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Seriphyn · **11-18-2014, 04:10 PM**

There is an IC Newsletter back from 1.0 that says that Limsa Lominsa does not have landfighting experience because its been historically maritime, and that founding the Maelstrom Grand Company represents a new frontier in terms of land warfare. From that alone, one could not put Limsa Lominsa as objectively above Ul'dah.

Personally, I don't think Ul'dah has an 'unskilled' army. Ul'dah has the elite Sultansworn, for starters, and the Brass Blades are said to be well-trained, corruption issues aside. Then the Immortal Flames participate in military exercises with the Brass Blades and the Stone Torches all the time...AND Ul'dah will be hardened from fighting the Amalj'aa for a very long period. It has not pursued peace with the beast tribes, and is belligerent.

This is one of those academic things though with no real hard answer, but comparing Limsa's maritime power to Ul'dah's land power is like apples and oranges. Then Gridania is one of those places that doesn't need raw power to assert itself.

Jazz Egi · **11-19-2014, 07:52 PM**

I think Ishgard's anti-dragon force is being discounted here. Garlemald has a sizable air force that seems vital to any of their successful operations. Ishgard's forts are brimming with seige weaponry designed to rip airborne foes apart. Dragoons could probably go so far as to board an airship that is still airborne.

Ishgard's weakness to ground warfare seems easy to discount if you consider their terrain. I bet those walkers and mechs are garbage in the winter climate, as there is a lot of precedent for the dangers of poorly winterized machinery.

In all, I think Ishgard's climate and terrain alone push them into defensive supremacy but they'd likely lack punch in a counter attack.

As for the Castrums left alive in Eorzea, we're letting them live to farm their steel joints /$

Zyrusticae · **11-19-2014, 10:57 PM**

I have to note that, numerically, Ul'dah would be the largest city-state by a considerable margin at least partly thanks to all the refugees from Ala Mhigo and elsewhere. I can't imagine Limsa Lominsa being appreciably larger than Gridania because, frankly, Vylbrand is just not very big to begin with and the bulk of their populace lives by the seashore. It's not a massive land-based city like Ul'dah is and they're unlikely to have the resources to support a large standing army to begin with.

That being said, their armies are more than likely roughly equivalent in raw fighting ability, with specific advantages in certain kinds of warfare and terrain. And as it is a work of fiction, the intent by the writers is pretty clear in that they are definitely meant to be roughly equivalent factions with no clear "winner" as it were. Attempting to gauge their strengths against one another is an entertaining intellectual exercise, but ultimately nothing more.

That being said, Garlemald could very easily crush the combined might of Eorzea in open warfare if they so desired. That is simply not under question.

Jazz Egi · **11-19-2014, 11:21 PM**

(11-19-2014, 10:57 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote: I have to note that, numerically, Ul'dah would be the largest city-state by a considerable margin at least partly thanks to all the refugees from Ala Mhigo and elsewhere. I can't imagine Limsa Lominsa being appreciably larger than Gridania because, frankly, Vylbrand is just not very big to begin with and the bulk of their populace lives by the seashore. It's not a massive land-based city like Ul'dah is and they're unlikely to have the resources to support a large standing army to begin with.

That being said, their armies are more than likely roughly equivalent in raw fighting ability, with specific advantages in certain kinds of warfare and terrain. And as it is a work of fiction, the intent by the writers is pretty clear in that they are definitely meant to be roughly equivalent factions with no clear "winner" as it were. Attempting to gauge their strengths against one another is an entertaining intellectual exercise, but ultimately nothing more.

That being said, Garlemald could very easily crush the combined might of Eorzea in open warfare if they so desired. That is simply not under question.

But Ul'dah is, as the main story has shown, very unstable and divided. The strongest force won't matter if Garlemald succeeds in their psychological game (again) and start a major uprising (again). Limsa is not much better. I still find it a stretch that they manage to have any military at all. Ishgard is all but confirmed to have its leader subverted to nefarious ends.

Garlemald plays the information game too well. They could probably get Eorzea to invert upon itself without much effort.

Merri · **11-19-2014, 11:23 PM**

(11-19-2014, 07:52 PM)Jazz Egi Wrote: I bet those walkers and mechs are garbage in the winter climate, as there is a lot of precedent for the dangers of poorly winterized machinery.

On the contrary, actually. Garlemald was originally a small republic located in the northern territories of Ilsabard. Now, we've only ever seen that small fraction of Ilsabard on the Eorzean map of Aldenard, so we don't know the exact shape of Ilsabard, but it seems to expand at least as far north as the Farreach, if not further.

It's very likely that Garlemald's original climate was that of an arctic one, or close to. They could very well be at home in the snow for all we know.

Of course, there's literally no way to confirm Garlemald's original climate, but we know for a fact that the heart of Garlemald was in the northlands of Ilsabard.

As far as the thread goes, Garlemald is the strongest world power on Hydaelyn at the moment, as far as we know. However, they are spread thin. Garlemald has incredible strength, but in order to mobilize it and push into unconquered territory, they have to pull their forces from some another location. This is one of the major reasons Eorzea has not been conquered yet. We saw an example of it during the war of 1572, when Solus relocated the VIIth legion from the eastern front to the western front. Only then did Garlemald start pushing into Eorzea with the combined forces of the XIVth and VIIth legions. This halted some of their progress in Othard, though, as the VIIth was the most ruthless legion on that front.They simply can't afford to withdraw forces from certain locations, as they risk uprisings if they loosen their grasp on certain territories. One uprising might lead to another, and it would be a chain reaction that would cause a great deal of political instability for the empire.

Right now they're just sort of playing a delicate game of trying to balance their thin numbers properly out across their conquered territory. Doma is a really good example of this. Garlemald simply didn't have the means to conduct a full-scale operation against the insurgents, so instead of squashing the rebellion with ground forces, they decimated an entire city with their artillery in order to force the surrounding territories into submission and discourage any further attempts at rebellion.

So yes, Garlemald is powerful, but... ...that power only reaches so far right now. Given recent developments in the storyline, though, we may see a drastic change in their strategy.

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Discussion time! Relative military strength of each faction!

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes