@@mesa577the casting for Game of Thrones was so gooooood. Charles Dance and Ramsay’s actor especiallyc they both portray their character to a T and still make it their own.
@@ezdub5762Its one of the biggest regrets to me with the show. I couldnt imagine any other actor portraying each and every character they played and yet all their potential got wasted in the most lobotomized final seasons ive ever seen for a TV series. We'll never get that kind of once in a lifetime, lightning in a bottle chance ever again, and it's all because of two lazy Hollywood hacks who simply didn't care
@@harmhoeks5996the Ukrainians fighting his forces have most definitely done that bro I think they understand just as the Russians do if you block all avenues to escape the men gonna fight to the last man
@@Walker-ow7vj huh? Ukraine blocked any 'golden bridge' besides absolute surrender. Western countries also painted Putin as irredeemable, not allowing any kind of peace negotiation. No golden bridge politically speaking has ever been proposed to make seem Putin as the winner to the Russians.
@@harmhoeks5996 they gave him plety of bolden briged, and he burned them all, he can still retreat if he wants to, ultimatly it is not the job of the victem, to help the agressor get home savely.
Theon's laugh was half a titter, half a whimper. "Lord Ramsay is the one Your Grace should fear." Stannis bristled at that. "I defeated your uncle Victarion and his Iron Fleet off Fair Isle, the first time your father crowned himself. I held Storm's End against the power of the Reach for a year, and took Dragonstone from the Targaryens. I smashed Mance Rayder at the Wall, though he had twenty times my numbers. Tell me, turncloak, what battles has the Bastard of Bolton ever won that I should fear him?"
@@TtotheCizzelIs he really frezeing în the books or is just a anoher Napoleon reference from the series ? From what I know Ramsey is not as strong as the series make him look like, I dont hear about one house to be really loyal to the Boltons
@@flavius5722in the books Stannis’ men are starving and freezing, and Ramsey isn’t that intelligent (or at least as far as we’ve been shown) but he is malicious and cruel and that’s why Theon is so scared
@@valtonen77 He had a fleet of ships and plenty of gold from the bank of Bravos. He could have sailed to Essos, rented the golden company, and sailed to White Harbor where his army could be resupplied. Not like Stannis could have predicted this, but Sansa would eventually escape Winterfell and be sent by Jon (still Lord Commander since he never saved the wildlings without Stannis’s ships) to White Harbor. With Sansa’s name and the backing of a considerable force, most of the northern lords would have joined the cause. Stannis invades Winterfell from White Harbor (less treacherous snows) with his original army, the Golden Company, and at least half the north. If Sansa doesn’t do anything idiotic, he may even have the Vale. Add in a shadow baby or two and the Boltons stand no chance
He also did that in the books. He believed too much in the red witch. At some point people were resorting to cannibalism, and started sacrificing people at random to the god of light.
The show wasn’t allowed to have strong male characters who were white or just. They all had to be morally corrupt and/or brown. Otherwise they were both villains and quickly dispatched.
@@mike-yd4pyliterally what brown men were in the show? Doran? Died immediately, and Khal Drogo who didn’t make it out of season 1? The whole point of the books/series is about power and what it does to men (and women). The fact that you made it racial says a lot more about you than anything else.
You beat me to it but for those want explanation simply means enemy with options to retreat or fight is easier to fight than the enemy who has the only option to fight.
In Ukraine war total encirclements seem to have gone extinct. There's always a free outlet of escape. Ukraine routed russians all over the north and south and russians have allowed ukranians to flee in every city they have captured. Nobody wants to fight desperate men with nothing to lose, it seems.
@@jonathanLTorontoYep like the saying of something like the cornered animal is always the most dangerous and that 110% fits for the wildlings if this was a normal battle he wouldn’t leave that route but not only does it fit here but they will hesitate to fight knowing they have a route to escape and be killed for said hesitation on top of them being more ready to die and kill cause it’s the only option and they will fight better knowing their lives depend on it. Shows how good of a tactician he was/is.
@@Soundtracks92 English is not my main idiom, but I think he said that 100.000 to 1.000 was the number in the beggining of the battle, and IF HE DIDNT GIVE THEM a escape route it WOULD TURN into a 10 to 1 battle. Two different scenarious.
Jon said the wildlings lacks skills and discipline. Real armies from south of the walls would have no problems dealing with them. Stannis proved he was right.
I am really scared about stannis in the books george wil either give him the win against the boltons and doom him later or we are in for another tragedy
my money is on him winning the fight near Winterfell and dying to the others in the later battles realizing he is not the hero that was promised at the last moment
I got so pissed when he died in the show I was rooting for him as the king of Westeros and they even gave me faulse hope he would be king of Westeros when he was rallying the wildlings but nah the show had to ruin him he would have been a greater king then all the dam lannisters
Numbers in the title are too inflated. 10 times difference is possible, but 100 times? That's possible only in historical record that a historian on your payroll writes😅
When you fully surround your enemy. Sun Tzu calls it “Death Ground” meaning each man will go all 300 on you. Give them an avenue to flee and you can route their forces.
@@ThomasPalm-w5yThat only worked because Hannibal squeezed the Romans to the point they couldn't even raise their spears. I don't think it's ever been replicated in history. Would be happy to be proven wrong though.
Shows just how much of a genius Stannis is with war tactics. He and Robb would’ve been unstoppable if they had worked together. Stannis and Robb were definitely the best war tacticians in Westeros at this time.
I would say Tywin was the most dangerous tactician simply because he would anything he had to to win. Stannis and Robb would never in a million years do anything like the Red Wedding or what Tywin did when he sacked King’s Landing during Robert’s Rebellion.
@@youngmaster2072That’s strategy and intrigue. A combo of Tywin, Tyrion, and Stannis would be the perfect monarch. Tywin for the dirty stuff, Tyrion for people management, and Stannis for battlefield control.
Wildlings were more known for their will to survive than their undying unity, leaving space to flee was a sure way to reduce their number and getting Mance Raider was the best bet.
Stannis Baratheon collecting war victories and experience like a Chad 1. Defend Storm's End from siege during Robert Rebellion 2. Against Greyjoy's Iron Fleet on sea during Greyjoy rebellion 3. Siege on King's Landing 3. Fight 100,000 wildlings 5. Battle for Winterfell
Battle of winterfell didn't happened in the books. But if he can make 1000 men defeat 100000 men then he could most probably win the war of winterfell.
@@ishanparbhakar7150 The problem is that the wildlings can't be compared to winterfell's garrison. After all, the wildlings don't have horses, their armour mostly consists of fur and leather and they barely have metals for their weapons. On top of lacking equipment, they lack discipline due to their culture. Meanwhile winterfell is one of the strongest castle of westeros with great reserves of food made to last the years long winters of the north.
I believe during this battle only the giants and their Mammothsh held but were eventually defeated and after this a couple giants wouldn't leave their pets behind.I just find that really sweet.
Realistically, the giants and mammoths would have won the battle for mance easily. There's absolutely no way a horse would charge at a raging stomping giant. Every single one that gets near to the giants will turn around and bolt. Those horses would have to be trained with giants and mammoths to be used to their sounds. Both george and the show writers vastly overestimate the courage of a horse
@@darkkyoko7565 Giants aren't that big in the books. And from the sound of it most of the knights just cycle charged and lances the giants. Not much can stop that
It was an army, not a strictly organized one but they had a main leader and generals and they didn't ask permission to pass, they straight up layed a siege on the wall, and their numbers were oustanding.
@@nameless458 they didn't have generals, they consisted of different tribes and each tribe had its own leaders. mance only was their leader, because he united them in order to escape the others, there was no command structure and they only followed his orders as long as they wanted and saw it as their best choice. once they felt that they had better chances on their on, they disbanded. only a minority could be considered warriors. that wasn't an army, just lots of people with primitive weapons.
@@MisterPeckingOrder it doesn't matter how something started. if you make noise with your mouth, it still isn't a language. if a group of people settles in the same place, it still isn't a city.
