan is. Even if he does decide that crows are a problem, i do not think they will be able to take enough crows down with ranged weapons they have.
@@Spare_Time_G If i recall correctly he kinda broke control over the crows since they all ran instantly wen he stared at them, or maybe he did sometin else i cant remember, but the crows did run wen they got close.
@@pardalmadgod9960 my interpretation for the scene was that bran simply got afraid and lost control. I do not think NK can somehow cancel Brans abilities or distort them. He can simply sense bran's presence
@@pjnoonan1423 i think the best use for giants is to become a catapult in the back throwing big rocks to pin down most of the small zergs or possibly make a big wildfire Molotov and make the giants throw them far.
Obsidian-coated caltrops (Better still, obsidian lego bricks) If wights disintegrate from mere contact with obsidian, even a single caltrop could take down entire files of wights. A load of them could take down an army. Key thing is, you don't need the force to hack off a limb. Merely grazing or scratching, supposedly, should be enough. And when poor quality shoes have been rotting for a while, feet should be ideal targets for that. This is also how you make castles, or in fact, standard towers, work. Just surround them with a few layers of caltrops, spikes etc. Your arrows will take some wights, but thousands can die just trying to storm it.
sorsocksfake THATS EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT I put a comment down on shads comment saying something like this but also obsidian full plate and put obsidian of the castle walls obsidian walls if you just throw obsidian everywhere on the battle field endless they have shoes bam all gone and then just have a dragon riding archer fly over and kill the wight walkers done also I realized just throw powdered obsidian dust off the top of a tower let the wind kill everything just dump buckets off and wait for it to fall and cause mass re killing
Hah, amateurs. True master of battlefield utilizes inventive tactics to take down the superior enemy. Most superb tactics being.... *HIT IT UNTIL IT DIES!!!!* Obviously best tactic would be utilize mounted archers for speed and maneuverability, while keeping your distance. With proper intel and movement you might be able to recover your arrows by luring enemy away from spot. Utilizing several mounted archers you can swap them to let them rest for a while or collect their arrows while another group keeps enemy running behind them, stop, shoot a volley or two and keep on going. Also depending blacksmith skills obsidian could be inbedded to war hammers to pierce enemy armor and deliver obsidian to flesh of enemy if for its effect only touch is needed. Similarly this can be implemented to swords and spears.
That, but in Ancient Hand Grenades known as Firepots.. It'd be like a Tripod Beam from War of the Worlds.. Dust everywhere and some of it is made of people (or used to be people)
Twinpact More than utility, fire arrows are mainly impossible to apply in serious combat to begin with (aside being anyway useless and having specific roles).
@RadTheLad In fact I'm very shocked by the fact that GoT didn't add this fan favourite myth too already, but I guess till they keep it real and logical that's it.
@@artruisjoew5473 you can't just make wildfire. It's a closely guarded secret by the alchemist guild the same way Greek fire was in our world except it's even harder to make because it requires a form of magic to make properly. The people who can make it are with cersi and also they already used it all up blowing up the great Sept.
@@floridamancode_e2673 the destruction of the Sept was months if not years ago from where the story currently is, I'm pretty sure they would have started stockpiling again right away, knowing they'd have to face Jon&Dany;'s army. Maybe not the massive amounts used in Blackwater bay, but even a few dozen caches hurled from the wall into an advancing army will definitely cause massive disruption and panic.
Hmmm... full blown tactics? Heavy chariots, armor laced with obsidian, wildfire lines, and get yourself a Sauron when you can. The best thing to stop winter is to have a continuously burning volcano.
The chariots are a great idea! Especially if you had the scythe blades on the wheels like some nations had. That would be darn near perfect! Especially since you could easily use a bow from it as well!
@S F chariots were way more common than you might think. the chariot was the predesecor to cavalry and was used in a battle field role to as late a 50bc. the point is chariots are extremely manouverable and go a lot faster than horses.
@S F i know. but no unit is realistically good at fighting in deep snow. the only people groups whp fought in snow were the inuit and far northern russian tribes. and neither of these ever used large units of men. they engaged mainly in small scraps of 10 or 20 a side
Well that is the most logical thing to do isnt it ... U dont need to be a strategical genius to figure it out. Ur enemy is on foot outnr you by 10 to 1 and they basically have no shields and dont really use formations. So yeah fight like the mongols horse archers and lancers with dragonglass weapons... Or go to the Freys there castle where the river protects ur flanks and bottleneck em on the bridge then u just oil em up ... do they wanna cross the river elsewhere then u just have the dothraki slaying them on the way to the next crossing ...
100% agree, but I assumed that the whole Dothraki charging in thing was kind of intended to MAYBE, perhaps scout the enemy? But it makes zero sense in a way, especially with light cavalry, IF that was their plan, it would have made much more sense to mount up The Knights of the Vale, instead of having them on the left flank. Although I got over it pretty quick because of the shot with the flaming arak, that was fantastically done, I almost wish that they didn't show the close up of the calvary meeting the giant, and just saw the flames die. Also, the great lack of protection on the walls was ridiculous, personally I think if they put some unsullied on the wall with obsidian spikes lining the crenellation they would have NEVER gotten over the walls, even without machicolation.
the tactics were terrible. sending the dothraki off was to wipe out all the horsemen because horses cost money in fight scenes. though they should have had the battlements manned fully. absolutely ridiculous that they weren't being manned as the retreat occurred. the trebuchets were ridiculous because none were defended so they were taken out as soon as the front line(dothraki were removed)
I think you're describing every "great battle" in every movie ever made. Maybe there are a few exceptions but in almost every case they abandon superior tactics for the drama that comes from doing it badly. One example that comes to mind is men forming a shield wall, then breaking formation to charge and throwing their shields aside to jump on a wall of spears.
I hope you do an analysis of the battle in season 8, episode 3. It seems the defenders made every strategic mistake possible, despite knowing exactly what they were up against.
Luckily for them, their enemies did mistakes too. The Night King simply chose to walk in there to get assassinated from close up. Nice, such a gratifying conclusion :l Thousands of years of "winter is coming" for this
@@comradecallum5564 There were some archers, but for whatever reason they were not firing at critical moments of the battle. Pretty much only for plot purposes (like Arya saving the Hound's life).
The answer to whights: Fire. The show whights are super flammable. Burning Tar in traps and in caldrons on walls could make defending castles viable. A bunch of whights charing forward only to start a fire storm could wipe out an entire army. Heck flaming arrows could be actually used in combat. This will save the obsidian for white walker arrow volleys and cavalry troops.
@@bernadette6236 Fish oil, and Fats mixed with Pyrohpiric minerals like Sulfur would do just fine and be like Greek Fire or Napalm. (Greek Fire already sets precedence for this tech in theory)
@@artruisjoew5473 Incendiary materials burn for inordinate amounts of time, Napalm can be made to burn for days but they engineered it to burn hotter than longer.
Good idea, but that's technical impossible. In GoT, obsidian is a rare material. And in real world as obsidian is very fragile, the fabrication of obsidian needless is also tough.
@@aeleron0577 But if you make arrows out of it, you get a lot of small chips of obsidian. Use those. Not for every person alive, but for the soldiers fighting the wights.
All hail Shad, warden of realism, bearer of the holy machicolations, shield of history, First Sword to Duke Easton of Context! Long may his kite shield hold!
Shad, not shouting MACHICULATIONS! when talking about the Castle defenses let me know this is cereal Business that we should all take super cereal guys.
1. Build huge, 10-horse pulled carts. 2. Set catapults on them. 3. Prepare huuuuge jars of oil. 4. Stick some cloth in. 5. Light it up. Why risking a dragon if molotov artillery is an option?
@@mareczek00713 You could always have the dragon fly high enough to be out of range and bomb them with the catapult ammo from above. Then the only threat would be the undead dragon. And Drogon would be the best weapon againts that anyway.
@@sojtus8681 Problem is - baddies have a dragon so I can't allow mine to push the offensive as I gotta keep him fresh, not tired or wounded and always available to react against enemy dragon.
I feel like skirmisher cavalry or mounted archers, or chariots with archers would by far be more effective at fighting a white army. It has the obvious advantage of reducing the enemy numbers until you can win a decisive battle.
Oh sweet summer child, how are you going to feed those horses when everything is covered in snow? Medieval Europe had horrible logistics and Martin has already covered this. Remember when Stannis is marching towards Winterfell? They put snow shoes on the horses. What's to stop Others from just using ice shields?
@@NorthernXY Maybe The Army of Westeros (TM) needs to outfit it's archers with skis. No firearms yet but perhaps we could look up some Scandinavian tactics employed to keep the Russians out.
You cannot retreat on an open field, where an enemy can easily outpace you. Wights can just keep jogging after you and never get tired, while your army will tire and then have to face the same enemy while being exhausted. You would have to force the Wights to stop or delay them in some way. I think the greater danger is being flanked due a Wights greater stamina.
@@xandolf2852 But those horses are barely light cavalierly being uses in a head on clash that will eat them alive, in some cases literally! When they are best suited to harassing attacks. And horses can be ridden about 30 miles a day, fit horses in a mounted company more like 50 miles a day. Humans are persistent pursuit predators we were good at covering distances in persuit of faster prey, the record for distance running in 24 hours 188.5 miles and Wights DO NOT TIRE.
What I am saying is that an undead army is potentially a LOT faster over distance than foot soldiers or cavalierly. If they are only shambling corpses they will still cover a fair distance given time, but Wights have been show to be able to move fast, and given that they do not tire, means they can cover great distances.
@@solanumtinkr8280 If they move fast why are they just walking very slowly at the fist of the first men... How did any of the nights watch escape.... Im fairly certain that the lord commander wasnt usain bolt... So the conclusion is they cannot sprint non stop. Else why would you ever slow down. You see i dont move fast cos else i tire faster and have to refill my energy. if i wouldnt tire and dont need energy why would i ever do things slowly when i can do them quickly... Also are they capable of tracking. Lets say they outnr u by 10-1. U only have mounted archers. An archer carried 60-75 arrows in battle. So u got 6-7 arrows/enemy. 300-400m range with a bow -> 300-400m takes you 40-53seconds of running. While archers can fire 10-12 arrows/minute. So in short most of the battle would be over in 15 minutes by that time u would have decimated the enemy footsoldiers. How many enemies do you think would still be able to follow u ...
Now I'm curious if an army of Aztec warriors could survive an onslaught of Wights and White Walkers. Given their use of obsidian in weapons, of course.
Depends on the rules. If the White Walkers arrive from Westeros with Wights there is nothing in the Americas that can stand up to them. Even a few score Wights wearing metal armor would go through the Aztec Empire like it wasn't even there. Metal is that much better than stone as a material for weapons and armor. If they have to raise Wights in the Americas humanity triumphs because there is no metal armor and live humans don't drop instantly when hit with obsidian weapons.
@@nathanbrown8680 Mexicas has anti-armor weapons tho. The cuahololli was a mace made of bronze, used to fend off the armored Spaniards. Cavalry proved to be a greater challenge than armor.
@@gamalielvacasolis3484 You vastly overestimate maces against plate armor of the sort seen in Game of Thrones. You can't stun or concuss a zombie. I'll also need a citation before I'll believe the Aztecs had them and. I know one of the other mesoamerican nations was starting to use bronze, but last I looked into native American metallurgy the Aztecs we're stuck in the chalcolithic when the Spaniards arrived. And I'm pretty sure the bronze workers were among the tribes that allied with the Spaniards against the Aztecs.
