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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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MMKII said:
Lets not blow up or fuck around with our facility beyond trying to make it impregnable without altering the physical layout meaningfully.
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Blow up everyone's facilities, then, over the course of both rounds, so that they can't blame us for having ours blown up reasonably.
 
Cariyaga said:
Shrug. Get Shikamaru to do it, then?
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Shikamaru is from Leaf. How is it better?

What if Mist's warmonger faction is monitoring the entire event, with Kozu's eyeballs or another sensory ability, waiting for the slightest opportunity to report us and ruin Jiraiya's plans? That rule is so convenient for them. Are you 99% confident they aren't? Because it's hard to overstate the disastrousness of getting caught lying to a proctor. It's an instant strategic failure.
Cariyaga said:
Blow up everyone's facilities, then, over the course of both rounds, so that they can't blame us for having ours blown up reasonably.
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Establish ourselves as the facility-destroyers, then pretend it wasn't us who destroyed our facility? I doubt that will fly.
 
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The only shenanigans we can pull in Round 2 will be dependent on whether or not Shikamaru is Red and whether or not we can bribe some people to do some sabotage for us.
 
eaglejarl said:
(And hadn't that been an enjoyable conversation, when Hazō had insisted on unburdening himself to her and Noburi after lunch. Ugh.)
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Velorien said:
"Noburi! Code Killbox!" she shouted down the corridor as Hazō stumbled into their room. She couldn't hear Noburi's urgent apology to his latest conversation partner, but on the whole he reacted with appropriate haste, arriving before Hazō could so much as finish collapsing onto his bed.

"Code Killbox?" Hazō asked apathetically.
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Velorien said:
Oh. Well, there's no crisis," Hazō said as he attempted to sink into the bed until it fully swallowed him. "Just life being the way it always is."
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Velorien said:
"Point taken," Hazō grumbled lifelessly. "Anyway, it's nothing important."
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Velorien said:
"It's Akane," Hazō muttered after a second.
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Stop being so insistent, Hazou. Ugh. :p
 
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Cariyaga said:
Oh, come now. Do you really think we couldn't dig tunnels between blue team bases? :p
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Mile long tunnels would take hours, even with Pangolins. We'd need to stop that shit from collapsing too which is nontrivial.

If we're doing any hardcore construction or demolition at all, then we might as well just bomb out everything for the better part of a mile around us.

Edit:

Here's an idea, why don't we spend the remaining time in Round 1 clearing the area of any and all forest or cover?

Will make Round 2 much easier for us.
 
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MMKII said:
Mile long tunnels would take hours, even with Pangolins. We'd need to stop that shit from collapsing too which is nontrivial.

If we're doing any hardcore construction or demolition at all, then we might as well just bomb out everything for the better part of a mile around us.
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something something lets do that anyway something something laughing in Kagome
 
Hi everyone!

I'm not sure if that's @eaglejarl's Bad Thing (though I think it is), but we should be prepared for adversaries using lethal attacks against us (either contestants or outside interference). The "but diplomatic fallout" argument against that doesn't really hold water, because we already know that there are people in the Exams who would do so if they thought they could get away with it. The explosive tag attack in the Swamp and the attempt at causing panic during the disguise event come to mind (not to mention the retconned huge attack using mist drain in the Swamp, and the also-retconned stampede instigation in the manor, although they are OOC information). The absence of proctors is the perfect setup for this kind of move, and we should be adequately paranoid.

The thread also seems a bit too optimistic about our ability to win many (admittedly lopsided) fights in a row. I could totally see our team be modelled after this, overextend and get into a bad fight.

Not sure how to translate this mindset into plan elements, but we probably should at least:
  • Avoid splitting up
  • Keep in mind that enemies will likely see us coming and may prepare ambushes
  • Use Panashe to check for ambushes/traps
  • Send pangolins first against unknown threats
 
MMKII said:
Here's an idea, why don't we spend the remaining time in Round 1 clearing the area of any and all forest or cover?

Will make Round 2 much easier for us.
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Unfortunately the easiest way to do this would be to start a forest fire. Which would catch us in it.

