[LP CYOA] 傳

[Absinthe]

All I'm saying is that if you think too hard about squeezing +1 Swords into your rewards when you have a serious fight on your hands, you end up with Swordsman Yifang, where people managed to trick themselves out of an intuitive answer by convoluted arguments.

You realize we won that fight, right? And that Yifang was the best choice for diplomacy? Choosing her worked out fine.

 

[Baltika9]

All I'm saying is that if you think too hard about squeezing +1 Swords into your rewards when you have a serious fight on your hands, you end up with Swordsman Yifang, where people managed to trick themselves out of an intuitive answer by convoluted arguments.

You realize we won that fight, right? And that Yifang was the best choice for diplomacy? Choosing her worked out fine.

Nah, we fucked that up. Yunzi and us would have absolutely destroyed their formation and she wouldn't have been all pissed at us. She was the right choice, but whatever, that's in the past.

The paranoia here reaches the level of 'can't show our techniques to anyone, ever'.

BUT THE DEMONZ!

 

[Absinthe]

Yeah but in exchange for Yunzi points we picked up Yifang points, which we were running dangerously low on. And diplomacy is good too. We don't even know how diplomacy would have worked with Yunzi. Treave did confirm it would have been a much more vicious fight with Yunzi.

 

[Nevill]

In the end, the proposal is to weaken an already weaker group of fighters that don't have support (remember that our team would have two more orthodox guys) just to look better (and that is doubtful as well), and that is something I can't agree with.

 

[Baltika9]

Yeah but in exchange for Yunzi points we picked up Yifang points,

You've got me there.

 

[Absinthe]

Nevill, I think you're selling short just how good the girls and Murong Yandi are in a fight, and I still don't think more firepower is the answer since a serious battle is to be avoided. Sending Armaiti (OMG FIRE CULT) is exactly the sort of thing that can cause a serious battle to break out (if it's just Yunzi I expect they can fast talk their way through it). Besides, considering half these battles are political (seriously, Nie Wuxing, Madam Nie, and Zhang Manlou are all politicking bastards), PR has real consequences.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

BAAAA

I will say no more.

 

[Baltika9]

Nevill, I think you're selling short just how good the girls and Murong Yandi are in a fight, and I still don't think more firepower is the answer since a serious battle is to be avoided. Sending Armaiti (OMG FIRE CULT) is exactly the sort of thing that can cause a serious battle to break out (if it's just Yunzi I expect they can fast talk their way through it). Besides, considering half these battles are political (seriously, Nie Wuxing, Madam Nie, and Zhang Manlou are all politicking bastards), PR has real consequences.

Absinthe has convinced me on all of these points. Flopping to BAABA.

 

[Smashing Axe]

AAABB

Guo Fu should go after Nie Wuxing because of his outstanding Orthodox reputation. If Nie acts dishonourably, Guo Fu standing against him would destroy Nie's reputation. He needs back up and I chose Yandi because the Zhang girl is likely going to be backing Nie and Yandi is the most likely to know her counters.

The rest can go fuck up that Immortal.

 

[Nevill]

Absinthe has convinced me on all of these points.

You see, Baltika9, this is where it does not make sense to me.

Do you expect a fight with Nie Wuxing to break out, or don't you? If you do not, why are you sending anyone there at all when Shun is in danger? If you do, why aren't you sending enough? Nie has Minyue, the sword couple, and Bai Jiutian at his side, and he wields a legendary blade himself. That is five highly skilled opponents against two of our fighters and one semi-skilled poisoner waifu.

The notion that the serious fighting will only break out once we sent Armaiti in does not hold up under scrutiny. If we don't, the fighting won't get serious? They will just slap each other silly because the attack on the pugilistic leader is no big deal? What does a non-serious fight entail when you consider an assault on the current wielder of the Xuanyuan Sword by people who don't have a right to it? If you expect a fight at all, that is.

