True, true, but the main point I'm trying to get across, is that there's more than one way to win a war- the Opium war was won thanks to, at least in part, the Brits getting the Chinese hooked on opium en masse. Military superiority played a role, but it wasn't the sole reason. They wouldn't have done it if they thought they could win the old-fashioned way.

And Maoris kicking the Brits asses was just a second example I used, because technological superiority had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Large formations of goblin infantry and summoned Daedra. Plus aristocracy with longbows. Probably. Also, war wizards.

Magic longbows, with strings of the purest spun-silver-threads, throwing missiles wrought of starlight bound in Nth dimensional Aurbic-crystal. A massed volley is a vitric tempest of gracile heart-skewers, like a hyaline downpour of the Auri El's displeasure. But Oh, how cruel and clear those razor-bolts scream when let fly, crying the ancient chorus of Righteous Purging Of Doom-Drum's Brood And Knave-Convention.

So yeah, while they're not the same caliber of warmakers as Cyrodiil in her prime, they don't need to be.

Old Mary at Sea may have a Nautilus or two. Had the Dominion wanted more war, they could have crushed the Medes, instead of conquering by diplomacy. As I see it, their potential is held in reserve. They need to sieve Tiber from Mundus by eliminating his worship, then they can take the worshipers. He won't return to Mundus, if his worship is eliminated.

I imagine they don't want to risk another Shezarrine making Nirn-fall.

So basically bosmer archers,goblin armies,daedric armies,super magic powers and ability to stick pointy end of sword into enemy oh and forgot to mention the super navy then the agents,spys and if they are rich can hire the dark brotherhood or use their own agents plus bosmers ability with nature and being able to use to their advantage i would not want to be their enemy.

This is probably the number one cause of brown & yellow trousers among the Altmer.

I suspect the numbers and reliability of Bosmer and goblins and not great. But there are always mercenaries, and all the various merish horrors alluded to above.

Oh, and possibly Auriel.

I also have to wonder, does anyone know exactly how well equipped they are for warfare? I'd assume they'd outfit them with something marginally better than halfassed and make shift weaponry.

The reliability is definitely horrendous, but the numbers are probably great. It's pretty tough to get slaves and marginalized ethnic minorities to fight loyally and fiercely, but it's pretty easy to breed them.

As for Auriel, I doubt he's any more reliable than Alkosh. In fact, he's probably even less useful. Auriel has never helped anyone. It's the mer that act as their god's defender, not the other way around.

Then again we really have very little [no?] information on anything Auriel's done since the Convention, which I imagine is the result of never having been to Summerset (or Valenwood).

Edit: Unless we take his transcendence as being a complete abandonment.

I always took Auriel and Alduin as being the same god in a more literal sense (compared to Alduin and Akatosh, for example).

Nords call Shor's killers "Elven giants", and call Alduin's guard "Trinimac."

And I don't think Thalmor's rising, the fall of Talos, and the return of Alduin all happening around the same time is an accident.

But its not like Alduin is sweeping in to aid the Thalamor. Instead, Thalamor agents are sweeping in to help Alduin.

If your god showed up suddenly (or even not so suddenly) promising freedom from the vilest evil you're theology has thought up (existence), wouldn't you want to do your part to help Him along His way? I envision Alduin as a giant wrecking ball: the Thalmor know it's going to smash everything, but want it to, and maybe figure there's no harm in trying to help it out a little by hunting down anything that might get in its way, i.e. softening the walls so the ball tears through them like tissue paper instead of construction paper (I suspect they'll have a special thing for Dragonborn, but honestly have no idea yet).

Probably start with a knife and work their way up from there.

Yes, you're completely correct. Its just that, well, this has nothing to do with the Altmer's ability to wage war.

W-w-w-w-wait. This is very off topic, but your post if the most perfect case of putting the horse before the cart I have ever seen.

The British didn't get the Chinese hooked on opium so they could beat them in a war (they could have done that, easily).

They sold the Chinese opium because it made them money. Then fought a war to gain the right to keep on selling it to them.

Do you really think that the Chinese army was too high to fight? That out of hundreds of millions of people, opium had debilitated most of the able-bodied men?

China was 'weakened' from the opium trade by having silver taken out of its economy to pay for the stuff. A simple trade imbalance like any other. All the addicts just underscored China's humiliating position in the world.

The British won because naval technology had advanced incredibly rapidly after two centuries of near-stagnation, and because the Chinese hadn't had a navy for half a millennium.

You know what? Nobody cares about ancient history!

This. is. Tam! RUGH!

Using our world as a guide (sometimes a mistake), I'd say traditional Bosmer, being hunters, have vanishingly small population densities compared to most other cultures of Tamriel, and would therefore be unlikely to contribute much numerically. As for the goblins: well, we don't know enough, but they presumably live mostly on the Isle, which means the recruiting area must be limited.

You're right about Auriel being useless- but this is the kind of period when that might change.

You're right about the Bosmer at the start of the war, but once they're more integrated with the Dominion, and being fed Summerset-plants, they could be forced to breed quite explosively (since Bosmer have a longer fertile period).

As for the goblins, I have to ask, where are you getting this "recruiting" word from? The goblins don't need to be recruited. They're slaves, or pets.

I suspect you're right about Bosmer. Regarding goblins: 'recruiting' was the wrong word. I meant that goblins need somewhere to live, sources of food, etc, and that the Dominion would have to provide these from its own resources- though this might be less of a problem as its territory expands. What do goblins eat, anyway, other than rats and fish?

They had to get the skin off all those man-bones in their caves, somehow... :whistling:

I what I want to know is how effective are the Altmer at field battles? Because yeah they have a very strong navy, but at some point they have to fight on land, and the Altmer are not known for their physical prowess on the battlefield.

Indeed, the Colovians have taken to calling their enemy the "Old Mary" Dominion, for the womanly offensives of its Elven soldiers. The situation at sea, however, is another story, and the Dominion terrorizes the southern waters from the Cape of the Blue Divide to the Topal Bay. -taken from the Imperial Library.

Well, physical prowess is overrated. Regular armies need to be equipped (with crystaline evil, reality-shattering numerology, and the furnaces of slave-driven industry- check), trained (by the lash or the academy- check), motivated (by fanatical dedication to mythical/ideological purpose, or money, or the whip- all checks) and led (by capable leaders able to inspire and enforce obedience- check, based on the other three).

I'm sure the Empire's capabilities in all these respects are in decline. It's no good having superior personnel if you can't get them to battle and use them effectively once they're there.


[edit] @ Seeker: Forgot about that. 'Anything they can catch', then.