Didn't Need An Army

[brian 333]

An additional problem with all these slow maneuver attempts is that it means that Shojo and Sangwaan have quite a lot of time to figure out what's going on and counterplay politically, which seems like a game TE is spectacularly badly set up for. Kuboto may well be able to politically outplay Hinjo, but that's pretty thoroughly irrelevant as in this model, Shojo is still alive and in charge and there's no particular reason for Miko to kill him. Frankly, a big part of the defense of Soon's gate is somewhat accidental, in that the honor of a paladin is being tempered by the pragmatism/populism of a very competent ruler, but it does exist and trying to fight Shojo politically is just a massive mistake for TE, as it is almost the opposite of their skillset (though I suppose technically Xykon must have an extremely high Charisma).

But I guess I'm confused by what the question is. Is it, how could TE have taken the gate intact and performed the ritual without the army? Or is it, how could some other potential threat take the gate semi-permanently, which is what Soon had to be counter-planning for?

I said you are controlling them through proxies, I didn't say they were defending the throne. In this scenario you need to have control over them to induce them to inaction, so they don't defend the throne from you. That is the primary reason. That said...



I mean, potentially. We only hear the political details we need to for the story so the broader politics outside of Azure City never really feature, but back when O-Chul joined up we know that there were refugees fleeing a nearby empire ruled by evil dragons and there's a pretty sizeable Hobgoblin nation with an existing grudge that is close enough to reach Azure City within a week of marching that in this hypothetical you haven't recruited, so it's reasonable to assume they are not all friendly.

And hey, the city that controls all the fanciest trade routes just had a massive coup and this new Lord Kubota doesn't seem too bright. If you're a hostile power, maybe you smell blood in the water. If you're an allied power, maybe the exiled Hinjo and the remaining Paladins say "hey, we just got overthrown" to an old ally and where in the canon timeline they see an evil lich who just rolled over the paladins and the city's army with legions of hobgoblins instead they'll see a city with an untested new leader and weakened by internal divisions.

This isn't some isolated wizard's lair or a pyramid in the middle of the desert that nobody even knows about, Azure City is a big target and what you do there will attract attention.

If you only play a character as that character when convenient, and otherwise treat them as merely a resource to maximize victory, you do not play the way I play.

Nor do you play the way the story is written-Team Evil is not controlled from some outside source, aiming to maximize victory. It’s comprised of characters, who have goals and desires, but aren’t always perfect actors towards those goals.

So long as you have fun, I don’t care how you play the game. But it’s not a good idea to assume your way is universal, which is what you seem to be doing here.

No, I do not assume that at all.

Strictly from a roleplay/story perspective, TE could do the exact scenario outlined above. Political machination is well within Redcloak's portfolio. See what he did with Gobbotopia. Is he great at it? No, but then we are not playing a campaign full of minmaxed characters. (I don't do that anyway. My characters are usually horribly built from a mechanical PoV.)

In the story as written TE coincidentally encountered an army armed, equipped, trained, and motivated for the specific task of taking over the city that was their next obstacle.

Why could The Author not have had coincidences on a similar scale to aid TE in a political scenario? It would be less implausible to find Kubota a competent usurper than to find a convenient army just when you need it.