Best army

[Lord_Tiberus661]

[Oboro Tennosuke]

I voted for the Liberation Army...the arguments you guys presented can't be invalidated.

Another positive factor for S1 army is its headquarters. Since they're situated in the middle of a lake, they could just use Dragon Knights to attack any incoming boats...plus the surrounding cities are all on the Liberation Army's side, it would be too easy to sabotage supply routes/ provide false information.

On the other hand, North window can be sandwiched between gul horses/ice boats and normal troops.

Budehuc...more or less the same. It's a bit harder to attack, since it's in the heart of enemy territory and all escape routes lead to more enemies, thanks to the lizards' underground network. Its weak point could be the divisiveness of the Second Fire Bringer.

About S4...they're on a completely different terrain, you can't even pit them against each other I think.
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I'm still a hungry peasant....and the Battle-Crazy Tensatsu Star of Harmonia!

[Kikito]

My pick has to be the Fire Bringer. In sheer force, they got more True Runes. Also there's a combination of many nation's forces like Harmonia, Grasslands, and Zexen. Not to mention the Camaro knights who also lent their help for their cause. I'd have to say that in sheer strenght and manpower the Fire Bringer certainly do have the advantage.

However there's the fact that the other armies had the assistance of much better strategists in my opinion. So if I were to take that into consideration it would be a pretty much even race.

Still, I voted for the Fire Bringer because I just like them more and think they're more powerful

[Edge Riou]

I think that the Dunan army is the most powerful because of the strength of each of the members within it. I remember that at the end of the game, I just wiped the floor with my enemies in the final war battle. The Liberation army was a little too disorganized to be the most powerful, and though the Fire Bringer had more true runes, they didn't use them to the best of their power in my opinion. So I think Dunan is the most powerful, but Fire Bringer has the most potential.
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[Parallax]

I would go with the Dunan Army myself. Although the numerical values of each army aren't really gone over in great detail in any of the Suikoden games (as in, you get numbers sometimes, but they change so often, and the game doesn't keep you updated...)...but according to the numbers that are given, the Dunan army would be the largest. One thing about Dunan, however, is that they no longer have the Tinto Republic attached to them, and they also wouldn't have the support of the Toran Republic in any theoretical war against them. That last assessment of course, depends in great part about what timeframe this hypothetical battle takes place in.

I also feel that Dunan has the most useful True Rune in a war, although that is a matter that could be debated, I'm sure - but I think the massively-ranged healing of the Bright Shield Rune (as demonstrated in Suikoden II's War scenarios) is superior to simply striking a few people down here and there with magic, etc.

Plus...I just plain like Dunan the best I think. :D
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He's a victim - not a perp - and I'm choosing to let him go.

[108_Destiny]

I think I will side with the liberation army. It have 2 silverbergs, fire spear, dwarves, elves, dragon, ninjas, and kobolds.

They also have geographical advantages.

[Dura Sinai]

[Shum]

Well, when talking about the armies when they were active I would say it's a toss up between the Liberation Army and the Dunan Army. The Fire Bringer had a lot of True Runes but they had a lot of deep seeded divisions and (I could be wrong here) it didn't seem to me that they had that large of an army compared to that of the other two. Not to mention the fact that(in my opinion) their strategists didn't even compare to those of the Dunan/Liberation Armies.

When it comes down to the other two I think I would vote for Dunan. It seemed as if in sheer numbers the Dunan Army had the advantage. I'm not sure how much larger they are but I got the impression that they had a larger area and more populated cities to draw warm bodies from. At some point they could draw recruits from all of the following well populated cities: Muse, South Window, Two River, and Greenhill which all seemed like rather large cities to me.

As far as leadership, the Liberation had some excellent generals but then so did Dunan.

Then there's Riou's true rune. As far as I recall the Liberation Army didn't have any battlefield devasting true runes but the Bright Shield could affect a large portion of the battlefield.

They both had the ability to wreak havoc from the skies with wingers and dragons. I think's it's fair to say that with the winger's bomb dropping that the amount of damage and fear they both inflict is at the very least comparable. Of course, if they go head to head obviously we'll be seeing a lot of dead wingers but arrows will send 'em both crashing down.

