SPOILER-Speculation for Road to Hell and beyond

I just don't see a viable way to extend the conflict beyond the portal cluster, they don't have a rail line established to the war front yet. Until they have connected the portal cluster to the rail network, attempting to push into arcanan held territory risks them being dangerously overextended.

Sure most of the more easily deploy able arcanan forces have been overrun, but what forces left will take time and resources to move. And most of their logistical system was crippled, with the large scale death of dragons and cavalry, and the transport unit had already been deployed in the field.

Mul has a short window of opportunity, if he can bring a large enough of an equipped force to attempt to retake the cluster. He could overwhelm the forces put into place. If the rail line reaches the cluster, they can ship in the truly powerful artillery and supplies faster than the enemy.

SYED wrote:I just don't see a viable way to extend the conflict beyond the portal cluster, they don't have a rail line established to the war front yet. Until they have connected the portal cluster to the rail network, attempting to push into arcanan held territory risks them being dangerously overextended.

Sure most of the more easily deploy able arcanan forces have been overrun, but what forces left will take time and resources to move. And most of their logistical system was crippled, with the large scale death of dragons and cavalry, and the transport unit had already been deployed in the field.

Mul has a short window of opportunity, if he can bring a large enough of an equipped force to attempt to retake the cluster. He could overwhelm the forces put into place. If the rail line reaches the cluster, they can ship in the truly powerful artillery and supplies faster than the enemy.

The Almighty Weber loves naval combat and has spent a lot of time setting up a conflict between orca's and sea drakes. And if I remember correctly the world the swamp portal leads to (Maritha?) has an ocean, or at least a large body of water, between the swamp portal and the larger base. So I'm fairly convinced that the sharonians will attack through there. I guess it could be that the sharonians have to retreat a lot and some other body of water will be the conflict zone, But I don't think so.

That body of water will greatly restrict Mul Gurhtak's options. Moving a lot of troops over a large body of water with limited dragons would be a nightmare. Combine that with the surprise of the sharonian advance and the sharonians demonstrated ability to push the rail lines and their steam powered vehicles I don't think the arcanans can retake the portals.

Actually come to think of it attacking through a portal where the arcanan side is a swamp but the sharonian side is a drier forest will also be a unique brand of hell for an arcanan tactician. But then again it will make it harder and slower for the sharonians to advance beyond the portal.

If I were the sharonians I would fortify the swamp portal and hold on tight because while they do have control of all the local portals they still have to deal with the main arcanan base which they bypassed. I don't think they'll have much trouble taking them down but it will still take time. While that fight is going on I'd be pushing the railroad and getting the horde of infantry that's on its way set up, and ready to push through the swamp portal.

The shark caller might join the army to fight, and get sent to the front lines to aid in securing and potentially advancing beyond the swamp. That guy knows his life is at risk, so getting away from the home world could help him survive, and he figures the military would value his skills enough to protect him during war.

We know there was an interaction with a talent and a dragon. So I wonder how they react to actual animal talkers. The animals seem to be controlled or influenced through magic, so if gifts can simply cause interference, then their animals could become a liability. There are all those stories about the navy training dolphins and sharks, or other creatures to aid them. Imagine what a gifted animal talker could do here.

The main base yet to be taken was suffering with logistical issues. With their access to home removed, they might not be able to endure a long term seige. They were preparing to instead offer mobile resistance and abandon their fort.

SYED wrote:The shark caller might join the army to fight, and get sent to the front lines to aid in securing and potentially advancing beyond the swamp. That guy knows his life is at risk, so getting away from the home world could help him survive, and he figures the military would value his skills enough to protect him during war.

We know there was an interaction with a talent and a dragon. So I wonder how they react to actual animal talkers. The animals seem to be controlled or influenced through magic, so if gifts can simply cause interference, then their animals could become a liability. There are all those stories about the navy training dolphins and sharks, or other creatures to aid them. Imagine what a gifted animal talker could do here.

The main base yet to be taken was suffering with logistical issues. With their access to home removed, they might not be able to endure a long term seige. They were preparing to instead offer mobile resistance and abandon their fort.

They were preparing to fight a mobile fight before the rest of they knew the rest of the portals were taken. I don't think that's the plan anymore.

I know the cut made holding the portal simple, but I forget the exact situation. They might have invested so much in the defences against the portal, that they were truly vulnerable to a conventional assault else where. There would not be able to deal with an attack on two fronts.

