I think the chief problem and greatest strength I have with strat is that its open-worldness requires you to play in 1 of 2 catagories. You either play serious, strict RP diplomacy with kings, lords, vassals, and allies, or you play "yolo who gives a shit lets just attack shit." What I have found in my years of strat is that not only do people in one catagory not get along with people from the other, but also, people will switch sides, or worse be yolo about 1 aspect of strat, yet hardcore about another. So what I am about to say isn't just a rant on Aldog, but on almost everyone who plays strat.
I guess I am alone in thinking strat is a game for our entire community to enjoy, not a e-peen test to see who is better at internet fighting. Now don't get me wrong, I tried very hard to "win" strat, we had a plan to literally make a play at the entire NA map. But I always viewed it as a way to bring battles and a plot to our community. So most people might think I hate LCO for being the straw that broke my camel's back, but its quite the opposite actually, I have great respect for Arrowaine and the LCO guys for letting me face them in what was no doubt the most competitive, strategiclly played war NA has ever had. Both sides had incredible map and battle management.
And it is too bad that shitty strat mechanics and bugs drove most of the interests away from VE members(as well as many others) and I quit giving a shit, Trist quit giving a shit, and HoC decided to split when myself, trist, and 9finger were all AFK for at least a week. We were a huge faction, but even at our peak in activity every major decision was made by either Trist or myself, and several others would take leadership interests for small periods of time. But that is strat, you cant rule by commitee, its too inefficient. So trist handled the number stuff, army logistics, and war preperations, and I handled trade and most importantly, I kept VE together. VE was my baby, I spent a very long time putting our clans together, so I know more than anyone about VE, its leaders, and downfall. So that being said: Aldog,you are a dumbass.
I'm assuming Jaren is the guy who told you this, but ironically you are all former VE members so idk why you put that. If you didnt here it from Trist or myself, it most likely isn't true. And in the case of Aldog's involvement in strat, you literally had zero knowledge of any politics for VE or even MB. It took you six months to fight in one of our battles, and you never showed interest in leading anything.
So to get back to my first point, Aldog was always the "strats for nerds, lets just yolo for xp" mindset, and naturally most of your mems followed you. 9finger and canada ran MB, and I loved working with guys. HoC was just the opposite, they took everything seriously, working with bonesaw and warborn was such a challenge, but i think you guys are the main reason I put so many hours into strat, i would do it again in a heart-beat. The irony in all of this, is HoC split from us because they didnt give a shit anymore, and MB wanted got pissed at how our beloved God Emperor King Robert handled drunken diplomacy. All of those nights I spent going to your TS asking you to quit over the top trolling HoC, and you guys leave from one incident with a guy who doesnt really care about strat, in Robert.
I get it, you wake up one day and decide you want to become involved, or just do something else entirely. Its a video game, no one blames hoc or mb for doing what you did, I told you this when we talked in TS. But to address the OP: HoC split because A) bonesaw wanted to B) they felt our leadership sucked and they wanted to- "get off a sinking ship." If you knew me at all, you knew I wanted to win real bad, so why the fuck would I want to attack someone in my own faction? Someone who worked very hard and didnt mind letting us make the big decisions. We would never have attacked HoC why they were still VE.
Now the last part, and my personal favorite because I feel like it truly expresses the fundamental differences of a Yolo'er like aldog, and a hardcore nerd like me, is our war with MB. The fact is, we wanted to fight both MB and HoC, but we needed to get a 2v1 in order to do it. It was also no secret we wanted Uxxhal, VE is keeping the Rhodok lands etc. HoC wimped out though, bonesaw said they were so tired of MB they didnt even want to fight them anymore. So being the cunning lord that I am, I tried to threaten you guys by bluffing and telling you HoC was with us, but that we would have rather fight HoC with MB as an ally. In reality, I didnt care which one of you we fought, I just wanted to attack one of you. Which almost worked, but you guys just said you werent going to fight HoC, and months went by without anything happening.
Now some people would call that low, but I call it diplomacy. It is why I love Kesh, Arrowaine, Turboflex, Grey Order, and DRZ. It makes the game competitive and interesting, and I feel it the only "fair" thing about strat. And yes, we got raped pretty bad in those Nomar battles, but if you actually know anything about strat, the -1k battle kd in those 5 or 6 battles is nothing, and uxxhal lost over 5k troops to upkeep alone.
** this is done from my phone while at work, so its prob full of grammy errors.
A few things i'd like to say here. Hobb, I still respect you, and could see us having a legitimate conversation about this sometime in team speak. Could even see us shooting the breeze afterwards with very little animosity towards one another. That being said, I think you are a complete tryhard and massive internet bundle of sticks.
