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Just to add here, if the stuff about TFP adding people to the sphere without consulting the rest of it is actually true then there's a chance it could blow up with alliances who people are far less likely to laugh at than Camelot. Not consulting allies is a pretty dangerous FA road to go down. So yeah...don't do that.

We hope Kev's ardent defence of TFP, albeit mistaken and misinformed, will change the perspectives of those in their government and leadership. Whilst he has not been kind to us we ask you treat him and your new allies with the respect we wish you had for us. Leaking serves no one and we hope this deters you from stooping that low again.

At this point, Camelot is a laughingstock, That's what happens when you don't listen to me, tfp, or anyone else for that matter epi.

Agreed. TFP has work to do. The silver lining is that TFP made the correct choice in cutting Cam. Hopefully it’s the jumping off point to some positive changes.

@Incitatus' and @KillzBob's posts might make Camelot look worse, but they don't make TFP look any better or refute any of the points directed at TFP. It's clear to see that both alliances are in terrible shape these days.

Alas, as much as the puny Camelot may thrash they cannot threaten the strength and resiliency of TFP and The Johnsons. For the Johnsons word is always good and true, and wicked intentions shall not hurt its holy name 🙏

I see Epi has done a wonderful job in teaching the art of "making things up". I think you got that backwards. Epi was the one originally taking a dump on TFP on Thalmor Radio, not the other way around. I believe Killzbob has the recording if you would like to listen. Ah, that explains TFP's more recent blunders. You guys were trying to give them advice. Pro tip: next time try working on Camelot's reputation first. Actually, no. The treaty ended because TFP gave you 72hours. For you to frame it as you giving them 72hours is hilarious and continues the trend of "making things up" Okay, I laughed at this one. Camelot hit Thunderstruck. Prior to hitting Thunderstruck, Cam came to Thunderstruck and demaded the Winter AA. Uriah told Epi that he would let it go for 2.5 billion. Soon after, Cam blitzed Thunderstruck. The ask that you pay reps/give an apology came only after you guys did the boneheaded hit and showed Orbis that once again, Camelot is among the worst ever alliances and among the most dishonorable. On top of this, you also asked for this not to be discussed outside of the sphere. You were the one to break your own agreement you set by going into RON and attempting to lie about what happened. So again, thank you for the chuckle. If this wasn't Camelot posting, I would be absolutely flabbergasted by how far from the truth this thread was. Most of the accusations you made are boldfaced lies and were things Camelot were doing to Thunderstruck/TFP rather than the things you are trying to pin on them. TFP has made their fair share of mistakes, but dropping you was not one of them.

We did not want to comment on the cancellation, but your post is deliberately misleading and demands a response. When you invited us to create a sphere, we were offered a “partnership” and a leading role that we would use to promote our own security. In hindsight, you lied to us and disregarded our input and your obligations to us. We asked you to leave Oasis on good-terms and with proper notice and instead you blindsided them. We asked you to remain quiet with us until the dust settled and instead you went on Thalmor Radio and declared you no longer wished to be a competitive alliance, that your diplomats were untrained, and that all your recent treaties and cancellations were mistakes. You publicly expressed, in no uncertain terms, that we are an undesirable ally just as you have done today. We forgave that and many other political blunders and worked tirelessly with you to restore your reputation. All we asked for was a fraction of the respect we had given you. You ignored your obligations to us and began adding new members to the sphere without consulting us, all of which you informed us were actively hostile to us. We did not focus on the enemies of the past, we agreed to let bygones be bygones, it was you that told us they were still hostile! This treaty ultimately concluded because rather than be neutral or mediate you decided to threaten us with war. They attempted to force us to surrender and accept unfair peace-terms which included 2.5 billion and then 5 billion in ransom for Winter alliance, reparations, censorship, and a public apology on the Orbis World Forums which you agreed with them. We didn't agree to these terms and instead paid a small reparation for the damage we did, and we made a private apology to preserve the sphere in return for the deletion of Winter. Yesterday, Eriko suggested we should maintain our treaty with you for the duration of the global war and sometime after until we could find new allies. Camelot agreed to this, and we considered it an inviolable diplomatic promise. We have learned over the course of our treaty with you that your promises mean very little and so we were bothered but ultimately not surprised when you broke it today by issuing this cancellation. We once more apologize for participating in this conflict but remind you that it was your political decisions that led to it. If we were to offer any parting advice, consult your allies before signing new treaties! We wish you the best with your new venture and hope relations will improve when you gain some more experience. Hopefully this sets the record straight. We ultimately have no ill will towards you and look forward to continuing to interact with you and other alliances in this great community. Signed, Evlar - FA Epi - King

Nice job, there’s some hope yet for you, TFP. Sorry to see Cam throwing new friends away so vicariously.