...maybe we could sneak a stupid box somewhere?
 
faflec said:
Unfortunately the easiest way to do this would be to start a forest fire. Which would catch us in it.

...maybe we could sneak a stupid box somewhere?
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Not if we've already cleared back the greenery around one of the concrete buildings and taken cover in it!

...but forest fires are the kind of thing that causes indiscriminate damage, which is perfectly likely to maim and/or kill someone, so sadly that's out :(.
 
Well, if we want to hurt everyone in R2 without receiving a -1000 penalty, we could try to memorize exact positions of all buildings relative to all other buildings, invent artillery during the break, then open fire on them once R2 starts. Not sure how to avoid killing people, though. Goo Bombs? Storage seal lakes? Probably can't assemble the latter in one day.

But yes, I vote for deforesting the area for visibility, and I vote for starting a forest fire. I believe I proposed exactly that 93 pages ago, but everyone ignored this brilliant and flawless idea of mine.
 
faflec said:
>implying lakes worth of water dropped on a location isn't lethal
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Well, near the location in case of the lakes. So that the building is demolished, but the ninja have the forewarning to run away. Yes, it's still risky, I know.

Hmm. @Vecht, I think there's still a chance to execute your game-theoretic coercion plan. During the break, announce that we've memorised locations of all buildings, and that we'll shell them all once R2 starts. Make our intentions very clear and our conviction very evident. Once R2 starts, have Pandamonium throw youthenizers there, or something along those lines. No positive points for anyone!

That cannot possibly go wrong.

Edit: I'm not exactly a fan of this plan, because moronic irrational suicidal chuunin-candidates are moronic irrational suicidal chuunin-candidates, but I think it could be made pretty effective in this case. I could be convinced to support it, @Vecht.
 
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Rhylax said:
Hi everyone!

I'm not sure if that's @eaglejarl's Bad Thing (though I think it is), but we should be prepared for adversaries using lethal attacks against us (either contestants or outside interference). The "but diplomatic fallout" argument against that doesn't really hold water, because we already know that there are people in the Exams who would do so if they thought they could get away with it. The explosive tag attack in the Swamp and the attempt at causing panic during the disguise event come to mind (not to mention the retconned huge attack using mist drain in the Swamp, and the also-retconned stampede instigation in the manor, although they are OOC information). The absence of proctors is the perfect setup for this kind of move, and we should be adequately paranoid.

The thread also seems a bit too optimistic about our ability to win many (admittedly lopsided) fights in a row. I could totally see our team be modelled after this, overextend and get into a bad fight.

Not sure how to translate this mindset into plan elements, but we probably should at least:
  • Avoid splitting up
  • Keep in mind that enemies will likely see us coming and may prepare ambushes
  • Use Panashe to check for ambushes/traps
  • Send pangolins first against unknown threats
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Hey, glad to have you on board. And immediately predicting our violent demise next update, the right mindset for the Moody Lottery if I ever saw one.

More seriously, the problem with this observation is that it doesn't really change our actions in any way. In the marsh, part of the reason we went the fort route was for safety against getting ganged up on. Here, we can't afford safe strategies, and whether our enemies come at us with lethal force or not doesn't impact our general tactics.
 
Oh just a note Team Uplift canonically has sign language as we see here
eaglejarl said:
With a sigh, Hazō flicked some handtalk at Noburi and Keiko. Loosely translated from the simplified and telegraphic battlesign, the message was simply <I've got some strategy ideas> (More literally: 'Tactical plan. Multiple.')

<Damnit, Hazō, what took you so long?> Noburi grumped back. ('Overdue. Dumbass.' Yes, Team Uplift had evolved a specific intra-team handsign for the word 'dumbass'.) <Keiko and I have been waiting five whole minutes, and I bet her ten ryo that you'd be finished doing the thing two minutes ago.>

<Speaking of which....> Even in nonverbal communication, Keiko managed to pack an infuriating amount of 'I told you so' into a very few finger movements, none of which were explicitly 'I told you so'—which, yes, was another Team Uplift handsign.