And the political arguments (which I think are highly inappropriate because we are talking lives here) do not hold up either. See, the fact that the EVIL CULT was after the sword can be turned against us, and that might be a valid argument for some. But then the fact that Yunzi (the second-in-command and the public face of the organization - unlike Armaiti who is a mere Amesha) is already going after Wuxing is handwaved away - 'eh, it will be fine, they will just fast-talk their way out of it or something', even though the same exact points apply to her as well. That's just arbitrary deciding that two cultists are too many, but one is completely okay.

That kind of argument I can make in abundance. 4 fighters will totes thrash Wuxing and his cronies, but with just 3 they will kill our waifus and rape Murong Yandi to draw the Saint out and have our Master die from boredom. It will totes be a disaster, trust me, bros!

I am just not interested in that level of discussion.

 

[Baltika9]

Except that traveling light wound be a boon for them: Qilin and Yunzi are p. good at stealth and aren't looking for a serious sword fight in the first place. They're there to tail and observe. I want Yandi with them as security, "in case shit hits the fan." That's it.

 

[Nevill]

Except that traveling light wound be a boon for them: Qilin and Yunzi are p. good at stealth and aren't looking for a serious sword fight in the first place. They're there to tail and observe.

That's ok, but Qilin is going there to:

“Nie must have went off on his own with the Xuanyuan Sword,” says Qilin quickly. “His Majesty and the woman should be in the passage on the right. I’ll go and trail him, to make sure he doesn’t do anything funny with the sword. Jing, you can go after the Emperor.”

What are they to do if he does try something funny?

Try and stop him? Turn away and leave?

 

[Absinthe]

Nevill, about the "semi-skilled poisoner waifu," Qilin is downright dangerous when she uses her poisons. Wudu Cult doesn't fuck around. And Bai Jiutian is actually a good point that a diplomatic solution is possible. As for stopping them from doing anything funny, they could just decide to accompany him. With Murong Yandi they can just claim that the Great Swords agreed to protect the Xuanyuan Sword together, so they're making good on that. Or they could just run off and tell us.

Hey treave, does Murong Yandi have a stealth skill? After the Chapter 2 ending I find myself wondering if the extreme loner training included avoiding people skills (considering how they were listening in on the conversation before dropping in).

 

[Baltika9]

Supply us and Shun with information. Regardless of their escort or the circumstances, I want our girls to run at the first sign of trouble.

 

[Nevill]

Supply us and Shun with information. Regardless of their escort or the circumstances, I want our girls to run at the first sign of trouble.

But is Yunzi the sort to run at the first sign of trouble?

I just can't help but feel there is a lot of wishful thinking involved.

Of course it would be best if the fight did not break out, but in case it does, I don't feel that Yandi alone is enough. And if it does not, Armaiti does not preclude observation any more than the Holy Maiden does.

 

[treave]

Hey treave, does Murong Yandi have a stealth skill? After the Chapter 2 ending I find myself wondering if the extreme loner training included avoiding people skills (considering how they were listening in on the conversation before dropping in).

All martial artists have stealth skills to some extent (acrobatic moves, breathing control etc), some are just more specialized and skilled in this aspect than others.

Nie has Minyue, a sword couple, and Bai Jiutian at his side, and he wields a legendary blade himself.

Brief correction: From Liu Qi's words, it is certain that he's travelling with the Taishan and Kunlun Masters to rescue Shun, though they seem to have taken the wrong turn. It is not certain whether Zhang Minyue, Qingfeng & Lanhai, Bai Jiutian, Madam Nie or the Taishan Seven are with him; they might have walked out the main doors instead. There was quite a bit of confusion in the hall. Also, since Madam Nie was strong enough to be a match for Chi Tianxie in their youth, even assuming that her skills have not improved at all she will still be a person to watch out for if it comes down to a fight.

 

[Azira]

A
B
A
B
A

 

[Nevill]

Brief correction: From Liu Qi's words, it is certain that he's travelling with the Taishan and Kunlun Masters to rescue Shun, though they seem to have taken the wrong turn. It is not certain whether Zhang Minyue, Qingfeng & Lanhai, Bai Jiutian, Madam Nie or the Taishan Seven are with him; they might have walked out the main doors instead.