This is a new TFP. This is the real TFP. The Johnson is strong in them. Bravo TFP. Bravo.

Made the right choice TFP.

I think it's very commendable that you guys stood up for your ally. I was a bit concerned that TFP was going to roll over, but I see now that such an idea was unfounded.

TFP went bonk bonk on em

Congratulations to TFP for standing up to Cam's bullshit. And as for Epi... What did you expect when you hit another M-level of your only major ally?

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

Greetings, friend! I was told somehow that a post on the forums was intriguing. Being a bit elderly and occupied, it took me some time to write up a response. I also wanted to respond to other posts here, so I needed some more time. People wanted walls of text on forums! They will receive. Speaking of forums, it is my opinion that as of this time, among active FA leaders, the two sharpest and most dynamic are WANA and Keegoz, and they are ahead of the peloton. The short answer as to why is that the both of them are some of the few people who have a long enough history doing this, here and elsewhere, to remember a time before NPOLT. That is really some ancient history, mind you, but for many people in leadership now it is not that long ago. A time when things did get conduced on forums, and a time when, in-character at least, things were quite sharper. This is no insult to someone like Ronny. Ronny is certainly sharp enough to know how things operate. I respect Ronny for this; Grumpy is one of the few foreign servers I will entertain being in. There is one difference here with them, however. I will post a few recent comments from the forums here. Clock seems to indicate that they would be a bad matchup for the Grumpy/Guardian axis. The reasons are, more or less, for the same reasons outlined in the other post link. The mechanics of this game are such that dropping from above is usually the way to win at an easier rate, and it seems neither Clock nor Blackwater have the horses in the upper tiers where this matters. So what would Clock do in this 1v1 scenario? After all, the megawhale territory is on much more even ground among Clock and Hollywood. I think you will find that t$ has been remarkably consistent on this point. But… why? Frankly, when you have accomplished what we have over the years, you too might run out of peaks to scale. The G/G axis is strong enough mechanically that they do not have to be experts to use it, but insulting them by using a sporting analogy in saying they “have no bag” is simply false. No one believes that G/G are unskilled bloat merchants. And perhaps, maybe now, we should just decide that we will give this line of work a rest. I recall the goal of The Company, when it was founded, was to have a project that would rival Grumpy. It was to provide an alternative home for whales who wanted a different project and grouping. And it seems that The Company has grown. I think many of us in t$ were quite upset that such a project went off to do an independent thing. It is not the first time t$ has suffered a splinter of high-ranking nations that left us wondering how to regroup in those tiers. Despite the shifting fortunes of The Company and t$ relative to each other, and the differing positions we find ourselves in now, I still do not believe that we feel enough animosity towards you to have a conflict. It has been argued about good intentions regarding peace, and the bilaterally of that negotiation, all over these forums in the past few days. People may lament the state of CBs in this game. Sometimes I do. I do not know why we would have a reason to fight Clock at this time given that sentiment, and unless I am missing something do not see why you would want us either. An astute reader will remember the comment about mini-spheres, and then wonder why I do not seem to have mentioned them all. In fact, I seem to be focusing on only two others besides the one I reside in. Are the other spheres irrelevant? Well if we have active mini-sphere politics, then no. But remember, I have mentioned three prominent FA voices here so far in this thread among active people. But only three. t$ may not have the greatest love affair with several alliances in that grouping, but I imagine we simply do not care at this point to make an effort to come to blows. Even with some of these alliances, notably Ampersand, I imagine we have even made amends over past conflicts. I wish Rose and TFP well, but neither play this game in a fashion that seeks bloodlust, or to always be shaking the political game. This is fine; not everyone needs to do this, and both alliances have built communities in and around them that do put on some good behavior and friendly faces to others out there. If everyone did the same thing, people would feel like things were stale. But without this incessant drive, there just will not be a lot of political intrigue with t$ and those alliances. Again, this is fine in my opinion. Moreover, it really is not even warranted anyway. Yes, t$ has been generally alienated from much of the game between NPOLT and now. Yes, the narratives of the game seem to have not lived up to the hopes that many had following that conflict. What is new about that? Occasionally in real life (oh no, OOC attack), I teach statistical research methods to undergraduate students. One of my favorite examples to refer to is to talk about the department of Geography at the University of North Carolina. Did you know