The Current War

[Gabanus family]

the South seems to have been all about peace since I sent Ambassador Asleon down. I originally sent him down to figure out if we'd have to go to war soon and which side we should actually support.)

I'm just that good... magic fingers lads. Interesting though that I basically got the power to influence Coria's entire stance of the south, or at least for a large part.

On a more related note, Coria has grown much since it's creation. However as far as I can tell we have always kept our word. Also my char was unaware that we even made plans to attack Tara, believe I just came to Coria around then and lacked any form of influence...?

[Eirikr]

I'm just that good... magic fingers lads. Interesting though that I basically got the power to influence Coria's entire stance of the south, or at least for a large part.

On a more related note, Coria has grown much since it's creation. However as far as I can tell we have always kept our word. Also my char was unaware that we even made plans to attack Tara, believe I just came to Coria around then and lacked any form of influence...?

Yeah, the South has constantly been of disinterest to me. I get little correspondence from down there and when I try to send some out, I get little in return. No biggie, though, we've had more pressing problems. The only reason I got involved in the South at all was to see what I could do about the CE/Tara situation for better or for worse (which is also subjective).

The plans were always at a high level. They never got past the Council, but even the Council doesn't know the full story. As I said, very few people have all the pieces. Most of what I said in my previous post was before only known to the Northern rulers. It's not something Ravendon is proud of at this point, so he rarely speaks of it. (More because he honestly thought it'd be good for Coria and Atamara as a whole down the road, but now he just looks bad without having actually had any effect on the continental situation.)

[Dante Silverfire]

Way to destroy months and months of IC work with one OOC post...lol.

[Eirikr]

Way to destroy months and months of IC work with one OOC post...lol.

Well, first of all, it's OOC... I have some faith that people on the forums respect that. Second of all, that plan is kaput anyway. At this point in time, if the same idea were to be proposed, it'd be Coria, Darka and BoM as the three major powers. Eston would've been the centerpoint, but they're not doing so well. I'd say the plan got destroyed IC in about an eighth of the time we spent working on it.

[Perth]

Man, maybe I'm just sour grapes... but Eston sure got left out to dry in this whole thing... We desperately needed Darka and Coria to be successful, and both just sat by and watched it all happen. Failure on my part, I guess. 

And yes, our General and Most Influential Duke (same player, two characters) up and quit the game... had been playing since '04.

[Dante Silverfire]

Well, first of all, it's OOC... I have some faith that people on the forums respect that. Second of all, that plan is kaput anyway. At this point in time, if the same idea were to be proposed, it'd be Coria, Darka and BoM as the three major powers. Eston would've been the centerpoint, but they're not doing so well. I'd say the plan got destroyed IC in about an eighth of the time we spent working on it.

You've got more faith then me, but perhaps I'm just sour after past experiences.

Some things just shouldn't be said OOC.

What do you mean "we?"

I'm pretty sure you're taking the flak on this one bud.

Man, maybe I'm just sour grapes... but Eston sure got left out to dry in this whole thing... We desperately needed Darka and Coria to be successful, and both just sat by and watched it all happen. Failure on my part, I guess. 

And yes, our General and Most Influential Duke (same player, two characters) up and quit the game... had been playing since '04.

I'm pretty sure that Coria was successful. At least we're larger than Eston now, with a higher population and income. If that's not success, well idk what it is. Not everyone can be as strong as CE.

Also, if you want Darka to be successful it helps if you don't have them attacking the realm which you also want to be successful.

What Eston REALLY needed was Carelia to be successful in their initial strike on CE. or the north staying unified, or your allies following treaties, or the loss of two dukes (one taking his duchy)..etc...

btw, perhaps the Monarchy of Eston is cursed. Things didn't go so well for the last guy either.

[Eirikr]

What do you mean "we?"

I'm pretty sure you're taking the flak on this one bud.

I'll leave the specifics of "we" unsaid, but there are possibilities... We, meaning the rulers of Coria and the North... We, meaning those in Coria who knew about it... You get the idea.

It's cool with me, I'll take all the OOC flak for it and hope I can continue to hold my faith in people keeping OOC and IC separate. Call it an experiment.

[Penchant]

After that, we get to reassess who we want to fight, if anyone. (I kind of fubar'd the only other front we'd have considered fighting on... Even if he isn't responsible, the South seems to have been all about peace since I sent Ambassador Asleon down. I originally sent him down to figure out if we'd have to go to war soon and which side we should actually support.)

If you would have mentioned the possibility of an alliance there would definitely have been war. I can't say that Carelia's Queen is the reason we have peace because its actually not, but she did make the executive decision to go for peace when we could have continued the war even still be the victim, just it would have been the victim that destroyed its attacker. When I did the peace process I tried for peace enough so that Suville could not say we didn't try for peace and that it was all our fault for the war continuing but I hoped for war to continue as it was all in Carelia's favor, plus way more fun. I even advised against choosing peace at the last step where my queen got to choose for peace or war. Lastly, Carelia will be going to war soon, though who with I am not 100% on but we need to go to war and I plan to make it happen especially with it being easy to, we just will not be pursuing the war with Suville sadly.

