Some thoughts about suikoden 2

[Poet]

The headquarters at north window have so many commoners walking around freely,how do you think the army prevented spies?
When the hero went to tinto during neclord quest,why didn't highland launch any surprise attack?
klaus and ridley brought a portion of the army far into tinto after all.

Just felt that the second half of the game(after luca's death) is too short,everything were predictable from then as well so would have been nice if theres a twist in the storyline.

[Sasarai10]

The headquarters at north window have so many commoners walking around freely,how do you think the army prevented spies?
When the hero went to tinto during neclord quest,why didn't highland launch any surprise attack?
klaus and ridley brought a portion of the army far into tinto after all.

Just felt that the second half of the game(after luca's death) is too short,everything were predictable from then as well so would have been nice if theres a twist in the storyline.

They were planning to capture Matilda at this point didnt they?

[BrucePrintscreen]

The headquarters at north window have so many commoners walking around freely,how do you think the army prevented spies?
.

It was much more common than we thought for armies in the past to move around with the soldier's families. Detecting a spy is done through the spy's communications. If anyone (commoner or not) was spying for Highland, then they would have needed to communicate with Highland, which is easy to detect.
As a matter of fact, most armies in the world assume that the enemy has put spies in their rank, this is why classified informations are kept from most of the army. A Highland spy in North Windows would only be useful if he were in the small circle of people allowed to meetings with Shu and Riou. Therefore, if you want to do efficient counter spying, just do the following:
-Keep important infos confined to the meeting room
-Control the movements and communications with the outside world of anyone with access to the meeting room.

[Wolkendrache]

I learned that you can walk through the headquarters asking for the leader’s whereabouts (Koyu); you can stroll right into a conference in the meeting hall without problems (Sheena); and you don’t need to be a ninja or specialized assassin to get into the leader’s bedroom, it’s enough to be female and to have a whip (Lucia) to convince the guards that you’re Riou’s private dominatrix.

The army in the novel had 8 SoD for reconnaissance and recruitment (4 pairs, each running a tavern to each direction from the headquarters), and 4 SoD for intelligence delivery (probably constantly traveling around). Riou’s army had…Taki, but also a specialist called Richmond who for some reason only spied on your own army rather than gathering information about the enemy.

Let’s face it, security and intelligence in Riou’s army was lame.

[sticky-runes]

^ That's the Wolkendrache I fell in love with.

[Poet]

I learned that you can walk through the headquarters asking for the leader’s whereabouts (Koyu); you can stroll right into a conference in the meeting hall without problems (Sheena); and you don’t need to be a ninja or specialized assassin to get into the leader’s bedroom, it’s enough to be female and to have a whip (Lucia) to convince the guards that you’re Riou’s private dominatrix.

The army in the novel had 8 SoD for reconnaissance and recruitment (4 pairs, each running a tavern to each direction from the headquarters), and 4 SoD for intelligence delivery (probably constantly traveling around). Riou’s army had…Taki, but also a specialist called Richmond who for some reason only spied on your own army rather than gathering information about the enemy.

Let’s face it, security and intelligence in Riou’s army was lame.

Funny but true.Which was why i mentioned about riou's army's security.Even though soldiers stood,even a kid can get by into important places.

[Antimatzist]

After Luca died, the Highland army was already on the losing side. they lost Kiba/Klaus and Luca during that war. They were in no position for a surprise attack.

[Sasarai10]

After Luca died, the Highland army was already on the losing side. they lost Kiba/Klaus and Luca during that war. They were in no position for a surprise attack.

Actually Jowy wanted to destroy Highland from within as well...no?

[sticky-runes]

I don't think Jowy wanted to destroy Highland from within, he wanted peace by forcing the State to surrender to Highland.

[Antimatzist]

Yes, that's it. if he wanted tod estroy it, he could have just made peace with your army or anything. Actually, i don't really know what he wanted after Luca's death. <_< Have to replay the game.

EDIT: Ah, ok, so Jowy thought that there cannot be peace because both people hated each other too much so one side had to win. Still, I don't think Highland was in any position for an attack.

[BrucePrintscreen]

Both Jowy and Riou aim at unifying Highland and Jowstone into a single state to prevent further conflicts.

Only that unifying under Highland's rule means destroying the freedoms of the city states, whereas unifying under Jowstone's rule means simply toppling a monarchy that has proven to be ready to sacrifice its people for the sake of its rulers.

In the end, reshaping the whole thing into a Dunan republic was probably the wisest thing to do. A sequel to Suikoden II could have been about the unification of Dunan and Toran.