@@nathanbrown8680 Also, a good bonk in the head will cause a brain concussion, steel helmet or not. Edit: Although, you’re right. Concussion will do next to nothing to an undead. But it can still crush the living dead’s limbs.
@S F Mongol has some of the worst winter weather in the world. Most of Russia northern peoples used horse and reindeer as well. The reason the vikings didn't is they had little agricultural land which was preferable to create human food to horse food and related to that lots of mountains, hills and valleys which is terrible country for effective use of cavalry.
@S F just because mongolia isnt in the arctic circle doesnt mean its not extremely cold all year round. its in the siberian high pressure anti-cyclone zone and is very cold and dry
@S F the vikings rarely ever actually fought in snow. scandinavia during the viking period was a lot warmer because of the medieval warming period. the fact is that the vikings lived and fought in conditons much closer to the climate of northern england.
@@mysticonthehill you are right in most of this but the vikings had plenty of agricultural land especially in southern norway and denmark where most of what we think of as vikings are from.
Incendiary weapons and, more importantly, early types of grenades were used during the middle ages, making them *technically* medieval weapons. Both would be excellent area-of-effect weapons against wights. Wildfire could work quite well against wights even as is, but if you have access to high explosives (like gunpowder), then you could fashion dragonglass into fragmentation shells or fill a container with shards of dragonglass and use that as a mine of sorts (kind of like the M18 Claymore mine). Problem would be making sure the dragonglass survives the explosion itself, though it's an interesting concept to consider just how much dragonglass is sufficient to neutralize a wight. If the hypothesis is that just a touch of dragonglass neutralizes a wight by severing the connection to the Walker that raised it from the dead, then finely ground dragonglass dust could be terrifically effective. Just go upwind from them and release the dust into the air... might cause some lung problems for the living that happen to inhale the glass dust, but hey, if that's the biggest of your problems I would say your situation has improved over being swamped by an endless army of the undead. However if there's some arbitrary size requirement for the chunk of dragonglass to retain its magical properties, then things get more dicey. Dealing with the White Walkers themselves, well... the wights are really their primary weapon. Without the wights, they don't pose nearly as much of a threat because of their low numbers. Without the wights, using dragonglass weapons it should be possible to overwhelm them. Not sure if the Walkers themselves are vulnerable to fire, but it might be worth a try if that allows you to take them out easier. But you do need to have a reliable way of dealing their mooks, otherwise you face a situation that any people you send to kill the Walkers will probably become a part of their army instead. However... even if you can deal with the wights and the Walkers... what about grumkins and snarks?
One tactic that has some high-risk/high-reward to it would be to employ what I call 'Stay-behind Forces', basically small squads of skirmishers/rangers equipped with all the best anti-Walker weaponry that hide somewhere while the main army retreats and allows the Weights to move past them and have them sneak around to try and take out some Walkers. It's definitely very 'Suicide-Mission' and you'd probably want to make sure the squads all have Wildfire pouches to incinerate themselves if they get pinned down, but it's probably the best chance to catch a Walker off guard with an Obsidian arrow/knife. Additionally, getting this tactic to work a few times would have a MASSIVE psychological impact on the enemy and basically force the Walkers to be much more methodical when clearing an area, which in turn would make their advance much slower and give your main army more time to set up defenses.
Wasn’t there a part when Bran was looking back in time or something and the Night King SAW him? I’m legit asking, I don’t recall precisely. But if that was the case... do you think WWs can see through time and space like young master Stark? We know Bran’s abilities don’t provide omniscience, seeing as he didn’t know about Jon’s mom and dad until Sam told him, but as soon as he knew what he was looking for he found it instantly. If the WWs can use something like Bran’s power... I wonder if they even COULD fall for the same trap twice because they’d know what to look for and be able to just kinda, idk, see the traps, or at least the men setting the traps, at any given time. Right? Or am I just making stuff up?
@@indoril1207 The Night King attacking Bran doesn't seem all that indicative of 'Seeing through time' so much as it seems like being able to hijack the Greenseeing 'network' if someone gets too close. Not to mention it's ONLY the Night King that reacts to Bran, meaning that this ability is likely limited only to him and not available to Walker's in general, plus as you just stated Greenseeing is not some omniscient power, so even if NK did have Greenseeing, he couldn't 'see into the future' to find out any ambushes. Not to mention that sort of thing feels like exactly the kind of BS Villain 'I Can Foil Your Plan because Plot' Powers that ASOIAF usually avoids.
What about a modified version of Da Vinci's scythe chariot? But instead of long steel blades, use macuahuatl style wooden clubs with dragonglass shards.
Perhaps usable for smaller engagements, but the wood and obsidian would break pretty quickly. Even if you reinforced the wood, the obsidian chips would shatter almost immediately.
If you ever heard of a Bengal Blade (Hollowed Log with Explosives) you could essentially make "Bengal Bombs" with Obsidian Shrapnel that you could employ in many ways as crowed control.. (Bengal Blades can be buried in a location and set off to great effect against an advancing horde)
Honestly they can (somehow) forge obsidian in the show, so they could just give steel weapons obsidian edges instead of making weapons out of pure obsidian.
Melt down every last scrap of Valyrian Steel you can find. Melt down all regular steel swords. Reforge the regular steel swords but use Valyrian Steel just for the edges, just like how they used iron for most of the blade but used steel on the edges in ancient times. Or better yet, do the same, but with spear tips instead of swords.
Won't mounted archers be very effective? Quickly get into position, then when you run out of ammo or they get too close, fall back. Rearm, rest up, repeat. If firing from the horse is too difficult you could use them like dragoons instead; dismounting to fire and mounting to fall back.
I'd recommend creating rigs of fire around your strongholds and around your archers. If you prepare enough in advance you could do this with wood, so you wouldn't need to expend valuable wild-fire. It seems that the white walkers can walk through fire, and even if they can extinguish it to allow their army to follow, they'd then have to be in front of their ranks of wights, so they'd be much more vulnerable to obsidian arrow fire.
Joey the viking except Greek Fire is a real historical thinɡ while your Nico-whatever-the-fuck is just some made up children's book character. Greek fire=non-fiction Nico-whatever-the-fuck=children's fiction.
Joey the viking oh, and you won the most random useless comment award. But seriously what was the thouɡht process that lead you to comment as you did? I would really like to know how you thouɡht your comment relates to me sayinɡ I'd use Greek fire aɡainst them, because it makes absolutly no sense to me.
@@casimiriii5941 In the series nico is from Greek fire is basically napalm on steroids and me not knowing that in real life it was the first flame thrower I thought we were thinking about the same thing.
I'm yet to see anything to suggest that the Dothraki are fearsome warriors. Their "cavalry charge" was far too loose to have broken the Lannister line without the dragons cooking half of it.
@@derdingsreturnsnochmal5177 But a Maquahuitl is a club. Don't think the Dothraki are used to wielding those heavy weapons. They might get clumsy. There's also the problem of knowledge. I don't think Gendry or any Westerosi blacksmith really knows what a Maquahuitl even is.
@@MrDibara No they don't. And they don't have to make an exact copy. But they will need to make weapons with a wooden core with obsidian blades attached to them. Because making a sword-blade out of obsidian is extremely difficult ( much harder than coming up with such a design, I'd imagine) and the thing would shatter at the first strike.
Here's my thoughts on the Siege of Winterfell. Before I break down the battle and stages however I want to start with how much time they realistically had to prepare for the battle itself as well as those who were leading the defence. So to start with, I don't think that the defence had good generalship. Jon Snow is good of a commander due to how he inspires moral and is a great warrior that leads by example, but has little actual experience on the battlefield. He has the potential to be a good general, but as of right now he only has only took part in three battles, and the only battle he did have full command over (Battle of the Bastards) would have been lost if Sansa had not saved him at the last moment. As for Daenarys, she doesn't really have that much experience in battle for two reasons: she delegates to other members of her council to lead the majority of the battles for her, and when she does partake in a battle she is so used to her dragons being overpowered that she is never truly tested as a commander. These aren't necessarily bad qualities, but due to her increasingly arrogant and totalitarian attitude to leadership (i.e. killing all who oppose her), these qualities do matter in the long run when said character has the final overall say. Other than that the leadership on the front lines is full of experienced warriors who are great at leading sections of the army. One thing that was not in favour of the defenders was the amount of time they had to prepare a siege defence and follow through with it (realistically they only had a few days to prepare, and perhaps a week or two at most with the Dragonglass). This poses a problem because although they had time to prepare the inexperience of the commanders shows with the army layout itself. Firstly, there are not nearly enough trenches, ditches, or emphasis on siege defence at the front of the castle (there should have been multiple lines of trenches, not just the one, with multiple avenues of retreat instead of that one bridge they designed to break). Now this maybe due to how they did not have the time or manpower to achieve this fact for the whole castle, but in a perfect world they certainly should have had multiple rows of defence instead of going head on against the horde. This leads to my problem with the army layout as a whole in the field when it comes to the cavalry, infantry and siege weapons. The infantry should NEVER have gone head on against the wights like that because (as seen in the show) many of them were simply overwhelmed, tackled to the ground and slaughtered. If many of the experienced characters like Jamie, Brienne, Tormund etc weren't wearing plot armour that day (which it definitely felt like with the amount of chaos that happened), then that would mean many unit commanders would be killed off and the likelihood of a rout of the soldiers far more likely. Moreover, why were the trebuchets and catapults so underused in the battle? If the horde was as massive as they said it was (100,000), then firing fireballs of death and organized arrow volleys behind the main body of infantry would be far more effective than fighting them head on infantry to infantry (I really wished that they showed a scene perhaps setting up firing markers of how far they could shoot their arrows/ trebuchets or something but that didn't happen unfortunately). This emphasis on better protected infantry and ranged units would not only have killed more white walkers and held them off for a longer period of time, but also would have allowed for the Dothraki to have been used far more effectively. The Dothraki themselves were killed instantly not due to how they were light cavalry charging a densely packed, RELENTLESS infantry formation, but also because they just couldn't see anything when they were charging the horde. There is no real tactical reason for this choice, and (as said in the video) the Dothraki would have been far more effective as skirmishers shooting obisdian arrows with harrying tactics once the horde was drawn in. In fact, the perfect opportunity for them to do that would have been once the wights surrounded Winterfell at the fire trench: they could have harried and divided the army it into several groups due to their speed and maneuverability in the open field. The wights themselves, although commanded by White Walkers, would probably be too confused to understand what is going because they have never experienced tactics from humans before (because why would they? They are so used to steam rolling anyone they meet that they dont have to think tactically). While I dont believe that this infantry formation could hold off the army for much longer, I do believe that it is a smarter choice that would have bought the defenders invaluable time in preparing a smarter defence within the castle, and bought more time for Jon and Dany to distract and kill the Night King.
I said last year that I would fight them with dragon glass spears and Dothraki horse archers attacking the White Walkers with obsidian tipped arrows. Glad I found your videos. I will be writing some Fantasy novels next year, and your insights will help with generating ideas. Of course I'll mention you page in the acknowledgments.
