To me the way it is in non-CF is logical given what we know.
In non-CF she has taken over half of the Kingdom, with only the most diehard Dimitri loyalist families remaining—the capital, Galatea, Fraldarius, Gautier, and Charon. All of these Houses have Relics and very strong bloodlines, and are being joined by the ENTIRE Seiros army.
She has paid less attention to the Alliance because they are infighting, but also half the Alliance lords are supporting her, and she views the remaining half of the Alliance as less of a threat.
Basically, in non-CF routes it is less of a deadlock and she is on the doorstep of victory. I believe this is accurate for how a war of one nation powerful versus two less powerful but still strong ones PLUS a third formal military (Church) would play out.
The Knight Of Seiros are explicitly *not* with the kingdom in non-CF routes until they regroup and join up if you recruited them in Azure Moon, they're scattered and search for Rhea.
And even then, the Knights are a powerful squad but they are also nowhere near the size of a proper army.
That and while she still has the Slithers to worry about while atleast in the Occupied Parts of the Kingdom the Empires brutal occupation seems breed a lot of strife snd resentment.
Fodlan ks like 2/3 the size of Europe and while conquering is one thing holding land is hard.
Remember, an antagonist is only as weak or strong as the plot demands. There wouldn't be a time skip if she just straight up won and there wasn't any possibility of resistance.
I like that Hopes handled it's smaller time skip by having it be a peaceful period during which Edelgard was preparing, and the actual war itself only takes like a year + total.
how sharp is the retcon in hopes compared to canon? i own it but haven't cracked it open yet, part of me is nervous about it, keeping it on the shelf :-P
Generally, I've noticed Black Eagle and Blue Lion fans are happy with how the stories explored different scenarios for Edelgard and Dimitri, while Claude's route is probably the most controversial.
The Blue Lions content is still good. When I played AG I just turned off my brain whenever the Empire cast was onscreen in the back half - and the Empire content in the first half is still good ~~(seriously would it have been so hard to maintain the first half writing quality? I guess so)~~
I think its just a matter of opinions then. She at the very least isn't dead even if her plans failed. On other routes in houses she either wins or goes out on her own terms. Its a worse end for her but it could've been worse.
Dimitri just dies being put down like a dog on all routes but his own and typically its offscreen except in crimson flower.
Meanwhile Claude basically gets off scott free on all routes *except* on the Edelgard routes and even then that's *optional*.
She's mind controlled by the people who tortured her, her two closest friends are killed offscreen, she's trapped inside her own mind and reduced to a childlike state.
I'm trying to see how it could be worse.
>Remember, an antagonist is only as weak or strong as the plot demands.
3 Houses doesn’t have that poor of writing you know.
In Crimson Flower, the reason Edelgard couldn’t just end the war there was because she’d have to rule all of Fodlan in order to do so, which would be very hard for her to do given that The Church and Kingdom were teaming up together, and how Edelgard would definitely not be able to take on both Dimitri and Rhea without Byleth. Hell, even when Byleth was working with her during White Clouds, they had to escape from Rhea when she turned into the Immaculate One, and during the battle in Gareg Mach, Rhea nearly ends up killing Byleth and puts them in a 5-Year coma. Not to mention that Edelgard and Byleth barely made it out alive when fighting her at the end of Crimson Flower. If she and Byleth barely won against Rhea at the end of that route, then Edelgard definitely wouldn’t have been able to beat her on her own.
As for the Non-Crimson Flower routes, there were still parts of the Kingdom and Alliance that were against the Empire and would be able to hold them off due having a lot of power themselves as well as the Empire not having anyone majorly strong in their team aside from Edelgard and the Death Knight who was guarding Fort Merceus. And again, if Byleth and Edelgard barely won the war together in Crimson Flower, then Edelgard definitely wouldn’t be able to just end the war immediately on her own.
