BattleMaster Community
BattleMaster => Locals => Far East Island => Topic started by: Heq on July 31, 2011, 11:50:09 PM
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Okay, this may be overambitious as a project but one of the main things in making sure any player is happy in their new realm is making sure that they fit. Battlemaster in the Far East is a collaborative story so I'd like to start up a topic which is not a recruitment drive but instead tells players what sort of realm each realm is, who would fit and who would not.
There have been a lot of changes as the rulers have turned over and not every new player is going to ask "Why X and not Y?" or get unbiased advice. Theme and "what can be expected," strike me as things that often get ignored.
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Here goes,
Arcachon:
General Role In The Story: Most of the time Arcachon sees itself as the victim, but at it's core Arcachon is the villian in a lot of other stories. As villians it is important to remember that villians tend to lose out in the end, so winning is less important then making sure that theme is fulfilled. It's not Lord of the Ring Orc villians but more like groups such as the Taliban in the real world or Stannis's forces in Game of Thrones. It is a very black and white worldview.
Stories That Tend to Be Told: Almost any of the warrior or celtic archetypes can fit but personal power is fleeting and even the grandest Duke is expected to be driven by faith and war. There is a lot of leeway given to players but in the end it is more of a Dark Ages kingdom then a Middle Ages one. Politics tend to be personal and family based rather then state-level, in TV shows, Borgias more then Tudors.
Characters Who Might Have Difficulty: Noble knights who ride chargers and crush their enemies will be very out of place, especially given that Arcachon doesn't always fight wars to win them. Bookish intellectuals who are not theologians will probably be outsiders. Infiltrators, given the harsh laws of Arcachon, will find very little leeway for their actions. It is also a poor realm, so things that require large sums of money will be hard to pull off (like Tourneys or impressive units).
Historical Proxy: Ireland, pre-Elizibeth or pre-Christian Goths.
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Note: This overview may sound a bit harsh, but you really have to be in Ohnar West to understand it.
Ohnar West
General Role in the Story: Bumbling sidekick. They like to think themselves important and powerful, but really they aren't. They could be if they could ever get their act together. The perennial shortage of nobles, however, tends to ensure that this never happens. The main problem is no one in the realm can ever agree on anything. Many of the characters are prone to getting snippy, and are quite easily offended at the drop of a hat. The two dominant religions, Adagharhinism and Sartan, are mortal enemies.
Stories that tend to be told: Not much. It's usually pretty quiet when there are no political arguments going on.
Characters who might have difficulty: Anyone who likes organization or cooperation. People who like to focus on the military/strategy side, more than the political infighting.
Historical proxy: The Keystone Kops
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Hah, as soon as I saw Indirik has posted in this thread, I knew we'd get a scathing review of Ohnar West. :P
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But am I wrong? I really tried to be honest... :-\
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From what I can tell, you're not wrong, but I can only see from the outside.
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The Duke of Ozrat tangent has been split off.
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C'thonia
General Role in the Story: Under dog. C'thonia started out with some promise, but with poor fortunes in wars, some poor political alliances, and the decline of an active player base, it has begun to slow down from the initially RP heavy realm it was. Most of the characters are almost blindly loyal to the throne, but there is a lot of behind the scenes attempts to sway the King to gather power on lower levels of the government. Its pretty quiet right now, but can be prone to bursting into activity with prompting. Most of the talk doesn't happen realm wide. But the Senate and other groups of more private nobles who compete for positions and power are much more active. Currently C'thonia is caught between two alliances to opposing factions, and recovering from a one sided war brought on by a former ally.
Stories that tend to be told: Not much. It's usually pretty quiet but what does get told is stories involving the Order of the Elders, or battles. The warrior caste is rather important, but again, so is the priestly caste.
Characters who might have difficulty: Anyone impatient and quiet, who expects things to just happen.
Historical proxy: The reign of Henry VIII, minus the juggling of wives.
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The Principality of Zonasa:
General Role In The Story: Zonasa is (was) the peaceful realm of the continent for most of it's history. Admittedly this is a hard position to play when the game is titled "battlemaster". Zonasa has historically intervened for peace, but that's been changing a bit lately. As the realm has grown (as the result of the demise of her allies in Svunnetland and Soliferum, unfortunately), the Principality is growing to accept her new role on the continent (and in the game in general) as a protagonist. When you're a one duchy realm, it's easy to be an afterthought. When you're a 4.5 (does Haul really count?) duchy realm, you've got to take some initiative. Zonasa hasn't bucked her peaceful ways entirely and as she's pretty much grown to the fullest extent possible (and all lands that could be sustainably annexed are controlled by allies), there's not an active push for aggressive expansion. Presently, Zonasa relies on sticking up for her allies in conflicts to bring action to the realm (although, again, trying to change that).
