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PE-WJ-Diplo [James Howlett[UN]]: End in sight?
Date:Wed, 05 Apr 2006 18:06:28 +0000

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I'm not really sure why, but SA continues to fight alongside the X
alliance against us (TS).  Right now the non-committal, fence-sitter
Hermis would just have to join the X alliance and they would have 107
regions (112 required for 1/3 of major nations).  SA is at 89 regions
right now so we only have to lose 7 more regions to the X alliance or
Hermis for them to be able to start the victory clock.  I guess
they're just trying to get SA to wear themselves down and wear us down
before they make a run at it.  I guess it really isn't a good idea to
publicly declare your alliance from the beginning and go for the win
the old-fashioned way, fighting alongside your friends through thick
and thin.  The best route seems to be to only run 2 or 3 members, get
the world really under control, and then add the 4th member, starting
the victory clock when no one has any chance of stopping it.  Being a
bigger nation that allies itself with multiple alliances without
joining them also seems to be the way to go.  That way, once the dust
settles you can just join the biggest alliance remaining and be on the
winning team.  I guess you just need to sell yourself as the "secret"
4th member to 2 or more of the contenders and just let it roll.  I
suppose if nothing else, I've learned these lessons.  I can't say that
I'll ever implement that strategy though because it seems like a
really cheap way to win.

Oh well.  Just wanted to make sure everyone knew what was going on in
the world.

James


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PE-WJ-Diplo [James Howlett[UN]]: typo
Date:Wed, 05 Apr 2006 18:08:11 +0000

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Sorry, I meant TS is at 89 regions, not SA.  Too many acronyms.


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PE-WJ-Diplo [Acanthopis]: End in sight?
Date:Wed, 05 Apr 2006 20:25:45 +0000

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James,

Thanks for the update. I don't think that there is anything "cheap"
about winning, whoever ends up on top (sure looks like X right now).
There are different strategies--one strategy in all conflicts has
always been to sit back and wait for the two major powers to destroy
each other, and then finish off their bloody carcasses when the dust
settles. I assumed that we all knew the risk there when we battled
each other--was this really a surprise to you? Still, it was a fun
fight, and you all did well; you should be proud. I could easily gripe
that you had outside helpers in our initial battle, which was partly
why you won it, but what's wrong with outside helpers? I suppose
nothing--we all use all of the tools at our disposal. If the only way
to fight a war is to declare an alliance and pummel all other
alliances, then this would actually be a kind of dull world, because
it seems like balance of power politics should lead to endless
stalemate. 

Anyway, I continue to fight you guys because, you know, I'm used to
it. Plus, you nasties took my favorite regions (Baby Snakes, Venom,
all those early regions I was so sentimental about). That made me
angry.

Still, we're a pretty has-been alliance--not much to speak of right
now... I wouldn't waste much breath worrying about SA (when we
started, I called us "Secret Alliance"--I found it more funny than
cheap, but I think my alliance-mates are all Russian or something, so
I'm kind of making jokes to myself). At the same time, perhaps X only
wants three people in their group. I've tried to speak with both
Aachaan and Gregorus, and let me tell you--they are men of very few
words. Perhaps they were worried that if they got a fourth member then
Bold Porcupines would get even more chatty and those two would go all
nuts. Can you imagine, Hermis all talky-talky, BP in the background
all porcupines this and that, and the messages just building up and
building up in Aachaan's inbox, until suddenly the whole thing
blows... That's not a stable situation, my friend!

Anyway, did you not see--a few moves back...I killed like 70 of BP's
units, and he killed like 60 of mine... You just have to ask yourself,
are those two fighting? Was that a ruse? Or some blunder? But no, it's
all about you, you, you...

-- Acanthopis

Heh heh...Russians.


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PE-WJ-Diplo [Bold Porcupines X]: I thought Hermis was SA
Date:Thu, 06 Apr 2006 03:54:31 +0000

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Dear me, Mr. Howlett loves to make up these fantasy scenarios. 
Suddenly he says Hermis is really part of X, when (for the last
several months at least) Howlett previously alleged that Hermis was
really a secret member of SA!  Having heard it so often, I must have
believed Hermis really belonged to SA, so I didn't even think to
invite him to join X!  But it seems to me that Hermis main role has
been to feed units to the SA, so in fact I think maybe he really is a
secret member of SA.  He certainly hasn't helped me out (though we do
share friendly messages betimes), so I just don't understand how Mr.
Howlett could imagine he was intending to join X.  But Mr. Howlett
likes to imagine things, especially things that suit his private
agenda.

But the real problem with Howlett's reasoning is that he assumes
everyone here is actually trying to win. I can't speak for my alliance
partners, but I am absolutely certain that I didn't join X until the
very last turn before TS nearly ended our nice little universe. And I
didn't join it to try to win, I joined it to try to keep the world
from ending.  Truly a shotgun wedding, and all thanks to TS.  I still
don't want the world to end.  I want to punish the folks who were
responsible for my being stuck in an alliance that I never wanted! 
Anyway, it's much more fun fighting tooth and nail with TS, and going
almost exactly nowhere after summing up the occasional victory, the
frequent defeats, and the inevitable region crises.  With enemies like
these, who needs more friends?

The other truly remarkable omission from Howlett's message was the
reality that TS *still* has more regions than any other alliance.  I
think Mr. Howlett should rename himself to take over CHICKEN-LITTLE's
persona, because he truly finds every possible way to claim that the
sky is falling, even when his own side remains the dominant force in
the world.