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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?

Lmao I was like wait a minute surely someone senses some irony

In the Midst of War, the Roman Empire stood, having just come out of Battle in Britannia, still standing strong and resolute, but without an enemy to fight yet itching for a fight, when a Roman City was suddenly and unexpectedly attacked and Raided by the barbarians from Carthage, seeking to bring Rome to its knees, prompting a swift Military response from Rome, and thus kicking off the 2nd Punic War. TL:DR Rome Recognizes Hostilities with The Back Rooms

"The Peace in our Times Agreement" Preamble: In the interest of peace and mutual understanding, the two parties of Hollywood and Celestial 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, May 25th, in game time will demilitarize to the following MMR: 1/3/5/0 with the option for voluntary but not required 1 drydock 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 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. Signed, Hollywood Sphere Leadership Celestial Sphere Leadership

Lmao what kind of bullshit is this?

I, Ryker Wolf officially step down as leader of the GDC in till further notice. I declare that my heir, Owen Brilt will assume my position while I am gone. I am also leaving the GDC for bigger alliances to be able learn from them to be able to better lead the GDC. This is effective Immediately.

worst fa move 2022?

Vroom vroom vroom, bye bye back rooms

You signed a temporary MDP. How brave and beautiful you two are...

You got Tyrion doing your FA? on a :serious: note, if someone militarizes to counter a pirate, it'll be a violation of these terms, right? asking for a friend.

Interesting decision, every sphere, we all know what to do now.

They'll never see us coming if we cross the alps!

We all know there are issues with the way politics are at the moment. There have been multiple suggestions on how to fix this, from a return to bipolarity, a stronger move to minispheres, and even making a broad move to democracy for alliances. I admit, I was not here for NPO’s Last Time, so I don’t have the full experience of the nine months of war and the struggle that went on during that time. However, the game needs to move past NPOLT. Not making moves because you don’t want to be related to NPO, or because you’re scared of being linked to IQ; this is part of the issue. Being afraid to be seen as an aggressor, wanting to play the victim and cry foul, is an issue for much of the game. Even certain spheres who’ve been fairly aggressive in the political arena still cry foul over “bad” CBs. One thing that’s been really ironic to watch is all the popularity behind the idea of minispheres. So many people are supportive of the idea of really small spheres, and yet we’ve arguably been taking numerous steps back from that direction. There are alliance leaders who publicly say they’re for minispheres, and yet they won’t work towards them. I understand the idea behind this; “we’re not going to shrink down unless they shrink down.” And yet, unless someone takes that first step, can we ever get to minispheres? And, as mentioned later in this post, are minispheres even possible without decision-makers being willing to involve micros? Democracy is a suggestion that is both problematic and a great idea at the same time. Part of the reason why this has been suggested (at least, part of the reason I’ve seen) is to open up alliances to fresh ideas and fresh government members. It could facilitate minispheres, facilitate new wars, new alliances, and even new treaties and spheres. At the same time, democracy is a bad idea, because, well, duh? Many members don’t pay enough attention to understand what the best policies for them are. They may not really understand what candidates are the best option for them. Limits on who can vote, who can run, etc. may work to resolve this, but they will also limit what ideas and individuals can actually lead an alliance. That ultimately defeats part of the purpose of having democracy in the first place. Something that has been one of the most irritating statements I’ve seen in recent times is the statement that “we need a villain.” Yes, we could use a villain. But that’s not really the issue. There are two major issues. The first was listed above - people, and some decision-makers in particular, are scared of being aggressive. They don’t want to be seen as the villain or the bad guy in any situation. That comes with drawbacks - less interesting CBs, less interesting politics, etc. The second, and more prominent issue, is that this game despises villains. In order to survive as a villain, you have to either be nearly unkillable. That narrows who a villain can be to two groups - pirates, or a mega-sphere. NPO (and their allies) were, from my understanding, able to stay a villain and stay un-wiped because of sheer size. They were competent enough and large enough to fight wars as villains, and they had a chance to win. A pirate alliance could be a villain, because we’ve seen pirate alliances survive wars (long wars, wars where they are desperately outnumbered, and more). But anyone else aspiring to be a villain gets utterly crapped on by the game. A prime example many people may remember is Lord Alan of Black Skies. He wasn’t afraid to play the villain and cut garbage out of the equation; this ultimately led to him being rolled, mocked, and then issued irl death threats. A much older example would be Jayce, of the Assyrian Empire, who tried to form a bloc with some micros and was basically doxxed out of the game. These are players labeled “villains” because their points of view differ from the norm. Even actual villains, like SpAnKy, are abused to a rather ridiculous extent. SpAnKy absolutely causes chaos and deserves some of the things that fly his way, but the game as a whole trend towards hating on him (and people like him), and discrediting what he does. This is one of the biggest issues with current politics. We all agree the current mold is bad. We all agree it needs to be broken. And then we destroy those who dare to break the trend. Everyone can agree on the need for some fresh blood, yet we beat the crap out of micros and people with new ideas. And then we refuse to allow them any chance at a possible redemption. That is why we’re stuck with what we have - because we take down everything else that is proposed. If y’all actually want minispheres, fresh ideas and leaders, and overall, spicier politics, then as a community we need to tone down the bashing of people who don’t follow the trend. Otherwise, all the potential good ideas out there that could really revitalize our politics will be shot down with the bad ones.

