I discussed with Kingrimm that I thought mercs were going to attack us a few weeks before it happened.
New to strat but looking at map it made sense for mercs to consolidate territory, and Kinngrimm confirmed there was some history ie mercs did not want us in snowlands from start of this strat round. I suggested looking for allies, which lets face it had to be UIF, in case it happened, he said he was.
Look at the posts from that first attack, mercs/sa thought they would win quick and end up stronger. If they had it all would have made good game sense. Only looks silly now for attacking ally because they did such a poor job of it.
Whether he told me all I dont know, but he was worried about merc attack direct or via proxies, (both happened), before it happened. Hes not stupid.