Fire arrows could be a good alternative to obsidian arrows. They seem dried out like beef jerky. Also Leonardo da Vinci's 'tank' would do very well against whites.
@Targaryen Dynasty It seems you misunderstood Lindybeige's message. Fire arrows exist, yes, but they're rarely used. For the most part, they're usually meant to set flammable things on fire, since they're practically useless against infantry. In this case (Game of Thrones), the fire arrows would also be quite useless, and expensive too. Not only do you have to provide fuel for an entire fort's worth of archers, but you also have to take into account the fact that not all shot fire arrows keep alight during flight! So fire arrows are still quite useless, even in this case. That being said, your statement is just plain wrong. Yes, fire arrows were rarely used, but that didn't mean they don't exist.
@Targaryen Dynasty really? Well I didn't know that. I wonder if their version of Greek fire works against the white walkers. Sorry, but I'm not very fluent in Game of Thrones lore, especially since I don't watch the movies in the first place.
@@baronprocrastination1722 Yes, White Walkers seem tobring bizzardsto wherever they pass by. A byproduct of their magic, I imagine. So in a way, *Targaryen Dynasty* is right. Fire arrows would probably be put out before they hit any Wights.
This. This is *so* much more accurate than the Romero spawned version we use today. White Walkers command them like puppets, they aren't really zombies. They're raised by some kind of death magic. That changes your battle tactics.
In regards to using a longbow on horseback, the samurai yumi was specifically designed for that purpose. (And before anyone points out how relatively weak yumi are, _modern_ yumi used in Kyudo have a draw weight of only 25-30 pounds, but _traditional_ yumi used in battle were around 110 pound draw, well inside the lower end of the old longbows' range of 90-180 pounds.)
how about artillery? Trebuchets firing burning oil and scorpions with obsidian tips. Scorpions could also be used for long-range sniping. Granted this may only work once... in a "last-stand" type of battle.
What about slings loaded with obsidian rocks? A sling is much easier and cheaper to produce than a bow and you'd not have to produce arrows. or obsidian shrapnel bombs?
Or pebbles of obsidian launched in slings or siege weapons. If all you need is skin contact then a shotgun approach makes sense, and it would likely evade armor more effectively.
obsidian tends to fracture into sharp shards, not very sling friendly, but you could possibly put some crushed obsidian into lead to make lead shot with obsidian in it?
Xsion IvyRen I think the only reason Viserion died from the Lance was because it struck an organ related to fire-breathing in the middle of fire breathing, causing a exacerbation of the damage. Drogon survived survived a similar shot from a ballista, that's the reason I think this is the case.
@@Saintedlight They used it the wrong way. Using it fire exposes it to attack. Instead put your archer on its back, get to a height that makes opposing archers worthless, and rain hell until all the walkers are dead.
It might be a bit niche, but it might be cool to do a video on how best to fight a Fade from Wheel of Time. Trollocs are functionally equivalent to minotaurs, which I think you've already covered, but Fades bring in some extra challenges: their mad death flail, their acidic blood which destroys metal if it isn't wiped off immediately, etc. I'd imagine ranged weapons would probably be your best bet -- that's certainly the answer Jordan arrived at -- but the analysis could be fun.
"White walkers are vulnerable to obsidian cut" Flashback of my Exalted game. Where the mage knows the speell Flight of the Obsidian Butterflies. After 8 seconds, the mage hurles a shotgun of thousands of butterflie-like obsidian blades up to 50 meters long and 30º wide cone.
@@rayanderson5797 Exalted has very good damage spells. Big damage allways. My favourite lvl1 damage spell is the Flight of the Brilliant Raptor. You sumon an fire eagle automata, that's important becouse countermagic do not work against allready sumoned automata, that flies at marc 1.4 allmoust 2km. It cuts corners and avoide obstacles. On impact, explodes magic fire up to 6m radious that persist on every solid or liquid, flamable or not, for 1 turn. After that, all residual fire is natural. Say hello to my bazooka.
@10:35 you can do a lot more than just that. You can scout them and predict their pace. Have your scouts relay the information back to your main army so you can always choose when and where to enɡaɡe them. You are spot on thouɡh.
@@juniperrodley9843 If it doesn't blow up next to the walls and collapse them. Should've dropped wildfire from a Dragon if they had it. That way it wouldn't be in danger froom the spears and could get rid of the walkers.
@S F Then again, winter is actually also a huge disadvantage for the wights themselves when it comes to mobility. We don't exactly know if and to what extent the White Walkers can control the weather, but in the Wight Hunt arc in Season 7, they weren't able to spontaneously freeze over a lake enough to let their wights walk over it, so probably not too much.
You'd have the same problem in Ender's Game with the M.D. Device: Once you use it, your enemies are smart enough to actively avoid situations were wildfire can be used effectively. Meaning that if you use it to decimate the army of the dead, you'd better make it count, because it's a tactic that will only work once.
@@Prich319 The issue is more so that nobody other than the lanisters have wildfire. It isn't something that could be easily negated. Yes, the initial trap that kills tens of thousands may only work once, but wildfire would still be incredibly effective and hard to counter, even with the walkers knowing about it. Wildfire could simply be used as grenades if put in ceramic containers,and nothing can be done by the white walkers to counter that aside from using looser formations to reduce casualties (but that would also decrease their ability to overwhelm walls, and thus make castles easier to defend). If you were to have a shit ton of wildfire, it would be impossible for whites to storm castle walls.
This is a great video! Very thorough and thought provoking. My thoughts are that recurve bows actually have better range than English longbows, and the Mongols used them on horseback to take over (most of) the world in the Middle Ages, so I would say Dothraki archers with recurve bows obsidian tipped arrows would be the best bet against the wights and white walkers on the open field against wights (with hidden long bow archers, like you said, to snipe the White Walkers). Also, in the castle siege situation, if you run out of obsidian-tipped arrows, start using flaming arrows. You could also do things like pouring boiling oil down the outside of the castle walls, or catapulting wildfire into the undead army. That would probably do considerable damage, since wights are super flammable.
So, I just finished watching 'Season 8 Episode 3 of Game of Thrones'. No explicit spoilers no worries, it just showed yesterday by the time I'm writing this after all. I just have one thing to say. AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! No, but seriously. From the start of the battle, the moment I saw the Dothraki on their horses doing what Dothraki on horses do best I was screaming in frustration. they were supposed to have some of the cleverest of minds in the kingdom and experienced military commanders, yet they made some of the stupidest decisions one could make in their situation. Now not all the choices they made were completely stupid some I was saying. 'Yes finally, doing something smart'. But then that would follow up with 'Why did you do that if you had that all along!" But I guess the moment they decided to hide the ones who wouldn't be fighting in the crypts with a dude who could literally raise the dead, I had a feeling how the final battle was going to go.
"We have these awesome walls." "I have a great idea... Let's line up OUTSIDE our walls and waste most of our manpower getting overrun as we try to retreat back into the castle" "BRILLIANT!"
The bodys in the crypt their for the most part ancient and their condition was unknown. If their legs or head was broke of, they would have been useless for the Nightking. Also they were in brick or clay coffins, so it was also unknown if they could break out of them in the first place. Also their there not that many people burried down their, less then 30 people. It only required one obsidian dagger in the hands of an untrained woman to keep them at bay. If their would have been five soldiers down there, there would have been not fatalities in the crypt.
@Shadiversity Something I've been meaning to ask on one of your recently uploaded videos has been the kind of weapons you would use in Virtual Reality. The idea is that eventually there will likely be some e-sport kind of situation in which combatants fight in a digital environment, with as much realism as can be gotten away with. However even if you can feel the weapon through haptics of some kind, it still won't have any weight. Take a look at VR shooters: the guns can be carried indefinitely and be swung around freely. So the question is, what kind of weapons might best be taken into a Virtual Reality arena against an opponent while taking into account the lack of weight they would have?
High caliber rapid-firing belt fed shotgun with possibly of changing ammo type. Long hafted flail with multiple “endings” (can’t come up with a better word for it) attached. It should be long enough that you have a reach advantage and no risk of hitting yourself. If it has lots of “endings” it would be almost impossible to defend against. Granted this might be a “one try” weapon as it would probably be entangled in something but that one swing would one h of a swing.
points: * keep casualties to a minimum: keep your units safe and out of reach. unless necessary risk to rake out white walkers. * use distance , obstacles and have good escape strategies. * best weapons: wildfire, traps, longrange, scouts/ninja assassins, small fast moving elite units, undercover elites. best close range: maybe like macedonian phalanx? * to try strategie: flanking in combination with multiple simultaneous baits/atacks at same time in intermittent manner to reduce effectivness of enemy mass forward atracks. * use lures * ...
I was revisiting old videos of yours and the idea of a titanium steel jelly roll Damascus to keep the steel edge retention and gain the mechanic properties of titanium.
what are these "skavens" you are talking about imperial citizens? are they some sort of beastmen or new types of goblins? surely these"skavens" don't exist **RIGHT**?
- War chariots (or in winter situation maybe war sleds). Less movement obstructing the archers (more stable, protected and safe platform to shoot from, than a seddle), almost as quick as cavalery, with better possibility to employ a balista or crossbow weapons with kinda "sniper rifle" effect (long distance, high accuracy) wich is extra needed to pick up the white walkers From a distance, or in a crowd. - Cavalry springed/operated traps with area of effect, using surrowndings. Lets say an avalanche of snow or rock would be a nice "accident" to happen to the main body of the army of the dead. Or a bridge colapsing under the undead squads. Because each reanimated cadaver, wich would be dammaged to the degree, it would not be able to catch up with the main body of its army, can be counted as "harmless" regarding the big battle. And can be either picked up afterwards during "cleaning", or will not be "there" when the anti-white-walker hit-squad will be shooting their arrows (and therefore might simply turn dead again, witouth ever engaging anyone again). - Amphibious ambushes. The army of the dead does not have (to our knowlage) any ships, or navy. Because the white walkers did not froze the watter beneath their feet, to encircle the wall at its "sea ending", and did not even froze the ice under the wight forces, during the abduction mission on north, it can be assumed, they either can not do it, or it is not as quick and effective, to be used as a counter against real ships. BUT there is a number of river-, other inland- and sea-banks, where the ships can quickly close to the bank, pepper the undead column with arrows and catapult fire, and STAY safely away from the reprisal (when not counting the undead dragon). - Burned land strategy. From the point of view of the white walkers, live (or dead) humans are a RESOURCE. If punctual and draconic evacuation of the north civilians and villagers (and preventive burning of their dead on cemetaries) done by the army of the living BEFORE the white walkers come, the living would cut the white walkers from their most important resource. Their armys numbers (or at least part of it), not to mention easy and free instant reinforcements.
It's fun to see how many of the tactics you said would work ACTUALLY got employed on the most recent episode to defeat the wights. Glad I went back and watched this video after episode 3.
@Shadiversity How about horse-archers and also equipped with bags full of obsidian sand/dust/crowfeet(caltrops) tipped with obsidian? It depends how much one has to 'hurt' a wight to dispel the white-walker's necromancy, but one would have to experiment. e.g. by throwing obsidian dust at the wights and thus getting it into their body/limbs/skulls/etc. and letting the wights themselves do the work through moving. The obsidian would hurt them eventually through abrasion...who lnows maybe it would be enough?
