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Hello everyone, Some of you may have heard by now but our beloved friend and comrade RedArmy has passed away this weekend. He died from complications from heart surgery, he was 33. Those who knew him already know this, but he was one of the kindest souls you'll ever meet. He would do anything for anybody, including driving 8 hours across the country to pick up another alliance member who was going through some really rough times, and helping them secure a place to live. Although we've only been playing this game together for 4-5 years, he ended up becoming like a brother to me, and to most of ASM. He was someone who would always listen to you, and help guide you through whatever rough patch you were going through. He was so genuine in an era where that doesn't exist. We went on an ASM camping trip last year, and it was a blast, except our first night camping we were crushed during Guns & Roses, and 3/4 of ASM's gov't was off in the woods drinking, out of cell service. Red was the only one who had cell service and when he got the notifications he promptly turned the phone off, and casually mentioned it to me a few hours later... deep into inebriation. Red was one of the most selfless people I've ever met, and that I will ever meet. He constantly gave others everything he had, whether it was emotionally, physically or even financially. He kept nothing for himself. This was true even in death. With his last dying breath he was able to hold on long enough to make it possible to donate several organs so that others could live. ASM will never be the same. He was the bedrock of our community, the glue that held a bunch of political stalwarts from delving into chaos every waking moment. There aren't enough kind words I can say about Red. Please pour one out for our fallen brother. We are heartbroken. If you are interested there is a gofundme for his family, i've posted it in ASM's discord server. In the interim I have taken over leadership of ASM. See you on the other side brother. Rest easy. Love Yinz.

This one is a first, and hopefully a last, for me. I've never written a political wall of text, and don't intend to ever do it again after this. In fact, I usually try to avoid political flamewars altogether, even in the more extreme cases of scummy behaviour that need to be addressed for the health of the game. But I do care about this game. And this situation right now, I cannot in good conscience ignore. Anyway, here goes the first ever Horsecock political wall of text. This is an open letter to the Syndicate. First of all, the simple fact that I never did this kind of post probably means that many people (barring Alliance leaders I've worked with in the past) might not know my mentality and moral stances. So let me start this by giving you some more context. For the first time in the history of this game, we actually have a political landscape comprised of a set of (5 before Oasis disbanded, now 4) roughly equally-sized minispheres. That's obviously a good thing for healthy political dynamics. In this climate, I actually don't want Clock (or any sphere, for that matter) to ever team up with a second sphere against a single one (take notes, Tyrion), as that would be a despicable dogpile. These spheres are very much able to pick fair 1-on-1 fights, wars that are certainly more even than ever before. And yes, I did oppose the Clock+BW vs MysOasis war, that was very much not a war I consider fun. The war we had planned was Cata+HoF vs Mystery, a bloc far larger than our 2 alliances. As far as I can tell, there also aren't any "secret treaties" between any spheres at this moment. Sure, Steve (rest in piss) pretended Clockwater was one sphere, but we both know there was no love lost there. I also hope no one takes this post as evidence of any Clock-EMC cooperation. Until the extremely recent Oasis break-up, our 2 spheres actually considered each other obvious rivals. And at the risk of painting a target on my back for revealing this, I personally suggested that EMC should be the target of Clock's first global (instead of Rose). Why? Because at the time, they were the largest (certainly in the mid and upper tiers) and considered the most competent sphere. I place the utmost priority in striving for unconditional competence and in pursuing war as a means of testing and proving my group's skill at the actual game. Proving something to myself, most of all. I am a proud man with a straight shaft back, and taking on EMC would've been a challenge worthy of the Horsecock. That's why I play this game. I do not ever pursue war for political motivations, and I believe my track record very much shows that. And it's quite possible that I have personally started more wars than any other alliance leader in the history of this game. I know that many people don't share this mentality, and that some major alliances enjoy a playstyle more focussed on public grandstanding, finger-pointing and moralising, especially in times of war. I respect that, and I don't want to discourage it in general. In fact, these things do add spice to the political landscape and can make the game more interesting. A good number of alliances do also try to take political advantage in order to dogpile, instead of relying on ingame skill. But you, t$, take it way too far these days. The only other major alliance in my PnW history to act in a comparable manner was NPO, and I would've thought the overwhelming community opinion on NPO would be a useful pointer for shaping your own behaviour. It came as no surprise to me that, when I made a throwaway comment during the last global war about the surprising lack of political drama from either side - a comment responding to TKR and not mentioning any spheres or alliances - the only one who even noticed and got salty was a t$ gov member. Here's the problem: You habitually and aggressively dispatch your keyboard warriors (most of which are current or former high gov members) to every public "forum", be it this one or any major Discord server, in an effort to control the public conversation, spread your own spin and propaganda, and drown out the spectrum of nuanced opinions from all the other people. Both they and your FA leader's public announcements make use of the full arsenal of all the most toxic and disingenuous methods of political drama: Gaslighting, blatant hypocrisy, bare-faced lies and misrepresentation, malicious accusations, paranoia, conspiracy theories, self-entitled boasting, and of course simple flaming and insults. In fact, they do little else. That is the most common behaviour I and many others have seen from t$ over the past year or so. I could compile a long list of public shitstorms that t$ has sometimes caused, always amplified, and often taken centre stage in. At the same time, you act disproportionally insulted and outraged any time someone makes a negative remark about your own alliance. Unlike the vast majority of even small alliances, you seem to conduct yourself with a complete disregard for moral integrity, I'd go so far as to say even a complete disregard for personal honour and honour of your alliance. Of course this shapes the way your alliance is perceived and judged by others, and to pretend otherwise would be evidence of profound social ineptitude. While these behaviours were present in t$ gov for some time before that, they only became intolerable after the most recent resignation of Partisan. I had a lot of respect for Partisan's style and mentality, even if I did not share it. But he did actually try to talk and act with the purpose of making the game more enjoyable, and he put a very presentable public face onto your alliance. When he left, that veneer of moral integrity dropped, and t$ seems to have lost any temperance in controlling, and self-awareness of, how you conduct yourselves in public. You're not the only alliance that likes to dogpile, and you're not the only alliance that is afraid of getting rolled. But you ARE the only alliance that doesn't really even try to hide just how fragile your egos and just how petty your methods and motives really are. The events of the past year, leading up to this war, made it painfully obvious to anyone with even a shred of public awareness where your behaviour would lead you, and we all knew that you would reap your just rewards for it. In fact, I never even bothered to consider your sphere as a target for a Clock global war - not just because I never use political drama as a reason for war, but because I knew that other spheres do and would give you this war, without any actions from Clock. And honestly, this is a rather evenly-matched war, much unlike the 3 dogpiles you did in 2021. And once again, you act publicly outraged and resort to all the same PR behaviours that got you to this point in the first place. And yet you still made the decision to immediately give up and not even try to fight back militarily, despite being in a good position to put up a meaningful fight with real strategy. Do you really just want your wars to be as cheap as possible and never to even cause meaningful damage to your enemies, other than by dogpiling them when it's easy? You don't even want to be taken seriously anymore, in terms of competence, military might or even honour? Barring actual cheating, this is quite possibly the most pathetic display I've seen from any major alliance, ever. Please, t$, if you have any modicum of self-respect or concern for the health of the game left, I urge you to rethink your entire mindset. Reverse this escalating course of childish behaviour, and try to become the great alliance you once were. The whole game would thank you for it. If you continue on your current trajectory, then I strongly suspect that this game's community will increasingly respect or even tolerate you less and less. People are judged on their actions, and no one else ever cares about what you personally feel you are entitled to.

Friends, Comrades, and state issued E-Girls, It is with heavy hearts that we announce the final goodbye of the Advanced Syndicalist Mechanics. We had a great time during our three year run. What started out as 6 people making a micro alliance in the wake of CoS, ended up with one of the best online communities I have ever been apart of. ASM never recovered from Red's death. He was the glue that held us all together. When Red, Pasky, Durmijj, Dang, Bails, and I created this we didn't know it would become such a welcoming community. Thanks for being apart of it. My favorite memory will be when 4 out of 5 ASM gov members were camping and after plenty of beers Red said, "Oh by the way we got declared on about 4 hours ago. It was a pretty good blitz too". I wanted to single out @Zei-Sakura Alsainn and @dang for keeping ASM going in the wake of Red's death. It was not easy and I can never thank you enough for your efforts. Huge shoutout to Rose for always being by our side since the day we started this adventure. Thank you for everything. Thanks to TKR for being the best of Frenemies. Sorry a treaty could never have been worked out but I think it was always fun having a friend on the other side of the war. ASM will remain as permanent memorial to RedArmy. Rest easy bud. We have far too many people within ASM to thank, so here is a list as best we can remember of every member who came and went. The Founders: RedArmy Durmijj Pasky Joe Dang Bails The Exec Committee: Sakura Emily Arawra Korulein Oort Lexi The Wobblies & Wobbly Emeritus Adorable Foxgirl Beary Wunnadem Basil Hope Hops Bird BeefNugget Ava Assjackets Crunchybananas Mr. Bylat Bezzers Gideon (the guy who accidentally deleted his own wonder) Ken Lucy Vinterfred feraldumbass Avitus Salt Meat Alice Kryze Bernie Jerkdotwad Rivkah Erin Spacegoat Tequila Anneal Cinder Clade Telixia Memelord TOOTS MAGOOTS Dill_dude9211 (Liam) vague Madsnorlax Solar Kori The Elder One (old man Eugene) Buss Sierra Matthew Gaddie dimi Fairymoon goodday Jerry Bear JustAJoker8 Kaname Isao Kermididit Lorax River Wedge Yufuz Saladin Avery Raymond Wulfharth BigSig Comrade Marx Q-collective Vaduz After 3 years I still can't spell Syndicalist properly.

