RD-UN
His Tremendous Majesty sends you 32000 gold in strong chests borne aloft by Our mighty delivery crew. Look to the skies. Please do rescue Our unfortunate count. A few other possible targets:
RA Agent 2 GREENBLADE RS Bright San Was assigned to a recon mission of RS.
RA Agent 3 REDBLADE ST Whale Poin Awaiting further orders.
The people of Wolfandia (Area UV) have rebelled against our rulership! They have joined the Ranger kingdom. It is believed their Duke Iron Crow Of Brea was behind the uprising.
DW-RD
Tremendous Majesty,
The Agent Redblade is no more. Alas, so too is my late novice agent who assassinated him, but sometimes training missions can be dangerous.
I have taken the village in the water, and am about to take the town in the water, which would leave only his capital in the water. If you wish, I can move on the population center the Ranger Duke took last month?
Finally, do you have any group locations for the Ranger? Many thanks.
Best,
Grundun
RD-DW
Noble Grundun - here is some more information for you. We have seen your efforts on the water and this makes Us happy. We will take care of recovering the population center than the duke took from us.
Our population centers reported the presence of the following groups:
PC Name Area Size Group I.D. Leader
Moon Shadow PZ Army 1RA Warlord Trueblade
(Last turn, there was a Power 3 Wizard with this group - most likely still there)
RA Governor Ruben Godhand OV Jukanta Successfully relocated base to the city of Jukanta.
RA Queen Alexis SteelHawk PT Glittering Fell into a sudden coma lasting a month.
RA Baroness Nikkandia PT Glittering Escaped to the capital during the fall of Moon Shadow!
RA Envoy Paul Hawkcrest PT Glittering Awaiting further orders.
RA Agent 12 Darkblade PT Glittering Attempted a counter-espionage mission.
RA Duke Iron Crow Of Brea RY Gurgling B Successfully relocated base to the town of Gurgling Bog.
RD-UN
You may find this information useful as well. We would particularly like to see the end of Duke Iron Crow.
RA -> BL
Greetings Desert King,
I fear my time is short. Weird magics have started to be used against my kingdom including ones that cause me drop into a full slumber, wizards have heart attacks, and emissaries disappear from their beds. And I am ashamed to speak this for I know how badly it will hurt your heart, but after having crushed the Scarlet Wyrm in three straight battles and reclaiming Jukanta, he not only refuses to fight me in open combat anymore but has now employed the help of the Dwarves to perform his diplomatic missions as well as covert assignments and the Underworld has become his main black ops employee. Against the might of the Red Dragons I could have stood in battle time and time again but he is clearly, and it pains me to say this, a coward, unwilling to oppose me, woman to dragon. Instead, resorting to a 3 on 1 gangbang to gain an upperhand and only now has he finally wrested Synisvania away from me. I know this must embarrass you to no end, knowing that a cousin of yours flees combat, avoids fights, beats up girls (but only verbally), only attacks villages with little more than pitchforks, and begs lower creatures to do what he is unable or afraid to do. I fully expect to meet Dwarven or Underworld troops in combat long before I see any more dragons seek out my army.
I suspect you will have no problem defeating him in open combat despite his supposedly scary reputation; just be sure to bring at least a couple of friends with you for he will not fight you directly unless he brings others as cannon fodder. Clearly he fears you since he would not invade your lands even though he knew you were leagues away in the Gnome mountains. Perhaps the plague that inflicted the Dark Elves somehow also touched the Red Dragons for these are clearly NOT the fearsome beasts of old and legend; they are diminished.
At some point, you would think the Dwarves, Underworld, and Gnomes would stop and consider why they are bothering to do the bidding of a creature incapable of effectively doing anything of note beyond name calling. Expect some big blowhard reply from him in the near future that does more threatening and name calling, but rest assured that he will wait until his minions have so depleted me that THEN he will ride in and battle me when I have only a ragtag army remaining and try to claim some "great" victory.
I hope in the end that others will see just how vulnerable and pathetic the Scarlet Wyrm is when his NAPs start to expire.
Lady SteelHawk, Snow Queen of the Rangers
BL
OOC: I was scheduled to begin a civil jury trial yesterday (the case settled) and am beginning a criminal defense trial Monday. The point is I have had very little time outside of work. Sorry!
These Forum Only diplomacy games (which I think are wonderful in concept!) have both pointed out the frequency with which some players resort to 3 v 1. This is in my opinion why our customer base stagnates or even shrinks. In BOTH CONTESTS players organized 3 v 1 attacks.
Here, although I have written extensively, I have not actually joined with you in coordinating against either RD, DW, or UN. All three players are collaborating against you. I think that two players against one would be sufficient.
In 195 I have not written a single word in the Forum and have not coordinated with a single player. In that contest the TR coordinated with both the DW and UN against my position.
