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"I'd sooner piss gold than have my army controlled by an Umber. I can lead the forces eastward to delay Tywin's army, Lord Robb—contrary to the opinions of those here," I stated, sneering at Lords Umber, Hornwood, and Forrester.
"If you doubt my ability to lead men in battle due to age, then not only do you insult me, but you insult Lord Robb as well, our chosen leader. So tell me, Lord Forrester—do you lack faith in Lord Stark's leadership?" I demanded, flinging the man in a rhetorical ditch and making him the center of attention. His expression shifted from dastardly and insulting to embarrassed as even Robb stared him down, awaiting an answer.
"I don't doubt Lord Robb's leadership. But yours, I do. If you're taking five thousand more of our men along with your own, it would see our numbers cut in half against twice that amount besieging Riverrun."
"A necessary sacrifice to see Tywin stopped, and to see the siege of our lord's kin broken. If we were to take Jaime Lannister alive, it would give us the means to bargain for Ned Stark and his daughters," I added.
"And to also see ourselves absolves of any crimes made up by the crown," Robb nodded in agreement.
The Northern army had entered the Riverlands campaign at a serious disadvantage. Our southern allies of House Tully were collapsing under Lannister pressure, Riverrun was under siege, and Jaime Lannister's vanguard had already shattered Edmure Tully's forces.
Meanwhile further south east, Tywin Lannister commanded a large and disciplined main host moving northward to finish the Riverlands entirely.
Most of the newly raised Northern host was untested and outnumbered, and a direct battle against Tywin on ground of the Lannister lord's choosing threatened catastrophic defeat. And so the crucial challenge was to find a way to save Riverrun without allowing the North's only army to be annihilated in the attempt.
As in the original timeline, Robb's solution was to wage the campaign asymmetrically. He recognized early on that fighting Tywin directly was not the path to victory. Tywin was too experienced, too cautious, and possessed too much numerical and positional advantage.
So Instead, Robb had turned his attention to Jaime Lannister, who was besieging Riverrun with a faster, more aggressive host. Jaime had won his earlier clashes through speed and shock, but he had extended his lines and devoted much of his force to a static siege. This left him more vulnerable than Tywin to being surprised or outmaneuvered.
If Jaime's army could be destroyed or forced to retreat, the siege of Riverrun would collapse without Robb ever having to meet Tywin in a decisive pitched battle.
To set this plan in motion, Robb intended to split his forces in two. Half the army largely infantry, his archers and scorpions, commanded by him and Lord Wendel Manderly..
And this plan hadn't really changed overall from otl. And he was thankful it didn't. What he didn't know he couldn't control. So as he would , they would approach Tywin's position and offer battle, and unlike otl he would severely have the lions numbers reduced to a considerable amount with his long range weapons.
This deliberate provocation would keep Tywin focused on a conventional engagement.
And Tywin, believing Robb to be inexperienced, would accept the bait and strike at what he believed to be Robb's main army. But their task was never to win; only to delay, distract, and fix Tywin in place.
At the same time, Robb would take the remainder of his army his heavy cavalry and our own more mobile elements and march hard for the Riverun.
He would strike Jaime Lannister through a combination of stealth, maneuver, and surprise.
The Battle of the Whispering Woods would see the northern cavalry force ambush and destroy Jaime's foraging and scouting parties, while Jaime himself was captured in the fighting.
With the Lannister command structure shattered, Robb launched a second attack , the Battle of the Camps against the siege encampments around Riverrun. Without Jaime to coordinate a defense and with their units dispersed around the river bends, the Lannister forces would collapse . And with the siege ended, Riverrun was relieved, and the Riverlands could be fully rallied.
The strategic effects would be profound. Tywin would be outmaneuvered and his primary objective subduing the Tully heartlands would undone in a matter of days.
He would be forced to retreat to Harrenhal to consolidate a new defensive line and reassess the war.
After which Robb, in turn, would gain political legitimacy along with military momentum. He had saved Riverrun, crushed a Lannister field army, and would've taken Jaime hostage, an asset with immense diplomatic value given the Lannisters' hold over Sansa and their presumed hold over Arya.
This would be simple enough. He'd keep as much as his men from dying as he can. Sacrificing the levies of other lords that have proven to be against his ambitions and of course Robb's aswell.
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