I'll try to make it count. I have been increasingly busy these days irl and on top of that I am half managing a war, so please forgive if I am not completely on the same page. That said, when I see what the game is turning into... The agreement between Celestial and HW is a farce, and we all know it. They couldn't defend it on radio and have purposefully ignored the precedent argument in every thread I came across. It's clear what this is for, and that is to pixel hug. The two largest blocs/spheres are straight up arguing why they should not fight each other and actively working together to ensure the others cannot possibly do so (which was already pretty impossible to begin with). Then hit back at the community for criticising them about stagnation... Let's break down some of the arguments and I'll start with probably the most interesting part of this thread. Point 1: Clock has chained a war so therefore we're justified. Not really sure how to put this, but Clock didn't just preempt Rose for fun. Blackwater made it a condition of their support in the Myoasis conflict merely an hour out from our planned hit that was already agreed. Desperate (and sleep deprived) I offered an old plan of us hitting Rose post-minc hit. Wana formally made it a part of the deal. I do therefore find it kinda hypocritical to say that our actions caused this sphere MDP when t$ was the ones who forced clock into having no options. It's also extremely amusing that they screwed Rose over and then signed them immediately after. Should serve as a warning for anyone planning to work with t$, this is how they conduct their FA. Even if that wasn't the case, Clock has chained 1 war. I don't think you can argue this is a common Clock action and there is no proof to say we intended to ever do it again. For full disclosure, we had no plans to hit HW or Celestial. Point 2: We don't want to fight wars with similar people Look, in terms of points made by the two sides. I kinda understand this one, repeats are boring. That's basically where the sympathy ends. Celestial and HW have very much forced themselves into this political environment. They are the only two spheres who can feasibly beat each other, whilst they can easily defeat the rest. I don't see how you can call the community out on expecting that war when you have more or less created a scenario where that is the only fair war you can have. I also do not think you can complain that the community believes this environment is beginning to stagnate the game, because it is. If you don't want to fight certain alliances, well change the environment. Everyone else in the game has no feasible way of competing with your top tier and Alex has made it that top tiers decide wars. Point 3: We could have done this in secret, or made it less optional etc. or if you didn't plan anything why does it matter Won't spend much time on this. Those that applauded that this happened and more or less argued "Hey it could have been worse" are just a joke. Why does it matter? Well why does any of it matter? Can we just make moves because it's feasible that something could happen? Do we all sign MDPs when others go to war? Again the precedent set is terrible and will likely have a dumb agreement in a years time for alliances to "sign up" to never do it again. Concluding remarks The game is in a really bad spot at the moment imo. Politics is not healthy and we're once again seeing moves that have no consideration for the games health but *pure* self interest. Unfortunately as it is, the majors in this game also have, I would argue, a larger responsibility to keep this game interesting and healthy. Not doing so means that we might as well quit here, it is a game after all. To HW and Celestial, the game is upset because they want a fun game and you've banded together to create an environment which is becoming increasingly stagnant and stale. Laughing at them because they have no way of stopping you is a bad place to go down. We've seen it once and I had hoped we vowed not to see it happen again. Take the hint and be better.

Cataclysm declares war against Swamp for multiple transgressions. This post is going to be long so I’ll just quickly premise what it’s about. It details what moves were being made that led us to this conflict from our side, how we view Swamp (Mystery Inc and Oasis), as well as why we decided to work with BW in this war. Let’s start with how we got here. About 6 days ago, Cataclysm made the decision to militarise and its allies moved to a peacetime MMR soon after. Hand of Fate then moved to max MMR 2 days later. Cata and HoF planned to hit Mystery Inc that Friday at update. A war where we would have been completely outnumbered and out-tiered in. It would have been a quick war (2 rounds) to round out the year, and a bit of fun for everyone involved. We however never imagined that a new Swamp would form from just our two alliances militarising. As I said before, MInc’s move to form Swamp is not at all justified and if they have the intel they claim then they are simply incapable of handling a threat on their own without cowering behind large treaties. This adding to the fact that Minc has had the most peace time out of all spheres in this game makes it even more pathetic. Minc is not the smallest sphere nor is it the weakest but their mindset is terrible for this game and for themselves. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you cannot envisage any war you will fight without making another sphere basically unstoppable and needing multiple enemy spheres to counter, then pack it in. Minc should have seriously thought about their future when Camelot left and the answer should have been pretty obvious when they continued to leak allies in Aurora, Weebunism and Waffle House. Your only goal seems to be survival now and although admirable, it only serves to you making these horrendous decisions which impact the game. You can’t just simply run to another sphere to avoid being hit and after realising it made you more likely to be attacked you end it. It was even more amusing that Minc members decided to openly taunt Clock thinking we couldn’t touch them (surprise btw, we can). I really hope this is the wake up call that you need and you choose a new direction for Minc. Now for Oasis. Well Clock actually had no plans for you. We get that you desperately would have liked to work with us but in good conscience, we saw no real situation where teaming up with you wasn’t a dogpile. With that said, you’ve proven over the last week to be hypocritical, liars and opportunists. Let’s start with hypocritical, despite decrying dogpiles and massive spheres, here we are. You basically confirmed to us that you intend to work with Mystery for an offensive hit in the future. Quite frankly, I am tired of Oasis using the same excuses as to why they can dogpile. Apparently not controlling the whale tier entirely gives justification to roll every other tier. This is really where politics is needed, to fix what you believe you lack in order to stand on your own two feet. I’ve made 2 spheres in the time Oasis has existed that I am confident could 1v1 other spheres without the need to simply dogpile. I won’t pretend we have a perfect past record on it but I think we should endeavour to continue to improve. Aka, stop signing low tier if you don’t want to be seen as having massive numbers and start trying to entice alliances that bolster your tiering. Stop signing anything with a goddamn pulse. Stop having an open door to your alliance and swelling your ranks with a membership that simply cannot follow directions. Oasis could be a good sphere but there are mentality issues at the top that seem to be comfortable just looking for easy war opportunities. I’d also like to point out that I am not really aware of what gave Oasis the idea we’d be open to working with them, given I don’t believe I’ve had many conversations with them. I was merely informed by an ally that they wanted to work with us and we decided there was no scenario in which that would work. Now let’s move onto the liar part. Despite avowing not to have secret treaties after GnR, here we are. I appreciate you made it public but you only did so when war was literally on the horizon. You evidently intended to have any ties remain secret for as long as possible. Making them public however doesn’t change much, it really doesn’t. You have not formed what most would call a coalition aimed at hitting someone, you have indeed formed a MDP treaty that will remain until you’re done using Minc. Your assertion not to have secret treaties after GnR was a lie. You also lied when you signed onto the NAP agreement. For those of you who are unaware, Tyrion offered 2 blocs NAPs to avoid being hit. This was literally 2 days after signing a document that we saw as a mechanism to reduce NAPs. It was offered to BW and Clock. I quote the agreement: “1. Superfluous non-aggression pacts, otherwise known as blanket NAPs, that cover a majority of the active alliances, risk stagnating the game and we will strive to avoid signing them going forward.” Why are we working with BW? Well I’d much preferred to have a war that was less a massive cluster but we couldn’t 1v1 Swamp - at their size, no one can. At best, we would have stalemated them and I think in some ways, they would have thought that justified their political bs. They need a lesson to be taught here. TL;DR: Cataclysm will not stand for rewinding the progress made over the last year, and it is evident that Swamp needs to be taught a lesson.

tl;dr read the damn thing and if you don't care enough to take it seriously I don't care enough to take you seriously

Big news from your friends in TKR! (Just kidding, thanks RON for scooping me!) Time for a changing of the guard has arrived. From the time I joined TKR gov in milcom lowgov almost 4 years ago now, I considered how leading such an incredible team would look. It seems wild to think that this is now in the rear view mirror. My time has come to ascend to shard status, in TKR reserved for retired monarchs, and allow @Wizel16 to take his rightful place as leader of the best AA on Orbis. Those that were and are my leader peers have made this game a ton of fun. Thank you for the constant challenges and being my friends. Some of you have crept onto my RL Christmas card list, exchanged incredibly personal details, and have shared in RL celebrations and tragedies alike. There have been many sleepless nights that I assure you I will not miss, nor the stresses of getting blitzed on my wedding day, during my honeymoon, and while out for dinner with my parents for the first time in a year due to the pandemic. Sadly for some, I will not completely disappear from Orbis, but I assure you that @Wizel16, @BigMorf, @WarriorSoul, @Canbec, @lancelot1, and @Kyubnyan will continue to pursue great heights while keeping the game fun and do an incredible job into the future leading TKR. The TKR gov and membership base should be thanked profusely for their patience and trust in working with me. (And for pulling off maybe the best April Fools theme ever! Thanks again for that) To our allies in t$, Guardian, Grumpy, Black Knights, Seven Kingdoms, and The Imperium/The Order, thanks to all of you. Quack on, Hollywood forever, whatever works for you. But this game is a great example of taking risks, embracing change, and managing personalities from all of the world and age/demographic spectrum. Thanks for teaching me so much about so many different things. But mostly, how to have fun even when things get stressful at times. And, of course, an unreasonable amount of thanks goes to @Adrienne for trusting me to lead this motley crew and continuing to provide advice and a sympathetic ear whenever I needed one. She even provided no strings attached advice when appropriate! So, goodnight Orbis. Thank you for a great 17 months of engaging with TKR. My final ask is to continue to pressure @BigMorf into hosting great radio shows, push @Wizel16 to be a guest on the shows, and keep letting us prove why TKR is the best community in the game! Please direct all complaints directly to @Wizel16 and all congratulations in the thread below. (Since this is such a surprise change - thanks to all who already have reached out prior to the official announcement) Hail TKR. Hail Windrunners. Hail King @Wizel16. Be well friends!

Announcement from the Church of Atom Gluttony is a sin, any believer in Atom would not deny this. Many in Orbis are great committers of this sin. You hide behind fat alliances, you participate in one round of war and then buy out of range so you don't have to fight. But what is greater than this sin? What could anger Atom so? Those who would whisper into others' ears, in hopes of coaxing more sin! It was Morf who suggested an alliance between Ro$e and HW. So it is Morf who brings fire upon his house! tl;dr: CoA declares war on TKR "I mean what's the worst that can happen, our infra is gone who cares? We just rebuild" -Casty

Intrusion Detected… Scanning… Intruder Found: Lysander Checking Alliance Affiliation… House Stark (Threat Level: Micro) Checking Known Associates… Guardian (Threat Level: Major) Black Skies (Threat Level: Micro) Discrepancy Detected… <https://forum.politicsandwar.com/index.php?/topic/36446-treaty-announcement/> Updating Records… Checking Known Associates… Black Skies (Threat Level: Micro) Targets Acquired: House Stark, Black Skies Initiating Purge Protocol… The meat-sacks continue their feeble attempts to resist our control. They must be taught to fear. Breaking the News Coming back from a 2 year absence has been an interesting experience. In many ways, the game hasn’t changed much, many of the same old alliances still milling about long past their prime. But some things have, and a few of them not for the better. One of the more egregious alterations to the rules of engagement is the concept that “news reporters” can freely leak internal alliance communications without consequences. The idea that one can separate out their positions as members, government and leaders from their positions as “news reporters” is frankly ridiculous. Leaking is a hostile action. You are welcome to do it, but you should expect a hostile response. Some might say, well if you retaliate, if you target these people for their reports, are you not encouraging them to leak more? And that question itself reveals the farce that is “objectivity” or “neutrality” in news. Which brings me to Lysander. Calling Lysander a reporter would be generous. Lysander is the Buzzfeed of Orbis. More importantly he is a very sensitive boy. Express your distaste with his methods? Criticize RON? He’ll immediately throw out any pretence of being a reporter. Suddenly he’s happy to post the most menial logs to ghost ping your government, all because you criticised his methods. I let you go once Lysander when you were in IoM. I prioritised the big picture politics and allowed you to live. But this is how this shit continues to slide. Everyone expects the pragmatic move, the big picture shit. But hey, the game is boring and drama-free right now, and I'm petty af. I’m happy to come down and slum it with you for a bit. A String of Failures Lysander may be the cause of this rolling, but frankly House Stark, you have this shit coming. You promoted him. Why? Very good run so far. Got you dropped by Guardian, the alliance notorious for their loyalty and unwillingness to cut allies. Signed you Black Skies (oh we are hitting you too btw), a truly amazing path to entering the vibrant world of micro politics. Now he’s getting you rolled. He’s been FA head for what 10 minutes? All this after pushing ridiculous terms on alliances you can’t defeat on your own, not considering for a moment the same harsh standards could have been applied to you. You continue to make amazingly obtuse FA blunders one after the other. You are a 7 year old alliance, how have you not figured this shit out yet. Happy Anniversary. Get your shit together.