What happens when Sharona deploys beyond Hells Gate into the Maritha sector and the good Mul releases of Arcana's WMD spells, you know, the one that destroyed two opposing armies in the blink of an eye... Doesn't sound like a positive result to me...

The point being the further Sharona advances, the more vulnerable her army becomes.

Don

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n7axw wrote:What happens when Sharona deploys beyond Hells Gate into the Maritha sector and the good Mul releases of Arcana's WMD spells, you know, the one that destroyed two opposing armies in the blink of an eye... Doesn't sound like a positive result to me...

The point being the further Sharona advances, the more vulnerable her army becomes.

Don

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How were those armies actually destroyed?
The question is very important. Are these super spells nuclear, chemical(disolves molecular bonds), biological(stops life processes), mental(turns sentients into vegetables) or something else completely.

One would suggest that talents could counter some of these spells in ways Gadriel's Aha! moment will clarify in the future books. Until we know what those MD spells actually do and what the Aha! actually signifies, all this is speculation and we don't know just how equaly each side actually is.

I get the feeling that everything hinges on whatever it is that Gadriel discovered.

PeterZ wrote:

n7axw wrote:What happens when Sharona deploys beyond Hells Gate into the Maritha sector and the good Mul releases of Arcana's WMD spells, you know, the one that destroyed two opposing armies in the blink of an eye... Doesn't sound like a positive result to me...

The point being the further Sharona advances, the more vulnerable her army becomes.

Don

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How were those armies actually destroyed?
The question is very important. Are these super spells nuclear, chemical(disolves molecular bonds), biological(stops life processes), mental(turns sentients into vegetables) or something else completely.

One would suggest that talents could counter some of these spells in ways Gadriel's Aha! moment will clarify in the future books. Until we know what those MD spells actually do and what the Aha! actually signifies, all this is speculation and we don't know just how equaly each side actually is.

Agreed, although I hadn't thought about the possibility of countering spells with talent.

But it does seem to me that exposing an army to those spells would be contraindicated if said army knew about the spells in advance without knowing how to defend against it. The other thought would be to wonder if Sharona could acquire its very own tame wizzard.

Don

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Gadrial's grand realization would, in an honest and sane society, put her in line for a vos Lipkin Prize (Arcana's equivalent of the Nobels). The war and Mythalan society seem unlikely to make that happen. It would have profound implications in Mythalan theology. Which the shakira lords will surely take calmly, sensibly, and seriously.

The scene in Hell's Gate where mul Gurthak berates vos Hoven has mul Gurthak thinking about the plans they had to get Jasak implicated in a carefully undescribed scandal. This has me reading Gadrial's testimony at the end of Road to Hell in a fascinated light - namely, the burglary ring 50 Garlath was running. Was Jasak supposed to take the fall for that?

Squire Therman Ulthar might have met Miss Arylis Halesak by means of someone mixing up "Ulthar" and "multhari".

The glossary for Road to Hell has "masked whales" as Arcanan orcas, and "pigfish" as either porpoises or bottlenose dolphin IIRC (Googling for the spelling makes porpoises seem more likely, as it seems they're also called "mereswine" in English). Text evidence has "masked whales" being pitted against seadrakes for sport and filleted "pigfish" being served as food at a shakira manor.
These two details will surely go over just swimmingly with the daughter of an ambassador to . . . um . . . nobody in particular. [innocent straight face]

An ambassador who, by the way, has been solemnly and seriously assured - by someone in a position to know - that her daughter definitely was murdered and is totally not a POW. AWKWARD conversation if and when that truth is revealed, unless it's in a context that makes it clear Darcel had good reason to believe the lie he passed on.

Ullery the Fool (seadrake handler portrayed in Road to Hell) seems likely to be sold to the Arcanan Navy. I mean, he's going to voluntarily enlist. Totally voluntarily. His training will probably involve a sword (by that I mean an Arcanan NCO, not an Arcanan sidearm) with "mul" in front of his name.

Why, by the way, do seadrakes have three heads? I can get that a magister's ingenuity was able to compensate for the drawbacks - but with only one head, it wouldn't have to.
Yes, three heads could have three sets of fighting styles - but so could three sets of software-I-mean-spellware in the control computer-I-mean-crystal. And the neck tourniquets are a weakness that could be hacked.