Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-17114085-20150127181142/@comment-17114085-20150130202415

Pacman the great wrote: (You said that Riverwood only spotted the army that day.

Plains don't make you faster than you would be on a road anyway. You don't have forest or rock, which is no different in plains than on roads. Also, Riverwood is up a pretty big hill, which would make the journey yet longer. Plains don't reduce journey time by fourteen fold. They might be twice as fast as a forest,  but it would need to be mountains to reduce journey time by seven fold. A journey from Whiterun to Riverwood might take two weeks on foot, based on the 4-5 months it takes to get from Windhelm to Markarth on foot. And let us not forget that, fast though ravens may be, it would still take several hours to get from Riverwood to Whiterun. It would still take a good deal of time to muster up one's forces, particularly when they are scattered about a city. It would take a while to organise the forces not in Whiterun.

There is no way that Whiterun could possible come to Riverwood's aid on the day of the battle.)

"Yes, but I am in the fortunate position of having a force much larger than yours," Luciun said. "My mangonels are setting up. It's not to late to stop them firing." (Exactly, it spotted the army as it was nearing the town and warned its liege that it was going to be sieged.

Terrain is a big part in army maneuverability and speed. It is much easier to march through open terrain like plains than it is to march up hills, swamps, mountains, forests, etc. So yes, being in a plains region would make them go faster, especially their cavalry. And no it wouldn't take two weeks from Whiterun to Riverwood normally, it would take one week, week and a half at max. Since it takes roughly three weeks to get from Windhelm to Amol and the distance from Whiterun to Riverwood is about half that. And yeah, they would reach there within the day with hard marching, especially the cavalry as they can gallop most of the way there. Anyway Whiterun hasn't arrived yet, and they left the city before your army made it to the gates and your Jarl yelled for the Thane.)

"We are also in a fortunate position, we are protected by our defenses. Our archers are lined on our walls and watchtowers. It's not to late to stop them from firing." The Thane said, purposely trying to sound like the overconfident Jarl. He heard rumors of how Jarl Luciun treated those of low birth in his nation, that fueled his hatred for the Jarl.

(There are roughly 200 archers along the walls. The other 500 soldiers are warriors.)