Attack on Sasrhas!

[De-Legro]

I wonder how many people ic know what you're talking about. My character is wounded, and wouldn't care anyway. Getting rid of ow is with any price.  But still, i wonder who knows.

All of Zonasa knows.

[Chenier]

Well, I can't imagine that anyone in Coralynth doesn't know at least that they attacked OW with a last-second war declaration.

On the other hand, I'd be quite surprised if Queen Eva passed on the fact that OW saw them coming, called them out on it, and then she said, basically, "We are not currently, at this second, stabbing swords in your faces. I don't know what you're talking about!" And two days later declared war.

Honestly, that's part of why I left, and criticized the queen for.

After gang-banging that tiny one-city realm, the prospect of war seemed bleak. After some pressures for the Queen to man up and get something started, I was told to be patient, that we were making deals with other realms and would get a war "soon". It was always pretty obvious that OW would be the target, for some reason people don't seem to like them much. Looking at the stats, though, we were already a stronger realm, so I criticized them for not wanting an actual war, but just another swift and unfun gangbang. Then I left. Guess they went ahead with their plan. I really have no regrets of leaving Coralynth.

[Indirik]

Well, I can't imagine that anyone in Coralynth doesn't know at least that they attacked OW with a last-second war declaration.

I finally just flat out asked them "Are you gonnna declare war yet?"

On the other hand, I'd be quite surprised if Queen Eva passed on the fact that OW saw them coming, called them out on it, and then she said, basically, "We are not currently, at this second, stabbing swords in your faces. I don't know what you're talking about!" And two days later declared war.

Well, that is kind of a cheap shot. It's not like anyone didn't know what was coming anyway. I guess it would never have occurred to me that Coralynth would try to hide it. If it hadn't been for Velax's last-second announcement that we should all go to neutral before anyone started fighting a war, we would have done this two months ago. In fact, we had just decided to stop waiting for Velax to unlock diplomacy, and just invade anyway, when he made his announcement.

Oh well. We shall see what happens about any of this *after* OW dies.

[Antonine]

Is this really any worse than the many infamous occasions in the game when an army has ended up "holidaying" or "sightseeing" in another realm's region and then suddenly attacked?

Yeah, it's dishonourable - but it's not like anyone here put any effort into the Order of the Hawk when that was set up to try to make war on the continent honourable so it's hardly like Coralynth deserves to die for this. Get their asses whupped by OW, maybe. But with only 8 nobles I wouldn't be surprised if that happened anyway.

[De-Legro]

Is this really any worse than the many infamous occasions in the game when an army has ended up "holidaying" or "sightseeing" in another realm's region and then suddenly attacked?

Yeah, it's dishonourable - but it's not like anyone here put any effort into the Order of the Hawk when that was set up to try to make war on the continent honourable so it's hardly like Coralynth deserves to die for this. Get their asses whupped by OW, maybe. But with only 8 nobles I wouldn't be surprised if that happened anyway.

Is anyone arguing that it isn't? Realms that act dishonourably deserve consequences. And yes, I put in CONSIDERABLE effort with Bedwyr to try and get the Order of the Hawks some real teeth to enforce its ideals.

[Anaris]

Yeah, it's dishonourable - but it's not like anyone here put any effort into the Order of the Hawk when that was set up to try to make war on the continent honourable so it's hardly like Coralynth deserves to die for this. Get their asses whupped by OW, maybe. But with only 8 nobles I wouldn't be surprised if that happened anyway.

I wasn't here when any of that was going on. And if I had been, I wouldn't have been in a position to do much.

If Baranion had had the opportunity, he would have been thrilled to be able to help enforce something like the Order of the Hawk's codes.

...Oh, and he's not going to sit back and let Sartanism take over the world, either, so you'd better watch out ;D

[Indirik]

So, PoZ wants someone to fight, and they're afraid of Cathay. They need a safe war that can't hurt them. So they latch on to Daddy Arcaea and go roflstomp Sorraine and Coralynth. I haven't seen any of the messages ig about this yet, so i really don't have a good feel for it. But even if what happened is what was described, destroying Coralynth over it is a huge overreaction.

