The Elder scrolls: how did the Empire conquered Morrowind?

[Beant]

I was playing through Morrowind again, and was looking at it from a tactical point of view, and realized that the Empire would have had a hard time of conquering Morrowind except for the Ascadian Isles region which is relatively flat terrain, perfect for a phalanx. But getting toward the Molag Mar region and the Balmorra regions, it becomes hilly and heading north from those points it goes from hilly to mountainous. And heavy infantry like most of the famous ancient civilizations had, like the Greeks, Romans, and Babylonians perform poorly in those situations, especially if confronted by light infantry, which the Ashlanders fight as.

[Isabella]

Building off of Amazon Queen's post, Vardenfell is holy land and it was closed to colonization for some time, which severely restricted it's population - particularly it's non-Dunmer population. When the Empire conquered the province I doubt they even had to worry about Vardenfell. They certainly wouldn't have cared if the Ash lenders didn't recognize them, and with the mainland secured the Great Houses wouldn't have been in a very good position to fight back. Vardenfell could have been turned into a last stand, and I can't tell you why this didn't happen. Perhaps in the Dunmer's mind this wasn't an option due to its holy status, or perhaps the Empire was able to avoid this through diplomatic wrangling.

[Anthony12]

I don't see why the Imperials would use the Phalanx formation at all, the Imperials Legions are almost exact copies of the Roman Legions at least the eastern onesand if anything, would be using formations such as the studio formation. But as with any invading army, they will not waste time sprawling thru the rocks and hills and wastelands when they first come, they will only capture areas of tactical importance, and would only attempt to capture the less desirable parts of the land(if they would even bother at all) when those areas are very well secured.

[Bricklayer]

Taking Vvardenfell is alot different then taking Morrowind, which has open plains and diverse terrain thats not all volcanic wasteland. Morrowind would have put up a great fight, but in the end, it would have turned into a complete bloodbath that would have probably broke the legions attacking, but destroyed Morrowind as a nation. Vivec was wise enough to see that a war, while Morrowinds people would have probably given their live in defense of their homeland, would have been the end of them.

[Defender14]

That indeed was the case. The ceasefire was signed after the empire conquered the mainland without even going near Vvardendell. The entire religious and political structure of civilized Morrowind is on the mainland. Once Vehk submitted, it was all over for civilized Morrowind. However, as we all know, the Imperials really only have control of Vvardenfall in name only. Most of it is populated by Ashlanders or wild beasts and the empire has little control over them. The parts of Vvardenfell the empire has any significant control over are the parts control by the great houses, and this is pretty much due to the fact that the empire has spears pointed at them in their respective capitals on the mainland.

[Rily]

The Empire would not exist if it conquered Morrowind. Even Tiber worried about warring against Three Gods. If Vivec can flood all of Morrowind with a wave of his hand, the legions wouldn't be a problem. I think the Tribunal worried for their people, and the sanctity and privacy of Vvardenfell, for many reasons. The rumor that Vivec gave Numidium to the Empire seems to suggest that the Tribunal were confident in their own power, that the Empire could not have taken Morrowind by force.

[Gajendra1]

Being "warriors" doesn't mean crap. That means the few troops they have left are well-trained, and depend on war for status. War is trulys won by numbers; of troops, which Dres and Hlaalu have, and of money, which Hlaalu and Dres also have. I will use a real example of this. In Ancient Greece, there were two great city-states well, two that mattered, Sparta and Athens. Sparta was all warrior class, and centered around war, Athens was a democratic money-oriented city-state. First the Persians attacked and we have all seen 300. But they lost. Athens were the ones that beat Persia off.