Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-1600847-20161103125247/@comment-993964-20161206103454

YinyangElementofduality wrote: Sports72Xtrm wrote: "Bryling: "You know that I support the Empire, as we all do. However, I fear General Tullius is underestimating the Stormcloaks. Too often the general has lost good soldiers because he did not take Ulfric and his men seriously. If this continues, and the worst comes to pass, Solitude will pay the price. The Empire is headquartered here, after all."

"The Stormcloaks are finding victory across the land." -Jorleif You forgot to mention the follow up:

Falk: "we don't have the luxury of hanging back to see who wins before choosing our friends, Bryling. You know this. And besides, no Nord with a shred of honor would consider it. We're no cowards. Have faith, Bryling. When this war is over and Ulfric is dead, you'll see that you were jumping at shadows, and nothing more"

While I advocate "cunning beyond your comprehension" type of neutrality, for the Nords who are limited and seriously crippled due to their culture in their strategic options like wise the Imperials are too blinded by their worthless pride as the Rulers of Tamriel for so many centuries. It is how many Nords are like.

That is how the Thalmor had both the Stormcloaks and Imperials dancing on their palm.

You keep claiming it was plain luck that Tullius caught Ulfric with an Ambush without truly knowing what is required for a military ambush operation.

Ambush Operations are a quadruple to duodecuple layered level of complicated combined with multi-phased operations.

On second thoughts It might be too difficult to explain true military tactics to you since it had been used successfully throughout warring history of mankind with at least a Quintillion deaths around the world under its belt.

I will put it simple.

Number 1, more basic than basics of most basics: PREDICT THE PATH WHERE YOUR TARGET WILL TRAVEL and find a perfect location in this path where you can conceal your forces and perform a surprise attack on the enemy.

For it to be an ambush, Tullius needed to figure out where was Ulfric going and in his traveling path where is most ideal to conceal his forces so that he can surprise Ulfric.

Therefore it is not by luck at all. I didn't expect to need to explain such a simple thing to you but whatever. There is the evidence that Tullius > Ulfric as a military tactican while Ulfric is a better combatant only because of the Thu'um. The very difference between luck and skill is if you can reproduce the results more than once. Even a clock is right twice a day. Tullius is unable to apprehend Ulfric again after he escapes and Bryling notes that Ulfric's strategies has bested his legionaires with Tullius at the helm and credits him at fault because he underestimated him. That to me tells me that he is unable to predict Ulfric's strategy and is punished for it by the deaths of his men. A good tactician would never let bravado interfere with pragmatism. The fact that Tullius has to draw every available resource from Haafingar to the point where Solitude is almost economically bankrupt tells me that Tullius is struggling to subdue Ulfric's rebellion and was losing control. I know when a side in a war was stretching itself too thin and the Legion was doing that under Tullius because the points I've made are all red flags of that. You hail Tullius as some great general but one ambush does not make Tullius a conqueror.