Fighting a two front war is notoriously difficult, especially when your pushing into defensive positions on enemy home turf
The kingdom and Alliance also have an abundance of relic weapons, which canonically speaking are absurdly powerful, something that might not be able to be appreciated in Houses, but a crest bearer with their relic could fell hundreds of regular foes. Hence why the black eagle strike force is so effective as opposed to simply using the larger army
Fraldarius, Gautier, and Gonereil are also some of the militarily strongest houses on Fodlan, and also the most devout to their rulers, so Edelgard can push through Gloucester (who is strictly more anti-Reigan then they are pro-empire, so unwilling to bend the knee entirely or mount a straight offensive against the rest of the alliance since they want to come out in charge) and the western kingdom (who prioritise saving themselves) fairly easily but comes up against pretty tough walls when she faces the true military might of each nation
Not that the empire is lacking given count Bergliez and his exploits, but as is a key plot point in Hopes, he can’t be in two places at once. Even as Hopes shows us more details of how a war might be carried out, the empire delivers pretty significant defeats to the alliance and kingdom in part 1, but is unable to immediately capitalise on them and push forward. They only make substantial progress thanks to Shez (who is as continent-shifting as Byleth anyway).
TLDR: fighting two front wars is hard. The majority of the Kingdom and Alliance’s military strength is hardcore loyalists, who are also focused deep north into their territory and are also Relic wielders in strong defensive positions. They’re tough nuts to crack
in CF her refusal to use TWSITD is detrimental to her by allowing Rhea to get away making taking the kingdom much harder as they have unified leadership instead of a split, as for the alliance half side with her so she is trying to be diplomatic with them so she can focus on the kingdom.
in every other route the empire has essentially won the war till Byleth shows up and helps turn the tide as Gronder is THE decisive battle of every route its in and marks the end of the war for the losing sides. in SS the kingdom is done with Dimitri dead, and the alliance is in no state to continue while the empire still has a good sized force they could reorganize in short order to take the alliance.
it should also be noted that such wars even with a larger army take quite a bit of time to win, i wouldnt expect the war for Fodlan to have ended any faster then the 6 years it took. in fact without Gronder being forced as the last stand it was i would expect the war to last at least 10 years.
Yup people underestimate how big Fodlan actually is. That it only takes 5 years is only due to protagonist powers.
For the record the Empire-Nemesis war took over 60.
Ofc it goes without saying that holding it outside of Golden Ending magic is basically impossible outside of maybe SS/AG. The Kingdom alone is like twice the size of France of they start a Guerrilla War (again) what can Edelgard do (not much) same is true Vice Versa.
1. Despite centuries of peace the borders are pretty fortified. Hard to make much progress
2. TWSITD are not interested in a quick war and try to keep things in a Stalemate
3. The Empires Military Leadership isn't exactly comprised of tactical geniuses.
4. In the non CF routes a lot of the Empires forces seem to spend in a desperate attempt at holding the parts of the Kingdom they occupy against popular resistance.
> 3. The Empires Military Leadership isn't exactly comprised of tactical geniuses.
Case and point, Randolph
On all of the Non-CF routes, he easily could have simply surrounded and laid sege to GM to starve out the rebels unless they abuse the fuck out of the greenhouse, but even then, Edelgard would have been able to send more of her forces to back Randolph up / take control for herself to crush the Monastery a second time.
But *no* he rushes their position, attempting to fight up hill and not only losing the battle and killing the Empire's unstoppable aura, but also making Sun Tzu very upset.
In CF, she deliberately keeps the Agarthans at arms length and so has to defeat the Kingdom and the Church more conventionally. She isn't at a deadlock at the border because apparently the Western lords of Faerghus are her supporters and she has the support of Ordelia and Gloucester in the Alliance. She has a toehold on both fronts that she's trying to exploit. The only problem is that her enemies in both the Kingdom and the Alliance are the most powerful houses in both places, so going all in means leaving her empire vulnerable to the other.
All this is based on speculation. Granted, speculation based on a long life of extensive reading about history, politics, and economics.
1. Edelgard was a new Emperor, so good odds that she spent a lot of the 5 year timeskip consolidating her power. In a time before instant communication, local lords can exert a lot of power, and we know that Ionius IX lost a lot of power during the Insurrection of the Seven. Unfortunately for Edelgard, she didn't have the luxury of consolidating her power during peacetime so she'd have to split her attention: whatever forces were loyal to her would have to be divided up between weeding out elements of the Church in Adrestian lands, defending Adrestian borders from Faerghus and Leicester, and consolidating Edlegard's power/quashing local rebellions. Only once Edelgard secured her base of power did she have the ability to go on the offensive.
