WAR

[Lorgan]

The gap is not significant, and largely attributable to large unusual hordes keeping Fheuv'n out of the picture since a while.

Hence why you broke Enweil's leg.

"Progress" is measured in solid trends. The successful attack on Enweilieos is important, indeed, but time will tell if the impact will be that great or not.

True, but it sure as hell is not a sign of stagnation.

[vonGenf]

The successful attack on Enweilieos is important, indeed, but time will tell if the impact will be that great or not.

Attack? Not really. I was walking in the countryside (it is very beautiful there) and I encountered a wall. Having siege engines at my disposal,I used them to climb the wall.

It is sheer randomness that this was in Enweilios, really.

[Tan dSerrai]

Ah, Cheniér, once again we see a 'the system is skewed against us' plus 'whatever our enemies achieved is meaningless'...do we? I admit that I am by now a bit tired of reading 'the looting bug prevented us from doing anything worthwhile' for the umpteenth time...(hint: we were hit by that as well....especially considering that no enemy has set foot in our regions for weeks...)

4-5 weeks ago Enweil had an advantage in military strength, both static and mobile, it had IVF at its side - and still potentially does, giving both realms a considerable advantage in mobile strength. In addition Enweil had a massive surplus in food while Riombara had a noticable deficit.

The fact that this enweilian superiority is now gone and Riombara does enjoy a considerable advantage over Enweil in mobile strength and the fact that Enweils food situation is deterioating fast while ours is now mostly secure is /not/ due to a few undead hordes (we have to face them as well, don't forget that) - it is due to very careful planing, to creating an impressively dedicated army - and to use both to claw towards the very hardfought for situation we have now. Out of roughly 10 battles we won all but 2...plus 80-90% of all skirmishes. It is f*** /hard/ to achieve a continous advantage in mobile strength at a comparable economic base....

Cheerfully,
Tan d'Serrai

[Chenier]

Hence why you broke Enweil's leg.

No. These are hordes that would have plagued these regions and required attention, part of Enweil or not. And these regions have a much greater productivity this way, and the realm has much more attractivity than Enweil had.

Losing key cities and a fourth of the nobility is what broke Enweil's leg, not a handful of nobles ruling remote and unimportant lands while remaining an ally.

Ah, Cheniér, once again we see a 'the system is skewed against us' plus 'whatever our enemies achieved is meaningless'...do we? I admit that I am by now a bit tired of reading 'the looting bug prevented us from doing anything worthwhile' for the umpteenth time...(hint: we were hit by that as well....especially considering that no enemy has set foot in our regions for weeks...)

4-5 weeks ago Enweil had an advantage in military strength, both static and mobile, it had IVF at its side - and still potentially does, giving both realms a considerable advantage in mobile strength. In addition Enweil had a massive surplus in food while Riombara had a noticable deficit.

The fact that this enweilian superiority is now gone and Riombara does enjoy a considerable advantage over Enweil in mobile strength and the fact that Enweils food situation is deterioating fast while ours is now mostly secure is /not/ due to a few undead hordes (we have to face them as well, don't forget that) - it is due to very careful planing, to creating an impressively dedicated army - and to use both to claw towards the very hardfought for situation we have now. Out of roughly 10 battles we won all but 2...plus 80-90% of all skirmishes. It is f*** /hard/ to achieve a continous advantage in mobile strength at a comparable economic base....

Cheerfully,
Tan d'Serrai

Tan, your realm doesn't have the refit cycles Fheuv'n has, and you have plenty of potential to do other things like takeovers. The looting bugs is something that annoyed me as a player of Fheuv'n specifically, and not as a member of the alliance. We walked a long way to be able to do nothing at all. It sucks. And it wasn't the first time that happened either, the time before we had waited in Nothoi lands a while before having to pack up and refit. Truly made us completely useless.

Don't compare your ills to Fheuv'n's, claiming that since they are similar they are identical. The situation is not the same at all. Fheuv'n is a small realm, fielding a small army that must travel great distances to go to war and therefore does not share a border with any enemy. Riombara is a large linear realm fighting on her borders and therefore always being close by to react and always having many possibilities. Are you having multiple hordes that are about close to 70% of your total mobile might while you are a week's travel away? Even if you take distance and relative strength aside, how many 4000 CS hordes has Riombara seen lately? How often do the undead spawn? We've had new hordes spawn immediately each time we defeated one, basically, plus these large hordes coming in and out of the blight. The "system" isn't "skewed" against "us". Circumstances will always favor one and disfavor others at different points in time, and sometimes this worked in "our" favour, and I'm not afraid to admit that. However, you must be either blind or arrogant, if not both, to deny that the invasion was skewed strongly in Rio's favor and that the recent circumstances haven't been skewed against Fheuv'n. !@#$ happens. But don't expect us to be enthused about a war that we should have won long ago, were it not for the invasion. And don't forget that Rio is the one that declared that war the last nine thousand times. Maybe Rio enjoys saying how bad mean imperialists peaceful Enweil is, but don't assume that those facing Riombaran aggression again have anything to be exited about. It was kinda lame last time, but at least we figured we could kill you once and for all, and FINALLY move on to other things. Now it's just lame.