What about fire arrows? Against an enemy that is specifically vulnerable to burning seems like one of the only cases that you could use them effectively.
Obsidian seems to kill on touch so my strategy would be to gather up all your obsidian and grind it until you have a very fine powder then mix that powder with water and create a pressurised hose. Instant spray death. Most efficient use per gram of obsidian, easily implemented (you can pressurise water with air and only need a steel container .) Granted it'll be heavy, but it can just be treated more like a small catapult, I'm sure it could still be maneuverable with a team of men. Sure we don't know the limits of how much obsidian is actually needed to kill and the minimum penetration, but it's an idea.
The best weapons to fight white walkers would be Mesoamerican weapons of the Aztecs, Mayans Tepoztopilli- Polearm Macuahuitl- Sword Obsidian Daggers Obsidian Picks
1. Put a piece of obsidian next to the skinn of all your soldiers and nobody will survive reanimation. 2. Create obsidian dust and just blow it at them. 3. Deploy fire. Pits and trenches filled with fire to direct their movement and protect your archers and artillery. Carrying wood will be more important than shieldwalls. 4. Build a huge navy and use it both for strategic depth and offensive tactics. 5. Have armour with obsidian parts like say spikes. 6. Make parts of a castle defences out of obsidian, say the battlements crest, the draw bridge pebbles, or the door bell handle 😉 In the series they make obsidian weapons. Like a huge axe. This isn't necessary. The edge or tip will due. They don't need to forge new weapons, just ad obsidian to the weapons they have.
Guys this could be it! This could be the first time fire arrows actually have a use in battle. The wights seem to go up in flame as soon as they touch fire so sacrificing penetrating power and range for fire damage would totally be worth it. Using obsidian tipped arrows on the wights would be a huge waste I think, since obsidian is considered very valuable and you would get more value out of putting it on a spear or pike instead. I do agree that using them against the white walkers would be worth it.
@Shadiversity Unrelated question-could you give any insight about the structure of the Notre Dame Cathedral? If there will be nothing left of the frame after the fire, could you speculate how much will be left? Edit: It looks like a lot will be salvaged. It would still be interesting if you could give any insight.
Shad you forgot one thing: in both the book and the show Whites, are vulnerable to fire. If you ran out of obsidian arrows you could switch to using arrows that burned with some sort of fire to ignite the whites as they try to enter the castle. Also using Greek Fire, or Dragon fire in the universe of Game of Thrones, would be an exceptional way of dealing with them because it would burn them. Once the whites were defeated then you would have to use obsidian to defeat the white walkers
![Lil Uzi Vert - We Good [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DrSfBULAsek/mqdefault.jpg)
Great reply video from BanditIncorperated. It’s true that castles would be very effective if you can keep on top of the wights numbers, it’s when you get overwhelmed that castles become a death trap for yourself which I kind of expect with the wight army. He also brings up a great point that obsidian might not even work against the Night King, he has a hunk stuck in his chest already. in that case I share my solution in the comments of his video.
ruclips.net/video/ddqG85ETJAA/видео.html
How about just yank sand at them, since they are render useless by obsidian.
What about fire arrows?
Dude, powdered obsidian?
@@mastatheif9909 powdered obsidian would be like mustard gas. If the wind changes, those particulates could fly right back into your face. Let's just say there's a good reason why glass cutters wear personal protective equipment, you do NOT want glass particles in your eyes and throat.
Obsidian loaded fragmentation grenades. I don't watch game of thrones but I'm sure they have some understanding of black powder or at the very least an understanding of ethanol's explosive capability.
Also, have a front line spear head of men with steel armor with obsidian fragments worked into the metal. No wight could touch you. Apply the same idea to heavy cavalry. Coat/embed horse armor with obsidian flakes, get the biggest heaviest draft horse you can, get a well armored guy on it with the same kind of armor, and just push your way though the lines, with infantry support following behind to finish off knocked over or damaged wights. Just push your way to the front, and hopefully your archers will be close enough to take shots at the leaders. Heck even if they run, that must have some effect like a lack of control or inability to reanimate the dead, making the mop up wore easier.
Bad writing has proven the most efficient way of removing these foes.
It seemed to be their greatest strength, too.
They are Whites, right? So you need Red Army to defeat them...
@@qwormuli77 pzzff
Lmao
@@xenomorph6599 😐
Or you could just send your light cavalry to their death, us your heavy cavalry as normal infantry, place your siege weapons infront of the army, then place the burning baricade behind the army, and have no soilders in the castle they are protecting.
To be fair; the reason the trenches were behind the soldiers was to keep the circumference as small as possible so that they could finish it quickly.
They also had so many soldiers outside because they knew that they would be overrun no matter what so they had to do their best to thin the numbers before becoming trapped in their death box.
@@ShellShock794 Real castles have hidden, typically underground, bolt holes specially for that occasion. So no, they're not exactly death traps.
@@ShellShock794 Wouldn't it make far, far more sense to use the death box to thin numbers, and to use the mounted forces to harass the opposition, not just while it was attacking the castle, but also afterwards? I mean, to me, that just seems much, much smarter than throwing them away in a suicidal charge that didn't do much to reduce opposition numbers, because every soldier you lose is a reinforcement for the enemy.
Yeah that whole battle was just 1 big joke. I also thought they had been mining dragonglass for months. So you have tens of thousands dothraki which are basically mounted archers. The first mistake they made was basicaly staying at Winterfell. Ow yeah lets figth in a castle that can be completely surrounded. (and not a very good castle either).
@@ShellShock794 Doing your best to thin their numbers will most likely INCREASE their numbers. So, it's still stupid what they did.
Yes indeed, the dragons would be extremely effective against the White Walkers and Wights (unless they're javelined and turned into an undead dragon, then you got problems, but generally, yes, very effective) and really anything for that matter, because DRAGONS! but in this video I wanted to explore the best historical medieval weapons and tactic, thanks for watching guys!
So The Huns or Mongols horse archers with Obsidian arrows using their Classics Mounted archers combat. would be the best.
EldrenOfTheMist
Basically the Dothraki
@@eldrenofthemist2492 yes but you cant run away forever because you have to protect your peasants. Also Wight archers could decimate your troops heavily.
Ratling guns using dragon glass bullets instead of warpstone ;)
Ever since I was a young lad, I've had this one question on my mind; what exactly would be the consequence of having a moat made of oil and fire instead of your typical water and spikes?
I'm also applying this thought to combat against the undead in game of thrones... or any force to be honest.
"Regular people don't want to die"
-Shad
guess I’m irregular 😎
@@jinxedsphinx3600 Are u still fine?
@@ledanoir1239 define “fine”
Here is an idea: attach obsidian tip to crows beaks, Bran takes over, flies beyond their lines, snipes white walkers and Kamikadzes them - game over (NPI)
It is not historical cause crows are fantasy dum... oh wait
Won't work, the nightking would see brans actions. He did that already once in season 7.
@@Bluargh02 and do what? He might notice it but i doubt he will be able to understand what their plan is. Even if he does decide that crows are a problem, i do not think they will be able to take enough crows down with ranged weapons they have.
@@Spare_Time_G If i recall correctly he kinda broke control over the crows since they all ran instantly wen he stared at them, or maybe he did sometin else i cant remember, but the crows did run wen they got close.
@@pardalmadgod9960 my interpretation for the scene was that bran simply got afraid and lost control. I do not think NK can somehow cancel Brans abilities or distort them. He can simply sense bran's presence
A giant with an obsidian studded mowing scyth would be invincible.
Too bad the humans already killed most (all?) of the remaining giants
i disagree. the night king can 1 shot that giant with the ice spear and you would get a unusable big chunk of obsidian.
@@ambotlks, I suppose that's true. I wonder if some type of armour would be able to negate the spear. Maybe even an obsidian helmet?
@@pjnoonan1423 i think the best use for giants is to become a catapult in the back throwing big rocks to pin down most of the small zergs or possibly make a big wildfire Molotov and make the giants throw them far.
@@pjnoonan1423 valyrian steel armour, longclaw resisted the ice spear for example
Obsidian-coated caltrops
(Better still, obsidian lego bricks)
If wights disintegrate from mere contact with obsidian, even a single caltrop could take down entire files of wights. A load of them could take down an army.
Key thing is, you don't need the force to hack off a limb. Merely grazing or scratching, supposedly, should be enough. And when poor quality shoes have been rotting for a while, feet should be ideal targets for that.
This is also how you make castles, or in fact, standard towers, work. Just surround them with a few layers of caltrops, spikes etc. Your arrows will take some wights, but thousands can die just trying to storm it.
sorsocksfake THATS EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT I put a comment down on shads comment saying something like this but also obsidian full plate and put obsidian of the castle walls obsidian walls if you just throw obsidian everywhere on the battle field endless they have shoes bam all gone and then just have a dragon riding archer fly over and kill the wight walkers done also I realized just throw powdered obsidian dust off the top of a tower let the wind kill everything just dump buckets off and wait for it to fall and cause mass re killing
Shad: Cavalry is the key!
D&D: So you say, we need to charge them head first?
Shad: Actually, it's a ba...
D&D: CHARGE!!!
Hhahahahahaahahab yeeeeees, at least they had flaming swords
@@kristopherstaackmannmejia1473 Yup, at least they used the cavalry in a spectacular manner.
Then again, those Wights aren't gonna like those maces of disruption +5 that much.
Hah, amateurs. True master of battlefield utilizes inventive tactics to take down the superior enemy. Most superb tactics being.... *HIT IT UNTIL IT DIES!!!!*
Obviously best tactic would be utilize mounted archers for speed and maneuverability, while keeping your distance. With proper intel and movement you might be able to recover your arrows by luring enemy away from spot. Utilizing several mounted archers you can swap them to let them rest for a while or collect their arrows while another group keeps enemy running behind them, stop, shoot a volley or two and keep on going.
Also depending blacksmith skills obsidian could be inbedded to war hammers to pierce enemy armor and deliver obsidian to flesh of enemy if for its effect only touch is needed. Similarly this can be implemented to swords and spears.
if just touch of obsidian/dragonglass is enough to kill them then id say grind it to dust and release it on them, sand gets in everywhere apherently.
I was thinking of turtling up in onion bro's armor
and just hug em
Lol they’d have the same weakness as Anakin
I hate sand it’s course and ruff, and gets everywhere
@@wicketman2339 kill them with kindness, I like it.
That, but in Ancient Hand Grenades known as Firepots.. It'd be like a Tripod Beam from War of the Worlds.. Dust everywhere and some of it is made of people (or used to be people)
We have finally found a use for FIRE ARROWS
Twinpact More than utility, fire arrows are mainly impossible to apply in serious combat to begin with (aside being anyway useless and having specific roles).
@RadTheLad In fact I'm very shocked by the fact that GoT didn't add this fan favourite myth too already, but I guess till they keep it real and logical that's it.
@@dusk6159 GoT did in fact use fire arrows in the Battle of the Blackwater already
@@artruisjoew5473 you can't just make wildfire. It's a closely guarded secret by the alchemist guild the same way Greek fire was in our world except it's even harder to make because it requires a form of magic to make properly. The people who can make it are with cersi and also they already used it all up blowing up the great Sept.