Is this an appropriate time to be butthurt? Asking for a friend

End of an era. 😔

A devastating counter attack by Commonwealth

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

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.

u wot I'm all for conditional treaties, but the fact that you just signed a DOUBLE BLOC WIDE CONDITIONAL MDP really just goes to show 1. There are two people dictating bloc politics while the other disengaged leaders let them dictate their foreign policy 2. HW and Ro$e don't care about the rest of the game and just care about their 6-9 month wars 3. Both care more about their pixels than allowing anything interesting to take place.

I was too slow to post this. Damn you Kev.

You guys don’t need to band together against the big bad Clock like this, what with all the advantages you have against us. Just believe in yourselves!

Going through them now, thank you

Good luck y'all for the glory of rome.

I'd chalk that up to BR handing the evidence for the CB over themselves on page 1...

https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=390650 Here's my new nation if you want to make a judgement of some sorts. Also btw if you feel a post is terrible feel free to grow some, and just say so. You don't need any validation of city count.

Most aa's are what seems to be authoritative cookie cutter aa's that indoctrinate their members to their benefits. That would also include locking them in a grant/tax trap where it turns out supposed grants are really loans & low taxes are really medium to high-ish taxes. If aa's are able to make ppl into what benefits them the most throu enforcing restrictive & regulative terms while making it seem normal, then you are being brainwashed into conformity & obedience. Ppl want that due to a desire to rule ppl, be over others for their own conviction to be true above all, half the time anything more or less will be disregarded as well assumed as destructive argument against the ruling regime further looked at more n more disobedient/non-conforming the more one questions another. If one cannot gain knowledge throu self curiosity, propel their own future throu mainly their own drive, while still being able to work w/ each other on a two way street aside willingly on minimally controlling n invasive policies, then one isnt playing the game, one is being used as another's pawn.

I propose Clock and Backrooms come together but only to form a joint hit squad on this guy

I thought this was the peace post for about half a second and was incredibly deeply confused.

Ok so your saying keep the war going for a month got it will do.

Some of us “retired leaders” deserve a break. A few of us put a lot of effort into this game.

Or just base your gov on Meritocracy instead of personal feelings. Problem is a lot of alliances don't have the people willing to do the jobs, such as MA or IA, and former leaders or retirees are forced into these roles to keep their alliance afloat. This doesn't help anyone in terms of development of their alliance and only forces them back into roles that they had long since wanted to part ways with. However I am not sure telling people to stay retired is a complete solution to the source of the problem. Obviously you have people like Nokia who return every other month that they quit the game but have you ever thought of the reasons for why? When TCM was a thing he often was forced to return for the same reasons I stated above. But does that mean that an alliance should not exist if it can't live without retired gov? That is for the people of these alliances to decide. "Democracy" may be the solution to irl problems, but in game, not so much. It's inefficient in the game and often the best Meritocracy will out perform the best Democracy. There are not many alliances in the game where Democracy is the best idea because they do not have enough people in the alliance to make it work. I know this is not directly correlated to the game but bare with me, "For the first time, Pew Research asked a question about who seeks out these offices and found that about 2% of Americans say they have ever run for federal, local, or state elected office." Now if you're willing to be so courteous, extrapolate that to a game or an alliance and you'll understand. Burnout is real and I have burned out several times playing this game and many times have had to will myself through it for the betterment of my alliance and the people I care for. I understand my post may not be answering all of the things you stated or may have gone off on some weird tangent, but try to look at it from their point of view. Obviously there will be those bad few and those exceptions(Adrienne).

Friend, a lesson in FA. You don’t ever say the silent part out loud. What type of box? You selling Series X’s? Not sure why our name is randomly coming up. Though I do appreciate getting to live so cheaply in the heads of randoms. Old soldiers never die, and they don’t fade away. I’ve literally never seen someone go into a thread and fumble the bag this hard.

