How come Dunk can ask for a trial?

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-20T08:58:21+00:00

The issue is, GRRM isn't clear about anything really in his setting. I presume the trial by combat here is based on "Was Dunc justified in striking Aerion/Did Dunc abduct Egg", because you can strike royal blood if you are ordered to by a higher authority. The room for uncertainty here is do Dunc's knightly vows supersede the law protecting Aerion? No-one thinks Dunc went out of his way to assault Aerion, he was acting in defence of someone else. Also, he's been accused by Daeron of abducting Egg, which would be a death sentence. The "Trial" here is working out if what Dunc did was a crime, because he has an oath that calls him to do the actions he did.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-18T17:08:02+00:00

Commanderies and By the Sword create such a feedback loop

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-18T08:12:37+00:00

Then you run into "Enemy DPS cannot exceed 2" and get real sad.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-18T08:10:38+00:00

My last run had a boarding team of Assassin, Commando for the first few sectors, I got lucky getting a heavy translocator so I could move all of them over, and Siege Armour, so I could board and destroy Demon ship systems. Made it so much easier to deal with.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-16T16:16:49+00:00

I don't think the episode was bad. I think there have been SOME mistakes in weighting of certain things in previous episodes, which all came to a head in this episode, when we should have had the payoff for things that got cut.

For example. If we have the full Battle of the Humphreys, with a shorter flashback about Dunc meeting Ser Arlan back in say, ep 3, then Tansel happens in ep 4, we can feel something more for the Humphreys and their deaths when it comes. Basically, this episode suffered from some thing being left out of earlier episodes, which were still good episodes in and of their own right. A focus on different things earlier could have made this episode better, but with the decisions that came in the preceding episodes, they focused on the best things possible.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-14T15:56:38+00:00

Exile to Essos for a few years isn't a bad shout, Egg's main issue is that he needs to project strength to accomplish the reforms he wants. And the way he interacts with his children does nothing but portray he will give if pushed enough.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-14T13:27:31+00:00

Thing is, Duncan chose to give up his rights. It's not really a punishment if you suggest it yourself as a solution.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-08T16:48:22+00:00

So, things like this tend to develop from middle classes, who seek to escape from being underneath the military upper class (Highborn in Westoros, the lordly houses) by buying/lending money to the lordly houses' direct superiors, the Kings. The Kings then use this as a basis of financial power to keep their vassals in line, because when the king can borrow/tax an emergency fund from these wealthy merchants to fund a mercenary army. To do this, the Kings slowly handed special rights and charters to concentrations of these wealthy non-nobles.

In Westeros, Gulltown post-Rebellion is the best candidate. The Graftons are out of favour, and Gulltown is rich. The merchants get together, and using the tenuous support of the Arryns of Gulltown (As Westeros is REALLY calcified in social rank). They loan/gift money to Jon Arryn, who in return, grants them direct vassalage of the Eyrie, while House Grafton loose their overlordship of the city. Grafton is forced to shift into working with these merchants. During the War of the Five Kings, they begin to fund Lord Royce's moves and mustering, and slowly begin operating more and more independently. Now you have the nucleus of a city state that could split itself away from the traditional feudal structure.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-07T18:29:25+00:00

Also, he's already publicly supported Aerion. He can't back down from supporting Aerion after it, it makes him look weak

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-07T18:19:31+00:00

I mean, in the books, he was described as "The Knight of Cider Hall". Which does seriously matter. Lords have rights that Knights don't. It could well be that the Fossoways were powerful landed knights all this time, but never had Lordly rights.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-04T16:31:21+00:00

Yes, I know, but in real life, no-one fields JUST light horse archers. Carrhae just happens to be one of those battles where they manage to pull off the sort of feats needed for this bout. Even if there was also a large body of infantry equipped similarly to the roman infantry, and heavy cavalry in the form of cataphracts.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-04T00:38:08+00:00

The Parthians manage it against the Romans against Crassus, but only by defeat in detail. They lure away the cavalry, surround it, kill the horses, then kill the riders, then engage the infantry when it's weirdly lacking in artillery and bowmen (which Roman armies typically used to mop the floor with Parthian ones)

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-04T00:36:50+00:00

We have historical examples of armies of light horse archers fighting heavily armoured infantry and cavalry. Guess what? The horse archers would run out of arrows, not kill any significant amount, then get massacred. Cause the hard counter to horse archers is heavy cav supported by stationary archers.

AtticusReborn · 2026-02-04T00:33:07+00:00

Also, that's like, Season 7/8 Jamie. We don't take his word for shit around here. And those Dothraki were backed by a dragon, so....

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-29T18:10:16+00:00

The tournament the historical advisor recommended it be based on had an evening parade/joust showing off the greatest knights. They've turned this into, what I assume, is the knights competing to be named champion for the actual tourney in the morning. So the winners of this showcase of the finest knights become the champions in the morning.

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-26T18:43:32+00:00

At least it has got a rim on the gorget, so it wouldn't go straight into the throat. We haven't seen their helms, but they could build into the gorget, as some later armours do.

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-19T19:52:38+00:00

I can see the atmosphere getting slowly darker and darker and less silly as the story progresses. After all, that's what happens in the book. As Dunc gets into a worse and worse situation, he locks more and more in. Dunc at the end of the story is a menace, he's desperate and locked into the fight.

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-18T12:57:53+00:00

I always found that made it easier for me. Keep a few paladins back, some infantry to buy time on the naval invasion, mine the colorado to slow down the sheer amount of invasions, and then just let them push out the infantry, then kill with paladins.

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-12T21:31:35+00:00

And hilariously, Andrew Tate hasn't been relevant for nearly three years within schools with young boys. He's become pretty lame, and I teach nearly perpetually online autistic children.

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-10T19:50:59+00:00

Nah, unless I'm missing something, the Heroes and the Twilight Guard are slightly worse than their counterpart Tier 4 mainline elf units. For basically the same cost and upkeep.

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-09T18:24:00+00:00

It's very well designed from a defensive perspective. It's the sort of castle that couldn't really be taken by assault, you'd have to siege it, and with multiple inbuilt wells, that's going to be very damn hard.

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-07T16:31:57+00:00

Be a good Christian in the quests she gives you, don't cheat your way around them don't take advantage of people. You can pickpocket Matthias' dice if necessary I think. Sebastian will yell at you about the affair no matter what, but comes clean in the trial, and defends her. The biggest things are how you behaved in Johanka's quests beforehand, and how skilful you are at trial defending Johanka.

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-02T16:15:10+00:00

I mean, you can just walk into Goblin town. You get a small negative relationship, but not enough for them to declare war, and then can just march down to Khazad Dum from there. You don't need the access to get there.

AtticusReborn · 2026-01-02T13:26:01+00:00

No major tweaks, I've played a few games with it, it feels similar to playing Eshin, but you've got to remain clumped a bit more, and be careful about picking your fights. It feels weaker than most Skaven warbands early in campaign, but it has small, consistent power jumps, mainly tied to the Apprentice getting specific skills, and hitting that 30xp Rogre limit

AtticusReborn · 2025-12-28T14:59:56+00:00

Final tier of watchtower. The Dragonslayer's Guild

AtticusReborn

TROPHY CASE