The recent Riombaran victories have been significant, I did not deny this. However, only time can tell if they will have meaningful lasting impacts. The progress has been made during a long absence of Fheuv'n in the scene. If the hordes stop spawning now, and Fheuv'n goes back against Rio full force, will Rio be able to maintain her momentum? I'm not saying it won't, but I'm far from convinced that the fate of the war is sealed. Rio has made more significant progress than it has in the last 4 years at least I'd say, but that doesn't mean Enweil is already doomed. Rather, it just means it isn't getting it's ass singlehandedly owned anymore. If Fheuv'n can kill that large horde before it goes back into hiding in the blight, and undead spawns return to normal levels, I rather predict a rather long and drawn-out war, where Riombarans will continue their self-righteous crusade against the peaceful "imperialists" and where Enweili will continue the years-long chore of having to fight the same damn enemy that doesn't seem to care about anything else than pretexting the same ridiculous hypocritical ideological claims again and again.

Don't underestimate the impacts of losing so much of your noble base in such a short lapse of time... It's quite a demotivator. All these characters with established backgrounds, ambitions, achievements, all lost. Those who hated Rio the most died against the monsters, and the others had plenty of other things on their mind than starting a war with Rio again. And there isn't much to be excited about when Rio's reason for war was basically "because we are ready now" and inter-realm interactions are almost nill.

[Psyche]

I'm having fun with the war at least.  Enweil+IFV against Riombara+Order of Alluran.  Two great powers with a small realm somewhat removed from the action or 4 mischievous priests up to no good in Enweil.  It's great seeing Enweil continuously arresting these priests and taking hits to their rural regions' morale week after week- and then the priests use their skills to quickly recover Riombaran lands.

Given that IFV is a bit distracted, and the handful of priests allied with Riombara are very active, I'd say it's pretty evenly matched.  I guess I might be excited about the future rebirth of KoA from this war, though.

[De-Legro]

I rather predict a rather long and drawn-out war, where Riombarans will continue their self-righteous crusade against the peaceful "imperialists" and where Enweili will continue the years-long chore of having to fight the same damn enemy that doesn't seem to care about anything else than pretexting the same ridiculous hypocritical ideological claims again and again.

, and the others had plenty of other things on their mind than starting a war with Rio again. And there isn't much to be excited about when Rio's reason for war was basically "because we are ready now" and inter-realm interactions are almost nill.

Okay comments like this have always annoyed me. In this case Riombara and Enweil have a LONG history of wars and bad blood. In other words a grudge that for many characters border on out right hatred. That is all the damn pretext anyone needs for a war, how many times in History have people waited and waited until their forces or circumstance provide the opportunity to finally get "revenge" against a foe, potentially one that they have had  a ceasefire or even peace with for generations.

It should be clear that even without Delvin the ruling elite of Riombara want to see Enweil either destroyed or humbled. The original reasons for the first wars may even be irrelevant at this point, grudges, anger even the need to prove to themselves and others that they really can "win" against their old foe drive them on. I see nothing wrong with such character driven actions, hell I applaud this kind of almost predictable grudge mongering. It is relationships like this that other realms can play off to their own advantage. Want to grab some regions off Enwiel, well Riombara is always up for a bit of a war, I'm sure we can convince them to restart hostilities if we agree to place pressure on a different border etc.

[Geronus]

Okay comments like this have always annoyed me. In this case Riombara and Enweil have a LONG history of wars and bad blood. In other words a grudge that for many characters border on out right hatred. That is all the damn pretext anyone needs for a war, how many times in History have people waited and waited until their forces or circumstance provide the opportunity to finally get "revenge" against a foe, potentially one that they have had  a ceasefire or even peace with for generations.

It should be clear that even without Delvin the ruling elite of Riombara want to see Enweil either destroyed or humbled. The original reasons for the first wars may even be irrelevant at this point, grudges, anger even the need to prove to themselves and others that they really can "win" against their old foe drive them on. I see nothing wrong with such character driven actions, hell I applaud this kind of almost predictable grudge mongering. It is relationships like this that other realms can play off to their own advantage. Want to grab some regions off Enwiel, well Riombara is always up for a bit of a war, I'm sure we can convince them to restart hostilities if we agree to place pressure on a different border etc.