that in the 1980s, geography majors at UNC had a vastly higher salary upon graduation than any other major? $250k in the 1980s! How in the world did this small major have such earnings? Well, the most famous student of the program was a man named Michael Jeffrey Jordan. MJ, for short, is a very well known and famous geographer. In fact, he is a household name - I bet everyone here has heard of him, unlike most geography majors. But there is a catch - Jordan is really the only member of his class to earn a very high salary approaching that average. No one else is close. I bet he discovered something really great in geography, and that is how he made his money! Well friend if you believe that, then you may call me George Strait, because I have oceanfront property in Arizona with a free golden gate if you will buy it (all of my exes do live in Texas though). But when total nation counts say one thing, and the actual scores of those nations say another, basic statistical methods will lead one to some real truth of the matter. I do not need to go further, because the point was made above by others, and again, perhaps we ought to just let it go. t$ and Grumpy collaborate on Green Unity, and together have built the most economically stable color grouping in the game. It is a shame that there are other alliances which parasite off of the work that our alliances do to ensure this economic viability, without doing any of the work to keep and maintain that bonus. Does Clockwater need to be a thing just to fight this G/G axis? It could, but like I mentioned before why bother? People do not seem to like endless repeating war cycles. Both Blackwater and Hollywood have publicly stated on these forums in the past few days they prefer not to fight each other. So let us say that we will take each other at our words. Do I trust Grumpy/Guardian, and TKR? Yes, yes I do. I believe, and will go on public record, that their leaders have integrity to do so. I trust most of this game, in fact. Partisan has come and gone from our halls multiple times. Others have led, and often but not always (no names called out here!) done so capably. People will have different styles and approaches. As someone who has seen t$ nearly die multiple times, I have some perspective on things. WANA, Justin, Shiho, Adam, Theo, and others (I hope they do not hate me for omitting their names), have all done a remarkable job at helping us along. They all came to us with a different worldview, and a new set of talents. I have been very glad to see them all. Why would I not? Statpadding is not what wins coalition wars. Brilliant solo performances are not what win coalition wars. t$ has survived a great many challenges before, and I hope that as long as this game is still worth my time that it will continue to do so. Besides, despite claimed leaks to the contrary, I doubt you will see t$ sue for peace in fewer than ten days because we have not the will to fight a worthy opponent. I do not feel like I need to reiterate, again for those who live under a rock, why malal and t$ do not have the most sterling opinion of each other. I do not feel like I need to point out some of the undefendable things that have emerged from this thread either by some posting here; any reasonably neutral party will see them and call them out for what they are. Will the Court of Thalmor give us as entertaining of a trial as Peoples Court? Video unrelated - clearly not a representation of me: As someone who has been in t$ for awhile, it is my firm (no pun intended) opinion that some of the most recent executives to come through our halls are among the best we have ever had. Shiho and Jess are both superlative military commanders at the height of anything this game has ever seen. Theo and Justin both made major economic victories in this alliance to rival anything from previous eras. WANA is an original founder of t$ who has come back. Greatness still exists here, even by our standards. As for Adam, he unfortunately suffered from the same fate as myself, Chaunce, and Sisyphus (and even Manthrax to some extent) - someone naturally from an IA or adjacent department being pressed into FA work. This is, in part, why we like to joke about Lucas being our next FA Executive; the other part is because we find it amusing to consider the possibility. Even then, Adam was a fine IA executive relative to our standards, and I think he is too hard on himself regarding foreign affairs. After all, I do not think he really did any worse overall than I did during my near year in charge. Obsidian Order, a collaboration between two of our children, was something I took for granted as a stable thing when I came into power doing FA. I had absolutely zero idea that things were as bad as they were over there before their split. It was not good. They made a major drive to the narrative by joining Pacifica to form IQ. I tried to sign VE to ease world tensions, but that was hijacked and eventually we got quite a war. But I noticed that the peace negotiations from that war, at the time, seemed to be a bit nastier than normal. There was some real bad blood. I was told years later that Curu following that had a real hatred for me and t$, because of how that war turned out. I really wish I knew why. I noticed that in the state the game was in at the time, things had become extremely calcified. IQ and their other friends were not going to break apart. The grouping of EMC was also hardened in their resolve. Almost everyone