My troops are highly drilled and just two years ago they were hardened regulars. What controls this modifier?

I've been exploring TTRPGs and the like recently, and something I found interesting about the A Song of Ice and Fire board game is that the Lannister forces are almost entire made up for plate-armoured troops. Their spearmen, knights, even the crossbowmen have at the very least chest plates, helmets, and shoulder plates with their arms/legs free. They also have a great deal of infantry with full plate, not just knights. They look much more like a Renaissance army than that of a medieval one with how much metal they wear.

From reading discussions on this subreddit, this is something very alien with a select few Knights or Men-at-arms being able to afford that much protection. The peasant levies and the like being clad in gambesons and mail if they could afford it, possibly scale/lamenar (?). An entirely plate-clad army (at least in the medieval period) is something out of fiction but assuming that it is possible (given the Lannister's legendary wealth), how exactly could this be countered?

Do the opposing armies need to change doctrine, what should the opposing army be fielding to counter this heavily armoured force, should an engagement be avoided at all costs?

In an engagement, how much of a qualitative increase is cladding your units at the minimum with chest plates, or is it not much of a difference without the legs and arms also protected?

Edit: Doing a brief search to jog my memory, the Baratheons are the ones with full plate for all levels of their forces. Their standard line-infantry, the Wardens have what looks to be nearly complete plate armour as standard with scale-coats over top. How much does this change the equation if everyone in the army is protected to this degree at a minimum?

I love Wakanda and I love the Dora Milaje in the show. But one thing that bugged me about the Dora Milaje is how “strong” they seemed to be. When the fight stars, one of the soldiers hits Walker with a kick that rivaled the power of the strongest super soldier kicks ever shown in the show. Furthermore, the rest of the fight gave me the immediate impression that the Wakanda soldiers had some enhancements that allowed them over overpower regular humans. But we were quickly informed that these soldiers “aren’t even super soldiers”.

Contrast this with the Sharon Carter fight against the bounty hunters where she clearly uses her superior skill to outfight less skilled but sometimes stronger opponents. On the flip side, the Dora Milaje scene looked like super humans kicking John Walker’s ass and it took me out of the whole point of the story for a bit. Like I was thinking “how can he fight these soldiers if one kick sends him delaying across the room?”.

It almost feels like the MCU is treating the Wakandians like they’re a different race of human, similar to how elves are treated in certain fantasy universes (like Lord of the Rings); but I’m not sure if that’s the impression that they’re trying to get across or not. Am I the only one who made this observation? All my friends said I was dumb and the Dora Milaje just “know their stuff”, but the fight clearly seemed too “super soldiery” to me. Maybe I need to watch it again, idk.

I know somebody posted a few days ago they were having a hard time finding cards

Context: The Imperial Palace is large. Very large. It serves not just as an Imperial residence, but also as a centre of administration, tourist trap, and war memorial.

> There were few settings more fitting for a war council than the Hall of Glories. A dome nearly five hundred feet across and three hundred high, buttressed and cross-vaulted like a castle tower, the Hall of Glories was the site, so it was claimed, of Rogal Dorn’s meetings with his fellow primarchs on the eve of the Siege of the Imperial Palace.

> It struck Drakan Vangorich, Grand Master of Assassins, that a chamber known as the Hall of Glories might be filled with all kinds of tacky trophies and paraphernalia of past victories, but it was not. It was currently only dimly lit by a few bluish glow-strips, set in alcoves flanking each of three immense double doors. The walls were granite decorated with horizontal bands of Sivalik sandstone that had been carved with frescoes of warriors stretching back through the long annals of history and prehistory.

> The first time Vangorich had come to the Hall of Glories he had marvelled at the sheer inventiveness of mankind’s ability to kill. The earliest figures had simple stakes hardened in fires, through various flint weapons, to the first matchlock guns and then warriors with faceted armour sporting the precursors to the lasguns of the Imperial Army. The last figures in the evolution of mankind’s warriors were tall, stave-bearing soldiers not unlike the Lucifer Blacks that had become famous during the Heresy War.

> Vangorich had always wondered why the fresco did not contain images of the Adeptus Astartes, nor the Custodians that guarded the Emperor. Perhaps genetically engineered transhumans had not been part of the artist’s instruction, or perhaps their artificial nature rendered them disqualified from an expression of humanity’s martial history.

> There were no banners or plaques to obscure the walls in celebration of past wars. Instead, the polished black and grey marble of the floor was inscribed with a spiralling line of names picked out in gilded letters: the names of places where the Emperor’s servants had fought and died. Not even victories, just planets and starships, orbital stations and drifting hulks, where blood had been shed in the cause of the Imperium and its immortal ruler.

> Before the current crisis the list of battles had circled the massive hall thrice, many of them dating back to the Heresy War.

Link to the full project https://www.rorylewis.studio/soldiery?rq=soldiery

Officers of the KRH By Rory Lewis Photographer

For anyone who wants an easy way to tally, I updated the spreadsheet originally found in this post for the new Irregular Tomestones of Soldiery event.

