Bethesda does not explain this.

In the biography of barenziah it mentions how it is much harder for elves to get pregnant but elves live for like 10 time longer then humans. This fits in with most other fantasy worlds in that humans are usually militarily dominant because they breed faster even though elves live longer so humans always have the overwhelming numeric advantage and also they are more physically well built. Elves often compensate with better quality weapons and more emphasise on magic but this is not enough.

So how can the Aldmeri dominion go up against much larger human armies. It does not make any sense. I think Bethesda got lazy and contradicted their own lore. It would make sense if elves bred at the same rate but they don't so....

Also people keep saying that Skyrim can't beat the Thalmor but Ysgramor managed to thrash the elves with much fewer numbers so that is another inconsistency.

Well they seem to be pretty damn powerful on an individual basis. Example, I was on the last quest of the storm cloak side of the civil war. Was out front listening to Ulfric give his speech when 3 Thalmor walked out of Solitude. They promptly killed all the storm cloak soldiers, knocked out Ulfric and his buddy and killed me. I reloaded the save multiple times and it always ended the same way. Those Thalmor are bad asses as far as the game is concerned.

i don't know maybe they researched nuclear powered magic don't know i just play the game usually developers make changes for the story.

The only thing that makes them powerful is their stench. I'm now over 100 Thalmor decapitations and counting, so no... in my eyes, they're weak and pathetic.

As far as Bethesda contradicting their own lore: that's Bethesda's trademark. Example:

The lore once told us that Cyrodiil was a lush jungle.. then Oblivion was released with a retort that said otherwise. Then the lore junkies were up in arms about it.

Better organization and tactics, better equipment, more powerful mages.

The Empire at the time were pretty stagnant and fractured, having been reduced to just Cyrodiil, High Rock, Skyrim and Hammerfell (which seceeded just after the treaty).

lol that's a funny story. By the time I do the Stormcloak campaign I've already done most of the side quests so my level is pretty high and have no problems with Thalmor. But your right about Stormcloak and Imperial soldiers being extremely weak.

it would have made more sense to have the redguard, orcs or nords or even akiviri start expanding as they are warrior races. i agree it doesnt make sense because the human races stopped the elves long ago and have been the dominant race since then. in the end its bethesdas lore so they can do what they want and they did do a good job of turning the altmer into a bunch of mega [censored]s. what really bugs me is that even if you pick altmer as a race they still treat you the same as if you were a nord or any other race.

Well I've intentionally limited my character to keep thee game more difficult, and I rely on stealth and illusion which don't do much in that situation. It takes some serious strategy and the right circumstances for me to handle those roaming Thalmor groups. However taking me out if the equation is more relevant to your Op and the Thalmor ran over everyone even tho they were facing over 2 to 1 odds lol.

It can be summed in one word: Magic. They may have less people but they can conjure better/more things, not to mention raising dead enemies to do their bidding. Lets not forget, they have many lifetimes to study such magics.

Yeah with my first stealth guy I once and tried attacking one of those thalmor groups early on only to realise they were quite strong so I avoided attacking them until I was stronger. Like you said the average thalmor soldier seems to be stronger then Imperial or Stormcloak soldiers. I wonder if it is simply because of better equipment or just because they are on a higher level (like maybe they are elite Dominion soldiers)

Because Bethesda made them so.

Tsk tsk tsk it explains that Tiber Septim changed the very geography of the land which is one of the deeds that earned him GODhood.
(emphasis on the GOD for all you Altmer out there and your OP conjuring skills not too mention stuck up-edness.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSf9aEETnvE&feature=related

Sorry dude but your sig should say, King of whats left of Morrowind, I love Dunmer they're my fav but we have too accept that everybodies racist against the Gray skins.

Aldmeri Dominion raised it's power all the time when the Empire was crumbling in the pieces. It seems that they have worked 200 years to get ready for the war.When Dominion suddenly attacked Empire wasn't ready and it was only Cyrodiil, Skyrim, High Rock and Hammerfell. Also High Rock and Hammerfell were weakened by the war they made to destroy Orsinium earlier.

my khajiit doesn't like grey-skin's because some of his family where slaved by the dunmer of morrowind ( he also dosen't like any NON man-beast and hates man-beast khajiit and argonian's who are racist to their own [ man-beats ] ( unless their nord women )

as for the Aldmeri i think its because they had better tactics i mean they took elswyer / valenwood ect

The Redguards and Bretons fought the Orsimer a few eras ago, when the Orsimer finally put themselves on the map. Last I checked, the Orsimer is ready to denounce Malacath and their leader is enjoying relative peace

The Aldmeri Dominion captured Valenwood and swayed Elsweyr and Black Marsh, so the Empire got severely weakened. What I NEED to know is how the hell did they take Valenwood and get away with it in the first place

Because they are masters of magic?

It is those inconsistent level scaling that makes this happen.

And so ends the Stormcloak Rebellion....

This

While Mr Bean Is a funny MoFo I'm gonna harve to go with magic.

Done correctly there really isn't much that can stand in the way of Magic.

Even if it's just one battle Mage per unit/battalion chucking out illusion and alteration spells to spook the enemy and destroy their armour, to a handful of Master Mages at the back raining hell from above. I'm sure they would have the ability to rain thunder on their opponents or make the very ground they walk upon turn to fire.

Can You imagon the scene, 4 powerful mages levitating abor te battlefield and unleashing hell?

Mages are just broken sometimes.
(you know...when the magic system works , like it would in real life tamriel)

Which in turn, explains that Bethesda couldn't be bothered creating a rich vibrant fantasy world in touch with the continent around it, and instead went for a very generic fantasy landscape.

I'm not a lore buff. (well at least, when I read the book I wasn't. On the site I became more aware of it. Plus there wasn't a TES game to keep me going) - I don't give a damn at the end of the day, but seriously, I read that book and thought "Can you get any LAZIER?".

Lore buffs actually have a good thing going on for them. You do realise that changing a tropical rainforest to temperate pastures would severely eff up the climate of the entire continent?

It's the one reason to actually support the Thalmor. Talos wasn't an Aedra. He was a Daedra.

On topic: I think the strategy is to crush all opposition quickly. A blitzkrieg if ever you saw it. Not to get tied down in a lengthy engagement, but just anihilate the svckers. Hence why are they happy to let Skyrim weaken itself from within, but not to let Skyrim become fully independent and so much stronger.

When I first read they annexed Valenwood I thought that the woold elf's joined willingly but then I find the wood elf who helps you in the embassy resents them. Wood elf's are supposed to be good at fighting on their own terf and the native animals help them and stuff which makes outright conquest seem unlikely. Even if the High Elves could manage it would extremely costly. Maybe some influential Bosmer had delusions of pan-elven unity and helped the Thalmor annex Valenwood through political means?

Well I've played both sides and Imperials are just as weak. And at least the Stormcloaks have a variety of weapons

You've got to remember that Valenwood was part of the first Aldmeri Dominion. I'm pretty sure they joined willingly then, well after the Thalmor "reminded" them of their treaty.