@@NR-fd9wv If you have amassed a significant number of forces intent on committing acts of battle over long periods of time and you are coordinating those forces as best you can. You’ve assembled an army. Random noises don’t make a language, but primitive languages are more than just random noises, and a band of 100000 people assembled for war, committing acts of war, all with intent, cannot be said to not be an army. Otherwise nobody had armies until we get to a way too recent point in history. Most armies made up the backbone of their forces with untrained levies and generals were selected based on birth and personal preference. There was virtually no difference in the way humans organized themselves than they had been previously when they were tribal fighters. Just look at the countless wars between Rome and the Gauls or the Germanic tribes. Not only were the Romans beaten by their enemies on numerous occasions, they were even outsmarted by them. To think that people are incapable of organizing and fighting just like you is just a denial of humanity altogether. The Wildlings were beaten because they fought the wrong war. They had women and children fight too out of desperation, which has also been known to happen. Nothing that occurred was truly out of the ordinary as far as history goes. In truth, fact is almost always stranger than fiction. That’s because reality doesn’t have to satisfy anyone’s expectations, but a fictional story has to live up to false expectations around realism and so on. Doesn’t help we make art for cynics and not dreamers, but that’s life.
Stannis is by far best tactician in the story. I don't think it ever would come up in the story but I would love to see Stannis being told to bend the knee or be roasted by dragon fire. Dude would pull a rabbit out of his hat for sure.
No joke, I bet he would be like, "I read a book once, called everybody poops. We need to find out when the dragon poops and shoot him with a Ballista. We'll call it, giving them the Tywin treatment!" @@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvus
That’s also classic art of war strategy there. A complete envelopment will make every man fight to the last or at least fight harder. A partial envelopment that gives an opportunity to flee will cause a mass route even if they have the numbers or tech advantage and fleeing foot soldiers are easy targets for mounted horseback.
He also left an opening for the Wildlings to flee, so they won't try to fight to the death. A man fighting for survival is much more dangerous than a man running away
The Wildling host may have been 100K but most are children and old folks. I'd argue fighting age males would be 30 to 50K. With significant loses made upon the Wall before Stannis and his forces create a counterattack. Far more plausible is he broke a fighting force of 15K that were already exhausted from trying to breach the Wall
The Wildlings don't rely on only the men to fight. And the casualties from the assault on the Wall likely weren't that high. I think 30-40k remaining fighters is more plausible. The point is, when fighting against mounted enemies morale and the ability to hold a close formation is just as important as numbers. And the Wildlings lack discipline.
The battle at Castle Black did not leave the majority of the wildling host 'exhausted'. Why do book readers do not pay attention when Mance tells Jon that the first battle was just a probe/raid to test their defense. There literally were way less than a thousand wildlings involved in it, 20k at least just watched.
Checked the wiki and like I said, only 114 Wildlings fought in the first battle lol. People will just make stuff up to diminish Stannis' achievement and give too much credit to Jon.
In the books, there isn't 100 000 wildlings. They are 30 000, and among them "only 10 000" fighters. Stannis has 2000 men. So the balance of power is only one against five, not hundred.
Always leave your enemy a way out of combat or you are forcing them to fight to the last man. a cornered animal will always attack if it thinks thats the only way out. Humans are still animals at the end of the day.
@@matthewriley7826? do you mean roose? ramsay isnt as nearly as clever in the books as he is in the show. hes maybe got a 1/10 of the cunning and tact roose has and thats very generous
@@nicolas.p331 Stannis is the best battle commander. During Roberts’s rebellion Stannis is put in charge of holding storms end, an easy enough task until about 100 thousand tyrells show up and put him under siege. Then after some time the garrison begins to starve, no shipments of food and soon enough men start to question why they should starve for their lord when they will be given amnesty. The fact that stannis is able to keep complete control of the castle and keep discipline in starving men AT THE AGE OF 17!!! Far better than what Robb ever achieved. Robb even had experienced Men huiding him lmao. Stannis doing that at 17 or 16 shows how miraculous and how good of a leader Stannis he really is. Yes, this victory does not show any type of logistical or organizational skills, but it does show his iron will, tenacity, and never give up no matter what attitude. He stops at nothing; he will get the job done or die trying. Then he is tasked with taking Dragonstone, now this is interesting in that Robert entrusts this seemingly important task to his younger brother, instead of someone else. We don’t really know much but stannis takes the castle and Dany and Viserys are smuggled out by the last targ loyalists in the westeros. Fast forward a bit and we have the greyjoy rebellion. The greyjoys rebel and burn lord tywins fleet, also raiding in the riverlands. Robert baratheon entrusts Stannis with the complete and utter destruction of the ironborn fleet. Now, before we get into the skill required let’s think about the gravity of this task and what failure would have meant. The ironborn live on islands, so destruction of their fleet is imperative to success in the war, should Robert ignore their fleet he won’t be able to transport any good amount of men to the islands to fight. Cramming ships with men when an enemy fleet of raiders is prowling around is not a good idea. The mainland ships would be slow and vulnerable while so full of men and supplies. The ironborn would have had a field day with this, they would catch up to Roberts fleet and sink a ton of ships, crippling Roberts ability to smash the ironborn and leaving westeros vulnerable to more raids. So destroying the iron fleet is an extremely important task. Robert once again entrusts an extremely important task to his little brother Stannis. Failure was not an option as it would mean the royal fleet and the redwynne fleet (the only 2 fleets left to them at this point) would be smashed leaving Robert unable to get any men at all to the islands. We don’t know the details of the battle, but we do know a few things. The ironborn fleet was commanded by an excellent naval commander (say what you will of vic, at sea he knows his shit), we also know the ironborn sail, reave, and raid all day every day. So one on one, each ironborn will be superior to the average westerosi man at sea. The ironborn weakness is at land, not sea. At one point they controlled everywhere you could hear the waves, underestimating them just to wave away Stannis’ accomplishment at this battle is stupid and unproductive. Stannis manages to trap them at fair isle and bring the full capabilities of the royal and redwynne fleet to bear, smashing the iron fleet and paving the way for troops to be landed on the isles. After his smashing victory at Fair Isle Stannis is entrusted with taking great wyke, no details are given other than the fact that great wyk falls to Stannis. Fast forward once again and we come to the war of five kings, the first engagement Stannis fights in this war is the blackwater. His only defeat ever, but I think this battle is an interesting one, I also feel that it does not in any way lessen the fact that stannis is among the best. First of all, he had pretty much won, the men in the city were broken, running and killing their leaders to retreat. The leader tyrion was mia, it was chaos. Then 100 thousand tyrels and lannisters show up and charge Stannis in his rear, Stannis manages to orgainise a rearguard and him and his best men fight their way clear of kl while tons of his troops switch sides thanks to renlys ghost (fucking uneducated traitors) The mistake Stannis made here was not actually made here, it was made after he had renlys cavalry. What I think he should have done is go to bitterbridge executed Randyle tarly(he’s to dangerous/ambitious to be left alive) and taken the infantry and gotten mace to bend the knee to him. Had he of done that, he would have won the war as tywin can’t fight all that power, it’s simply not feasible. The blackwater was lost by Stannis its true, but I can’t really say that it was a blunder. No way could he have taken all those enemies on while his men were storming a fortified position and switching sides at the same time. Remember hindsight is 20/20 and with the information Stannis had at the time, the decision to take KL was a good one, especially with tywin engaged against robb. Then we have the battle at the wall. Let me start by saying that after the defeat at KL most men would have given up, but not stannis. An important part of being successful in life is how you respond to failure, at some point or another EVERYONE fucks up somehow. The fact that Stannis is willing to continue his war even after such a demoralizing defeat speaks volumes of the man’s character. He doesn’t give a fuck, he won’t ever stop. Now onto the battle itself. Stannis uses the men of Eastwatch to guide him and his thousand men to castle black. He launches a phenomenal three pronged assault on the wilding horde. He attacks the wildling soldiers