Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-76.97.80.106-20130811163656/@comment-112.205.18.151-20140628093529

I feel people need to have a clearer picture of what actually went down in the Great War and why Hammerfell is in no condition to be awesome at the moment. War is much more complicated than "get a bunch of people with weapons and pwn". It is a very complicated affair that affects all aspects of the country. Especially the economy.

Here was how the war went down from a bird's eye view. Put together from various sources from both this wiki and UESP

The early success of the Elven army is due to the difference between a Nation's Total Strength and their Effective Strength  ( the forces a nation can utilize within a specific theater of war). The 2 nations were effectively in a cold war following the reformation of the Elsweyr Confederacy as part of the Dominion which led to a military buildup.

Before the Great War the Empire had a greater Total Strength compared to the Dominion, however if you compare the borders they shared before the war (http://images.uesp.net/thumb/c/c3/TamrielMap.jpg/400px-TamrielMap.jpg), you would see that Cyrodill borders both the provinces of Valenwood and Elsweyr which were more stable than other provinces. Despite the concentrated buildup of Dominion forces within these borders that would undoubtedly have been reported by the Blades Agents prior to their execution to start hostilities( bearing in mind that they missed an entire army hidden in Elsweyr), the Empire had to sprawl their legions all over Tamriel to mantain stability.

This means that they would only be able to spare less than 50%( at the most ) of their forces to the larger border in Cyrodill which shows that the Effective Strength of the Empire within Cyrodill was smaller than the Elves since the Dominion could concentrate their power within only 2 provinces with smaller borders, thus allowing them to quickly overcome whatever border defences the Empire had. Similar to how the Germans bypassed the French Maginot Line. The Elves bypassed numerous garrisons in order to quickly defeat the Legion in Hammerfell, because this was the nearest cohesive Legion the Empire had after being forced to retreat from the border in Cyrodill ( since though they were not routed armies still need to take time to withdraw and regroup following any defeat ).

The Legion in Hammerfell was forced to move across the desert further decreasing their numbers due to attrition. This left Cyrodill and the Imperial City defended only by the demoralized and weakened Legions they started with and fresh reinforcement from Skyrim which would not have been enough to counter the advance of the Elven Armies who had a much higher morale due to their string of victories. The Empire was forced to retreat North and mobilize all their reserves and recall all their Legions who were still mantaining order as garrisons in other provinces in order to form a cohesive force of men with numbers enough to match the army occupying Cyrodill. This act further destabilized the regions who relied on the Legion to enforce the rule of law.

The prolonged conflict and loss of their treasury in the Capital would have forced the Empire to cannibalize its own fields to sustain the march back to the Imperial City. The victory in the following battle only meant that the Elves had lost most of their Standing Army but the Empire's Standing AND Reserve army was mostly decimated. The Thalmor could have gathered their Reserves by mobilizing their garrisons and conscripting from the populace if threatened by an Imperial counterattack. The Emperor knew that a counterattack would be impossible because of this and the economy of the Empire could NOT sustain an offensive without cannibalizing his own villages to feed his army ( which was akin to a car running on gas fumes ). Further hostilities would have bankrupted the Empire and cause it's collapse as the Legions could no longer be paid due to the loss of the Imperial Treasury and the Plundering of the White-Gold Tower.

Relying on war support from his vassals for funds as some would suggest would mean incurring large debts for the Ruby Throne and an increase in decentralization which would have further lessened the Empires ability to react to threats decisively. This meant that the Emperor had to cut his lossed in order to possibly fight the Elves again without the disastrous start of the War due to the Initiative Advantage of the Dominion. As for why the Redguards managed to defeat the Dominion you would have to take the line "Held their Ground." Much less literally. The Elves marched against Hammerfell but the Redguards did not engage them in conventional open combat. The Elves could not march against the Redguards in the desert without knowing the land and they could not march against the Redguards in their cities since the Redguards could easily strike from the desert and disrupt their supply lines, preventing the Dominion from commiting forces in a siege.

The Redguards applied the doctrine of Total Strength vs Effective Strength on a smaller scale. The Dominion could not commit all its forces to Hammerfell because the deserts drastically lowered the limit in wich they could deploy soldiers without them dying of attrition, while the Redguards used scorched earth tactics similar to the Russians against Napoleon and in WW2, only using the heat of the desert intead of Russian Winter against the Elves. Also many legionnaires were left behind by General Decianus which allowed the Redguards a second wind in their guerrila war against the Dominion. Unable to occupy the province and unwilling to abandon it for the first 5 years the invaders faced swift harrassing tactics from the locals that forced them to withdraw. Hammerfell was free but they were forced to devastate their own lands to force the elves back.

The relatively undamaged Elven economy due to the fact that their core territories were left untouched by the War means that the Elves are in a better postion to rebuild their forces in preparation for the next Great War unlike the Empire which was struggling to get back on its feet and rebuild Cyrodill.

To summarize. The Elves ARE a great threat. The Empire NEEDS more time to stabilize itself and breed a new generation of people who can fight back. Hammerfell was devastated. All future fighting would take place in Cyrodill which is why every step taken in deliberation with the Thalmor has to be careful. Ignoring the current actions of "kidnapping" and the like is the only solution available while the still are not ready to face the elves.