Seriously, if you do the season unending quest if Ulfric will try extremely hard to gain back Markarth and is willing to hand over Riften to the Imperial Legion. This is not strategically sound because if Markarth is under Stormcloak control, they will still be surrounded by Imperial forces with the surrounding provinces controlled by the Legion and High Rock controlled by the Legion, allowing the Imperials to have Riften would just give the Legion a foothold in the Stormcloak dominated eastern provinces of Skyrim.

Any thoughts?

But then he has the huge wealth from the silver mines in The Reach to fund his campaign. The Rift isn't very wealthy at all and is heavily corrupt (then again so is The Reach), it's a good swap.

But the Imperial Legion has better access to resources, the Stormcloaks only have funding from a few of Skyrim's provinces while the Imperial Legion can gain resources from elsewhere such as High Rock and Cyrodiil.

Beat me too it.
It is a risk, but in his current circumstances he needs the wealth to be able to further fund his campaign. While the Imperials do have better access they also lost alot of resources in the war against the Thalmor and the battles with the Dragons.

Also, the Reach is all mountains. Even if the Imperials were to try and take it back, they'd have to be fighting uphill battles, while the Rift is very much flatland, though a bit swampy.

One: the silver would give him a good bump in moneytary resources and two: the Silver-Blood family suppports the Stormcloaks. The Silver-Bloods have a lot of money, and therefore a lot of mercenaries and goons, and would be a good support for the Stormcloaks to keep the Hold. I don't think i is a bad strategic desision even if he is surrounded by imperial holds.

Also u gotta think, the swaps would not be permament. Whoever won would get back what they swapped. So a city that would fill his empty coffers or a poor city in the swamps....

Im a poor one as well because I see that as a winning deal for me.


Also would like to add that ulfric was once able to keep imperial forces out of the city before, I believe the empire would be hardpress to reclaim it.

Riften is a cesspit, and ruled by a corrupt Imperial replacement on top of that (Maven Black-Briar). Ulfric would obviously rather have The Reach.

My thoughts are that Markarth and Riften are the only two holds that can be haggled over in that way, because the way Skyrim (the province) has been presented to us by the story, nothing else would be believable. They are not gonna argue over any of the four minor holds as a sticking point in the proceedings, that leaves the five major ones.

Haafingar and Eastmarch are off the table because they contain the respective capitals of each faction.

Whiterun is off the table because its Jarl is SITTING RIGHT THERE, lol. The whole point of the meeting is to get a ceasefire so that he will cooperate with the Dragonborn on other things, they start passing Whiterun back and forth and he walks and then there's no reason for anybody to be there.

The only two holds of any consequence left to really haggle over are the Reach and the Rift.

Either Ulfric is gonna demand Markarth, or Tullius is gonna demand Riften, and in both cases the opposing leader is then gonna demand whichever of the two he doesn't already have in return, because there's really nothing else worth demanding.

But, the second the silver leaves Markarth, the Empire is free to pillage it. That's the thing with being surrounded.

I agree, Ulfric is a stupid dog and deserves to die..

Exactly, which is exactly why ulfric needs the silver mines of markarth

He didn't just get Markarth, he got the reach, and surely he could just guard the caravans till they got where they needed to go

Ulfric is a nord, he thinks with his heart, not his head. He's got every reason to personally love Markarth.

Most likely the Empire will keep reconnaissance Legionnaires in the Reach to relay the routes of caravans.

Yeah.. I think he has some sentimental attachment to Markarth.

It must be.

Of course he does, but I think it's also a far more prosperous hold than The Rift.

If I were him, I would be interested in acquiring territory that gave me a military edge. Main focus should be to win the war, not to get silver.

Exactly. The walls of Markarth may make it hard to invade, but it's not like he can easily move the silver out of it either. In addition to the Imperial controlled Falkreath and Solitude, and the technically Imperial (but staying out of the conflict) Whiterun being the only areas accessible by the Reach, he also inherits the problem of the Forsworn, which now raid his supplies instead of the Imperials.

Simultaneously, the Imperials gain Riften, which is on the border of Cyrodiil, making it easier for them to move in supplies and reinforcements. Not only that, but they then have up to three (if Winterhold is given to them) provinces bordering Eastmarch, allowing them to attack from all sides. They also gain Maven Black-Briar's resources, who we know is more than willing to do things of a questionable morality to secure her station in power, meaning she could be persuaded to have the TG specifically target the Stormcloak caravans and whatnot.

They have Dawnstar and Windhelm itself which are ports. The mining wealth of Markarth outweighs other considerations, and just consider how tough it would be to take over a walled dwarven city by force. Ulfric knows- he did it once already.

Silver provides gold and gold contributes significantly to a war effort...

What do you think wins wars? The American Revolution hung by a thread a number of times and would've sunk if not for French aid. Gunpowder in their case, but this is Iron Age. You can't get all that metal for weapons and armor from Home Depot.

Silver doen't make weapons..

It makes silver weapons. It also buys weapons.

Your homework assignment:

play Skyrim

acquire silver ingot

acquire iron and/or steel ingot

note difference in value

realize that silver ingot can in fact be SOLD as opposed to forged into weapons

do math regarding how much iron and/or steel can be obtained when one has silver to trade or sell

????

profit

precisely this. Ulfric is thinking in terms of bolstering his forces, which requires capital, which Markath has an ample supply of.

Well........

But still, The Empire is in control of Whiterun. The stormcloaks have a broken supply chain. That kills even the best of armies.
Afrika korps is a good example.