and Mance tries to put up an effective defense, but it’s too little too late. Stannis has three columns of heavy horse assault Mances men. Stannis knows he can’t hope to take Mance in a pitched battle, Mance has too many men it’s simply not feasible at all. So he plays to his strengths, he knows that individually his men are better equipped and trained then your average wildling so he launches a daring and bold lightning attack designed to capture or kill the enemy commander or cause as much chaos and discord in the enemy ranks as possible getting them to break or accomplishing both tasks (which he does). Mance also had unconventional wepons in the form of giants and mammoths. No other commander in westeros has ever fought anything like this before, it was stannis’ first time against them as well. They manage to perform very well against the armored column sent against them. But the failure of one column did not affect the other two, now that is a damn good showing of Stannis’ leadership. This is imo, Stannis’ most impressive victory. Mance is himself no slouch at leading his men, he jumps right into action as soon as he hears the trumpets blaring, it’s too bad for him that Stannis planned this attack in such a way that it would have been extremely hard for Mance to win. The battle was not lost because of mances incompetence; it was lost because Stannis played to his strengths. He smashed an army far larger then his, and the wildlings had unconventional weapons in the form of giants and mammoths. We see how he split his heavy horse into 3 separate columns to surround, encircle, and crush mances hosts ability to fight back. His assault on the wildings completely demoralized them and crippled their ability to respond. He accomplished all of his objectives here, the complete and utter destruction of the wildlings ability to wage war, and the capture of the king beyond the wall. Let me now address some common point’s people who don’t really know what they are talking about in regards to medieval warfare use to lessen this accomplishment. 1. The wildings had only a few thousand warriors! That’s not true. Mances horde is placed at 100k people. Now the rate of fighting men in the wildling society is far greater then that of most other places. This is due to their lifestyle and their values. Its an extremely warlike society and only the strong survive for long. Even some of their women fight. These people will be big, strong, and fierce. We also have this quote by stannis on the wildling host. Twenty times his numbers is not accurate if Stannis is counting all the wildings in the horde, if hes including the old men, children, and woman who don’t fight the wildings have 100 times his numbers(he has 1k men the wilding host is 100k strong) so Stannis is counting only the wilding warriors. The ones that actually fight. 2. The wildings are ill equipped and have no formal training at arms! This is true; they don’t have training by a master at arms fight with lesser weapons and are not very disciplined. But they are fierce, savage and have a huge number of fighters compared to stannis. I also find it troubling that people use the fact that stannis’ men are better equipped than the wildings as a way to lessen this victory. That’s nonsense. A good commander uses his men’s strengths to his advantage, and he tries to downplay their weaknesses. That’s precisely what makes him a good commander. Furthermore, you won’t hear any historian ever say how a better equipped forces leader is not good because his men had better equipment. Think about it, no one bitches about the romans having better equipment and training then 90% of their enemies, same for alexander the great his men were far superior to what he was fighting, yet no one says “lol brah he sucks because his men were better than the enemy” Also, let’s put some of you guys saying this about the wildlings in some plate or mail, give you a steel weapon and put you up against 5 screaming savages intent on killing you and see how long it takes them to knock you down and kill the shit out of you. In short; Stannis beats your fav commander and it's not even close and never disrespect Stannis like comparing him to Robb, Robert and even Randyll Tarly.
Art of war states that cornering an enemy would not always be the best option since they have no choice but to fight. Always give them an avenue to flee
To be honest, I think Stannis winning the Battle for Winterfell is better than him dead. I ain't GRRM but if Stannis win, that make him like his ancestor who fight for Aegon Conquest. Maybe chances of making him the Warden of The North (or maybe King in The North) and explore how his rule in North to see how his qualify to be the king of seven kingdom. Imagine the first non Stark ruling the North.
The Boltons are non starks but I get your point. The first Southerner taking over the north is a big deal indeed. Maybe some will hate him, but some will know he's way better than the Boltons and was favored by Ned Stark. Basically, he's just a smarter Ned Stark, in my opinion.
Stannis isn’t stupid, he knows crowning himself the king of the North would bring all the North on him because they will never accept an outsider for king
@@johnnyboy3410 He could be regent since in the book, Davos is on mission to take Rickon from a cannibal island while Jon went resurrected. So many time to think who should be King In North. So, Stannis ruled the North for a while, sharping his way to rule before becomes King of Seven Kingdom.
Fully armored knights in a charge against untrained and unarmored humans means the knights win. You can’t put enough bodies in the way, especially when panic and a rout runs through their lines. You see that common in antiquity where a rout due to a charge leads to immense slaughter.
Not true fully armored knights will deal heavy damage, but you cannot hope to have them fight forever the horses will tire quickly in deep snow, particularly as they were not bred for snow they were bred for the southern areas, and the second a knight falls off his horse, or his horse slows he is dead, against a force even 10 times there size that is death, a force 100 times there size with giants and mammoths would slaughter them in open combat
This would have been a feat to watch on screen. In Got we were told of stannis brilliance on the battlefield but got little to show for. This would have made the character a legend
I will never forget when I read this chapter. I jumped from my couch and screamed, “OUR KING IS HERE, YOU BITCHES!!!” “THE ONE AND ONLY! JOFFREY WHO!? ROB WHO!? THIS IS ONE THAT CARES!” Stannis is one of my favorite characters.
Over half of those were women, children elderly, and noncombatant. I'd say the number of fighters Mance had were 30,000 at most. Those of whom weren't expecting to be attacked at all, they were pretty much chilling until they got surprised attacked, and then flanked from behind. Plus the wildlings didn't really have much armor, most of whom just wore leather. Stannis's forces are well armored and all mounted on horse back. Standish had the mobile, and technological advantages, used a surprise attack on an suspecting army, and flanked them from behind afterwards. Plus used human nature to his advantage by giving the opposing forces a way to flee which resulted in having to fight less people. Stannis's only disadvantage was he was outnumbered. There are several examples in history where commanders have defeated larger forces. Hannibal Barca did it multiple times with great strategy and tactics. Admiral Yi did it many times without ever losing a single one of his ships, by using superior technology and good tactics. And Oda Nobunaga did it by surprise attacking his enemy in the middle of the night.
@@lethalexponent6 from what I could learn Stannis killed over 1,000 combatants during the battle, and captured over another 1,000 combatants. I couldn't find how many he managed to injure. So we will have to guess how many he wounded during the battle. Based off of the average wounded to killed ratio throughout medieval history, it was 3 to 1. So I think it's safe to assume that Stannis managed to wound somewhere around 3,000 combatants. Severity of said wounds would vary. That of course still leaves over 20,000 thousand other combatants. Most of whom seemed to have panicked and fled the battle out of fear. I'd say that this is due to a combination of it being a surprise attack, Stannis's strategy of leaving an escape route for them to flee, the wildlings hastily assuming Stannis had way more soldiers than he really did, and the general mentality most of the wildlings had. The wildlings were all already trying to flee from their homelands in order to escape from the White walker (they were practically refugees). Plus their plan was to get past a giant fuck off ice wall into foreign land filled with many people who didn't want them there. Probably consantly worrying about the possibility of the Southerners sending a giant army to deal with them before they can get passed the Wall. So they must have been under constant extreme stress, anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. So when Stannis surprised attacked them from 2 sides they probably thought that the giant Southern army had arrived to wipe them out. Greatly overestimating Stannis's forces. So most of them panicked and fled out of fear. They didn't see a giant army making it's way through the wall (which would have taken a while and would have been very noticeable. Giving them time to mentally prepare for battle.) So they weren't on guard at the time. So when Stannis suddenly came, their POV was that a giant Southern army appeared out of nowhere. They didn't have time to think logically, they panicked and ran. That's common human nature. It was like a perfect combination for Stannis to miraculously win despite being so greatly outnumbered.