Stories That Tend to Be Told: There are remnants of many realms in Zonasa. The Grand Lodge of Lunaria, Svunnetland, and Soliferum are all represented. Many stories and experiences, therefore, are quite old as far as gameplay goes. As a result, new players/characters might find themselves not understanding the full content of an RP. Of course, most nobles are happy to recount history if asked, but it can be overwhelming I think. The Order of the Elders is the dominant faith, led principally by priest Phellan. Noteworthy: there are more followers of the Order of the Elders in Zonasa - a realm that is pretty much tolerant of all religions - than there are in C'thonia - a realm dedicated to the religion. Anyway, the Order is very prominent in Zonasa, although there are at least three other religions present in the realm (Trinity, Aenilia and Echad). Regent Erandi is obsessed with honor and hates infiltrators, which sets up a bit of tension with some realm leaders (Batesaor is RPed to be a Pirate City, the Duchess of Alanurs is/was a fairly skilled infiltrator, The General's brother is a prominent infil, etc...). Erandi is also very much influenced by his council, which has led to some rather embarassing reversals of policy (see his "solely committed to the defense of Aenilia" statements... and then marching into Arcaean territory not two days later).
Characters Who Might Have Difficulty: Ones that stir up trouble of course! :P No, really. Characters who want constant conflict will find themselves frustrated in the Principality (trust me, I know!). Anxious players as well. Sometimes I think Zonasa would be more suited for the colonies... Zonasa's core players are a relaxed bunch. There are times where we go a few days without logging in (typically we provide a heads up, but still...) Most of the conversation is limited to upper circles and private messages, but realm-wide RPs always seem to come in waves. Some weeks everyone is really active. Other times, we're really flat. If your character needs to be constantly stimulated, Zonasa will not be a great place for him.
Historical Proxy: I failed history. repeatedly.
Final notes: Zonasa is a growing and developing realm. Slowly the tired 'peaceful' realm is coming around to be more assertive.
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As marshal of Arcaea's largest army, Velax found Zonasa to be quite a decent opponent, at least when compared to how you were before. But many, in game and on these forums, believe Zonasa's army was badly led and disorganised. What's your opinion on this?
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As marshal of Arcaea's largest army, Velax found Zonasa to be quite a decent opponent, at least when compared to how you were before. But many, in game and on these forums, believe Zonasa's army's were badly led and disorganised. What's your opinion on this?
Their army could have been a much more deadly and decisive force. There was a lot of mistakes being made somehow.
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As marshal of Arcaea's largest army, Velax found Zonasa to be quite a decent opponent, at least when compared to how you were before. But many, in game and on these forums, believe Zonasa's army was badly led and disorganised. What's your opinion on this?
Our general is not brillent and sometimes overcautious, but certainly provides decent leadership. It could be better organized, and there have been increasing coordination problems. It comes and goes, though, and is not quite as bad as some make out -- but for no reason I can point to, we are less organized than we were two months ago. Probably in another two months we'll be doing great.
To expand on the stories to be told in Zonasa:
Batesoar is 'sort of' a pirate city (I'm speaking as the duke of the city here). This has not been a major RP in Zonasa, but there was something related to pirates with it before, so I've kept it in the back of my mind. However, anyone using 1600s/1700s pirates as a guide for this will be mercilessly mocked by me. The way I imagine it tends towards seafaring merchants who are, shall we say, not always honest . . . and if they see another ship all alone when they're out trading, and think they can overpower it, well . . . so not out and out pirates per say, but certainly not so ethical opportunists.
There's a least one other religion in Zonasa, and the new church of Echad is growing reasonably fast . . . so religious conflict could certainly be coming. Zonasa has avoided it thus far by officially tolerating all religions that aren't trying to kill people, but . . . given that a lot of people support the Order, and the attitude of some of the Echad people, things might happen soon.
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The war from the beginning should have been close to a stalemate, maybe favoring Arcaea a little, but not much. Zonasa's long refit times really hurt Aenilia as well as Kindara's relative inaction. Although combined Aenilia and Zonasa may have been stronger than Arcaea, Arcaea benefited from her position close to the front. When Zonasa was on her long refit, the Aenilians didn't stand a chance. I think they could have done a bit better in defending themselves and I really expected them to put up at least 10k CS in defense of their regions, but alas, 5k CS was all the Aenilians could really muster. A real pittance compared to the days of Orphen and Tharion when just the regions of Nahad, Idapur, Ornaz and Erahol fielded 15k CS. Ah... those were good days. Anyway....
On to the point. It's true, there were a lot of mistakes made in the last conflict, on both sides really. I wouldn't claim Arcaea's tactics to be great by any stretch. They were simply more effective than Zonasa/Aenilia's. They could have sacked Idapur long before but stuck to attempting TOs of Nahad and destroying production in Ornaz. With Ipsosez producing food (well, until a replacement Duke couldn't be named anyway) Aenilia was always going to be able to feed herself. Plus, at least early on, Arcaea stretched a bit and left herself exposed to counter attacks. Some of the early victories Zonasa scored could have been a bit more level I think.
But as far as Zonasa's errors, I wouldn't pin any of them on anyone or anything in particular. Just with every trip north it seemed something would go wrong. On the early trips, Zonasa did not have a very defined goal. It was unclear what the war was really about (as Jenred was quick to point out, the premise for the war was dubious at best). So Zonasa marched north for the sake of marching to aid her allies in Aenilian (who kinda had grounds about defending Arcachon, although Zonasa really didn't care about Arcachon. Pretty weak stuff, but meh)... which doesn't provide much direction at all. Erandi wanted the conflict to go in one direction (Zonasa staying in Aenilian territory and simply defending against Arcaean onslaughts), but of course that would be a foolish tactic for the Arcaeans and it was quickly apparent that Zonasa would have to go on the offensive, even if she didn't have much of a reason to. Conveniently, Jenred and Arcaea gave Zonasa a reason when they assaulted Nahad. Throughout all the campaigns it was nearly impossible to get the Aenilians on the same page. Xarnelf was suceptible to overly-ambitious marches and doomed assaults (marching 4k CS of Aenilian troops against 8k CS of Arcaeans a day before Zonasa's armies arrived being one example). Just a simple mismanagement of resources...