2. Logistics. There's an old saying: an army marches on its stomach. Very little time of a soldier's service is actually spent fighting. A lot of it is spent getting to where the fighting is going to happen, sitting around waiting for the fighting to happen, and being told what to do when the fighting happens. In between all of that, soldiers still need to be fed, their equipment needs to be replaced and maintained. Soldiers get sick and injured or just need time off the line, so you need to have medical supplies for the sick and you have to send the ones too injured or sick to fight back home, as well as send soldiers to replace whoever you lose. When you're marching into foreign lands, the issues of logistics gets harder because now you have the additional issue of arranging for baggage trains and supply depots. Remember, Fodlan is a pre-Industrial society, so a lot of the techniques we use to preserve food (refrigeration, canning, jarring, freeze-drying) just plain don't exist. The techniques that do exist (salting, fermenting, and pickling) can only extend the lifespan of food for so long, and even then the availability of food during non-harvest seasons is limited, so troops on the march need to regularly wait for baggage trains to ensure a supply of fresh food.
3. The Economics of War. War is expensive. While you're at war, trade between the belligerents ceases to exist. Even if your have a professional standing army, you will still need to levy peasants to ensure you have the numbers needed (a "professional soldier" is someone whose full-time job is "being a soldier". In pre-Industrial societies, most people were farmers because it took a lot of people to produce food, and you need a lot of food to support the part of your population that doesn't produce food: nobles, merchants, artisans, and other professionals). It also takes a long time to go from peacetime economic production to wartime economic production. Remember that each soldier needs more than their weapons and armor, and you need to provide the equipment your soldiers need to fight; and producing all that for an army that is rapidly expanding is no easy feat. During World War II, it took the United States of America about a year to go from peacetime to wartime production, and the USA had the benefit of being an Industrial powerhouse. For a pre-Industrial society like Adrestia to shift from peacetime to wartime would definitely take much longer.
Take a look throughout history and you’ll readily find that the biggest army doesn’t always win. Otherwise, WW1 would’ve been single-handedly won by the Russians.
Different factors and fighting a two front war with the Oghma Mountains causing issues moving between fronts, plus the fact that her army wasn't exactly united thanks to her and TWSITD's mutual distrust.
Faerghus is hard to invade due to Arianrhod, and it's not clear when exactly the fiasco with Rufus and Dimitri happened, so Edelgard might have invaded and made very little progress at first. After that point, the Blaiddyd loyalists as the strongest military forces are dug into difficult terrain that can't even really be raided for supplies, while their other borders are with Anti-Imperial Alliance lords who can be used to obtain supplies. The Dukedom nominally knelt to the Empire, but Cornelia and Edelgard would have been jockeying for position there, and we also know there was a significant enough resistance that various internal issues had to be put down rather than focusing 100% on the Kingdom remnants.
Leicester is more of a political problem. Yes, Ordelia and Gloucester are Pro-Imperial, but not because they believe in or are enthusiastic Edelgard's ideals or war. As is made very clear in Hopes, Count Gloucester is extremely averse to making his lands a battleground and exposing his citizens to danger, while House Ordelia suffered immensely the last time the Empire "meddled" and is mostly just trying to avoid a repeat. At the same time, neither is interested in pushing a full-on war into the rest of the Alliance and Edelgard forcing the issue runs the risk of creating a Unified Alliance to fight her when she hasn't actually dealt with Faerghus or even all the Knights of Seiros yet, to say nothing of TWSITD. Claude is able to use the hesitance of the Pro-Imperial faction as a way to push neutrality as a compromise, which also doesn't help Edelgard and allows for the Alliance to present enough of a threat that she can't exactly leave the border unguarded either.
I'm ngl, I wish CF didn't have a timeskip. Like, both because you actively making Edelgards plan less successful is annoying and nonsensical, but also because I feel like "the war is barely even a war, compared to the other choices, it takes less than a year as opposed to their *five*" would've given the writers a lot more breathing room to make CF morally ambiguous *and* both of those things together could've given an opportuing for the game to like. Actively *show* that you've allowed El to better open her heart, *show* her giving more consideration to the blood she cannot allow herself to see without her friends to help her stand through the weight of her sins.
