Tenages

Goddamn, can a man not take a vacation around here? Sheesh. 10/10 would read again. Super excited to once again resume my lapsed career as a Pacifican pawn. Life was just incomplete without jackboots on my throat. <3

Once again, Pre gets all the attention. It's enough to make a man get a complex. Pre never came for Rose, and GPA was my idea goddamnit. I may not be a Prefontaine level villain, but at least let me have me moments

First quarter might be underselling it. Man do I not miss conversations about that, eh Keegoz

I can say if Rose attacks colbat we probably wouldn't help. Poor colbat. Forever alone. He just wanted to be loved by the other bat kids.

But we'll always share custody of Gandalf Yoso. He's the baby we can't get rid of.

Because I'm a lush who shouldn't make announcement graphics while drunk, I left a name off the awards list. Wilhelm the Demented, currently of The Syndicate, for his selfless generosity of spirit and great philanthropic endeavors while a member of Seven Kingdoms, is granted the rank of Member of the Tourmaline Brotherhood. Everything I said in the post about everyone else who received the award, and what it entails also applies to him, Signed, Tenages, Supreme Noob. Wilhelm. Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, Happy Holidays, etc. and so forth everyone! EDIT: Also yes, they're both somewhat filled with typos. See above about being a lush and it being Christmas Eve. I make no apologies

Secondly, we've made a couple minor changes to our charter. Fixed some issues regarding a discrepancy in the size of the modern Small Council and changed some job titles. FA Head is now High Septon, and IA head is now Grand Maester. If you really want to read the amendments (and we can't imagine why you would) its available here.

That would be sable and argent (black and silver for you peons who are unversed in heraldry.) We throw in a little sanguine/gules (maroon/red) during war time, but the primary colors are sable and argent.