More seriously, this is the biggest danger that fei could face in the imperial era: Pax Arcaea. They are to big for anyone to fight. So even more so that AT, there's an elephant in the room, and whatever they say goes. As if fei wasnt already at the top of the Most Boring Island list, this will kill it. "Let's go bash the only people on the island that are willing to do something other than play region maintenance."

[Anaris]

So, PoZ wants someone to fight, and they're afraid of Cathay. They need a safe war that can't hurt them. So they latch on to Daddy Arcaea and go roflstomp Sorraine and Coralynth.

Yeeeaaaah....there isn't a single part of that that's accurate.

I haven't seen any of the messages ig about this yet, so i really don't have a good feel for it. But even if what happened is what was described, destroying Coralynth over it is a huge overreaction.

More seriously, this is the biggest danger that fei could face in the imperial era: Pax Arcaea. They are to big for anyone to fight. So even more so that AT, there's an elephant in the room, and whatever they say goes. As if fei wasnt already at the top of the Most Boring Island list, this will kill it. "Let's go bash the only people on the island that are willing to do something other than play region maintenance."

I've got some ideas about what can be done about big bad Arcaea. They're just not ready to drop yet.

[Antonine]

I have to say that I'm quite pleased that my little nudge in the direction of religious conflict has worked so brilliantly. A little preaching in Ohnar West here, a doomed referendum on adopting a state religion there and suddenly we the first war on FEI since the Empire and Arcaea starting to tear itself apart over religion.

If anyone wanted a prediction I'd say that either Arcaea joins the war and ends up tearing itself apart or it stays out and faces a challenge for the Imperial Crown once the victory of the current war consolidates itself. Personally I think the latter would be better for the game but either works for me - after all, Arcaea's religious politics would make it very, very easy to split in two.

[De-Legro]

So, PoZ wants someone to fight, and they're afraid of Cathay. They need a safe war that can't hurt them. So they latch on to Daddy Arcaea and go roflstomp Sorraine and Coralynth. I haven't seen any of the messages ig about this yet, so i really don't have a good feel for it. But even if what happened is what was described, destroying Coralynth over it is a huge overreaction.

More seriously, this is the biggest danger that fei could face in the imperial era: Pax Arcaea. They are to big for anyone to fight. So even more so that AT, there's an elephant in the room, and whatever they say goes. As if fei wasnt already at the top of the Most Boring Island list, this will kill it. "Let's go bash the only people on the island that are willing to do something other than play region maintenance."

Actually no. PoZ is not really in a state to fight anyone, however the discussion to help OW began in earnest before we knew anything of the position of the other realms. PoZ actually needs its own peace since most the regions we have are underpopulated and have next to no infrastructure.

If Arcaea or others were to step in to the conflict, I would expect that PoZ would be looking at their own position. So far as I know, currently we are the only realm that has committed to doing anything at all.

[Velax]

It's an interesting situation. Switching up the traditional alliances might just be enough to poke me into getting back into BM.

More seriously, this is the biggest danger that fei could face in the imperial era: Pax Arcaea. They are to big for anyone to fight. So even more so that AT, there's an elephant in the room, and whatever they say goes. As if fei wasnt already at the top of the Most Boring Island list, this will kill it. "Let's go bash the only people on the island that are willing to do something other than play region maintenance."

I disgaree. Arcaea has been too big for any other single realm to fight for a while now - for at least for the past five years or so. But has that made the island boring? Was the massive, continent-wide war we just had boring?

The shrinking of the island has made it more difficult to have a private war without involving everyone else, true. The type of smaller wars Kindara had against old Cathay, C'thonia and NeoSartania would be more difficult have in the current environment. But I don't think this translates into "nothing interesting can ever happen, ever".

[Chenier]

It's an interesting situation. Switching up the traditional alliances might just be enough to poke me into getting back into BM.

I disgaree. Arcaea has been too big for any other single realm to fight for a while now - for at least for the past five years or so. But has that made the island boring? Was the massive, continent-wide war we just had boring?

The shrinking of the island has made it more difficult to have a private war without involving everyone else, true. The type of smaller wars Kindara had against old Cathay, C'thonia and NeoSartania would be more difficult have in the current environment. But I don't think this translates into "nothing interesting can ever happen, ever".

I thought it was boring, but maybe I just joined too late.