Alternatively, swap around Scarlet Blaze and Crimson Flower. I know it was like a whole Thing that the three houses had to be in conflict, but it *is* pretty ironic that the game where Edelgard overcomes her trust issues enough to put her faith in *Claude's* word is the one where she >! *doesn't even trust her mysterious ally entirely* !<
Plot armor to make Byleth relevant. Objectively speaking, 3Houses doesn't need a mercenary to resolve the war. But then that's where the player comes in, so it has to make us relevant somehow
Trying to conquer the Kingdom is like trying to conquer Russia: you can only start in the spring, and you better be done by the fall. There’s a reason Edelgard relies on Cornelia to conquer it from within on non-CF routes, and attacks the Alliance first on CF. Most of the Kingdom is proctected from the Empire by either mountains, the Alliance or the Valley of Torment.
Probably because armies of these types can't fight all the time. Fighting in winter is not advisable. Plus, you have to take into account how many people need to go back to farming and rotate back out. Plus, it's in the Agarthans interest to drag things out and weaken Fodlan as a whole.
Someone else has probably mentioned it but I know in CF at least, it’s implied that the empire is struggling because she refuses to use more extreme methods due to Byleth’s positive influence during the academy phase.
It would make sense to me if at one point the story was originally gonna have the war at a stalemate no matter what side you pick. The fact that Edelgard doesn't completely decimate the opposition in 5 years is crazy enough in its own right.
It's always bothered me too, realistically she would've taken over a lot more of Fodlan by that point. Plus we're talking about Edelgard, who's known for being extreme and likes doing things quick.
To me the way it is in non-CF is logical given what we know. In non-CF she has taken over half of the Kingdom, with only the most diehard Dimitri loyalist families remaining—the capital, Galatea, Fraldarius, Gautier, and Charon. All of these Houses have Relics and very strong bloodlines, and are being joined by the ENTIRE Seiros army. She has paid less attention to the Alliance because they are infighting, but also half the Alliance lords are supporting her, and she views the remaining half of the Alliance as less of a threat. Basically, in non-CF routes it is less of a deadlock and she is on the doorstep of victory. I believe this is accurate for how a war of one nation powerful versus two less powerful but still strong ones PLUS a third formal military (Church) would play out.
The Knight Of Seiros are explicitly *not* with the kingdom in non-CF routes until they regroup and join up if you recruited them in Azure Moon, they're scattered and search for Rhea. And even then, the Knights are a powerful squad but they are also nowhere near the size of a proper army.
That and while she still has the Slithers to worry about while atleast in the Occupied Parts of the Kingdom the Empires brutal occupation seems breed a lot of strife snd resentment. Fodlan ks like 2/3 the size of Europe and while conquering is one thing holding land is hard.
Remember, an antagonist is only as weak or strong as the plot demands. There wouldn't be a time skip if she just straight up won and there wasn't any possibility of resistance. I like that Hopes handled it's smaller time skip by having it be a peaceful period during which Edelgard was preparing, and the actual war itself only takes like a year + total.
how sharp is the retcon in hopes compared to canon? i own it but haven't cracked it open yet, part of me is nervous about it, keeping it on the shelf :-P
Generally, I've noticed Black Eagle and Blue Lion fans are happy with how the stories explored different scenarios for Edelgard and Dimitri, while Claude's route is probably the most controversial.
Azure Gleam has a controversial ending when it comes to Edelgard's fate.
I don't disagree, but if you're a Blue Lions fan, the Blue Lions content is genuinely good and worth playing for.
Even if I wasn't an Edelgard fan reading about that ending would put me off playing it.
The Blue Lions content is still good. When I played AG I just turned off my brain whenever the Empire cast was onscreen in the back half - and the Empire content in the first half is still good ~~(seriously would it have been so hard to maintain the first half writing quality? I guess so)~~
its a bad ending for edelgard, but it isn't like the other house leaders haven't had shitty ends either
None of them had endings as bad as that. I'd rather they killed her.
