STARK (GoT) Thread

[hoopsguy]

Also, Lord Renly lost roughly 13,500 men in the battle per Littlefinger. My understanding is that Robb lost considerably (more than half, less than 90%) fewer ... I won't publish the number here in case the communication is not secure.

Just using these as sanity checks for the quality of information received from Littlefinger. I've got information from Varys that I may wish to explore further at a later date. But not now.

[Coffee Warlord]

Me and Julio are talking, figuring out which way to go. Unfortunately, I think the deals to vote Greyjoys today have been made. And it's voting someone Not Named Us.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Hi Jag.

Put it this way. He might have, but me and JAG probably accounted for about 30% of all of Chief's IMs...just from our Hand conversations. Things can blur a bit.

And no, but I'll ask Chief for an accounting of your stuff.

You would know what I'm referring to - this was not cryptic.

I barely explored Hand conversations as Joffrey and I were rarely around together. I was off being a diplomat in a failed venture, and then I was gone. So Chief was not bothered by the two of us to any meaningful extent.

[Coffee Warlord]

Oh. Yes, I do know actually.

[hoopsguy]

And now I must arrange for a daughter of this house (not Cersei) to obtain weapons training and self defense skills. I shall return when she has been trained, fed, and retired for the evening.

[Coffee Warlord]

Heh. When you get back, speaking of Cersei. What's your take on her? I had a short conversation with her, but nothing since that, ages ago. It just didn't seem that our interests would coincide. The information would have been nice, but she knew damn well my bannerman wanted to kill Jaime.

[Coffee Warlord]

Bug, you around?

[MrBug708]

Ya

[Coffee Warlord]

I just IM'd you stuff, so there. :P

[hoopsguy]

Back now, thanks for moving my vote for earlier deadline.

I'll be around for good portions of the evening if there is a need to catch up in this thread.

I've got very little insight into Cersei's motivations. I have always assumed they would be driven by protecting her son. She advised me that I should join you in the raven she sent at the end of the day, although she sounded just as frantic there as she did in her late posts today.

[Coffee Warlord]

We're all 99% sure she's the only one who can view these threads, for what it's worth.

That said, should be some interesting stuff tomorrow. One of you I'm gonna send to Joffrey, the other I'm not sure just yet. That being said, talks went well with Theon - he understood we had to vote him today, and it shouldn't affect tomorrow's dealings.

[hoopsguy]

So, correct me if I'm wrong - but at the moment are we the only faction without someone that is dishonorable? If so, how does that potentially play into trying to bring Selmy over to Team Stark?

If we need to juice the honor score - before one of us gets Enemy status again, I suppose - then does it make sense to donate to the poor or something along those lines to adjust our "score" upwards? I seem to recall seeing conversation in the thread about him requiring a ruler to have a minimum honor threshold, or something along those lines.

[Coffee Warlord]

It does - however, it's going to take several more days for Selmy to officially go anywhere, unfortunately. He has a bodyguard ability in the interim, however - and we've had it off and on.

[Coffee Warlord]

And believe me - I've spent so much money on the poor and the homeless, they have better houses than I do at this point. I've made it a point since I discovered how nasty negative honor was to juice the living fuck out of it.

[hoopsguy]

I had inquired around the bodyguard once I was on the run and been assured that he wasn't going to help an Enemy of the Realm.

I'm wondering what the BG would come into play for - I assume assassination attempts, but can you think of anything else?

Similarly, if he did join a faction I'm guessing it wouldn't be bringing troops or ships - probably a battle bonus, similar to what I saw attributed to Jamie.

[hoopsguy]

For the record, I have yet to poach on another thread ... saw all the "oops, sorry" posts and was getting to point where I wanted to whack you + path across respective knuckles with a ruler.

[Coffee Warlord]

Unless he's lying to me, I already know what he brings when he joins a faction.

Won't go into details, but it's damned useful. It's worth pouring money into keeping honor up.

[Coffee Warlord]

Hey man. Kings gotta do a fuckload of clicking.

[Coffee Warlord]

There's also the ever interesting matter of Littlefinger.

From what he told me, he CAN join a faction - he's choosing not to right now because he loses a bunch of his special abilities.

[Coffee Warlord]

Or it could be bullshit.

[hoopsguy]

So this will be new, not having to spend a large sum of money every day just for the sake of spending it. Let me know if there are actions that you would like to see in terms of money, troop movement, etc.

I'm a little cautious about what to ask in this thread if you fear they are being watched. But I assume there is thought being paid to next war, strategies to avoid Lannister+Renly+Ironborn forming an alliance tomorrow, etc?

Also curious if the publicly discussed details on the Brienne of Tarth negotiation were the entirety of that particular deal? I was more or less expecting to be joining her as a fellow bannerman this afternoon. Don't need more info than you are comfortable giving on this, just trying to cover some open questions that I had if they can be discussed.

[hoopsguy]

Do we have a maester's report, or second-hand info on the Greyjoy clan?

[Coffee Warlord]

No, I don't mind that part becoming public (wars we'll get into shortly).

Long story short, from the public thread, I'm FAIRLY convinced that Brienne got a bonus to stuff when she is Renly's bannerman - and only Renly's bannerman.

