Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-107.215.5.68-20140325020553/@comment-2A02:2149:8488:1400:C875:5574:A881:E73C-20181021225632

I know that this is years old, but it is still open so...

They could, but that would depend on leadership, military doctrine, climate, terain and public opinion.

In leadership Ulfric Stormcloak is considered by his critics Brunwulf Free-Winter and Falk Firebeard to be a great leader and a genius, however we have no knowledge of the thalmor leadership, but let us all agree that the empire's leadership that believes that they can ever beat the thalmor by capitulating and "regrouping" (as if that ever worked), is laughable.

For military doctrine, the Stormcloaks have few equals, nations with "all or nothing" war ethic are the most likely to win their wars, just like Rome did and created an entire empire thanks to that war ethic. We are not sure about the Thalmor's war ethics, though they don't seem to be that persistent as we saw in Hammerfell and bear in mind it was their priority target when the Great War began. They will definetly do better against the Thalmor than the empire, whose war ethic is simply to lose more and more lands by treaties like the WGC.

As for climate and terrain, obviously the thalmor could never penetrate Skyrim's natural defenses and extremely cold weather, just as they couldn't do it for Hammerfell's hot weather. The Jerrall and Velothi mountains are quite easily defensible with very small ambush squads and garrisons. And good luck with crossing the sea of ghosts, there is no way the thalmor could ever possibly secure supply lines on such dangerous waters. As for the Stormcloaks invading the Dominion, I don't think they have to, as long as they harass their trading ship, sabotage their military effort and support dissidents within the Dominion I think the provinces of the Dominion will become independent on their own.

And finaly if it comes to a war between the Stormcloaks and the Thalmor, everyone else on Tamriel will take up arms against the Dominion, not because anyone likes the Stormcloaks, but because everyone hates the Thalmor as they made an enemy out of everyone on Tamriel. If the Thalmor make the mistake of sending troops against Skyrim, you can bet your life Cyrodiil and Hammerfell will invade the Dominion's territories as it would be their opportunity to destroy them.

At the end of the day the only way to beat the Thalmor is to not be handicaped by the WGC which is why the Stormcloaks at least have a chance against the Dominion unlike the empire.