Fire Emblem: Last of the Manakete

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

Ultimately, raids can only slow defeat, not stop it, and digging in might make things more expensive--but as we've seen, the Will to Fight is effectively bottomless even in the face of the ones who know the Empire intentionally fabricated the CB. This is a Holy War as far as the Empire's hardliners are concerned, and they have total control over the instruments of a state that will compulsively follow their leaders and dogma even against their own better judgement.

Punch them in the nose to punish them for getting fancy, and we have room to work with. Learning that they tried to get fancy and cutting that off means we have a window where they're split. That means Defeat in Detail is on the table--hypothetically at least, and we should have Magic Superiority still--that's a huge deal from my impression.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

Raids and defensive lines absolutely have an important part of warfare. But that point is to weaken the enemy to the point that you can decisively defeat them. The army is as weak as it'll get and no reinforcement is coming for us, and we have momentum after the recent successes. Strike now to avoid prolonging the war here while we can. A big fight now avoids even higher casualties on both sides that come from a prolonged stalemate

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

Essentially what everyone else in favor of attacking has already said, but, especially in this specific era of warfare, yielding the initiative is going to bite us in the ass. While attacking also might bite us in the ass, we do actually have a semi-prepared defensive line to fall back to, while fortifying our defenses and letting two armies link up to attack us just doesn't seem like a good idea.

Additionally, I don't actually think Blade is here to kill Ryza. I'm almost 100% certain that Blade is here to confirm if Ryza is either a Fell or Non Fell Dragon, and go from there. After all, subtle difference can be massive, especially if it's someone that appears loyal to the Heir not the Reagent.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

Roll the dice, I think. The best argument for defense would be to hope that we could negotiate with the Imperial army's local leaders and help them see sense, but I'm just not sure that's going to happen.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.

[X] -Build and maintain a defensive line. The Empire will probably be prepared for further raiding, and attacking a similar-sized force seems like a bad idea when they have a much larger reinforcement group not that far away. Besides, you don't actually want anything on their side of the border, you just want to keep them out. This will allow the allies to build up a few fallback defenses so that one back engagement doesn't ruin everything.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

ImperatorV said:

There's some rather marked differences between our situation here and the Civil War. In the latter, it was necessary to destroy the confederacy, meaning aggressive actions was required. In our campaign here, we don't actually need to end the empire, just make them suffer enough that the Regent can't reasonably push further.

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This is Fire Emblem, chances are by Endgame we'll have stormed Wyrmrise and got an evil dragon dropped on our heads.

Emanyzal said:

This is Fire Emblem, chances are by Endgame we'll have stormed Wyrmrise and got an evil dragon dropped on our heads.

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Or a freaking god.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

JAGwin said:

Or a freaking god.

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Probably both, at the same time if not the same being.

SoaringHawk218 said:

You fiddle with the fork, trying to twist the strange "noodles" around it as elegantly as most of the others are managing (thankfully, you're not alone in having trouble; Kelton's given up and is cutting them up and using the fork as a spoon, despite several dry looks from the others at his table).

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Noodals? What an exotic delicacy.

"I remember hearing something about the Felicians liking dra- manakete, so maybe they know something."

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"We will need support if we are to make them understand that their acts of conquest will not restore that which they lost. At the moment the Whitewings seem to have their own problems, and a human trying to approach the Felicians is usually a fool's errand. That leaves the Divine Realm."

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Hm. I smell a solo mission in the distance...

Thankfully, there are no problems during the night, though Belle's comment had made you paranoid enough to move a small table in front of the door so it'd get knocked over if someone tried to come in.

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Or if someone tried to leave for the privy before the sun rose enough to see that furniture had been moved around.

TaliesinSkye said:

I wonder if maybe the Regent doesn't really answer to anybody. He was willing to assassinate the Emperor, after all. He seems unlikely to bow to political pressure rather than going full tyrant.

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No king is an island. If he will not bend to the nobility's pressure, they will eventually break him. Anyways, similar calculus applies if we can convince the Regent himself that the war will cost more than he could gain.

This all assumes, of course, that the Imperial nobility is reasonably rational and doesn't have any unknown supernatural factors affecting their decisions. If they're apocalyptic cultists to an evil god or immortal manakete or something, normal political reasoning may not apply.

Alectai said:

Ultimately, raids can only slow defeat, not stop it—

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Not remotely true! Raids can win wars, depending on the nature and motivations of the belligerents.

