@Inferno Vulpix@Oneiros Any thoughts regarding the plan, especially the part where we accept the leadership role? I feel it's lacking somewhat, and would appreciate suggestions.
About to go to bed, so can't say I'll be the most coherent, but in the broad scope it looks good. Declining despite Shikamaru's wishes requires enough explanations to make him give in, but for ourselves that job largely falls on Shikamaru (who, well, did that at the end of last update). So going into detail about why we'd be a good leader rubs up against the not-pompous rule.
To ensure a relatively smooth transition, I can suggest two things: first, make sure Hazou doesn't appear to accept the position too easily. If he jumps right at it at Shikamaru's request, we look like offering the position to Shikamaru in the first place was just us un-subtly signalling humility to artificially gain respect, which undermines the actual humility involved. The second thing is that the plan as stated uses something along the lines of 'assuming the other teams agree'. At worst, this comes off as dismissive of the (potentially very valid) reasons why they might want Shikamaru in charge instead, and again risks making Hazou look like he's entirely too happy to be the leader. In light of that, I'd change 'Say that you'd be willing to accept the position, assuming the other teams (esp. Team Guy) also agree that we'd be the best leader.' to something more like 'Ask the other teams if they are okay with this arrangement and if they have any concerns or objections, and if they're willing to accept you as leader agree to it.' but I'm sleepy right now so that's probably not the best way to phrase it either.
Off-topic, I'm thinking of making a Kagome expy for the D&D 5th Edition campaign I'm in. Ideas and suggestions for mechanically accurate representation would be most welcome.
Evocationist wizard. At low levels, being able to use Alarm and Unseen Servant (especially as rituals!) is really nice for setting up a fortress camp. And it's kind of nice to be able to avoid hitting allies with your AoE spells.
They might make this assumption, I guess, but they really shouldn't. Everybody knows--we know, and they certainly should know--that genin on their way up to chuunin don't become general experts at everything. They specialize. They have limited experience (or experience points, from our perspective), and have had to focus on becoming good at one or two things, while leaving other skills at bargain-basement levels.
So if they see a team that's bad at stealth, they shouldn't say to themselves "Oh, they're bad at everything." They should say "I wonder what they're good at? Taijutsu, genjutsu, trickery?"
And what if we *don't* find anyone gunning for us? I'll point out that so far this is nothing but speculation that there are large groups of ninjas working together with the goal of hunting down our team.
Don't split the party and risk less-than-maximal success, or do split the party and risk getting knocked out by locally superior forces? The bad of splitting the party outweighs the bad of not splitting the party.
These quotes seem to clash with each other with high probability. If a few groups have a large fraction of the sealing pool, they would be better off discarding Hazō's seals.
Teams will have been taken out and looted by stronger teams. Some of those teams will in turn have been taken out by yet-stronger teams. It is reasonable to believe that the top three to five teams have acquired on the order of fifty percent of the available pool.
Concerning Keiko's sexuality, while I don't think she's suffered for it in the story so far, she may in the future. The EN have a lot of people, and we don't know the attitudes and personalities of all the people she might meet.
While there's roughly 0% chance that I'll find the quote, I seem to recall that when she inadvertently revealed her feelings for Inoue-Mari-Sensei, part of her feeling of humiliation came from the fear that she would be scorned for her homosexuality. If so, that tells us something about her childhood environment, and by extension about the world of MfD. Namely, that not everyone is "cool" with homosexuality, and of those that are not, at least some will actively inflict suffering upon known homosexuals.
These quotes seem to clash with each other with high probability. If a few groups have a large fraction of the sealing pool, they would be better off discarding Hazō's seals.
I'm not seeing the contradiction. The Party Trick seals, which do not die after twenty-four hours, are now widely circulating, making it politically difficult for Mist to disqualify them. Since the Leaf teams hold more of these seals than anybody else, this provides the Leaf teams with a significant advantage.
However, that advantage is not, by itself, enough to make them the overall winners, since the Mist-supplied seals have likely concentrated in the hands of a few strong teams, and those strong teams likely have more still-glowing Mist seals than the Leaf teams have Party Trick seals.
Getting rid of Hazo's seals would only hurt Leaf, as it would take them from 30ish seals down to 0 seals. Right now, they have to play catch-up against the estimated two or three strongest teams; if they were to discard the Party Trick seals, they would be basically out of the game.
Right now, the Leaf teams are certainly above-median in terms of likely-to-be-accepted seals on hand, and have a good shot at taking the lead, if they can steal a fair number of glowing Mist seals. However, even if they fail to take the overall lead, they are still in a decent position to move on to the next stage of the festivities.
If they had never pursued the Party Trick strategy in the first place, then they might now be in the lead, or they might be at the tail. That would come down to combat/ambush/stealth success, which is partly a matter of skill and partly a matter of luck.
Concerning Keiko's sexuality, while I don't think she's suffered for it in the story so far, she may in the future. The EN have a lot of people, and we don't know the attitudes and personalities of all the people she might meet.
While there's roughly 0% chance that I'll find the quote, I seem to recall that when she inadvertently revealed her feelings for Inoue-Mari-Sensei, part of her feeling of humiliation came from the fear that she would be scorned for her homosexuality.
The Party Trick seals, which do not die after twenty-four hours, are now widely circulating, making it politically difficult for Mist to disqualify them. Since the Leaf teams hold more of these seals than anybody else, this provides the Leaf teams with a significant advantage.
Imagine the top three teams have procured a large fraction of Hazō's traded seals.
If they discard those seals, they lose a lesser fraction of their overall cache, and prevent Leaf's trick (whatever it may be) from working. If the top three teams all came to this conclusion, which they should because it's optimal and easy, Leaf is the only party left with a nontrivial number of Hazō's seals, so it is easier for them to be disqualified.
Even if the top three teams do not come to this conclusion, those teams are unlikely to object to those seals not being counted, given doing so only hurts the standing of four major competitors. This makes it easy for the proctors to do so.
So, on the topic of hunting, are we intending to just crush whichever teams we can find? Would it be more efficient to use magic bullshit eye man to try and find one of the top percentage whale teams who have already have a large number of seals? Simultaneously eliminate a major competitor and increase our stock a lot in one go.
Obviously the downsides of that would be (A) having to locate a specific team, instead of generally whoever we can find, and (B) if they have a lot of seals, they are by definition a stronger foe.
We only have three hours, it might not be worth smackdowning 6 pathetic teams instead of 1 good team.
Could we add the goal of destroying the seals currently being held by others if we can not steal them outright? It would reduce the overall number of seals in circulation and increasing the chance that the proctors have to accept the Party Trick seals as a point.
Could we add the goal of destroying the seals currently being held by others if we can not steal them outright? It would reduce the overall number of seals in circulation and increasing the chance that the proctors have to accept the Party Trick seals as a point.
Could we add the goal of destroying the seals currently being held by others if we can not steal them outright? It would reduce the overall number of seals in circulation and increasing the chance that the proctors have to accept the Party Trick seals as a point.
Um, we're taking the seals to increase our point totals. Destroying them would be counterproductive to that, unless you are suggesting we destroy an insane number of seals to achieve your goal (by taking out a fuckton of teams), which I find...well, pretty much impossible in 3 hours time.
Did you guys not read the condition of "if we are not being able to take the seals outright" part of my sentence? If we come across a strong team which we are not able to best outright and take the seals we should change our tactics to be more effective at disabling the opponent with a higher risk of ruining the seals that they have on them. We are in a rush and taking out strong teams that would risk our chances of looking good and obtaining victory would be the logical choice that Nara would likely approve given his stated victory condition.
Did you guys not read the condition of "if we are not being able to take the seals outright" part of my sentence? If we come across a strong team which we are not able to best outright and take the seals we should change our tactics to be more effective at disabling the opponent with a higher risk of ruining the seals that they have on them. We are in a rush and taking out strong teams that would risk our chances of looking good and obtaining victory would be the logical choice that Nara would likely approve given his stated victory condition.
...It's not a bad play, though I'll point out if we're against truly competent teams it's not a good idea. As you point out, we're in a rush: any time we waste fighting the team is time we don't get the seals we need. Assuming they're at least minimally competent (and they should be, to handle the 12 of us) they'll have the seals secured with waterproof wrappings and put in a thick pouch/box for defense...which means most of the jutsu we'd use would be useless. It'd be better for us, if we realize we can't best them outright, to retreat and set up another ambush. Destroying their seals means they have (more) incentive to fight us and take our seals, and then we're really sunk since we're fighting a team we can't beat, is seriously pissed at us, and needs to beat us to pass this Stage of the Exams.
Here's a plan variant of @Briefvoice's that has us not splitting the party. I'm having Nara take the leadership for reasons in the plan, but am willing to write a version of the plan where Hazou leads instead.
[X] Action Plan: Twelve Ninjas Strong
General:
Keep in mind OPSEC. We don't talk about Vampiric Dew, or Pangolins/seals (save for those revealed beforehand).
Discuss the plan with teams, especially Keiko and Nara. Make changes as necessary.
