Let's kill the Wight Walkers!
Added 2019-04-15 15:33:33 +0000 UTCWhat are the best ways to fight the Wight Walkers from Game of Thrones using historically accurate medieval weapons, armor and tactics?
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Hey Shad. A bit off topic, But I found some video about Medeavel life. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcVwcvWePhU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcVwcvWePhU</a>
Edwin Walter Gibson
2019-04-18 21:10:19 +0000 UTCElephants would have the same problem as horses. If the Walkers can reanimate an elephant, that's a serious problem. I think he did mention horse archery. One of the Mongol's famous tactics was the false retreat. They would suddenly bolt, as though their commander had been killed or something, and the enemy would chase them, sometimes for weeks. As soon as their enemies turned to go back home or became sufficiently drawn out, the Mongols would pounce. Sometimes, a small force could lure their opponents into a much larger, fully rested Mongol force. This would be an interesting tactic against the wights, they probably couldn't be worn out like humans, but they might get drawn out or might be lured into a trap. I think that's the kind of thing Shad means when he says maneuver warfare would be superior to waiting in castles.
Erik Eldritch
2019-04-17 01:08:38 +0000 UTCWhat about Chariots and War Elaphants. Smash a Whole Horde of Wights all at once. :3 Also the Huns and Mongols Horse archers could be very useful.
Edwin Walter Gibson
2019-04-16 09:54:48 +0000 UTCHere are my thoughts: I don't watch Game of Thrones, so I don't know exactly how they are using this term, but in general, the modern useage of "wight" and the medieval useage of "wight" are not the same. In the middle ages, "wight" basically meant humanoid, it refer to a human, an elf, a revenant or any such thing. Revenants were called barrow-wights, poetically, and this became the only usage of the word. However, the Game of Thrones wights sound very close to medieval revenants, which pleases me. When you say non-obsidian arrows would be useless, what about fire arrows? I don't know how historically accurate the idea of dipping an arrow in oil and shooting it actually is, but I feel like if dropping boiling oil on people from castle walls was a tactic, they could have some kind of fire archers. In some fantasies or mythologies, evil or supernatural creatures are forbidden to cross water, or they might be twarted by the spirits that live in the water. If there's some magical reason that GoT wights cannot cross water, this would provide a lot of tactis. Motes, waterworks and canals all existed before the middle ages, and they were capable of damming or undamming rivers or redirecting the flow. Even if water is just inconvenient for them, they might try to flood the undead. Allegedly, they can cross water at least on ships or bridges, and they're allegedly always moving in large hordes, so striking at them when they try to cross bodies of water would be extremely advantageous. Again, I don't watch the show, but when you say that cavalry would be ideal against the hordes, I wonder if the Walkers can easily raise horses too, since they have their own undead horses. If so, providing the Walkers with horses would be a bad idea, since living horses usually avoid trampling people, an undead super-agressive psychically-controlled warhorse would be extremely dangerous on the battlefield. When you talk about knocking out the Walkers themselves, the idea of a spy intrigues me. Would a person with blue eyes be able to shout "bRAINS!!!" or whatever a wight would shout and shamble about in an undead manner to pretend that they are undead until they are close enough to a Walker to knock them out. Or do the wights or Walkers have some kind of extra sense that would reveal a living human no matter what. Depending on the exact time and place this world is supposed to represent, I know that medieval China had a lot of flame weapons that might be employed against wights to great effect. The treatise, Huolongjing, was written around 1400 and discussed fire weapons employed during the 1300s. Even without any inherent weakness to fire, a big closely grouped aggressive horde should be especially vulnerable to catching fire or getting caught in explosions. Even before the 1300s, the Chinese and Jin were using Fire Lances, spears or staffs with explosive devices at the pointy end. Even before that, the Chinese had developed an incredibly powerful triple bowed ballista which would be great at sniping Walkers from afar. Around the 900s, the Chinese had developed the Fierce-fire Oil Cabinet, or Ancient Chinese Flame Thrower, which could supposedly eject enormous sheets of flame a long distance (exactly how much how far? it's history) So, when winter comes, I'm moving to China. If there's some fantasy version of China or the Middle East (who had similar weapons) in Game of Thrones, trading with these cultures might be super important to defending against the undead horde. I'm vaguely aware that Rome and Byzantia had fire weapons too, but they are not one of my interests. But it seems to me that if such technology is available in ancient times and these undead attacks are a recurring thing, civilization would probably remember and expand upon their arsenal of fire weapons.
Erik Eldritch
2019-04-16 00:32:46 +0000 UTC