@@floridamancode_e2673 the destruction of the Sept was months if not years ago from where the story currently is, I'm pretty sure they would have started stockpiling again right away, knowing they'd have to face Jon&Dany;'s army. Maybe not the massive amounts used in Blackwater bay, but even a few dozen caches hurled from the wall into an advancing army will definitely cause massive disruption and panic.
Hmmm... full blown tactics?
Heavy chariots, armor laced with obsidian, wildfire lines, and get yourself a Sauron when you can.
The best thing to stop winter is to have a continuously burning volcano.
The chariots are a great idea! Especially if you had the scythe blades on the wheels like some nations had. That would be darn near perfect! Especially since you could easily use a bow from it as well!
Oddly Vulcanos can create mini ice ages
Dire wolf dog sledge archers/naphtha throwers
@S F chariots were way more common than you might think. the chariot was the predesecor to cavalry and was used in a battle field role to as late a 50bc. the point is chariots are extremely manouverable and go a lot faster than horses.
@S F i know. but no unit is realistically good at fighting in deep snow. the only people groups whp fought in snow were the inuit and far northern russian tribes. and neither of these ever used large units of men. they engaged mainly in small scraps of 10 or 20 a side
So you're saying obsidian mongols would solve everything.
Somehow, that feels fitting.
The Mother of Dragon already has the 'mongols'. Now she just needs the obsidian arrows. And she has a mountain of it under her keep.
Wights area an unprecedented danger to human civilization unless you are wait for it..... the Mongols
no you just need to get the mongols and aztecs into an army together somehow and your set
@@raginbacon1160 Sadly, they are stabby stabby Mongols, not "endless waves of arrows" mongols.
Well that is the most logical thing to do isnt it ... U dont need to be a strategical genius to figure it out. Ur enemy is on foot outnr you by 10 to 1 and they basically have no shields and dont really use formations. So yeah fight like the mongols horse archers and lancers with dragonglass weapons...
Or go to the Freys there castle where the river protects ur flanks and bottleneck em on the bridge then u just oil em up ... do they wanna cross the river elsewhere then u just have the dothraki slaying them on the way to the next crossing ...
Showrunners should've watch some of your videos, because tactics employed in the "great battle" were just terrible.
100% agree, but I assumed that the whole Dothraki charging in thing was kind of intended to MAYBE, perhaps scout the enemy? But it makes zero sense in a way, especially with light cavalry, IF that was their plan, it would have made much more sense to mount up The Knights of the Vale, instead of having them on the left flank. Although I got over it pretty quick because of the shot with the flaming arak, that was fantastically done, I almost wish that they didn't show the close up of the calvary meeting the giant, and just saw the flames die. Also, the great lack of protection on the walls was ridiculous, personally I think if they put some unsullied on the wall with obsidian spikes lining the crenellation they would have NEVER gotten over the walls, even without machicolation.
the tactics were terrible. sending the dothraki off was to wipe out all the horsemen because horses cost money in fight scenes.
though they should have had the battlements manned fully. absolutely ridiculous that they weren't being manned as the retreat occurred.
the trebuchets were ridiculous because none were defended so they were taken out as soon as the front line(dothraki were removed)
I think you're describing every "great battle" in every movie ever made. Maybe there are a few exceptions but in almost every case they abandon superior tactics for the drama that comes from doing it badly. One example that comes to mind is men forming a shield wall, then breaking formation to charge and throwing their shields aside to jump on a wall of spears.
I hope you do an analysis of the battle in season 8, episode 3.
It seems the defenders made every strategic mistake possible, despite knowing exactly what they were up against.
Luckily for them, their enemies did mistakes too. The Night King simply chose to walk in there to get assassinated from close up. Nice, such a gratifying conclusion :l
Thousands of years of "winter is coming" for this
I swear there were literally no archers at all, what were they thinking
@@comradecallum5564 There were some archers, but for whatever reason they were not firing at critical moments of the battle. Pretty much only for plot purposes (like Arya saving the Hound's life).
Nobody:
Aztec warrior: "Macuahuitl time it is"
**googles quickly**
Hmmm. YES.
This is exactly why the Aztecs were never attacked by the Whitewalkers
hmmm, *Montezuma* it is
@@johndee2990 I hope if grrm ever expands on sothros there's some sort of aztec/Mayan civilization there
@@diegodlv1001 Hopefully they have Winged Serpents instead of Dragons
The answer to whights: Fire.
The show whights are super flammable. Burning Tar in traps and in caldrons on walls could make defending castles viable. A bunch of whights charing forward only to start a fire storm could wipe out an entire army. Heck flaming arrows could be actually used in combat.
This will save the obsidian for white walker arrow volleys and cavalry troops.
Connor Hennessey pft flaming arrows? Come on now LindyBeige is screaming
As tar is rare, spirits and other such liquors might be a good alternative?
@@bernadette6236 Fish oil, and Fats mixed with Pyrohpiric minerals like Sulfur would do just fine and be like Greek Fire or Napalm. (Greek Fire already sets precedence for this tech in theory)
@@artruisjoew5473 So it's a Fuel-Air Incendiary
@@artruisjoew5473 Incendiary materials burn for inordinate amounts of time, Napalm can be made to burn for days but they engineered it to burn hotter than longer.
If the just need to be injured by obsidian then caltrops would be the way to go
Caltrops are shit.
@@yoloswaggins1579 unless the wights int he tv show die by touch then its genius.
It work for a while until the White walkers catch on and get everyone to start wearing shoes
Uh... i think nothing short of metal boots will stop caltrops... or at least really thick soles...
@@spencerhaynes4364 good luck getting boots to that army.
What about implanting tiny amounts of obsidian under the skin. As soon as the white walkers try to raise you dead they are instantly destroyed
outlier 07 Good Idea!
Sabotage their conscription!
Kind of like an anti-wight vaccination ^^
This... Actually makes a lot of sense 🤔
Good idea!
Good idea, but that's technical impossible. In GoT, obsidian is a rare material. And in real world as obsidian is very fragile, the fabrication of obsidian needless is also tough.
@@aeleron0577 But if you make arrows out of it, you get a lot of small chips of obsidian. Use those. Not for every person alive, but for the soldiers fighting the wights.
“Regular people don’t like to die”
- Shad 2019
Never has such wisdom been spoketh
If Shad were the director of this season, it would be better.
Shadiversity, Chaser of Algorithms, Protector of facts and holder of the Machicolations
All hail Shad, warden of realism, bearer of the holy machicolations, shield of history, First Sword to Duke Easton of Context! Long may his kite shield hold!
Agnarr Salventius wow the cringe is unreal
@@jimzimmer2048
Shush you.😁
@@mattaffenit9898 ow no dont get ur dad to beat me up
@@jimzimmer2048
I don't have to.
Ever wonder what your mom was doing?
🤣
(Yes I elevated this to a 12-year-old argument. Thank me later.)
Firebomb clay pots. Can be used by cavalry, infantry and artillery.
turn dragon glass into powder
put powder on the ground
paint powder on to the wall
drop powder from the sky
coat swords with powder
win
I think valirian steel is just steel with dragonglass mixed in
maybe even eat some before going into battle in order to not to be turned into white.
edit: actually, a small trinket under clothes will work.
@@enweave lol that's genius. Eat some chunks of obsidian, and it should kill the wight as soon as it turns. Or even come coulons will work
@@tedarcher9120 I was typing about trinkets right that moment you replied, lol)
offer them a baby whos on a pressure plate, that releases dragon glass powder.
17:17 *Cough* *Cough* someone can see into the future *cough*
Shad's the three-eyed raven
'Leave your tactics in the description below'. Erm I think shads drunk he didn't even mention dropping obsidian from MACHICULATIONS!
Shad, not shouting MACHICULATIONS! when talking about the Castle defenses let me know this is cereal Business that we should all take super cereal guys.
Just get a dragon and set them on fire!
... Oh, wait.
1. Build huge, 10-horse pulled carts.
2. Set catapults on them.
3. Prepare huuuuge jars of oil.
4. Stick some cloth in.
5. Light it up.
Why risking a dragon if molotov artillery is an option?
@@mareczek00713 You could always have the dragon fly high enough to be out of range and bomb them with the catapult ammo from above. Then the only threat would be the undead dragon. And Drogon would be the best weapon againts that anyway.
@@mareczek00713 Ancient flamethrowers and Molotovs.
On sale for a limited time $99.99 for a 3 pack.
@@sojtus8681 Problem is - baddies have a dragon so I can't allow mine to push the offensive as I gotta keep him fresh, not tired or wounded and always available to react against enemy dragon.
I feel like skirmisher cavalry or mounted archers, or chariots with archers would by far be more effective at fighting a white army. It has the obvious advantage of reducing the enemy numbers until you can win a decisive battle.
They are only good in flat terrain though. Fighting a gigantic army in a flat terrain is a very bad idea. Harrasing them though could be useful
🤔 scythe chariots...
not really, white army can bring a blizzard with them, reducing the visibility
Oh sweet summer child, how are you going to feed those horses when everything is covered in snow? Medieval Europe had horrible logistics and Martin has already covered this. Remember when Stannis is marching towards Winterfell? They put snow shoes on the horses.
What's to stop Others from just using ice shields?
@@NorthernXY Maybe The Army of Westeros (TM) needs to outfit it's archers with skis. No firearms yet but perhaps we could look up some Scandinavian tactics employed to keep the Russians out.
Anyone else revisiting this video after episode 3 of season 8?
You cannot retreat on an open field, where an enemy can easily outpace you. Wights can just keep jogging after you and never get tired, while your army will tire and then have to face the same enemy while being exhausted. You would have to force the Wights to stop or delay them in some way. I think the greater danger is being flanked due a Wights greater stamina.
Yeh but your forgetting that horses run faster then the whites who primarily move on foot.
@@xandolf2852 But those horses are barely light cavalierly being uses in a head on clash that will eat them alive, in some cases literally! When they are best suited to harassing attacks.
And horses can be ridden about 30 miles a day, fit horses in a mounted company more like 50 miles a day. Humans are persistent pursuit predators we were good at covering distances in persuit of faster prey, the record for distance running in 24 hours 188.5 miles and Wights DO NOT TIRE.
What I am saying is that an undead army is potentially a LOT faster over distance than foot soldiers or cavalierly. If they are only shambling corpses they will still cover a fair distance given time, but Wights have been show to be able to move fast, and given that they do not tire, means they can cover great distances.
@@solanumtinkr8280 If they move fast why are they just walking very slowly at the fist of the first men... How did any of the nights watch escape.... Im fairly certain that the lord commander wasnt usain bolt... So the conclusion is they cannot sprint non stop. Else why would you ever slow down. You see i dont move fast cos else i tire faster and have to refill my energy. if i wouldnt tire and dont need energy why would i ever do things slowly when i can do them quickly...
Also are they capable of tracking. Lets say they outnr u by 10-1. U only have mounted archers. An archer carried 60-75 arrows in battle. So u got 6-7 arrows/enemy.
300-400m range with a bow -> 300-400m takes you 40-53seconds of running. While archers can fire 10-12 arrows/minute. So in short most of the battle would be over in 15 minutes by that time u would have decimated the enemy footsoldiers.
How many enemies do you think would still be able to follow u ...
