At the Council meetings, Portland is always discussed and Comber and the Elders All agree that we need to take it at least as a resource base it's just the cost in Troopers.

In the old world when a Fighter was lost in combat they were almost anonymous but in Lasthope's population a loss everyone feels. You may not have been close with him but you knew him, saw her at the dance, or loved their recipe for a dish, how they played the guitar and other things so we don't start wars lightly and Portland is an Urban environment which is the most deadly of combat zones. 

That understood when Lasthope does war with the Pirates it will be hit and run, we will make working for Feng a fearful profession. We will free his slaves target his boats but never give him a standing battle and we will do it in the time of year when he will be the most restricted because he is unwilling to fight in the winter snows.