Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-97.81.240.58-20130603234626/@comment-24590102-20140331013910

StealthBlade98 wrote: Smoking.Chimp wrote: The reason for my digression was to demonstrate how big an 'if' we are talking about given that the Aldmeri Dominion will be looking to disrupt or otherwise cut communication between its enemies. Without communication, there can be no coordination of effort. Without coordination of effort, an enemy cannot be beaten no matter how much smaller they are. This was a key factor in overwhelming the Eureka Stockade in 19th century Australia. The Australians had foreign military support (courtesy of the U.S. if I recall) but the British waited until that support scouted far enough away for communications to be cut and then they hit - and then it was all over bar looting the prisoners. The strength of numbers hinges on open lines of communication and, the larger the scale, the more difficult it is to keep lines of communication open. Not a big if actually, Hammer fell overwhelmed and stopped the AD invasion by themselves. AD are not even strong enough to tackle a grand scale battle. They were only able to succeed in cyrodill because of the Titus Mede II inability to see the deception in the AD treaty and thought they would have lost the battle if they continued the war. The AD, thalmor could have been crippled overall from the war if they kept fighting. Your example is trying to make out the thalmor to be that big of a threat to disrupt communication which they aren't. They can't even beat the dragonborn and he/she's one person. Trust me they're pretty weak and only able to get be effective by cloak and dagger tactics.

With the proper people and large enough force it'd be impossible for them to stop that numbers game. This is TES we're talking about the rules are different than real life where there's methods of sabotaging communication and what not through technology War is not a numbers game. Factors like supply, terrain, morale, officer competence, etc are of far greater importance. Unsupplied soldiers will not march, demoralised soldiers will not fight (demoralised emperors will not negotiate for their people) and soldiers led by incompetent officers are dead men already. I recommend Sun Tzu's Art of War. While the technology and technology-based tactics may have changed over the centuries, the basic principles of warfare have not.