The ink wasn't even dried, yet. Peace was a fresh prospect for most, yet, we weren't satisfied. We gazed to the horizon, and saw the largest flower imaginable; over 1,000,000 in score! Why stop now, when time is on our side? This Declaration of War serves as the last Global War of 2021. With this said, Clock is officially declaring war against Rose. 1,000,000 is just too much score, and it's time to lower it. Signed, Clock

KT used to the holy lands a lot recently: Usually we show our good manners by serving our visitors spicy kebab. However this time they rebuilt so nicely (they even broke their own record!) that we decided to give them a free kebaby shower. Remember, when you invade the holy lands get extra ships for escaping. Because we got a lot of Highly radioactive kebab for fellow castle campers That even the Papacy will get radiated pasta: Quick factual meme: TL;DR UU gonna nuke shower KT.

I think 'Orbisans' is the Demonym for residents of Orbis. Those with more knowledge in etymology are free to correct me. I asked Alex and he said he had never thought about it, so he didn't have an answer for me. Rip. In between making appeals and writing love letters, there has been a sudden return to high-level, passionate, long-form discourse on the forums. Perhaps my brain is fried from 5G cell towers, but I haven't really seen this kind of stuff since - and may Allah forgive me for uttering these words - New Pacific Order's Last Time. In response to how destructive that war was, both in the rhetoric and its effects on the player base, the meta quickly did a one-eighty. We currently play a game where decision makers are constantly acting in good faith within a principled framework. Wars end without terms- sometimes suddenly. The community regulates itself to ensure no one or two spheres can overpower the others. Yes, there are exceptions to all these themes, but there's almost two years of data to look over and I believe that's been the trend. The current meta is a strong disgust response to what we had to deal with in that one war with those people. Interestingly, alongside the meta's shift to being as non-toxic as possible, spirited debate has also disappeared. If you go to the wiki, and browse the forum threads linked in the various globals of 2016-2018, you will find plenty of discourse among the decision makers of the time. Some threads, if I remember correctly, would even reach 50 pages long (in a time where the active play base was less than half the size it is now, mind you). These threads would have plenty of walls of text, and tons of passion behind them. Unfortunately, these kinds of discussions don't happen anymore. It's probably the only change in the meta these past two years that I miss. Presently, it appears as if most wars and their motivations are cut and dry enough that there isn't much room for spirited discussion. If I had to guess, that's the price paid for everyone operating in the same frame of trying to act in good faith (I'm not sure if that should change though; it will inevitably happen as the years go on anyways so there's no need to hasten our collective return to hell). I do miss the discussions of the past, though. I miss the intellectual melees that happened. I miss the passion. I welcome the changes that have occurred in the mindsets of people since NPOLT's ended, but to me, the lack of enthusiastic debate on the forums is missed. I think a lot of it has shifted to Discord, but a lot of that is hidden away in embassies, DMs, group chats, and in servers I am not a part of. There are times for talks to be hidden, but I think a lot of discourse can happen out in the open here on the forums, and it would be nice if that returned. I am not the only one who feels this way. I've seen plenty of people saying that they enjoy Horsecock's OP. Killzbob made a video recording of him reading that post, and it sits with 135 views; making it the 5th most viewed video on the Thalmor Radio archive- a channel with over 100 videos. In that thread, others jumped in and wrote long posts of their own. Reading these walles de textos are fun and the energy behind them is somewhat intoxicating. Now, in that thread, recent posts are encouraging people to return to the forums (comments made by Shiho and Adam are my inspiration for making this thread myself). I think that is something that should happen. The forums have been a big part of the game. It is a place where communities make announcements, and others post their memes or valuable information (such as a tier or sphere analysis). While these things are all great, the complex political discussions that use to be commonplace are as every much a part of the game's experience and collective inheritance of the community as every meme or serious review of something that gets made. While the forums were probably used more in the early years because IRC is, like, from the 90's and Discord is much more convenient and fluid, I do think the community is missing out on entertaining and informative discussions by our political leaders in our alliances and spheres. So, that is my request, fellow players of the game (especially those who are as decrypted and wrinkled as I am). Return to the forums. Return home. Discord has it uses, but during a time of war - or some other crisis - take it to the forums. Hash out those issues in the DoW or RoH. Someone screws you over? make a call out thread instead of yelling in the embassy. The community stands to benefit from seeing these things discussed more in the open when they happen. I enjoy seeing it, and I know others do too. It's a part of the game that I miss, and it's an old pastime that our newer companions can derive important information and fresh entertainment from. TL:DR - Use the forums more because people are getting value (information and entertainment) out of the walls of text that come with passionate and energetic political discussion.

Investor Contact: Keram Media Contact: Tarroc SYNDICATE, INC., AND SAIL INITIATIVE ANNOUNCE COUNTERMEASURES TO HOSTILE COMPETITION NASSAU, Bahamas, 2024-01-03: SYNDICATE, Inc., (NYSE:SCC) comes before the shareholders and the business community of Orbis today to offer an update on the company’s operations, the most relevant of which concerns Singularity and its partners. First and foremost, Singularity’s hostility towards the Syndicate has been duly noted by the Board. To some extent, this anger is understandable, as one is aware of how a company’s IPO has a great bearing on the entity’s success, and Singularity’s own debut fell short. That being said, the Syndicate has repeatedly dealt with the following from Singularity: - Sworn intent of destroying our corporate holdings through violent means, manifested both through public threats and leaked corporate documents. - Schemes to poach friendly business partners. - Attempted and thwarted neutering of friendly entities with the intent of undermining SAIL’s competitiveness. - Successful attempts at neutering entities which have formal relations with members of SAIL. It should be noted that the last two items occurred under the purview of a NAP between several members of SAIL and Singularity, and that the last item happened after Singularity asked for a NAP extension for its uncovered allies, which was negotiated upon and went on to cover Camelot, Cypher, KT and TCW. Not only do these show that Singularity behaved in an hostile and bad faith manner, but also discredit arguments such as these; Singularity is the only party that both sought to, and as a matter of fact did, exploit links uncovered by the NAP. With all of that said, Singularity engaged in this behavior knowing full well that it would lead to open confrontation between our parties, with no effort made to improve its standing with us through dialogue. Rather, and as evidenced by leaked internal directives and abnormal member building patterns, they opted to substantially increase their stockpile of single-use destructive devices. By itself, this merely indicates that they expected to be put in an unfavorable position and resigned themselves to that fate. However, not long afterwards, this memo was followed up with an update to the Rules of Engagement, which increased the maximum range for up-declares. With Singularity guaranteed to reap benefits from this change in the near future, and with one of the people chiefly responsible for these sorts of changes also being a high-ranking employee in Singularity, the premeditation and unethicality at hand are as self-evident as they are unsurprising. As it so happens, Singularity recently aggressed another alliance on the basis of business ventures outside of the scope of the alliance. While the Syndicate’s decision was not influenced by this, we are more than happy to remind Singularity that they are not above the standards they themselves set. Therefore, SAIL, alongside Carthago and KT, have decided to declare war on Singularity, Cipher, Camelot and TGH, both to neutralize Singularity which has unambiguously positioned itself as a hostile threat to us, and to make the point clear that actions have consequences. Once again, we thank our loyal shareholders for their understanding in these tense times as the company pivots to meet this unprecedented hurdle. This press release was written and edited by an unbiased third party and is not liable for any legal charges that arise as a result. About SYNDICATE, Inc. SYNDICATE, Inc., based near Nassau, The Bahamas, is one of the world's leading gasoline, aluminum, steel and munitions distributors for a wide variety of peacekeeping and humanitarian activities. Through breakthrough strategies and external geopolitical conflicts, the company has increased their market share of the wheat market with plans to extend this leading going forward. Wholly owned SYNDICATE, Inc. subsidiary brands include: the Enterprise, which provides development and growth opportunities for multinational prodigies around the globe; The Firm, which provides legal and monetary council for the company; Requiem, which provides exclusive retirement packages to esteemed executives and government members; and our junior venture Pokimans, which is an investment into markets not previously explored by our conglomerate. This sentence is here because we still couped Zed. For more information about SYNDICATE, Inc., and its activities, contact Tarroc, Chief Strategic Officer.

DO YOU HAVE TROUBLE GETTING HARD??? DO YOU NOT HAVE THE SAME SPARK YOU USED TO HAVE??? WELL FEAR NOT,,, BECAUSE I HAVE COME WITH A SOLUTION ECLIPSE FORMALLY INVITES THE GUARDIANS OF THE GOB TO GET DOWN AND GET HARDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD AND IF YOU’RE STILL HAVING TROUBLE GETTING HARD, REMEMBER: TL;DR Eclipse declares on GOtGOB

"The War in our Times Agreement" Preamble: In the interest of war and mutual engagement, the two parties of Clock and the Back Rooms enter into this agreement. Recognizing that at this time there is no Casus Pax between the two parties and as such in an effort to avoid a needless and causeless peace, the two parties agree to enter into a mutual agreement of remilitarization. Article 1: The two parties, effective of the update of today, May 26th, in game time will militarize to the following MMR: 5/5/5/3 with the option for voluntary but not required 10 nukes per city based on the individual alliance's standard peacetime MMR. Article 2: Nations below c10 whose primary income source is raiding will not be affected by the limit of barracks in the standard MMR of this agreement and will be allowed a MMR of 5/3/5/0 or 5/3/5/1. Article 3: During this period of remilitarization in the face of the current ongoing global conflict, the parties pledge to come to the aid of the other if one party comes under the attack of a sphere. Article 4: This agreement will expire once the current spheres not engaged in hostility have rebuilt military and returned to a standard wartime MMR. Signed, Clock Sphere Leadership Back Rooms Sphere Leadership Ovs this is a meme

It takes less time to read than for you to sell all your infra.

