Ashland

o/ Keegoz!

Defending your members in a fight =/= letting them duck out of their debts. Why should anyone do credit deals or deals with future payment with anyone in VE when VE has demonstrated that they will help their members rip those people off? Do you not value your reputation?

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me~ Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

One more thing: Do you still have no clue how long a month is in game? That's three cities. That's one donation. A month is ages in PnW. If you don't get that by now... Idk what can be done for you.

As for making friends, I liked you guys before my run in with you where you implied that you'd be willing to shelter people from debts they owed me, accused me of being a huckster, and informed me that your members were barred from doing business with me because I wasn't a proper bank. For having the audacity to try and collect money owed to me. Do VE members just not have to honor their obligations? Seems you'll just back them up no matter what?

My what?

As a former vicious opponent of Guardian, you're wrong. Can Malone be a b*** sometimes? Of course. He can be an enormous b***. So can I. And so can you, obviously.

Do all VE members accuse someone who disagrees with them of being emotional?

Hah. You should see what *I* force down the throats of my lovers. Prefontaine is comparably gentle.

OOC: What? So just you would attack us? IC: DiploQuick™ Diplomatic Response Form To: __Otto Von Bismarck__ From: _Ashland <3__ Dear Sirs: I/We hereby (bold one) [X] CONDEMN [ ] SUPPORT [ ] CONGRATULATE [ ] DENY [ ] CONFIRM [ ] NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY [ ] ACKNOWLEDGE [ ] ________ your recent [ ] QUERY [ ] ANNEXATION [ ] NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST [ ] SUCCESSFUL CURRY DELIVERY [ ] COMMUNIQUÉ [ ] NONSENSE [ ] INVASION [ ] COMPLACENCY [ ] BELLIGERENCE [ ] ACCUSATION [X] __Asshattery____ of/to/by/from/because/through/for/with/that (bold one) Other preposition?: ____toward____ __Me__ and [ ] FURTHER DENY [ ] FURTHER AFFIRM [ ] AUTHORIZE PAYMENT [ ] PIP-PIP HUZZAH [X] SINCERELY HOPE [ ] ANGRILY DENOUNCE [ ] MIGHT BE PERSUADED [ ] ____insert here____ of/to/by/from/because/through/for/with/that (bold one) Other preposition?: ________ you grow a pair and make good on your threats, you little chickens***. Have a nice day, _Ashland___ (name of sender) _Minister of Education_ (position and/or postscript) Message Generated by DiploQuick™ v 11.09: The Easy Way to Send Any Unimportant Missive to People You Don't Care About! DiploQuick™ is a service of Pompelintern. Accept no substitutes.

I want to address something really important that everyone is missing: All of our posts should be In Character, not Out of Character, guys. Stop breaking the rules. IC: Gideon tapped his feet slowly against the plush carpeting of the limousine. He glanced across at his companion and reached over to pour him some coffee. "Here, take this." He said, offering the cup to Ryan. "You haven't eaten or drank anything yet." His cohort waved gloved fingers to refuse the beverage. The other glove was on his knee, being wrung by his free hand continuously. "No, thank you." He said, smiling as he remembered his manners. "I have butterflies." Gideon blinked and pushed the coffee further towards Ryan. "Swat. Them." Ryan paused for a moment, using his gloved hand to push back his jet black hair, already cemented firmly in place by gel. The action seemed to be more a force of habit than anything else. At length this same hand reached out to accept the porcelain cup laden with the dark, bitter liquid. "What kind of coffee is it?" "It's hot..." Gideon said, gruffly as he crossed his legs, "It's brown... and it will wake you up. What more do you need to know? This is unlike you, Ryan. Now, I know that this is your first conference regarding a war that will be conducted, but I assure you it's not that big a deal. We're not even involved. Is it because it's Guardian? Prefontaine might be a horse's c*** but I assure you, nobody will bite your head off." Ryan smiled with his mouth and looked at his friend for the first time that day. It was a sad, lonely sort of smile, like the one that a child gives a parent who is going away for a long time. "It's not that. God, no, it's not that. It's... Well. About what we said last night..." He looked at the floor once more. Silence. The lilly-leaf patern on the floor of the car began to blur. Presently, however, Gideon's hand came into his field of vision. Ryan looked up again and saw that Gideon had, in fact, very purposefully extended his hand and was now waiting to see his reaction. He smiled again, this time with his entire face, and took the outstretched hand with his own. "We make a good team." Gideon said. "We do."

I CAN go digging for the logs to back up what Malone is saying if you really want me to.

You shouldn't. I don't foresee that, at least.

How many alliances do you need to found before you say "Yeah, I've founded enough alliances."?

What are you talking about? VE won wars left and right, didn't they? Lol. You're the largest bloc in the game. You have literally twice as many players under your auspices and, given the high activity levels of TEst and Guardian, maybe 1.5 times as many ACTIVE players and perhaps just the same number of IRC active players. If you do not think you have what it takes now, you never will. How many more allies do you need? How many more members do you need? How many more alliance treasuries do you need to inherit? It baffles me. It absolutely baffles me that you can simultaneously have so much confidence and so little.