Art of war says clearly that if you don’t give your enemy the chance (or path) to flee, they’ll become slaughter machines even if they end up dying anyway
You have to have literally zero idea about anything that happened in the story to think there is anything remotely like plot armor in this scene. Your comment makes no sense.
All this art makes me want a walking dead style comic series of graphic novels of Game of Thrones. Itd be a dense collection, but id gladly pay money for that.
Also forgot the whole fact that the nights watch on the wall were just killing hundreds if not thousands with barrels of ice and stone the entire time but sure leave that part out..
Raleigh deserves to be hated because he is just a puppet of the Reach family. These were the rulers of the continent of Westeros in very ancient times, and all the Westeros families are considered the descendants of this family.
Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' does say give your enemy a retreat passage while you attack. It give your enemies some moments to think retreat thus not encouraged to fight to the death.
This isn’t really that ridiculous, the number of fighters in the wildling army is about 30k at most, and only a few thousand of those fought before the rest panicked and ran
Not every battle has to strictly be about annihilating the enemy. True strategy entails recognizing when to force a decisive engagement, but also when to retain precious positioning and resources for a more prolonged campaign.
"A cornered cat fights with 10 lion's ferocity." Allowing the wildlings to escape is a brilliant tactical move to nail the psych of the wildlings to rather flee than fight.
There are a few reasons why cavalry were feared in Medieval Europe. - The impact of the horse alone could disorient and knock down any footman - The psychological warfare of hearing the hooves thundering on the battlefield would send a shock to troop morale - Because of how fast the horse made the rider, his swing could hit harder with the speed of the horse supporting him. - Because of how tall war horses were, it was harder to hit the rider from the ground - Troops/Knights that trained to be cavalry often had heavy armor (sometimes their horses did too), so it was harder for bladed weapons to penetrate said armor - Etc.
There’s actually a really interesting part of Sun Tzus Art of War that talks about this, giving your enemy an avenue of escape actually decreases their will to fight.
It wasn't 1000 men, it was 1500. It wasn't just men on horseback, but knights too. Also it wasn't 100,000 Wildlings, it was 30,000-40,000. Also most of those wildlings weren't even fighters. Also, they only killed like 200 people....
“Floating above them were the largest banners yet, royal standards as big as sheets; a yellow one with long pointed tongues that showed a flaming heart, and another like a sheet of beaten gold, with a black stag prancing and rippling in the wind. Robert, Jon thought for one mad moment, remembering poor Owen, but when the trumpets blew again and the knights charged, the name they cried was “Stannis! Stannis! STANNIS!” Excerpt From A Storm of Swords George R.R. Martin
Stannis came North when he read the scroll from Lord commander Mormont when they got attacked by wighs in Fist of First men. He was the Only King who came to help Night Watch.
It's important to note that of the 100k, women and children were also counted. It was a rough estimate of Mance's overall force. Most wildlings were camped in the haunted forest and already separated into large groups. Now, this isn't to take away from Stannis. He still beat anywhere from 10,000-50,000 men and women with a force a fraction of the size.
"This is Stannis Baratheon. The man will fight to the bitter end and then some"
Tywin Lannister
does he say that in the show and if he does can you tell me in what scene
@@mesa577it's from the books
@@Att964 damn wish Charles dance said it in the show.
@@mesa577the casting for Game of Thrones was so gooooood. Charles Dance and Ramsay’s actor especiallyc they both portray their character to a T and still make it their own.
@@ezdub5762Its one of the biggest regrets to me with the show. I couldnt imagine any other actor portraying each and every character they played and yet all their potential got wasted in the most lobotomized final seasons ive ever seen for a TV series. We'll never get that kind of once in a lifetime, lightning in a bottle chance ever again, and it's all because of two lazy Hollywood hacks who simply didn't care
Sun tzu says to always allow the enemy an avenue to retreat, to encourage cowardice to overcome their better senses. I’d say stannis was a clever chap
Western leaders never gave Putin a golden bridge to retreat upon
@@harmhoeks5996the Ukrainians fighting his forces have most definitely done that bro I think they understand just as the Russians do if you block all avenues to escape the men gonna fight to the last man
@@Walker-ow7vj huh? Ukraine blocked any 'golden bridge' besides absolute surrender.
Western countries also painted Putin as irredeemable, not allowing any kind of peace negotiation.
No golden bridge politically speaking has ever been proposed to make seem Putin as the winner to the Russians.
@@harmhoeks5996 they gave him plety of bolden briged, and he burned them all, he can still retreat if he wants to, ultimatly it is not the job of the victem, to help the agressor get home savely.
@@harmhoeks5996coz western leader used ukraine to launder the people's money 😂
Theon's laugh was half a titter, half a whimper. "Lord Ramsay is the one Your Grace should fear."
Stannis bristled at that. "I defeated your uncle Victarion and his Iron Fleet off Fair Isle, the first time your father crowned himself. I held Storm's End against the power of the Reach for a year, and took Dragonstone from the Targaryens. I smashed Mance Rayder at the Wall, though he had twenty times my numbers. Tell me, turncloak, what battles has the Bastard of Bolton ever won that I should fear him?"
Did he say that while he was freezing to death?
He won the battle outside of Winterfell... by feigning friendship and taking his opponent by complete surprise.
@@TtotheCizzelIs he really frezeing în the books or is just a anoher Napoleon reference from the series ?
From what I know Ramsey is not as strong as the series make him look like, I dont hear about one house to be really loyal to the Boltons
@@flavius5722in the books Stannis’ men are starving and freezing, and Ramsey isn’t that intelligent (or at least as far as we’ve been shown) but he is malicious and cruel and that’s why Theon is so scared
@@chickenman7801a strategy that will definitely not work on Stannis the Mannis
Meanwhile Show Stannis : imma march my men without sufficient Supplies and adequate plan to take winterfell
What wouldve been good alternative then? Give up and retire?
@@valtonen77 He had a fleet of ships and plenty of gold from the bank of Bravos. He could have sailed to Essos, rented the golden company, and sailed to White Harbor where his army could be resupplied. Not like Stannis could have predicted this, but Sansa would eventually escape Winterfell and be sent by Jon (still Lord Commander since he never saved the wildlings without Stannis’s ships) to White Harbor. With Sansa’s name and the backing of a considerable force, most of the northern lords would have joined the cause. Stannis invades Winterfell from White Harbor (less treacherous snows) with his original army, the Golden Company, and at least half the north. If Sansa doesn’t do anything idiotic, he may even have the Vale. Add in a shadow baby or two and the Boltons stand no chance
@@benlewis5312the powerful weapon in Stannis Baratheon's arsenal the shadow babies
He also did that in the books. He believed too much in the red witch. At some point people were resorting to cannibalism, and started sacrificing people at random to the god of light.
I wish GRRM would finish the damn book so we can finally get Stannis destroying the Freys and Boltons.
Stannis the Goddamn Mannis.
You're goddamn right.
ONE GOD, ONE REALM, ONE KING
HIS IS THE FURY
@@saatvikkalra6061STANNIS! STANNIS! STANNIS!
STANNIS STANNIS STANNIS!!!!!
One True King...
Nothing to see here, just lore-accurate Stannis being an absolute Gigachad.
Book Stannis >> Show Stannis. The show did him dirty.
they didnt understand him or renly lol. but idk if they got any character right but they were wrong from the beg w those two
@@jacobbarre3618 Renly was way cooler in the books.
The show wasn’t allowed to have strong male characters who were white or just. They all had to be morally corrupt and/or brown. Otherwise they were both villains and quickly dispatched.
@@mike-yd4pyliterally what brown men were in the show? Doran? Died immediately, and Khal Drogo who didn’t make it out of season 1? The whole point of the books/series is about power and what it does to men (and women). The fact that you made it racial says a lot more about you than anything else.
@@UnsolicitedContextthis man is completely lost, considering how almost every character in the show is accurate to their book counter part (white)
"When you surround an army, leave an outlet free." - Sun Tzu
"No"
Hannibal Barca at Cannae 216 BC
"I wish I had"
Alexander at Granicus 334 BC
You beat me to it but for those want explanation simply means enemy with options to retreat or fight is easier to fight than the enemy who has the only option to fight.