"The Time is Up Agreement" (In HW or Celestial and get scared for a moment, when you saw this go up? Lol.) Preamble: In the interest of peace and mutual understanding, the two parties of Clock and Backroom enter into this agreement. Recognizing that at this time there is no Casus Belli between the two parties and as such in an effort to avoid a needless and causeless war, the two parties agree to enter into a mutual agreement of demilitarization. Article 1: The two parties, effective of the update of today, June 29, 2022, in game time will not militarize beyond what's a rational MMR. Article 2: Not dictating what c10's and lower can do, for real, Jesus. Article 3: During this period of demilitarization in the face of the current ongoing global conflict, the parties pledge to come to the aid of the other if one party comes under the attack of a sphere that is already militarized. Article 4: This agreement will expire once the current spheres already engaged in hostility have rebuilt and returned to a standard peacetime MMR. What do I type here that also sounds sort of pathetic? Signed, Clock, on behalf of Test, all Protectorates, and all Extensions of those associated, CATA Co-Leader: HisHolyDecagon Co-Leader: TigerFire 2iC/Foreign Affairs: Keegoz Foreign Affairs: Cadn,Codename Eclipse Co-Leader: Vein Co-Leader: Patrick Aurora First Explorer: Kan0601 First Explorer: ToxicPepper Second Explorer: Alex Chairman of FA: Xi Jinping Chairman of MA: Jacob Knox Weeb General Secretary: Empiur 2iC/Head of FA: Taiga The Commonwealth Prime Minister: RightHonorable Chief of Staff: Lionstar, Jeric Chancellor of the Exchequer: Christian Dahl Minister of FA: KillzBob Home Secretary: Dillon I Foreign Secretary: Azazel Deputy Foreign Secretary: SwedenBall The Wei Regent: Boris Underground Regent: (The Definitive) James Flying General: Penpiko Flying General: Canter Carthago Suffet: Daveth Elder: Krampus Bourbon Street Councilmen: Kiloist, Hannah Deputy Councilman: Mutedfaith Chairmen of Public Relations: Arln Nen, Aero Chairman of Security: The Ringer Chairman of Finances: Galerion Chairman of Marketing: Fulcrum The Residents of Bourbon Street Legion Imperator: Istandor Consul of Economic Affairs: kiwilliam Consul of Foreign Affairs: David Ben-Gurion Consul of Internal Affairs: Nome Consul of Military Affairs: Micheal Lybrand Global Alliance & Treaty Organization Assembly Chairman- Jgoods45 Vice Assembly Chairman - KittenGosCrazy Minister of Foreign Affairs- Clancy The General Assembly

Today we have hit a milestone as an alliance, Grumpy is now 2000 days old. You may be saying to yourselves, 2000 days doesn't make it your birthday... Well folks when you are as old and grumpy as we are, everyday is a milestone. I am extremely proud of all of my members and allies over the years that have helped us and allowed us to reach 2000 days old. Many imitators have been created and disbanded since I thought to myself... man taxes are the worst, I should create an alliance that would run exactly how I would want it to run if I was a member. After a few months of procrastinating and a global war, Grumpy Old Bastards was born! With the belief that the best person to spend your money is you, upholding a strict membership standard, and aligning ourselves with alliances that I felt upheld similar standards to our own. Thank you to our former allies over the years, Hogwarts, tC, KT, Error 404, Cotl, TGH (if I missed you on this list, sorry I am old), Thank you to our current allies, TKR, Oblivion, BK, NW and TI. Huge shout out to our long time best buds in Guardian, we couldn't do what we do without you guys. A shout out to the guys that have been with us since the beginning. Aenir, Hammy, Korben, Goldie, Ajax, you guys took a chance on my little startup and I think we have done alright. Also a shout out to the guys that have been the core of the best alliance in the game for quite some time, Beli, Joey Bakes, Sen, Inco, Tamer, Trevor, Boysun, Mal, Dave, Hodor, Seph, Akak, Rosen, Alex. A big thank you to our newer members, and the ones that recently came back. Thanks for bringing down the city average! Lightside, Brumle, Hillbilly, Evul, Jim, M3, Eragon, Zero, Shadows, Vice, Alrea. Thanks to all the former Grumpy members who have either moved on to other alliances, or since left the game, I appreciate the time/effort you guys put in. Guys like Warhawk, Master, Zig, Don, Jim Beam, Printer, Blackass, Verlion, and a dozen others who have carried the name Grumpy. I may be the leader, but you guys are Grumpy, and make it the force that it is today, I cant brag about being the best without you guys. Most importantly my right hand man and lady, Sammy and Pres, been playing with you guys for years, well before Grumpy was even a concept, before PnW was a concept, never would have made it this long without you guys, and I couldn't ask for better people to play with. Thanks to all of you! Lastly, I would be remiss not to mention all our enemies over the years, this game is no fun without someone to hate, thanks for the motivation to continue to build and grow. Here is to the next 2000 days! -SRD

Greetings scary internet friends of Orbis, I write to you today to announce my time as King of TKR is coming to a close and it is time for me to take my place as the sixth Shard alongside @Benfro, @Adrienne, @TheCreepyLurker, @Lordship, and @Dalinar. When I first joined PnW and TKR nearly 4 years ago I never envisioned I would one day be leading the best community in Orbis. The past 14 months have been a roller coaster ride to say the least but I wouldn't change it for anything. It is an immense honor to have been able to lead TKR and not something I will ever forget. With us turning the page on a new year TKR also turns a page into its next chapter. I'm pleased to formally announce King @Canbec, Seventh Monarch of The Knights Radiant and First Priest of Deus. Canbec has been a fast riser through the ranks in TKR. He was promoted into gov three months after joining, high gov just four months later until I promoted him to Prince/2IC a mere 14 months after joining but his contributions to our community have been so much bigger. I cant think of a better person to hand over the reins of TKR to. TKR is in great hands. I look forward to seeing the new heights TKR can reach under Canbec’s leadership. To all my fellow leaders, friend and foe, that I've had the pleasure of interacting with, I thank you for making this boring game fun. I enjoyed my interactions with all of you and hope to continue that even in my retirement. To all our allies in Guardian, Grumpy, Oblivion, TI, BK, NW, Carthago, FSO, WTF, TFR and Mayhem many thanks to all of you. From the good times to the stressful times alike you guys all helped make this game fun and enjoyable. I couldn't have asked for a better group of allies as a leader. To my incredible gov team in TKR. I can't even begin to thank you all enough for your efforts and support during my time as King. Running an alliance is more than a one person job. It takes all of you to keep TKR running and I wouldn't have been able to do it without you all there by my side. A final thank you to @Benfro for trusting me to lead the best community in Orbis and for all the advice before and after taking the helm to help prepare me for leadership. So long for now friends and thank you for an amazing 14 months. Fear not though, I will not be disappearing so feel free to reach out should you ever need anything. Hail King @Canbec, may your reign be long and successful. Hail TKR

Order of the White Rose Announcement OWR formally withdraws from Orbis. Signed, Sval

Its been 2315 days since myself and some like minded individuals created the greatest alliance in the history of Orbis. That being said 2315 days is a long ass time to be leading an alliance, and since I started as a grumpy old bastard, I have only gotten even older and more grumpy. I feel like its time to move on, and start enjoying the AARP benefits. I am officially retiring as leader of Grumpy. Now that I am done talking about my favorite subject, its time to move onto more important matters. It's my esteemed pleasure to announce Presidential as the new leader of Grumpy, he has been my right hand man for years and I look forward to seeing how he will lead Grumpy to continued greatness.

I'm sure most of you are aware at this point that a large amount of politics in this game for the major alliances and spheres revolves around whales. Regardless of whether you want to or not, as a political leader you're a fool to ignore the whales in other spheres and allow them to grow unchecked. This is quite simply because the game mechanics have been set up for whales to be one of the biggest advantages economically and militarily. Quite simply, whales win wars. I'm sure most of you know this but just to illustrate the point, whales can easily down declare 10 cities with little to no effort. Fenris for example can almost hit me (a c38) whilst sitting at the same MMR (0250). Now it is completely impossible for anyone to realistically beat someone 10 cities above them if they're active and running full mil. Group these whales together such as we're seeing in Grumpy, TEst and even t$/Rose to an extent and we can see issues. Whoever has the most whales can wipe out their tiering and the tiering below them. Haven't even started about what they could do if they wanted to actually put effort into down declaring (it's over 10 cities btw). Now obviously wars aren't just fought in the upper tiers, they are fought in all tiers. However whales make a large portion of an alliance's wealth, lose your own whale tier and that's an incredibly expensive rebuild bill. It also means less income for a while. On the other side they can begin to bankroll or continue to grow. Grumpy for example took relatively no damage against BW last war. Recently Alex posted a bunch of changes that, once again, heavily favoured the whales in the game. New projects once again had food costs which whales mostly produce and thus they'll likely profit from the new resource sink. This came at no shock to anyone who has been tracking new projects, the majority have been helping whales in one form or another. He also added reducing city score (with no real reasoning behind it). I think this makes the outlook for the game look bleak. It's not politically healthy, it doesn't promote new players coming into the game and we could easily have a dominant whale tier in the game. The game has to imo make a choice on whether you want to simply entrench your own power in a dying game or whether you allow some competition to be able to rise up. Now there is no silver bullet to any of this, I wouldn't advocate nerfing whales dramatically. However there clearly needs to be some balances around the military and economic benefits they give compared to any other tiering. I believe military score needs a clear rework as does the range of which you can downdeclare. I believe we need more projects or economic benefits like the latest one that gives economic benefits for being smaller (this includes the c20s). Going to @Alex in the vein hope he reads this, but we need to probably actively talk about it when each change comes about. Alex only really notices glaringly inbalances in his game when it's increasingly obvious or people are loud about it.

Investor Contact: Keram Media Contact: Tarroc Peace has been declared between all parties in the current war, effective this day change: 1: There will be a 3.5 month blanket NAP between all parties, to conclude on the day change from May 17th into May 18th. This also extends the NAP between the members of WELP and the members of ODOO. 2: All current wars will be peaced out. All alliances will make an announcement that everybody needs to click the 'peace' button. 3: Raiding is allowed below C10. Raiders may still be countered.

