?You guys have to understand something. There's a lot of signs that point to a Squid alliance that has been lurking under the surface for the entire round. If I was in charge of a faction in a hard to access area like the steppes, and I wanted to be a free trade fief, I'd be really pissed to see access cut off by a specific group. When you limit the access for traders, you infringe on my economy. That's why people jumped up and warned the squids that any kind of embargo on Acre wasn't going to work. Sure, attack Acre's traders, but when you start picking fights with other factions' traders, well, you're using that shovel. Similar concept applies.
That's the past. The present... one of those Steppe factions has marched three shiny armies out of the steppes against Acre. 'Oh but that's what was voted on.' Bullshit. It had garnered what, 17 votes? How many of those votes came from the squids specifically? Think about it. How many active forum warriors do the Squids have?
Last point regards the future. It will be very interesting to see what kind of gear exists in those shiny armies. Did a portion of it leak out of Ichamur? It wouldn't surprise me. And I know the argument of, 'Well they're EU with EU connections and access..' Can and will come up. However, this is a faction that ran from the UIF, should have had at least some of it's trade cut off, and has boasted a very small amount of members. So... how could they REALLY get the gear that we will probably see.
Summary: The squids have a lot of support from the shadows. They whined because that support was STAYING in the shadows, and started to lose. One of those factions is finally coming out of the cracks, and now as a result, the little chiahuahuas are going to get mouthy again.