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Orbis, One year ago today, Name Withheld was founded. It wouldn't be a Name Withheld post without an internal memo, and this one is from the day we were founded. We're also pleased to announce the continuation and upgrade of our relationship with SCP-999 The Knights Radiant. I therefore present to you: [The Redacted Accords] Preamble Name Withheld and The Knights Radiant, henceforth known as “signatories”, sign a non-chaining Mutual Defense Pact. Article I - Sovereignty Both signatories agree to respect each other's sovereignty. Article II - Intelligence Sharing Both signatories agree that the sharing of information is essential for the security of both. Both signatories agree that said information will be communicated without delay, and not be falsified or altered in any way. Article III - Non-aggression pact There will be no attacks on each other. However, a special exemption may be made by the ruling monarch of The Knights Radiant to allow Name Withheld to nuke BigMorf when required. Article IV - non-chaining Mutual Defense Both signatories are obligated to defend each other in the event of an attack by an external party. This article is waived in the event that a signatory comes under attack as a result of obligations towards an external party. Article V - The breaking of a marriage Should either signatories wish to terminate this treaty, they may do so with 72 hours notification. This notification should be given in private. Once 72 hours have passed, the treaty becomes null in its entirety. Article VI - RedactedRedacted Both signatories agree with urgency that RedactedRedactedRedactedRedactedRedactedRedactedRedacted Signed, The Knights Radiant King Of the Heralds - Don Wizleone Herald of War - Albus Percival Wulfric Canbec Brian Dumbledore Herald of Growth - Sir Lancelot the Brave Herald of Internal Affairs - Don Wasoleone Herald of Fabrials - Kyutie Ghostblood Babsk - Big Don’t Nuke Me Morf Name Withheld [REDACTED] O5-1: The Pilot, Internal Operations O5-3: Nine-tails, Military Operations O5-4: The Dreamer, Economic Development tl;dr NW turns 1, signs MDP with TKR

16th January 2022 To Whom it may concern, Effective immediately the following alliances have been granted full membership into Mystery Inc United Purple Nations The Federation Dark Brotherhood The mentioned alliances agree to the terms of the original treaty. Effective in 72 hours from now the following alliance announced their exit from Mystery Inc The Commonwealth Signed - Global Alliance & Treaty Organization: KittenGosCrazy - Minister of Foreign Affairs Greywall - Assembly Chairman The General Assembly The Commonwealth: Prime Minister: RightHonorable Chief of Staff: Jeric, Lionstar Foreign Secretary: Azazel The Federation: Kosta, King and Lord Ambassador Shohan, Ambassador Jerry, Ambassador The United Socialist Nations: Darvolt - Vanguard Matrix - Vanguard United Purple Nations: Cora McStrap - Prime Minister Cameron Axley - Chief of Staff Farkistan: Kitschie, Head of FA Bozzie, Head of MA RhealLuhn, Head of IA Ampersand: Kilo - Drunken Rambler Hannah - Glittery One And and and and and Dark Brotherhood: Arima - Listener Jon - Listener CCJK - Keeper

For anyone that thinks this is a joke, I share this from our high gov For real though it's been a hell of a year, ty for everyone that's played a role in it - TKR, NW members past and present. ❤️

Happy birthday and congrats on 1 year! I'm very excited about this upgrade and I'm sure Wizel and Morf (and Ben before them) are very excited that I can now stop asking when we are going to upgrade. Love you guys ❤ To many more years! 🥂 You don't exactly smell like roses either, sir

Good luck TCW it was a good ride.

To the future! 🍻 Best of luck TCW with your move.

Has it been a year? 🎂Congrats SK 2.0 Name Withheld on your 1st. birthday!🎂 Mayest thou prove thyselves somewhat worthy of being Queen Adrienne's King Wizel's Royal Serfdom! God Save The Queen King! 😎

Adrienne stinks. #NiceGuyBradley

To was a pleasure short as it was. Good luck in the future and don't be strangers

Congrats NW! I look forward to us getting closer as time passes

Congratulations!

Happy birthday and congrats on the well deserved upgrade! I am also in the camp that both @Squeegee and @Adrienne stink and should shower ASAP.