So Kindara never really did anything. I mean, they 'marched to the defense of Aenilia'. Which is what Zonasa always wanted to do, but given that Arcaea used those stalemates to shuffle nobles from the front into refitting... it really hurt Aenilia/Zonasa more than helped. Erandi tried to explain this to Tissaphernes, but to no avail. Unfortunate.
On a later campaign, Xarnelf went with a small cadre of nobles and assaulted Talex, which effectively left Zonasa doing the babysitting of Aenilian territories instead of sacking the city, wasting an entire campaign. The next time around, Zonasa was poorly organized due to an apparently popular weekend to be OOC away from the game. It seemed everyone missed a turn or two or four and the last assault on Talex just ended up being incredibly rushed and disorganized. Pretty bad luck and a little communication would have gone a long way. Oh yea, and the Aenilians failed to show up for that one too. Oh well.
Lessons learned: When moving in large groups, always take things slow. Also, when evenly matched, attack as far away from the enemy's capital as you can. Make the enemy stretch to defend herself. Marching on Larmebsi did wonders to destabilize Arcaea's Southern regions (Talex, Hupar, etc...), but given Arcaea's quick refit times due to the proximity of their capital, it was clear Arcaea would always come back to defend her regions before any lasting gains could be made. And finally, this is probably the most important lesson learned: Have an endgame in mind before marching to war. You can't plan a course of action if you don't know where you're trying to get to.
Your thoughts?
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Lessons learned: When moving in large groups, always take things slow. Also, when evenly matched, attack as far away from the enemy's capital as you can. Make the enemy stretch to defend herself. Marching on Larmebsi did wonders to destabilize Arcaea's Southern regions (Talex, Hupar, etc...), but given Arcaea's quick refit times due to the proximity of their capital, it was clear Arcaea would always come back to defend her regions before any lasting gains could be made. And finally, this is probably the most important lesson learned: Have an endgame in mind before marching to war. You can't plan a course of action if you don't know where you're trying to get to.
Your thoughts?
All good lessons.
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The war from the beginning should have been close to a stalemate, maybe favoring Arcaea a little, but not much.
I'd say favouring the southerners, myself, given that Ohnar West was steadily losing. They shouldn't have been, of course, and that was a surprise to Jenred, but it became evident pretty quickly.
Zonasa's long refit times really hurt Aenilia as well as Kindara's relative inaction. Although combined Aenilia and Zonasa may have been stronger than Arcaea, Arcaea benefited from her position close to the front. When Zonasa was on her long refit, the Aenilians didn't stand a chance. I think they could have done a bit better in defending themselves and I really expected them to put up at least 10k CS in defense of their regions, but alas, 5k CS was all the Aenilians could really muster. A real pittance compared to the days of Orphen and Tharion when just the regions of Nahad, Idapur, Ornaz and Erahol fielded 15k CS. Ah... those were good days. Anyway....
They had to dump a lot of gold into rebuilding the walls and militia in Nahad, especially given that Arcaea frequently took all the gold in Nahad and Ornaz.
On to the point. It's true, there were a lot of mistakes made in the last conflict, on both sides really. I wouldn't claim Arcaea's tactics to be great by any stretch. They were simply more effective than Zonasa/Aenilia's. They could have sacked Idapur long before but stuck to attempting TOs of Nahad and destroying production in Ornaz. With Ipsosez producing food (well, until a replacement Duke couldn't be named anyway) Aenilia was always going to be able to feed herself. Plus, at least early on, Arcaea stretched a bit and left herself exposed to counter attacks. Some of the early victories Zonasa scored could have been a bit more level I think.
We were anticipating having better luck with the TO's. Especially the first one, when we had good sympathy, our whole army ready, and Aenilia out of position. They had some good luck on a couple of suicide attacks that broke the TO's, and then we couldn't quite manage to take the region before Zonasa showed up. I still think if we'd had one more day it would have been different, but that's the way it was. A gamble, and it didn't work. We'd have been much better off ravaging Aenilia rather than trying to TO Nahad, but there was no way to know that. The absolute most painful thing Aenilia did for the entire war was steal all the food in Hupar. Arcaea's food system is fragile because most of the production is in the north-east and most of the consumption is in the south-west, and that starved 30K out of Topenah.
But as far as Zonasa's errors, I wouldn't pin any of them on anyone or anything in particular. Just with every trip north it seemed something would go wrong. On the early trips, Zonasa did not have a very defined goal. It was unclear what the war was really about (as Jenred was quick to point out, the premise for the war was dubious at best). So Zonasa marched north for the sake of marching to aid her allies in Aenilian (who kinda had grounds about defending Arcachon, although Zonasa really didn't care about Arcachon. Pretty weak stuff, but meh)...