CrabTravelLLC said:

Raids and defensive lines absolutely have an important part of warfare. But that point is to weaken the enemy to the point that you can decisively defeat them.

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Also untrue! Consistent raids inflict casualties, drain supplies, and generally make occupation of the raided area costly. A defending army like ours can achieve its goals (keep the invaders out) by simply making the war not worth fighting. Raids are much better at that than setpiece battles.

I don't think it's the right choice here, but you don't need battles to win a war. Plenty of successful armies fought with nothing but raids, especially if you count guerrilla forces.


[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

We're facing at least two major imperial formations here, possibly more - we have to break one while we have the chance. If we wait for the enemy to mass their forces into one big sledgehammer, they'll smash us flat with it. The Fabian approach has gotten some nice results, but the empire's adapting, and they've got more than enough resources to simply muscle on through once their armies link up.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

We have them scattered looking for our raiders. If we bunch up and hit, most of their super-mobile stuff will be unavailable (looking for ours) so we can cav blitz them.

This is winning the war with raids. Remember, they have their own zealot-caliber believers so they have to be unable not just unwilling.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.

[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

We've been convinced that attacking is probably the right play right now.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
No reason to not have her on the team. More hands and friends are always welcome, even tho we are spread thin enough as it is.

SoaringHawk218 said:

[] -Continue the raiding of Imperial supply lines. Not only has this already been successful, but it serves your purpose: you don't need to destroy the Empire, just stop them from conquering the Northern Kingdoms until they're forced to sue for peace because everyone's fighting them. This is especially true now that you'll be able to help protect Angela from wyverns.

[] -Build and maintain a defensive line. The Empire will probably be prepared for further raiding, and attacking a similar-sized force seems like a bad idea when they have a much larger reinforcement group not that far away. Besides, you don't actually want anything on their side of the border, you just want to keep them out. This will allow the allies to build up a few fallback defenses so that one back engagement doesn't ruin everything.

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I don't know if these two are viable. If we are passive, we will let the empire's troops regroup and make their own fortifications in turn. It will become a long-drawn-out war with a lot of casualties.

[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

The other factor is, this is Fire Emblem themed, and generally proactive maneuvers are what's catalogued. Even the "defend" missions typically come with a "or defeat all enemies" condition because move and attack lends itself to a more dynamic sort of gameplay.

Even with the differences here (battalions in a game with an actual shifting manakete? Madness) there's enough of the flavor retained I don't see "dig in" as the play. We match their force and win on maneuver.

We will have that advantage after all. But it only works if they aren't holed up somewhere more tight on space. That said, tightly packed enemy formations are Bolting-bait.

Raids have won the strategic concerns, we'll deal with the tactical when we hit the map.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

Raiding for a bit longer would be nice, but only nice. Chevauchee, and all that. But the fruits of the front foot are here to be gathered, while the second larger host is waiting for what will not come.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

It's probably the biggest risk of the three, but the proactive nature of the play, the element of surprise, the potential to rout an entire army (and then plausibly back off to form a defensive formation against the larger army), and more are all on the table.

Salvador, in all cases, is not going to be any more of a problem here than in any other option-which is to say, he is a problem, but we have the small comfort that in all cases Ryza will be supported by archers willing to drown poor Ignition in arrows if Salvador tries to beeline to Ryza. In other words, our strategy shouldn't be worrying overmuch about Salvador in the face of the fact Salvador is going to be a problem no matter what, it's just a complication.

Melissa's join condition is reasonable and understandable, and shouldn't pose too much additional difficulty. After all, she shouldn't ever be joining combat to begin with as a pure healer.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

[X] Agree to the terms so that Melissa might join you. You both have so many questions, and you've kept others safe.
[X] -Gather the Northern Kingdom forces for a strike on the Imperial Army. Because of the disruption of their supply lines, the Empire is currently on the back foot, especially since a fair bit of their cavalry and wyverns are spread out trying to prevent raids. While there are reports that Meridiem forces have arrived, the nearer army is roughly equivalent in size to your current forces, and as such are vulnerable to being either defeated or at least driven back in disarray.

It's either this, or the defenses. But I'm definitely leaning towards an assault to shove them back some, as if we succeed but still need to retreat, that will be more time to build up defenses, and more supplies and men the Empire needs to send to reinforce.

And unless we are suddenly swarmed by a bunch of people wanting to bully Melissa, we also have an on-base healer and friend!

I didn't realize the vote was that lopsided, though.