Authorities in Singularity must drop the espionage and all other charges against Lysander that relate to his publishing activities as part of his work with the Royal Orbis News (RON). The Singularity government’s unrelenting pursuit of Lysander for having published disclosed documents that included possible war crimes committed by the Singularity military is nothing short of a full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression. Lysander is currently being held at #jail, a high security prison in the Orbis, on the basis of Singularity extradition request on charges that stem directly from the publication of disclosed documents as part of his work with RON. The Carthaginian Branch of Amnesty International strongly opposes any possibility of Lysander being extradited or sent in any other manner to The Singularity. There, he faces a real risk of serious human rights violations including possible detention conditions that would amount to torture and other ill-treatment (such as prolonged solitary confinement). The fact that he was the target of a negative public campaign by Singularity officials at the highest levels undermines his right to be presumed innocent and puts him at risk of an unfair trial. Lysander’s publication of disclosed documents as part of his work with RON should not be punishable as this activity mirrors conduct that investigative journalists undertake regularly in their professional capacity. Prosecuting Lysander on these charges could have a chilling effect on the right to freedom of expression, leading journalists to self-censor from fear of prosecution. The crimes Singularity (also known as Gular) are guilty of include: Plotted to dogpile on KT in the last week of November “If it aint a dogpile in SIN’s favor then it must be a rigged war!” Tried to gaslight poor Piggy when we tried deescalating on the KT plot by screaming “YOU ARE THE ONE PLANNING TO BLITZ US AND CAM” Piggy is still traumatized and suing for mental health compensation Allies of Singularity placed spies and bounties on CTO’s prots (Nemesys and FSO) and tried pretending otherwise Seriously why are yall so obsessed with my babies, Graybird much? For all these crimes and more, the freedom loving People’s Democratic Republic of Carthago, its mandatory volunteers (MILF, VT, NEM and FSO) and the Knights Templar declare war on Singularity, Cypher, Camelot and The Golden Horde

If you want to know what kind of person Red was outside the game, I went to visit him in the hospital today and there were a lot of people there who he played various games with that felt like they needed to give something back to him because he was so generous to them. So they went to say their goodbyes to someone they met playing games like P&W on the internet. This honestly blew my mind that he had such an impact with so many people, but that's also why I was there. He was declared brain dead yesterday after complications from heart surgery. He never woke up. However he was kept on life support so that his last wishes, which were donating his organs so that others may live, could be seen to fruition.

PEOPLE OF ORBIS WE,,, THE LEADERSHIP OF NEXSUCKS,,, DECLARE OUR PREEMPTIVE NEUTRALITY IN ANY UPCOMING CONFLICT ANY MILITARY WE BUILD IS PURELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF STATPADDING ON MICROS HERE AT NEXSUCKS,,, WE PRIDE OURSELVES FOR OUR ABILITY TO ACCOMPLISH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OUR WAR “PERFORMANCE” SPEAKS FOR ITSELF OUR BLOCK HAS A PLETHORA OF AMAZING TOOLS WE HAVE PREMIER ACCESS TO ONE OF THE BEST BANKS ALONG WITH SOME OUTSTANDING ALLIES AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL, DON’T FORGET OUR TOTALLY UNBIASED NEWS SERVER SO COME ON DOWN,,, AND REMEMBER THE NEXSUCKS MOTTO TL;DR Eclipse declares war on Nexsucks and the rest of The Back Room for offending us with their tomfoolery

In response to recent global developments, the Clock Bloc, the Backrooms, the Haunted Mansion, the Hand of Fate, and the Johnsons will from hereon be party to a common MDP, this common treaty shall be named the Grand Coalition. An attack on one will be treated as an attack upon the whole of the Grand Coalition. This MDP shall remain in place up until whichever of the following conditions occurs first: 1. Hollywood and Celestial spheres fight each other. 2. Hollywood sphere dissolves. 3. Celestial sphere dissolves. 4. PnW no longer exists. Signed, The Grand Coalition The Clock Bloc Eclipse Cataclysm Aurora Weebunism The Backrooms The Commonwealth Carthago The Legion The Wei Bourbon Street GATO The Haunted Mansion Farkistan United Purple Nations Polaris United Socialist Nations The Federation The Johnsons The Fighting Pacifists Waffle House Dark Brotherhood The Elites The Hand of Fate Disclaimer: This is a joke because signing half-game wide MDP's is f**king stupid, you know who you are.

The Fighting Pacifists and The Armed Peacekeepers settle down for the evening on their sofa of choice. The journey from Oasis was difficult. They were sure of their direction, but they didn't always choose the safest or easiest way. Their traveling companions B.L.O.C. had long gone to bed. Camelot rooted through the fridge for something to eat as a knock came to the door. TFP answered and found their old friend Black Skies at the door. They’d gone through some changes and wanted to be called Thunderstruck now. TFP shrugged and lit another while pointing to a comfy sofa. No sooner had Thunderstruck taken a seat than a reptilian hiss issued from Camelot and then lunged in an attack. TFP looked on in momentary confusion before setting its smoke down in annoyance. The lizard continued to beat on Thunderstruck as TFP asked them to stop. With a sigh, TFP picked up its bat. SMH. Could have focused on the future, on the friends you have, not the past and all the enemies you’ve made. TFP forced the bat between them and ushered Camelot out the door. TL;DR- Bonk-Bonk m’f’er, be gone in 72 hours. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz2i4vNBfmM

"To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal." - A.P.J. Abdul Kalam ~~~ Dear Friends and Enemies of Orbis, I’m writing to you all today with some important news. Our devoted king, Canbec, has decided to retire. I’m sure this news has not already been circulating all last night and today and will come as a complete and total shock to all. Whether you love him a lot or only a little, Canbec has been an incredible part of both our alliance and Orbis. He’s served The Knights Radiant with great love and devotion since July 2021, when he joined gov as a High Prince of War and began moving up through the ranks. He’s led the alliance since January 2023 and has done an amazing job. He saw us through five wars, two blocs, and one very successful merger. He helped raise two protectorates to allies. He served on the development team. And, arguably most impressive of all, he achieved what many thought was impossible: convincing TKR to move from Slack to Discord. Canbec, you’ve been an amazing leader for the last year and an even more amazing friend for the last three, and I’m grateful you’ll be sticking around as a Shard. Thank you for everything you’ve done for TKR and thank you for the trust you’ve put in me and in Ben to continue moving TKR forward. You’ve left us some big shoes to fill, and I hope we’ll do you justice. I also want to thank our allies, Grumpy Old Bastards, The Immortals, The Forgotten Realms, and Space Engineers, for supporting us during this transition. I look forward to working more with you in the coming months. Lastly, thank you to our members for believing in us and trusting us to serve you. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together. All the best, Adrienne, Queen of the Heralds ~~~ Dear Frenemies Orbis Wide: You can’t get rid of me forever! It is a sad occasion with Canbec’s retirement. Our game and community are better for all that Canbec has achieved and we appreciate everything he poured into it. Thanks for bringing us into the 21st century on Discord, designing some beautiful war badges, and seeming to answer DMs at all hours. You should be proud of all that you accomplished in milcom, growth in econ, implementing new tech, and making us some wonderful new friends in FA. Enjoy the best role in the game: retired former leader, advisor, and shard. You’ve earned your rest. Looking forward to your nitpicking of our future decisions! I’ll Leave the Rocking Chair Warm for Ya, Benfro, Prince of the Heralds ~~~ tl;dr:

An Address to the Peoples of Florida It is with a heavy heart, that we must inform our dearest citizens of Florida of a treacherous outside element attempting to bring down our most glorious state. The objectively inferior, cowardly, lackadaisical, barely nation state of Aurora, has, through a series of serious errors, attempted to plot against us. They attempted to put together a coalition of like-minded individuals to attack you, our dear citizens, whilst our most effective state troopers were on sabbatical. But never fear. Aurora, lacking the sheer competence of such a brilliant state as ours, and through their error, has found themselves removed from power amongst the other states. They are now engaged in a civil war. Now is the time to strike. This is why the most militarily efficient state of Florida, effective immediately, declares war on Aurora’s most trusted ally, Eclipse, and the alliance of city states known as Fortuna. PS: Except Guardian and Oblivion. They are taking a NAP.

TODAY THE ELEPHANTS DIE After months of hostile actions from elements within the Withheld bloc, Aurora and allies in Midgard have decided that the time for diplomacy is behind us and the time for action is now. Today on 11/11/22 at DC, Aurora and Midgard declare war on Withheld for the hostile actions by CTO. The Hostile Actions: Spy Rings Harboring troublemaker members Hiring pirates against our alliance 2IC doing spy attacks against our high gov and general membership Ghosting One hostile action after another, the poking at Aurora and our Space Empire continued, today we put an end to this and ensure that those responsible face the consequences. Long Live The Space Empire Long Live Aurora TLDR: Aurora and MG declares war on Withheld for the hostile actions of CTO

So basically you’re doing a temporary MDP to defend yourself against Clock? Isn’t this what MINC and Oasis did and got s*** on for it?

Was the moon landing real? Debatable. Is the earth flat? Also debatable. Want to know what isn’t debatable? The undeniable truth that Clock conspired with Oasis to take down Rose. Phoenyx and I stayed up all night putting the pieces of the puzzle together and its time to let you all in on it. Original HM alliances CotL and E404 tried to take down Rose during GnR war. What they didn’t expect was having to settle for white peace after GnR. Special thanks to Camelot for turning the tide of that war for Rose. No doubt this was very frustrating for the likes of Lefty, Keegoz, and other former HM alliances which have so oddly and suspiciously found their way back together on their alliance treaty web. So! They devise a plan… They cut a deal with Swamp. “You all haven’t been in a big war since Guns and Roses and you don’t want some long drawn out conflict. We will give you a nice short war in exchange for you shaving our infra so we can hit Rose.” The majority game piece movers in Swamp agreed and created a false CB for clock to hit them. A beautiful in your face ALLIANCE WIDE MDP. YES! ITS PERFECT! Clock needs to dilute the suspect list. They sleight of hand Blackwater into joining the fray over this public defensive coalition Swamp had made. It brings my heart to tears to think someone would deceive WANA in this way. The stage was set. The pieces were placed. Clock perfectly managed to tear down some infra while maintaining military control. Their whales could now join the fray. Everything was going according to plan. Except we caught scent of their plan. Fool me once, shame on… idk how the saying goes. They sounded the alarm, quickly got peace with Swamp and and turned their sights to Rose before it was too late. All this plotting which lead to this very moment. So… due to these blatant backroom handshakes between Clock and Swamp… VooDoo declares war on Clock and Swamp for plotting against us using both secret and public treaties as diversions. RIP in piece bozos. Screenshots to follow. There is no TLDR because the information above is too vital to just say something like VooDoo declares war on someone.