New Checklist Calculator Spreadsheet

So with as much grinding as I've done, it's looking like the fastest way to grind the tomestones for this event has to be The Arum Vale. At a yeild of 5 tomes per clear, I went into the event thinking that clears had to be shorter than 30 minutes to yeild tomes faster than the 10 tomes Castrum does.

A while into figuring out the fastest way to clear arum Vale, a random party off PF was able to clear AV in 11min 30sec at the fastest, and 12min 30sec at the slowest, giving this dungeon the best tomestone:time ratio

Unless other dungeons can be cleared even faster than AV, it looks like AV will be the dungeon to run if you want to grind Soldiery. I'm gonna be doing the napkin math later, but the strategy for skipping the first pull in AV (which saves an easy 2-3 minutes) goes as follows:

The tank sprints ahead while hugging the left wall, making sure to leave the party behind while pulling all enemies across the way, the rest of the party sneaks past the tank into the boss room, starting the locksmith fight early while the tank dies outside of the boss room, the enemies that killed the tank un-aggro, returning to their posts and leaving the party to fight the first boss, the tank gets rezzed to help out with the first boss, all in time to continue the rest of AV in surprisingly great time

If anyone knows anything that'll make this way faster, I'd be glad to know, but for now, this remains the fastest way to get your tomestones

Edit: Some discussion later and it seems like running through Arum Vale with BLU in the party (preferably even a full party of BLU) makes for even faster clears, making AV the dungeon to grind if you want tomes this event. Castrum is obviously easy content that'll make for a good time watching Netflix, but if you care about the time you spend even grinding tomes, then a run in AV it is. Even if you don't have a Blue mage leveled with the spells learned, a normal party will also get you a decent clear time; although the 3 minutes that BLU parties save will add up across the 20+ arum Vale runs you need to get the items you'd want.

I've been trying to find out the history of the Roman Aquila, and why it was given such almost religious significance by it's legion, but I can't find anything comprehensive that doesn't simply state it's import as fact.

Thus I was wondering if anyone here knew where the veneration came from? When did it start? Was there some foundational myth that gave the Eagle standard some significance above its use as a military standard? Or is it a simple case of emergent military culture?

From my reading of history it seems crazy to me that so many would fight and die for nobles, even though they would personally gain nothing.

As far as I can tell, Strahd is a military genius. He has 20 Intelligence, and was able to apparently conquer a plethora of lands, only one of which was Barovia; and was even able to defeat a silver dragon. And this was all before he met Exanther in the Amber Temple, became a vampire and then was able to study a huge array of arcane spells; including at least all of the spells in the PHB (which are at the Amber Temple).

You'd think that Strahd would put his military and arcane genius to good work, but when you get to Ravenloft are there dozens of well-trained vampire spawn archers raining down death from above? ...no. Are there knights and soldiers patrolling the halls of his castle, thwarting trespassers?!? ...not really.

The entire place feels...abandoned. Strahd has just been languishing in this largely empty house for who knows how long, with just Rahadin, Escher and some wives that apparently spend all their time hanging out in the dirt in his basement.

Strahd is old; and he is bored. That's why he drags the player characters into Barovia in the first place. In my opinion, the first thing he'd do-and something he probably still busies himself (or Rahadin) with-is getting a functioning guard and small army in Ravenloft. Over and over again we see vampire spawn, vampire spawn, vampire spawn. By the time players get to Ravenloft (and are planning to take down Strahd) then they can probably handle a few vampire spawn; and that's good! But I think Strahd wouldn't let the bulk of his forces run around with no arms, army and as far as I can tell, little military training.

Look at Castle Ravenloft. Look at those beautiful battlements, with all the crenelations for archers to get 1/2 cover behind. Look at the arrow slits. Those babies can grant so much 3/4 cover I just might scream. Do you really think Strahd would allow his own keep's battlements to go to waste? He's the one who had this thing constructed; so why isn't he using it?

With that in mind, let's get into the meat of this post: the vampire spawn soldiery.

Vampire Spawn Soldier

Simple enough-the average foot soldier. The on the ground fighter that will largely act as cannon fodder, but is just a little more beefy; as befits a proper soldier. For this, I took the basic hobgoblin and mixed it with the basic vampire spawn. I kept the highest stats from both, as well as their skill and saving throw proficiencies. Martial Advantage is a unique hobgoblin ability; but there's no reason that it

I was wondering if it was confirmed yet whether the advent of 2.4 and its ninjas would also bring about the removal of the Soldiery Cap. I swear I read an interview with Yoshi where he implied 2.4 would NOT introduce a new type of currency, but I hear a lot of people talking around the belief that come 2.4 they'll be able to power-grind all their alt classes and retainers to full i100 weathered gear.