In Ukraine war total encirclements seem to have gone extinct. There's always a free outlet of escape. Ukraine routed russians all over the north and south and russians have allowed ukranians to flee in every city they have captured.
Nobody wants to fight desperate men with nothing to lose, it seems.
@@jonathanLTorontoYep like the saying of something like the cornered animal is always the most dangerous and that 110% fits for the wildlings if this was a normal battle he wouldn’t leave that route but not only does it fit here but they will hesitate to fight knowing they have a route to escape and be killed for said hesitation on top of them being more ready to die and kill cause it’s the only option and they will fight better knowing their lives depend on it. Shows how good of a tactician he was/is.
Correction 100x his size. Stannis-the-menace
Stannis says however, that his odds were twenty-to-one, because the fighting amount of wildlings was more like 20k at the time of battle.
@@gnomeimporta6912 And this guy in the video said 10 times bigger. But the book apparently said 100 times bigger 🤷♂️
I heard the narrator saying "...man to man with an army 10x his size." but it starts out 100k wildlings vs 1000 men on horseback.
Yeah that’s basic math, like come on now lol
@@Soundtracks92 English is not my main idiom, but I think he said that 100.000 to 1.000 was the number in the beggining of the battle, and IF HE DIDNT GIVE THEM a escape route it WOULD TURN into a 10 to 1 battle.
Two different scenarious.
One can not fathom the sheer force of armoured heavy cavalry charging at you. Just imagine the psychological impact even before they collide with you
Pike, pike and laugh as they break
Heavy cavalry inside the forest, I doubt if it can be efficient.
Always leave your enemies an avenue of escape, or they will become desperate and fight to the bitter end, causing you needlessly more casualties.
Me playing total war, 100% willing to lose a hundred more men just to see em all die at once
@@bloodangel19I like that mad dash from the cavalry to see if they can run down the fleeing forces before they get to the edge of the battlefield.
Tell that to Hannibal Barca at Cannae.
Well considering the scenario here, it was probably better to have the enemy route then to surround them
@@joaquinalvarez5301which is what he is saying?
Jon said the wildlings lacks skills and discipline. Real armies from south of the walls would have no problems dealing with them. Stannis proved he was right.
I am really scared about stannis in the books george wil either give him the win against the boltons and doom him later or we are in for another tragedy
my money is on him winning the fight near Winterfell and dying to the others in the later battles realizing he is not the hero that was promised at the last moment
I think Patchface might have something to do with his demise…
I consider that the White Walkers will finish him
I'm convinced he won't die against the Boltons, his role is against the others where he will die
I got so pissed when he died in the show I was rooting for him as the king of Westeros and they even gave me faulse hope he would be king of Westeros when he was rallying the wildlings but nah the show had to ruin him he would have been a greater king then all the dam lannisters
Ten times? I thought it was 1,000 to 100,000? That would be 100x his size.
bro suck at math :D
Exactly
More like 20000 to 2000.
Numbers in the title are too inflated. 10 times difference is possible, but 100 times? That's possible only in historical record that a historian on your payroll writes😅
@@TheArklyteliterally what I was thinking, 1000 men defeated 100k men 😳
When you fully surround your enemy. Sun Tzu calls it “Death Ground” meaning each man will go all 300 on you. Give them an avenue to flee and you can route their forces.
Surrounding the enemy worked well at Cannae.
Build your enemy a golden bridge to retreat across.
@@ThomasPalm-w5yThat only worked because Hannibal squeezed the Romans to the point they couldn't even raise their spears. I don't think it's ever been replicated in history. Would be happy to be proven wrong though.
Western leaders never gave Putin a golden bridge to retreat upon
@@harmhoeks5996yes the Ukrainians have dude
Build your enemies a golden bridge to retreat. Art of war
Shows just how much of a genius Stannis is with war tactics. He and Robb would’ve been unstoppable if they had worked together. Stannis and Robb were definitely the best war tacticians in Westeros at this time.
Robb was talented but real brain behind his tactics was the Blackfish.
@@perturabo420 Stannis is a Blackfish, with an army
No tywin was as the usage of traitors is realistic and such methods generally have a more pronounced effect than battles on the field
I would say Tywin was the most dangerous tactician simply because he would anything he had to to win. Stannis and Robb would never in a million years do anything like the Red Wedding or what Tywin did when he sacked King’s Landing during Robert’s Rebellion.
@@youngmaster2072That’s strategy and intrigue. A combo of Tywin, Tyrion, and Stannis would be the perfect monarch. Tywin for the dirty stuff, Tyrion for people management, and Stannis for battlefield control.
"Give your enemy a golden bridge" sun tzu
Wildlings were more known for their will to survive than their undying unity, leaving space to flee was a sure way to reduce their number and getting Mance Raider was the best bet.
STANNIS THE GODDAMNNN MANNISSS 🏇🤺
Stannis Baratheon collecting war victories and experience like a Chad
1. Defend Storm's End from siege during Robert Rebellion
2. Against Greyjoy's Iron Fleet on sea during Greyjoy rebellion
3. Siege on King's Landing
3. Fight 100,000 wildlings
5. Battle for Winterfell
He lost 2 of those battles
Battle of winterfell didn't happened in the books.
But if he can make 1000 men defeat 100000 men then he could most probably win the war of winterfell.
@@ryanlaird6447He lost Kings Landing because Twyin arrived. And winterfell hasnt happened yet
@@ishanparbhakar7150 The problem is that the wildlings can't be compared to winterfell's garrison. After all, the wildlings don't have horses, their armour mostly consists of fur and leather and they barely have metals for their weapons. On top of lacking equipment, they lack discipline due to their culture.
Meanwhile winterfell is one of the strongest castle of westeros with great reserves of food made to last the years long winters of the north.
Stannid took dragonstone from the targaryans
Defeats 100,000 wildlings but then ramsay defeats him with "20 good men"
"Throw your soldiers into positions where there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight."
I see Stannis has read the Art of War
My dumb ass thought you were referencing Sabaton 😂
@user-vu6bi2jr8g That's where I learned the quote lol, so you weren't far off
Subotai, Genghis Khan's greatest general was extremely fond of this technique.
He wrote it... in their universe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The thing is the idea of leaving an option for an enemy to retreat is literally in the art of war by sun Tzu as a good tactic
He agreed
I believe during this battle only the giants and their Mammothsh held but were eventually defeated and after this a couple giants wouldn't leave their pets behind.I just find that really sweet.
the giants were literally ride or die for the mammoths
How many troops joined the Skyrim space program as a result of this?
Realistically, the giants and mammoths would have won the battle for mance easily. There's absolutely no way a horse would charge at a raging stomping giant. Every single one that gets near to the giants will turn around and bolt. Those horses would have to be trained with giants and mammoths to be used to their sounds.
Both george and the show writers vastly overestimate the courage of a horse
@@darkkyoko7565 Giants aren't that big in the books. And from the sound of it most of the knights just cycle charged and lances the giants. Not much can stop that
How many giants and mammoths existed? Are they truly extinct after this?
This was such a cool scene in the books. This made me pull up the audiobook to listen to it again.
Stannis read The Art of War.
It was super effective.
This is Sun Tzu 101. Give your ennemy an escape solution so they won't fight to death with a desesperate hearth.
Well... The Wildling force isn't really an army to begin with but rather refugees escaping the Others.
It was an army, not a strictly organized one but they had a main leader and generals and they didn't ask permission to pass, they straight up layed a siege on the wall, and their numbers were oustanding.
@@nameless458 they didn't have generals, they consisted of different tribes and each tribe had its own leaders. mance only was their leader, because he united them in order to escape the others, there was no command structure and they only followed his orders as long as they wanted and saw it as their best choice. once they felt that they had better chances on their on, they disbanded. only a minority could be considered warriors. that wasn't an army, just lots of people with primitive weapons.