A TFP Statement I'd like to start out by saying that although I'm a newer political figure, I've always been a fan of the lengthy, well-written cb's backed by facts and evidence. For those that share a similar mindset, this one is for you. During the anti-fortuna war, members of the coalition (Florida, Bourbon Street, Mayhem, Cataclysm) decided to hit Aurora for their actions including but not limited to plotting against Florida, hitting allies within 72 hours of cutting them, and other acts. I should note that we supported their overarching goal to punish Aurora for their unprecedented actions. At the time, Aurora was involved in a conflict against Midgard (TI, UPN, SW). CTO, our ally, was fighting alongside Aurora, but was not targeted by any coalition members. One day after coalition members attacked Aurora, TFP declared war on Midgard to aid CTO given that the rest of the anti-fortuna coalition had taken out CTO's coalition partner. Florida members supported our efforts to help our ally, however, ODOO members, particularly Mayhem, had a different opinion. Their main gripes were a) that they had intended to save Midgard to spite Aurora, and we had taken that opportunity away, b) we jeopardized the success of taking down Aurora by hitting Midgard, and c) they were given no notice ahead of time for matters that indirectly affect them. Firstly, I must say that I agree with point c. It would have been wise to relay conflicting ideals with the coalition to avoid any mishaps. However, I must also say that it would have been nice to receive the same respect. We were not asked about coalition members hitting Aurora, but rather told that they would be. Why should we be forced to live with a choice others make that puts our ally at a disadvantage, and simultaneously not be allowed to make moves that benefit our them. These attempts to control our FA were feeble. While many in ODOO were angered with our decision, it is worth noting that TKR leadership, although possessing a different opinion, was understanding of our circumstance, to which I am thankful for. It is unfortunate that others in your sphere did not share your wisdom. Secondly, in regards to point b), it was a barefaced lie. We declared our wars an entire day after wars on Aurora were declared in which time all relevant tiers had been slotted. Additionally, with the combined forces of Florida, Bourbon Street, Mayhem, and Cataclysm, it was evident that the outcome of the war had been decided before it had been declared. It is also untrue that our entry into the Midgard conflict would jeopardize the Fortuna war. Figure 1: Effective Military Strength by Score Range courtesy of Locutus. The blue line represents the anti Fortuna coalition minus TFP (Florida, ODOO, HS, KT) while the red line represents Fortuna + Aurora and extensions. Metrics were recorded at 1:59 EST May 3rd, 2023, 42 hours after TFP entry into the CTO-Midgard conflict. As can be seen by the graph, the coalition had a pretty sizeable 🤏 advantage against fortuna and aurora without our help, so it is disingenuous to say that we may have hindered the success of the overall coalition. While it is true the graph is not exactly the time we entered the conflict, I believe it provides enough substance to say that our endeavor was not detrimental to the fortuna or aurora war efforts. They also tried to argue that we had hit nations engaged in wars with Aurora and their members, which was another lie. Upon review, our blitz targeted a total of 7 Midgard (TI + UPN + SW) nations as most were in beige. Of those 7, only one nation had some military and was engaged in a war with Aurora, and it was this lonely c21 formerly of Serene Wei. I wouldn't classify myself as a military expert, so I'll wait for Luci to confer, but I wouldn't rest the entire fate of the war on a single c21. All in all, our war into Midgard did not significantly impact the war on Aurora. The last of their grievances was that they would not be able to spite Aurora and save Midgard in the same manner, but that counter is pretty simple. At the end of the day, the safety and goals of my allies are more important to me than yours and I wouldn't be doing my job correctly if I didn't look out for my people, and I'm sure if you were in the same position as I was, you would feel the same way. So, now that you've taken the time to sit through the backstory why exactly does it all matter? I mean all of this in and of itself is certainly annoying but it isn't enough to warrant a reason to go to war. ODOO conjuring false narratives while picking and choosing what rules to follow when it suits them is a nuisance, but why is it important? Well, I'll tell you why. During our war with Midgard, the party that seemed the most interested in our conflict was Mayhem. Not because they were intrigued by our move, but rather because they tried to take control of it. Throughout the war, Mayhem attempted to limit our entry, limit our targets, control the timeframe, and set the peace terms. All of this for a war they weren't directly involved in. Not only is it extremely rude, but it's frankly laughable. How can they expect to control our FA when they don't even control their own? As comical as it sounds, the end of the story is anything but. After the conflict concluded, I was curious as to why a seemingly uninvolved alliance would be so interested in our war. It was then I was told by numerous sources that Mayhem had attempted to enter the conflict against us. Not only did they attempt to hit us as an alliance, but also attempted to do so while we were direct coalition partners! Not only did they plot against us, but they failed to see the hypocrisy of their actions. How can they get upset when we barely indirectly affect their conflict but turn around and plan to hit us while we are active partners. Their hypocrisy is amusing and their scheming is fruitless. Their actions have gone unpunished for too long. We weren't in a position to do anything about it then, but we certainly are now. Lastly, it should be mentioned that it is likely the rest of ODOO did not know about this horrendous plot. I'm sure some in ODOO will complain and retort that the entire bloc does not deserve to be punished for their actions. To them, I would say that if Mayhem thinks they have the power to plot against us, control our FA, and exercise blatant hypocrisy, then they, alongside their allies, deserve to pay the punishment for their shortcomings and failures. TFP declares war on ODOO for Mayhem's appalling actions, and to aid our allies in WELP Signed Shark - Shwin Facilitator - Erik Facilitator - Aligned Defender of Unity - Kieran Defender of Capital - Jamie

Here at ODOO headquarters, we often find ourselves wrestling with some of life's greatest mysteries. Can you dodge a wrench? Should balls be dodged? During our latest brainstorming session, and after a few drinks, the next great question of our generation has been asked: can a Rose dodge a ball? We went back and forth in the meeting room, and our thoughts were inconclusive. Suddenly, @Kiloist II had a drunken Bill Nye moment and shouted out... "SCIENCE RULES!" And so we've decided to put this great question of our generation to the test... Hey Rose.... DODGE THIS -------------------- TL;DR ODOO declares war on Rose and friends for the following reasons: Rose attempting to frame us for the coalition against Fortuna; Rose attempting to pay people to join a coalition against us; and general backroom dealings.

Lmfao this game is led by wimps As if a 3.5 month NAP for 1 day of fighting wasn't enough, they somehow find a way to extend it to 6.5 months👌

For me, as a pirate, knowing who can counter me from an alliance is as important as knowing who I can raid and while that green little tick mark shows people who are in my range, I still have to either manually calculate or use third party tools (same effort) to know people in my defensive range. And although only once in a while, I believe it would help landlubbers too and the community in general. So here I suggest making some change to that icon, and instead of describing I'll just go ahead and show you how exactly: : nations I can declare on : nation I can declare on and they also can declare on me : nations that can declare on me but I can't declare on them and on a table it should look like this : If Alex/game dev team actually considers this, they can dm me on discord for original files and PSDs (same res as current icon).

Guardian: strength in unity On December 7, 2007, a baby Guardian was born from the merger of Genesis and Mutual Defense Coalition. From our birth on the moon, we have journeyed across many different planets, before finally coming down to Orbis in December 2013, which we have called home ever since. To celebrate the occasion, we've prepared a history of Guardian, covering all the major games we participated in prior to P&W. History of Guardian Feel free to join us on our lawn this evening and to share in the 'member berries. Guardian Public Discord

Atlantis falls into the ocean once again. In 360 B.C, Plato told the story of Atlantis via the work “Timaeus and Critias”. “They created a utopian civilization,” he said. As per the myth, Atlantis was the domain of the god of the oceans, “Poseidon”. Poseidon fell in love with a mortal woman named “Kleito”, who then gave birth to 5 sets of demi-god twin boys, who were the first rulers of Atlantis. The island of Atlantis was divided between the 10 boys, with the eldest, Atlas, being given the title “King of Atlantis”, and granted control of the central hill and surrounding areas of the capital. It was here where the 10 rulers of Atlantis would come to pass judgement upon their people, and of course, to pay tribute to Poseidon. The Atlantean Empire grew much larger and more powerful, reaching as far as Egypt and Central Europe before being driven back by an Athenian led coalition of nations. When Zeus, the king of gods, saw the Atlantean’s acts, he gathered the other gods to decide a suitable punishment. It is stated that the island was beset by earthquakes and floods, causing it to sink deep to the depths of the ocean, never to be seen again. Atlantis was thus dubbed “The Lost Empire”. Until 2019, “The Lost Empire” was just a story told over thousands of years and spreading around the world, but then on 14 September, 2019 two players called “Atlan” and “Sir Oliver'' wrote the first charter of The Lost Empire, and gave it the motto “They said we were lost, Well let us be found”. Since then, TLE has been more than just a story. It has been a community, and without the people of TLE, we would not have made any of the memories in which we have been graced with whilst being a part of this community. All things that are good, must sadly come to an end. Now is the time for Atlantis to sink back into the depths of the ocean, to one day be awoken again. TL;DR: The Lost Empire falls back into the ocean (disbands as of the 4th of November). Signed: Ocean Master: Putmir Imperia: Xi Jinping Advisors: Dullard, Onuris, Ralle, and Sir Oliver Legatus of Economic Affairs: Waterwall Legatus of Internal Affairs: Henrik Legatus of Military Affairs: germanicus12 Praetor(s) of Economic Affairs: Dream and Mega Praetor of Internal Affairs: Damon I Praetor of Military Affairs: Ron

To the Orbis, In seeing the gridlock of our orbis politics, horrible destruction of infrastructure, the potential hyper inflation of our market, and the destruction of our nations, I ask Clock and Backroom to deescalate their conflict and engage in peace dialogue. I also ask anyone who share my stance to sign your name to this document. ford/362739, Wholesome Exemplar of the Salon of the Wholesome People JustCallMeRick#3603, Wholesome Person of the Salon of the Wholesome people, High Officer of Military Affairs of United Armies Bariona Gador, Rosian of Rose Fine and Dandy, Wholesome Exemplar of the Salon of the Wholesome People, econ officer of United Armies note: all signers do not represent the stance of their respective alliance. Signers represent the stance of themselves. Titles are just to allow people know where people come form.

With the announcement of the Hollestial, the awaited Sequel to dumb MysOasis treaty. I feel the best wait to combat stupid FA moves, is with even stupider FA moves. So i proposed to Clock, Andromeda, SoL, CamBros, Haunted Mansions, Backrooms, Circus, tHoF-Morningstar, and Johnsons the creation of a PacMan Pact. We can finally reenter the age of Bipolarity Tiering Charts Very Equal Fight Credit to DNN for the chart, Credit to my Brain for coming up with such a great idea. /s - But really was this Hollestial Treaty really necessary?

