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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Asheram said:
Boris must survive at all costs, he's far too important to the cause of the ice witches and the future diplomacy with the Empire to die.
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I'm sure we'll have the option of sticking by him in the battle vote.

Between the Seed and Mathilde's own skills (and his own as well), he'll live. I have faith in that.

[x] Witch Council
 
Codex said:
I find this funny, because of the four Ice Witches Mathilde knows, only one of those Ice Witches was a rickety old lady. I think it says something about how much of an impression Liljiana made on her. To Mathilde, Liljiana is probably the exemplar of an Ice Witch, perhaps even subconciously.
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If you think about it, perhaps the reverse is true for Ljiljana as well, where Mathilde is probably her go-to example of a Grey Wizard, or perhaps even just an Imperial Wizard. Pretty neat.
 
Tasoli said:
Wait if Ice witces need more mobility why are they not inventing their own spells for it? Clearly they do not so they don't have it. If they need it they will invent spells. no need for us to bother them.
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Spells are hard to invent and harder to codify, that is a bit like asking 'if dwarfs need more mobility why have the engineers not invented the internal combustion engine already?'.
 
Boney said:
Ljiljana's former apprentice, but yes. Mathilde built a plan based on the mental image of a bunch of rickety old ladies on horseback and she's not going to not do it just because the rickety old lady turned into a giant snow bat and the only other witch is younger than her.



Canon facts: Kattarin ruled from 2309 to 2465. Pavel was her son. Pavel was actively involved with her being overthrown.

Despite the wiki trying to skim past that with 'oh she must have given birth to him before she was turned into a vampire', there is no way to make those numbers work with an entirely human Pavel. Even if Kattarin was crowned as a teenager and had Pavel in her fifties and then became a vampire, Pavel would be over 110 by the time Kattarin was overthrown.
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Well, the other option is that he wasn't her son- that's never actually directly stated, just that he's called Tsarevich.

But, it's your quest, of course.
 
In any case if Pavel was half vampire and his son a quarter Vlad's disdain for Ice Witches due to his grandmother might actually be rooted in self loathing, in knowing he has more in common with Kattarin the bloody and her dark blood than any mortal ice witch ever could. We should be careful of that.
 
DragonParadox said:
Spells are hard to invent and harder to codify, that is a bit like asking 'if dwarfs need more mobility why have the engineers not invented the internal combustion engine already?'.
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They got helicopters and Mallus doesn't have Oil -except perhaps whale oil-. So not the same thing at all. More to point you will note Gyrocopters is contraryy to their traditional ways and yet when they need it they build it. So it stills supports my position that if there was a need somebody would either invent a way around or it would have been invented already.
K von Carstein said:
It's also possible that « Pavel » isn't really Kattarin's son, and just some noble who managed to craft a good cover story and bribe/threaten the right people. That's the first thing that came to my mind.
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That is what I was assuming already. He is probably related to her or something but not a son.
 
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[X] War Council

Honestly we're probably better suited for helping the Tzar see the actual lay of the land without trampling on his pride.
 
Something I like a lot about this update converging on all the scenes we've had with Boris. I firmly believe that Boris has made such a good impression on Mathilde by this point that I can be confident over the idea of voting for Mathilde to stick to his side and keep him safe being fully in character. It's not metagaming to protect Boris at this point. He's already demonstrated such a clear and solid head on things that I can see Mathilde's utmost priority being to make sure he doesn't die.
 
Codex said:
On one hand, I kind of feel bad for Johann being left out of all the decisions and actions being done here, but he's really got no relevant skills to all of this pre-battle preparation and any diplomacy skills he has are rendered largely irrelevant.

On the other hand, considering the last stopoff we had in Gerdouen and the way those Ungols were looking at him in Vitevo, I'm willing to bet he's probably sharing a bed with an Ungol or something. I think Johann having the time of his life while Mathilde is zooming across the country is a pretty funny image.
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I think you may be underestimating Johann here. He's not a himbo, he was a fully qualified Magister trusted with a dispensation to push the boundaries of what's permissible despite his College thinking that he's magically disabled before he even met Mathilde.

I would expect him to have his own agenda and projects that he'll be finding a way to advance. This is an opportunity for Johann, given how unwelcome male arcane magic users are usually made in Kislev. An army may not be the easiest place to do so, but there are a fair number of nobles here to talk to.

As an example, the Gold College is a major commercial operation, producing and selling all sorts of chemical products, from dyes to soap to distilled spirits, to alloys, and even to gunpowder (although with a restricted sales list). Johann would probably make a very good salesman.

There are also personal projects he could be working on. We don't know what they are, I think, as I believe we've not had chance to spend a social action that might tell us.
 
Nerdasaurus Rex said:
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised. I bet the people of Kislev were so desperate for a Tzar who wasn't a monster that they never wanted to poke at the fiction around his claim.
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Tasoli said:
That is what I was assuming already. He is probably related to her or something but not a son.
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Then why claim to be her son at all, it is as you say a rather transparent lie and not even that useful a one, 'I am in direct line of descent of a monster'. It's not like the crown passing to a cousin is somehow more delegitimatizing then being born of a vampire, thrones fall to distant relations all the time. As a lie it is not very useful and runs the risk of someone overthrowing you as a half vampire based on counting years even if that is not true.
 