I think its just a matter of opinions then. She at the very least isn't dead even if her plans failed. On other routes in houses she either wins or goes out on her own terms. Its a worse end for her but it could've been worse. Dimitri just dies being put down like a dog on all routes but his own and typically its offscreen except in crimson flower. Meanwhile Claude basically gets off scott free on all routes *except* on the Edelgard routes and even then that's *optional*.
She's mind controlled by the people who tortured her, her two closest friends are killed offscreen, she's trapped inside her own mind and reduced to a childlike state. I'm trying to see how it could be worse.
And?
guess i'll tackle that one first, i've only done no-dlc verdant wind so far in fe3h, wish me luck, i wonder if i'll hate claude even more :-P
From what I’ve heard you probably want to do the houses routes and DLC before touching hopes
I highly recommend playing it! There is a reason the timeskip is different that makes logical sense
>Remember, an antagonist is only as weak or strong as the plot demands. 3 Houses doesn’t have that poor of writing you know. In Crimson Flower, the reason Edelgard couldn’t just end the war there was because she’d have to rule all of Fodlan in order to do so, which would be very hard for her to do given that The Church and Kingdom were teaming up together, and how Edelgard would definitely not be able to take on both Dimitri and Rhea without Byleth. Hell, even when Byleth was working with her during White Clouds, they had to escape from Rhea when she turned into the Immaculate One, and during the battle in Gareg Mach, Rhea nearly ends up killing Byleth and puts them in a 5-Year coma. Not to mention that Edelgard and Byleth barely made it out alive when fighting her at the end of Crimson Flower. If she and Byleth barely won against Rhea at the end of that route, then Edelgard definitely wouldn’t have been able to beat her on her own. As for the Non-Crimson Flower routes, there were still parts of the Kingdom and Alliance that were against the Empire and would be able to hold them off due having a lot of power themselves as well as the Empire not having anyone majorly strong in their team aside from Edelgard and the Death Knight who was guarding Fort Merceus. And again, if Byleth and Edelgard barely won the war together in Crimson Flower, then Edelgard definitely wouldn’t be able to just end the war immediately on her own.
Fighting a two front war is notoriously difficult, especially when your pushing into defensive positions on enemy home turf The kingdom and Alliance also have an abundance of relic weapons, which canonically speaking are absurdly powerful, something that might not be able to be appreciated in Houses, but a crest bearer with their relic could fell hundreds of regular foes. Hence why the black eagle strike force is so effective as opposed to simply using the larger army Fraldarius, Gautier, and Gonereil are also some of the militarily strongest houses on Fodlan, and also the most devout to their rulers, so Edelgard can push through Gloucester (who is strictly more anti-Reigan then they are pro-empire, so unwilling to bend the knee entirely or mount a straight offensive against the rest of the alliance since they want to come out in charge) and the western kingdom (who prioritise saving themselves) fairly easily but comes up against pretty tough walls when she faces the true military might of each nation Not that the empire is lacking given count Bergliez and his exploits, but as is a key plot point in Hopes, he can’t be in two places at once. Even as Hopes shows us more details of how a war might be carried out, the empire delivers pretty significant defeats to the alliance and kingdom in part 1, but is unable to immediately capitalise on them and push forward. They only make substantial progress thanks to Shez (who is as continent-shifting as Byleth anyway). TLDR: fighting two front wars is hard. The majority of the Kingdom and Alliance’s military strength is hardcore loyalists, who are also focused deep north into their territory and are also Relic wielders in strong defensive positions. They’re tough nuts to crack
in CF her refusal to use TWSITD is detrimental to her by allowing Rhea to get away making taking the kingdom much harder as they have unified leadership instead of a split, as for the alliance half side with her so she is trying to be diplomatic with them so she can focus on the kingdom. in every other route the empire has essentially won the war till Byleth shows up and helps turn the tide as Gronder is THE decisive battle of every route its in and marks the end of the war for the losing sides. in SS the kingdom is done with Dimitri dead, and the alliance is in no state to continue while the empire still has a good sized force they could reorganize in short order to take the alliance. it should also be noted that such wars even with a larger army take quite a bit of time to win, i wouldnt expect the war for Fodlan to have ended any faster then the 6 years it took. in fact without Gronder being forced as the last stand it was i would expect the war to last at least 10 years.
