In the short-term, the Vale. They have more soldiers, a far superior defensive position, a port city on the same coast as White Harbor, a navy that could potentially allow for a strike on King’s Landing itself or prevent a royalist landing on the North’s eastern shores.
In the long-term, the Riverlands. They have a larger population, their farmland is larger in terms of acreage, solid interior lines of communication (and defense, if used correctly), and they provide the North with a substantial buffer against any land-based attack and a central position to launch land-based attacks against the Starks’ enemies. Because of that population and farmland, the Riverlands has a huge untapped potential for growth: if you can project political authority and kickstart some economic development, you should be able to raise 15,000 more soldiers than the Vale could provide, and resolve most of the Riverlands’ downsides.
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