Season 8 of Game of Thrones: Military experts say Winterfell battle plan was bad

This article contains revelations about the third episode of Game of thronesEighth season.

Game of thronesThe long-awaited Battle of Winterfell is over – and all I can say is whoa.

In fact, it's not true. "The Long Night" was a big episode, but I'm not the only one pointing out that the proposed military strategy and tactics – in particular by the army of the living – were rather horrendous. The first charge Dothraki was at best misguided. There seemed to be little defenses on the walls of Winterfell. And why did not Jon or Dany use their dragons to burn more giants and White Walkers?

Meanwhile, the Army of the Dead took advantage of its huge numerical advantage to capture the ranks of the Living and attack Winterfell. It left me and others wondering: could not the living have improved their defenses?

To find out, I called two military experts: Ryan Grauer, an associate professor of international relations at the University of Pittsburgh, and Mick Cook, an Australian veteran who fought in Afghanistan. Together, they agreed that Jon's and Dany's military tactics were lacking – and in some cases outright horrible.

Winning the Battle of Winterfell at that time was therefore a very lucky result (thanks, Arya!), Given the mediocrity with which Jon and Dany had planned their defense.

Our conversation, edited slightly for length and clarity, follows.

Alex Ward

How much was the army of the living prepared for the Battle of Winterfell?

Ryan Grauer

Living on a superficial level did just about everything that could be expected of commanders who did not spend much time leading large forces on the ground. I was surprised to find that very little effort was made to understand what was happening with the army of the dead.

In the last two episodes, we have seen many efforts to reinforce Winterfell and a few feints of tactical discussion. But, especially since they knew that a massive army was coming, they seemed remarkably unprepared for the scale of their presence and their date of presence.

Mick Cook

To prepare for a siege, you are not leading your forces in the middle of the battle to fight a numerically superior enemy. You let the enemy invest to try to defeat your defenses, and the defenses were all back in front of my point of view. Having the cavalry at the front, then their infantry, then their defenses behind all their strength, it was as if they had decided to plan in the back, and it did not really bring them back.

Alex Ward

Can you explain that a little further?

Mick Cook

Of course, I will start with the catapults. Catapults are used to drop explosives in front of your own forces as they attack the enemy. You try to place them only one-third of the distance to your front-line forces so that they can continue to fight the enemy as your forces get closer to him. But, to do this, catapults must always be protected, so they must be behind your front lines.

You need your infantry or cavalry at least in front of your firing range. In addition, with your close air support, like your dragon, you want to use it to the point that will be most valuable to your land forces, so your land forces can take advantage of any destruction that the dragons, in this case , would cause.

With light cavalry, like the Dothraki, their job is to go very fast, to cause damage and to come back – to exhaust the enemy. It probably will not work with the Army of the Dead. Usually, the light cavalry sits on the wings so that they can move quickly without being hindered by things such as infantry that advance more slowly, mix with a thick scrum and usually constitute a slow and harder battle.

Ryan Grauer

I would have pushed the trench further, then all the infantry behind the trench, then you would have the catapults behind the infantry, so that as the dead come back, they encounter this barrier at the beginning. We saw in the episode that it had taken some time to find a solution to this problem, until the King of the night understood the problem and ordered his forces to overcome.

But at that moment, as long as they are retained, you can use your dragons and begin to destroy the army of the dead without worrying about mixing your forces with them. And then, when they start to cross this trench barrier, they meet your infantry, and your infantry is fresh because they are waiting for the dead to overcome this obstacle.

Meanwhile, the Vivant should use the catapult located behind the infantry to fire flaming stones and so on in the ranks of the dead, while Dothraki's cavalry rushed to the sides and stood out at the edges.

Helen Broad / HBO

Alex Ward

So, if that's what the plan should be, what about that Dothraki charge at first? Tell me that I'm wrong, please, that there was no real military justification for that.

Mick Cook

I would love to tell you because I like to argue well. The way they filmed was cool, but if the Dothraki were heavy riders armed with armored warriors like knights, and they had that shocking power, then that made sense.

But the Dothraki are a lighter moving cavalry. So do not load them into the midst of King Night's troops. You would use them on the wings.

So I agree with you that there is no real tactical reason to use light cavalry to charge directly into a larger infantry force that can really absorb the momentum of the charge.

Ryan Grauer

The Dothraki have managed to convince opponents like these in the past, as they attacked living beings subject to terror and fear, resulting in easier deaths. This was not the case here.

And it's also a bit strange to start with a Dothraki charge given the commanders' previous experience. In the battle beyond the wall, Daenerys saved Jon and his attackers with his dragon. During the Battle of the Bastards, the Knights of the Valley came to save the day at the last moment.

The use of the cavalry for the climax of the battle where they could have the most effect instead of throwing them away would have been a better game.

Alex Ward

Did the Army of the Living use its two dragons wisely? Some say they should have been used a lot more to burn bastards.