It warms my heart to know after almost 2 years, my influence is still being felt. Even better to see that the art of leaking has become a national pastime for TCW, embraced by the high gov now and not just something the Prime Minister did late at night.

to be fair me and greene made better villain's than Alan without even trying

Unfortunately I'm at work so you only get what I made before hand at the moment. Rest assured I'll give you something more topical eventually

when will OWR stop mass vming please tell me I need to know.

Announcement from the Combined Forces of GATO, The Hive, and Unforgiven Legion AKA Andromeda Bloc On May 20, 2022, our galactic ally Global Alliance Treaty Organization was brutally and unexpectedly attacked by the combined time forces of Clock. In response, the response forces of the collective of The Hive and the Horde of the Unforgiven Legion were launched in retaliation against the enemy forces. We continue to work with our allied coalition made up of the Backrooms, Andromeda, and the peripheries. While we acknowledge Clock's CB against Backrooms, we do not accept it as a valid CB for GATO and all of Andromeda. Also to those who vmed in Order of the White Rose, I personally request you plant trees to make up for the wasted air you breath. We wish all of Clock and our allies a fun fight, o7. Minesome's Letter to his Princess Aurora Dear my love, It seems you have gone away, it seems you have gone into an eternal slumber. It feel as if a knife has penetrated my heart and you were the who stuck it in. I will continue to be you knight in shining armour, but I must do my duty as a knight. I will defend my Space Kingdom till the end. After the fog clears, May I give you one more true love's kiss and finally free you from this curse. Lots of Love, Your Protector MinesomeMC Tl;DR - Andromeda Bloc recognizes hostilities with Clock Bloc

Might as well call out who you think is guilty of this? I think, at best, your evidence is anecdotal.

I remember when the game was still divided upon IQ. As a newbie in Lordaeron I remember listening to people chat about game politics with starry eyes and a good deal of confusion. It wasn't clearly defined alliances or blocs, or even spheres you can see on the treaty page, it at least appeared to be more complicated. One of the things I learned during my time off and after coming back is that you don't necessarily need bad guys to hate, you need a compelling story. For example, micro wars are usually laughed at and tbf with good reason. Most of the time it's a matter of raids televised to everybody. But when my alliance went and did our little fight against The Vision and posted our DoW and eventual treaty on the forums we had incredibly positive reception. Imo, it was because there was a story there for people to latch onto. When I think of my favorite wars in this game I don't think of the ones that I did really well in or where I got my ass kicked a bunch. I always remember the wars where I felt excited to login to the game and fight the war, whether I was winning or losing battles. These have been minor micro conflicts and massive global wars. The war with Vision was not profitable at all, Vision's leader at the time had liquidated most of their bank but it was fun as hell for my alliance and for those on the forums. It caused several Vision people to go form their own alliances and created new political dynamics within the admittedly minor and very amateur micro scene. When I think of my favorite alliances, it's never pixel hugging people who are worried about having lots of cash, it's the people that provide unique experiences in the game. Many are so focused on growing and winning that they forget the real fun of the game, for the majority of players, isn't as simple as seeing a number go up or bullying an enemy to death. It's having bitter enemies, high-stake fights, crazy characters, and ultimately a compelling narrative to grow fond of and talk about with your non-P&W friends. I could talk about my experiences in the Ayyslamic Crusade not because pixel went up or down but because I was genuinely invested in the fighting and the characters involved. I can talk about those wars in terms of people and politics, not just in "yeah I got a Lotta loot and totally wrecked his army". Even a recent war in OWR where I was personally losing for a lot of it was made to be compelling because our MA had an excellent framing for the conflict. I felt like I was actually contributing to the cause despite not making great military gains. TL;DR I think players and especially leaders should focus less on growing big and approaching the game with the idea of "get as big as possible", but should try and create compelling drama for people to be invested in. It's not that you need a villain who gets shit on by everyone who wants to be heroic and strong, you need leaders moving away from the desire to be heroic and strong and towards being interesting and compelling. Be interesting not minmaxed and safe. If you have a grudge, maybe go start some shit. If you have an idea you always wanted to try, go do it. Being perfect is the enemy of good.

Did you try t$? This is right up their alley.