Why players think 3 v 1 is either fun or challenging for anyone is beyond me? I simply don't get it. In 301 the RD and DW are two of the very best in our entire player base. One would think those two could beat any single position without enlisting a third player? Maybe not?
I share your frustration Imperial Tark. What could have been a challenging, valiant defense of your realm against two interlopers became a hopeless waste of time and money against three opponents. I know the feeling only too well from game 195.
Maybe I should just say "fuck it" and ignore all the conventions we agree to? Emails in anonymous games, anyone? Ignore the restrictions in Forum Only? Just play a turn or two and then let three turns pass without any orders if I don't get a smoking great start? Send emails during drafts to coordinate with other players? My money - no reason I can't do whatever the hell I please, right?
Unfortunately, once my mind goes down that path the only logical conclusion is to just leave and find a player base somewhere else. I think it was VballMichael (maybe someone else) who mentioned that if the same players got together each week to play board games and three players routinely ganged up on the fourth eventually the fourth would be unwilling to join the group again.
In this game why couldn't the UN have said, "Sorry, but no I am not going to be the third to gang bang the RA?" Maybe the DW should have said, "If you get help from the UN I will have to withdraw and fight elsewhere?" Maybe those aren't the best decisions for this particular game for those positions. I understand that. But those are definitely the best decisions for helping to grow our player base by doing all we can to keep from ruining the contest for our fellow players.
If I understand Imperial Tark correctly he would have continued to enjoy his contest against two opponents, but three just becomes overwhelming? I understand this completely! I imagine the RD, DW, and UN understand this dynamic also!
One of the main reasons I do not drop from even hopeless positions is because that is unfair to my fellow players . . . This is also the reason I refuse to coordinate with two or more others against a single target . . . because that is unfair to my fellow players.
Oh well, my opinion is well known but obviously not shared!
I am sorry Imperial Tark.
I will attempt to write in-character again this weekend.
OOC: By all appearances, it was RD vs. RA with a side of DW support compared to a side of BL support on the other side, with UN being called back and forth until BL decided to stop bidding against RD.
This was after RA deliberately and by his own admission went out of his way to roleplay an aggressive and undiplomatic character that annoyed at least two other players significantly. He has to own that, and so do you.
My support has amounted to whopping assassinations of an Agent 3 and Agent 2, and the taking of one town and one village. And RD has paid a ton of gold to UN which has diluted RD's own effectiveness, and you have in turn helped RA with gold.
It also looked like you were going to help RA with a lot more than that, and if you instead decided to pursue your own interests in Runnimede rather than helping the ally you were supporting with big talk and saber rattling, again, you have to own that choice.
This is a fluid game and the situation can change from turn to turn. And any time RA wants to sue for peace, he's welcome to do so, and if he opts to roleplay someone who will never do that, once again, he needs to own that.
So please spare me the lecture, LT.
Rationalize all you want.
I can lecture however I want.
I am truly to the point where I no longer give a flying fuck!
Appearances my ass?
There was not a single action I took in concert with the RA against the RD or anybody else.
You chose to assist the RD. That is acceptable, in my opinion. Then you guys decided to seek UN assistance. At that point you knew it was three versus one. You guys could have continued your two versus one. If the BL or anyone else had joined in, then you could have sought further aid.
The UN should have said I am not going to be the third player against the RA.
You guys can all play however you want.
But so can I. I can type whatever I want. When Rick no longer wants my money he can banish me.
But you also know damn well that the RD in this game was the TR in 195 who also brought a 3 v 1. I can certainly point that out!
Imperial Tark just finished writing that while it was 2 v 1 he was enjoying the game. Even if he lost he would have finished the game eager to enjoy another contest because this one was fun, interesting, and challenging. How many times do you think he is going to play if he always faces a 3 v 1?
There is no doubt in your mind that you and the RD were facing no opposition other than the RA. Not a single other player had taken an action against you. But you still thought it would be fun to invite the UN?
Whether the GN eventually beats me or loses he knows that I have faced him 1 v 1. I asked only one other player to assist. When you said "no, thanks" I haven't sought any further assistance. If I had gained two more allies the GN would have already been dust and he certainly wouldn't have enjoyed the game. But I never sought that.
The frustrating thing is that this is one of the most enjoyable contests I had ever played due to the Forum Only aspect. But even this format devolves into a 3 v 1 too damn quickly for my tastes.
And I can damn sure call it the way I see it. Having been on the wrong end of a 6 v 1 organized from Madmardigan after he took over a position as stand-by I damn near quit then. But I certainly stopped caring about being a part of a gaming community of like-minded brothers at that moment. So I will write what I want whenever I want and don't really care anymore.
Play the game however you want. My guess is when you alienate enough players that 12 player games cannot start often enough to keep the player base interested you will have nobody to blame but yourselves.
