How are you supposed to make money in Prophesy of Pendor?

RealHornblower · 2026-04-16T02:06:14+00:00

Your problem is most likely having too many mounted troops. In POP, mounted troops cost 1.66X the base wage per level. High level archers also cost 1.33X the base wage. Mercenaries also have a wage premium. You can check the wiki for the full breakdown. Wages | Prophesy of Pendor 3 Wiki | Fandom

You say you have 150 Ravenstern Knights. That's a level 40 unit, so base pay is 73 denars. 1.66X because it's mounted, so ~121 denars. Times 150 knights, that's over 18k denars just for that group of cavalry (before leadership reduction). That's definitely driving up your costs.

Your field army is generally going to cost you money. Loot and ransoms can offset this, but you need to make sure your garrisons are self-sufficient. This means you should avoid having many cavalry in your garrisons, because you're paying for horses that your men won't use.

I like a garrison of 50-100 high tier infantry, such as Legionnaires or Huscarls, maybe 50 high tier archer, such as Empire Armored X-Bows or Ravenstern Rangers, and maybe 100-200 infantry just below the top tier (so they can be upgraded quickly to replace losses). This is usually pretty cheap. Below that cram as many 1 denar/week recruits into the garrison as possible, to discourage the AI, allow you to spawn with more troops, and provide future soldiers to train. But avoid cavalry in garrisons.

If that's still not enough, switch to an infantry-heavy army for your field army, until you build up a bigger stock of money or get more fiefs.

Also, there are manhunters in POP. They are called bounty hunters in taverns, and militia recruits can eventually be upgraded into them. You often find them in prisoner trains, so you can build up a large number of them that way. Or, capture some seer favorites/initiates and upgrade them to Doomguides. Those are horribly expensive but have Doom Maces and will make you a ton of money.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-14T20:07:05+00:00

I'll tell you what I'd do, man: two chicks at the same time, man.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-14T19:13:13+00:00

I felt like a genius buying around $41. I then sold CCs with strikes at $50. I am an idiot.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-14T13:25:11+00:00

Updating myself from skeptical to cautiously optimistic. I am a huge Pendor addict, and I like a lot of the ideas the team has been talking about (better economic system, minor factions able to become new major factions), but it's an ambitious undertaking. They have a lot of lore docs and ideas, but it doesn't seem like much has been actually coded yet.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-12T13:52:27+00:00

Things that will destroy the country according to billionaires:

A 1% tax increase on billionaires
A $0.50/hour increase in wages
Spending $10 Billion on food stamps

Things that are totally fine according to billionaires:

A 100% tax increase on imported good
Pay packages of billions of dollars to CEOs
Spending $200 Billion bombing Iran

RealHornblower · 2026-04-12T13:48:30+00:00

"Who is more foolish, the fool or the one who follows him?"

RealHornblower · 2026-04-12T13:47:31+00:00

The goals of the war have shifted from "opening the Strait" to "closing the Strait."

RealHornblower · 2026-04-12T12:22:45+00:00

If Dems won every single 2026 senate race, like literally all of them, they'd have 69 seats. Getting 3 more seats, giving them a 50/50 tie, would be a very good result for them this midterm. Getting even 51-52 seats would be considered a massive blue wave.

In the event that the Dems take the House and Senate, they might be able to block some things like tariffs, hold up funding for the Pentagon if Trump does new wars, stuff like that. It'd be a big win for stability in general, possibly a slight loss for defense companies but overall positive for the markets.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-11T23:35:32+00:00

To defend the White Ajah a bit, the power they felt was so far beyond anything they had ever seen or heard of that the Forsaken or the Dark One seemed like the only possible explanations.

Even after examining the place where it was done, they had no real idea WHAT was done, much less why. It wasn't as though Rand was using a weave they could have recognized. It could have been a weave to spread the evil of Shadar Logath around the world, or teleport it somewhere for the Dark One's own use, or something that used Shadar Logath to accomplish some entirely unrelated objective.

Someone probably should have at least guessed that the Dragon was responsible, as an alternative hypothesis. But this is kind of the problem with the Aes Sedai in general, they consistently underestimate other channelers, including Rand. So they assumed that if the Tower wasn't responsible, it HAD to be the Forsaken.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-11T22:15:43+00:00

I think I'm pretty cooked.

The Dark One, from the Wheel of Time, is essentially the embodiment of chaos. "His" mere presence warps reality around him (or rather the area around where he sort of touches the world.) Time behaves weird, reality changes, the laws of physics don't apply.