The Liberation Army did of course have dwarven engineering so there's an advantage. As far as elves, I don't really count them because almost their entire population was wiped out before they joined. They did have some good fighters help but I don't believe it was enough of an influence to say that elves as a whole played a major part in the war. Then there are the Kobolds. I dare say that with their leadership and greater numbers(pure speculation, but I got that feeling) that the Dunan Kobolds were a much greater threat than the Liberation Army's.

And finally strategists. Yes, the Liberation had two Silverbergs but Shu proved himself to be one devastatingly effective mofo(haha, think I'm biased?). Also, at least in the war he was involved in, Shu proved himself a superior strategist to Leon. I don't know if it's officially stated somewhere but isn't Leon supposed to be the best of the currently living Silverberg strategists?

So there you have it. My vote goes to Dunan. I tried to aviod discussing too much about characters because there were a lot that crossed over. Also, I'm merely talking about the strength of the armies themselves and not the terrain they fought on as well as how far they had to spread themselves out and what not.

[Henion Ziguard]

I voted for the Fire Bringer because out of the 3 its the only one I have played.
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Let the winds of time blow! We will still be here!

[Falcon Critical]

Interesting arguments but one cannot put each army against one another in their prime, a key point of Suikoden is that the timelines all link and therefore you would need to chose a particular date/year for a given comparison of force.

Obviously during the times the games were played each nation in turn had the strongest army, however assuming a war between Dunan and Toran were to take place after the unification war I would put my money on Toran to win it. While Dunan had a good deal of strength during Suikoden 2, many of the warriors left North Window at the conclusion of the war and the army seemed like it would drop in power a lot more than Toran's did.

Toran maintained its 6 great generals and has a really strong network of castles and armies across their land. Add to that the dragon knights and you have a key geographical advantage. Comparing wingers to dragon knights is redundant in my opinion, we have no confirmation that wingers can fly great distances, plus they wear light armor and fly low. Compare to that dragons that can certainly fly great distances, plus they have heavy armor and can fly above the clouds - an essential strategy between two large armies.

I think Dunan after the war was left ill equipped to defend itself against invaders, the towns were unified yes - but there wasn't so much of a sense of a massive army being maintained there. Many of the key generals from the unification war departed after it ended: Valeria/Kasumi, Georg Prime, Maximillian, Hero2, Luc, Kiba - compared to the largely maintained Toran army I don't think they have the experience to win, especially with Shu out of the picture.

Whichever side managed to recruit Apple would certainly have a massive advantage of course since she has an intricate knowledge of the armies and strategies of both sides.


In summary - HIGHLAND clearly has the greatest army of all time! ( looks at his details :P )
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[Barbarossa Rugner]

My vote goes for the Liberation Army. At it's height it was very powerful and incorporated almost all of the leading generals of the former Scarlet Moon Empire. They also posessed dwarf technology to go along with ships powered by a engine (at least i think it was an engine, maybe more on the lines of Alchemy). Anyway i believe they posessed the most powerful army. I also agree with the statement made about their unity probably being the greatest. They all had one definite goal.
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The Rune on my Sword, the Dragon King Sword, is protected against any form of magic, Even the rune of the Gate - Barbarossa Rugner

[Shum]

[Captain Hero]

Even though the posts say that the Liberation Army is the best, the one with the highest votes in the poll is the Dunan Unification Army. :P

I have to go with Dunan, because they have a more capable leader. Riou has been living his whole life hearing about soldiers, trainings and war, and was under a war hero, genkaku. While Tir, if my memory serves me right, was always with a nanny that followed him around, shielding him from the harsh realities of life. I've always found Tir to be spoiled by Gremio. :P
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[Patton]

I say Dunan


Toran may have had two Silverbergs but I don't think that would be a good thing. Mathiu and Leon might have different views and that could hurt the army. Shu was the head strategist and Apple and Klaus obeyed him but could still lead units at different places.

As far as mages go Crowley is the best stat wise, but Mazus and Luc in S2 could hold three runes.(yeah, flawed logic)

If these two armies ever did fight though, Crowley and Mazus would probavly have another duel and chunk the whole place again. Looking back it's really a toss up between the two, and the fire bringer weren't even represented in this so it doesn't hold that much weight.
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It's a brightly colored jug for a brightly colored drink, and every time I pour a cup it really makes me think.

[Maximillian]

Liberation army all the way! They had more generals than you can wave a straw at and Maximillian was real powerful while he was in that army.
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