Bay 12 Games Forum

No option to reinstate Imperial Trade Commission to counter Eldrican taxes?

B

That would fuck with the Simians as much as it would fuck with the Eldrican.

Quote from: Weirdsound on February 24, 2019, 09:54:45 pm

If they don't want shenanigans, they are more than welcome to grind themselves down on our defenses. What I've been trying to articulate this whole time is that I'm fairly confident that this war favors the side on defense. Especially if the side on defense is a wall of pikes and guns.

My concern is on par with your speculation that Eldrican may be waiting to swoop in and take the crown. We will be ground down, too, if we fight in even numbers; we will have to fight open battles, there are too many of them to let them have run of the countryside. I think moving quickly against an inferior foe (and our training regimen darn well better include infantry marches; we're already mobilized to the border, right?) is our best move to preserve our fighting forces for the next enemy.

That is the problem. Honestly, our position is not as strong as the 11 army suggests it is. We are like Poland in WWII, if Nazi's and Soviets genuinely liked each other.

If we try to rush in and can't pull your stunt off fast enough, Eldrican joins the war and we are fucked.

If we wait, and Eldrican decides to join the war during or just after we fight the Damdamins, we are also fucked.

Honestly, unless we get stupidly lucky with our war rolls, we will likely have to-

A: Call another ally (likely the dwarves, which will be expensive)
B: Use our CHA to give the Damdamians a favorable peace deal (We convert, pay some money, use the conviently gathered crusaders to win the civil war that will come from betraying our state religion) (Might be difficult, seeing as the crusade seem to be aimed at destroying our family)
C: Use our CHA bonus to offer our wicked cousin the crown (He is a blood relitive, so giving him the throne shouldn't end the game. It would suck to lose our CHA/MART/WIS character though)

Quote from: Weirdsound on February 24, 2019, 06:29:26 pm

I'm 90% sure Eldrican is waiting for us to 'invade' their ally, so they can invade us.

I simply don't believe your analysis of Eldrican motives.

You said the same when you thought it was only 4,000 troops and couldn't be a threat except as a feint. Now it's 30,000 troops lining up but I'm so glad to hear this ISN'T the promised Damdamian Crusade. It's still just Eldrican machinations to make us look bad.

Okay, I phrased that wrong. Eldrican isn't waiting to invade us. Rucus is waiting for an excuse to call Eldrican.

At this point it is a full crusade. No denying that. Eldrican does not like us and they have a formal alliance with Rucus/Lamentia. I don't think they are mobilizing though (we'd be getting intel about Eldrican mobilizing if they were mobilizing). I don't know why; Perhaps our rotten cousin wants his friends to do all the work, before swooping in to take the crown after the war. If we invade their ally, they might not have a choice but to get involved.

Look at it from the crusaders perspective; We have a massive, well trained army that is mostly defensive heavy infantry on the border. We have nasty border forts. A good chunk of that border is river, if I recall correctly. Unless they are stupid, they are not going to simply rush across the border. They need a scheme. Getting Eldrican involved is the most probable scheme.

Stalling also doesn't favor them. Crusaders, historically, are not the most well behaved people. I would not want a standing army of 30k foreign zealots hanging around my territory even if they were my allies. Also, if they take too long, we might get opportunities to try calling more allies or use our spies to fuck with them.

Quote

We have a troop boosting artifact

They have religious fervor.

Quote

a training edict

Past Damdamian armies have had equal training thanks to the legacy of the former Empire. At least some of the banners reported are those of national armies.

Quote

probably superior equipment (Damdaimian lands are mineral poor), probably superior fireblood weapons (we have a fireblood court), recently revamped and modernized forts,

I'll grant these, although I note the probably in there (see military legacy of Empire, above).

Quote

and a Martial Leader.

It would hardly be the first time our opponents do as well. The more armies assemble, the more likely some of the commanders are equally competent.

It would seem that you read up on the time Houlandin I attacked Rucus/Lamentia. In case you don't recall, WE LOST THAT WAR! I don't see how that goes better for us now that they have a bunch of foreigners helping them out.

The way I see it, it breaks down three ways:

Them attacking without Eldrican - favors us.
Them waiting - favors us
Us attacking without more factors in our favor - favors them, and probably drags Eldrican in to boot.

I'll sweeten the deal by stipulating that I have no desire at all to conquer and keep Rucus. Swat them down, bring everyone back home. Let's repurpose our diplomats and spies to spreading that message in southern lands and maybe some of the rulers down there will obliquely reward us for removing a troublesome fanatic element.

If we do invade and win, we need to give those lands to our Vassal Eval. Historically, they have a claim to Lamentia, and likely have a similar claim to the former duchies of Lamentia that Rucus has annexed. Praticailly it would create a nice buffer state between us and further Damdamian aggression.

A

No fresh option to try and call in other factions?

BBBB (although I think we should call helliste AND dwarves, If we are going to mobilizate the people we should use the church to do this for us)

I laughed on the option to call the eldrican "they will surely answer, on their behalf"


Just thinking, we should begin to adopt the act to elect someone from our bloodline to enter the church as an tradition, say that we are doing this because Cyl's reign was blessed and he did had a kid as a priest

after some time our whole family will have closer ties with the clerk, and maybe even a yoean archbishop

I mean, we have CHA, WIS, and a strong army. If we survive our brush with the Damned worshipers, I could see Houlandin III eventually going full Henry VIII and just making the Monarch head of the chruch.

The Hobgoblin smiles at the Lizardman. "We don't know what sort of axes or food we will find when we arrive at the next star, so we cannot plan ahead. Our bellies are full and our necks safe now, so what should we be thinking about friend?"

Mr. Shredder considers the question for a moment, as he dunks a pumpernickel roll into the pot of cheese and formulates an answer. "...My money is on no. Sorimas comes from somewhere else, and she didn't seem to have any knowledge of our gods or religion when she arrived. Even if people on other worlds did worship the same gods that Ebberon does, they wouldn't have the same holidays. We measure time by how Ebberon moves around its sun; Unless all worlds move in the exact same way, it may not be possible to synchronize calendar events between them in a meaningful orderly way."

The Hobgoblin then takes a long swig of wine, and reconsiders his opinion. "But Brother Jonathan can call upon the Silver Flame, even on other worlds... So perhaps the reach and interest of a divine force is determined by the geographical distribution of its followers."