User blog comment:Spritydove/Deeper Thought into the Civil War/@comment-152.133.14.7-20120621172237

@below anon: Sheer numbers don't have much at all to do with comparative military history. The arid climate and city layout of Hammerfell is a vastly easier area to defend than to attack, especially comparing the native Redguards to the besieging Aldmeri, who were ill-equipped to compensate for the combined obstacles of Redguard combat and the land itself. Cyrodiil is, by and large, a moderate climate with a higher concentration of industrialized and/or agricultural landscapes, defended by the naturally more cosmopolitan and level-headed Imperials, so the attackers (the Thalmor) had bigger advantages. Besides, invading a territory defended by its own people is infinitely more difficult than taking a tract of land from an alliance of variously interested parties. There is no way to quantify or compensate for the morale of a unified body of people defending their homeland, like the Redguard did...and like the Nords will eventually have to do against the Dominion.