[Eirikr]

Alliance with who, though? We're already allied with Suville.

[Penchant]

Alliance with who, though? We're already allied with Suville.

Thats right... Well in that case did you really expect Carelia to pursue war with Suville gaining another ally? Then again with Tara helping us I believe  you would be kinda irrelevant as we would just make sure the Tarans disabled you from helping by always having atleast one Taran with us.

[Gabanus family]

Thats right... Well in that case did you really expect Carelia to pursue war with Suville gaining another ally? Then again with Tara helping us I believe  you would be kinda irrelevant as we would just make sure the Tarans disabled you from helping by always having atleast one Taran with us.

Actually that decision would have depended mostly on Asleon's recommendations on who was 'right' in your conflict and who wished to continue war.

I'm curious though you intend to go to war again, but not Suville. There are only 2 options left really:
1] Attack the central alliance (unless you get Tara's help that's gonna be a death sentence)
2] You can join in on the assaults on Eston/Darka, but I'm not sure if that little bit of extra aid at this point will do anything than possibly slightly speed up the process.

Although you could always continue the Redspann way, go and march to BoM! After all, you do occupy some of their former lands.

[Geronus]

Whoa. Sounds like someone has trouble separating IC from OOC.

Not really, it was just an observation, though it's definitely biased. Having dealt with Ottar IC, I've noted that he is very careful to stick to the letter of his agreements. It's his interpretation of exactly what those agreements mean that shifts. So, you might agree to a set of terms, and they will be interpreted a certain way for a while. All of a sudden though, Ottar will say "Now the agreement means this," and you can't do jack about it (which he knows perfectly well) because, well, Tara is Tara and unless you're CE you basically have to take what you're given and try not to choke too much on your indignation.

Laszlo's IC advice to anyone who ever asked would be to be careful about what you agree to with Ottar. Just because you think it means one thing doesn't mean Ottar sees it that way, or that he will see it that way indefinitely. He can and will freely alter his understanding of the deal depending on his own interests. Hence the Darth Vader analogy. Honestly you're better off not making agreements with him in the first place unless you've got the muscle (diplomatic or military) to force him to stick with your interpretation of the agreement. He cannot be relied upon to stick to one interpretation, so if you make a deal what you're really doing is giving him leverage over you since he indisputably does have the muscle to force you to stick to whatever version of your "deal" suits him best.

[Geronus]

Coria never agreed to attack Tara as you've said. You can twist words however you like, but what I have said is true. Coria has always stood by its agreements. The problem is that the North for too long has viewed Coria simply as a minor puppet which either they can manipulate or attack so that in your view CE can't manipulate us. I would think though that after Coria has successfully won two wars now against the north that we'd have earned some respect.

Laszlo actually grew to like Coria once Saeculo was out of the picture. That said, I will tell you that you still won't get respect because the enduring image in most people's minds ought to be that Coria was saved by the Taran army. Incidentally, that also does nothing to disabuse people of the notion that Coria remains a client state of the CE bloc.

I know you like to emphasize Corian independence, but honestly I doubt you will get much respect for that assertion until you do more to separate yourselves from CE and Tara. It's easy to win wars when you've got the island's twin hegemons backing you up, and it's hard to believe anything you have to say about how independent Coria is when everything you do paints a picture of a Coria that is still wedded to that support. You talk a big game about the many ways in which you're prepared not to toe the Cagilan line, but very rarely do those words translate into actions IG. Walk the walk and things might change.

[m2rt]

I'll leave the specifics of "we" unsaid, but there are possibilities... We, meaning the rulers of Coria and the North... We, meaning those in Coria who knew about it... You get the idea.

It's cool with me, I'll take all the OOC flak for it and hope I can continue to hold my faith in people keeping OOC and IC separate. Call it an experiment.

Pfft, its been IC knowledge of my char for weeks already. Though he is a bit doubting if its true. As people have thrown all sort of wild conspiracy theories at him.

[Eirikr]

Laszlo actually grew to like Coria once Saeculo was out of the picture. That said, I will tell you that you still won't get respect because the enduring image in most people's minds ought to be that Coria was saved by the Taran army. Incidentally, that also does nothing to disabuse people of the notion that Coria remains a client state of the CE bloc.

I know you like to emphasize Corian independence, but honestly I doubt you will get much respect for that assertion until you do more to separate yourselves from CE and Tara. It's easy to win wars when you've got the island's twin hegemons backing you up, and it's hard to believe anything you have to say about how independent Coria is when everything you do paints a picture of a Coria that is still wedded to that support. You talk a big game about the many ways in which you're prepared not to toe the Cagilan line, but very rarely do those words translate into actions IG. Walk the walk and things might change.

Actually, worse. It looks like we were saved by the CE. When they came in is when we definitively started to win the war.

I'm not going to lie, it is pretty tough to translate that into the game. That support structure is pretty darn nice. Of course, the other part of this is that we just finally finished recovering. I think Cheltenborne is about to be able to hold court. It'll be interesting to see what we can do at full strength. We'll probably remain looking that way until we actually come to blows with one of the Central Alliance, but I don't know how likely that is anymore. Coria has more strong-voiced nobles than ever before and they seem pretty comfortable with the situation.