House Forrester, is this a joke?

[Metalsie]

We have here a house, whose holdings are a Tiny "Castle" and the surrounding area, that can't even raise 20 men; being involved with Cersei, Tyrion, Roose Bolton and Jon ♥♥♥♥ing Snow.

The entire game feels unrealistic and pretty much a fanservice for the players to interact in meaningless ways with these important people. I understand that he fans of the HBO show are the main audience, but come on...

Whats worse is the tryhard attempts of the game to present House Forrester as if they're some relevant or mighty house. Its motto is "Iron from Ice", capitals name is "Ironrath" hell they are supposedly so important that Rob Stark trusts them enough to place them on the Vanguard. They should have went and hired Linkin Park to compose their music.

The storyline is ridicilously frustrating, from Episode 1 to 4, I haven't seen a single armed House Forrester soldier. NOT ONE. The Whitehills on the other hand are spawning troops as it seems they have hundreds of them with nothing to justify their presence, as in, their lands are bare of Ironwood.

This "20 good men" ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ has greatly ruined the first 4 episodes for me. What do you guys think?

[BoydofZINJ]

If you think of the north... Winterfell always seemed to be like 20 non character people and then the main characters.

Winterfell is the major town of the north right? How many people are there.. 20?

[tonym3701]

Originally posted by Metalsie:

The storyline is ridicilously frustrating, from Episode 1 to 4, I haven't seen a single armed House Forrester soldier. NOT ONE. The Whitehills on the other hand are spawning troops as it seems they have hundreds of them with nothing to justify their presence, as in, their lands are bare of Ironwood.

A Red Wedding would do that to any house: kill off any soldiers that they had. Also, if you look carefully in Episode 1 during Ethan's part in Ironrath, you can see Royland training a few soldiers.

Also, the Whitehills were most likely on the side of the Boltons during the Red Wedding, so it's obvious that they still have a good portion of their men.

[rikashiku]

Ironrath is the castle, but there are likely towns and villages under their protection as well. That's where the rest of their population come from.

[Azzak]

Just imagine that the Forresters rose all available men for the war with the Stak. They lost everyone at the red wedding. Seems hard to raise another army when the only people left and women, old men and children. I think the North isn't much populated compared to southern kingdoms which may be able to endure long wars.

And as for the Whitehills, I would say that they are allied to the Bolton and suvived the Red Wedding with the vast majority of their army.

[Fred]

They didn't even have guards in the throne room (while expecting trouble). Seen more soldiers in a pub. They should have died out years ago with their inept approach to everything. But inept writing styles are common place...Rob left a boy and an old man to guard Winterfell. So the tradition of stupidity is flourishing in Game of Thrones. Why have locks on doors, they are just gonna get in anyway....Sad!

[Gizmo Bizmo]

Originally posted by rikashiku:

Ironrath is the castle, but there are likely towns and villages under their protection as well. That's where the rest of their population come from.

This guys actually right, because I believe it is in episode 2 Royland and Duncan propose that you take some food from the smaller properties surrounding Ironrath to keep the people who live in Ironrath from dying. The reason for the lack of soldiers is because of the slaughter at the Red Wedding. I mean you saw it for yourself how much more evidence do ya want?

[Metalsie]

Originally posted by Dan_Senpai:

Originally posted by rikashiku:

Ironrath is the castle, but there are likely towns and villages under their protection as well. That's where the rest of their population come from.

This guys actually right, because I believe it is in episode 2 Royland and Duncan propose that you take some food from the smaller properties surrounding Ironrath to keep the people who live in Ironrath from dying. The reason for the lack of soldiers is because of the slaughter at the Red Wedding. I mean you saw it for yourself how much more evidence do ya want?

You mean to tell me that they couldn't find 20 men? 20 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ men? Out of all their holdings they can't even raise 20 soldiers? This is ridicilous and you know it.

[Lord_William]

Well, of course there has to be at least a few hundreds (to many hundreds, to some thousands) of peasants in their servitude. They are Lords, not Landed Knights, not of Masterly rank, and someone is doing the cutting and converting into shields and spears the ironwood, right?

They probably (apart for the fact that people sometimes doesn't understand the concept of distances, or population density, or feudalism) have "only" a few dozen soldiers, because they are bannermen of a house who is, in turn, bannermen of another (to put it in real life terms, if the Starks were Dukes, the house Clover would be Counts, and the Forresters would be Lords - which is a real rank, despite in Westeros everybody being "Lords").