They didn't have justification by defending Arcachon, actually. Xarnelf had already signed away that right after the Talex incident, which is why he based the whole thing on being attacked by the infiltrator, which was on very shaky, as he was violating his own sworn word (for the third time) and violating Cathay's territory after being refused passage put the whole thing on even worse footing.
So Kindara never really did anything. I mean, they 'marched to the defense of Aenilia'. Which is what Zonasa always wanted to do, but given that Arcaea used those stalemates to shuffle nobles from the front into refitting... it really hurt Aenilia/Zonasa more than helped. Erandi tried to explain this to Tissaphernes, but to no avail. Unfortunate.
Kindara had a few high-level nobles strongly objecting to the war (I know at least two Dukes did), and Tissaphernes thought Xarnelf was an idiot. She felt obliged by Ziode's actions, but didn't like it, from everything I saw.
Lessons learned: When moving in large groups, always take things slow. Also, when evenly matched, attack as far away from the enemy's capital as you can. Make the enemy stretch to defend herself. Marching on Larmebsi did wonders to destabilize Arcaea's Southern regions (Talex, Hupar, etc...), but given Arcaea's quick refit times due to the proximity of their capital, it was clear Arcaea would always come back to defend her regions before any lasting gains could be made. And finally, this is probably the most important lesson learned: Have an endgame in mind before marching to war. You can't plan a course of action if you don't know where you're trying to get to.
Southern alliance did have predictable tactics, which made Arcaea's response a lot easier. And most of the time, we got information on Zonasa's movements as soon as they happened one way or another.
Good war, though. Had me biting my nails more than once.
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Southern alliance did have predictable tactics, which made Arcaea's response a lot easier. And most of the time, we got information on Zonasa's movements as soon as they happened one way or another.
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This. After the first few battles it was trival to equip our armies to have an advantage against the Zonasians. I also note that while your realm noticed that Arcaea tend to opt for a more even troop distribution rather then having a few rich nobles with large units and everyone else with very modest units, it never seemed like you were able to replicate it :) Arcaea SHOULD be an easy realm to counter, as we rely so heavily on infantry, I worry about the day someone on FEI puts together a force tailored to take us on.
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We'll have to change as soon as the new archer code goes live on stable. I'm hoping that will coincide with the conquest of Arcachon and the breakup of Arcaea, which will split the great infantry RC's and encourage more balanced armies.
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We'll have to change as soon as the new archer code goes live on stable. I'm hoping that will coincide with the conquest of Arcachon and the breakup of Arcaea, which will split the great infantry RC's and encourage more balanced armies.
Our archers aren't bad, just not quite enough RC's for them.
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Working on it, slowly. I think a lot of people forget (or never knew) but given how continuously Arcaea's been at war and how all the conquests have worked, we have several regions with no RC"s whatsoever, and haven't had the leisure to make a real concerted RC push since before the Ethialan war.
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On to the point. It's true, there were a lot of mistakes made in the last conflict, on both sides really. I wouldn't claim Arcaea's tactics to be great by any stretch. They were simply more effective than Zonasa/Aenilia's.
I thought Arcaea's tactics were quite good, personally, although I am biased. We had one go at Idapur and fluffed it, and Kindara prevented us from easily attacking it for much of the war. So we devastated Aenilia's regions instead. Ahael was taken, Ornaz was destroyed, Erahol was damaged and Zolon and Nahad had both been raided. As for Aenilia always being able to feed itself, Idapur and Nahad were both starving before Ipsosez went rogue. It was only investments in the cities that kept their production going.
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I'd say favouring the southerners, myself, given that Ohnar West was steadily losing. They shouldn't have been, of course, and that was a surprise to Jenred, but it became evident pretty quickly.
I knew we'd get our butts kicked, but I didn't anticipate that it would happen so badly, or so quickly.
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This. After the first few battles it was trival to equip our armies to have an advantage against the Zonasians. I also note that while your realm noticed that Arcaea tend to opt for a more even troop distribution rather then having a few rich nobles with large units and everyone else with very modest units, it never seemed like you were able to replicate it :) Arcaea SHOULD be an easy realm to counter, as we rely so heavily on infantry, I worry about the day someone on FEI puts together a force tailored to take us on.
This is very true. We tried, but many nobles simply weren't active or didn't want to. We had gold we were willing to throw around to any noble who wanted to march north... Anyway, Zonasa is working on expelling the idle players from the realm (as some are probably spies and others are just jerks who want to be difficult, i.e. sit in the capital and send the money to their families to be used elsewhere). Erandi is cracking down on region lords to get their knights into shape. They've got an oath of service, after all, and if they're not providing the service that the lord demands, well, they're in breach of oath and can go find somewhere else to sit around all day.
Also, I think a 'catch infils' option might be good for police work. As now we simply patrol the streets, that's dependent on nobles actually doing some infil work. Whereas the forward scouts Arcaea had in Zonasa almost effectively couldn't be caught (scouting regions to see when Zonasa was leaving, once the armies left they were pretty much free to cause problems). This is probably where Erandi's hatred of infiltrators hurts Zonasa, as the Principality really doesn't have an elite infil who would counter the other. Maybe this problem will be somewhat handled by the new diplomacy when it goes live...
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Anyway, Zonasa is working on expelling the idle players from the realm (as some are probably spies and others are just jerks who want to be difficult, i.e. sit in the capital and send the money to their families to be used elsewhere).