We need to disband.

Good luck moving forward TCW and congrats on your new home UPN/DB/TFed!

Excited to work with you all. Was excited to work with you too again TCW but I'm sure we will work together with you in the future!

It's been a great ride with Mystery Inc, and I wish them all the best in the future. o7

I think it'd be useful to have the option to send spies into a nation to sabotage their Iron Dome missile defense and reduce it's effectiveness by up to 100%, depending on how successful the operation is. But it would only be valid for the very next missile being launched at that nation. Meaning that you would need to launch the sabotage operation prior to EACH missile strike, if you want to guarantee that your missile will have a high probability of successfully evading the iron dome.

Good stuff Bradley - glad to see that upgrade finally came!

Happy b-day, and congratulations to upgrading to a brand new MDP. Looking forward to working with you.

Congrats NW.

Good luck to all parties involved, only the greatest of diplomacy could have prevailed here.

Glad to join. Sad to see TCW leave. Best wishes TCW and looking forward to the future!

Congrats to all alliances involved, and wherever you may end up TCW.

edit: wrong post

Disclaimer : OP is unapologetically biased towards Arrgh and this post is intended to be a rant and not a fair assessment of the state of piracy on Orbis. I have been hearing opinions and takes from a lot of people about “what is wrong with Arrgh” and the answer is not much different from the answer of “what is wrong with Orbis”. But first let me address the guesswork the community has been doing so far Bots :- imo bots are more suited for Econ jobs and to some extent IA, when it comes to raiding and warfare, it's not entirely maths like econ and hence cannot give you a definite piece of information that you can act upon. They can still process data and I like them for that fact but raiding and fighting requires some presence of mind that no bot is going to teach you. The point here is to not completely reject bots but to point out the extent some people can rely on them. To put it bluntly, if you think your (or any) AA can't function without locutus then you probably shouldn't be running an AA. Arrgh doesn't make money :- Anyone who thinks making money by raiding is an achievement in this game is not aware of how ridiculously easy it actually is, just the money making part, if you are in the right tier, you can easily pull few hundred million a week. But does it really mean you are achieving anything higher an Arrgh pirate that just got himself into 3 days of blockade just to drop one nuke on some 3k infra guy? Look at Apophis folks, they probably have printed most cash (net) than any other group of raiders, what impact does it have on the game? literally none, they'd be making more than your entire alliance and you would not notice their existence until someone mentions or you randomly bump into one. -------- Now what exactly is wrong with Arrgh, and again the answer to this question is exactly same as the answer of "Why Mythic had to go", "Why KT kept switching to farming", "Why whales are leaving raiding", "Why profit (for raiders) means avoiding conflict", "Why Apophis stays in their city range", and in a greater sense ; "Why warfare in this game is literally just making sure your enemy doesn't have planes." Sure you can have a Dryad, Key, Murtaza (and his alt) and RJ every once in a while who may be capable of consistently making profits in 20+ range but exceptions don't make rules, profitable piracy is a dead business for anyone who isn't willing to invest the tiring amount of efforts for the same returns a whale can get while being inactive for 2 days. And ironically enough the people who say "Arrgh isn't same anymore" are also equally affected by these negative characteristics of this game, the only difference is that since they only fight once in 6 months, they can get away with it and can afford the ignorance to still speculate on "why Arrgh isn't same anymore". So the summary here is that for a raiding alliance, the best bet towards survival here is to sail low and avoid conflict in order to make profits, be it SI, Apophis, Defcon, or Moonlit Sakura. Those who didn't follow that and went to conflicts or just built up to a range where conflicts were inevitable, quickly found out that they need to go, wrap themselves in paper and farm instead if they want any consistent low effort profits. Arrgh refuses to do either and thus pays a much higher price than both, to a great extent stagnating its growth as an alliance. So what's the point of Arrgh? To be a place for people who don't give a damn about what the 'point' is. To exist as a giant middle finger to the conventions, the unwritten rules this game has developed and so dearly adheres to. I am hoping for this to be my definite post answering all questions, post below if you have any, next time I get a question, I'll just send them a link for this.