I'm wondering what other players are doing for the strategy of preparing for 2.4 regarding Sands/Oils and such. I'm personally at a stage where my main class has full soldiery gear and my primary alt class has full ST gear... I hunt enough to get a sand/oil every week from that, but it's tricky to know if I should be using my ST rolls now on Sand/Oil to stock up for being able to buy weathered gear for everyone, or just collect offset gear.

Just got through watching Darkest Hour (phenomenal movie, btw) and I remember how the evacuation via Dunkirk was what saved the British Army from total annihilation.

However, is it true Britain only had ~300,000 men in their entire army at the start of World War II? Or is that just what they had stationed in home guard (at that point in time moved to French/Holland/Belgium?

Im about to hit Soldiery cap, and curious of if I should spend it on an offclass or just hold on to it. Has there been any information anywhere about items being added that require soldiery tomes?

Thanks

Pretty much the title. Been trying my best to grind up these animus books so I can get to Nexus for my Ninja

I imagine determination, skill speed, and accuracy are the main stats. I'm basically just looking for gear that will hold me over best while I get the other slots filled with soldiery. Thanks!

In lieu of addressing events around Grenada in September, the mod team of r/Grenada will be focusing on keeping an updated list of organizations on the ground helping our brothers and sisters in the Bahamas.

We also encourage any members of the r/Grenada community to post below any opportunities they come across to help the Bahamas community.

By now people have enough tomes to buy any 1 piece, so instead of multiple threads let's post them here.

I am almost at 4000 allied seals; what should I spend it on?

I'm not at the alexandrite stage of my relic (not sure if I want to go through all that either), so I wonder if I should use them to buy the weathered i100 gear for my secondary classes. ...And then maybe some mark logs for sand/oil so I don't have to run Syrcus Tower a hundred times.

What else is there? I see the chocobo plumage-changing food seeds. And the two minions are one-time purchases I've already made. The GC gear is nice for glamour I suppose.

So if I buy gear with allied seals, then that leaves soldiery for the crafting materials (e.g. borax, wootz, bacon), so this seems a better route for me until I run out of allied seals.

Regarding ventures, I buy them with GC seals, since I don't know what else to get there, really.

So, What do you think the best way is to get Soldiery now? You run an Exp roulette, hihh level and a main story (hoping for a bonus too!) but what else? Low level seem to risky to me, if you get terrible people 60 sol for 30-40 or even longer is not good when you can get 75 from 3 10 minuites bray hms. So what would you say is the quickest way to get soldiery? I worked out I would need 192 more brays for the relic soldiery...

Warning: I think my longish wall of text is probably pretty repetitive, but please bare with it.

I don't know anyone who enjoys spamming only Brayflox, but of course it's what the playerbase found to be most effective for myth/time, and who doesn't want to be most efficient when gunning for your Animus!?

I've started just rotating between Bray, Hala, and LCoA, but it's hard to find people in PF willing to do that, and I don't think it needs to be that way.

Not only is it monotonous to run one dungeon all the time, but it's shocking to me that SE would spend thousands of dollars developing fantastic new content that fades away a couple weeks after its release. LCoA is the most beautifully designed dungeon, but it rarely is run outside of roulettes/books! Bananas!

Wouldn't it be better all around if each tier of dungeon had a hot fix a couple weeks after release to adjust for niches that the playerbase discovers? It doesn't even have to be the exact myth/time or soldiery/time ratios. Just something more balanced so more people are open to running all new content (hell even CT why not!), and content developers see their hard work longer lived.

Now I don't have a background in development or anything, so I'm wondering why SE is unable to balance each tier of dungeons once these niches are discovered. Could this not be done by taking the average time it takes to complete each dungeon (or first two bosses of the dungeons) and adjust myth/soldiery drops for each one to balance them out? Surely they have these statistics.

So please, let's discuss why this approach wouldn't work, or why it may work, but nothing is done about it. Viva la revolucion!

Add from feedback 1: I'm seeing a lot of people mentioning adjusting mobs/gates/etc. This is what they do every 3 months or so. My suggestion was to keep dungeons exactly the same. Players have already found the optimal way to run each dungeon. All that would need to change in order to increase variety is to increase boss rewards using simple statistics and algebra.

For a very simple example (numbers off the top of my head and very likely inaccurate, but easy to use): Let's say it takes 4 minutes to get down the first boss in Brayflox. This boss currently yields 20 myth tomes.

So (20 ToM)/(4 min) = 5 ToM/min.

Now let's say it takes 5 minutes to down the first boss in LCoA, which I believe also yields 20 myth. So (20 ToM)/(5 min) = 4 ToM

Curious to see what everyone's getting this week ^^

So it is my understanding that the left is more focused on the sch and left is more whm. I'm just about finished with my left side (as soon as I cap) for my sch. would getting the left side accessories gimp the sch since it's for the whm? Am I better off using 90 coil gear for now? And vise versa is using the left side soldiery gear gimping my whm?