So, I figured I'd take a land off him. Since he couldn't (and certainly wouldn't) give me Highgarden, I took his best Inland province. Figured it'd be better to amass more inland provinces to nullify the fleet advantages should we be attacked.

[Coffee Warlord]

Not yet - we should spend money on that tomorrow.

[Coffee Warlord]

I got a report on Renly owed to me right now, FWIW.

[Coffee Warlord]

And...judging from my talks today, it's far more looking like Everyone vs Renly tomorrow. Heh.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Not yet - we should spend money on that tomorrow.

Hmm, darn. Did not do it today with expectation that it would be done by someone and did not want to duplicate effort. I would smile if that were in my nature. (ooc - have probably goofed that up somewhere, but have tried to remember not to use any emoticons)

I haven't heard much mention of Tyrion. I'm wondering, to some extent, how engaged Danny has been with the role. He usually does not have the "Lathum syndrome" of being uninterested in digging into complex games, but he has been far more quiet than I would have expected at the outset.

[Coffee Warlord]

He's another guy I spoke briefly with, he told me he wanted money - lots and lots of money, and told me he could follow people. I put him in the camp of 'not worth my effort, money, or my precious, previous ravens.'

[Coffee Warlord]

Which, I'm wondering if EVERYONE put him into that camp, no one has said much to him, and he's losing interest.

[hoopsguy]

Have you and Stannis reached any kind of "divide and conquer" notion around Stark getting Tywin and him receiving Joffrey?

I'm guessing Joffrey won't bend to Renly if we are moving towards a dogpile on his forces tomorrow. I don't have a great set of information on what Joffrey had for his troops, but I expect with half of mine joining him that they were a pretty formidable group. Especially for a bannerman, if it goes that direction. I also assume Joffrey would be yielding lands, which would create a pretty substantial edge for the person who gets him.

Bottom line - even if Joffrey isn't a factor in becoming king I expect him to be one heck of a bannerman for someone by the end of this week.

[hoopsguy]

I'm insanely jealous of the amount of intel you seem to have, relative to what I felt like House Lannister had early on and what I later suffered through in my trip to the woods.

[Coffee Warlord]

Yeah, I want him - or failing that, we're gonna have to do something drastic there. Granted, he prolly took some losses in this last battle, but that's a lot of men and money he's got.

[hoopsguy]

On an semi-related note, I feel bad for Stannis - judging by his thread, he is not getting a whole heck of a lot of quality counsel. Their fortress seems to be an echo chamber.

[Coffee Warlord]

Heh. Well, had you not wandered around like a god damned peasant for days on end, and led my men on merry chases, this coulda been done sooner!

[Coffee Warlord]

I pretty much make it a point to have the bannermen burn a raven to some random person daily, I get my daily dose of bullshit from Varys, and there's emissaries almost every day. News, it comes my way.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Yeah, I want him - or failing that, we're gonna have to do something drastic there. Granted, he prolly took some losses in this last battle, but that's a lot of men and money he's got.

If we lose him, we probably need to own the neutrals. Or be sure that we've got a 2:1 against the party that secures his services.

Or land Renly. If Renly is attacked in war again and forced to kneel my first inclination is that he would try to thwart Stannis.

[hoopsguy]

I think if I had joined you at a point where you had Roose that it would have had a lot of potential to create alliances against House Stark. Perhaps that was me overthinking, but my hope was to mirror the actions in Robert's Rebellion and arrive just in the nick of time to crown the future king.

That would have been a more fun plan if I wasn't operating under fear of capture every day. Without that threat, I would have launched an assassin by now for sure.

[Coffee Warlord]

That's the thing - if one went, someone else would HAVE to fall into line, I think. I'm moderately certain it's damned close to an I Win button if Joffrey bends knee too early.

[Coffee Warlord]

What's Zinto's usual online schedule, hoops?

[MrBug708]

I wont be around for a few hours this AM. From about 8 to noon PST

[MrBug708]

I would imagine I'll be the next enemy of the realm. If so, I can probably buy my honor back

[Coffee Warlord]

You people and your crazy pacific time.

[MrBug708]

Hey man, got a half day sub job...gotta do what I can

West Coast is where it's at! My brother in law is a huge Chicago fan as he is from there. They live in DC at the moment. He hated it here on the WC, but I think it was because he couldnt see his teams live.

He was from Wheaton

[Coffee Warlord]

Heh. I can see Wheaton from my office. (I live & work in Naperville, technically speaking)

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Hey man, got a half day sub job...gotta do what I can

West Coast is where it's at! My brother in law is a huge Chicago fan as he is from there. They live in DC at the moment. He hated it here on the WC, but I think it was because he couldnt see his teams live.

He was from Wheaton

Growing up on the east coast, I despised when i moved to Dallas, and then hated it even more in California because of sports pretty much.

[MrBug708]

When our teams play on the east coast, it just means we miss the start of the game, not waiting up til 1 am

[Coffee Warlord]

I'm to this day still bitter I was forced to move from California at a very young age. To Illinois. During one of the worst winters on record. For a kid who'd never seen snow.

[MrBug708]

Where in California?

[Coffee Warlord]

Palm Springs.

[MrBug708]

Ya...that might be a stretch. One of the hottest places in the US.

I'll be there next week! Hope we win this war by then!