You've got two legitimate IC reasons right there... why would you need to call the players jerks?
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You've got two legitimate IC reasons right there... why would you need to call the players jerks?
I don't know about the players, but some of the characters are jerks. We've just been too busy up til now to take care of them.
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You've got two legitimate IC reasons right there... why would you need to call the players jerks?
Sorry, should have perhaps been a bit more p.c. Characters are jerks, not players. Perhaps better said, characters who sit around idle and don't really do much, but do just enough to keep their place in the ranks of things, are incredibly frustrating. Of course, I'm sure some people say that about the way I play Erandi, Diana, and especially Carlos, so maybe a case of the pot calling the kettle black...
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Nobody reviewed Cathay:
Cathay's role in the story: circling the drain
Similar to: Ohnar West, but without elections on who has to clean the drain every week
Still beats the heck out of: Antoza
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Nobody reviewed Cathay:
Cathay's role in the story: circling the drain
Similar to: Ohnar West, but without elections on who has to clean the drain every week
Still beats the heck out of: Antoza
Addition: 2 regions left, approximately 7 nobles. Maybe consumed by Zonasa in the future, or Toupellon for that matter.
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Cathay is actually slowly growing in nobles. They have 11 now from 8 a couple of days ago - likely those who didn't want to be abruptly dragged into Toupellon. Given they're showing their loyalty to Cathay, I wonder if they know their king is in the process of selling them out to Zonasa.
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Cathay is actually slowly growing in nobles. They have 11 now from 8 a couple of days ago - likely those who didn't want to be abruptly dragged into Toupellon. Given they're showing their loyalty to Cathay, I wonder if they know their king is in the process of selling them out to Zonasa.
If it gets Kalyans ban removed, she's all for it.
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If it gets Kalyans ban removed, she's all for it.
That depends how nicely she asks, and if she asks the right people.
'The Right People' may perhaps have multiple answers, though probably different long term results.
Though this is complicated by my difficulty in remembering the exact events that transpired. I remember then in general terms, though, and I know that Morgan feels somewhat betrayed. . . .
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Cathay is actually slowly growing in nobles. They have 11 now from 8 a couple of days ago - likely those who didn't want to be abruptly dragged into Toupellon. Given they're showing their loyalty to Cathay, I wonder if they know their king is in the process of selling them out to Zonasa.
Same with Ohnar West, but things are still going slowly. Good thing I've learned a lot about 1-duchy realms. Aurvandil and IVF are great teachers. We should settle out around at least 15 nobles I'm hoping - which allows us at least Larodias and Nbasah. It's not much, but it's something
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Same with Ohnar West, but things are still going slowly. Good thing I've learned a lot about 1-duchy realms. Aurvandil and IVF are great teachers. We should settle out around at least 15 nobles I'm hoping - which allows us at least Larodias and Nbasah. It's not much, but it's something
Damn, and I thought Fheuv'n was tiny with its 18 nobles.
Did things ever change over the years...!
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Damn, and I thought Fheuv'n was tiny with its 18 nobles.
Did things ever change over the years...!
I think about Avamar with it's 40+ nobles and only 1 region (a medium sized city). Now that is more nobles than any realm on Beluaterra or Dwilight has (except for Astrum in the latter case).
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I think about Avamar with it's 40+ nobles and only 1 region (a medium sized city). Now that is more nobles than any realm on Beluaterra or Dwilight has (except for Astrum in the latter case).
40 nobles!? You can rule half a continent with that nowadays, and dominate the other half!
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Cathay is actually slowly growing in nobles. They have 11 now from 8 a couple of days ago - likely those who didn't want to be abruptly dragged into Toupellon. Given they're showing their loyalty to Cathay, I wonder if they know their king is in the process of selling them out to Zonasa.
Oh the cruel irony. But who knows? Toupellon may invade before its to late. :P
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Oh the cruel irony. But who knows? Toupellon may invade before its to late. :P
What ever did happen to Cathay?
Last I was on FEI, I was an advy of the Antoza Commonwealth, then Cathay was formed and they were total dicks to my advy (arresting him, keeping him for a whole 7 days, then arresting him again within less than an hour of him being released, keeping him for another 7 days...), and the Commonwealth died, so I flied to Arcaea where I used my recommendations to get ennobled, and then I got myself captured by the enemy and deported to BT, and that was the end of that. Cathay feels too old to have so few nobles!
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Cathay feels too old to have so few nobles!
Cathay lost 3 out of 4 duchies when Toupellon was formed, and the nobles that went with them.
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Cathay lost 3 out of 4 duchies when Toupellon was formed, and the nobles that went with them.
Ohnar West id glad there is another realm with fewer nobles then them ;D
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Damn, and I thought Fheuv'n was tiny with its 18 nobles.
Did things ever change over the years...!
Oh for those phenomenal days when the top five/six realms in Atamara all had well in excess of 100 nobles each!
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Oh for those phenomenal days when the top five/six realms in Atamara all had well in excess of 100 nobles each!
I'm disappointed I missed those days. It would be great to see that happen again :D
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Oh for those phenomenal days when the top five/six realms in Atamara all had well in excess of 100 nobles each!
These were quite different days.