My turn to fill it out. I also imposed on myself a rule: no self nominations, and no nominating SK. I also used December 1 2015 - now as the time period the awards encompass, so that I was drawing nominations from a full 12 month time period. ALLIANCE CATEGORIES Alliance of the Year: Rose. I take Alliance of the Year to be the alliance not that had the best year, but was the most involved in the year’s happenings. One way or another, Rose had been central to nearly everything. Marionette, The Great VE war turned on the leak and Rose joining with VE, Proxy War, and in Oktoberfest our side definitely did everything in our power to keep Rose out. It’s been the year of Rose, no question. Most Powerful Alliance: Alpha. There are a couple valid contenders, but I think their military chops and strategic position on the treaty web give them a lot of hard and soft power. Best Military: Tie: MensaHQ and Syndicate. Mensa is obvious, and tS has been damn impressive, despite being on the defensive twice where it’s much harder to showcase military skill. Best Rookie Alliance: MensaHQ, again, pretty obvious. Best Flag: VE - they’re actually flying it right now, so I can see it, and it’s a classic. Best War Flag: BoC - It’s the only non-SK war flag I can think of off hand. Most Active Alliance: TEst. I’ve never seen one of them be inactive in-game. Most Honorable Alliance: TKR. A few that could work here, but jumping into Proxy War when they were only a small, very new protectorate impressed me. Honorable mention goes to the Syndicate. Openly admitting you operate on the principle of self interest above all, and disclaiming the false notion that morality governs alliance behavior seems to me to be a refreshing amount of honesty, which is honorable. This is a difficult category since (see Partisans post for a snippet of the irc conversation) I don't think honor or morality are concepts that map well onto the framework of alliance affairs. Most Improved Alliance: GPA: No more Grillick (you’re welcome PnW) Best Diplomatic Team: Syndicate. Given how well they pulled together winning coalitions 3 different times (of course working with coalition partners every time) I think it would have to be them. Best Economic System: Guardian. Not anymore, but their economic system and growth rate when led by Pre was so stupendous, I’m giving it to them even though he was only leading them for 1/3 of 2015. Best Recruiting Staff: UPN. Say what you want about mass member alliances, their ability to pull in members is staggering. Best Propaganda Staff: TRUMP 2016: Again, pretty obvious. Best Alliance Growth: MensaHQ: It was really a tossup between Mensa, VE and tS. So first I removed VE for being under 1k average score, since I think average score is more important than total score growth. tS and Mensa are nearly identical in terms of size: Mensa is younger but tS has been hit harder recently. Ultimately I picked Mensa on the fact that their growth was done solely through building themselves, and not through absorbing other alliances like TEL. Best Forums: As anyone can attest, I don’t visit any forums so I have no idea. N/A Alliance Most Likely to Succeed in 2016: Niflheim Riki. I wanted to pick a small newer alliance here, and there gov list has some impressive names. Most Immoral Alliance: N/A. As I’ve expressed before, I don’t think morality as a construct can actually be applied to alliance actions in these games. If anyone is immoral, it would be an alliance that claims to be righteous and honorable but that acts like any other alliance. I don’t know that we have any of those alliances yet. Most Controversial Alliance: Arrgh. Based purely on the number of top alliances who have at one time or another been annoyed enough to talk about rolling them, a list which includes (to the best of my recollection) SK, VE, DEIC, tS, Mensa, and possibly Rose. PLAYER CATEGORIES: Player of the Year: Cynic. Co-founded or outright founded 2 major alliances, now starting a third. His leaks helped speed up the hugely significant tS-VE breakup. Has a huge influence in terms of his suggestions on game mechanics, helped out the hackers. Most Powerful Player: Prefontaine. I was talking about this on irc, and there are quite a few distinct era’s of power over the last year. Marionette - Pre stepping down. Pre stepping down - Great VE war. Great VE war - ts/VE break up. tS-VE breakup until now. Each of those had a different most powerful person (or in some cases a combination of people.) But until Pre stepped down, the Guardian/TEst/SK axis was the unquestioned great power in the came, and Pre was the biggest driver of that axis. Since the awards are for the past year I picked the person I think best fulfilled the category over the last year. If it was most powerful person now/going forward, it would obviously be a different name. Best Alliance Leader: Partisan. Syndicates success can’t be solely attributed to Partisan obviously, but their growth has been stupendous, and he was in charge of their FA and tS is the only major alliance (that’s been around for the majority of the year) not to lose a war over the last year, and he left them in a stupendous FA position. Most Controversial Player: Pfeiffer or Cynic IC. Ibrahim OOC. Best Player Sig: N/A Best Player Avatar: N/A Best OOC Poster: N/A Best IC Poster: Partisan. I mean is this even debatable? Nicest Player: Kurdanak. Most Active Player: No idea Player Most Likely to Achieve Greatness in 2016: Pax. I think D’Haran will have their breakthrough moment. Best New Addition to the Community: N/A COMMUNITY CATEGORIES Best Wall of Text: N/A Best P&W Forum Topic: N/A Biggest Controversy: Proxy war ally targeting Funniest Event: N/A Most Entertaining IRC Channel: N/A Best Treaty Announcement: The tS/SK treaty: Excellent RP and the "leaked" announcement in Orbis Central with more RP puts it over the top. (Yes I broke my rule on self-nominations.) Best Declaration of War: N/A Largest E-Peen: Pfeiffer Best Villain: Partisan (hisssss) Most Hated Poster: Ashwyn Traverse Most Missed Player (Player that has gone inactive/quit): N/A WORST CATEGORIES Worst Alliance of the Year: EoS (some things should stay dead folks) Worst Military of the Year: BoC. They’ve been in 2 wars and gotten totally wrecked in a matter of days both times. Their offensive blitz on SK in the last war was also utter shit, to the point DEIC had to start hitting us to help take out our by and large unaffected nations. Worst Diplomatic Move: Gotta say the TC handling of the last war. Between the VE treaty, potential DEIC-Rose treaty, and the UPN Mensa tie, they had the tools available to isolate and roll SK/tS, but they jumped the gun imho. If not for the no self-noms rule, my handling of the immediate (next 2 days or so) aftermath of the Great VE war leak would certainly deserve a nomination. Most Inactive Large Alliance: - No idea Alliance Most Likely to Fail in 2016: Odd Squad. At some point they have to finally fall apart. Worst Player of the Year: Ashland. !@#$ Ashland. Worst Alliance Leader of the Year: Shellhound. Ilu Shellhound, and I will cop to accidentally setting in motion your downfall, but damn if you didn’t accelerate the hell out of it, and precipitate Guardian’s fall from being the elite alliance. Worst Treaty of the Year: (provide a link) - N/A Worst Forum Poster: vincent

Louis, I think this is the end of a beautiful friendship.

