This poll comes from the events of the short story, blood and blade, which shows the hissho and vodyani do have conflict between each other, with the vodyani invading or at the least sending a small strike force against the hissho controlled planet of veil. But who would actually win in a full scale war.

My vote has to go to the hissho, the vodyani while powerful, cannot win against a species who's culture is centered around war and combat. While the vodyani may have a edge in land combat, this isnt always the case, in the blood and blade hissho comic, we see Senya Snowridge begin to fight a entire group of vodyani commandos alone, and since she is still around as of ES2 and has a reputation of never losing a battle, she definitely killed the vodyani commandos by herself. The hissho blades also have been known to predict and see the future, giving the hissho on the spot knowledge of what's to come, giving them quite the edge in anticipating vodyani movement. Also according to the academy library from the penumbra dlc, the greatest military strategist known to the academy was infact a hissho named Kochita. With the hissho being a culture centered around war and the way of combat, along with having some of most skilled experts in warfare coming from their species, as well as not having to rely on Arkships and dust to grow to their numbers, and a much more different approval system made for war. To me its a clear win for the honorable warriors of the hissho.

Do my reasons sound right, or is there a way for the vodyani to win?

solrac137 wrote:

Well the vodyani have the advantage of not relying on planets as much as the hissho ground combat is not that important in war between space faring nations, they could always start destroying planets also raiding an ark must be really difficult , those must be heavily armed and you can land those massive armies there. 

true, the vodyani have a edge in ground combat, and while they can destroy planets, i actually see the hissho destroying their systems first, due to being the first species to obtain a behemoth, the hissho would have a edge in understanding behemoth and subsequently obliterator technology. The hissho's gamestyle is even centered around the usage of behemoths, so they have a advantage in what is essentially super weapons.