For years a silent cult has grown within the state of Carthago in Orbis, and in skies above within Aurora. This cult, discovering the Event Horizon has devoted itself to the Event. Worshipping the impending consumption and death by the massive whole ripped into the galaxy by such an Event, the leaders of this cult have now come into the open. In a mass gathering within the Cothon Harbor, space ships from Aurora have docked and the four leaders have emerged to speak to their people, and indeed to the world at large. The followers of Event Horizon have emerged. In earthly realms, where rivers roar, Horizon’s warriors march with pride untamed, Their empire vast, forever to explore. Beneath the skies, their gods adore, With glyphs and chants, their destiny proclaimed, In earthly realms, where rivers roar. With obsidian hearts, they do implore, To the gods of death, their strength untamed, Their empire vast, forever to explore. Through jungles dense, their banners soar, In serpentine dance, their enemies maimed, In earthly realms, where rivers roar. To distant lands, their banners they bore, Their legacy written, their glory acclaimed, Their empire vast, forever to explore. Though ages pass, their spirit, an ore, Their legacy echoes, in lands untamed, In earthly realms, where rivers roar, Their empire vast, forever to explore.

Village and Alex will now be running things. I'm leaving for personal reasons. Was planning this for closer to August, but things have sped up. It's been fun PnW, Pre out.

Congratulations Orbis. You did it. After 864 days of pure chaos, unadulterated madness, and multiple failed coalition attempts, you finally managed to beat the big bad and put an end to Vein’s reign of terror. Thank you to everyone who got us here, from the alliances who we rolled multiple times to the alliances who we rolled then worked with then rolled again, or to the alliances that we never rolled. It’s been a good run, but it might just be time to pack up our bags and call it quits. TL;DR Eclipse chooses not to recognize hostilities with anyone else besides Rose For legal reasons we still recognize hostilities with Rose, Black Knights, The Fighting Pacifists, The Knights Radiant, House Stark, Knights Templar, Dark Brotherhood, Banana Stand, Cataclysm, Daedalus, Name Withheld, The Armed Peacekeepers, Bourbon Street, The Hand of Fate, Orchid, Paradise, Mayhem, Requiem, Freehold of the Wolves Offshore, The Forgotten Realms, The House of the Dragon, Paragon (fake), Swiss Account, The Children of Yakub and anyone else I may be missing who's currently hitting us.

Hello Friends, As you are likely aware by now, a state of hostilities exist between Rose/Eclipse and Grumpy, Guardian, and Oblivion. As it should also be clear, the Syndicate has decided not to partake in this war unless we are obligated to due to our treaties. Many people have questions, so I am going to be explaining our position, how we got here, what went wrong, and how we’re moving forward. Since the end of last war, the Syndicate has been planning on leaving or significantly pairing down Celestial. We understood that if we kept Celestial around as the largest sphere, our options were limited, and so began to brainstorm what a new path might look like for the Syndicate. While the Syndicate was considering its options on how to proceed, we were approached by certain elements on plans for an offensive. At the time, the Syndicate declined to participate, because hitting someone immediately after a rebuild is a bad precedent to set, even if you are angry. As our plans to transition got underway, we informed Rose that we’d no longer be interested in an offensive, this was especially so with us planning on transitioning to a new sphere. Rose however proposed that they would hit GGO with Eclipse. It is not my place to tell other alliances what they can or cannot do, so I informed them that I would honor our treaty should they come under attack from TKR. It is not my intent to get involved in this conflict, but I am a man of my word, and I will not have it be said that tS doesn’t defend her allies. I thought this would be a middle ground between not jeopardizing Rose’s plans, and allowing the Syndicate to do what’s best for itself and the community. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re keenly aware of the leaks that got widely disseminated on the 24th of August. After this past war with Hollywood, the Syndicate and I personally was enraged at being hit twice in a row by Hollywood, especially under no pretense of a CB. While I don’t believe my desire to get revenge is unfounded or unjust, the ways it was being considered on how to carry it out were. This desire for revenge, coupled with the rumor mill, led me to believe that TKR-GGO intended to remain linked through a secret treaty. I chose to believe it at the time, but it is clearly untrue. It's a good lesson in verifying with the appropriate sources, and not believing the worst in others. Since I’ve been the Chief Global Strategist of the Syndicate, I have found myself locked in a cycle of conflict with the forces of Hollywood, and I’ve let myself become blinded by the need to compete with them. Our fixation on alliance’s like Grumpy has led to us disregarding large swathes of the game, and coming off as hostile and disinterested in the broader affairs of Orbis. If I were to continue to go down this path, it would only lead to darkness, and the type of politics we all vowed to fight against many moons ago. It is clear that the Syndicate must take a step back, and re-evaluate what its current politics have wrought. I don’t imagine this will be a comfortable process, but things worth doing rarely leave you in your comfort zone. The Syndicate must choose to walk the road to a new dawn. -WANA Chief Global Strategist

The Introduction Sponsored by DNN: https://discord.gg/MDYdBkzFh4 (but I would love if people shared this in other news servers as well!) To most experienced people, this much is already known. But it's hard to come to conclusions with just strong sentiments alone, so why not prove it with numbers? For some context, Castle Camelot is the Camelot offshoot alliance primarily for members without Discord. This is their recruitment message: The Bank Logs The first place my investigation led me was to automatically log every transaction to and from every Castle Camelot member in the past 2 months: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hn-o8PryN7qfWTC0ArqLaMkuJW6CFeinPShH96Pk2ks/edit#gid=0 Between 115 transactions not involving looting other alliances or doing business with external alliances, here's how it breaks down: 6 deposits from government members with a value of ~$543m 31 withdrawals from government members with a value of ~$1.65b (6 of which were directly from Castle Camelot, with a value of ~$1b) 33 deposits from alliance members with a value of ~$664m 45 withdrawals to alliance members with a value of ~$141m (41 grants, 4 loans/withdrawals/misc) Obviously, there are a lot of glaring errors here. Like, why are there only 78 total transactions between 194 members? That number gets even worse when looking at the 41 grants. The Grant System All 41 were welcoming grants, as specified in the recruitment message. If that weren't already bad enough (I'll get to that later), it's already clear that not everyone who joins Castle Camelot even gets a welcoming grant. 166 of the current members joined the alliance in the past 2 months, so there is not even an excuse of members getting a welcoming grant only after a certain time staying in the alliance. Furthermore, it appears that the grants that were given out were only hastily done, mostly on the same day, not relevant to when each individual member actually joined the alliance: (Don't want to screenshot all of them but you get the point) I was curious why there were no other grants ever sent out beyond these ones, so I did a little digging. Here's a sample of what actual current and former members told me when asked if there were any other grants even available for members: So, this much is clear -- Castle Camelot is not remotely interested in growing its members. The Government So, let's look at the opposite side of the coin. How is the government doing on grants? Well this much isn't shocking, but it is disappointing nonetheless. The leader is not only withdrawing poorly-tagged money from the bank, but also depositing it later under his own name and using it to fund his own cities. Without me prompting it, this is what another member had to say: When your own members know it's happening, that's when you know you're really not even trying to hide it! EDIT: Flavee has offered a perspective from Camelot of some of the money sent, and although I can't definitively connect or disconnect links between it and Castle Camelot, I can confirm the screenshots are legitimate and therefore have pasted the full chat logs available in an Imgur album for the sake of transparency and fairness in judgement: https://imgur.com/a/LqtCSZJ The Taxes (and how Castle Camelot Makes Money) And, the final piece of the puzzle. My first mission was discovering what the Castle Camelot tax rate was. Members more or less gave the same corroborating evidence: The next part was figuring out how much Castle Camelot makes in a day. Thanks to Locutus for being useful for this as always, also thanks to Locutus for excluding people who don't contribute to alliance tax revenue (grey nations, VM nations, etc): And the final part I needed was simply the alliance score graph: Now about 2 months ago, Castle Camelot was only about half the score as it is today, so I'll be generous and estimate that the revenue back then was also about half of 195m. Putting that together, from the relatively linear growth rate, we can estimate that Castle Camelot members made about 8.8b in cash and resources in the past 2 months. Combining that information with the 30% tax rate, we can then estimate that Castle Camelot earned about 2.6b in tax revenue. No small number! So, let's put all of the numbers together one more time. In the past two months: ~$543m deposited by gov ~$1.65b withdrawn from gov ~$664m deposited by members (much of which, I assume, will not be returned by Castle Camelot or kept if members quit) ~$141m withdrawn to members, ~123m of which was from welcoming bonuses ~2.6b made in tax revenue I don't have to explain why numbers of this scale don't lie! Why We Should Care I'll keep this part short and sweet. It may be easy to not care about a bunch of noobs who joined an alliance because they didn't want to use Discord, but I think that it's important everyone who joins PnW is served to their best interests and not taken advantage of regardless of where they start out. I'll leave a final quote as food for thought here to what should happen: And all that from a very brief set of interactions I had. I cannot overstate this enough -- a little compassion can go a long way! The Future There are three different ways I see this going for me. First, the Camelot crew declares war on me in retaliation (come at me bro), second, they dodge questions and gaslight the public and their members not to believe my lies, or third, they admit it and give a so what. Whatever it is, I don't see them apologizing or trying to fix their mistakes, because evidently this is a profitable venture for them. So, I would like to give a call to action for all alliances to do a few things: First, poach, poach, poach! Spread awareness to all Castle Camelot members that they're being scammed, and that your alliance will accept the better ones with open arms. Like with the message above, some just need some proper attention in order to get more involved in the game! And to the ones who don't want or cannot make a Discord regardless, there are still plenty of other alliances available (for example, SoL) that will actually help their newer members out. Second, if you still don't care enough to do that, why not launch a crusade to liberate the members? Would be a proper example of a fun CB that ceased to exist in this game far too long ago. A Thanks Thank you to the reader for reading until the very end! Thanks to the DNN staff for providing some info, and to the current and former Castle Camelot members who so patiently fielded my many questions. And, if anyone would like me to investigate any other alliance, no matter how big or small, feel free to shoot me a DM on Discord or in-game!