The number of soldiers seems correct IF we do not take into account LEVIES. That's it, when going to war, the Lord would pick the strongest men aged 16 to 50 (or 18 to 40, or 14 to 60, depending how serious the war is), arm them, train them (about a week, or less), and they would go to war. For every Knight, between 5 and 10 peasants would go to war, and not precisely as squires. After returning, always before winter, the survivors (and their families, and the ones who didn't go to war) would work harvesting so that every doesn't starve.

For many Lords this could prove problematic if they are poor and cannot supply adequate weapons to their peasants, but House Forrester is PRECISELY a productor of shields, and I guess arrows, amor parts, and so. They could make wooden helmets and pectorals if the ironwood is so awesome as it apparently is.

So, the real questions is, if they are so desperate for men, why are not calling them to arms? Is most people dead? Because, in that case, it doesn't matter; if they don't have enough people to harvest and cut (to sell ironwood), because the war has been apparently so annihilating for them, then the House is doomed anyway. Come winter their people die or emigrate (which could be punishable by death if they are land-bound serfs, but sometimes possible death by axe is better that sure death by starvation) and they are masters of a wasteland.

[tonym3701]

Originally posted by Metalsie:

Originally posted by Dan_Senpai:

This guys actually right, because I believe it is in episode 2 Royland and Duncan propose that you take some food from the smaller properties surrounding Ironrath to keep the people who live in Ironrath from dying. The reason for the lack of soldiers is because of the slaughter at the Red Wedding. I mean you saw it for yourself how much more evidence do ya want?

You mean to tell me that they couldn't find 20 men? 20 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ men? Out of all their holdings they can't even raise 20 soldiers? This is ridicilous and you know it.

Apparently you all forgot about something call the Red Wedding, which wiped out many of their soldier. And even if they they still had a good amount of peasants under their protection, it's not that easy to train them in full-fledge soldiers, not when the Boltons and Whitehill have fully trained soldiers.

[Dongald Jeffreys]

You're being way too harsh on this game. It's not perfect, but it's definitely not as bad as you're trying to make it seem.

[Metalsie]

Originally posted by tonym3701:

Originally posted by Metalsie:

You mean to tell me that they couldn't find 20 men? 20 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ men? Out of all their holdings they can't even raise 20 soldiers? This is ridicilous and you know it.

Apparently you all forgot about something call the Red Wedding, which wiped out many of their soldier. And even if they they still had a good amount of peasants under their protection, it's not that easy to train them in full-fledge soldiers, not when the Boltons and Whitehill have fully trained soldiers.

You don't have a point unless you mean to imply that Old Lord Forrester left no garrison and took all the male population of his holdings to the war.

[tonym3701]

Originally posted by Metalsie:

You don't have a point unless you mean to imply that Old Lord Forrester left no garrison and took all the male population of his holdings to the war.

As if he would have a chocie if Robb told him to bring all of his men, or at least all of his fully-trained men.

[Metalsie]

Originally posted by tonym3701:

Originally posted by Metalsie:

You don't have a point unless you mean to imply that Old Lord Forrester left no garrison and took all the male population of his holdings to the war.

As if he would have a chocie if Robb told him to bring all of his men, or at least all of his fully-trained men.

What are you even talking about? You're willing to accept that Rob asked for every single man alive on Forrester soil to explain this? Lords keep garrisons to guard their castles, where is the Forrester Garrison?

[tonym3701]

Originally posted by Metalsie:

What are you even talking about? You're willing to accept that Rob asked for every single man alive on Forrester soil to explain this? Lords keep garrisons to guard their castles, where is the Forrester Garrison?

First: you missed my first post here on that. Let me requote myself on that specific question of where are the garrisoned troops.

Originally posted by tonym3701:

Also, if you look carefully in Episode 1 during Ethan's part in Ironrath, you can see Royland training a few soldiers.

Ser Royland also mentioned about putting more on top of the gate. So they HAVE a garrison. Just not a big one.

And second: as they've mentioned in both Episode 1 and 2, most of their men were with Robb. It is very possible, if not likely, that this was Robb's decision, as Robb was losing men even before before the Red Wedding, especially after the execution of Lord Karstark.

[Dongald Jeffreys]

Most of the men they had at Ironrath deserted after Ethan was killed, as well. And you DO see some Forrester soldiers in Ironrath. You see them at at the funeral and in the Great Hall in Episode 1.