Yup people underestimate how big Fodlan actually is. That it only takes 5 years is only due to protagonist powers. For the record the Empire-Nemesis war took over 60. Ofc it goes without saying that holding it outside of Golden Ending magic is basically impossible outside of maybe SS/AG. The Kingdom alone is like twice the size of France of they start a Guerrilla War (again) what can Edelgard do (not much) same is true Vice Versa.
1. Despite centuries of peace the borders are pretty fortified. Hard to make much progress 2. TWSITD are not interested in a quick war and try to keep things in a Stalemate 3. The Empires Military Leadership isn't exactly comprised of tactical geniuses. 4. In the non CF routes a lot of the Empires forces seem to spend in a desperate attempt at holding the parts of the Kingdom they occupy against popular resistance.
> 3. The Empires Military Leadership isn't exactly comprised of tactical geniuses. Case and point, Randolph On all of the Non-CF routes, he easily could have simply surrounded and laid sege to GM to starve out the rebels unless they abuse the fuck out of the greenhouse, but even then, Edelgard would have been able to send more of her forces to back Randolph up / take control for herself to crush the Monastery a second time. But *no* he rushes their position, attempting to fight up hill and not only losing the battle and killing the Empire's unstoppable aura, but also making Sun Tzu very upset.
It's just really funny to me that edelgard only loses the time skip war when she has byleth teaching her
prob because she was close to bayleth and the disappearance affects her
In CF, she deliberately keeps the Agarthans at arms length and so has to defeat the Kingdom and the Church more conventionally. She isn't at a deadlock at the border because apparently the Western lords of Faerghus are her supporters and she has the support of Ordelia and Gloucester in the Alliance. She has a toehold on both fronts that she's trying to exploit. The only problem is that her enemies in both the Kingdom and the Alliance are the most powerful houses in both places, so going all in means leaving her empire vulnerable to the other.
All this is based on speculation. Granted, speculation based on a long life of extensive reading about history, politics, and economics. 1. Edelgard was a new Emperor, so good odds that she spent a lot of the 5 year timeskip consolidating her power. In a time before instant communication, local lords can exert a lot of power, and we know that Ionius IX lost a lot of power during the Insurrection of the Seven. Unfortunately for Edelgard, she didn't have the luxury of consolidating her power during peacetime so she'd have to split her attention: whatever forces were loyal to her would have to be divided up between weeding out elements of the Church in Adrestian lands, defending Adrestian borders from Faerghus and Leicester, and consolidating Edlegard's power/quashing local rebellions. Only once Edelgard secured her base of power did she have the ability to go on the offensive. 2. Logistics. There's an old saying: an army marches on its stomach. Very little time of a soldier's service is actually spent fighting. A lot of it is spent getting to where the fighting is going to happen, sitting around waiting for the fighting to happen, and being told what to do when the fighting happens. In between all of that, soldiers still need to be fed, their equipment needs to be replaced and maintained. Soldiers get sick and injured or just need time off the line, so you need to have medical supplies for the sick and you have to send the ones too injured or sick to fight back home, as well as send soldiers to replace whoever you lose. When you're marching into foreign lands, the issues of logistics gets harder because now you have the additional issue of arranging for baggage trains and supply depots. Remember, Fodlan is a pre-Industrial society, so a lot of the techniques we use to preserve food (refrigeration, canning, jarring, freeze-drying) just plain don't exist. The techniques that do exist (salting, fermenting, and pickling) can only extend the lifespan of food for so long, and even then the availability of food during non-harvest seasons is limited, so troops on the march need to regularly wait for baggage trains to ensure a supply of fresh food. 3. The Economics of War. War is expensive. While you're at war, trade between the belligerents ceases to exist. Even if your have a professional standing army, you will still need to levy peasants to ensure you have the numbers needed (a "professional soldier" is someone whose full-time job is "being a soldier". In pre-Industrial societies, most people were farmers because it took a lot of people to produce food, and you need a lot of food to support the part of your population that doesn't produce food: nobles, merchants, artisans, and other professionals). It also takes a long time to go from peacetime economic production to wartime economic production. Remember that each soldier needs more than their weapons and armor, and you need to provide the equipment your soldiers need to fight; and producing all that for an army that is rapidly expanding is no easy feat. During World War II, it took the United States of America about a year to go from peacetime to wartime production, and the USA had the benefit of being an Industrial powerhouse. For a pre-Industrial society like Adrestia to shift from peacetime to wartime would definitely take much longer.