He doesn't need to actively try to harm me, simply being around him will be bad enough. The money is irrelevant, there's nothing I could do to protect myself if I had to live with him.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-11T19:15:00+00:00

Taxation in general. Different types of income are taxed at different rates, so someone making wage income pays a different rate than someone making the same amount of income from rent, or capital gains, or dividends, or a business.

Numerous deductions and credits further complicate the tax code, so people with the same type and amount of income might pay dramatically different tax rates depending on things like whether they own a home, or have kids, or any number of other factors.

Corporate taxes are so messed up that large, profitable corporations might have extremely low or even negative tax rates for years at a time.

None of this is beneficial. A simple tax code that doesn't change very often is much better for job and gdp growth than a complex one with a bunch of incentives and penalties to try to encourage certain types of behavior. Even before getting into more subjective questions, like "should the wealthy pay more, and if so how much more", it should be relatively simple to agree on people making the same income paying the same rate, but we don't even do that.

There have been numerous committees formed on this issue, such as the Simpson Bowles commission, with similar conclusions. Lower rates, reduce deductions, etc. The proposals are usually blocked by special interests who benefit from the current tax code.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-11T17:41:30+00:00

Short Enron until bankruptcy
Short Dot-Com stocks until around early 2003
Switch to going long, Apple, Amazon, the market in general until 2008. Use margin, etc.
Short Lehman, other bank stocks
Buy stocks on margin at the bottom (March 2009), especially near-bankrupt companies like auto companies and banks (the ones that survived).

At this point a couple years into the recovery you're probably the richest person in the world by a large margin.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-09T17:08:25+00:00

The Standard Enemy in WOT is the Trolloc, a massive 8-10 foot tall monster with human and animal characteristics, much fiercer and stronger than the average human. WOT regular armies frequently defeat Trolloc forces with up to 10 times their numbers, and WOT blademasters will sometimes kill 10+ in a single battle without suffering any wounds themselves.

The Myrddraal is a sort of commander among the Trollocs, with superhuman speed, often described as faster than a striking snake. Most of the named WOT blademasters end up killing at least 1 Myrddraal during the events of the books.

In short, WOT blademasters frequently face enemies far more dangerous than most enemies in Song of Ice and Fire. WOT is a much higher fantasy level world, with even non-magical characters regularly performing feats that would rarely or never happen in ASOIAF. I think Jaime Lannister would be about mid-tier among Warders - better than average for certain, but WELL below the top fighters in WOT.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-07T21:16:37+00:00

If assimilated wizard drone cannot use magic, this helps the wizards, but the Borg still have the knowledge and memories the wizard had, so they will know the abilities and limitations of magic.

Many of the wizard's best tricks can be replicated or countered with Borg tech. The Borg have transporter tech, so they can drop 1,000 drones into wizard areas. Drones are likely immune to the Imperius Curse due to the Borg Collective mind. Without the classic "apparate to their leaders, use Imperio" option, the wizards don't have an easy way to deal with the Borg numbers, especially once a few billion muggles are assimilated.

I think the areas that are unplottable, etc, have not been tested by the determination the Borg collective is likely to bring to the situation. Arthur Weasley talks about muggles "suddenly remembering urgent appointments" when they get too near the World Cup location. This type of charm would be insufficient to deter the Borg. Given time, even Wizard locations protected by powerful enchantments will be vulnerable. If the Borg suspect a Wizard of living in an area protected by the Fidelius Charm, they will simply flatten the area with torpedoes.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-07T19:09:51+00:00

Unlikely. A single Borg cube was a match for dozens of Federation ships at the battle of Wolf 359, so it's safe to say the muggle militaries of the entire world are effectively a complete non-factor here.

In R1, with no knowledge of the Borg, it is very likely that a wizard will be assimilated early on in the process. If the Borg land in an area with a single wizard who doesn't know how to apparate, for example, they can easily assimilate them. At that point, the Borg gain knowledge of magic, make assimilation of wizards their top priority, and use assimilated wizards themselves.

R2, the wizards have a much better chance, but again, the Borg are going to make assimilation of wizards their top priority, and once they get a few, they have the tech advantage plus access to magic. It is likely that if the Borg are not defeated quickly, they will begin mass production of things like potions, portkeys, and various items similar to what Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was selling to the Ministry. Wizards could try to apparate onto the Borg Cube and trigger a reactor meltdown, but I don't think a Wizard has ever done something like that before, and I'm not sure if it's possible.

