The Marrocidenian war

[Penchant]

I think Terran has some good candidates in our current election. One real dud, one steady hand, and one unknown: here's hoping for the steady hand!

Vote Maloudi!

Terran is !@#$ed again in the ruler department. Anyone outside of Terran ever heard of Maloudi? Me thinks not. Ruler, especially when their only real power is foreign relations, should be known outside of his realm, IMO. Not going to claim Marco is a legend but he has been in every almost every realm and speaks with people while he travels, due to his business he is on, so Marco is likely known by members of every realm.

[Vellos]

Oh, and on the whole "we planned this forever ago" motif:

Bull!@#$.

Aurvandil did nothing to provoke Terran's renewed assault. The Feb. 26 campaign is one of those rare instances where you can basically point at less than 4 or 5 people and give them full credit/blame for pretty much everything that happened. As someone playing the idealist warmonger character who's been engineering this whole war, Aurvandil has given me almost nothing to work with. Ya'll basically haven't provoked us in forever.

I the player wanted to do the Feb 26. campaign because it seemed like a neat challenge for me as a player. As it were, I miscalculated, but certainly learned a bit.

Hireshmont did it because as he gets older he gets crazier. The Hireshmont from a year ago, or two years ago, would have been very content to have a cold war with Aurvandil, or make a negotiated settlement. But this Hireshmont is older and feels a need to rework the world to make a legacy, and perceives himself as being personally important to the war (a prideful belief to be sure).

Claiming that you planned the campaign that I planned is kinda bollocks. There was no provocation for Terran. I'm sure you made some contingency plans but, no, I really do not believe you planned all this. AFTER we attacked, from then on, sure, I believe it. Sitting in TWainwood to invite our over-reach? Yeah, I do believe you planned that. A canny set of campaigns to get a free landing in Terran? Absolutely, you did a damn good job planning that, especially in combination with our disordered retreat.

But the whole kit-and-kaboodle with Aurvandil as initiator?

Nah. That's what we call a lie.

Out of curiosity, did Terran even try contacting Farronite or Astrum and ask for help? I, for one, had no idea things were going so bad for Terran. We never heard any details about Asylon's invasion.

Two things:
1. It was all very sudden. We haven't had much time to react.

2. Kas did reach out for help, with some success actually. But Kas is a bit of a Glaumring, to be frank: a million miles a minute in fifty different directions.

[Vellos]

Terran is !@#$ed again in the ruler department. Anyone outside of Terran ever heard of Maloudi? Me thinks not. Ruler, especially when their only real power is foreign relations, should be known outside of his realm, IMO. Not going to claim Marco is a legend but he has been in every almost every realm and speaks with people while he travels, due to his business he is on, so Marco is likely known by members of every realm.

Actually, having a known ruler is a very, very bad thing when your long-term rivals are about to destroy you and your long-term allies can't or won't help you.

A known ruler is a horrible idea at that point.

[Penchant]

Actually, having a known ruler is a very, very bad thing when your long-term rivals are about to destroy you and your long-term allies can't or won't help you.

A known ruler is a horrible idea at that point.

Well I disagree, for several reasons. What is your reasoning for an unknown to be made ruler?/A known being bad?

[Vellos]

Well I disagree, for several reasons. What is your reasoning for an unknown to be made ruler?/A known being bad?

Known people have baggage. And Terran needs to shed a lot of baggage in record time.

Plus, as a player, I hate seeing the same players become rulers all the time. Yeah, Terran has had some crappy rulers. But I don't regret it a bit: it's meant that a ton of players who've never gotten to have a rulership anywhere else have had a chance to experience it.

For an RP perspective, Terran is a realm with an extremely powerful upper-level bureaucracy. Terran only works effectively with a ruler who can either serve as a moral center for the realm but who has no particular political interests, or else a ruler who is of titanic strength, will, and political acumen and can break the will of the elites.

I know of only 2 or 3 nobles who might be able to achieve the latter, so we roll with the former.

[Penchant]

Also, random people start flaming each other for no reason. Kas accidently travelled to Overroot and everyone started insulting him and accusing him of things, then they banned him. Shino kept on getting shouted down every time he said some minor thing. Erasmus was insulted and banned because he was executing peasants or something. Everyone who does anything is basically painting a target on themselves in that realm.

Then there's the lethargic army, where only five people follow orders willingly. The rest have to be threatened with fines. There are random starvations, too. I get that Terran is volatile in the food department, but in the past regions (Mistight, Chesland) have been completely depopulated through starvation. And for some reason there's always monsters attacking Odona

Yeah Terran's been doomed for a long time. If it weren't for it's alliances it would probably have fallen sooner.

I thought what you were saying might have been valid until I read you see Erasmus as doing nothing wrong. You lose all credit if you don't know why he got banned.

[Penchant]

Known people have baggage. And Terran needs to shed a lot of baggage in record time.

Plus, as a player, I hate seeing the same players become rulers all the time. Yeah, Terran has had some crappy rulers. But I don't regret it a bit: it's meant that a ton of players who've never gotten to have a rulership anywhere else have had a chance to experience it.

For an RP perspective, Terran is a realm with an extremely powerful upper-level bureaucracy. Terran only works effectively with a ruler who can either serve as a moral center for the realm but who has no particular political interests, or else a ruler who is of titanic strength, will, and political acumen and can break the will of the elites.

I know of only 2 or 3 nobles who might be able to achieve the latter, so we roll with the former.