If Nara takes the command, this Action Plan is a list of suggestions for Nara to accept or reject as he sees fit. Be polite when suggesting, and no complaining if he rejects it.
Continue expressing support for Nara as ground commander.
Thank him for believing that we'd be a good leader for the teams.
E.g., "It's a generous offer and I would like to say thank you for having such faith in my skills".
Say that Nara would still be a better ground commander than Hazou.
Argue that our exploit and revolving strategy isn't necessarily indicative of being a superior ground commander, it's indicative of having better resources (access to Party Trick seals to exploit the loophole) and even then, the plan had to undergo multiple revisions with teammates.
Note: These aren't bad qualities to have, but it doesn't necessarily translate to being able to command multiple teams at once.
Nara has also shown impressive insight, being able to deduce our earlier plan within moments of actually hearing it, and perceiving the flaw (lack of seals) which probably saved our asses here.
Nara is likely waaay more trusted among the teams here; and trust in their leader is probably one of the most important things when directing multiple teams in the heat of combat.
Point out that Nara would be better at leading the teams as his knowledge of our capabilities is higher: he's spent his entire life among Leaf (and thus the Rookies), whereas Hazou has spent...a couple of months, at the most.
Finally, note that Nara's suggestion from earlier (to have himself in a central position, while Hazou is at the perimeter) would put him in a better position to see the overall battlefield.
Conclude that we're willing to make suggestions and/or a general plan of ambush, but that Nara should still take on-site tactical command for if things go awry.
Make for the ambush site.
We've already gotten an approved evac plan, so we use that.
Keep in mind the possibility of other teams having a similar plan to ours (ambush people near the rendezvous). Have eyes open.
Noburi should be draining various animals as possible, to keep up with chakra demands (obvious stuff, shouldn't need to say it).
As possible find and take clumps of reeds/bramble bushes for later disguises (see below).
Go to the swamp ambush site.
Our ability to attack teams hiding underground is weak (only Hazou and Pangolins have some way to reach them); this site nullifies that.
(Uncertain) Keiko can hide Panjandrum inside the water, as he did when attacking the Sunset Racer (don't mention that example).
Watery area covers up signs of battle better than the other locations.
Presence of reeds/trees makes setting up traps plausible. We also have underwater-functional seals.
Presence of water makes full use of Noburi's Suiton ninjutsu (and bloodline, but let Noburi mention this).
Closeness to Ring of Death means teams are more likely to go to our ambush site.
Note: This is a pro and a con, since other teams could hear us fighting and move towards it...but we're Twelve Ninjas Strong, we can handle this.
(Unsure) Water still works with the Kagemane jutsu (Naruto Chapter 535, Page 6).
Do ambushes.
Preparations:
EVERYONE:
Familiarizes themselves with the area, to gain an Aspect related to knowing the lay of the land.
(With enough trust) Everyone gives Kawarimi permissions until the end of this Exam Stage.
Selects and chooses a spot to hide in.
Generally, follow Shikamaru's advice from earlier: Neji/Shikamaru in a central position, everyone else around the perimeter.
As plausible have teams grouped closer together to promote team synergy.
Ponder usage of Silence Mines for additional Stealth; if reasonable (and doesn't fuck OPSEC) suggest for all teams.
Noburi: Refills everyone who uses chakra, and get chakra from ambient life. This should be obvious, and likely left unstated.
Keiko: Summons Panjandrum, who disguises himself with reeds/bramble bushes in preparation for ambush.
Note: Panashe's showing in Chapter 159 suggests she can sneak up on (and thus defeat) low-Awareness teams. If plausible she could be also summoned and sent hunting for low-Awareness teams to take out. Otherwise she may add to scouting, if capable; or simply not be summoned to conserve chakra.
Akane (and high-Trapmaking individuals): Set explosive traps as dictated by their skill/best positional advantage.
Neji (and high-Awareness individuals): Alert teams if enemies approach.
Smackdown enemy teams:
Nonlethal only, as if it has to be said. Be fast, be efficient, (if possible) be quiet about it.
Use chakra. Our enemies have it, and Noburi can transfer it to us.
As possible use inter-team synergy (e.g., Sakura and Shikamaru can snag enemies with genjutsu/Kagemane for other combatants to KO).
Noburi drains all enemy ninjas of chakra during and after combat (again, this is obvious, don't state it out loud).
Post-battle:
Loot enemies. Don't just take Night Light/Party Trick seals, grab combat seals, weapons, and VERY IMPORTANTLY their word-half from the First Stage of the Exams. You know, the ones that give us access to the next stage?
Chakra drain + tie enemies up, stuff them up trees or similar.
Noburi tops our chakra off with chakra from enemy teams (again, this is obvious, don't state it out loud).
