"The Best One"

Yinglets are so eloquent.

They just get right to the point! Many politicians throughout history could learn from them.

And suddenly the image of a political add for a Yinglet President forms inside of my mind

Make Val Salia great again. #YingletForIvenmoth

Ohhhh the irony, four years painful.

Irony nothing. I'd vote for a yinglet over the option we got. They have longer attention spans.

But the best politicians are the ones whose changes that are enacted are not felt until after they leave office. If they all got straight to the point, then there wouldn't be any politicians left cuz they'd all get kicked outta office

matriach voting, now with human male candidates who get stuff thrown into their eyes "because they are bastards you see" taking up the mantle is mandatory, trying to eat copper is optional~

Especially Viracroix.

Fascinating and realistic this is the kind of thing I love to see in species others make a truly well thought out evolutionary and cultural development~

Ey, thanks! I've had no lack of time to puzzle out these little birdrats, at least~

Hehe well if you ever want any help or just another mind to bounce ideas off to feel free to come to me

At least they didn't give him a long name like "The One Who Is Kicking All Butts And Is Best"

Oh there were a BUNCH of those. They just didn't get remembered very long because there were more words to memorize.

Shame they don't remember his actual name...

Heh, that trick of surrounding the enemy, having one distract them while the others attack is making me think of Rapters from Jurassic Park. X3

Also...hmmmm...I wonder...

Theory: The Yinglet 'Great Leader' seems far smarter and more capable then any Yinglet seemed to have been capable of at the time in early Yinglet History, having been able to totally unite all the Yinglets and and that stuff. Was he like Kass? A human who was turned into a Yinglet and, likely after some time moping, decided to actually improve his position in the world?

Discuss...

There's another JP scene that comes to mind when picturing a yinglet attack: https://youtu.be/uPQwNE4OsIE?t=19

Ha ha ha! X3

it would seem that this particular formation could be countered with Heavy armor. Minimize your soft spots, and you'd minimize openings. Lacking this option it becomes much harder to cover yourself, a second individual in back to back combat could probably overcome the circle as well.

Yes, there's definitely some counters to this technique, as it was originally developed for hunting and fighting other, less tactically-inclined yinglets.

Although the yinglets have a counter to these counter-tactics: more yinglets!

I feel that's the yinglet solution to everything. Instead of throw more money at it, it's throw more yinglets at it

Well if you have a problem to solve and all you have is a lot of yinglets...

When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

I can see this ending badly once firearms are invented in this timeline.

For both parties involved! A small, fast-moving target with a gun is definitely more dangerous than a large, slower-moving target with a gun.

Perhaps, but you can only make the gun caliber so small before it becomes ineffective, much more so with inefficient open chamber flintlocks or matchlocks and basic black powder. Yinglet arms aren't that strong against recoil forces to begin with. It's going to be pretty uneven with .22 caliber balls against .50 caliber balls.

Yeah, the end result would probably end up being something like 1 larger target with a rifle fighting 4 small targets with BB guns running around like chickens. Who the hell knows how it would turn out, but either way it's going to be fun to watch.

Oh jesus, the chickens have guns now? HIDE THE CHILDREN!

Old comment I know (lol) But I would not scoff at firearms no matter the size, not exactly sure about blackpowder firearms, but a yinglet with a 22. pistol is still going to be a CONSIDERABLE threat to your safety, size of the bullet only really matters if your need more armour/object piercing/Range.
Having a hole noclip through your body is still going to kill you at almost the same rate as a larger hole noclipping through your body.
EXPECIALLY if you dont care about committing warcrimes and just poison your bullets. One poison bullet getting into you is basically just delayed death.
They would be MENACES in gun warfare, they would be hard to hit, be able to hide VERY well. Your best bet fighting them would basically just be shotguns with wide chokes, their small size would make getting hit pretty much anywhere be pretty fatal.
Their disregard for their lives and their apparent breedability, would also make them scary to fight, nothing is scarier than an enemy that is willing to die whilst killing you.

