*Ukrainians. Stalin thought it would be a fantastic idea to send in troops with no ethnic ties to those they were invading. However this also meant they had no idea how to survive in that enviroment. Had a Finnish-Swede neighbor last semester who was very proud of their performance in "the Winter War," but that is modern warfare, not quite as good a comparison as ancient wars.
Tortor said it much more effectively than I was going to, so I'm just going to quote him on this one. See, that's the elephant in the room. It doesn't really matter whether the Imperials or Stormcloaks win the war for Skyrim. While the Imperials would have a better chance at assaulting Summerset, it probably still wouldn't matter. Because you're right. Either army would be left trying to assault the Dominion where they're strongest, in a region that hasn't come under assault since the Oblivion Crisis. The best hope is that the Dominion would keep trying to overextend its forces, but at the end of the day, even if they're that proud and arrogant, I'm not entirely convinced that they're that foolish. I don't really have a viable solution to that conundrum for either of the Mannish factions.
Several things: You act as if hitting a moving target at range who is in armor in the throat is easy and most soldiers would be capable of doing that, even when not engaged in a battle. Also there is the fact that the Nords use even worse light armor than that and are even more vulnerable against troops who, on average, are better than them... Historically speaking they defeated a bunch of (mostly) empires on the decline and facing far bigger issues. The Aldmeri Dominion is not either of those things. And you talk as if the Aldmeri Dominion wouldn't just destroy everything if they could. Under normal circumstances, that would be a logistical issue (think: Vietnam napalm bombings). The Thalmor don't have that. There is literally nothing stopping them from destroying every forest, burning every farm and essentially committing a holocaust. Almost EVERY Aldmeri Dominion patrol in Skyrim was made up of magic-wielders. Think what thousands of such individuals could do, in just a single fucking day.
Well I had multiple saves that I actually managed to get far in, My Battleaxe weilding Nord Ezekiel, the man who never dies, yep he just pops up through out every game to save the day all mary sue like, My Count whose name I changed so many times, Dark Elf with heavy armour and a greatsword, and my short spear and healing magic wielding Lunari, and you guessed it, all Imperials
Daaamit! witch one! I have for gotten.... This is kinda embrassing.... please remind me of deleting this emotion...
Huh. That's funny, my build does almost the exact same thing, except replace dual axes with good ol' fisticuffs. Also a werewolf. And yes, there's heavy armour under those robes. Ebony armour, specifically.
I was not actually saying they need to hit them in the throat, I was just making a point that dead is dead no matter the tool, and an arrow still works rather well as a ranged weapon. The armor they use is still light, thus it is vulnerable to arrow penetration, particularly in the joints. Also, I do not believe that the average Aldmeri soldier actually is better on average than a Nord Warrior. Better equipment sure, but they aren't all magic casters. That's really what gives them an advantage, their surplus of Battle Mages, but the Altmer are weaker physically than Nords, and the Nords may not be as trained but they are battle hardened veterans, some of them even veterans from the war with the Thalmor, so they have foreknowledge on how they fight. I forgot to bring up my point with the Germans, even in its height Rome had trouble with them. They could win wars and battles, but they gave up on conquering Germania a long time before their decline. Tacticus put it that while with the other lands they conquered they would take losses, they were never that bad compared to how many enemies they killed, but the Germans would make them bleed again and again, and victory would always come at a high cost. This was because they when they defeated a powerful tribe, another equally savage tribe would replace them and still resist their conquest. The people and the lands themselves were against them. This is how it would be in Skyrim, they could kill an entire generation of fighting men and their sons would just rise in their place drunk on the promises of the glory of avenging their fathers. Given that the Altmer are a long lived race, and I think I've read lore in game supporting this, it stands to reason they don't breed as swiftly, so I believe in the long hall for them to replenish their soldiers with the next generation would take far longer than humans. Their losses would be longer lasting that the Nords.
Smactually, I meant too say he holds a war axe in one hand and immolates his foes with the other. Funny, Barbus is an Imperial racially but he fights for the Stormcloaks. I guess he fancies himself the next Emperor of Tamreil, but everyone knows that he's just a delusional psychopath. Still, few would tell him that he's not the true Emperor.
