I was wondering if there are any historical parallels to the Battle of Qohor Jorah talks about in Dany I of ASOS when he’s trying to convince her to buy Unsullied. I ask this because it’s always seemed to me to be not as impressive a victory as Jorah makes it out to be, since Khal Temmo only tried charging light cavalry right into the front of a formation of skilled spearmen. Is this a justified belief?

It’s impressive in the following sense – it takes an enormous amount of discipline to hold against that many cavalry charges, especially when you take 80% casualties. Normally, combat units are deemed no longer fully combat effective when they take 15% casualties, and by 30% they’re considered fully ineffective. 

On the other hand, it’s also a lesson that there is a major shortcoming of Dothraki strategy – they’re a fearsome cavalry force, using the same retreat-and-envelop and mixed mounted archers/lancers tactics as so many great horse warrior societies. But they are only good against cavalry and poorly disciplined infantry – the Sarnori, the Free Cities, all of them emphasize cavalry over infantry and outside of the Ghiscari who they don’t fight against, none of them have well-disciplined infantry. 

The irony here is that, if the Dothraki came up against Westerosi armies, the knights might get wiped out (if they charge as in the Battle of Hattin as opposed to a more disciplined use of combined arms as in the Battle of Arsuf); while a shield wall combined with archers behind might save the day.