Just taking a gander at your nations, it seems that that's not true. If you actually sat down and militarized your members, VE could go toe to toe with Guardian and TEst. You'd need to make sure your upper tier wasn't blockaded so they could get aidbombed by your lower tiers. But you could almost definitely win a war of attrition. As for SK, which would obviously rear its ugly head, I think your militia allies, when combined, could give them a run for their money at least. They'd definitely outnumber them. They could probably fill almost all their slots with each person taking just one target. FURTHER EDIT: Also, numbers matter most in the spy war, and numbers are your advantage. With a cursory glance it SEEMS like a lot of your members have decent spies. You need what you have plus a couple more in the 50 range and then maybe a couple in the 70 range and, with a surprise, you could win the spy war pretty damn quickly. I doubt any other sphere could go toe to toe with Guardian/TEst/SK, simply because no sphere is so large, but yours definitely could.

DiploQuick™ Diplomatic Response Form To: __Guardian__ From: _Ashland <3__ Dear Sirs: I/We hereby (bold one) [ ] CONDEMN [X] SUPPORT [ ] CONGRATULATE [ ] DENY [ ] CONFIRM [ ] NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY [ ] ACKNOWLEDGE [ ] ________ your recent [ ] QUERY [ ] ANNEXATION [ ] NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST [ ] SUCCESSFUL CURRY DELIVERY [ ] COMMUNIQUÉ [ ] NONSENSE [X] INVASION [ ] COMPLACENCY [ ] BELLIGERENCE [ ] ACCUSATION [ ] ________ of/to/by/from/because/through/for/with/that (bold one) Other preposition?: ____insert here____ __The Celestial Union__ and [ ] FURTHER DENY [ ] FURTHER AFFIRM [ ] AUTHORIZE PAYMENT [ ] PIP-PIP HUZZAH [ ] SINCERELY HOPE [ ] ANGRILY DENOUNCE [X] MIGHT BE PERSUADED [ ] ____insert here____ of/to/by/from/because/through/for/with/that (bold one) Other preposition?: ________ join you in this worthy cause. Have a nice day, _Ashland___ (name of sender) _Minister of Education_ (position and/or postscript) Message Generated by DiploQuick™ v 11.09: The Easy Way to Send Any Unimportant Missive to People You Don't Care About! DiploQuick™ is a service of Pompelintern. Accept no substitutes.

DiploQuick™ Diplomatic Response Form To: ____Veridian Entente____ From: ____Ashland____ Dear Sirs: I/We hereby (bold one) [ ] CONDEMN [ ] SUPPORT [ ] CONGRATULATE [ ] DENY [ ] AFFIRM [X] ____REGARD WITH LULZ____ your recent [ ] QUERY [ ] ANNEXATION [ ] NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST [ ] SUCCESSFUL CURRY DELIVERY [ ] COMMUNIQUÉ [ ] NONSENSE [ ] INVASION [X] ____ALLIANCE____ to/by/from/because/through/for/with/that (bold one) Other preposition?: ____insert here____ ____The Elysian League____ and [ ] FURTHER DENY [ ] FURTHER AFFIRM [ ] AUTHORIZE PAYMENT [ ] PIP-PIP HUZZAH [X] SINCERELY HOPE [ ] ANGRILY DENOUNCE [ ] ____insert here____ of/to/by/from/because/through/for/with/that (bold one) Other preposition?: _______ ____shit doesn't absolutely hit the fan____. Have a nice day, ____Ashland____ (name of sender) ____Minister of Education____ (position and/or postscript) Message Generated by DiploQuick™ v 11.09: The Easy Way to Send Any Unimportant Missive to People You Don't Care About! DiploQuick™ is a service of Pompelintern. Accept no substitutes.

Yeah ships are pricey af. That many ships SHOULD be better than a missile.

They have almost as many treaties as they do wars that they've won.

I wonder who's going to win!

You're vastly increasing the incentive to do it, though. It's an issue that I don't know how to get around.

I am 95% sure that there were some people we fought against who were getting friends to fill their spy slots. Because my guys followed their orders and yet ESA members were magically getting 3 slots taken up with no damage. And I was told almost point blank that not only is it difficult to enforce, but that there isn't even a rule about it right now. So we dealt with it and were just very vigilant about when we spied them. What's more, you'd have to report it. And by its nature it's difficult to even know if it's happening. It's like asking the player to give an answer when they don't even know the question.

No. I can't have my bank make me a liability in a war. However, interest will continue to apply as long as I hold anyone's money and I will always do my utmost to get it back ASAP, which is what I'm doing now.

Noted. To be clear, Cirrus policies allow us to turn away withdrawals 12 days after I'm in a war. That being said, I'm currently working on withdrawals in a first-come-first-serve basis. So Hiott will get his, and then you yours. I don't think it should be very long, a couple days at most.