Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-3539474-20130910213054/@comment-14359537-20130919082852

It is true that the AD are outnumbered. However, it is also true that mankind reproduces faster, so waiting will benefit man far more than the Thalmor. What's more, the elves have longer life spans. This makes an elf veteran far more valuable than a human veteran. If the AD waits for so long that these veterans will naturally die of age, they will lose one of their critical advantages in such a protracted war. This makes it imperative that the Thalmor strike quickly.

So the question isn't how many the AD will fight. Rather, it is how they fight. I already though up of a way: Guerrila warfare. Guerilla warfare is one that doesn't involve head to head combat. Instead, the tactic involves ambushing, hit and runs, sabotage missions, assasinations, decoys, etc. Using this form of warfare gives the Thalmor several huge advantages: the opportunity to strike first, the opportunity to kill the enemy commander before the fight begins, and the opportunity to possibly cripple the enemy forces without losing a single soldier, to name a few. This tactic is extremely viable, because the bosmer and khajiit are naturally excellent at scouting, sneaking and archery, and that orcs and imperials tend to use heavy armor, prohibiting them from reacting quickly and properly.

Personally, I'm 3-4 times more effective when using a low-mid level sneak. Therefore, if we assume that the kill to death ratio of the AD and the Legion is 1:1 in head on combat, the Thalmor will improve their ratio to 3:1 if guerilla warfare is employed. That means the opposing forces needs to be thrice the thalmor army. Don't tell me the Thalmor will still lose at that kind of effectiveness :P. Even if that is the case, the key point for them is to get Cyrodiil's attention. They need to make the imperials send enough reinforcements to weaken Cyrodiil, which for the AD, is easily acheivable. Once Cyrodiil is left weakened, the Altmer comes in from Elysweyr. In this scenario, fighting in two fronts isn't a problem at all, because one army is fighting very effectively and the other is virtually unnoposed. The AD might even get the Argonian's attention, because I'm sure they're not on good terms with the empire. If they decide to attack while they still can, Cyrodiil is screwed.

Troop count is one thing. But if a good strategy is used and appropriate tactics are employed, not many things are impossible.