And if I have to own my storytelling you have to own that you knew before you asked the UN for help that you were initiating a 3 v 1. Other than my (hopefully) amusing writing there is not a single action you can point to that I did against anyone other than the GN. Writing stories doesn't create a 3 v 2 and you fucking know it.
OOC: It's patently obvious from your demeanor that you are way too sensitive about this issue. If I devote 10-15% of my resources (two or three orders per turn) to helping RD against someone who I've tangled with since game start, is that really 2-on-1? Or, say, if a Kingdom is passing through a region and opportunistically grabs a pop center or two along the way, is that really 2-on-1? What about asking a Wizard Kingdom for a spell or two? Or even three? How about loaned artifacts? Trade arrangements?
Or paying through the nose to hire an obviously mercenary UN player -- who is also brand new, I would point out, so nice job railing against and being welcoming to the new player, LT -- thus greatly reducing the attacker's own coffers, while you're spending that money training P5 wizards?
Until you mentioned it just now, I had no idea you truly weren't lifting a finger to help your RA ally aside from gold (which, by the way, is pretty significant in this game where gold is the lifeblood). That's the very nature of a war game with imperfect information and fog of war, after all... we only know that which we recon or receive reports on, and you certainly made it sound like you were helping.
This is not a simple, black-and-white issue despite your best efforts to make it so. But yes, if you're going to see red and scream "3-on-1" every time someone touches the conflict, you might want to stick with anonymous games.
And by the way, I'm dealing with a 4-on-1 in one of my anonymous games. You suck it up and deal. The benefit to that format is a lack of coordination, which is also echoed here.
Frankly, I'm not even convinced IT is as offended as you are, given that he wrote completely in character, and has previously written about how he enjoys playing with the big boys so he can learn more quickly.
OOC I'll deal with the situation in this game first. I had planned to simply start the game by taking over the ES, which were empty. The RA opened up with some very aggressive demands for a share and since we were both roleplaying, I responded in kind, with an invasion of Synisvania. Note that he had already sent a blocking emmisary to Hammerhold to prevent the DW from taking it, so he had initiated conflict with the two kingdoms. As for the UN, as I recall, others were trying to bring him in against me and I felt I had to outbid and use him myself least he be used against me. That is gold which has not been going into hiring more troops, which is why I have been running away from RA armies. And you, as the BL, disrupted my winter food supply - not an insignificant thing to happen to the RD. I feinted that I was moving south into the SS in order to try and draw you off from the GN, who was also my ally. I have seen this fight mainly as RD vs RA with DW and BL providing small amounts of help on the side with the UN sitting back and laughing his way to the bank playing both sides against the other.
As for 195, honestly that didn't play out at all like I expected. Everybody was being all nice and polite and not fighting. I attacked you, hoping to provoke a free-for-all - I had every expectation that the AN and/or GN would quickly jump in on your side - you'll note that I never even tried to get a NAP with the AN in that game. Also, you'll note that I specifically waved off the EL's offer to help against you. Had it become a wider war (which it now has) then I felt it would be fair to bring the EL into it. As it is, my poor kingdom now is the victim of a 3 on 1 as the GN/AN/WI kingdoms just about trashed it.
I'm not complaining - it was a fight I started!
I actually think these open forum games discourage 3 on 1. The diplomacy is definitely different. It does take time and I don't think I'll ever be in two again at the same time. But they are great fun and it leads to some different tactics (the UN in particular has been innovated in these games). I'm sorry you are not enjoying yourself. In 195, I really did expect you to emerge from your silence and coordinate with an ally - I'm not really sure why you did not unless it was a specific role-playing commitment that you made to yourself. I am somebody who does object to 3 vs 1 but I don't see any of that here. To me, the really objectionable thing is two or three players planning and then unleashing a coordinated attack together - that's impossible here because the target would know. But the target is also responsible for doing the defensive diplomacy when attacked.
(01-05-2016, 10:21 PM)SylvieRafa Wrote: [ -> ]UN-RA
Nothing personal, it is. Ruling Alamaze, we seek not. If RD wins, be it so. If RA wins, be it so. But either can hire, and either protection can buy. If RD to stop, others want, then Yoda is here, ready for hiring.
OCC: Boys, such language! It's enough to make a girl blush. I guess I wandered into some kind of old grudge...which is too bad because I thought this was just a game where we're supposed to be having fun.
I found my comment above and thought I'd quote it again. Because that's really how I'm playing it. And that's how I'm having fun. You get 12 players around a table and they're all going to bring different things. Enjoy different things.
I don't want to do something terribly inappropriate of course and I don't want to offend anyone because again this is just a game. So if people agree with Lord Thanatos I'll think about that. Or if Imperial Tark is terribly offended I'll think about that too.
But I don't appreciate being cursed at or told what to do and I think that's probably going to chase people off more than this weird grudge thing.