What I'd fear is that it got gang-bangs into peoples' heads. Coralynth seemed unable to even consider the concept of a 1v1 war, even against a weaker enemy the leaders wanted to bring in others. "Let's gang up on our enemies!" seems their default reflex.

[Anaris]

Baranion dislikes the idea of needing someone's help in a war. If he had his way, he'd pick a nice clean fight against a realm of similar power.

Unfortunately, there isn't one near him just at the moment. With time, though, Zonasa's regions will recover, and I daresay we could at least face Cathay toe to toe with the outcome being a tossup.

[Indirik]

I disgaree. Arcaea has been too big for any other single realm to fight for a while now - for at least for the past five years or so.

That's debatable. But even if we accept it as true, there were coalitions of realms that could stand against Arcaea. Cathay and Kindara together did one hell of a job. If it hadn't been for the glacier, the island would look a hell of a lot different than it does now. It's more than likely that without the glacier, Imperial domination would never have happened.

But has that made the island boring?

Large portions of it, yes. Look at Ohnar West and their 5 nobles for 7 regions. (They picked up a couple after Kindara dissolved.) Look at Coralynth and their... what... 8 nobles for 10 regions? These are realms that have been strangled by a single year of strict imperial control. Ghost towns.


But now things are unlocked, and supposedly wars are allowed. Maybe things can finally start taking a turn for the better. But as soon as we try and resume a war that was forestalled by strict imperially-decreed diplomacy, we hear rumours that Arcaea is planning to step in and stop it. And if that happens, then I have to wonder what's the point of being on the FEI at all?


Now, maybe that won't happen. Maybe Arcaea will let Sorraine wage war on Ohnar West, and they're really just pissed at Coralynth. (And now that I've finally seen some of the messages IG, I can see where Arcaea might be a bit pissed at them.) If that's the case, then we will have to see how Arcaea handles it. (And no, I don't have any ideas there.)

Was the massive, continent-wide war we just had boring?

To be brutally honest, yes. At least the past year, if not more, was excruciatingly boring. All we've been doing for quite a while is going through the motions. We marched where the Emperor told us to march, when he told us to march there. We attacked when we told to attack, and went home for refit when we were told to refit. I finally got into what I *thought* was the top of the command structure where I *thought* decisions were being made, and got a big surprise. Oh look, all the orders and strategies are dictated by the emperor himself, with no discussion or consultation with his allies. All of Arcaea's allies were being handed explicit orders with no opportunity to contribute to the war effort.


As the general of Arcaea's largest and strongest allied realm, I was relegated to the task of shuffling messages back and forth between the Emperor (who whenever possible simply issued orders to everyone in the region anyway) and the marshal of my army. My messages to Arcaea's general were *never* answered. (In fact, I don't think I *ever* saw a message from whoever was keeping that chair warm.) All contact with Arcaea was through the Emperor, personally.


So, yeah. It was mostly boring. I understand that you may not have felt that way. But for Sorraine, and Coralynth, and Ohnar West ... why do you think two of those three realms have practically collapsed from lack of nobles, and the third is on its way there?


I don't know where the island is going from here. Today, it doesn't look good. But the real test is how things develop over the next week or two.

[Velax]

To be brutally honest, yes. At least the past year, if not more, was excruciatingly boring. All we've been doing for quite a while is going through the motions. We marched where the Emperor told us to march, when he told us to march there. We attacked when we told to attack, and went home for refit when we were told to refit. I finally got into what I *thought* was the top of the command structure where I *thought* decisions were being made, and got a big surprise. Oh look, all the orders and strategies are dictated by the emperor himself, with no discussion or consultation with his allies. All of Arcaea's allies were being handed explicit orders with no opportunity to contribute to the war effort.

Did you try to contribute to the war effort? Did you put forth your own ideas about what you thought should be done? Not once, ever, has Velax dictated that everyone will do exactly as he says and will brook no opposition. Yeah, by the time you became General only a crippled Cathay was left and there wasn't much left to do, but for most of the war before that there was plenty of chance for input. Discussions and debates were had. Strategies were changed based on input from the rulers and generals - just ask Baranion. He and Velax had more than one disagreement about the way to proceed, and at least once Baranion's way won out.

If you thought your only option was to do as you were told and never made the effort to do anything different, then that's on you. I can't force people to put forward their opinions; all I can do is give people the opportunity to.