Can we split it?

The fact that I have multiple nominations as the nicest player disturbs me. Clearly I have been doing something wrong. Whatever happened to my carefully cultivated reputation as a curmudgeonly, constantly irritated son-of-a-&#33;@#&#036;? Also Jesus Cynic, have a few more categories next time, why don't you. I'll fill this out when I have a few free hours.

I think Saru's being undersold here tbh. He should be in the poll. He's been running UPN foreign policy since the beginning. The TC vs TAC war was what brought the SK-Guardian-SK axis into being to begin with. Then the way he managed to divide that whole coalition (especially Rose and SK) during peace negotiations played a massive role in what ultimately happened in the Great VE war. If I don't come out of that war absolutely furious with Rose, at least 70% of the original motivation behind the leaked plan disappears. Then UPN supporting VE's side during Great VE war absolutely a major deciding factor that stopped DEIC from backing SK/Guardian up. Then of course during proxy war the whole treaty chess was played the way it was by both sides with UPN in mind. Then Saru was the driving force behind the last war happening. His decisions haven't always worke for him, but to my mind he's the biggest political influence so far, if only because he's stuck around the whole time and not either retired (like Pre) or been a leader of a younger alliance that needed to get established first (Partisan, Pfeiffer). So tl;dr I vote Saru. Though if we're gonna include impact on gameplay and mechanics, as well as politics and community, it's clearly Pre, hands down no debate.

Infra Destroyed * 6879 Someone in Mensa picked the value early on in the war, and it seemed to work reasonably well, so everyone stuck with it.

It'd take way too much time to do an infra damage calculation that wasn't ad-hoc and that accurately reflects the cost of each peace of destroyed infra. So that part of the stats is definitely some degree off from actuality, but it's good enough for comparative purposes.

Decently well played, with the edited screenshot slotted in between two accurate ones. The Wilhelm post is actually from mid August, during the Mensa/tS vs Rose/VE war, in response to a an embassy question about what individuals thought of the current war. In the screenshot in the blog post, the date has been altered, and the post truncated. (I blurred out IP's in the screenshot below.)

DEIC MDP gone. DHE changed from protectorate to ODP. Protectorate with Niflheimr riki Protectorate with \m/ All our changes over the last few days.

As I think both the past, and the attitude of some of SK's more, shall we say, vocal members shows; sometimes it's just time to move on, no matter what good qualities (and DEIC certainly has good qualities) the other party still possesses. Best of luck to TheNG, Nick and the other DEIC members I've had some great interactions with as they rebuild and move forward.

Congrats guys. Kastor, I hope you appreciate that signature. I had to hold off posting our treaty so that this sig would be on DHE's first treaty.

It's an upgrade when the protectee asks for it because they no longer feel a protectorate is necessary. It's moving from a one-sided relationship to a two-way relationship. I've actually been doing less solo-ing of the flavor text recently. Pax wrote this one, on the tS treaty (and the "news report" thread), Partisan and I collaborated on the whole thing. I think he ended up actually writing the SK specific parts and I wrote the tS specific parts. Collaboration can be fun