I can't really imagine/remember what that was like, but even on BT, despite half the lands being blighted, we don't have anywhere near as many people as before per realm...
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Weren't you on AT for the Epic Tournament of Epicness, Chenier?
645 participants in the 11th Nov 2006 tournament in the Cagilan Empire, Atamara, called by Vengence Darkwaggler
That was insane. The sheer number of messages that were sent that week was incomprehensible. I don't think I read more than one or two out of a hundred. I think it was mostly about badgers. And impromptu rock concerts. And badgers.
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Oh, and did I mention that there were badgers there, too?
Lots of badgers.
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Weren't you on AT for the Epic Tournament of Epicness, Chenier?
645 participants in the 11th Nov 2006 tournament in the Cagilan Empire, Atamara, called by Vengence Darkwaggler
That was insane. The sheer number of messages that were sent that week was incomprehensible. I don't think I read more than one or two out of a hundred. I think it was mostly about badgers. And impromptu rock concerts. And badgers.
Badgers? I might have been there indeed.
However. Not certain, though, but it rings a bell. I started in September 2006, though, so that's quite a while behind in my memory.
Badgers are one thing I won't miss...
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Boo, why do people only remember the badgers -.- There was something like four tortured love stories, at least two promised duels to the death, a bunch of hilarious fights between the EAers/CAers (really miss that rivalry...), a drinking/betting game run with offline dice, and I'm pretty sure the Makarians (Norlanders?) feasted upon our horses.
There are times when I really wish that I'd started FoxTalks earlier and recorded that beast of a tournament for posterity...So many great RPs that the youngin's are never going to know about. Tournaments are BM history, I tell you, we must remember them properly for the next generation!
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Boo, why do people only remember the badgers -.- There was something like four tortured love stories, at least two promised duels to the death, a bunch of hilarious fights between the EAers/CAers (really miss that rivalry...), a drinking/betting game run with offline dice, and I'm pretty sure the Makarians (Norlanders?) feasted upon our horses.
There are times when I really wish that I'd started FoxTalks earlier and recorded that beast of a tournament for posterity...So many great RPs that the youngin's are never going to know about. Tournaments are BM history, I tell you, we must remember them properly for the next generation!
never forget
those friggen badgers LOL
but i think xanio was involved in up to half of those fights... and i think he got really, really high? makarians and norlanders indeed ate all the horses, and we were forced to horseless joust. good times. i miss it.
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Boo, why do people only remember the badgers -.- There was something like four tortured love stories, at least two promised duels to the death, a bunch of hilarious fights between the EAers/CAers (really miss that rivalry...), a drinking/betting game run with offline dice, and I'm pretty sure the Makarians (Norlanders?) feasted upon our horses.
There are times when I really wish that I'd started FoxTalks earlier and recorded that beast of a tournament for posterity...So many great RPs that the youngin's are never going to know about. Tournaments are BM history, I tell you, we must remember them properly for the next generation!
Because badgers and vikings in tutus were pretty damn stupid. I tend to remember stupid more than I remember drama.
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All we heard was that the Vikings were prone to mental disorders. And squirrels. Or am I mixing up Ikalak?
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All we heard was that the Vikings were prone to mental disorders. And squirrels. Or am I mixing up Ikalak?
Squirrels. Right. Had forgotten about that. Thank you. >:(
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I'm disappointed I missed those days. It would be great to see that happen again :D
The big OOC discussions we were having then were about whether you could really foster a good community in realms of 100+ players. How anything beyond 100 was just going to break or what have you. I don't care whether there was anything in it or not, I'd happily have the problem again ;-)
645 participants in the 11th Nov 2006 tournament in the Cagilan Empire, Atamara, called by Vengence Darkwaggler
Most depressing thing about that figure? There aren't even 500 nobles in the entirety of Atamara now :'-(
Boo, why do people only remember the badgers -.- There was something like four tortured love stories, at least two promised duels to the death, a bunch of hilarious fights between the EAers/CAers (really miss that rivalry...), a drinking/betting game run with offline dice, and I'm pretty sure the Makarians (Norlanders?) feasted upon our horses.
There are times when I really wish that I'd started FoxTalks earlier and recorded that beast of a tournament for posterity...So many great RPs that the youngin's are never going to know about. Tournaments are BM history, I tell you, we must remember them properly for the next generation!
This is why being a monarch can suck. I missed this one. But I do remember being taught to horseless joust by some Makarians/Norlanders at one tournament or other! Atamara deffo has the best tournaments, hehe.
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Boo, why do people only remember the badgers -.- There was something like four tortured love stories, at least two promised duels to the death, a bunch of hilarious fights between the EAers/CAers (really miss that rivalry...), a drinking/betting game run with offline dice, and I'm pretty sure the Makarians (Norlanders?) feasted upon our horses.
There was way too much going on. Literally hundreds of messages for that character every time I logged on. I for one didn't even attempt to read much of any of it. About all I did for that week was get some free training.
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What ever did happen to Cathay?
Several successive generations of nobles went by and only a handful of the original group from Lasanar + allies remained (of whom James was one of the youngest). I left, came back, then left for good, as most of the people that founded Cathay along with me (and upon whom I depended quite a lot at the time) left BM in 2007 or 2008 for various reasons, mostly due to disagreements over the higher-level part of the game requiring a huge amount of time managing peasants rather than the intrigue and RP that made the 'almost but not quite there yet' portion of the game so much fun.
