Sheeeeep wrote:

yea I thought that was a little weak, but the dothraki aren't 'defenders' per se

I think it was more that they were likely expecting their charge to work the way their usual charge does but it didn't at all. Instead of crashing through infantry and causing chaos, they were basically just stopped dead at the front lines due to how numerous and densely packed the wights were. Before the episode, I was expecting a charge of Dothraki to be pretty effective against a bunch of corpses, but with the way they portrayed that army as this thick ravenous horde, I can definitely see how it makes sense to turn the tables.

I don't think screamers are well suited for much more than charging, but with a very long amount of time to prepare they definitely should have flanked the dead, or circled around and smashed some against the walls of winterfell.  that part was jarring but real cool visuals.

honestly everyone should have been on ranged duty, and probably several layers of burning trenches deep.

Fenris wrote:

I don't watch, but I heard that there were no trenches...palisades, and trebuchets/catapults were on the front line? wtf? (Didn't the writers watch Return of the King? Those trebs were behind the walls for a reason)
I should think that the first rule in any battle you're trying to win is keep your own alive while dishing out damage.
That's even critical when the other side can add your dead to their own troops.

I guess Dany's madness is showing...

Placement of artillery was dumb, but a lot of the other things can just be attributed to lack of time to properly prepare.

Oh wait...

"I sneak past the white walkers at the entrance"
Dude, there is like all the white walkers there. And the entrance is 12 foot wide with no cover... fine, just roll.
(Natural 20)
Damn... ok, well only the Night King spotted you. He has initiative so he grabs you by the throat.
"I stab him to death with my knife"
You can't just stab him! He has you by the throat!
"I roll to break free"
(19)
Fine, you get one hand free, but it isn't the hand your knife is in.
"I drop the knife and catch it with the other hand"
How does that even work? Ok, fine, but you have to roll for both the drop and the attack separately. Roll for Drop.
(20)
WTH! Ok, this guy is literally the boss of the entire setting, he has a massive armor class and you have a penalty to attack now
(20)
… Seriously?
…
Roll for damage. 1d6 exploding die.
(6)
… sigh
(6)
… of course
(6)
… you know what, fine. Don't even bother rolling any more. He is dead.
"I attack the rest of the army"
Don't bother, they all died too. Because reasons. I need a drink.

Sadly the GM's only backup notes were the ones where the party now had to fight a drunk queen, her Professor Farnsworth reject and a crazy pirate. And the GM was forced to have the Queen pull tons of money out of nowhere so she could hire mercenaries and be a threat to the guys who just offed the Not-Lich-King.

Really the only thing I'm looking forward to now is Cleganebowl, which is 99% certain to be a thing given how fanservice-laden the show has become.