@@NR-fd9wvThat’s an army sir, just not a very modern one. How do you think armies started
@@MisterPeckingOrder it doesn't matter how something started. if you make noise with your mouth, it still isn't a language. if a group of people settles in the same place, it still isn't a city.
@@NR-fd9wv If you have amassed a significant number of forces intent on committing acts of battle over long periods of time and you are coordinating those forces as best you can. You’ve assembled an army. Random noises don’t make a language, but primitive languages are more than just random noises, and a band of 100000 people assembled for war, committing acts of war, all with intent, cannot be said to not be an army. Otherwise nobody had armies until we get to a way too recent point in history. Most armies made up the backbone of their forces with untrained levies and generals were selected based on birth and personal preference. There was virtually no difference in the way humans organized themselves than they had been previously when they were tribal fighters. Just look at the countless wars between Rome and the Gauls or the Germanic tribes. Not only were the Romans beaten by their enemies on numerous occasions, they were even outsmarted by them. To think that people are incapable of organizing and fighting just like you is just a denial of humanity altogether. The Wildlings were beaten because they fought the wrong war. They had women and children fight too out of desperation, which has also been known to happen. Nothing that occurred was truly out of the ordinary as far as history goes. In truth, fact is almost always stranger than fiction. That’s because reality doesn’t have to satisfy anyone’s expectations, but a fictional story has to live up to false expectations around realism and so on. Doesn’t help we make art for cynics and not dreamers, but that’s life.
100k men can’t all be at the same place at the same time. It’s how Nobunaga Oda won Okehazema
Yeah, Logistics is hard to manage
That's why he's the GOAT!
THE GOAT!!!
THHHE GOAT!!!
Han är sannerligen geten
Man, people using that term are usually the stupidest, please shut up
Severely underestimating the actual size difference between 100,000 and 1000
Stannis is by far best tactician in the story. I don't think it ever would come up in the story but I would love to see Stannis being told to bend the knee or be roasted by dragon fire. Dude would pull a rabbit out of his hat for sure.
I think a very pale arrow or bolt would end up in the dragons eye
No joke, I bet he would be like, "I read a book once, called everybody poops. We need to find out when the dragon poops and shoot him with a Ballista. We'll call it, giving them the Tywin treatment!"
@@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvus
"Lord Stannis, we have ten times less men than the wildlings!"
"Fewer"
"What?"
That’s also classic art of war strategy there. A complete envelopment will make every man fight to the last or at least fight harder. A partial envelopment that gives an opportunity to flee will cause a mass route even if they have the numbers or tech advantage and fleeing foot soldiers are easy targets for mounted horseback.
He also left an opening for the Wildlings to flee, so they won't try to fight to the death. A man fighting for survival is much more dangerous than a man running away
The Wildling host may have been 100K but most are children and old folks. I'd argue fighting age males would be 30 to 50K. With significant loses made upon the Wall before Stannis and his forces create a counterattack. Far more plausible is he broke a fighting force of 15K that were already exhausted from trying to breach the Wall
The Wildlings don't rely on only the men to fight. And the casualties from the assault on the Wall likely weren't that high. I think 30-40k remaining fighters is more plausible.
The point is, when fighting against mounted enemies morale and the ability to hold a close formation is just as important as numbers. And the Wildlings lack discipline.
Still a heavy disadvantage numerically for Stannis.
The wildlings are also only wearing fur clothing at best and their weapons consists of bones with only the Thenns having metal which is bronze.
The battle at Castle Black did not leave the majority of the wildling host 'exhausted'.
Why do book readers do not pay attention when Mance tells Jon that the first battle was just a probe/raid to test their defense. There literally were way less than a thousand wildlings involved in it, 20k at least just watched.
Checked the wiki and like I said, only 114 Wildlings fought in the first battle lol. People will just make stuff up to diminish Stannis' achievement and give too much credit to Jon.
In the books, there isn't 100 000 wildlings. They are 30 000, and among them "only 10 000" fighters. Stannis has 2000 men. So the balance of power is only one against five, not hundred.
What is true? Someone please confirm!
@@shpankeyno
@@shpankeyIt is true.
That's not true
@@azizbey4334 Well, everyone can check...
Always leave your enemy a way out of combat or you are forcing them to fight to the last man.
a cornered animal will always attack if it thinks thats the only way out. Humans are still animals at the end of the day.
Incredible he managed to defeat such a massive host without any knights from house Goodmen
The one true king
No, I didn’t know this story. Wow! 😳
Thanks for the video! 🙂
This is why the Boltons/Frey’s are screwed in the books. They are fighting on a field of battle on Stannis’ terms.
Shouldn’t underestimate Ramsay though…
he is a sneaky little scamp@@matthewriley7826
@@matthewriley7826? do you mean roose? ramsay isnt as nearly as clever in the books as he is in the show. hes maybe got a 1/10 of the cunning and tact roose has and thats very generous
@@jacobbarre3618 just give him 20 good men to raid stannis’s camp
@@maxtomlinson8134😂😂😂😂
He was herding them like sheep
Echoes something Sun Tzu wrote, that you should never completely surround a foe or they will fight to the death.
It happened already.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Battle of Hodów 1694.
100 husars and 300 armoured cavalry to 40.000 Tatars.
Martin knew his Sun Tzu
Only if he and Robb and renly could come together, what a unstoppable force they could be.
Stannis is the best commander that ever existed in AWOIAF and it’s not even debatable
very debatable actually
@@jacobbarre3618 it's not. stannis in terms of Battle IQ destroys everyone because he has insane feats for it.
@@xshandy5812Robb Stark, Robert Baratheon and Randyll Tarly were probably on par with him, if not better.