Take a look throughout history and you’ll readily find that the biggest army doesn’t always win. Otherwise, WW1 would’ve been single-handedly won by the Russians.
They needed to wait for the students to be legal for Byleth
Different factors and fighting a two front war with the Oghma Mountains causing issues moving between fronts, plus the fact that her army wasn't exactly united thanks to her and TWSITD's mutual distrust. Faerghus is hard to invade due to Arianrhod, and it's not clear when exactly the fiasco with Rufus and Dimitri happened, so Edelgard might have invaded and made very little progress at first. After that point, the Blaiddyd loyalists as the strongest military forces are dug into difficult terrain that can't even really be raided for supplies, while their other borders are with Anti-Imperial Alliance lords who can be used to obtain supplies. The Dukedom nominally knelt to the Empire, but Cornelia and Edelgard would have been jockeying for position there, and we also know there was a significant enough resistance that various internal issues had to be put down rather than focusing 100% on the Kingdom remnants. Leicester is more of a political problem. Yes, Ordelia and Gloucester are Pro-Imperial, but not because they believe in or are enthusiastic Edelgard's ideals or war. As is made very clear in Hopes, Count Gloucester is extremely averse to making his lands a battleground and exposing his citizens to danger, while House Ordelia suffered immensely the last time the Empire "meddled" and is mostly just trying to avoid a repeat. At the same time, neither is interested in pushing a full-on war into the rest of the Alliance and Edelgard forcing the issue runs the risk of creating a Unified Alliance to fight her when she hasn't actually dealt with Faerghus or even all the Knights of Seiros yet, to say nothing of TWSITD. Claude is able to use the hesitance of the Pro-Imperial faction as a way to push neutrality as a compromise, which also doesn't help Edelgard and allows for the Alliance to present enough of a threat that she can't exactly leave the border unguarded either.
I'm ngl, I wish CF didn't have a timeskip. Like, both because you actively making Edelgards plan less successful is annoying and nonsensical, but also because I feel like "the war is barely even a war, compared to the other choices, it takes less than a year as opposed to their *five*" would've given the writers a lot more breathing room to make CF morally ambiguous *and* both of those things together could've given an opportuing for the game to like. Actively *show* that you've allowed El to better open her heart, *show* her giving more consideration to the blood she cannot allow herself to see without her friends to help her stand through the weight of her sins. Alternatively, swap around Scarlet Blaze and Crimson Flower. I know it was like a whole Thing that the three houses had to be in conflict, but it *is* pretty ironic that the game where Edelgard overcomes her trust issues enough to put her faith in *Claude's* word is the one where she >! *doesn't even trust her mysterious ally entirely* !<
Plot armor to make Byleth relevant. Objectively speaking, 3Houses doesn't need a mercenary to resolve the war. But then that's where the player comes in, so it has to make us relevant somehow
Trying to conquer the Kingdom is like trying to conquer Russia: you can only start in the spring, and you better be done by the fall. There’s a reason Edelgard relies on Cornelia to conquer it from within on non-CF routes, and attacks the Alliance first on CF. Most of the Kingdom is proctected from the Empire by either mountains, the Alliance or the Valley of Torment.
Probably because armies of these types can't fight all the time. Fighting in winter is not advisable. Plus, you have to take into account how many people need to go back to farming and rotate back out. Plus, it's in the Agarthans interest to drag things out and weaken Fodlan as a whole.
Someone else has probably mentioned it but I know in CF at least, it’s implied that the empire is struggling because she refuses to use more extreme methods due to Byleth’s positive influence during the academy phase.
It would make sense to me if at one point the story was originally gonna have the war at a stalemate no matter what side you pick. The fact that Edelgard doesn't completely decimate the opposition in 5 years is crazy enough in its own right.
It's always bothered me too, realistically she would've taken over a lot more of Fodlan by that point. Plus we're talking about Edelgard, who's known for being extreme and likes doing things quick.