Funny you say that. Just today I basically told the AC that anyone who thought were in this war because of Fronen was delusional.

[Zakilevo]

Well Enweil is losing that is for sure. Enweil now has what 21 nobles?. And 5 nobles are not active. That leaves the realm with 16 nobles. I don't know why a realm like Enweil never created its own religion.

[Lefanis]

I don't know why a realm like Enweil never created its own religion.

Didn't it? Eretzism used to prop Enweil up for years.

[DoctorHarte]

Didn't it? Eretzism used to prop Enweil up for years.

It's true, there were 2-3 active Priests for a time along with some Estsahsism or something like that.. I'm part of it and I don't even know what it's called. It's absolutely inactive, which is a shame considering it used to have a bunch of big-wigs. Anyways, I do wish IVF had the time to help Enweil but these damn rogues keep popping up...

[Tan dSerrai]

Numbers of nobles:
Well, Enweil had 30 nobles 2 weeks ago. They lost 9 nobles since then. IVF has 19 nobles. That makes near 50 nobles against 28 Riombaran nobles during most of this war (1-3 of ours are inactive or only active every now and then).

So it is clearly not numbers of nobles that is responsible for the current situation. Noble retention - and motivation - is one core requirement for a well working realm.

Refighting old wars:
One, I completely agree with De-Legro. There are abundant grudges around to result in war. Note that in the first 4 ages Enweil always did attack Riombara - or an ally and neighbour they knew had an alliance with us. This time Riombara did attack Enweil.

And, to be honest, what better way to play Battlemaster than to wage war between foes who have a long history of enmity and are of similar size? Note that Riombara did attack an enemy considerable stronger than them...this is certainly not a gangbang.

And also note that Cheniérs accusation of 'we are attacking because we are ready now' is baseless. Riombara had had their regions repaired and RC's constructed roughly 2-3 months before the war began. during these 2-3 months Enweil was far more beset by rogues and still suffering from the invasion than we were. Riombara did /aid/ Enweil during that time - and Enweil did grow considerable in strength. Riombara went to war because of our alliance with Old Grehk, Thalmarkin and Nothoi -  they wanted to prevent Enweil from aiding Fronen and asked us to do that. The old enmity between Riombara and Enweil was simply an additional motivation.

Note that I do not want to paint Riombara in any 'we are the good guys' light...but I'd like to keep a few facts straight.

[De-Legro]

And also note that Cheniérs accusation of 'we are attacking because we are ready now' is baseless. Riombara had had their regions repaired and RC's constructed roughly 2-3 months before the war began. during these 2-3 months Enweil was far more beset by rogues and still suffering from the invasion than we were. Riombara did /aid/ Enweil during that time - and Enweil did grow considerable in strength. Riombara went to war because of our alliance with Old Grehk, Thalmarkin and Nothoi -  they wanted to prevent Enweil from aiding Fronen and asked us to do that. The old enmity between Riombara and Enweil was simply an additional motivation.

How is that even relevant though, it is sound strategy to seek peace when you are unprepared and to fight when you have the advantage. Regardless of if Cheniér is right or wrong in his accusation, I fail to see how the action would be in any way unacceptable or not in the spirit of the game.

[Vellos]

Don't listen to the peacemongering and wimpering weakness of the D'Serrai's.

This war is about eradicating the sub-human Enweilian race, wiping out every last man, woman, and child. It will end when monsters outnumber men on the Beluaterran plains, and the absolute destruction of every last vestige of Enweil is removed.

---End Cyrilos Rant---

The debate about supporting Fronen vs. war for its own right is one that is ongoing IC as well as OOC. Different Riombarans think differently about it.

Notably, Riombara today is not what it was a year ago. The Riombara of a year ago was still Delvin's Riombara; a very non-Medieval republic, operating under a redistributive tax system, with detailed constitutional law regularly practiced, with a sense of high moral ground. The Riombara of today is increasingly Medieval, with rising powers for individual lords, less redistribution, less constitutionalist, and increasingly bloodthirsty. The "younger" generation of Riombarans (though Riombara is quite an old and atrophied realm) are, if anything, mpre anti-Enweil than, say, Delvin or Herkan were and, in combination, more willing to exercise extreme violence to express that sentiment. Note Riombara's newfound acceptance of torture.

[Nosferatus]

Pierre will be in Riombara soon and try to get peace, will be a fun challange.

[D`Este]

Vellos, we are still not allowed to kill peasants.. ;p That hasnt changed yet