Peace The Joint Coalition tonight announces that peace has been reached with the Dutch East India Company. We're happy to sign and announce this agreement, and to bring this war to a conclusion. The peace terms are as follows: 1. Dutch East India Company (DEIC) surrenders to the coalition forces. 2. DEIC acknowledges that InGen has the best theme park. 3. DEIC agrees to pay a total of 25k steel, 25k gasoline as reparations for damages done. DEIC also agrees to pay a total of 350million (300mil as reparations for damages, and 50million as a fine to Mensa for DEIC being !@#$) 4. They agree to pay 100million, 10k steel and 10k gasoline within 24 hours of peace being reached. 5. The remaining sum may be paid in installments, with 100million, 5k steel, and 5k gasoline being due each week until the full sum is paid off. 6. For ease of payment and accounting, all payments will be sent to the bank of The $yndicate. Signed for the Dutch East India Company Clarke: Chairman: Clarke Minister of Finance: TheNG Minister of Defense: stetonic Minister of Internal Affairs: Alex Minister of Foreign Affairs: ColoringNick Signed for Seven Kingdoms Signed for The $yndicate Board of Directors: Jessica Rabbit, Director of Accounting Roy Mustang, Director of Human Resources Boony, Director of Acquisitions Partisan, Mother of Protectorates, Slayer of Hegemonies, Destroyer of blocs, Bane of cordiality, Spider in the web, Slithering snake in the grass, and rightful heir to the Orbis throne, Director of Marketing Supervisory Committee: Aleccs, Supervisor of Accounting Flame of the Flawed, Supervisor of Human Resources Zed, Supervisor of Acquisitions Tim Armstrong, Supervisor of Marketing Consultants: Manthrax Tsar Nicholas II Signed for Terminus Est Warmaster: El Pinchazo Primarch: Khestra Signed for Mensa HQ Chairman: Pfeiffer Intelligentsia: Minister of Defense: Avruch Minister of Foreign Affairs: TellUrGrlThx Minister of Economics: Kemal Ergenekon Minister of Internal Affairs: MMike Minister of Security: LordRahl (ReinhardvonMusel) Signed for Black Knights Lord Strum - Temperor Yosodog - Viceroy Tiber - Archduke of the Interior Jose Rodriguez III - Archduke of Defense Flubb - Archduke of Foreign Affairs Zoot - Archduck of Economics Shifty Stranger - Archduke of Propaganda Signed for The Knights Radiant Herald of Kings: Infinite Citadel Herald of Foreign Affairs: Lordship Herald of Growth: Deus Herald of War: Azaghul Herald of Internal Affairs: Rickky Herald of the People: Walling High Prince of Internal Affairs: Sargun High Prince of Foreign Affairs: Avicenna High Prince of War: Best Leader High Prince of Recruiting: Alyster Signed for InGen Board of Directors: Public Affairs Director: Olivier Mira Park Services Director: Mad Max Research & Development Director: Apeman Chief of Operations: KRudd Signed for Alpha Placentica - Driver James II - Hybrid Hope Solo - Iron Greatnate - Iron Signed for Guardian President: Memph Signed for Noir Jodo - Triumvir Kadin - Triumvir Conroy - Triumvir Arkiri Arch - Minister of War Signed for The Kings Parliament King - William Mannax The House of Lords: -The Lord of Jurisprudence: Emperor Ifee II [ADP] -The Lord of the Exchequer: Solo Man [ADP] -The Lord of War: Blue Marvel [ADP] -The Lord of the Seas: Jax Holly [ADP] -The Lord of Foreign Affairs: Li Long [ADP] The House of Commons: -The Member of Parliament of Jurisprudence: Gavin [ADP] -The Member of Parliament of the Exchequer: ratbag [bEP] -The Member of Parliament of War: William Smith [ADP] -The Member of Parliament of the Seas: James Grimshaw [iND] -The Member of Parliament of Foreign Affairs: Danial Shiakh [KNP] Signed for The Coalition President - Aurelius Vice-President and Finance - Gandorian Defense - Shakyr Foreign Affairs - Bollocks Internal Affairs - Chunky Monkey

Always nice to see two good friends getting closer. Congrats guys

BoC's surrender and NAP was contingent upon them not re-enaging in the war. They've taken a massive sum of money from an alliance we're at war with, which serves the function of effectively hiding that money from being taken through battle. That's providing material aid to DEIC and re-engaging in the war in my book. They've voided the peace agreement already. Out of courtesy, and the same good faith we've shown in all of our dealings with BoC this war (which I'll note include letting them out of the war earlier than either of their coalition partners, and for much lower reps) we've given them 24 hours (from Partisan's conversation with them last night) to rectify the situation. At 24 hours and 1 minute we're rolling out again. As for the SK-DEIC treaty, not getting into it again for the thousandth time. Clarke's gonna interpret it however he's gonna interpret it. He's already proven his level of commitment to any ally not named UPN.