nimbyCan anyone explain why the plan consisted of fighting the undead army in front of Winterfell instead of just holding the city walls initially? I feel like that would of made lighting the trench much easier as well. I understand that their plan was to lure the night king to Bran but that makes the makes the entire battle before the night king made it to Bran feel so pointless. Was the battle outside Winterfell, the following retreat to Winterfell, and the subsequent undead swarm and breach of Winterfell somehow supposed to lead the night king to Bran?
There are so many ways the fight could of been done to be not be ridiculously dumb. If you want to effectively buy time just light the trench beforehand with the dragons and hold the walls with the entire army. Instead of sacrificing all of your Calvary right at the beginning of the battle maybe use them to send a strike force while the undead are focused on the city walls to kill the night king? I think calvary leading a charge through the undead with dragons breathing fire to break a path open would of made for an awesome scene..
Lets just agree the setup was idiotic and leave it at that. As a hobby, I've studied ancient battle strategy for a few decades since highschool and things I seen in this episode were against even basic strategy.
---Cavalry charge was a complete waste. They should have been on the flanks of the castle ready to enter at a critical moment. Plus, what commander is going to do a cavalry charge into complete darkness without knowing what is in front of them.
---Should have been a minimum of 2 trenches IN FRONT of the defending troops. Again, Moats/Trenches were typical standard strategy ahead of invaders.
---Catapult/treb placement might have been the dumbest thing I saw in this video. They should have some of them INSIDE the castle walls to rain down fire for the whole battle.
--During a Castle siege, the defenders should have been pouring flammable oil from the walls/towers. We know they had this in GoT if you remember a few seasons ago, Bronn being told they had "500 barrels", he replied "get 500 more"
I'm sure I can think of more if I rewatch but just looking at the map, Winterfell is a poorly designed castle for a siege. I see no inner defensive walls for the defenders if the main walls are breached. This was pretty standard for a castle.