Congrats to both NW and TKR on the treaty, and to NW for their anniversary too. Maybe NW can finally tell us their name in some sort of big anniversary reveal 🤔

furiously cancels morf

furiously cancels the treaty

Happy birthday!

Congrats on the birthday and on a well deserved upgrade. Looking forward to continue working with y'all as partners.

Because some weebs adore the not-so-nice qualities of Japan.

Best Hoax: BigGtheSlayer Biggest bepis: Doge Hottest Body: Gek Sexiest Spanish Person: Audon Sexiest Voice: SuperCheese Best Alliance: Spank Bank Worst Alliance: Black Knights Best Winga of the Woo: Wingawoo

lol I see you weren't joking. Thank god we had a 7 year head start, though at this rate we'll have to pick up the pace even still.

Finally got time. And I'll keep it short. Bots: This is merely a response to people who argue Arrgh doesn't make money because Arrgh doesn't use bots (we do), I will use your maths and calculator example. So it's like you saying I failed my maths test because I didn't use a calculator and me arguing that I failed it not because I didn't use a calculator but because I wrote Egyptian mythology stories for answers in that test. I hope you get the point. When our goals are not same our tools also don't have to be same, I do use a bot when I need a profitable target but I just don't always hit a profitable target. Rest is explained by Zim. Profit: You missed the part (or ignored) where I say "If you're in the right tier (i.e. sub c20)" for "ridiculously easy" and "if you are not willing to invest the efforts" for "piracy is dead business". The point here is that the higher you go in city count the more you have to invest in time and resources for not so high returns. See zim for rest. As for building up for slots: always been doing that. Organization: most is explained by zim already, tl;dr Arrgh's tiering doesn't allow to pin an alliance down for more than one round like KT can do. Training and stuff: That's a months old picture that you have posted lol. Should check again, I was basically working alone that time, thankfully I was able to panic the admiralty into activity. See zim for rest. War Funding: This one is a bit eh, Arrgh will def never have taxes or force members to only work on their profits. Though most members do have what they need to fight wars, we did fine with swamp and that one lasted for like six months, we take it slow unlike KT style warfare and that allows us to survive dragged out wars with no hassle. Sailing low: It would be condescending if I thought it was bad to avoid conflict, I don't think that. I was just pointing out that it is easier to survive and make profit for a raiding alliance if they aren't as much of warmongers as Arrgh. And yes, mechanics should definitely be blamed if they are indirectly coercing me to adapt to a certain playstyle and ruining my game experience, no matter how competent you are you can simply never outplay the mechanics, just because you are an excellent pirate it would not give you a chance against someone with 330k men + 30 f*ing thousand tanks with your 300k soldiers lol

I rather think these types of merges are the PnW equivalent of conquer.

Woah buddy, that right there is a Rose trademarked strat - you'll be hearing from our legal team, @Justinian the Great.

Doing whats fun for you and playing the way you enjoy is best strat.