I kind of suspect it was a deliberate move. How do you even take the wrong turn when you are ahead of your disciples and they saw where the perpetrator went?

Hm, now that you mention it, the chaos might be a perfect cover to send Qingfeng & Lanhai after us.

Are Taishan Seven still a power to be reckoned with? I thought we left them behind as we did with most of our competition from two years ago. I know they are improving, too, but I find it doubtful anyone (but the ones who were already ahead of us) could match the intense training from hell by demons, gods and maniacs that we've went through.

 

[treave]

Going back to that old Tier List:

Spear of Manliness Tier
Yang Xue

Tier One
Wang Zhengchong
Ahura

Tier Two
Abbot Fangzhang
Zhang Jue (?), Sword Saint (?), Qi Liuwu, Tulu Huodu, Vairya
Vahista

Tier Three
Miecao, Nie Wuxing, Chi Tianxie, Haurvatat
Bai Jiutian
Su Cheng, Liu Ye

Tier Four
Gao Ying, Yifang, Hei Brothers
Murong Yandi, Liu Chanfeng
Xu Jing, Yunzi, Guo Fu
Su Liaojing, Yiling, Song Lingshu
Wu Brothers, Shaolin Xu Monks

Tier Five
Chi Qilin
Taishan Seven (without formation)
Cao'er

Tier Six
Xiahou Yu (sober)

I didn't put how strong they were in formation, but if you gave them the chance to set up, they'd have been at the top of Tier Four, or the bottom of Tier Three. Less powerful than their master even collectively, but still considerably strong. Of course, they didn't improve by leaps and bounds since then, but even so they aren't an enemy to be underestimated. Together, they'll be able to give fighters of even your level a pretty tough fight, though odds are you will still come out ahead in the end if you don't make any glaring errors.

Granted, if you use Wuxiang Qiankun on them you are going to dismantle that formation so thoroughly that it isn't even funny. That's something the formation isn't prepared for.

The Wudang formation, on the other hand... yeah, that's a bit more troublesome. Much harder to copy effectively, even if it's not as overtly powerful as the Taishan formation.

 

[Nevill]

Wait, Wudang have their own formation? First time I've heard about that one. When there was talk about us fighting with 3 Wu brothers, I thought they would be fighting independently.

Why would it be hard to copy? Is it because the principles behind Taiji Fist & Sword are the same principles the formation is based upon?

 

[treave]

Every sect has a formation or two. You've already seen Shaolin and Emei's, for example.

Wudang's formation is scalable and highly variable, just like Taiji Fist/Sword. It doesn't have a fixed number of participants for maximum efficiency. Instead, it operates on the foundation that 2 fighters using the formation are the equivalent of 4 fighters of equal level, 3 are equal to 9, 4 to 16, and so on and so forth. There's no theoretical upper limit to the number of people that can participate.

 

[asxetos]

so 100 wudang can take on an army

 

[Nevill]

The army does not play by the orthodox rules, though.

Even though the pugilists serve as backup in case of enemy agression, I am fairly sure the actual military would be more effective for operations that do not require too much finesse.

 

[treave]

Nevill - AABBA
Kz3r0 - AAAAA
Kipeci - AABAA
Elfberserker - AAABA
ChumBucket - AABAA
Absinthe - AAABA
Baltika9 - BAABA
Grimgravy - AABBA
Akkudakku - BABAA
TOME - AABBA
Jester - ABABB
Fangshi - AABBA
Rex Feral - AABBA
tropic - AAABA
asxetos - AABBA
Tigranes - AAABA
Esquilax - AABBA
Lambchop19 - BAAAA
Smashing Axe - AAABB
Azira - ABABA
The Brazilian Slaughter - ABABA

***

Current tally:

A - 18
B - 3

A - 18
B - 3

A - 11
B - 10

A - 5
B - 16

A - 19
B - 2

 

[Baltika9]

I can flop if it gets us the update today.