Suppose enemies open up with a clearly lethal attack, such as a large AoE fire jutsu hot enough to give third degree burns to the victim aimed at one of our people. Do we proceed to only use nonlethal attacks in combat? If yes, why? If no, what level of lethality is required for the switch?
Suppose enemies are clearly intending to kill us (what with us being traitors of Mist and only missing nin to be accepted by a foreign power and closely connected to the ruler of the strongest country on the continent, we don't so much have targets painted on our backs as whole body target-tattoos). Suppose they come in force greater than ours when using nonlethal (e.g. 18 people to our 12), and use lethal (and thus more effective) attacks to boot. Presumably, we should switch to using lethal attacks to compensate in order to survive. In which order do we reveal our lethal tricks? How much danger to our lives is required before we start using potentially life-saving pangolin jutsus, fire log and pepper macerators, and secret abilities such as Mist Drain?
Is tying and draining people sufficient to disable them for the duration of this round of the exam? If we aren't guarding the place where bodies are stashed, then an enemy Wakahisa could untie and revive them back to combat-usefulness, if they were to find them. Do we take this risk or do we add additional safety to the disable plan, e.g. breaking their fingers and thus insuring they can't fight or use jutsus even if their chakra is restored?
Suppose we run into a team that we traded with. Do we proceed with the same plan as in case of a general team? This will potentially make all our party trick seals useless, as there aren't enough seals in other teams to force Mist into allowing our cheat.
Suppose we run into a team that we've traded with, and they want to fight us. What do we do?
Suppose that in half of the presumed 30 minute ambush window we get less than half of the seals we need to pass, i.e. we've fucked up. What do we do? Do we switch the ambush site? Something else?
In our group, a lot of people (Hazou, Neji, Akane, Noburi, Lee, Choji, Panjadrum, Panashe) are almost exclusively close-quarters combatants. How do we split targets in case of combat so as to not get in the way of one another? How do we insure such a high percentage of CCF doesn't get in the way of ranged attackers?
Out of remaining people, three (Sakura, Ino, Nara) don't deal damage and use primarily various disables. How are they utilised to boost our melee fighters(let's face it, that's our primary method of dealing damage)?
Close quarters fighters need to be, well, close. Suppose we are faced with a group of agile primarily ranged attackers, e.g. long-range jutsu users. How do we close in and insure they can't kite us(attack-run back-attack always keeping some distance between them and the melee fighters)?
Did we set up intra-party callsigns and henge-checkers(passwords that can be used to check if it's an infiltrator or not) yet?
...It's not a bad play, though I'll point out if we're against truly competent teams it's not a good idea. As you point out, we're in a rush: any time we waste fighting the team is time we don't get the seals we need. Assuming they're at least minimally competent (and they should be, to handle the 12 of us) they'll have the seals secured with waterproof wrappings and put in a thick pouch/box for defense...which means most of the jutsu we'd use would be useless. It'd be better for us, if we realize we can't best them outright, to retreat and set up another ambush. Destroying their seals means they have (more) incentive to fight us and take our seals, and then we're really sunk since we're fighting a team we can't beat, is seriously pissed at us, and needs to beat us to pass this Stage of the Exams.
The time limit is to our benefit in this situation though as we will be timing our attack to coincide with the general rush to get to the judges, limiting their options to be the capture of our seals rather than taking out our chances of victory. We are going to be going after the teams with the highest number of seals and thus we will potentially be taking out a large number of the points from circulation if anyone wants to have a chance at moving on to the next stage of the event.
Could we add the goal of destroying the seals currently being held by others if we can not steal them outright? It would reduce the overall number of seals in circulation and increasing the chance that the proctors have to accept the Party Trick seals as a point.
Noburi and anyone else able to use AOE water attacks after the teams shift to targeted attacks to the cases holding the seals the other teams are holding. Also explosives I guess.
Noburi and anyone else able to use AOE water attacks after the teams shift to targeted attacks to the cases holding the seals the other teams are holding. Also explosives I guess.
But they'll use the same defensive rolls for that as they would for attacks on their body, and the cases that (appear to be) holding seals aren't probably that much more fragile. I'm trying to think how you would expect this to work mechanically.
Doing a maneuver to set "soaked seals" aspect would probably be the water jutsu skill rolled versus opponent's athletics. But so would an attack on the opponent. And if you're using explosives, again, if you're blowing up the seals then you probably also blew up the ninja.
Well I was more thinking that everyone dog pile tags so that someone who can ruin the seals can take advantage of the massive bonus they would be getting on their turn. We are fighting as a team of people working together after all.