Bots: Obviously useful. At the end of the day it's a tool, and it automates tedious aspects of finding targets and running an alliance. I keep hearing similar arguments, but imo gatekeeping piracy by saying its not real piracy or they shouldn't play if they use tools is dumb. People should be able to play however they want. The argument essentially boils down to "you shouldn't use a calculator to do math, or shouldn't depend on a car for getting places because reasons". Piracy is already niche. imo, you're gonna keep having difficulty appealing to casual players unless you put effort into making piracy more accessible to them. And there seems to be the false impression with raid tools. My experience is that members declare more wars, and have more time to spend on discord talking to each other when they aren't spending that time hunting for targets. The flipside of that would be having a coherent milcom gov giving people targets - as any major alliance will do in wartime. In Arrgh's case, that would be giving people raid targets. I think many alliances have gone the route of having members find their own raids/wars, and having raid tools because it's tedious having milcom gov do that manually, especially for a pirate alliance that wars/raids all the time. The notion tools are only for IA and that milcom has little use of for it, seems like a fairly braindead assessment. Profit: something something, "how ridiculously easy it actually is" "profitable piracy is a dead business" - seems contradictory. but k. I mean, to each their own, but having a strategy is generally why many people play and enjoy strategy games, and making profit is kinda an integral part of doing stuff in the game, like buying cities. Probably not much use in pointing out that one of the three pillars of piracy is profit (or plundering as it says on the Arrgh page). Rejecting that completely seems at the very least... odd. sorta like someone who's been stuck in a situation long enough that they've grown used to it, and tell themselves its actually better. I forget what that's called. Normal alliances have the potential to make profit raiding cut back because of various DNR / raiding restrictions. This is done to protect their precious infra. Arrgh doesn't have that, so theoretically having all these otherwise untouched targets you are allowed to raid should be a boon for raiding profit - and yet that opportunity is more or less squandered (looking at raid profit stats) High tier raiding is dead: Yes. Mechanics have changed. KT and mythic have left piracy. Other pirate alliances have cropped up though. imo, high tier raiding using the same outdated strategies is dead. Gotta adapt. I never had too much issue raiding in high tier, though I am fairly active. Kinda got in the way of running the offshore and all, so I'm not right now - but profit was never the issue. Also, this might be a big revelation to everyone in Arrgh, what with your entire alliance having a city revenue of $21m, but... you know you don't have to have a shit city build whilst raiding..? Infra gets damaged, but buildings do stay. Meaning you can double dip and make both a reduced city income AND raid income. Organization: Arrgh is all about anarchy. I get that's the playstyle you want, but the lack of coordination is a pretty big impedement to the KT-like mass raids the game likes to see. Obviously there's some middleground - especially if you want to appeal to more casual pirates, but I think going a pure anarchy route instead of finding a middleground wouldn't lead anywhere favorable. Training/Mentoring: Haven't heard much, so I'll assume Arrgh's academy and mentoring program is mostly non existent. e.g. half the alliance being inactives is a sign of a slacking IA gov: Things might be different if competence & mentoring was taken more seriously. Funding Wars: Amateurs talk tactics. Professionals talk logistics. or whatever the saying is. So.. looking at the stats, some members make profit, others don't. Overall its a wash though. Normal alliances fund wars by taxes & city revenue. A pirate alliance would thus likely want to fund wars through a war economy. Not having taxes, city revenue or a war economy, and embracing that fact.. k. Sailing low and avoiding conflict: Seems like a fairly condescending thing to say to the other pirate alliances, which have all participated in wars and have decent member participation when doing so. I suppose it's easier blaming external factors like game mechanics and what not, but imo there are other more apparent reasons.

Then challenge Grumpy alliance vs sphere upper tier only, both BW and Rosesphere have the numbers to take them down, they will accept and they only have NAPs so no one is forced to join But no, better put together the two strongest sphere in the game and start again another dogpile that means nothing, will change nothing, and will bore everyone Starting a war where I have the 95% chance to win? Pure horror, I must have 101% because in this game is so important to win, how can an alliance survive if they don't win every war? A lot of new players join this game every month, can we show them that this game can be fun? I know it can but I'm starting to forget it

The smell of charred earth rises to our nostrils as we overlook the landscape. We’re standing on a hill, overlooking vast plains of nothingness. A truly nightmarish sight. To think the last war could possibly result in such a cataclysmic event. “Base! Rebel!” a young Dream calls as he rushes towards us. “Yes?” “They’ve arrived!” As Rebel and I turn to face the newcomers, a smile forces its way through my stony expression. “Leftbehind...good to see you as always.” “Likewise. Is everything ready?” “We were merely awaiting your party’s arrival.” We’re all gathered here following the collapse of both our civilizations. Despite our many differences, the devastation caused by the last war has proven all too clearly that our strength would serve us better if combined. A Prophet of the Light had proclaimed the end of time and the Children of The Light had taken his words to heart but my own people and I only saw folly. What use is this Light in the face of our technology? Looking back now, I wish we had combined our strength sooner. As the final member of our triumvirate joins us on the hill, we begin the final preparations to finally unite. No longer will we be known as a cult and it’s virus friends. No...after this, we will be known as Cataclysm in honour of those we lost along the way. In remembrance of the truth of this world. One cannot survive alone... Tl;dr: Error 404 and Children of the Light merge into one as Cataclysm. Alliance link: https://politicsandwar.com/alliance/id=7452