Game of thrones was criticized for the final battle scene with the Night King. People said it was too dark, and I agree with that. We all wanted to witness the spectacle of the army of the dead. When I first wrote my battles scene at the Battle of Demon’s Smile, I tried for realism by restricting the perspective to that of the protagonist, but he is small and can’t see the battle, and he can’t be on the frontline because he lacks the skills to fight hand to hand with a warrior Northman. The sound of battle alone is not enough to immerse a reader. So I made Sam, my protagonist, a messenger, running between the formations, getting updates from the captains.
From a tactical perspective the battle against the night king was absurd : to put your army and trebuchets outside of your defensive walls, and to simply fail to set traps, and have any form of tactical mastery. For my battles I wanted there to be an ingenious tactical plan so I stole some of history’s greatest battle plans: Agincourt, The Battle of the Nile, Thermopylae, Gaugamela. For my next book I am stealing from Hannibal who is probably the most consistently ingenious general. (You don’t have to be a genius, when you can just be a thief)
However, there are no real world battle plans that involve wizards and flying boats, so … adjustments had to be made
Hint: When you have a stronghold with big thick walls that has stood against armies for centuries, then do NOT place all your armies, catapults and trebuchets outside in the open waiting for your enemy who has overwhelming numerical superiority