There were some pretty capable second-generation Cathayans holding down the fort for a long time, but when I was last there a year ago, it was already in a slow death spiral, but had good enough diplomatic relations that the actual death part didn't occur for a while.
Sorry about your adventurer. I don't remember throwing anybody in the dungeon when we first took Anacan but it's certainly quite possible that somebody did. A lot of the founding characters were pretty stark royalists who felt like adventurers were meant to be seen delivering the furniture and not heard.
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wouldn't bother with Arcachon if i were you.
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wouldn't bother with Arcachon if i were you.
Huh?
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Everyone has been writing off Arcachon as dead forever and a day. It wasn't three months ago people were talking about Arcachon being a Colony of Ohnar West and look how that worked out.
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Having three realms rush to your aid might have had something to do with that.
I've never written them off though. I still think that Arcachon will eventually lose, but it's going to be a nasty fight. I have no frickin' idea how Arcachon is maintaining that many troops, though.
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Having three realms rush to your aid might have had something to do with that.
I've never written them off though. I still think that Arcachon will eventually lose, but it's going to be a nasty fight. I have no frickin' idea how Arcachon is maintaining that many troops, though.
I would suspect that those from their religion whom live outside of Arcachon may be giving some assistance :) And now that they have peace with at least one southern neighbour food sales could be bringing in a pretty penny.
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Having three realms rush to your aid might have had something to do with that.
I've never written them off though. I still think that Arcachon will eventually lose, but it's going to be a nasty fight. I have no frickin' idea how Arcachon is maintaining that many troops, though.
Same team is the one fielding the massive second-only-to-morek army on Dwilight.
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Same team is the one fielding the massive second-only-to-morek army on Dwilight.
That is a bit misleading. Arcachon has members from the Dwilight group, but its not the full team last time I checked, and has considerable input from players not associated with them.
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Having three realms rush to your aid might have had something to do with that.
Not really. We fought off Arcaea alone for a long while till Ohnar joined in against us. Arcaea has failed on multiple occasions to crack the Isle by itself. When it managed to siege Enlod, it was thanks to Ohnar and Arcaea bringing their entire armies to the city. Now too Arcaea has been successfully held off by our armies.
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Same team is the one fielding the massive second-only-to-morek army on Dwilight.
I do not appreciate you pigeonholing me and all members of Arcachon into that group.
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it's not about winning or losing.. it's more like nothing really ever happens
go there... sit... walk away and go somewhere else to sit. no one atks, no atks.
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Not really. We fought off Arcaea alone for a long while till Ohnar joined in against us. Arcaea has failed on multiple occasions to crack the Isle by itself. When it managed to siege Enlod, it was thanks to Ohnar and Arcaea bringing their entire armies to the city. Now too Arcaea has been successfully held off by our armies.
Only when Arcaea was forced to attack through Soniel. That is no longer the case, and come spring you won't have starving regions and bad roads doing all your work for you.
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Not really. We fought off Arcaea alone for a long while till Ohnar joined in against us. Arcaea has failed on multiple occasions to crack the Isle by itself. When it managed to siege Enlod, it was thanks to Ohnar and Arcaea bringing their entire armies to the city. Now too Arcaea has been successfully held off by our armies.
I'm sorry, we call off one hasty attack due to equipment damage and that counts as "holding off" our armies? Perhaps you would like to post the glorious battle report? It wasn't our army that fled back to the isle when confronted by half the oppositions mobile force :)
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I would suspect that those from their religion whom live outside of Arcachon may be giving some assistance :)
Yes, we woke them up when it was needed. Nothing like a good poke.....
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Same team is the one fielding the massive second-only-to-morek army on Dwilight.
You may want to check the stats page again...
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You may want to check the stats page again...
No, don't. It's useless. Go on reputation, it's a much better measure. ;D
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I do not appreciate you pigeonholing me and all members of Arcachon into that group.
My apologies - but you do have a 20% shared player base :P
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I do not appreciate you pigeonholing me and all members of Arcachon into that group.
And beating Madina's ass 8) No tricks here, we're just better than you.
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And beating Madina's ass 8) No tricks here, we're just better than you.
Have you won any battles since breaking the cease fire? Lets think. . .nope :)
We'd have destroyed Aurvandil the first time if D'Hara and Terran hadn't stopped us. Now, we just get to do it with bigger battles and more diplomacy.
When you're army doesn't go limping home after every siege you can start to contemplate the winning rhetoric.
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Have you won any battles since breaking the cease fire? Lets think. . .nope :)
We'd have destroyed Aurvandil the first time if D'Hara and Terran hadn't stopped us. Now, we just get to do it with bigger battles and more diplomacy.
When you're army doesn't go limping home after every siege you can start to contemplate the winning rhetoric.
Let's see Madina attack Candiels again, then we'll be talking.
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Let's see Madina attack Candiels again, then we'll be talking.
:) Shhhhh it takes time to do those things! Specially since we didn't have siege engines.
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:) Shhhhh it takes time to do those things! Specially since we didn't have siege engines.
Which, in itself, is quite telling considering the crazy amount of gold you get for your trade and the amount of time this war has been going on...
