Board Thread:Theories/@comment-27823881-20180729145535/@comment-35822279-20180731023026

RuneLai wrote: You seem to be missing that the Battle of Thermopylae that you're referring to (the one made pop culture famous by 300) was also a strategically chosen "last stand." The goal wasn't to win, it was to hold the pass long enough for the rest of the Greek army to get away. After the Spartans died, the Persian invasion continued afterwards, because the pass was clear and they went ahead and sacked more cities. Historically, it was a good attempt and a dramatic story (they really made the Persians bleed for it), but the end result was still a defeat.

It's not a shining example of what we hope for Paradis.

And given that technology has advanced, home court advantage might not mean nearly as much. Remember the Titan air strike on Fort Slava. It wouldn't matter what terrain advantage Paradis had if Marley flew an airplane over the Walls and dropped Titans over all the populated areas. The Survey Corps wouldn't be able to deploy to all cities fast enough.

There are reasons Marley may not want to do this (like getting tons of Wall Titans directed to them), but if they really wanted to there's not much Paradis can do about it. - The titan air strike wouldn't be as effective as it would be in the past due to the loss of Zeke (they would attack Marley as much as they would attack Paradis) and also Zeke and Eren could command the surviving Titans the moment they land (depending on the range of the FT) which would help Paradis rather than Marley by adding offensive firepower to Paradis's arsenal. Also if Marley is still using blimps they would extremely vulnerable to Zeke, Eren, and Armin due to there relatively slow speed and easy to destroy nature (one direct hit from artillery of the crystal or rock variety and they burst into flames) but I think if there using bombers (WW2 style) they might as well just use regular bombs rather than pure titans.

- A lot of Marley's success will absolutely depend on air planes though as I don't think a huge navy (if we are talking about battleships, Aircraft carriers would be a huge advantage for Marley) will help them past the opening stages of the conflict and everything else is going to be airbourne and land based (Marley is at a severe disadvantage here even with the world backing them up due to 3DMG + thunder spears). It all depends on how developed the worlds air force is as the faster and more long range the planes are the more success Marley is going to have in this war.

- Also since the Battle Of Thermopylae was brought up, Eldia does have an advantage in it's terrain as they can funnel Marley's ground troops through the south of the island due to the mountanious terrain that the rest of the island has blocking landing spots/ troop routes. I wonder though if Marley could use that presumption to there advantage by planning a sneak attack along the north shore of Paradis with Pieck's Cart Titan as her titan is fast, excels at stealth operations, appears to be an exceptional climber, and doesn't really benefit from being front and centre in a large scale conflict. So just spiballing here maybe they can possibly grab Historia while everyone is distracted (highly unlikely but a definite way to gain an upper hand), sneak in smaller units in the undefended part of the island, or recover Falco and Gabi by using the north to sneak in.