I'm the player of Reylich Corvian, the General of Barca. I seldom visit the forums, as I think it's a very bitter place where people are seemingly always arguing. But I do drop by once in a while and check out what's up with other realms and other OOC stuffs. After reading some of the comments in this thread, I feel obliged to clarify things as best I could. Maybe learn from my mistakes and ask what many of you would have done in my place. Most of this is in response to the points brought up by Lapallanch.
Firstly, why did Barcan forces not sail across the seas and land on rurals with D'Haran forces? This was one of the first strategies I had in mind. But after some discussion, the council felt that it was very risky. Because 1) most of our units did not have that much gold with them, and sailing and landing on rural would incur a high costs, especially considering the size of our units and the number of siege engines we were bringing. 2) sailing with such large units and high number of siege engines was going to take ages, and starvation due to lack of provisions was a distinct possibility. 3) we were aware that our allies needed some time to rally, and we needed all the gold we have to continue paying our men should the timetable dragged on.
We knew our allies were in trouble, but we couldn't risk staying in western continent for too long lest our path was blocked by monsters, and we had to waste even more men fighting through them to get to Paisly. We knew we needed to wait for our allies, but that was a risk we had to take. Sail to Fissoa, and hope that our allies could be ready soon enough.
Secondly, why not target our allies? This was an IC decision. D'Hara has stuck by us, and Fissoa did put in a lot of effort to join the Southern League and help D'Hara. I personally don't think Reylich as a character would have accepted invading D'Hara to get a new home. Maybe if you had brought this up before we left, it would have made for a good debate, and things could have turned out differently.
Thirdly, why did we march across Lurian lands to loot? Reasoning was two-fold 1) we didn't want to risk starving to death marching through Palm Seas from Drowenton 2) we thought it would be good to cripple Lurian economy and add some more gold into Barcan pockets to allow them to pay their men longer.
What happened with the killing and raping? It all actually started out with a simple mis-click. Someone intended to loot for tax gold, but mistakenly killed and raped instead. He RP-ed it IC, which I accepted. Then many other Barcan nobles voiced their discontent and this ended up splitting the realm in half. The continued killing and raping was done out of blatant disregard for orders issued by the RUler and General (myself). This resulted in the banning of two nobles, which caused even more dissent. I actually loved those two nobles OOC-ly, as they added a lot of flavour into the game. Shame that those two nobles had to leave the way they did.
To Vogelens point: I did offer to help Fissoa with the monster problem, but did not receive any reply and direction. Granted, I could have pushed for it, and maybe communication was lacking on my part. But I've always assumed that the monsters appeared after Barcan forces have begun marching into Lurian lands. If I am mistaken, then I admit my mistake.
I will also admit my mistake with regards to not initiating a TO in Shinnen P to force an open battle, and for the lack of communication between the military leadership and the rest of the nobles. I wish I could have done things differently, but they are all over, and we are in the situation we are in now. And we just have to deal with it I guess.
I understand all the RP and IC decisions made by Barcan players, and as much as I dislike the situation, it made for a good gaming experience perhaps. Or maybe I'm the only one feeling this way, even in the face of failure and the extinction of the one realm that I have had the most fun playing in. But I can't help but feel that the Barcan council is being attacked personally on the forums. I hope to just clear the air a bit. If I have made any wrong assumptions, or mistakes, please do let me know. It would even make me feel better knowing my mistakes. I'm not exactly a new player, having played quite a bit a few years ago, but there are still lots of things I'm learning.