was aligned on one side or another. KT was out in the third space, as were our splinter children Hogwarts and Church of Spaceology, but they did not have the numbers to really pull things apart. I felt personally responsible to do something to try and break this, but I did not have the foggiest idea about what that was. So I decided, with the blessing of Chaunce and Jess, to extract us out. We would be the largest alliance to go paperless in quite some time. Our friends in EMC were pretty shocked at this turn of events. I do not remember what IQ thought, but we never had any real serious dialogue in the time we were paperless, and they never really sought us out. I talked to the other unaligned nations, but nothing really progressed too far and I kept some distance there. That move did the very short-term thing I intended. The sauna that was world politics at the time cooled significantly. Success! But I did not do more about it. I had no idea what I could do! I did not want to look like I was turning my back on EMC, like others did. I did not want to fight IQ again, and I do not have to explain that. What would have happened if I joined a “third sphere”? Well there was a risk there, but I did not take it. I say all this because I believe that much of the perception of t$ now is based on those years as the point of genesis. I believe that I may not have explicitly failed in my time as FA Executive, but I left an impression of an era that felt hollow. When I read the opinions of people here, this is the furthest era they cite as to how they perceive us. That era was under my watch, and it does not appear that the overall perception is very healthy. It is not based on a year like 2015 when we mostly fought defensive undermanned wars. People like to talk about how we only fight “dogpiles”, and forget that much of our old mentality is forged from having to be under the gun for that long. It is part of the shock that haunted me from Git Gud Friday and wanting any way out of the madness. It is not also a perception based on the creation of Treasure Island, Ground Zero, or surviving an 8v1 throw the kitchen sink hit during Git Gud Friday. And even then, Partisan took Hogwarts away from us. Manthrax took Church of Spaceology away from us. Jess nearly led another group away, and I even considered a breakaway; either of those would have probably killed t$ at the time. Theo led The Company away years later, and there have been other splinters still. People have left, and so sometimes have ideas. I outlined earlier that t$ has crested many mountains. Alliances reinvent themselves constantly if they want to survive for years. Guardian is a prime example of an alliance that has done this. t$ has done the same, and repeatedly. We are still doing it to this day. t$ would not be here today without the new ideas and people from the KT/TGH exodus. I also outlined that there is a seeming dearth of narratives in the game currently. From our perspective, both are true. t$ took a major chance with signing Pacifica. We found out that was a bad chance. But what other real chance is there to take right now? This is an alliance that has a particular pride in being innovative and groundbreaking, and we have done that many times over the years. By our standards, I look around the world now and see something relatively flat. If I am being honest, the way things stand now, I see exactly one real powerplay move we could do - maybe a second, but that is a lot harder for me to think about people accepting. Such a move is not my decision to make, as I am not in charge. People in this game are still in a shell from NPOLT regarding behavior. If I made some statement like, t$ has a valid cause to Eternal ZI those people wanting us to disband forever in NPOLT that are still playing, and specifically singling us out compared to many others, well people now would be extremely upset. I remember a bygone era where such an action would have been no problem to levy, and no one would have thought twice about any seeming hypocrisy on our end. But times have changed. I will clarify that t$ does not have intent to do this, but I wanted to put out some rather extreme normative behavior from earlier generations as a hypothetical to talk about community mores. Things have been worse before. I am glad to see that things did improve, at least a bit, in two years. I would like to continue that. If the rest of this community, writ large, would like to have some normalization of relations with t$ for supposed unnormative behavior, I believe that would be welcomed by us. Nexus of late has had a chance to make moves on their own accord, and not always moves we would steer them towards if we truly drove their policy. TKR has already stated on their own that we did not treat them with disdain; I hope that was true during Quack and I can tell you from firsthand experience it was true in an earlier era. I was thrilled to see BK not take their own advice to disband and join Bee Kay when they had a cleaning out, and was glad to have them back as allies. This statement is just patently untrue. The only real time I can remember that we had major problems with an ally was NPO. I do not need to elaborate on that one. Quoted post edited to reflect my true and factual opinion. On a more serious note, Hilmes was an utter and catastrophic failure as our FA Executive. Your tenure was not anywhere in the area of such a disaster, and I personally admire your service to our alliance.

