The War of Thalmarkin... Supremacy?

[Zakilevo]

So the war is over?

[trying]

Only Melhed is out.

[Lorgan]

Nothoi! \o/

[Marlboro]

So the war is over?

Not even a little.

[Penchant]

So the war is over?

Silly Lapallanch. The war is still in its infancy.

[Lorgan]

The Battle of Junohep!

24 attackers (994 Inf, 86 MI, 621 Arch, 131 Cav, 219 SF), Thalmarkin and Old Grehk
23 defenders (756 Inf, 990 Arch, 117 Cav, 147 SF), Nothoi and Fronen
Total combat strengths: 22156 vs. 20571

Round 1: Total casualties: 143 attackers, 192 defenders
Round 2: Total casualties: 309 attackers, 391 defenders
Round 3: Total casualties: 178 attackers, 268 defenders
Round 4: Total casualties: 148 attackers, 232 defenders
Round 5: Total casualties: 107 attackers, 102 defenders
Round 6: Total casualties: 33 attackers, 142 defenders
Round 7: Total casualties: 6 attackers, 75 defenders

Attacker Victory!

For those unlucky ones who weren't there.

Overall I expected the battle to be closer but even then, it's been a while since we had battles this big, this close on BT and I am *loving* it.

[Noldorin]

Meh, people keeps on calling Fingolfin a liar! This is getting old... they never learn!

But well, I suppose its easier to do when you are one out of 4 aggressing realms

And yeah, that was an awesome battle! With our poor movements I started to doubt we would even win it.

[Chenier]

Indeed, there was always a grain of truth in what the Cheniers said. They just always chose to go for and stubbornly hold to their own ludicrous interpretations.
Like back when Riombara was having a strong debate between allying with the monsters or not. MR seceded and allied with them, after the invasion they dissolved back into Riombara, which of course made it a plot against Enweil from the get-go since Enweil was allied with the daimons and thus under heavy attack from the monsters. And Riombara was evil for allying with the monsters...

But lying is a strong word anyway, good rulers need to be able to bend the truth to their purpose, which of course Fingolfin has done.
If you go out and blatantly lie to someone however, that's just bad diplomacy...

Haha, Machiavel. He is usually true to his word, at the moment he gives it. But in a way, he's an opposite of Guillaume: whereas Guillaume would have a set agenda and pursue it regardless of everything, Machiavel would be a lot more... flexible. Dedicated to his realm like Guillaume, but not to an ideology. He's befriended people who he could never have put in the same room, made his closest allies people whose downfall he had been working on mere weeks before, and turned on people who trusted him greatly. Whatever circumstances dictated. As soon as an ally became a liability, he was cut. Because, in a way, he always considered "don't be a liability" as a prerequisite for any dealings. The relations with Asylon illustrates this fairly well... D'Hara and Asylon were having a great deal of secret talks and deals together, but as soon as Asylon started becoming unstable... unpredictable... and started unilaterally taking steps Machiavel did not approve of, that was the end of it. Don't try to impose a situation on Machiavel and expect him to stay true to his previous promises to you. If there's one thing he loathes, it's people trying to force his hand. Even (especially) if they do so without realizing it.

He doesn't really do much nowadays. I barely consider myself as a BM player right now anyways. I send out maybe a short message per week, skip over most of the incoming mail.

[Chenier]

Ahem. This is an interesting topic to come about since I remember this quite well, having been brief King of the Dominion of Alluran at the very outbreak of the Invasion and then the person who started negotiating with the monsters.

Enweil sold us out to the monsters. Quite explicitly so. The monsters had a really interesting RP atmosphere going on about trying to stop the daimons destroying everything whilst still being quite savage themselves. When I allied the remnants of the Dominion with them Enweil went all out on calling us out on it, despite having had their own deals from what I could find out. Then they sided with the daimons.

That's an instance of more... blatant lying.

It's not lying.

What was happening was that Mordred of Riombara was having discussions with the monsters, without authorization if I recall (but he was judge), to side with the monsters against Enweil. Guillaume knew this, so he also approached the monsters. Enweil offered them some food as gifts, and when asked for a good place to settle, Guillaume told them about how nice and lush the Eno delta was. After a close call (they almost sided with Mordred), there they went. And there they pursued their agenda. Almost immediately, they attacked Enweil to "test" us. We kicked their asses. They didn't like that too much. Things escalated. The alliance with the daimons only came after a serious beating from the monsters, when it was clear we couldn't keep up.

There was no "deal" with the monsters. We sent them bribes and incited that they attack DoA instead of Enweil, but no "deal". The monsters never offered or promised anything to Enweil. We didn't want any invaders, neither with nor against us. But when things started getting heated, it seemed much more reasonnable to call in the daimons so that inhumans killed inhumans, instead of having the monsters kill a bunch of human realms down South, and the daimons kill a bunch of human realms up North. Pitting them against each other made the daimons less effective in their efforts to kill other human realms, and slowed the monsters in their own efforts to kill human realms. Net result was less destruction on human realms, even if some (KoA, Avalon) died and others (Enweil) were left as good as dead.

[Noldorin]

Things are really spicing up!

Now Riombara are marching up north to join the fight (under the most ludicrous reasons ever, but still).

If OG and Melhed stays on the northern side it can be interesting with Nothoi, Spearhold Fronen and Riombara (3 of the 4 strongest, richest and largest realms on BT ) vs Thalmarkin, Melhed, OG and AA (3 of the 4 weakest, poorest and smallest realms on BT).

[Cren]

I won't be so sure about Melhed! 

[Noldorin]

I won't be so sure about Melhed! 

We are quite aware of both the Melite situation and their internal strife. Anyhow they have already been asked to root out the problem or get the f out of the alliance. If they turn against us it is at least a few less coastal regions to defend

Just too bad all most rulers on BT are extremely preoccupied with ooc stuff. A single conversation with 2-3 letters back and forth takes at least a week. Or well, if not occ busy they are just ignoring letters in ruler channel, which would be much worse.

[Marlboro]

They did away with demon and monster invasions so we effectively engineered a human invasion for ourselves. Eff yeah, war to the knife.

[Lorgan]

Good week for the North, even if Riombara joined against us. Which is what I always wanted anyway, not that that opinion is shared by everyone...

The sides have been formed, the stakes have been set, now to battle it out!

Also looks like we've finally reached a point where the war can have a name, I've heard "The War of Thalmarkin Supremacy" so far, and maybe a few others... But suggestions are welcome, I'll get to changing the thread name when I'm back from holiday.

[Solari]

I'd just like to point out that the General of Thalmarkin is the only one that's preparing to lose this war. Damned hubris.

EDIT: That said, the campaign did go much better than my pessimistic ass anticipated. Nothoi does a hell of a job recruiting. Not looking forward to seeing what's awaiting us in Reeds.