Now I'm curious if an army of Aztec warriors could survive an onslaught of Wights and White Walkers. Given their use of obsidian in weapons, of course.
Depends on the rules. If the White Walkers arrive from Westeros with Wights there is nothing in the Americas that can stand up to them. Even a few score Wights wearing metal armor would go through the Aztec Empire like it wasn't even there. Metal is that much better than stone as a material for weapons and armor. If they have to raise Wights in the Americas humanity triumphs because there is no metal armor and live humans don't drop instantly when hit with obsidian weapons.
@@nathanbrown8680 Mexicas has anti-armor weapons tho. The cuahololli was a mace made of bronze, used to fend off the armored Spaniards. Cavalry proved to be a greater challenge than armor.
@@gamalielvacasolis3484 You vastly overestimate maces against plate armor of the sort seen in Game of Thrones. You can't stun or concuss a zombie. I'll also need a citation before I'll believe the Aztecs had them and. I know one of the other mesoamerican nations was starting to use bronze, but last I looked into native American metallurgy the Aztecs we're stuck in the chalcolithic when the Spaniards arrived. And I'm pretty sure the bronze workers were among the tribes that allied with the Spaniards against the Aztecs.
@@nathanbrown8680 Link to a video talking about the topic:ruclips.net/video/hGw6463kSdY/видео.html
@@nathanbrown8680 Also, a good bonk in the head will cause a brain concussion, steel helmet or not.
Edit: Although, you’re right. Concussion will do next to nothing to an undead. But it can still crush the living dead’s limbs.
Best way to fight a white walker army?
Khan... Genghis Khan and his mongolian horde
fast, shooty, tireless
just be sure to pay your monthly tribute
@S F wait then how did the mongols conquer russia?
@S F Mongol has some of the worst winter weather in the world. Most of Russia northern peoples used horse and reindeer as well. The reason the vikings didn't is they had little agricultural land which was preferable to create human food to horse food and related to that lots of mountains, hills and valleys which is terrible country for effective use of cavalry.
@S F just because mongolia isnt in the arctic circle doesnt mean its not extremely cold all year round. its in the siberian high pressure anti-cyclone zone and is very cold and dry
@S F the vikings rarely ever actually fought in snow. scandinavia during the viking period was a lot warmer because of the medieval warming period. the fact is that the vikings lived and fought in conditons much closer to the climate of northern england.
@@mysticonthehill you are right in most of this but the vikings had plenty of agricultural land especially in southern norway and denmark where most of what we think of as vikings are from.
Incendiary weapons and, more importantly, early types of grenades were used during the middle ages, making them *technically* medieval weapons. Both would be excellent area-of-effect weapons against wights. Wildfire could work quite well against wights even as is, but if you have access to high explosives (like gunpowder), then you could fashion dragonglass into fragmentation shells or fill a container with shards of dragonglass and use that as a mine of sorts (kind of like the M18 Claymore mine). Problem would be making sure the dragonglass survives the explosion itself, though it's an interesting concept to consider just how much dragonglass is sufficient to neutralize a wight.
If the hypothesis is that just a touch of dragonglass neutralizes a wight by severing the connection to the Walker that raised it from the dead, then finely ground dragonglass dust could be terrifically effective. Just go upwind from them and release the dust into the air... might cause some lung problems for the living that happen to inhale the glass dust, but hey, if that's the biggest of your problems I would say your situation has improved over being swamped by an endless army of the undead. However if there's some arbitrary size requirement for the chunk of dragonglass to retain its magical properties, then things get more dicey.
Dealing with the White Walkers themselves, well... the wights are really their primary weapon. Without the wights, they don't pose nearly as much of a threat because of their low numbers. Without the wights, using dragonglass weapons it should be possible to overwhelm them. Not sure if the Walkers themselves are vulnerable to fire, but it might be worth a try if that allows you to take them out easier. But you do need to have a reliable way of dealing their mooks, otherwise you face a situation that any people you send to kill the Walkers will probably become a part of their army instead.
However... even if you can deal with the wights and the Walkers... what about grumkins and snarks?
White walkers arent weak to fire. Theres a scene where a white walker walks into a burning building and the flames extinguish around him.
@@2MeterLP Welp, dragonglass frag grenades it is then.
10:13 instead: let's just throw our cavalry and make them perform a seppuku charge.
10:27 Lol. Well, considering we've now seen the Battle of Winterfel; tell that to the Dothraki. Oh, wait...
What tactics I'd use?
I'd run to Essos and let Jon Snow and Daenerys handle the situation.
Smartest person here
One tactic that has some high-risk/high-reward to it would be to employ what I call 'Stay-behind Forces', basically small squads of skirmishers/rangers equipped with all the best anti-Walker weaponry that hide somewhere while the main army retreats and allows the Weights to move past them and have them sneak around to try and take out some Walkers. It's definitely very 'Suicide-Mission' and you'd probably want to make sure the squads all have Wildfire pouches to incinerate themselves if they get pinned down, but it's probably the best chance to catch a Walker off guard with an Obsidian arrow/knife.
Additionally, getting this tactic to work a few times would have a MASSIVE psychological impact on the enemy and basically force the Walkers to be much more methodical when clearing an area, which in turn would make their advance much slower and give your main army more time to set up defenses.
turn there own arrogance against them. yeah that will work.
Wasn’t there a part when Bran was looking back in time or something and the Night King SAW him? I’m legit asking, I don’t recall precisely. But if that was the case... do you think WWs can see through time and space like young master Stark? We know Bran’s abilities don’t provide omniscience, seeing as he didn’t know about Jon’s mom and dad until Sam told him, but as soon as he knew what he was looking for he found it instantly. If the WWs can use something like Bran’s power... I wonder if they even COULD fall for the same trap twice because they’d know what to look for and be able to just kinda, idk, see the traps, or at least the men setting the traps, at any given time. Right? Or am I just making stuff up?
@@indoril1207 The Night King attacking Bran doesn't seem all that indicative of 'Seeing through time' so much as it seems like being able to hijack the Greenseeing 'network' if someone gets too close. Not to mention it's ONLY the Night King that reacts to Bran, meaning that this ability is likely limited only to him and not available to Walker's in general, plus as you just stated Greenseeing is not some omniscient power, so even if NK did have Greenseeing, he couldn't 'see into the future' to find out any ambushes.
Not to mention that sort of thing feels like exactly the kind of BS Villain 'I Can Foil Your Plan because Plot' Powers that ASOIAF usually avoids.
What about a modified version of Da Vinci's scythe chariot? But instead of long steel blades, use macuahuatl style wooden clubs with dragonglass shards.
@@santiagofaiella1255
Reinforce them with steel....
Perhaps usable for smaller engagements, but the wood and obsidian would break pretty quickly. Even if you reinforced the wood, the obsidian chips would shatter almost immediately.
If you ever heard of a Bengal Blade (Hollowed Log with Explosives) you could essentially make "Bengal Bombs" with Obsidian Shrapnel that you could employ in many ways as crowed control.. (Bengal Blades can be buried in a location and set off to great effect against an advancing horde)
Honestly they can (somehow) forge obsidian in the show, so they could just give steel weapons obsidian edges instead of making weapons out of pure obsidian.
Apparently in this fictionally universe dragon glass can be forged meaning you could poor it into a mold
Melt down every last scrap of Valyrian Steel you can find. Melt down all regular steel swords. Reforge the regular steel swords but use Valyrian Steel just for the edges, just like how they used iron for most of the blade but used steel on the edges in ancient times.
Or better yet, do the same, but with spear tips instead of swords.
politically undoable sadly
@@wiwersewindemer4437 Precisely. Also, there are 3 smiths in the world (according to Tywin) who can reforge Valyrian Steel.
@@juniperrodley9843 nah, it seems to be relatively well known in Qohor. It's the basis of innunnumerable fan theories
Won't mounted archers be very effective?
Quickly get into position, then when you run out of ammo or they get too close, fall back.
Rearm, rest up, repeat.
If firing from the horse is too difficult you could use them like dragoons instead; dismounting to fire and mounting to fall back.
surely chariots are way more effective in a dragoon role, at least light chariots are
Roy Bennett chariots are not nearly as effective over rough terrain, so they can get bogged down.
You make your house proud, Shad. 🤴
And this is why Castel Black has/uses flaming arrows.
What I don't undertand is why they don't have ditches with fire in them.
@@johan.ohgren
Probably just due to the amount of oil required
so basically get Gengis Khan horde and give them obsidian tips arrows
so just the dothraki?
Obsidian arrows for the white walkers, they scythe through the undead with their curved swords.
Problem is that obsidian tips arrows would be very expensive. Only good at taking our their leaders.
I'd recommend creating rigs of fire around your strongholds and around your archers. If you prepare enough in advance you could do this with wood, so you wouldn't need to expend valuable wild-fire. It seems that the white walkers can walk through fire, and even if they can extinguish it to allow their army to follow, they'd then have to be in front of their ranks of wights, so they'd be much more vulnerable to obsidian arrow fire.
Greek Fire. I would use Greek fire aɡainst them.
Well if we're using that then we could also just throw nico di angelo at them. Although I'm not sure if his abilities would work on them.
Joey the viking except Greek Fire is a real historical thinɡ while your Nico-whatever-the-fuck is just some made up children's book character.
Greek fire=non-fiction
Nico-whatever-the-fuck=children's fiction.
Joey the viking oh, and you won the most random useless comment award.
But seriously what was the thouɡht process that lead you to comment as you did? I would really like to know how you thouɡht your comment relates to me sayinɡ I'd use Greek fire aɡainst them, because it makes absolutly no sense to me.
@@casimiriii5941 oh, well screw Nico bust out that fire. I didn't think it was actually real.
@@casimiriii5941 In the series nico is from Greek fire is basically napalm on steroids and me not knowing that in real life it was the first flame thrower I thought we were thinking about the same thing.
That light cavalry armed with kopeshes charging a phalanx was painful to watch.
I know, right? Eugh
I'm yet to see anything to suggest that the Dothraki are fearsome warriors. Their "cavalry charge" was far too loose to have broken the Lannister line without the dragons cooking half of it.
@@andrewstrongman305 finnaly someone!
@@andrewstrongman305 The Dothraki should've surrounded them and peppered them with arrow fire, much like their irl counterparts the Huns and Mongols.
@@ttlpwn34 Wouldnt have done shit to the testudo phalanx the Lannisters heavy infantry had. Dragons were the only deciding factor here.
"Share them in the description down below"
Umm. I don't think that's possible Shad.
Cut oriented weapons and cavalry combat.... Good thing the Dothraki came over then.
Can Gendry forge enough obsidian arakhs in time, though?
@@MrDibara A valid question.
@@MrDibara He cannot forge a single one, I'm afraid. A Maquahuitl on the other hand ...
@@derdingsreturnsnochmal5177 But a Maquahuitl is a club. Don't think the Dothraki are used to wielding those heavy weapons. They might get clumsy.
There's also the problem of knowledge. I don't think Gendry or any Westerosi blacksmith really knows what a Maquahuitl even is.
@@MrDibara No they don't. And they don't have to make an exact copy. But they will need to make weapons with a wooden core with obsidian blades attached to them. Because making a sword-blade out of obsidian is extremely difficult ( much harder than coming up with such a design, I'd imagine) and the thing would shatter at the first strike.