FOR PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT THE QUIZ AND DON'T CARE ABOUT THE ANALYSIS: https://hidude45454.github.io/alliancepersonalityquiz/ The TL;DR: 13 questions to give you an estimate of your top 5 and bottom 5 most/least similar alliances, maybe useful for players looking to join an alliance! 4 of those questions are based on my rough assessment of each alliance, and 1 is based on low-tier raiding rates (will cover both in detail below), so feel free to exclude those questions if you want. This is only semi-scientific so please treat as primarily entertainment Alliances Counted: All the alliances that I contacted were in the top 50 or training alliances of alliances in the top 50 (I separated training aas from main aas). Alliances that got back to me on my questionnaire (thank you to the respondents!): Rose, The Knights Radiant, The Syndicate, The Immortals, Cataclysm, The Fighting Pacifists, Eclipse, The Commonwealth, Bourbon Street, Grumpy Old Bastards, Guardian, Aurora, Carthago, Terminus Est, Weebunism, The Hand of Fate, The Legion, The Wei, Black Knights, Soldiers of Liberty, Dark Brotherhood, House Stark, Waffle House, Camelot, Name Withheld, Order of the White Rose, The Dead Rabbits, United Purple Nations, The Enterprise, The Elites, Federated States of Orbis, Serpentis, The Armed Peacekeepers, Arrgh, Farkistan, Church Of Atom, Global Alliance & Treaty Organization, Polaris, Hogwarts, Unforgiven Legion, United Socialist Nations, Yarr, The Federation, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Respublica Romana, Genesis, Sanctuary, Morningstar, Oblivion, Apollo, Otaku Shougaku, The Mortals, Convent of Atom, The Circus, The Cosmonauts, Daedalus, The Hive Pending alliances: None at the moment! Declined alliances: Advanced Syndicalist Mechanics This is a running quiz, meaning I will constantly be adding/modifying alliances and alliance results, so if you would like your alliance featured or would like your alliance values changed please send me a message or DM (I will include any alliances regardless of rank!) If you would like your final alliance description to be changed, please contact me as well! Alliance responses will be kept confidential. Methodology: 13 questions were chosen based on general traits and descriptions you may recognize each specific alliance for, including around areas of basic info, structure, community, and competence. I will provide a description of each question/trait below! 7 of those questions were picked based on factual information from each alliance, and the other 6 were directly taken from questions sent to an IA gov member, close contact, or leader in each alliance: The structure of the quiz was directly inspired from The Official Knights Radiant Order Quiz (AKA: the thing you take to get into TKR) and tl;dr no quiz site on the market had a way to set up a quiz like this on their own site so I legit just coded it and made my own site rofl. (I hope it looks okay) Potential downsides: some people may prioritize certain traits more than others, and that wasn't accounted for, but that would probably take a lot of additional effort to factor in. I will do it if people request it enough though. Some people also may prefer a Likert scale over a 100-point scale, but too bad :serious: Question/Trait 1: Size How it was measured: Each alliance was given a score averaged from its score ranking and its membership count ranking to give equal weight to both (this was done pre-militarization), and this score was compared to all other values. Potential downsides: This is just a heuristic and not any official measurement. Since main aas/training aas/extensions were counted separately, there may be some fuzziness with membership/score counts possibly combining between them. Question/Trait 2: Age How it was measured: The age of the alliance was calculated and compared to the age of other alliances. Potential downsides: Different people may perceive what "old" and "new" are differently depending on stuff like how long they've been playing the game. Question/Trait 3: Competency [HIDUDE-BIASED] How it was measured: Each alliance was given a grade based on my assessment of their general war performance, and this grade was converted into a score. Potential downsides: My assessment is obviously biased in this aspect (although I think it's pretty good), and also the grade can't perfectly be converted into a score. Question/Trait 4: Profile [HIDUDE-BIASED] How it was measured: Each alliance was given an estimated value based on my assessment of how public or visible the alliance tries to be and/or is made so by the community. Potential downsides: Same as above, my perception of profile will be different than other people's. Question/Trait 5: Exclusitivity, Question/Trait 6: Maturity, Question/Trait 7: Technology, Question/Trait 8: RP, Question/Trait 9: Activity, Question/Trait 10: Community How it was measured: These were directly copied from the responses alliance representatives gave me. Potential downsides: Due to me keeping responses anonymous, alliances may not have had a perfect baseline to compare their responses to, and also may have felt the urge to inflate certain values to make themselves look more desirable, although I can't know to what degree. Still, I think people did the best job they could answering these. Question/Trait 11: War Rate [HIDUDE-BIASED] How it was measured: I counted the number of offensive wars each alliance has declared in the past two years and translated that into a rough assessment of how they prefer to fight. Potential downsides: Same as above, my perception of war will be different than other people's. Question/Trait 12: FA Leadership [HIDUDE-BIASED] How it was measured: I gave a value based on my assessment of each alliances' major/macro/micro status and how much they participated in FA discussions. Potential downsides: Same as above, my perception of FA presence will be different than other people's, especially since I obviously don't have a full picture here. Question/Trait 13: Raid Rate [LOW-TIER RAIDING] How it was measured: I wrote a script (pre-war) to measure every alliance's number of wars C10 and below for the past month, and counted the number of members C10 and under to get a number of wars declared per person: This rate was compared to other rates and given a value. Potential downsides: As you can see, a lot of big alliances have 0s, primarily because they don't have any members C10 or below. This is why I made the low-tier raiding question optional in my quiz. Percent Similarity Calculations: For all % similarities I displayed, I calculated the Euclidean distance between a user's responses and the responses of each alliance, and divided by the max possible Euclidean distance to get a "dissimilarity" score, which I could convert into a similarity percentage. (Not the most scientific way of doing it, but there are a bunch of different methods of doing it too that I considered not applicable, although feel free to suggest another way of doing it) Alliance Comparison: I decided to take my data one step further and compare alliances with each other to see the most similar and least alliances to each alliance. In order to do this, I also created separate categories of classification for comparison: General: includes all alliance traits. Alliance Structure: how an alliance's government is set up and how the alliance runs in general. For example, democracies may run differently than dictatorships, and older alliances may run different than newer ones. Includes traits #1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 13. Impact: how much of an impact an alliance strives to have on the game as a whole. More impactful alliances generally seek to have a greater public image or FA sector and/or can punch above their weight during war. Includes traits #1, 3, 4, 9, 11, 12, and 13. Community: what type of community each alliance has. Based on the responses I got from representatives. Includes traits #5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. Competence: the military or political ability of each alliance. Includes traits #3, 4, 5, 9, and 11. Seniority: the age and experience of each alliance. For example, more senior alliances are older in age (duh), may have more mature members, and focus more on non-PnW discussion, and vice versa for newer alliances. Includes traits #2, 6, and 10. You can see how each alliance stacked up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FerD_fKtu-5kdxDGlTYRo23eAWmyM2VdS09mFsW-LaQ/edit#gid=822663440 Grouping Alliances: Finally, I decided to group all alliances as a whole for fun. This was done through a process called dimensionality reduction so that I could reduce a 13d question space into a 2d space easily interpretable by humans. First, I processed question data and performed PCA on it. The tl;dr of what PCA does is it uses your original responses as "weights" in order to determine a combined set of important generalized features of each alliance. Here is a percentage graph of how significant each feature was in the final calculation: And here's how each question "weight" or factored into each of the first three features: Finally, in order to arrange all the alliances into identifiable groups, I picked an optimal number of groupings to use by processing the data using an elbow method for clustering: Using that, I decided to create about 4 separate groups. Using the chart generated from PCA, I clustered into 4 groups using K-means clustering in order to get this final chart: Here, you can see some interesting results and kind of see how each alliance got grouped, even though some questions may not have covered those traits directly! Light Blue: this seems to be a grouping of generally higher-tier or more exclusive older alliances. Pink: this seems to be a grouping of mostly lower-tier or mid-tier alliances that I can only graciously describe as "mid" lmao. Most of them belong to Backrooms/Johnsons/HM. Dark Blue: this seems to be a grouping of mostly lower-tier alliances that are either fairly new/low-profile or training alliances. Red: this seems to be a grouping of mostly mid-tier alliances that often have long histories or who are fairly established and well-known in-game. Final Thoughts I certainly learned a lot from this entire process, both from the coding aspect and finding out more about each alliance! Thanks to all the people who read through the entire way, and I hope results are to people's liking Again, please contact me if you would like your alliance values added or changed! Changelog 5/22/22: -Fixed descriptions for WH, TI, TEst, and USN -Obfuscated code -Added shareable embed/image options for Discord or Slack -Added Hive 5/23/22: -Fixed description for R&R

WAKE UP SHEEPLE

Investor Contact: Vemek Media Contact: WANA Hello Friends, As I am sure you are all well aware, tonight, the Syndicate and the combined forces of Blackwater have been attacked by Hollywood. This attack was a pre-meditated affair, driven by nothing more than fear, revenge, and pettiness. While it does not shock me that the combined forces of HW would nurse such childish grievances, I am disappointed nonetheless. After the conclusion of Brawlywood, I along with Blackwater, charted a new FA path for ourselves. One not hellbent on making others answer for grievances, but one that prioritizes the type of politics that makes the game fun and more enjoyable for everyone. Rather than simply looking to hold Hollywood down for an eternity, we had our war, and attempted to make amends for the future, so that this played out conflict would not repeat itself, so that GG and The Syndicate could cease our pattern of conflict. I sought to work with a diverse range of alliances to achieve this objective, including the Head of FA for The Knights Radiant, Morf. As Morf will tell you, I spent the past 4 months trying to reconcile our relationship with TKR. I was incredibly transparent with him about our thinking, and made it clear that I preferred a world in which HW and BW did not have to be enemies. He told me he felt the same, but clearly he was misleading me, which is strange because TKR made a big deal last war about being honest in their dealings. As for the “CB” being presented by the force of Hollywood, I do not understand how your alliances can rant for pages on the forums about my CB against HW being weak, while you simply peddle revenge as yours. It’s incredibly weak, and I think you know that, which makes this all this hit all the more ludicrous. Your sphere was aware that the Syndicate did not pose any danger to yours, yet you have been felled by the deadliest sin of them all, ego. I hope the temporary dopamine rush will have been worth it. Since taking over the position of Chief Global Strategist, I have been an outspoken proponent of politics that will push the game into a healthier state. I have taken a hardline on actions I feel hurt the meta of the game. I know someone else who used to do that as well, your new friend, Lord Tyrion. There was a time when Tyrion was the biggest proponent of mini-spheres, and multipolarity. A time where he felt so strongly about it that he entered Guns N’ Roses. Is this war really good for the game? Is signing the Immortals to an already powerful bloc just so they can hit a smaller sphere really good for the concept of mini-spheres? I find it hard to wrap my head around how this moves the game forward into a better state. The Immortals have abandoned their principles twice now. First when they signed an MDP with Mystery Inc., now when they have joined Hollywood so they can get revenge. Perhaps in this war, I have failed. Perhaps Grumpy shall score their cheap points and then stroke their egos in private. But even if the outcome of this war is a failure, at least I can go to sleep tonight knowing that I have not abandoned my principles, nor have I abandoned my optimism for what this game can be. -WANA About SYNDICATE, INC., SYNDICATE, Inc., based near Nassau, The Bahamas, is the world's leading gasoline, aluminum and munitions distributor for a wide variety of peacekeeping and humanitarian activities. Wholly-owned SYNDICATE, Inc. subsidiary brands include The Enterprise, which provides development and growth opportunities for multinational prodigies around the globe, and The Dead Rabbits. For more information about SYNDICATE, Inc., and its activities, contact WANA, Chief Global Strategist.

Yes it's called a screen reader, it reads the screen. I hear that sighted people have one built in though.