HFQ Official Snippet #7

is it possible that instead of keeping their harchong force along the canal, they will send them to keep dohlar intact? That way less of a drain where they are, and some of the sailors sent to the army could be returned to the navy.
Also, since the drained the armories, having those men there, means their weapons are there as well.
I would be a way to bloody them for battle.

Dropping Hektor onto one of the KH's, probably the first one, complete with a promotion, would probably be a good thing. Though it might be a bit rough on Irys and the incipent baby.

Annachie wrote:Dropping Hektor onto one of the KH's, probably the first one, complete with a promotion, would probably be a good thing. Though it might be a bit rough on Irys and the incipent baby.

Given that admirals choose their own flag lieutenants and Sharpfield already has one, and that Hector is way too young and inexperienced for any command, absent the kind of nepotism Cayleb does not go in for, it's really hard to see how he can do significant good in that rôle.

saber964 wrote:[quote="EdThomas

Comparing the Lt's escape in a sailing dinghy to CPT Bligh's accomplishment is a bit of apples and oranges. Sailing dinghies are basically light, shallow hulls designed to sail on the surface with lateral resistance coming from a centerboard or retractable keel, rather than the hull itself. Lifeboats have a deeper, narrower, heavier hull which is inherently more stable. Dinghies sit on the water while lifeboats sit in the water. Think of a 1x6 board with the 6" side resting on the water as the sailing dinghy. Think of a lifeboat as a 2x4 sitting in the water with the 4" side projecting down into the water. Without getting into a complicated discussion about form stability let me say, in this humble sailor's opinion, the Lt's voyage is an incredible effort and, should he survive the Inquisition, Safeholdian seamen will raise a glass to his accomplishment for centuries to come.

Even more so, More than likely the sailing dingy probably had at most a basic compass ie with only the cardinal points. Where as Bligh had both a ships portable compass a sextant and an area chart.[/quote]

True, but I guess that they did not care where in Harchong that they landed, and thats a pretty large target. Furthermore, there is no reason why a soldier should not be a good sailor on the side - maybe he came from a coastal town. I guess that we will never know!

Hi Dwileye13,

Dohlar has some 97 million people, I suspect the police need some local backup so 1/200th for a militia would be almost half a million, though even a million would be 40% less than the republic's ratio.

While their pikes and tactics etc are deathly obsolete, they'd have some order and discipline which may be more important during the crisis, used more for keeping local order, for food distribution etc.

DE or EHM dimply marching down one side of the canals would compel Rychtyr to retreat to keep up with them might be enough for the court to realise how vulnerable they are and seek terms.

I still think Ahlverez will have a regent's role, perhaps as the new CO of the Army, despite Salthar being quite smart or wise, after his hero's welcome.

The devotion of all the remaining soldiers and militia might be critical, whether they served with him or not, to keep order when the king steps down or is replaced.

L

dwileye13 wrote:

OlorinNight wrote:*quote="lyonheart"*

We don't know if the reference to Ahlverez commanding "half the field army" included Rychtyr's force after Thesmar, or included the almost 20,000 reinforcements he received at Fort Tairys, so "half the field army" might be as much as 120-140,000 men, and doesn't include the local defensive militias, which in Siddarmark's case were 50% larger than the regular active army.

*quote*

Yes, but the republic is a democracy, with a power coming from the people. Dolhar is not, so it's not sure if they decided to create militia or not. This kind of system usually try to avoid giving weapons to the people if they can avoid it.

And they were probably already struggling to equip their field army with modern weapons. Militias, if there was any, were probably a very low priority (after all, they serve primarily as a defensive measure, and the jihad is on the offensive, right?). They probably do not have rifles, and it's even less likely that they have artillery. In those conditions, the only thing they could be used for is to make the charisians spend more powder...

Remember, the armories of the Border States, Dohlar an Desnair were raided to exhaustion to arm the Harchongese Contingent. There are virtually no weapons available to Dohlar other than the existing Alvarez arms, the arms at or headed to Everton. Thus my thread about all the eggs in one basket. Dohlar is toast!

Thirsk is at base a sort of Hamlet in the context of his present situation. Locked into inaction at the level where action is actually demanded (sure he is doing some small stuff, but that's a side show). Unable to do the moral thing.

This, of course, will be used by the author in some sort of massive denouement at some point. Whether it be of the Hamlet sort or of some sort of more positive sort like leading a coup is unknown to us at present.

