Shields

[The Flint]

In negotiations they made it sound like they don't even care about Pyke because the Harlaws are in charge. but that seems unrealistic to me.

[melon]

Yea it does as pyke is still the Iron Islands.

I say just wait we will get the shields back.

[The Flint]

Its not clear where all our troops and ships are or who would have command because of the split. (and because Fossoway sent portions of the fleet to assist the Volanti mercenaries in raiding.) Plus its possible some of the rebel lords may choose to resist instead of surrender. I'm doing what I can to clarify what we have the ability to do with the Other. despite all our losses between the two Reaches we should still have around 39-40 thousand men. The problem is mainly ships.

OOC: I suggest the Tyrell house motto be amended from "Growing Strong" to "When all goes wrong, blame Fossoway"

[melon]

Yea that would work as a good motto.

You'll just have to clear it up with the Admin's.

[theother]

I agree not caring about Pyke is a little false, at least to me. I'm unsure if Erik was just being blase to get a reaction from Francis but if he did, it didn't work.
Some ironborn won't really care about Pyke itself - except the ones from there of course - but losing it is a massive blow to ironborn pride that they won't stomach.

And yes Francis, the weakness for the ironborn has always been about numbers. They have less than any House and probably less than a quarter compared to the combined Reach (talking of which it may be an idea to put a question out there about relative troop strengths for each section).
But, the trouble is, as you so delicately put, not about men so much as about ships and there the ironborn are your equal - and perhaps better depending on the commander & numbers on any given exchange

[The Flint]

they are well our equal, with us having only around 50 warships, and 30 of them with Redwyne on the otherside of the continent.

[Ser Kenneth Coyn]

It would be great if there was a way to attack their fleet while they were in port. A ship is most vulnerable when it is in port as it can not use its guns or maneuver away. If we could somehow send a small team to land on say the other side of the island and then move to sabotage their ships while they were in port celebrating we could help reduce their advantage there. The problem then of course is how to do it without being detected. It would be a daring, risky thing to do but if they are hell bent on conflict it may be our only chance to retake the island without a massive ship building effort that we can not afford.

The second choice would be some kind of decoy to cause them to move their ships from the islands. Maybe with a fast squadron that has a prize the Iron men would love to take that they chase her?

[melon]

Well as an idea Oldtown has a small fleet of IronBorn style ships.

[Ser Kenneth Coyn]

OOC: I was bummed to find out they didn't have gunpowder invented yet, I was hoping we could mine the harbor.

[melon]

Yea sorry about that.

Actually that some up a while ago. If some one should discover that but everyone agreed that it would ruin the game.

[theother]

FYI - the ironborn ships are similar in design to viking longships so don't have war machines as such on their decks. They are faster than most westerosi ships due to their smaller size and shape. They have rams but that's about as high-tech as they get.
The mainstay of mainland westerosi fleets is the dromon (google it). Similar in design to roman/byzantine warships they are large, multi-decked and have banks of oars to manouevre with. They can have small ballista & catapults on their decks to hurl pitch & arrow at their foes but their greater size and weight mean that they are usually slower and more cumbersome than the ironborn ships. And no - gunpowder isn't invented yet
You can imagine these ships to be circa 10-12th century european designs. Oh, and fairly obvious but something to bear in mind. Only a moron wears plate or steel armour onboard a ship. Usually a soon to be drowned moron

[Ser Kenneth Coyn]

In that case my idea of attempting to keep the Ironborn fleet in port by attacking their sails and rigging would not work too well since they are probably powered more by oars than sail. I still think our best bet would be to send a small group of soldier in to sabotage their ships we could send them in groups of 10 on commandeered fishing boats so even if the Iron men are patroling the area which they never said but would be logical, our men would not necessarily be discovered or stopped. Once they have infiltrated the Shields then they work in cells to damage disrupt the ships they still have remaining in port and we ferry our men across in waves and crush them with superior numbers. Hopefully we could force them to surrender since they would have no escape but the Ironmen are pretty thick headed so who knows. The problem there of course is how to get our ships into a position where we could move are armies across without them knowing they are there and having them send their fleet out to attack them.

[sethgreyjoy]

Two words: Alchemist's fire.

[The Flint]

could we move our ships in under a false flag?

[melon]

Yea I don't see why not.