This is just the Camelot - BoC treaty. With TFP i guess being SCX-BK and Waffle House being NPO?

Alliance of the Year: Eclipse Most Improved Alliance: TEst Best Rookie Alliance: Voodoo Most Likely to Succeed in 2022: Eclipse Most Likely to be Rolled in 2022: TFP Best Fighting Alliance: Mythic Worst Fighting Alliance: The Immortals Best Alliance Growth: TEst Best Foreign Affairs Team: Rose Best Foreign Affairs Move: cloc formation Worst Foreign Affairs Move: Oasis/minc mdp Most Missed Alliance: TLE

Alliance of the Year: the immortalsMost Improved Alliance: IKEABest Rookie Alliance: the axsisBest Alliance for New Players: the elitesMost Likely to Succeed in 2022: IoMMost Likely to be Rolled in 2022: cataMost Honorable Alliance: the impportalsMost Immoral Alliance: roseBest Fighting Alliance: auroraWorst Fighting Alliance: RoseBest Alliance Growth: roseBest Foreign Affairs Team: &Best Foreign Affairs Move: Making clock blockWorst Foreign Affairs Move: TFP leaving oasisAlliance with Best Propaganda: defconMost Missed Alliance: the axsis

Player of the Year: Kan, for managing to be in every single sphere at some point.Most Influential Player: WANAMost Likely to Succeed in 2022: ViceBest Alliance Leader: VeinWorst Alliance Leader: Han SoloBest In-Character Poster: SRDBest Villain: DtCNicest Player: CosmosMost Controversial Player: Phoenyx (was that last year?)Most Missed Player: Harry Flashman (110 votes from TFP) Best Fighter: Zero Cool

Alliance of the Year: CATACLYSM, CotL/E404 Most Improved Alliance: Aurora Best Rookie Alliance: VooDoo Best Alliance for New Players: Grumpy Most Likely to Succeed in 2022: CATACLYSM Most Likely to be Rolled in 2022: CATACLYSM Most Honorable Alliance: Ampersand Most Immoral Alliance: t$ Best Fighting Alliance: Hands of Fate/KT Worst Fighting Alliance: The fake TFP Best Alliance Growth: Rose...sorta. Best Foreign Affairs Team: Hmm.. Best Foreign Affairs Move: Hollywood Worst Foreign Affairs Move: Swamp reforming but it didn't reform but we know it reformed. Alliance with Best Propaganda: Wei Most Missed Alliance: Pantheon Best Alliance Flag (please link): Best Holiday Flag (please link):

Alliance of the Year: Cataclysm Most Improved Alliance: Gato Best Rookie Alliance: Best Alliance for New Players: TKR Most Likely to Succeed in 2022: IKEA Most Likely to be Rolled in 2022: Most Honorable Alliance: Most Immoral Alliance: Best Fighting Alliance: Worst Fighting Alliance: Best Alliance Growth: Best Foreign Affairs Team: Best Foreign Affairs Move: Worst Foreign Affairs Move: TFP Alliance with Best Propaganda: Most Missed Alliance: Rakatan Infinite Empire Best Alliance Flag (please link): Best Holiday Flag (please link):

Alliance of the Year: Eclipse Most Improved Alliance: Eclipse Best Rookie Alliance: IKEA Best Alliance for New Players: Rose Most Likely to Succeed in 2022: Eclipse Most Likely to be Rolled in 2022: TFP Most Honorable Alliance: Most Immoral Alliance: Best Fighting Alliance: Eclipse Worst Fighting Alliance: Atlas Technological Cooperative Best Alliance Growth: Rose Best Foreign Affairs Team: Rose Best Foreign Affairs Move: Worst Foreign Affairs Move: Oasis Mystery Treaty Alliance with Best Propaganda: Most Missed Alliance: Inferno Best Alliance Flag (please link): Best Holiday Flag (please link):

We have done it. TFP took out that *****, Oasis Baskin. Another win for The Johnsons. Also - Good to see Oblivion and TI making their secret treaty public.

Congratulations TFP! Welcome to the Johnsons Family!