Mopman43 said:
Well, the other option is that he wasn't her son- that's never actually directly stated, just that he's called Tsarevich.
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Or he was just some guy that by sheer coincidence had the first name 'Tsarevich'. Or GW didn't do their research and should have called him Tsesarevich Pavel instead. There's a few different ways to come at it to turn it from a plot hole into a plot hook.
 
DragonParadox said:
Then why claim to be her son at all, it is as you say a rather transparent lie and not even that useful a one, 'I am in direct line of descent of a monster'. It's not like the crown passing to a cousin is somehow more delegitimatizing then being born of a vampire, thrones fall to distant relations all the time. As a lie it is not very useful and runs the risk of someone overthrowing you as a half vampire based on counting years even if that is not true.
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There was probably other claimants. By claiming to be her son and getting away with it he probably stopped a civil war that might start compared to if he did not and there was half a dozen other people with same claims. It would be a show of force about his support so to speak that would invalidate every other claim in the process.

Edit: And if commoners were to buy it it would help him further to stabilise his reign afterwards.
 
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I would like to make the argument for attempting to recruit the Ice Witches and Damsels before laying the foundation. My main reason is that it feels like one hell of a slight to consider hosting the project in their land, and then not even inviting them to the start of the project after they didn't make the cut. I know I would be like "What, you value our contribution that little? Well fuck you too.". I would be fine with starting the foundation the same turn we attempt to recruit them.
 
Alratan said:
I think you may be underestimating Johann here. He's not a himbo, he was a fully qualified Magister trusted with a dispensation to push the boundaries of what's permissible despite his College thinking that he's magically disabled before he even met Mathilde.

I would expect him to have his own agenda and projects that he'll be finding a way to advance. This is an opportunity for Johann, given how unwelcome male arcane magic users are usually made in Kislev. An army may not be the easiest place to do so, but there are a fair number of nobles here to talk to.

As an example, the Gold College is a major commercial operation, producing and selling all sorts of chemical products, from dyes to soap to distilled spirits, to alloys, and even to gunpowder (although with a restricted sales list). Johann would probably make a very good salesman.

There are also personal projects he could be working on. We don't know what they are, I think, as I believe we've not had chance to spend a social action that might tell us.
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We spend so much time with Johann in main turns that it doesn't make sense to spend social actions on him. He is a literal constant in the narrative, even more than Max by this point. If he had a research project, I think Mathilde would know by this point. At this point he's following her around and doing what he does best, socialising with other people, learning Eltharin, and practicing with Kadoh. Just like there is no reason for us to believe he isn't working on a secret project, there is also no reason for us to believe that he is working on a secret project.

I'm not sure what you're taking out of my statement. I was making a lighthearted post about Johann getting some, not even calling him a himbo. Not that it's even a bad label, but I don't really think it fits him. I have no idea where you got the idea that him sharing physical companionship with others and me making a lighthearted comment about it is me calling him a himbo. That's weird.
 
[x] Witch Council
Codex said:
Kislev also doesn't have access to artilery before Boris for some reason. Cannons I understand, but they never bothered with ballista or catapults either. I guess they don't engage in sieges enough for it to matter most of the time. There are only, like, three or four cities big enough to qualify for a traditional siege. Most stanistas and krugs are relatively mobile
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I'm thinking infantry is relatively cheap for what they do. Even if they are slow you'd keep them because of cost efficiency, especially if you stack cost increase multipliers like heavy armor.

Artillery is expensive, slow, and the only place they can really see use is city defense...where they could use Ice Witches instead. So they never got around to developing the in house capability.

Alratan said:
So, Lilijana flexes by casting a highly complex spell for her own ease of travel. Mathilde flexes back by casting Battle Magic to make Liljana's apprentice's ride more comfortable…
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Boney said:
Ljiljana's former apprentice, but yes. Mathilde built a plan based on the mental image of a bunch of rickety old ladies on horseback and she's not going to not do it just because the rickety old lady turned into a giant snow bat and the only other witch is younger than her.
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The art of T-posing on other spellcasters has many hidden depths, but I think the granny won this one.
 
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DragonParadox said:
Then why claim to be her son at all, it is as you say a rather transparent lie and not even that useful a one, 'I am in direct line of descent of a monster'. It's not like the crown passing to a cousin is somehow more delegitimatizing then being born of a vampire, thrones fall to distant relations all the time. As a lie it is not very useful and runs the risk of someone overthrowing you as a half vampire based on counting years even if that is not true.
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Taking the throne while actually being a half-vampire is even more dangerous, because as you say people would ask questions about the dates, and check you out.
 
DragonParadox said:
Then why claim to be her son at all, it is as you say a rather transparent lie and not even that useful a one, 'I am in direct line of descent of a monster'. It's not like the crown passing to a cousin is somehow more delegitimatizing then being born of a vampire, thrones fall to distant relations all the time. As a lie it is not very useful and runs the risk of someone overthrowing you as a half vampire based on counting years even if that is not true.
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Yeah, why make up something that is either deeply problematic or implausible? The only reason I think that he'd run with that story rather than claiming to be a grandchild or great-grandchild that Katarrin raised as her own is if people actually knew she'd given birth to him
 
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