Maybe Hektor is Fortinbras!

Randomiser wrote:Re Thirsk's family
Yes, the logic of the situation is that either they all stay in place or he and they both defect to the CoGA's enemies. Nothing else makes sense. The family of a loyal son of mother church has nothing to fear from the Inquisition, so anyone who removes his family from their care is clearly a traitor. 'The bad boys kidnapped my family and it was nothing to do with me'? Good luck trying to persuade Clyntahn of that!

Actually there is one other scenario that might occur, Thirsk dies in action, or sails off expecting to do so and that activates his 'get out of jail free' plan for his family. At that point he is consigning himself to the punishment if he survives the action in order to ensure their safety.

You are all missing the fourth scenario (courtesy of Nynian):

Thirsk's family "dies" horribly in a fire, no survivors...
Thirsk gets a condolence letter written in his wife's handwriting...

Many are talking about Thirsk and Ahlvarez as taking power. While they are the competant individuals, they are minor aristocrats. Dohlar is about to face a collapse of the Aristocracy in Dohlar and possibly an invasion (IMHO a bad idea). I do believe the ICNS Gwylym Manthyr will come to Gorath Bay and hopefully put the first shot through the window the King is looking out, but in any case Charis will demand abdication and at least banishment at most shortening. The Monarchy is in question. Siddermark could annex Dohlar and expand the Republic but taking is one thing, holding is another.

A new Dohlar is required, changed by the utter defeat and destruction of it's Army, Navy and Aristocracy. Clyntahn will be furious and could send the Harchongese to smite Dohlar.

How curious would it be to have Charis and Siddermark end up defending Dohlar??

dwileye13 wrote:Many are talking about Thirsk and Ahlvarez as taking power. While they are the competant individuals, they are minor aristocrats. Dohlar is about to face a collapse of the Aristocracy in Dohlar and possibly an invasion (IMHO a bad idea). I do believe the ICNS Gwylym Manthyr will come to Gorath Bay and hopefully put the first shot through the window the King is looking out, but in any case Charis will demand abdication and at least banishment at most shortening. The Monarchy is in question. Siddermark could annex Dohlar and expand the Republic but taking is one thing, holding is another.

A new Dohlar is required, changed by the utter defeat and destruction of it's Army, Navy and Aristocracy. Clyntahn will be furious and could send the Harchongese to smite Dohlar.

How curious would it be to have Charis and Siddermark end up defending Dohlar??

True. A collapse of society would be necessary, but that actually may be in the cards when they are cut off by both land and sea. Remember, for example, that Napoleon was a relatively minor artillery officer at the beginning of the French Revolution. He left for Corsica for a couple of years after that, even. Later he returned and both fought and survived house arrest on occasion to rise rather precipitously as the ferment went on.

FriarBob wrote:Faced with that sort of a catch-22, this man should have acted a long time ago.

Hey FriarBob,

Well, I was going to start defending my sympathies for Thirsk, but then began to think about your points. Now, I think you're underestimating the difficulty of his situation. I don't think it would be as easy to get his daughters and their families to safety as you're assuming. He would need to arrange for them to all move at the same time (from more than one location), then get them onto some sort of transportation, and get them "somewhere" the Inquisition can't get at them. Considering how little political capital he has, and how closely he is being watched, I think it would be almost impossible for him to arrange such a large operation without setting off alarms, and getting everyone killed.

Having said that, in retrospect the very least he could have done was to resign when the Inquisition took away his prisoners. It would likely not have ended well for him, but I think it would have been a brave and powerful statement for the head of the Dholaran Navy to say: "I will not be party to this, whatever the Grand Inquisitor says." I can't recall if his family was in "protective custody" at that time or not. But he should have sent them off to hiding before that happened too, especially after his fiasco on Armageddon Reef.

Now he is paralyzed by his regret and doubts, and I think his options are very limited. I don't see him taking the reins of power at all, as some have suggested. I don't think he wants that kind of power. I actually don't foresee a good ending for him at this stage. As I said before, I think he'll head out with his fleet to meet the ICN as a grand last stand, and he's going to end up at the bottom of the ocean. Or perhaps he'll pull of a futile gesture of defiance against the inquisition, unleashing his frustration and anger in a short sighted fiery blast, and get himself and his family killed anyway.

So, while I still have some sympathy for the bind he is in, I don't think I feel sorry for him. If that makes sense