The best counter for this stuff, would really be just better armour though. Once you start getting people wearing anything that just fully blocks their conventional .22 rounds (peferably full body) They lose ALOT of their strengths and would have to start relying on stationary higher caliber weapons or perhaps creative multi yinglet operated support guns. Grenades and bombs would be great for them aswell, expecially if their REALLY suicidal with their bomb usage.

But will any yinglets (aside from Poak's descendants) be able to handle the recoil?

I'm no tactician, but i cant help but feel that the spear-circle tactic is just basic flanking, and a polite version of flanking where you wait for the enemy to attack before retaliating even though you got one or more units at their blind spots.

More or less; the yinglets are just very good at it, due to their quick and precise reactions + thrusting strength that they developed as shallow-water fishers. It's not a beat-all super-tactic, but it does allow them to compete with larger species in a fight despite all their weaknesses.

Swarmy little bastards. And quite agile. Worst kind of enemy.

"Yinglets Revealed!" sounds like a porn mocumentary. What a horrifying thought.

Hell, a mocumentary about yinglets might sound like a normal documentary.

I figured they'd be poorly suited to human standards like the pike square. This is certainly the best way to take advantage of their agility (and annoying nature lol)

Pretty much! They don't have the mass to utilize shields, but they can sure as hell dash all around a target and quickly surround it.

So yinglets are best fought with a spear of your own, or a sling and some stones?

All things considered, yinglets are best fought by tricking them into not attacking you.

If only they had weapons with wide spread and fire shooting. Oh yeah THEY DONT IN THESE AGES 8D

It's never too early to start dreaming!

awesome! also blastphamy updates so quick?! I LOVE IT :D

Well, this one was originally one long page, before I realized that it was getting way too long for a single page.

I now wanna see a ting let warlord/leader in a fight XD would be very interesting to see him x3

He wasn't too shabby at fighting, but his real strength was convincing others to go do the fighting for him! As is the mark of any good leader.

-ptsd from scraping spear in demon souls- 0,,0"...
"gets invaded by a red phantom using a tower shield and scraping spear"
I poke you :3... that did nu damage X3
I poke you :3... "weapon at risk" O~o
I poke you :3... "weapon broke" D: oh akatosh
"armor broke" "ring broke" stop >~<
"kills self by jumping off ledge"
"finds out it would take 4 hours of farming souls to repair all good broken equipment" (if you had good equipment....)
(storm ruler was even worse :3 it was a sword that would almost quite literally hit you across the room and do no damage

How appropriate; I was watching someone play DS3 while making this page.

Coincidence 0.0...

Depends on how sharp their eyes/brains are! You could get lucky and encounter the dumb ones.

And how good the picture is...

Yet again you don't disappoint ;) keep up the fantastic work on these!

Well I WAS just going to stop after this page, but I guess now I have to finish the comic! >: (

I am enjoying these entries in the Yinglepedia.

Good to hear! I was worried they might not be received well when I was first starting up.

In-depth and well presented, also hoppy yinglets! X3

Plenty of multiplayer FPSs tell us that if you're hopping, you're harder to hit!

Yup and those things can't be wrong :P

*claps her tiny claw hands together quickly* so much fun learning shtuffz! Zhank you, Ran Stew Somzhing or Ozher!

Seriously! If there are people out there that are gonna have to be yinglets, then it's important to get info like this out!

How will Yinglets survive when humans invent firearms? Land mines? Reality Television?

Not very well, unless they catch up to humanity in the next couple centuries! Then they can counter with their own guns, and their own reality television. Either could be equally devastating.

After I finish going through the FA strips (then the DA strips) I might write a fanfic on that (and be more careful...my current fanfic painted me into something of a corner...)

Well, I guess, they are those guys who are a fricking nightmare to fight. If the one is missing rapier or (and) convenient body armor.