Ryan Grauer

I am convinced by the argument that dragons function primarily as close air support. If we think about how they played on the battlefield in this role, they failed to break that battle.

So, especially when you are fighting an opponent who actually has an unlimited number of bodies to throw you, it is not clear that burning reanimated fighters for others to take their place is a good use of this particular resource, especially if you believe that this dragon fire could destroy the White Walkers, and perhaps the king of the night itself.

Alex Ward

One thing I always think about: was it smart for Jon and Dany to send two dragons after the king of the nights? Or would one have had to stay to burn the army of the dead while the other would pursue the undead dragon?

Ryan Grauer

I think it makes sense to send two dragons after the king of the night. They have a special quality that could achieve the ultimate goal: kill the king of the night – or at least that was what we expected. I think you are going ahead and use both to double your chances, especially when you know that the King of the night is riding his own revived dragon.

Mick Cook

It is not surprising that they decided to have the two dragons attack the king of the night, because what will the dragon do, burn more dead? I think both dragons at the same time was a good choice.

Alex Ward

Ok, so the two against one was a good choice. Why not put non-combatants in the crypt? This seems to be a blunder of all time? There were dead there ready to be revived!

Ryan Grauer

It does not make sense. I think this is proof, once again, of the inability of the living to understand their enemy as much as possible.

After the battle of Hardhome, they know that the king of the night can revive the dead. But it is not clear whether he can raise his arms and pick up the dead wherever he wants. Perhaps there is a kind of geographical limitation to its power, and depending on the depth of the crypts, perhaps it has not been so far.

Having said that, you have a huge army walking on Winterfell and you have a lot of women and children, what will you do with them? You do not want them outside, or in spaces where they would hinder the fighting. Crypts are really the only place where you can hide them. And then, you risk what you need to do.

Mick Cook

It was probably the best of the bad options, but we expect better from Tyrion, at least, in terms of reasoning. I thought he would at least understand.

Alex Ward

Another puzzle: why put Theon and Ironborn on Bran, especially if Bran is the most valuable asset of Living?

Ryan Grauer

Well, where would you get other support? If the Army of the Dead makes its entrance into Winterfell, it does not matter if you have a handful of Ironborn or no one to protect Bran, unless of course that Arya hides in the woods somewhere ready to come stab the Night King. .

Mick Cook

I agree. I think that when they were drawing up the battle plan, they did not expect the king of the night to really wait for the walls to be pierced, and then go through the main door. They expected him to use his dragon and go straight to Bran.

The other point is that the Ironborns set up a defense perimeter, but it was not really a perimeter at all. They are very skillful with their close combat weapons like axes, but they choose bows and arrows in the woods where they can not see from a distance. The weapon they chose was designed to fail, almost.

Alex Ward

I thought a lot was basically designed to fail. If you expected the White Walkers to reach your walls, would not you have better defense on those walls?

Mick Cook

Yes, wall defenses were a big problem for me too. I mean, they did not even use burning pitch or anything like that, which works for both the living and the dead. In addition, they have all this dragonglass, and they did not coat the top of the walls. This would prevent them from crawling a bit. It was as if Living's attitude was: "They'll still get by, they can just as well fight hand-to-hand against the wall."

I also guess it made a good TV.

Ryan Grauer

I think the tension between good military tactics and good television has come into conflict here. Like both of you, I was surprised not to see any terrain, or any other mechanism used to help defend the walls a little more than what they tried.

But again, they were a much larger force than they thought and, for some reason, they were surprised at how quickly the dead were coming to Winterfell. If they still had a few days, another week, they might have done a little better.

Alex Ward

It's not just the living who were outnumbered, right? It was that the king of the night had absolute control over them.

Ryan Grauer

We saw this at stake in this battle, where you have the king of the night who runs a very centralized organization controlling everything. He is able to react and force his own troops to lie on the trench fire to make a bridge, for example.

On the living side, you have nothing to do with this centralization and you effectively remove the commander of the battle with the blizzard. Jon and Dany were looking for the king of the night and could literally not see anyone or anything.

Although Jon could communicate orders on how to adapt to emerging challenges on the battlefield, he does not know what they are. The King of the Night was thus better able to overcome the fog and friction of the war with his organizational structure, but this resulted in a weakness that Arya exploited and finally won the day of the living.

Mick Cook

The weather effects played a huge role in everything that would have been very difficult to plan. The air support that dragons provide is not an all weather option. The same thing that affected these dragons affects the throws in the real world. This is what earthly artillery like these catapults do: Even if you can not see it, simply attach hot stones all day long and still cause damage.

Alex Ward

I would say that White Walker generals can make important calls despite the weather, but they seemed ultimately useless, especially since the king of the night had a lot of control. Their only use was to arrive at Winterfell and resemble the generic scene of Reservoir Dogs.

Mick Cook

You thought Reserve dogsI thought of Backstreet Boys when they came around the corner. Or maybe it's NSYNC: They were just there to make Justin Timberlake look good.

Alex Ward

What better way to end than by that?