Right. So...again...we can build almost any story we like.Beran wrote:True there is nothing written to support the Easterling forces in the North were of the same quality, but then again there is nothing written to dispute it either.
While driving around this morning I thought of this:
1) The enemy knows that Dale & Erebor are going to take all of his effort (and the Easterlings know where there's treasure to loot) he'd rather not have to waste time & energy on LT.
2) Laketown has a number of influential traders, and downright cowards, who don't want to "pick sides" in the war, especially since they believe (Shadow points for them!) that Sauron is going to win in the end.
3) Therefore, through negotiations, Laketown remains as a "neutral city" during the war, but with the ever-present awareness that only one side has the ability to punish them for breaking neutrality. Like Geneva in WWII.
4) That means it's the one place where adventurers can mingle with colorful characters from both sides, opening up all sorts of Casablana-esque plot lines. Maybe they are trying to get to Erebor, and the Enemy is looking for them, so they have to pretend to be something else. ("These aren't the Dwarves you're looking for. We're free to go.")
It would be dramatic to end the war with Laketown getting destroyed anyway, but I don't really see how or why that would happen. Without dragon fire it doesn't seem likely to me that the city would burn easily (especially if the citizens practiced bucket brigade drills, and kept roofs wet during battles), I don't think it's realistic from an engineering perspective that damaging a few key pilings would cause a chain reaction. And, however it would happen, it should somehow hinge on the actions of the adventurers.
But after a lot of intrigue and cloak & dagger adventures, it could be a fitting conclusion for the town to come to a dramatic end.