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Which, in itself, is quite telling considering the crazy amount of gold you get for your trade and the amount of time this war has been going on...
Madina's production had to be rebuilt, keep in mind when the war started we didn't have Madina City under our control and it was bottomed out in population thanks to. . . Sage! Who is now in Aurvandil.
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Madina's production had to be rebuilt, keep in mind when the war started we didn't have Madina City under our control and it was bottomed out in population thanks to. . . people trying to force out Sage! Who is now in Aurvandil.
Corrected that for you ;)
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Corrected that for you ;)
To be fair, I wasn't really paying that much attention at the time :) Busy finishing my honours thesis :D
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Madina's production had to be rebuilt, keep in mind when the war started we didn't have Madina City under our control and it was bottomed out in population thanks to. . . Sage! Who is now in Aurvandil.
Can't build siege workshops in strongholds or townslands?
You can build explosives factories in townslands, at least...
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Well, at least it's not SA and/or Rio/Enweil/Stupidrealmname threads invading the FEI forum.
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I would remove all the off topic discussions, but really they are the bulk of the thread :)
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Well, at least it's not SA and/or Rio/Enweil/Stupidrealmname threads invading the FEI forum.
No, but SA could the Far East Island.
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No, but SA could the Far East Island.
Nah, I think the Far East would unite against that. It's a much more unified island than any other I've been on. Makes getting wars going rather difficult. Reminds me of the convoluted excuses western European Rulers used to justify wars against their fellow Christians, actually.
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BM has invaded my dreams. I dreamt every duchy of Arcaea except Topenah and Talex broke up into their own realm. ;D
I even woke up believing it had broken up, feverishly checking the dynamic map for confirmation. ::)
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I tend to agree that the FEI (at least the North) would field a brutal force within instants of any invasion.
I also find it funny that anyone thinks that everyone else on the continent doesn't want to see Arcaea constantly held to a stalemate with Arcachon. It keeps them safe from the war-machine and is good fun (and a better bang for your buck militarily) to boot.
Of course, no-one wants Arcachon to expand either. I'm just glad to be on the offensive again as that's really what Ciann lives for.
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BM has invaded my dreams. I dreamt every duchy of Arcaea except Topenah and Talex broke up into their own realm. ;D
I even woke up believing it had broken up, feverishly checking the dynamic map for confirmation. ::)
I had a similar dream once, and it's not as unrealistic as you might think, oddly enough.
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I had a similar dream once, and it's not as unrealistic as you might think, oddly enough.
Spoiler alert?
I can see how Heq could be right. I know I've been in a position more than once where I've cheered on one side but hoped for a lengthy stalemate or mutual annhilation.
TMP is gone, at least for now, though so its not like Arcaea would object to some time to primarily deal with food distribution, diplomacy and ensuring all its regions are in good order. Course, none of that is a big problem right now, but I don't think its correct to assume that Arcaea would turn south if the war in the north concluded. A lot of Jenred's Imperial plans would seem, from what I'm aware of, to be better suited to peacetime anyway.
Still. Nice of the islanders to provide more land for a new realm in Arcaea's umbrella. I like their realm, culture and even their theocracy (having had two characters in their religion, one a priest) but I don't think there will be a stalemate for too long. Arcaea has a very good General, after all :)
Finn.
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On the other hand, OW is still alive! Expanding soon and need nobles for our plentiful positions :P ::)
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I had a similar dream once, and it's not as unrealistic as you might think, oddly enough.
We came close a few times. Alanurs, Palnasos, Taop, Ossaet, Topenah, and Lasop/Remton/Nocaneb/Niel have never split off to be their own realms. But I can easily count about 17 realms who came from completely different duchies- many around at the same time.
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(...) , Ossaet, (...)
How was Papania founded?
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How was Papania founded?
And a realm of the Osai (I forget it's name and it isn't on the lost realms list) that split off from Lasanar for a few days.
Sanctum of Casshern was formed in Palnasos.
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Ardh Osai it was called, if I'm not mistaken.
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And a realm of the Osai (I forget it's name and it isn't on the lost realms list) that split off from Lasanar for a few days.
Sanctum of Casshern was formed in Palnasos.
Was that its lone city or did it take Taop or something with it? I was gone for a few years.
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Was that its lone city or did it take Taop or something with it? I was gone for a few years.
I believe it had Ansopen with it for a time. But no other cities when I came around.
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On the other hand, OW is still alive! Expanding soon and need nobles for our plentiful positions :P ::)
Good luck taking Larodais :)
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Ohnar West already owns Larodais.
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I always find it amusing how many people think that Jenred is going to lie blatantly to the entire island in a way that would be easily proven.
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Jenred makes a good bogeyman around which to try and rally opposition to Arcaea. Often tried by quite a few people that find themselves as the target of Arcaea's armies, or suspect they will soon be that.
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Sure. I just find it funny that people think he's that stupid.
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What I wonder is why bother?
Jenred's a second tier boogeyman up north and I'm pretty sure there are individuals who act like jerks in the southern campaigns. The de Grenfelds are reliable for good lines and Marcus tried to be a diplomat with Arcachon and a Sartanian (with expected results).
When king's do something, everyone knows and remembers and can check, but you can say pretty much anything about anyone who doesn't hold a post and you can really get a good myth started.