Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-25531876-20141229215535/@comment-69.123.217.197-20150215000024

Except that ancient and medieval history is filled with cases where forces that were outnumbered much, much more than three-to-one have come out victorious, and at that fighting against trained armies rather than creatures that have devolved into blind, dumb savages. A dozen reasonably well trained, reasonably well equipped, and reasonably well commanded troops would be able to kill upwards of a hundred Falmer for the reasons I've stated above. Mind, the Falmer were literally all around the Dwemer and inside their strongholds when they revolted, yet there is no indication that the Dwemer were losing: in fact, the only thing that resulted in a Falmer "victory" was their global disappearance due to the events of the Battle of Red Mountain.

Further, you're going into gameplay rather than lore. If we were to take gameplay seriously, then Cyrodiil and Skyrim would be besieged by bandits that were stronger than the Imperial Legion's best champions and equipped with Daedric weapons and armour. Dunmeri chitin armour is less effective than Bonemold, and Bonemold is roughly on par with steel: however, the Dunmer are skilled craftsmen, and have been refining their arts for centuries and testing them in battle. The Falmer are savages incapable of any higher thinking, and their craftsmanship is appropriately poor. They also don't seem to fully understand the purpose of armour, as they do not guard vital areas and leave large portions of flesh vulnerable.

It is also important to always remember that the Falmer are not unified: they appear to operate in small tribal units that raid independently of one another. They seem to live in the same areas, but this is due to the fact that this is where they have been for centuries, and importantly lack any leadership or hierarchy. As well, the chances that they would be able to tunnel into a major city are slim, precisely due to the fact that large settlements tend to be built on stone and hard rock foundations for stability.