Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-24901923-20141018140231

Phase 1 involved stealing tons of Dust. Because Dust is so important to modern life in Remnant, this causes the economy to take a hit as well. So, Dust supplies in Vale are low, hindering the formation and arming of an militia while the White Fang is now well-equipped with Dust and weapons. The economy is down and international travel is getting more dangerous, possibly as a result of all this stealing, making the Dust harder to replace. This causes the negativity in Vale to rise, making it a more attractive target for Grimm. While blowing through the walls is an option, I believe that Cinder will go for the much easier, much more devastating option. Reopening the subway tunnels leading to Mountain Glenn and lure the Grimm into Vale through them. Unlike an attack that involves the walls, an attack from below would be far more unexpected and would provide no time for Vale to muster a militia, which would be poorly-supplied anyway due to lack of Dust. This ups the fear generated by the attack. The White Fang could add to the chaos during the Grimm invasion, further increasing the panic and attracting even more Grimm in an feedback loop that could very well destroy Vale entirely. This attack is likely to happen in the next two episodes, as at least the first-year Beacon students are now scattered along with their supervising Huntsmen and Huntresses, and Roman will want to step up the timetable to deal with being discovered by Team RWBY. With their forces divided, the H&H will be even more hard-pressed for damage control. Cinder will probably activate the malware she planted in the communications tower, to shut it down or otherwise hijack it for her purposes, making calls for help impossible. Broadcasting live feeds of the attack to trigger panic and attract Grimm to the other Kingdoms is a possibility. While this is occuring, Cinder will probably go after her true objective in Beacon. Asassinating the instructors to cripple their ability to train new H&H, as well as possibly destroying or at least neutralizing the more effective students, is certainly a possibility given Cinder's supposed hit list of notable students, but I believe it's more likely that despite their implied power(Cinder DID manage to stall Glynda on her own, after all), Cinder's team will try to steal or destroy something very important being guarded at Beacon instead.

If Vale survives, it will be crippled for a minimum of decades. As it's the hub of Remnant due to it's central location, the other Kingdoms are likely to be hindered themselves at least. 