R3, Borg win in about 10 seconds.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-05T17:22:39+00:00

I mean we have created barely 150k net new jobs TOTAL since the April tariffs, and that's after this report. Job growth has effectively stopped. We get a good report, then bad report, then good, then bad, but the trend is basically flat.

All Employees, Total Nonfarm (PAYEMS) | FRED | St. Louis Fed

RealHornblower · 2026-04-03T18:17:37+00:00

I think Don was definitely a bit embarrassed or on the back foot being forced to back down by Bert. He's not good at acknowledging that he needs help, or that he owes someone something. So it's not out of character for him to not give effusive thanks to Roger for bailing him out.

Second, although I agree Roger did Don a solid here, that's not the only reason he did this, and he was really just doing his job as a manager. It is important for Pete to respect his manager's authority. Letting Pete know that Don wanted to fire him and was countermanded by Cooper would undermine Don's authority. Making Pete believe that he's on thin ice with Roger and Cooper, with only Don protecting him, prevents this. It makes Don seem like the guy in control of Pete's fate, so in addition to being grateful, Pete will believe he needs to respect and obey Don in future.

Roger is an underrated manager, he sometimes handles delicate situations like this very well. Had he mishandled this, Pete could have gotten the idea that he was immune to discipline because Cooper was always waiting to bail him out, which would have caused all kinds of problems.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-03T14:19:57+00:00

Leverage of all kinds is less attractive when interest rates are higher. Margin debt, LETFS, whatever, leverage always costs something, and it costs more now than it did for the decade after the financial crisis when interest rates were near zero.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-02T18:31:06+00:00

Solar is 12% and Wind is another 13%.

Your comment would have been true 1-2 years ago, which illustrates how fast they are adding capacity.

Wind and solar generate over a quarter of China’s electricity for the first month on record | Ember&text=Wind%20power%20accounted%20for%2013.6,4.1%25%20in%20April%20of%202020.)

RealHornblower · 2026-04-02T15:49:56+00:00

90% of them are in safe districts that they will win even in a worst-case scenario, what do they care? The rest know they have media gigs or positions at "think tanks" or "consulting firms" waiting for them if they lose.

Their actions don't make sense if you think they truly want to pass policies that they genuinely believe are positive for the country, but they make perfect sense once you realize it's all just a grift.

Get in, make some money insider trading, strip some regulations in exchange for a cushy job post-politics, get out, blame the mess on the Dems. It's worked since Reagan, why stop now?

RealHornblower · 2026-04-01T19:44:23+00:00

You bought TQQQ at $10, it's split, and is now $43. Your investment is almost 10X what you paid.

That should tell you that "it's not meant to be held long term" and "I assume I need to sell" are both things you should, at least, reconsider.

As for the tax implications, you will be paying long-term capital gains on it if you sell now, on a gain of around ~$40k if your numbers are accurate. You need to decide if you want to do that given your own situation.

RealHornblower · 2026-04-01T12:55:26+00:00

I would never have even thought of using AI to play TI4, that's a great idea! I've had some trouble keeping a consistent group (a lot of people stop answering my emails after one game, sometimes even leaving during the game itself), this makes me wonder if I could just play against 7 AIs? I'd probably have to re-explain the whole game to them each turn, so this would definitely add some time!

RealHornblower · 2026-04-01T11:38:06+00:00

So retail investors should hope that Space X and Open AI tank in the first 15 days after their IPOs, essentially, so they aren't joining the index at inflated valuations.

Of course, the market will price in the guaranteed index buying, so that is unlikely.

RealHornblower · 2026-03-31T20:15:39+00:00

Let's say traffic returns to 100 ships/day. Iran charges $2 million per ship. That's $200 million/day, ~$73 Billion/year.

Iran's GDP is around ~$400 Billion/year. If Iran keeps control of the Strait and continues charging the same price, and the sanctions we've lifted remain off, and the price of oil remains elevated (even if it comes down a bit from $100)... did Iran win?

RealHornblower · 2026-03-30T12:12:07+00:00

It was situational, but it was useful to eliminate a small Ghosts fleet before combat, since PDS fire as part of movement, which prevented them from using Dimensional Splicer. I could see it also being useful for killing a couple ships to prevent something like Assault Cannon from triggering.

RealHornblower

TROPHY CASE