Let's get some things out of the way first. This post isn't intended to make me any friends. I doubt it will. Most people who read this will probably just laugh and move on with their lives, but I only ask that you, the reader, at least take some of these points to mind. This is not a post about Camelot; I've been there, done that. Rather, this is meant to dispel some false information I've heard circulating aroud Brethren Court, and to argue that while it's easy making fun of micro moments and the like, don't always believe everything you hear. So, let's begin. The premise: Brethren Court, especially its main members, SoL and FSO, went into the Camelot war with the entire world against them. First, not a single expectation was on their side. It was assumed they would more or less follow the same fate as every other set of alliances preceding them did. Think pixelhuggers or defensive-only alliances like GPA, 2016 TFP, Valkyrie, as well as more recent examples like Swamp and Mystery, plus the long line of oversized micros the game has had: This was not helped by the narratives of some of those alliances themselves: Hot Cakes Episode 1: https://youtu.be/QzMOglPZBEs?t=674 So, it was only a month ago that Johnsons, finding themselves in need of trimming the fat before their war, gave BLOC (SoL, FSO, WTF, and Genesis) the boot. While WTF and Genesis found their way into HM and did a fairly abysmal job after they were eventually rolled by the Johnsons themselves, SoL and FSO found themselves collectively unwelcome in any sphere, and therefore left themselves politically isolated in a world that loves taking advantage of politically isolated alliances and which only saw them suffering the same fate as their former BLOC partners. It was true to an extent, then. Realizing this, SoL decided to go on the offensive instead and discern their military preparedness in a war against UL and GATO, the results of which, well, I think pretty much everyone saw for themselves: In the face of all this, what did everyone expect SoL to do? Go back to licking their wounds as an overinflated micro? Disband their alliance or sphere? Get rolled by another alliance entirely? Instead, SoL doubled down. They analyzed their mistakes from the war with Backrooms, gathered their sphere, and decided to choose an even more ambitious target. That target turned out to be Camelot. Here's how that went: By the same number of attacks: By the end of the day: A leaked war doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RHoi3Wmy70MYOrM-QbzspfcnFlDn5aV-iarZpWN4v90/edit#gid=283695920 Double check those if you need to. By the time the Backrooms war had concluded, an egregious 35% of SoL attacks were from naval attacks, loser weapons, or fortifies. By the same number of attacks in the Camelot war, that number had plunged to 3.3%, more than a tenfold decrease. By the end of the first day, that number had only risen to 3.9%, and in many cases was only due to people naval attacking their wars only after they'd been won traditionally. That's a better percentage than Johnsons had in their war, and while having to coordinate with non-Discord members as well. Essentially, their military doctrine experienced a full turnaround in less than a week. On top of that, they defied the naysayers who didn't believe they would do anything. They abandoned, to a degree, their longstanding policy of peace and pacifism. They found partners in Orbis's many pirate alliances. These are all things they did correctly, and all things I wish they would receive more recognition for. Coming into the conflict, many of these alliances were unproven militarily and politically and needed serious experience and training in order to git gud. Sure, they have experienced a lot of bumps on the way, but that was to be expected. What matters is that they decided to do something during this period of peacetime. In their position, what would you have done? Nonetheless, a lot of things happened during the war itself. They also supposedly did a lot of things that are simply untrue, and so to the best of my knowledge I'll break down my perspective of some of these things and shed some light on the situation. Before we begin. Was my post the initial CB used for war? Yes, and I'm honored it was the case. Did I specifically request Brethren Court carry out the war? Not one bit. Do I feel obligated to make this post because they were the ones who did follow through on my post? Yes, but I truly believe everything I will say in it. Did I see potential in Brethren Court even before they decided to follow through with the war? Absolutely. In short, for me this was one big happy coincidence, and I don't regret being in this position a single bit. First, the basic facts and a simple timeline. Brethren Court planned their Camelot blitz on Saturday/Sunday. This was leaked early, as is frequently the case with newer alliances, and Camelot decided to preempt them on Friday instead. Camelot likely did the right thing by preempting. Brethren Court, while aware of the leaks, were caught off guard, and while initially slow to respond due to members not being used to alliance wars, decided to declare war early. Thus, from their earliest position, they were forced to counterblitz instead of blitz, no easy feat for a sphere just learning to put the pieces together. So, some things I've heard: TBC have a serious leaking problem. This point is correct. A lot of OPSEC was let out, and although several leakers were taken care of, there is no doubt they will have to up their game post-war. TBC dogpiled Camelot without expecting counters. This point is summarily false. To the first part of that -- pictured, a tiering comparison graph. On the offensive: SoL, FSO, Arrgh, Roman Empire, UU, and Ayyslamic Caliphate. On the defensive: Camelot, Camelot extensions/offshores, Castle Camelot, USSR, Crimson Dragons, and TUA: While