@@nicolas.p331 HAHAHAHAHA bro is a joke 🤣🤣🤣
@@nicolas.p331 Stannis is the best battle commander. During Roberts’s rebellion Stannis is put in charge of holding storms end, an easy enough task until about 100 thousand tyrells show up and put him under siege. Then after some time the garrison begins to starve, no shipments of food and soon enough men start to question why they should starve for their lord when they will be given amnesty. The fact that stannis is able to keep complete control of the castle and keep discipline in starving men AT THE AGE OF 17!!! Far better than what Robb ever achieved. Robb even had experienced Men huiding him lmao. Stannis doing that at 17 or 16 shows how miraculous and how good of a leader Stannis he really is. Yes, this victory does not show any type of logistical or organizational skills, but it does show his iron will, tenacity, and never give up no matter what attitude. He stops at nothing; he will get the job done or die trying. Then he is tasked with taking Dragonstone, now this is interesting in that Robert entrusts this seemingly important task to his younger brother, instead of someone else. We don’t really know much but stannis takes the castle and Dany and Viserys are smuggled out by the last targ loyalists in the westeros. Fast forward a bit and we have the greyjoy rebellion. The greyjoys rebel and burn lord tywins fleet, also raiding in the riverlands. Robert baratheon entrusts Stannis with the complete and utter destruction of the ironborn fleet. Now, before we get into the skill required let’s think about the gravity of this task and what failure would have meant. The ironborn live on islands, so destruction of their fleet is imperative to success in the war, should Robert ignore their fleet he won’t be able to transport any good amount of men to the islands to fight. Cramming ships with men when an enemy fleet of raiders is prowling around is not a good idea. The mainland ships would be slow and vulnerable while so full of men and supplies. The ironborn would have had a field day with this, they would catch up to Roberts fleet and sink a ton of ships, crippling Roberts ability to smash the ironborn and leaving westeros vulnerable to more raids. So destroying the iron fleet is an extremely important task. Robert once again entrusts an extremely important task to his little brother Stannis. Failure was not an option as it would mean the royal fleet and the redwynne fleet (the only 2 fleets left to them at this point) would be smashed leaving Robert unable to get any men at all to the islands. We don’t know the details of the battle, but we do know a few things. The ironborn fleet was commanded by an excellent naval commander (say what you will of vic, at sea he knows his shit), we also know the ironborn sail, reave, and raid all day every day. So one on one, each ironborn will be superior to the average westerosi man at sea. The ironborn weakness is at land, not sea. At one point they controlled everywhere you could hear the waves, underestimating them just to wave away Stannis’ accomplishment at this battle is stupid and unproductive. Stannis manages to trap them at fair isle and bring the full capabilities of the royal and redwynne fleet to bear, smashing the iron fleet and paving the way for troops to be landed on the isles. After his smashing victory at Fair Isle Stannis is entrusted with taking great wyke, no details are given other than the fact that great wyk falls to Stannis. Fast forward once again and we come to the war of five kings, the first engagement Stannis fights in this war is the blackwater. His only defeat ever, but I think this battle is an interesting one, I also feel that it does not in any way lessen the fact that stannis is among the best. First of all, he had pretty much won, the men in the city were broken, running and killing their leaders to retreat. The leader tyrion was mia, it was chaos. Then 100 thousand tyrels and lannisters show up and charge Stannis in his rear, Stannis manages to orgainise a rearguard and him and his best men fight their way clear of kl while tons of his troops switch sides thanks to renlys ghost (fucking uneducated traitors) The mistake Stannis made here was not actually made here, it was made after he had renlys cavalry. What I think he should have done is go to bitterbridge executed Randyle tarly(he’s to dangerous/ambitious to be left alive) and taken the infantry and gotten mace to bend the knee to him. Had he of done that, he would have won the war as tywin can’t fight all that power, it’s simply not feasible. The blackwater was lost by Stannis its true, but I can’t really say that it was a blunder. No way could he have taken all those enemies on while his men were storming a fortified position and switching sides at the same time. Remember hindsight is 20/20 and with the information Stannis had at the time, the decision to take KL was a good one, especially with tywin engaged against robb. Then we have the battle at the wall. Let me start by saying that after the defeat at KL most men would have given up, but not stannis. An important part of being successful in life is how you respond to failure, at some point or another EVERYONE fucks up somehow. The fact that Stannis is willing to continue his war even after such a demoralizing defeat speaks volumes of the man’s character. He doesn’t give a fuck, he won’t ever stop. Now onto the battle itself. Stannis uses the men of Eastwatch to guide him and his thousand men to castle black. He launches a phenomenal three pronged assault on the wilding horde. He attacks the wildling soldiers and Mance tries to put up an effective defense, but it’s too little too late. Stannis has three columns of heavy horse assault Mances men. Stannis knows he can’t hope to take Mance in a pitched battle, Mance has too many men it’s simply not feasible at all. So he plays to his strengths, he knows that individually his men are better equipped and trained then your average wildling so he launches a daring and bold lightning attack designed to capture or kill the enemy commander or cause as much chaos and discord in the enemy ranks as possible getting them to break or accomplishing both tasks (which he does). Mance also had unconventional wepons in the form of giants and mammoths. No other commander in westeros has ever fought anything like this before, it was stannis’ first time against them as well. They manage to perform very well against the armored column sent against them. But the failure of one column did not affect the other two, now that is a damn good showing of Stannis’ leadership. This is imo, Stannis’ most impressive victory. Mance is himself no slouch at leading his men, he jumps right into action as soon as he hears the trumpets blaring, it’s too bad for him that Stannis planned this attack in such a way that it would have been extremely hard for Mance to win. The battle was not lost because of mances incompetence; it was lost because Stannis played to his strengths. He smashed an army far larger then his, and the wildlings had unconventional weapons in the form of giants and mammoths. We see how he split his heavy horse into 3 separate columns to surround, encircle, and crush mances hosts ability to fight back. His assault on the wildings completely demoralized them and crippled their ability to respond. He accomplished all of his objectives here, the complete and utter destruction of the wildlings ability to wage war, and the capture of the king beyond the wall. Let me now address some common point’s people who don’t really know what they are talking about in regards to medieval warfare use to lessen this accomplishment.
1. The wildings had only a few thousand warriors! That’s not true. Mances horde is placed at 100k people. Now the rate of fighting men in the wildling society is far greater then that of most other places. This is due to their lifestyle and their values. Its an extremely warlike society and only the strong survive for long. Even some of their women fight. These people will be big, strong, and fierce. We also have this quote by stannis on the wildling host. Twenty times his numbers is not accurate if Stannis is counting all the wildings in the horde, if hes including the old men, children, and woman who don’t fight the wildings have 100 times his numbers(he has 1k men the wilding host is 100k strong) so Stannis is counting only the wilding warriors. The ones that actually fight.
2. The wildings are ill equipped and have no formal training at arms! This is true; they don’t have training by a master at arms fight with lesser weapons and are not very disciplined. But they are fierce, savage and have a huge number of fighters compared to stannis. I also find it troubling that people use the fact that stannis’ men are better equipped than the wildings as a way to lessen this victory. That’s nonsense. A good commander uses his men’s strengths to his advantage, and he tries to downplay their weaknesses. That’s precisely what makes him a good commander. Furthermore, you won’t hear any historian ever say how a better equipped forces leader is not good because his men had better equipment. Think about it, no one bitches about the romans having better equipment and training then 90% of their enemies, same for alexander the great his men were far superior to what he was fighting, yet no one says “lol brah he sucks because his men were better than the enemy” Also, let’s put some of you guys saying this about the wildlings in some plate or mail, give you a steel weapon and put you up against 5 screaming savages intent on killing you and see how long it takes them to knock you down and kill the shit out of you.
In short; Stannis beats your fav commander and it's not even close and never disrespect Stannis like comparing him to Robb, Robert and even Randyll Tarly.
Art of war states that cornering an enemy would not always be the best option since they have no choice but to fight. Always give them an avenue to flee
He also planned on using them as part of his force. Many armies that surrender end up in another's force the term broken man is well fleshed out
We cannot expect nothing less from one of the best commander in the westeros
To be honest, I think Stannis winning the Battle for Winterfell is better than him dead. I ain't GRRM but if Stannis win, that make him like his ancestor who fight for Aegon Conquest. Maybe chances of making him the Warden of The North (or maybe King in The North) and explore how his rule in North to see how his qualify to be the king of seven kingdom. Imagine the first non Stark ruling the North.
The Boltons are non starks but I get your point. The first Southerner taking over the north is a big deal indeed. Maybe some will hate him, but some will know he's way better than the Boltons and was favored by Ned Stark. Basically, he's just a smarter Ned Stark, in my opinion.
Stannis isn’t stupid, he knows crowning himself the king of the North would bring all the North on him because they will never accept an outsider for king
@@johnnyboy3410 He could be regent since in the book, Davos is on mission to take Rickon from a cannibal island while Jon went resurrected. So many time to think who should be King In North. So, Stannis ruled the North for a while, sharping his way to rule before becomes King of Seven Kingdom.
In books their numbers were somewhere between 30-40k, with only half of them being actual combatants 😊
Fully armored knights in a charge against untrained and unarmored humans means the knights win. You can’t put enough bodies in the way, especially when panic and a rout runs through their lines. You see that common in antiquity where a rout due to a charge leads to immense slaughter.
Not true fully armored knights will deal heavy damage, but you cannot hope to have them fight forever the horses will tire quickly in deep snow, particularly as they were not bred for snow they were bred for the southern areas, and the second a knight falls off his horse, or his horse slows he is dead, against a force even 10 times there size that is death, a force 100 times there size with giants and mammoths would slaughter them in open combat
This would have been a feat to watch on screen. In Got we were told of stannis brilliance on the battlefield but got little to show for. This would have made the character a legend
Stannis was just THE BEST AND THE ONE WITH BETTER BATTLE IQ
A solid example of tactics and movement beat numbers
Yet, Stannis tactical genius proved to be no match for Ser Twenty of House Goodmen
Stannis become Alexander😂
I will never forget when I read this chapter.
I jumped from my couch and screamed, “OUR KING IS HERE, YOU BITCHES!!!”
