Could the FEI realms unite against invasion?, a (sadly) hypothetical question.

[Longmane]

Haha I think folk might be pleasantly surprised just how well, and how eagerly   ;), PoZ will fight once given the opportunity now they have a war hungry Vikingr General in charge of their army  8)

[Velax]

Go on, then. Invade Kindara. We need a good fight down in the south. We're getting fat and lazy. ;)

[Indirik]

Just having a leader with the will to fight isn't enough. I've seen it many times: A realm that doesn't fight for a long period of time has a very hard time getting back into the swing of active warfare. They will usually get their butts kicked around the field several times before they wake up.

[Longmane]

It'll be Elk himself kicking their butts around the field if there's any slacking  :), but since they took to that last escapade like ducks to water, and indeed took all my persuasion to stop many of our troop leaders want visit Azros for a bit of partying, I don't think they'd have any trouble firing themselves up.

[Longmane]

The point made earlier by Indirik has reminded me of another problem some of the realms might encounter, in that if they have remained largely unrivaled military wise for some time, ie Arcaea of course being the best example, it might cause difficulties coming to terms with fighting a war in which you can't simply really on your own numerical strength etc alone to win out, with Soliferum itself being a point in fact, being as until it's war with the alliance we had hardly ever gone up against someone who could match our military might, and likewise found ourselves all at sea for weeks.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Enweil mostly failed badly against Monsters in the initial wave. Of course, the mortality might have contributed, but it's still debatable how much of a difference, if at all, that would have made if no non-heroes died.

[Bedwyr]

The point made earlier by Indirik has reminded me of another problem some of the realms might encounter, in that if they have remained largely unrivaled military wise for some time, ie Arcaea of course being the best example, it might cause difficulties coming to terms with fighting a war in which you can't simply really on your own numerical strength etc alone to win out, with Soliferum itself being a point in fact, being as until it's war with the alliance we had hardly ever gone up against someone who could match our military might, and likewise found ourselves all at sea for weeks.

Indeed, it's a large problem.  Especially when the military commands are filled with political candidates who were made for internal reasons rather than giving them to the best candidates (which I've often seen).

[Nerukou]

We're getting fat and lazy. ;)

Not all of us.

[Velax]

Was referring to my Kindara character, Gab. ;)

[ó Broin]

The point made earlier by Indirik has reminded me of another problem some of the realms might encounter, in that if they have remained largely unrivaled military wise for some time, ie Arcaea of course being the best example, it might cause difficulties coming to terms with fighting a war in which you can't simply really on your own numerical strength etc alone to win out, with Soliferum itself being a point in fact, being as until it's war with the alliance we had hardly ever gone up against someone who could match our military might, and likewise found ourselves all at sea for weeks.

Inactivity of any kind will have problems. Inactivity in terms of fighting at all often results in people being sloppy about orders, nobles missing orders, marshal's sending out orders that are not clear or that are too late for everyone to respond to.

A realm could be fighting a lot, and still be inactive in someways. Like you said Soliferum was inactive in the context of fighting in something resembling a balanced war. That meant all the considerations and necessary though processes for such an activity were out of practice. There are many other examples where a realm has simply not participated in a particular facet of the game, which might bite them later. For example powerful realms often get into the habit of sloppy diplomacy, counting on their power to cower everyone. Eventually another powerful realm or coalition will form to counter them, and by that stage they will struggle to get diplomatic allies.

[Heq]

I'd actually call it a coin toss.  There are  handful of realms which would do very little, but I actually wouldn't be suprised that some of the less skilled realms might get tutoring from some of the more battle-hardened groups.  Aenelia, Arcaea, OW, and Arcachon (while it's around) all have military leaders of some skill they could call upon in that sort of scenario, even if those leaders aren't in their realm at present.

There is a lot more lower-ranked correspondance in FEI then BT, at least up north, and that makes a difference.

[Stabbity]

PoZ actually get involved? Only if there was territory to be had with little or no fight of course.

Most of the rest of the realms I can see uniting fairly quickly. Cathay, C'thonia, Kindara, GA, Arcaea for sure.

[Velax]

PoZ are involved in the war now and there's no chance for territorial gain for them. Unless there's something I don't know (certainly possible).

[Iltaran]

Speaking as someone who was a Ruler for almost the whole Fourth Invasion uniting against an invasion is suprisingly easy. Even though BT was in the middle of a obscenely huge and bitter war, we managed to unite without an awful lot of trouble. Staying united is the problem (from memory our united front lasted about three days). When fifty thousand CS armies start roaming around, people's willingness to fight to the death in order to delay the enemy reaching other realms starts to flag. There's also the constant temptation to keep a foot in both camps if you're not under direct attack; only moving to help slowly, pulling back quickly to avoid actually fighting.

I actually felt that was one of the most interesting aspects of the invasion. We (more or less) behaved the way a real bunch of feuding medieval states would.

[Chenier]

Hey, the Meridian Republic did have people who started it with the intention that those lands ravaged by the monsters could be saved through human cunning and diplomacy rather than brute force -- of course the RoF remnants who joined it clearly wanted to restore themselves to their former position.

I got out of it because, from an RP perspective, my character felt incredibly betrayed by the course of events from there... and once again for anyone saying that MR was particularly opportunistic, I must only point your gaze over to the actions of Enweil, Avalon and Bara'Khur, who expended most of their resources trying to attack the newly forged Republic along with the daimons, and frustrate the losing battle that Hetland had against the invaders.

You had a Lefanis. Who was contanstly trying to get Rio to ally the monsters against Enweil.

If that wasn't enough, you also had a bunch of nobles who had refused to ally with Enweil against the monsters, preferring an alliance with the monsters.

To then move your capital to an Enweilian city.

With the plan of expanding your realm, as per the deal with the monsters, into Avalon's lands.

Expanding in the wake of the monsters' army.

That you fed with your own peasants.

In the process, recreating a realm we were all happy to have exterminated.

Now, can you think of one good reason why we wouldn't have declared war on MR?