it's pretty clear-cut in the lower tiers, it gets a lot dicier the higher up you go. Locutus put the effective military strength by score around here at the very start of the war: In short, it tells more or less the same story. This was proven even more by the initial general uncertainty at who would win the war. To get some potential questions out of the way: Castle Camelot were included because SoL is also a non-Discord required alliance, and they are fighting back to a degree as well. Fear was not included (although they don't make much of a difference if they were) because they only seriously declared one war only as a counter for Ayyslamic. Before the war began, Camelot peaked at 90% planes and 48% tanks, while SoL peaked at 73% planes and 58% tanks, FSO were largely the same, and Roman Empire were a bit higher. So, while Camelot were slightly disadvantaged in ground, they had a higher percentage of planes, and this showed in the above attack counts. Regardless, I do think SoL entered the war with a militarization edge, but also entered with a blitz disadvantage and a less experienced milcom caught off guard. So, this was a much fairer fight than most may see it as. In addition, TBC fully expected Camelot's allies to counter, just as they fully expected UL's allies to counter, and from what I know this was factored into the blitz planning, even though it was thrown out the window from Camelot's preempt. So, they didn't plan the war expecting an easy win whatsoever. TBC are losing the war. I find it kind of funny somehow both this narrative and the narrative they were dogpiling both managed to exist in the same space. All one needs to do to prove this wrong is simply by looking at the war stats and the alliance militarization changes: Camelot militarization: TBC are doing a shitty milcom job. I hope that the above images prove otherwise. Regardless, the fight still isn't over. Ayyslamic and Arrgh are blanket beiging their wars, so it remains to be seen how subsequent rounds will go. I encourage anyone following the situation to do so with an open mind rather than assuming TBC will do poorly no matter what. TBC had a shitty blitz. As mentioned above, they didn't have a blitz, but were caught off guard and forced to launch a counterblitz. While their initial turnout was poor due to general membership inexperience, by the end of the first day they did a pretty solid job countering wars and filling most slots. TBC benefited from the reduced city score. I have heard a lot (and I mean A LOT) of misinformation or confusion surrounding the new city score, but that deserves another topic of its own. Regardless, I can assume this only pertains to Fear's single serious war as everything else would be in acceptable range either way, and I'm pretty sure Fear's war would've been in range regardless as well (but don't quote me on that) SoL is a tax farm. I genuinely struggle to see where this rumor came from or if remotely any proof surfaced for this. While SoL's tiering is poor, this is the result of inexperienced econ and not negligent econ -- everyone gets a shot at a defined series of grants and loans that are far more generous than those of Castle Camelot (although I daresay that the structure itself led directly to poor tiering). If this is a point that warrants further exploration, please let me know. I would be more than happy to do side-by-side comparisons of Castle Camelot and SoL. SoL and Roman Empire are actively poaching Castle Camelot members, who are useless in the long run anyways. Gathering my own evidence, as well as approaching those alliances directly, I was able to obtain a few logs. First, a Roman Empire announcement: While opportunistic, the log mentions "not implicitly saying to come here" and was primarily used as a tool of information warfare over recruitment, although I understand if I'm being a bit pedantic here. Going the opposite way, I also obtained messages of poaching directly from Camelot: Much more direct, so this ain't exactly a one-way street. Nonetheless, there has been an exodus of members from Castle Camelot: Just to be clear, these aren't useless members. Many of them created Discord accounts in order to join their respective alliances. I only ask people to read the last few paragraphs in my initial Castle Camelot post on why we should care about these newer players. TBC are doing a poor FA job. I cannot deny their FA is mostly inexperienced and still in the stages of learning, and they are very aware of this fact, but I would like people to reevaluate what they have seen of their FA this war and ask themselves if they would do anything differently in TBC's position. If so, what? I leave this forum thread open to all advice. TBC faked or do not believe in their war CB. From what I have seen, this narrative was the outcome of pre-war logs being (as per usual) taken out of context. However, I think this is an issue TBC and Camelot should hash out internally, and I don't doubt there will be mistakes made along the way, so I won't comment further on this. So, wrapping this very long forum post up, I once again implore people to take a second look at how things are going, and to seriously fact check what they are hearing. Brethren Court, are, in the face of political isolation, charting a path for themselves. YES, they have made a lot of mistakes, and will continue to make a lot more, but they are learning and improving. They are doing something dynamic and aggressive during what is normally a period of peacetime for the rest of us. Their protectorates are actively contributing and participating. These are normally not things you expect would happen from alliances of this type. So, to all those reading (and thank you for making it to the end!) who are still inclined to continue bashing Brethren Court without reason -- Maybe join me and help look out for the little guy instead? 😄