Here's my thoughts on the Siege of Winterfell. Before I break down the battle and stages however I want to start with how much time they realistically had to prepare for the battle itself as well as those who were leading the defence.
So to start with, I don't think that the defence had good generalship. Jon Snow is good of a commander due to how he inspires moral and is a great warrior that leads by example, but has little actual experience on the battlefield. He has the potential to be a good general, but as of right now he only has only took part in three battles, and the only battle he did have full command over (Battle of the Bastards) would have been lost if Sansa had not saved him at the last moment. As for Daenarys, she doesn't really have that much experience in battle for two reasons: she delegates to other members of her council to lead the majority of the battles for her, and when she does partake in a battle she is so used to her dragons being overpowered that she is never truly tested as a commander. These aren't necessarily bad qualities, but due to her increasingly arrogant and totalitarian attitude to leadership (i.e. killing all who oppose her), these qualities do matter in the long run when said character has the final overall say.
Other than that the leadership on the front lines is full of experienced warriors who are great at leading sections of the army. One thing that was not in favour of the defenders was the amount of time they had to prepare a siege defence and follow through with it (realistically they only had a few days to prepare, and perhaps a week or two at most with the Dragonglass). This poses a problem because although they had time to prepare the inexperience of the commanders shows with the army layout itself. Firstly, there are not nearly enough trenches, ditches, or emphasis on siege defence at the front of the castle (there should have been multiple lines of trenches, not just the one, with multiple avenues of retreat instead of that one bridge they designed to break). Now this maybe due to how they did not have the time or manpower to achieve this fact for the whole castle, but in a perfect world they certainly should have had multiple rows of defence instead of going head on against the horde.
This leads to my problem with the army layout as a whole in the field when it comes to the cavalry, infantry and siege weapons. The infantry should NEVER have gone head on against the wights like that because (as seen in the show) many of them were simply overwhelmed, tackled to the ground and slaughtered. If many of the experienced characters like Jamie, Brienne, Tormund etc weren't wearing plot armour that day (which it definitely felt like with the amount of chaos that happened), then that would mean many unit commanders would be killed off and the likelihood of a rout of the soldiers far more likely.
Moreover, why were the trebuchets and catapults so underused in the battle? If the horde was as massive as they said it was (100,000), then firing fireballs of death and organized arrow volleys behind the main body of infantry would be far more effective than fighting them head on infantry to infantry (I really wished that they showed a scene perhaps setting up firing markers of how far they could shoot their arrows/ trebuchets or something but that didn't happen unfortunately).
This emphasis on better protected infantry and ranged units would not only have killed more white walkers and held them off for a longer period of time, but also would have allowed for the Dothraki to have been used far more effectively. The Dothraki themselves were killed instantly not due to how they were light cavalry charging a densely packed, RELENTLESS infantry formation, but also because they just couldn't see anything when they were charging the horde. There is no real tactical reason for this choice, and (as said in the video) the Dothraki would have been far more effective as skirmishers shooting obisdian arrows with harrying tactics once the horde was drawn in. In fact, the perfect opportunity for them to do that would have been once the wights surrounded Winterfell at the fire trench: they could have harried and divided the army it into several groups due to their speed and maneuverability in the open field. The wights themselves, although commanded by White Walkers, would probably be too confused to understand what is going because they have never experienced tactics from humans before (because why would they? They are so used to steam rolling anyone they meet that they dont have to think tactically).
While I dont believe that this infantry formation could hold off the army for much longer, I do believe that it is a smarter choice that would have bought the defenders invaluable time in preparing a smarter defence within the castle, and bought more time for Jon and Dany to distract and kill the Night King.
I said last year that I would fight them with dragon glass spears and Dothraki horse archers attacking the White Walkers with obsidian tipped arrows. Glad I found your videos. I will be writing some Fantasy novels next year, and your insights will help with generating ideas. Of course I'll mention you page in the acknowledgments.
Fire arrows could be a good alternative to obsidian arrows. They seem dried out like beef jerky. Also Leonardo da Vinci's 'tank' would do very well against whites.
*wights
@Targaryen Dynasty It seems you misunderstood Lindybeige's message. Fire arrows exist, yes, but they're rarely used. For the most part, they're usually meant to set flammable things on fire, since they're practically useless against infantry.
In this case (Game of Thrones), the fire arrows would also be quite useless, and expensive too. Not only do you have to provide fuel for an entire fort's worth of archers, but you also have to take into account the fact that not all shot fire arrows keep alight during flight! So fire arrows are still quite useless, even in this case.
That being said, your statement is just plain wrong. Yes, fire arrows were rarely used, but that didn't mean they don't exist.
@Targaryen Dynasty really? Well I didn't know that. I wonder if their version of Greek fire works against the white walkers.
Sorry, but I'm not very fluent in Game of Thrones lore, especially since I don't watch the movies in the first place.
@@baronprocrastination1722 Yes, White Walkers seem tobring bizzardsto wherever they pass by. A byproduct of their magic, I imagine.
So in a way, *Targaryen Dynasty* is right. Fire arrows would probably be put out before they hit any Wights.
@@baronprocrastination1722 Yeah I imagine wildfire would be pretty devastating against wights.
Besides all the stuff with obsidian, much of this also apply to fighting zombies controlled by a necromancer.
the usual necromancer style zombie, kill the necromancer and theyr horde stops existing
Even if they don't dissolve instantly like GoT, at least you've stopped them replicating and can just whittle them down.
This. This is *so* much more accurate than the Romero spawned version we use today. White Walkers command them like puppets, they aren't really zombies. They're raised by some kind of death magic. That changes your battle tactics.
Lure them on to a space ship, fly them to 2019 earth (where words are violence) and just start a conversation with them.
Ask the Night King why he lets everyone just assume his gender by calling him the Night 'King'
Kinda reminds me of a game called Swords n Sandals where you can taunt a guy to death xD
In regards to using a longbow on horseback, the samurai yumi was specifically designed for that purpose. (And before anyone points out how relatively weak yumi are, _modern_ yumi used in Kyudo have a draw weight of only 25-30 pounds, but _traditional_ yumi used in battle were around 110 pound draw, well inside the lower end of the old longbows' range of 90-180 pounds.)
how about artillery? Trebuchets firing burning oil and scorpions with obsidian tips. Scorpions could also be used for long-range sniping.
Granted this may only work once... in a "last-stand" type of battle.
What about slings loaded with obsidian rocks? A sling is much easier and cheaper to produce than a bow and you'd not have to produce arrows. or obsidian shrapnel bombs?
Or pebbles of obsidian launched in slings or siege weapons. If all you need is skin contact then a shotgun approach makes sense, and it would likely evade armor more effectively.
obsidian tends to fracture into sharp shards, not very sling friendly, but you could possibly put some crushed obsidian into lead to make lead shot with obsidian in it?
I am so posting this on my Game of Thrones Book Group Facebook page.
But what about dragons?
*Wight dragons*
If you could get more Valyrian steel... like, enough to make armour for the dragon it'd be lit.
@@Saintedlight well, it happened to an young dragon without any battle experience! Try take out Drogon that way! He learned what the scorpion is...
Xsion IvyRen I think the only reason Viserion died from the Lance was because it struck an organ related to fire-breathing in the middle of fire breathing, causing a exacerbation of the damage.
Drogon survived survived a similar shot from a ballista, that's the reason I think this is the case.
@@Saintedlight They used it the wrong way.
Using it fire exposes it to attack.
Instead put your archer on its back, get to a height that makes opposing archers worthless, and rain hell until all the walkers are dead.
5:53 I think that was a pun. "If you have enough arrows you can "wight" them out"
It might be a bit niche, but it might be cool to do a video on how best to fight a Fade from Wheel of Time. Trollocs are functionally equivalent to minotaurs, which I think you've already covered, but Fades bring in some extra challenges: their mad death flail, their acidic blood which destroys metal if it isn't wiped off immediately, etc. I'd imagine ranged weapons would probably be your best bet -- that's certainly the answer Jordan arrived at -- but the analysis could be fun.
It seems like this would be a good place for Mongol horse archer tactics.
"White walkers are vulnerable to obsidian cut"
Flashback of my Exalted game. Where the mage knows the speell Flight of the Obsidian Butterflies. After 8 seconds, the mage hurles a shotgun of thousands of butterflie-like obsidian blades up to 50 meters long and 30º wide cone.
Alekay Argote if he were to be transported to Westeros he’d be the ultimate anti-white walker weapon
And the blades do not desapear. You can colect them to do things. [Like an urgengy scaple. We laught to hard with that stunt]@@CarlosC697
Dude that is one brutal spell... so many cuts.
@@rayanderson5797 Exalted has very good damage spells. Big damage allways. My favourite lvl1 damage spell is the Flight of the Brilliant Raptor.
You sumon an fire eagle automata, that's important becouse countermagic do not work against allready sumoned automata, that flies at marc 1.4 allmoust 2km. It cuts corners and avoide obstacles. On impact, explodes magic fire up to 6m radious that persist on every solid or liquid, flamable or not, for 1 turn. After that, all residual fire is natural.
Say hello to my bazooka.
@@Geninacra that kicks ass.
I just have to commemt..Shad you go! Keep it up! Now onto the video😍😍
@10:35 you can do a lot more than just that. You can scout them and predict their pace. Have your scouts relay the information back to your main army so you can always choose when and where to enɡaɡe them.
You are spot on thouɡh.
Well sir, great idea and perfect timing for this sort of video. Reached my own conclusions and made a video much like this one for my own channel =).
How about burning tar poured out from the walls?
People who played Stronghold know what i am talking about
Wildfire may be the better option, though more volatile.
@@juniperrodley9843 They didn't have any. The only place that had it was King's Landing, which gave them no official support.
@@jojomaster7675 Yeah, but in a theoretical situation where you have access to any 7 kingdoms materials, wildfire works.
@@juniperrodley9843 If it doesn't blow up next to the walls and collapse them.
Should've dropped wildfire from a Dragon if they had it. That way it wouldn't be in danger froom the spears and could get rid of the walkers.
@@jojomaster7675 Oh true, it could easily destroy the fortifications.
Jon and Dany should make you their strategic advisor for their battle against the long night.
@S F Okay, that's a good point.
@S F Then again, winter is actually also a huge disadvantage for the wights themselves when it comes to mobility. We don't exactly know if and to what extent the White Walkers can control the weather, but in the Wight Hunt arc in Season 7, they weren't able to spontaneously freeze over a lake enough to let their wights walk over it, so probably not too much.
Wildfire, anyone? Because I'll be chugging it as a last resort.
i think wildfire would be a key.
You'd have the same problem in Ender's Game with the M.D. Device: Once you use it, your enemies are smart enough to actively avoid situations were wildfire can be used effectively. Meaning that if you use it to decimate the army of the dead, you'd better make it count, because it's a tactic that will only work once.
@@Prich319 the same technique doesn't work twice on a saint!
@@Prich319
The issue is more so that nobody other than the lanisters have wildfire. It isn't something that could be easily negated. Yes, the initial trap that kills tens of thousands may only work once, but wildfire would still be incredibly effective and hard to counter, even with the walkers knowing about it. Wildfire could simply be used as grenades if put in ceramic containers,and nothing can be done by the white walkers to counter that aside from using looser formations to reduce casualties (but that would also decrease their ability to overwhelm walls, and thus make castles easier to defend). If you were to have a shit ton of wildfire, it would be impossible for whites to storm castle walls.
hmm, I wonder if 5+ estus flask can handle it in the first place..