And historically, solid plate armor tends to only be made for the nobility, as it costs so much money, skill and materials to create! But scavs don't go around picking fights with the nobility, so that's very rarely an issue.

What about mail and hard-boiled leather?

Depends on what the scavs are armed with, I think! A broad-headed spear could encounter greater resistance, but something like a pilum is great at poking through leather and slipping between protective chain.

And don't forget...the pilum is likely poisoned!

Hahaha! I was literally drawing this morning a yinglet spear circle against an armoured Northern Sergal eating a female Yinglet. Google searched references including "punting a puppy" =3

You'really spoiling us Val! 2 updates in as many days! I can only imagine how flooded your inboxes are with updates

I've had this update storyboarded for months, as it's one of the most important infodumps and the main reason this whole enclave visit is happening near the beginning of the story! So honestly, there wasn't a huge amount of work to do on it by the time I got started.

Why did I imagine the combat theme from Star Trek played with Kazoos when I saw the Yinglets fighting?

I can think of several perfectly appropriate reasons

Yha war tactics. Must remember for that note I just sent you reasons. didn't know you were going to drop the second half so soon. Little to no training after so much breading ah? must make a note of that, also I love the many AKA's ending in The Best One. <^\/^>

There were actually many more (and longer) titles, but yinglets aren't that great at writing things down so they've been long lost to time.

Well someone need to teach them there A,B,3's... wait... mhe, close enough. <^\/^>

But they can be! Pekkit and Vizlet, at least, are literate. Lippie could be so quickly.

Military tactics combined with rapid breeding...

So it's possible for Yinglets to sex their way to total victory in war?

There are a few Matriarchs & Patriarchs that are actually counting on that happening!

...Who are most often kept in check by the wiser ones that realize the species is still way too undeveloped to win in standard warfare, and/or take and hold and govern conquered lands.

Spear circles only work if the opponent is as large as the victim. If a human on an adrenaline high wanted past them they would not be able to stop him.

Or an angry boar or other large opponent, yes! Yinglets' one advantage is in their maneuverability + quick reactions + strong, precise forearm thrusts, so they'd sure to get at least one spear in while the opponent disengages.

And while human behavior is more complicated after that point, standard large prey that escapes is usually stalked for a few hours (or days) until it succumbs to sepsis fatigue (due to all the stuff their weapons are coated with), and a big meal is had.

This is called cursorial hunting. There is a theory Homo erectus was a cursorial hunter, and this led to H. sapiens being able to do the long study, research and work needed to create technology.

Early humans hunted the same way. :D And with the same sort of population losses expected.

Pretty much! While they don't excel in most other sorts of hunting methods that ancient humans employ, they do manage this tactic especially well because of their ability to quickly maneuver around the target, and respond as quickly as you'd expect small spastic little rat-things to be able to.

Wouldn't work in a line battle though.

One of many situations in which it would end disastrously! If they ever encountered an actual human army, they'd probably just scatter and hassle the force for weeks, preferring to pick off stragglers, steal/wreck things at night, and cause havoc on supply lines.

If a human army is after them though, something has already gone horribly wrong, as the command from the very top stresses to NEVER PISS OFF LARGE GROUPS OF HUMANS

Really, I could read over and over all the lore and history and culture in this universe. "The Best One" made me snort. XP Love it. All the best. ♥♥♥♥♥♥

Well hey! We have people bickering and arguing about who was the best at this or that throughout history. If any of those historical figures had just named themselves The Best, then there would be no argument because clearly that guy was the best guy!

Awww, dangit. Zavvat would suck at the spear circle. I mean, a properly proportioned spear for him would reach only to a adult human male's... oh.

Oh, my.

Maybe he'd be exceptionally good at the spear circle.

If nothing else, he'd be excellent in the "get the enemy to take a swing at you so the others can stab it in the back" role, with his size and speed and possibly ability to annoy!