Known, does not equal been ruler already. Ex-rulers are known people, but that doesn't mean that only ex-rulers are known.  As to what you think Terran needs, I don't know the internal things that some pointless figurehead is really going to help out Terran. As to your second, Marco could be that person but I don't have the time to make that happen. Also Marco is more of semi-known, he knows people minorly but generally always having good relations.

[Vellos]

Known, does not equal been ruler already. Ex-rulers are known people, but that doesn't mean that only ex-rulers are known.  As to what you think Terran needs, I don't know the internal things that some pointless figurehead is really going to help out Terran. As to your second, Marco could be that person but I don't have the time to make that happen. Also Marco is more of semi-known, he knows people minorly but generally always having good relations.

Um, internal figureheads are very, very important. They set the tone for the realm. Kas did an excellent job at that for a little while... then he turned into a Glaumring-clone.

[Penchant]

Um, internal figureheads are very, very important. They set the tone for the realm. Kas did an excellent job at that for a little while... then he turned into a Glaumring-clone.

So is diplomacy. I see extreme failures on Terran's part. They did great getting the north to join, but beyond that its been downhill. Sure you have convinced then to suicide their army south, but there are a lot of other things they could do, that actually help, especially now. Also, I see your point on ruler's setting the mood, but that doesn't mean they should do nothing but help out realm morale.

[Vellos]

So is diplomacy. I see extreme failures on Terran's part. They did great getting the north to join, but beyond that its been downhill. Sure you have convinced then to suicide their army south, but there are a lot of other things they could do, that actually help, especially now.

This amuses me.

Please, tell me more about Terran's extreme diplomatic failure.

[Kwanstein]

I thought what you were saying might have been valid until I read you see Erasmus as doing nothing wrong. You lose all credit if you don't know why he got banned.

Was it because he ran an international gang of peasant hunters? That was pretty cool, imo, and would have fleshed Terran out had it stayed and been elaborated upon. Terran could have been the evil nation that promotes privateering, smuggling, slavery and all sorts of vile activities. Terran needs something to give it character, as one of it's main flaws is that it doesn't have a strong, unifying theme, other than a vague Roman thing, to get people active. It's a blank canvas, waiting to be painted, or torn down and replaced with something new. Erasmus was a good roleplayer, he could have painted it and saved it from destruction, had he not been immediately banned the moment his unorthodox activity was unveiled.

Um, internal figureheads are very, very important. They set the tone for the realm. Kas did an excellent job at that for a little while... then he turned into a Glaumring-clone.

Kas only became 'glumring' because everyone was insulting him. I saw private messages where he was called an idiot and even the realm-wide channel was full of people bashing him.

[Penchant]

Was it because he ran an international gang of peasant hunters? That was pretty cool, imo, and would have fleshed Terran out had it stayed and been elaborated upon. Terran could have been the evil nation that promotes privateering, smuggling, slavery and all sorts of vile activities. Terran needs something to give it character, as one of it's main flaws is that it doesn't have a strong, unifying theme, other than a vague Roman thing, to get people active. It's a blank canvas, waiting to be painted, or torn down and replaced with something new. Erasmus was a good roleplayer, he could have painted it and saved it from destruction, had he not been immediately banned the moment his unorthodox activity was unveiled.

Kas only became 'glumring' because everyone was insulting him. I saw private messages where he was called an idiot and even the realm-wide channel was full of people bashing him.

You thinking Erasmus was banned over the peasant killings proves my point. You don't even know what goes on in your own realm, even when the game is giving you the important messages on the topic.

This amuses me.

Please, tell me more about Terran's extreme diplomatic failure.

Maybe not extreme but still a failure. Will edit in stuff.

Basically, its failure to use your resources. I hear Terran has had food issues, but never once asked for food. This entire war, like I said has been a failure of using SA to aid us. For instance, having SA take care of Terran's lands, would mean Terran has no reason to be at home except for a quick refit instead of dicking around for a month every time after they do something, which could just be sitting in Paisland for a week.

[Kwanstein]

You thinking Erasmus was banned over the peasant killings proves my point. You don't even know what goes on in your own realm, even when the game is giving you the important messages on the topic.

Well, would you care to enlighten me? It happened shortly after I joined, so you need to give me a break here. I barely knew who everyone was at that point, let alone what their histories or private dealings were. As far as I could tell, it was revealed that he was killing peasants and was banned, not before leaving a nice RP message about how he and his troops were travelling to Zuma lands.

[Penchant]

Well, would you care to enlighten me? It happened shortly after I joined, so you need to give me a break here. I barely knew who everyone was at that point, let alone what their histories or private dealings were. As far as I could tell, it was revealed that he was killing peasants and was banned, not before leaving a nice RP message about how he and his troops were travelling to Zuma lands.

Well that's a good thing to mention earlier. He was banning anybody who disagreed with him once his organization was put out in the open. His advy killing was bad for the realm's reputation, but the bigger issue was he had a spy network !@#$ing !@#$ up in Solaria I believe. People complained, and he basically tried to become a tyrant of the senate by banning those who disagreed with him. My info is probably flawed, but is more towards the actual reasons.

[Kwanstein]

Well that's a good thing to mention earlier. He was banning anybody who disagreed with him once his organization was put out in the open. His advy killing was bad for the realm's reputation, but the bigger issue was he had a spy network !@#$ing !@#$ up in Solaria I believe. People complained, and he basically tried to become a tyrant of the senate by banning those who disagreed with him. My info is probably flawed, but is more towards the actual reasons.

Now I remember the spy thing. But by the time he started banning people it was already clear that he would be kicked out. Plus, it was a pretty entertaining drama. It was the kind of conflict that this game should have more of, and it was only possible because he was willing to let himself be vilified. Villains = good.