You put 100x more thought into this than the writers did.
This is a great video! Very thorough and thought provoking. My thoughts are that recurve bows actually have better range than English longbows, and the Mongols used them on horseback to take over (most of) the world in the Middle Ages, so I would say Dothraki archers with recurve bows obsidian tipped arrows would be the best bet against the wights and white walkers on the open field against wights (with hidden long bow archers, like you said, to snipe the White Walkers). Also, in the castle siege situation, if you run out of obsidian-tipped arrows, start using flaming arrows. You could also do things like pouring boiling oil down the outside of the castle walls, or catapulting wildfire into the undead army. That would probably do considerable damage, since wights are super flammable.
So, I just finished watching 'Season 8 Episode 3 of Game of Thrones'.
No explicit spoilers no worries, it just showed yesterday by the time I'm writing this after all.
I just have one thing to say.
AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
No, but seriously. From the start of the battle, the moment I saw the Dothraki on their horses doing what Dothraki on horses do best I was screaming in frustration. they were supposed to have some of the cleverest of minds in the kingdom and experienced military commanders, yet they made some of the stupidest decisions one could make in their situation.
Now not all the choices they made were completely stupid some I was saying. 'Yes finally, doing something smart'. But then that would follow up with 'Why did you do that if you had that all along!"
But I guess the moment they decided to hide the ones who wouldn't be fighting in the crypts with a dude who could literally raise the dead, I had a feeling how the final battle was going to go.
"We have these awesome walls."
"I have a great idea... Let's line up OUTSIDE our walls and waste most of our manpower getting overrun as we try to retreat back into the castle"
"BRILLIANT!"
The bodys in the crypt their for the most part ancient and their condition was unknown. If their legs or head was broke of, they would have been useless for the Nightking. Also they were in brick or clay coffins, so it was also unknown if they could break out of them in the first place. Also their there not that many people burried down their, less then 30 people. It only required one obsidian dagger in the hands of an untrained woman to keep them at bay. If their would have been five soldiers down there, there would have been not fatalities in the crypt.
@Shadiversity Something I've been meaning to ask on one of your recently uploaded videos has been the kind of weapons you would use in Virtual Reality.
The idea is that eventually there will likely be some e-sport kind of situation in which combatants fight in a digital environment, with as much realism as can be gotten away with. However even if you can feel the weapon through haptics of some kind, it still won't have any weight. Take a look at VR shooters: the guns can be carried indefinitely and be swung around freely.
So the question is, what kind of weapons might best be taken into a Virtual Reality arena against an opponent while taking into account the lack of weight they would have?
High caliber rapid-firing belt fed shotgun with possibly of changing ammo type.
Long hafted flail with multiple “endings” (can’t come up with a better word for it) attached. It should be long enough that you have a reach advantage and no risk of hitting yourself. If it has lots of “endings” it would be almost impossible to defend against. Granted this might be a “one try” weapon as it would probably be entangled in something but that one swing would one h of a swing.
Horse archers with dragon glass arrows would probably be the best thing to use
points:
* keep casualties to a minimum: keep your units safe and out of reach. unless necessary risk to rake out white walkers.
* use distance , obstacles and have good escape strategies.
* best weapons: wildfire, traps, longrange, scouts/ninja assassins, small fast moving elite units, undercover elites. best close range: maybe like macedonian phalanx?
* to try strategie: flanking in combination with multiple simultaneous baits/atacks at same time in intermittent manner to reduce effectivness of enemy mass forward atracks.
* use lures
* ...
I was revisiting old videos of yours and the idea of a titanium steel jelly roll Damascus to keep the steel edge retention and gain the mechanic properties of titanium.
Do a fantasy rearmed on skaven
what are these "skavens" you are talking about imperial citizens? are they some sort of beastmen or new types of goblins? surely these"skavens" don't exist **RIGHT**?
No don’t tells man things about us, yes yes. I must tell the council yes yes.
There is no enemy walls cannot hold, or steel cannot tame.. or so we've been told
THE SKAVEN DON'T EXIST!
The local witch hunters would like to have a word with you
I want him to do vid on what Medieval weapons would a Lizardmen would use.
Against wights and white walkers? Lore of light, salamanders, terradon riders with flaming bolas and bastilodons with sunfire crystals ;)
SonsOfLorgar yeah that does make sense as fire is one of the weakness of a wights.👍👍👍
He already has
@Chali Chaligha I mean the ones from Warhammer fantasy which are different!!! They are not the snake people if you are thinking about them.
17:18 that foreshadowing tho....
- War chariots (or in winter situation maybe war sleds). Less movement obstructing the archers (more stable, protected and safe platform to shoot from, than a seddle), almost as quick as cavalery, with better possibility to employ a balista or crossbow weapons with kinda "sniper rifle" effect (long distance, high accuracy) wich is extra needed to pick up the white walkers From a distance, or in a crowd.
- Cavalry springed/operated traps with area of effect, using surrowndings. Lets say an avalanche of snow or rock would be a nice "accident" to happen to the main body of the army of the dead. Or a bridge colapsing under the undead squads. Because each reanimated cadaver, wich would be dammaged to the degree, it would not be able to catch up with the main body of its army, can be counted as "harmless" regarding the big battle. And can be either picked up afterwards during "cleaning", or will not be "there" when the anti-white-walker hit-squad will be shooting their arrows (and therefore might simply turn dead again, witouth ever engaging anyone again).
- Amphibious ambushes. The army of the dead does not have (to our knowlage) any ships, or navy. Because the white walkers did not froze the watter beneath their feet, to encircle the wall at its "sea ending", and did not even froze the ice under the wight forces, during the abduction mission on north, it can be assumed, they either can not do it, or it is not as quick and effective, to be used as a counter against real ships. BUT there is a number of river-, other inland- and sea-banks, where the ships can quickly close to the bank, pepper the undead column with arrows and catapult fire, and STAY safely away from the reprisal (when not counting the undead dragon).
- Burned land strategy. From the point of view of the white walkers, live (or dead) humans are a RESOURCE. If punctual and draconic evacuation of the north civilians and villagers (and preventive burning of their dead on cemetaries) done by the army of the living BEFORE the white walkers come, the living would cut the white walkers from their most important resource. Their armys numbers (or at least part of it), not to mention easy and free instant reinforcements.
It's fun to see how many of the tactics you said would work ACTUALLY got employed on the most recent episode to defeat the wights. Glad I went back and watched this video after episode 3.
Finally
Fantasy Rearmed is back
What if you send Faceless Men with obsidian daggers to assassinate the White Walkers?
They can apparently disguise as just about anything.
A Comanches war hamer was desighned to work on horse back I think that would be an excellent weapon for this. also fantasy re-armed 40k
I can't believe I watched all of this. I just wanted to take a quick look, but then the video was over. Well done. Gets a like.
I love the use of footage in this analysis.
@Shadiversity
How about horse-archers and also equipped with bags full of obsidian sand/dust/crowfeet(caltrops) tipped with obsidian? It depends how much one has to 'hurt' a wight to dispel the white-walker's necromancy, but one would have to experiment. e.g. by throwing obsidian dust at the wights and thus getting it into their body/limbs/skulls/etc. and letting the wights themselves do the work through moving. The obsidian would hurt them eventually through abrasion...who lnows maybe it would be enough?
Wasn't Dondarrion an alcoholic? If he needs to, he can get a nice flame-spitting effect with his flaming sword and spraying alcohol!
It was Thoros of Myr who was. And he's dead. :(
@@MrDibara At least he doesn't have to worry about budgeting alcohol for two uses then, eh?
What about fire arrows? Against an enemy that is specifically vulnerable to burning seems like one of the only cases that you could use them effectively.
Obsidian seems to kill on touch so my strategy would be to gather up all your obsidian and grind it until you have a very fine powder then mix that powder with water and create a pressurised hose. Instant spray death. Most efficient use per gram of obsidian, easily implemented (you can pressurise water with air and only need a steel container .) Granted it'll be heavy, but it can just be treated more like a small catapult, I'm sure it could still be maneuverable with a team of men. Sure we don't know the limits of how much obsidian is actually needed to kill and the minimum penetration, but it's an idea.
You could use troops armed with large bows who simply dismount for most engagements while keeping the horses nearby. Pretty much fighting as dragoons.
Give some of them dragon-glass tipped lances so they can defend against rushs
Huh... He predicted how the battle of winterfell would go.. Except for the cavalry, that didn't age well lol
Flame throwers
Cannons, nukes, exterminatus
Nothing purges heretic undead like a planet wide genocide
no need for overkill my friend
The fire caste is here to serve.
@@ravenmarine2015 no such thing
1 Kriegsman vs The Whole White Walkers' Army
Who would win?
The best weapons to fight white walkers would be Mesoamerican weapons of the Aztecs, Mayans
Tepoztopilli- Polearm
Macuahuitl- Sword
Obsidian Daggers
Obsidian Picks
And it would require less dragonglass each weapon.
@@ronimausanti9625Not to mention more durable.
@@George-Hawthorne Indeed. The smaller it's pieces are, the more durable stone gets
1. Put a piece of obsidian next to the skinn of all your soldiers and nobody will survive reanimation.
2. Create obsidian dust and just blow it at them.
3. Deploy fire. Pits and trenches filled with fire to direct their movement and protect your archers and artillery. Carrying wood will be more important than shieldwalls.
4. Build a huge navy and use it both for strategic depth and offensive tactics.
5. Have armour with obsidian parts like say spikes.
6. Make parts of a castle defences out of obsidian, say the battlements crest, the draw bridge pebbles, or the door bell handle 😉
In the series they make obsidian weapons. Like a huge axe. This isn't necessary. The edge or tip will due. They don't need to forge new weapons, just ad obsidian to the weapons they have.
Guys this could be it! This could be the first time fire arrows actually have a use in battle. The wights seem to go up in flame as soon as they touch fire so sacrificing penetrating power and range for fire damage would totally be worth it. Using obsidian tipped arrows on the wights would be a huge waste I think, since obsidian is considered very valuable and you would get more value out of putting it on a spear or pike instead. I do agree that using them against the white walkers would be worth it.
@Shadiversity Unrelated question-could you give any insight about the structure of the Notre Dame Cathedral? If there will be nothing left of the frame after the fire, could you speculate how much will be left?
Edit: It looks like a lot will be salvaged. It would still be interesting if you could give any insight.
i think
cavalry archers, but during the DAY.
It’s like the screenwriters watched this video and said “fuck you shad, we’re gonna do everything in the exact opposite you just said”
Dang it Shad! You've done it again. GREAT Work! :D
Shad you forgot one thing: in both the book and the show Whites, are vulnerable to fire. If you ran out of obsidian arrows you could switch to using arrows that burned with some sort of fire to ignite the whites as they try to enter the castle. Also using Greek Fire, or Dragon fire in the universe of Game of Thrones, would be an exceptional way of dealing with them because it would burn them. Once the whites were defeated then you would have to use obsidian to defeat the white walkers