User blog comment:IGotsAName/Empire vs Stormcloaks... Gray & Grey Morality? Really?/@comment-4929781-20120405030155/@comment-69.146.244.153-20120406192635

Woah now, No. Hammerfell was on its own against the Thalmor, the Empire couldn't have any troops in Hammerfell because of the White Gold Concordat. The Great War did have many a battle in Hammerfell, where redguards and imperials fought alongside eachother, however, when the Empire was forced to renounce Hammerfell as a province, they would have been forced to withdraw troops. The AD wanted a huge southern chunk of Hammerfell in the treaty, which was refused, leading to the renouncement, and later the Hammerfell-Thalmor war. They didn't get all they wanted, but were trying. The reason the Redguards won against the AD, in their own war, was because the everlasting civil war between the crowns and forebears(?) in hammerfell ended. This allowed a fully focused push against the AD, using mostly guerrilla warfare, which severly drained the AD's resources. The AD were also weakened due to the recent Great War, and while Hammerfell wouldn't have been "tip-top", the end of their own civil war would have united them, and definitely aided them in their victory. Skyrims case is almost opposite of hammerfell: they started a civil war, are fighting against the empire to leave, and will only be weakened at the end of it all. The AD has had time to recover from the Great War and would probably be able to even take the Empire easily.