“THE ONE AND ONLY! JOFFREY WHO!? ROB WHO!? THIS IS ONE THAT CARES!”
Stannis is one of my favorite characters.
But Robb cared too :(
🤓
"A hundred thousand wildlings"
"A thousand men"
"10 times the size"
Um, that's 100 times and sounds downright ridiculous. Which figure is wrong?
All of them tbh.Stannis had about 1500 men while the wildlings had around 30,000
It's completely impossible to beat 100,000 men with only 1,000
Over half of those were women, children elderly, and noncombatant. I'd say the number of fighters Mance had were 30,000 at most. Those of whom weren't expecting to be attacked at all, they were pretty much chilling until they got surprised attacked, and then flanked from behind. Plus the wildlings didn't really have much armor, most of whom just wore leather. Stannis's forces are well armored and all mounted on horse back.
Standish had the mobile, and technological advantages, used a surprise attack on an suspecting army, and flanked them from behind afterwards. Plus used human nature to his advantage by giving the opposing forces a way to flee which resulted in having to fight less people.
Stannis's only disadvantage was he was outnumbered.
There are several examples in history where commanders have defeated larger forces. Hannibal Barca did it multiple times with great strategy and tactics. Admiral Yi did it many times without ever losing a single one of his ships, by using superior technology and good tactics. And Oda Nobunaga did it by surprise attacking his enemy in the middle of the night.
@psychonaut175 The way ur describing it definitely sounds like it'd be possible. Was there a number to how many he killed?
@@lethalexponent6 from what I could learn Stannis killed over 1,000 combatants during the battle, and captured over another 1,000 combatants. I couldn't find how many he managed to injure. So we will have to guess how many he wounded during the battle. Based off of the average wounded to killed ratio throughout medieval history, it was 3 to 1. So I think it's safe to assume that Stannis managed to wound somewhere around 3,000 combatants. Severity of said wounds would vary.
That of course still leaves over 20,000 thousand other combatants. Most of whom seemed to have panicked and fled the battle out of fear.
I'd say that this is due to a combination of it being a surprise attack, Stannis's strategy of leaving an escape route for them to flee, the wildlings hastily assuming Stannis had way more soldiers than he really did, and the general mentality most of the wildlings had.
The wildlings were all already trying to flee from their homelands in order to escape from the White walker (they were practically refugees). Plus their plan was to get past a giant fuck off ice wall into foreign land filled with many people who didn't want them there. Probably consantly worrying about the possibility of the Southerners sending a giant army to deal with them before they can get passed the Wall. So they must have been under constant extreme stress, anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. So when Stannis surprised attacked them from 2 sides they probably thought that the giant Southern army had arrived to wipe them out. Greatly overestimating Stannis's forces. So most of them panicked and fled out of fear.
They didn't see a giant army making it's way through the wall (which would have taken a while and would have been very noticeable. Giving them time to mentally prepare for battle.) So they weren't on guard at the time. So when Stannis suddenly came, their POV was that a giant Southern army appeared out of nowhere. They didn't have time to think logically, they panicked and ran. That's common human nature.
It was like a perfect combination for Stannis to miraculously win despite being so greatly outnumbered.
Art of war says clearly that if you don’t give your enemy the chance (or path) to flee, they’ll become slaughter machines even if they end up dying anyway
Plot armor. That's how he did it
You have to have literally zero idea about anything that happened in the story to think there is anything remotely like plot armor in this scene. Your comment makes no sense.
You lack media literacy
All this art makes me want a walking dead style comic series of graphic novels of Game of Thrones. Itd be a dense collection, but id gladly pay money for that.
The funniest thing about Stannis is how he’s “all about duty” and then proceeds to PERFECTLY perform said duties
"You do not need to destroy your enemies, only their willingness to engage."
Also forgot the whole fact that the nights watch on the wall were just killing hundreds if not thousands with barrels of ice and stone the entire time but sure leave that part out..
Stannis really had a burning passion
Really helpful dude
King Robert was honestly a fool to hate his brothers. Each one of them had worth.
Raleigh deserves to be hated because he is just a puppet of the Reach family. These were the rulers of the continent of Westeros in very ancient times, and all the Westeros families are considered the descendants of this family.
The Wilding is not an army ten times his size but actually an army one hundred times its size.
Honestly it’s amazing how much work an armored horse rider can accomplish, especially against someone unprepared for it
Stannis was a masterful tactician and it would have been nice to see him claim the iron thrown and watch how he defended it.
It's actually good to give the enemy a gap in the direction you want them to go.
Stannis knows his art of war, enemies without a escape route would instead fight to the death
Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' does say give your enemy a retreat passage while you attack. It give your enemies some moments to think retreat thus not encouraged to fight to the death.
No matter how you slice it beyond supernatural reasoning , Stannis and his army would never win against a 100 times bigger army 😂
Stannis was a well experienced and skilled millitary man and well deserved to be the King but his impatience towards the throne made him killed
Honestly there's a couple things where even in the books some of the things are a bit ridiculous
This isn’t really that ridiculous, the number of fighters in the wildling army is about 30k at most, and only a few thousand of those fought before the rest panicked and ran
Maths isn't your strong suit, I see
Not ten times the size bro, 100 times the size.
An army of 1,000 taking on 100K seems like exactly that; fantasy.
Not every battle has to strictly be about annihilating the enemy. True strategy entails recognizing when to force a decisive engagement, but also when to retain precious positioning and resources for a more prolonged campaign.
Always leave your enemy a clear avenue to retreat. That's Sun Tzu 101
"A cornered cat fights with 10 lion's ferocity." Allowing the wildlings to escape is a brilliant tactical move to nail the psych of the wildlings to rather flee than fight.
There are a few reasons why cavalry were feared in Medieval Europe.
- The impact of the horse alone could disorient and knock down any footman
- The psychological warfare of hearing the hooves thundering on the battlefield would send a shock to troop morale
- Because of how fast the horse made the rider, his swing could hit harder with the speed of the horse supporting him.
- Because of how tall war horses were, it was harder to hit the rider from the ground
- Troops/Knights that trained to be cavalry often had heavy armor (sometimes their horses did too), so it was harder for bladed weapons to penetrate said armor
- Etc.
There’s actually a really interesting part of Sun Tzus Art of War that talks about this, giving your enemy an avenue of escape actually decreases their will to fight.
He had knights, discipline and his troops were fresh
Definitely saw a similar tactic in the final battle in Kingdom Season 4, where they used the "Hourai" formation.
They ain’t want stannis on that iron throne cause he was gone rule with a iron fist 😬😆
Cavalry and discipline is capable of making foot infantry scatter like roaches
It wasn't 1000 men, it was 1500. It wasn't just men on horseback, but knights too. Also it wasn't 100,000 Wildlings, it was 30,000-40,000. Also most of those wildlings weren't even fighters. Also, they only killed like 200 people....
“Floating above them were the largest banners yet, royal standards as big as sheets; a yellow one with long pointed tongues that showed a flaming heart, and another like a sheet of beaten gold, with a black stag prancing and rippling in the wind.
Robert, Jon thought for one mad moment, remembering poor Owen, but when the trumpets blew again and the knights charged, the name they cried was “Stannis! Stannis! STANNIS!”
Excerpt From
A Storm of Swords
George R.R. Martin
They had surprise, tactics, force and mobility.
Sun Tzu would agree allowing your enemy a direction to retreat to.
Thank you, may God bless you all and everyone. ❤
Stannis came North when he read the scroll from Lord commander Mormont when they got attacked by wighs in Fist of First men. He was the Only King who came to help Night Watch.
The only thing the books and show have in common is the admiration for Sannis' Superior tactical and military prowess.
It's important to note that of the 100k, women and children were also counted. It was a rough estimate of Mance's overall force. Most wildlings were camped in the haunted forest and already separated into large groups.
Now, this isn't to take away from Stannis. He still beat anywhere from 10,000-50,000 men and women with a force a fraction of the size.