Poptart raises valid points about infeasibility of Marienburg blockading the Empire for very long, but honestly I am not entirely convinced. Sure, their wealth relies on Empire trade going through them, but they are explicitly said to have deeper coffers than the Empire does. If they are stubborn enough to keep up the blockade for any length of time, it could hurt the Empire and Karaz Ankor significantly, and the risk of some Elector Counts doing something dumb is fairly high.
Whereas against Barak Varr ironclads, as Poptart also pointed out, they have absolutely no chance without extremely powerful backup from Ulthuan, and there's no way Ulthuan will send Dragonships to fight Dwarfs over Marienburg where they don't even really have a treaty. Threatening to break the blockade, or even actually doing so, seems to me like a better option on average.
My point about Marienburg being unable to sustain a blockade is not about the relative depths of their coffers to the Empire's. The Empire is the fantasy!HRE, Marienburg is the fantasy!Netherlands. Of course Marienburg has deeper vaults. My point was that A) The Empire has a productive economy
that is not trade, whereas Marienburg's surroundings are literally called- (
puts on reading glasses, peers at map) -"The Wastelands," which does not speak well to their ability to maintain any positive income balance during times of trade disruption; and B) that the option to have the dwarves subsidize Imperial losses to the blockade does not match up Marienburg and the
Empire's coffers, but rather Marienburg and
the Karaz Ankor's. I simply don't believe that Marienburg could physically have stockpiled more gold in the entirety of their existence for the sake of their survival than the dwarves have over the past five decades for Sunday brunch funds.
Also, yeah, still agreed that a war would indeed be an inevitable victory. Ironclads are just
too much of an edge, with no corresponding counter for Marienburg that the Empire and Karaz Ankor together cannot match or exceed. I maintain we do not
need that edge. And Ulthuan...if they had enough of a stake in Marienburg to go to war over it, they would be making that clear. For much the same reason that Marienburg would be blockading now if they could afford to do it, Ulthuan has no reason to make unclear noises unless they want to discourage a course of action without accidentally placing themselves in the position of having to do anything concrete about that. If they wanted Marienburg untouched, they would make that very clear. They're High Elves. They're far too arrogant to have a
soft touch about expecting their clients to remain untouched. If they really wanted it, they'd say so, with not the slightest notion that their audience might object. And pragmatically speaking, soft-pedaling the threat without demonstrating resolve just makes it less likely to be heeded.
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