User blog comment:WanderingSkull/The Road Less Traveled: IRA vs. NLA/@comment-5795750-20140418115233

BG1's "Freedom at last" Edges:

Melee - The KA-BAR is a tried and true combat knife with its ability to slash and stab with speed and efficiency; the sickle might be an awesome bladed weapon (case in point, the Zande Makraka) but in this day and age, the sickle is an obsolete improvised weapon - it is good for cutting off someone's head but stabbing is going to be a bit of an issue

EDGE: IRA

Short - Browning might be heavy and have smaller bullets, but it's large magazine size and maybe more powerful stopping power should compensate for that

EDGE: IRA

Medium: The MAT is a very nice and compact SMG but it lacks the scary RPM and stopping power as well as the large magazine size of the Thompson SMG which is why the Thompson, despite the time difference between the two SMGs, gets the edge

EDGE: IRA

Long: In an extreme reversal of the SMG edge, the FN2000 gets the edge as the more technologically sophisticated gun with a decent firing range and slightly higher rate of fire that maintains an accuracy akin to the AR-15

EDGE: NLA

Explosives: I was so close to giving the edge to the nail bomb but I guess despite the punch the nail bomb gives, it is not as well made for direct combat than the F1 Grenade

EDGE: Even

Special: Bang vs burn? I would actually like to give it to the flamethrower since it is much easier to carry and the RPG is (as Noob/Goddess puts it) primarily an anti-tank weapon rather than an anti-personnel weapon; sure it still kills but in a squad-on-squad scenario, the flamethrower is a better choice for combat

EDGE: IRA

X-Factors: Average of 79 for the IRA; Average of 73 for the NLA

EDGE: IRA

Overall Winner: Sweeping the X-Factors and Weapons Edges, the winner here is the Irish Republican Army. When you have been fighting an endless war for a long time (I'm getting some Punisher vibes here again) with the same type of weapons but a change in tactics for every loss, you are bound to be a resilient group of fighters who will never cave in; the NLA may have shown that same audacity but once the fighting was over, it was over and every combatant resumed their daily lives on the fields or in the city in public office forgetting most of their training, what little of it was given to them in the first place