<Fine,> Noburi growled, reaching into his money pouch. Immediately, the nearest ninja—one team from Rock and another from Cloud—pushed away from him in alarm, causing an expanding ripple of stumbles and curses.

"Keep it in line, you grubs!" shouted one of the proctors.

"Sorry, folks," Noburi said, raising his left hand placatingly and bringing the right out of his pouch very slowly. He turned it to show that he was holding nothing more threatening than a ten-ryo coin, which he promptly handed to Keiko. Glares were his only response.

<Okay,> Hazō signed. <What was that all about? You were betting on how long it would take me to 'do the thing'?>

<Bro, we've had this talk. The thing you do, where you look off into nothing for about ten seconds and suddenly come up with this twenty-eight point plan with five sections and two levels of sub-points in each one,> Noburi signed. <Except this time you had to go and spend five minutes on it? Geez, man. You're losing a step.>

<Mari-sensei warned me that it is not uncommon for men to experience performance problems as they age,> Keiko signed. <She was very firm about the fact that I should immediately reassure you that it does not in any way decrease your value as a man.>

Noburi and Hazō locked horrified eyes. <We will never speak of this again,> they signed in unison.

<So, I've got some ideas,> Hazō signed, keeping his mind closely focused on the details of how to beat the Exams instead of on the horrific images prompted by Mari-sensei's remote-operated genjutsu.

<Hang on, hang on,> Noburi signed. <Let me guess. You don't want to punch anyone. You want to make friends with everyone, right? Somehow find a way to unite everyone and build bridges between them as the first stage in your master plan to conquer the Elemental Nations.>

<...Well, yeah. How'd you know? Oh, except for the part about 'conquer'. That's kind of an ugly word; I prefer 'optimize'.>

Noburi looked triumphantly at Keiko. She glowered her disgruntlement as she handed him back the ten-ryo coin. Surrounding ninja were eyeing them suspiciously at this point, their own fingers flying as they 'spoke' back and forth with their teams. The only sounds were the croaking of bloodfrogs from the Swamp and a few gripes from up ahead, the sources of which were out of sight through the crowd.

<C'mon, Keiko, say it,> Noburi taunted.

<No.>

<Say it! You have to say it, you lost the bet!>

She sighed heavily and tried one more time to execute the fabled River's Dragon Dance of Doom no Jutsu, glaring at her adoptive brother while doing everything she could to kill him with her brain. Sadly, the technique remained a fable and Noburi's skull remained unexploded. <You were right.>

<Say the whole thing!>

The glare intensified. <You were right and I was wrong. I abase myself before your brilliance, O Masterful Cogitator. Truly, I am not worthy.> The flicking of her fingers somehow managed to seem spiteful.

Noburi had once again assumed the guise of his alter ego: Smugley Smugginton, King of Smugton. His 'careful walk' shifted into a 'strutting swagger', at least until he stepped on the heel of the Rock ninja in front of him. She turned with a curse, one hand going to the kunai at her hip.

"No fighting in the ranks, grubs!" shouted the nearest proctor. "You there! Tall girl with the kunai! Out, out, out!" His arm cocked back, rock ready to throw. The girl shot Noburi one more glare before she and her team turned and raced into the swamp steps ahead of a hail of thrown rocks.

<You mentioned a plan?> Keiko signed.

<Right. So, here's what we do—>

He cut himself off as the crowd in front of them parted to reveal Teams Asuma and Kurenai. The Leaf ninja had simply stopped walking, allowing the other genin to flow around them as they waited for Hazō's group to catch up.
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Cariyaga said:
...You know, that'd be tempting fate just a little with the Blood Release guy still in the exams.
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I'm a bit concerned that using firelog macerators as terror weapons will remind the Hot Springs team of the forest fire we started while running from them, actually.

For the record, the reason I'm not signing up for the Moody Lottery is that I tend to be cognizant of a lot of little failure modes like this; I simply don't post about them because I don't think it generates better plans on average.
 
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