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Lannisters proved that money can't buy good soldiers....

posted 5 years ago by Coleburg83 (684)
14 replies | jump to latest

Despite medieval mercenary armies fighting for gold being the best there was in our universe.

They have had several years to rebuild their forces and their men throw down their swords all at the same time. After Dany apparently incinerated 20,000 men from the Golden Company in one blast after destroying all 1,000 ships in the Iron Fleet with like 3. There seemed to be zero resistance to Dany's exhausted forces.

The Lannister Army itself numbered 60-70,000 in the first two seasons, thousands of whom were from Jaime's army that had crushed the Riverlands army were captured in Robb's campaign and would have been released after the Red Wedding. Twyin's main Lannister host was never defeated and fully intact. Where the f-ck are they supposed to be?

[–] Volley (3386) 5 years ago

Tywin's main host lost a lot of men to Robb Stark during the War of the Five Kings. Robb never lost a battle. He never captured Casterly Rock, no, but everytime Tywin fought Robb, he lost. Tywin kept losing ground and he kept falling back.
Over and over again, to the point where Tywin decided to send his main host to King's Landing to help against Stannis, and abandon Harrenhal.

[–] Coleburg83 (684) 5 years ago

No. Jaime's host was defeated by Robb. Tywin's main host only fought and routed Stannis.

Per the show, they had 60,000 men, plus another 10,000 raised and defeated at Oxcross.

No way that 30,000 men were killed or captured with Jaime, they were routed and would have fallen back. Twin's main host was larger.

After years to rebuild and reform, they should have at least half the forces they had then. Minimum 30-40,000 men.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

There isn't enough money in the world to get anyone to stand up to a dragon. Only insane devotion to a cause or sheer idiocy can get a person to do that, as we saw with the damn fool Tarlys.

[–] Coleburg83 (684) 5 years ago

But where the fuck are there minimum 30-40,000 Lannister troops, plus 20,000 from the Golden Company?

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

How many troops did Jamie have starving in the Riverlands, anyway? How could there be 30-40,000 of them left after that?

It's as insane as Jon and Dany having that many troops after we saw their supporters die by the tens of thousands at Winterfell.

[–] Coleburg83 (684) 5 years ago

Tywin on the show said they had 60,000 men before they split forces and Jaime attacked the Riverlands army and routed them at the Golden Tooth and laid siege to Riverrun.

Apparently he sent at least part of his army back to Tywin at some point since they said his army was larger than Jaime's before Robb attacked Jaime. They said that Jaime's Army was scattered (not all killed or destroyed) and then later another 10,000 men raised since the war started were largely routed and captured at Oxcross. That's 70,000 men the Lannisters had in S2.

So that means at this point Tywin's main host has 35-40,000 men before the Green Fork. They wipe out the diversion force and then attack and route what's left of Stannis's army at KL. This is the end of the fighting for them. Later they would have been joined by the survivors from Jaime's army and Oxcross. In addition to all the thousands that were captured by Robb and released.

The Lannisters at this point should have a very, very large advantage and we see less Lannister soldiers than Northmen left after the Twins, Battle of the Bastards and the Army of the Dead. It's ludicrous.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

Of course, numbers mean nothing in warfare if you there's a dragon involved. If you've got a dragon on your side, it doesn't matter whether your enemy has to change 1,000 sets of pants when the dragon shows, or 100,000!

So while the Lannister's advantage in numbers means little in terms of who wins, I'm still pissed that the showrunners are making tens of thousands of soldiers appear and disappear without any explanation. Sure, they don't care, but there are fans that keep track of these things!

[–] Coleburg83 (684) 5 years ago

Yeah. Tens of thousands appear for the side that just got wiped out by the Army of the Dead, while the army that should have tens of thousands of men has 20,000 sellswords incinerated in one blast and like 1,000 men on the wall.

[–] kuku (3510) 5 years ago

So while the Lannister's advantage in numbers means little in terms of who wins, I'm still pissed that the showrunners are making tens of thousands of soldiers appear and disappear without any explanation.

C'mon, it's a fantasy setting.

It's like the battle between Bolton and Stark. During the battle Bolton had archers that actually were very active. And suddenly they vanished. Completely. Without explanation. Abracadabra!!! now Bolton has archers, now he hasn't, ta daah!

People missed some more fantasy in the show. Showrunners are just delivering XD

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

I presume the archers went on a coffee break, when the Boltons surrounded the Starks and everyone pressed in so close that men were starting to suffocate.

But back when Jamie started a war between the Starks and the Lannisters, the writers would politely keep track of how many troops each side had and where they were, and everyone was happy. The fans who monitor the accuracy of medieval tactics and counted soldiers were happy, and the fans who had to listen to them were happy! Now the tactics geeks are frothing mad and the armies appear and disappear like there's a wormhole somewhere, and it's absolutely clear that nobody behind the scenes gives a rat's ass about detail and plausibility.

[–] kuku (3510) 5 years ago

I presume the archers went on a coffee break

That's likely. They even brought Dany a coffee.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

Speaking of flubs, someone said they could see Coster-Waldau's real right hand in the final embrace!

[–] kuku (3510) 5 years ago

Ah, that's the problem with early access products.

Too many bugs in GoT 8.0. I hope the update to GoT 8.1 will fix all those bugs.

[–] winslow (1318) 5 years ago

I think somewhere they said 1/3 were at the rear of the loot train when they got attacked last season. Some of those survivors I'm sure were there in episode 5, they already experienced what a dragon can do. The rest heard stories of it.