As I recall, I expressed interest in playing a more active roll in our leadership. I remember you telling me it was great, and that we needed more people to take an active roll in coordinating and running our faction. I was pretty much down to do it. However, I wasn't able to just guess what time the meetings were happening, or fill myself in on all of our current situation. You could say I didn't feel "included" or "in on it". I kind of passively accepted this for a short while, but eventually grew a strong distaste for the VE's situation, and more importantly, MB's situation. What we were doing just didn't seem honorable. Though you saying that my not having any idea about our current politics, was somewhat true. The moment I began caring, was the moment i realized we were more or less in cahoots with FCC, the other massive faction in NA. Mercing for FCC was audibly painful, one of my least favorite TS's to fight in, not gonna lie. As for the whole situation with HoC breaking off, and attacking us, you basically admitted between the Hobb post and the Adoptagoat post that its true. Bonesaw and Rob both plotted for HoC to break off, and attack us, while TKoV fueled it. At that time, my PC was broken, and you trist and syls were all on hiatus, leaving rob to "lead" the VE, and bonesaw was obviously leading HoC. So we have both of the head representatives of TKoV, and HoC, plotting this shit-plot, and during the same time period, HoC breaks off and attacks us. Coincidence? Regardless of whether you would have stopped it if you were there or not, doesn't really matter, because you weren't there.
As to why you feel the need to continuously mention that one time, and it was ONE TIME, that i neglected to put gold into the castle, I really don't know. Kind of a pointless quick-jab, by which I'm not very impressed. We sold about 6k troops, within a couple of days of the day where uxhal ran out of gold. Maybe that's why you looked and thought we lost thousands? I left gold out of that castle for less than 24 hours. My clan members are far too responsible to let things like that happen. Sorry, but thats the cold hard truth.
I dont really care what you believe about that minor mistake, but lets just say, that we had 16000 troops(the most we've ever had in uxhal, i'll give you the benefit of the doubt), and that we let it run for 30 hours(give you the benefit of the doubt here too), just like you said. Does anyone know the formula for starting with 16000 troops, and not having gold for 30 hours? someone must. plz add to this shitpost and bring me exhibit A. I know theres some bundle of sticks out there like anders just itching to do this with his TI-83.
Trist, I already said attacking you guys was a fuckup. I said it in TS 20 times, and I said it again 2 times in the forums. What else do you want me to say? I'll repeat it for you once more, but that's it. IT WAS A STRATEGICALLY DUMB MOVE, AND A MORALLY QUESTIONABLE MOVE. there. As I said before, I wasn't in control of what was happening ( or even aware of the situation enough to make an educated decision), as my PC was shitcanned for about 2 months. I'm not trying to act innocent, I'm the aggressor in this post, not the defendant.
Kesh, get the fucking rose-stock out of your twat bro. You were so sincere towards me up until about 2 weeks ago when I went of on you via steam chat. Told you you were unpleasant to talk to, and that I was sick of reading the fucking essay you had typed me every time i minimized. I guess that just pushed you over the edge, because now you just take every chance you get to publicly bash me, and create absurd stories about me. Fifteen thousand troops? lol. 5k was an over-exaggeration. 15k is straight up bogus. I now know why every nerd in this mod thinks you are a sack of shit.
I would also like to touch on the comment you made to me, about how I didn't deserve to have a player like goldilocks in MB. Here's the thing kesh. Not all clans look at their faction, as if they own that faction. Some clans look at it like a team, and everyone is equal. Not every internet nerd looks at the massive faction that they head up, and think "ITS ALL MINE, I AM SO POWERFUL!!!!!!!". Get a fucking life m8. Goldi is one of our oldest members, and a good buddy of mine and many others in MB, and I'm pretty sure he's here to stay(though he knows if he went a separate way, there would be no hard feelings). It's a funny phrase "you don't deserve", because I can twist it around like this! You DO deserve every 14 year old and plug like cyranule that is in your faction, kesh, and I bet you shower in their semen every night. I'd tell you the ones that you don't deserve, but they already know who they are.
This goes out to Jaren (or moreso for me to save face, since I've already told jaren all this in TS). Jaren, SWEET SWEET JURN, I am so sorry for bringing you into this thread. I didn't think about it at the time, but it was a selfish move to mention you indirectly, as TKoV would obviously know whom I was talking about, and bring it up later in the thread. My own thirst for nerd tears let me get the best of me, and I hope it didn't compromise any social ties that you had between you and TKoV members. I surely should have asked your permission before posting this. Fortunately you are as forgiving as allah, our lord and saviour.
Oh and that part where i insulted you hobb, was supposed to be a joke, though I don't really get why you called me a dumbass, and am slightly offended at that. If you honestly think any mistake I have ever made was due to incompetence, you are wrong sir. I was wrong one time, and one time only. This one time I thought I had made a mistake, but it turns out I was wrong, and that mistake never actually took place. Silly of me to second guess myself.
That's it for now folks
~~~~~~~~~aldowild out