My Shozi of the Naku sex are physically and mentally quite similar to your Yinglets, but in this regard, they are not. Being more like a hybrid of Wallaby and Lynx rather than rat-birds, Shozi'Naku do not have long arms, and their long legs are built more for hopping at speed across plains or through tree branches, so they don't make good spear wielders. Their fighting technique thus differs considerably, focusing on rapid hit and run techniques in which they use their sharp claws or short daggers to cut at enemies quickly. They also favor poisons so that one cut is all it takes. In larger battle they have the other, larger, sexes to perform the majority of the fighting so the Naku focus on harassment techniques (Harriers) to open large opponents up to a timely blow by their own larger warriors. Some train to be Interceptor Naku, protecting their large warriors from the other tribe's Harriers and hunting down Scout Naku, but as Naku are the most repressed sex there is a stigma for any Naku who would train specifically to fight Naku, so Interceptors are rare. Later well equipped spell casting Naku became much like our modern concept of ancient Ninja, these might be labeled Shadow Sisters, Shadow Hoppers, Shadow Naku, or my favorite The Little Darkness.

I could definitely see Yinglets joining Ivenmoth security teams in such a capacity as Harriers and Scouts.

I wish I could draw so I could have others see my creatures.

Hey, if your head is this full of ideas, it's never too late to start learning to draw! Seriously, I had never drawn anything but stick figures until about 6 years ago.

And you can get lessons.
My local Senior Center provides them cheap (at least until the pandemic).

Having a huge battle awareness is best to countering this tactic, otherwise it's best to use the usual method of fighting off group of enemies: run away and attack the closest one that gets to you.

Anyway, I hope the patriarchs would be okay with Kass denying them by saying that he really wasn't raised like them so some of their rules shouldn't really apply to them.

Yeah; their advantage lies in being able to run around faster than most of their prey, and/or get in under their swing zones. But if that fails they really don't have much to fall back on.

And it's a bit strange to them, but they understand that this female "belongs" to a different group and that things could get messy if they tried to force anything.

The one who surpassed Big Boss. The Best One! *Big Boss from Metal Gear still has nightmares about the time he ran into The Best One, unable to get the yapping sounds they used out of his head....the horror......*

Absoloutely fascinating! A feudalist, eugenicist, meritocracy!

...why do i have a feeling this "great one" received more than "star help" for his ideas?

It's been tried before by humans, buuuuut it doesn't quite work out that well.

A very interesting society concept!

Did you draw any inspiration from real life matriarchal species?

A bit! They're more inspired by nature's many species that have an unusual dynamic between the males, females, and/or 3rd gender, and/or 4th or 5th, etc

So, lots of different species?

Baxxid, Indrel, WHATEVER the heck Isher's father was...

Has there been a field guide or something like that displaying information on the Yinglet's diet? I don't remember if there is but I think that might make a nice next addition. All I know is that their diet excludes bread and places a strong emphasis on seafood, but their fruits and vegetables if any remain unknown to me.

Oh and beverages! I can't believe I forgot to mention beverages!

Wiz a mace like zhat zhough surely he could just spin in a circle to keep zhem away?

And if zhe victim had a shield or a second weapon or wood or plate armour this victim would be less effective, and what if he had a broadsword? The spears would actually be shorter than the sword.

You ever try doing that? You get about three or four circles before you fall flat on your face.

Getting teased and taunted by yinglets in a spear circle must be agitating. I'm sure they probably just make childish insults or stick their tongue out and spit at you, but it would still be irritating nonetheless. It's enough to get you mad, so you start making desperate swings with your weapon in hopes to hit them, but you just get stabbed several times in the process.

It's probably the most annoying, agonizing death that Valsalia has to offer.

If you die to humans at least there's some dignity involved

And of course there are the exiles, who are not in the caste system at all (literally outcastes), like Brakka.