HCE should have cancelled the battle against the Berzserks

[Tristan_of_Erzoth]

Join us or die? Wut. I don't think we've declared war on anyone this entire strat sans the Squids. Also Plumbo, you are a god among men with that post. If I had more than one plus one to give, I'd give it to you. 

3)  HCE likes to have a set of 'gentleman's rules' in place.  No raiding, no bad battle times, etc... and yet, the moment someone comes along and pokes them in the eye, they immediately move to steam roll.  Sorry, but you guys get the hypocrite award for the year.  And yes, I say year, because the map should have been reset in 2014, and all the transgressions from 2014 are dated at this point. 

We said no bad battle times and no raiding, and we are hypocrites for not raiding/having somewhat decent battle times? I think you need to look up what that word means man. And no, we wont cancel the battle because they wouldn't do the same for us. They declared war on us, they said they would do anything to win, so we sent THREE armies over and have taken their lands. I dont know how sending three people is "steam rolling".

Edit: If they really cared to keep their fiefs they would have hired a roster. Also why would we cancel and lose 1800 troops?

[W0LF]

I literally JUST posted a topic about chadzia being too powerful. Glad to know I'm not the only one kinda scared that almost half the fiefs are grey.

No, really, I don't think world superpowers are good when you guys are having issues with losing players/not getting new ones. The old ones eventually just give up and quit when a faction takes over their land, and new players like me get super intimmidated when they see just how mega-wildly-super-powerful and organized some factions are. Its like join them or die... Or make another large faction like beserks but you'll still die. It really leaves no room for others wanting to start new factions.

But oh well, it is what it is. I'll just have to be a nomad and evade the authorities 

Again you still dont know how we were formed. Please do research instead of just assuming.

[Bryggan]

There seems to be some misinformation going around that we 'see a new faction' and then set out to destroy it.  This is not true.  There are many witnesses to me promoting some neutral factions.  In fact, we went to Berserk TS and chatted with them; the first time to ask about rosters and if they would be neutral, and the second time to plead with them not to raid.  The berserks were fun to hang out with, very amusing, but obviously nothing was accomplished.

I had been considering diplomatic solutions with the Berserks, as I said earlier, we want some neutral faction.  But then not only did they raid, they set a stupidly early battle.  But chadz is good, and they attacked all gear bugged up.  What can I say, karma's a bitch.

In my opinion, what was killing Strat was people screwing around.  Nighttime battles, gear bugging, and bullshit like that.  When you work long and hard for an army, or to equip a fief, you don't want to lose everything cuz of a 3 am battle (or 3 pm), or getting raided, or getting gear bugged.  When you build an army, you either want to see it victorious or go down in a blaze of glory.

When I fought Acre, and then the Wardens, both sides played like gentlemen, and people got interested again and actually had fun.  And it was the same with Dutchy, though his nighttime settings, while justifiable, were annoying.  Still, he played like a gentleman and we had some good battles (and some not so good ones, but you can't control that).  If he had wanted to, he could have sent his massive armies into our lands and raided everything and there would have been little we could have done about it.  Except rage quit, which I think 90% of us would have done in that case.

So, if you want to be a neutral faction, talk to us or to the Wardens, and we'll happily try help.  The more neutrals, the more chance of having even rosters in our battles, so its win win.

[Doom_Carrot]

Whats the point of owning half the world if you don't even have wars... I mean, I guess if thats your idea of fun, but I think its kinda lame to just own half the world for no reason really. But my point still remains. And no, I'm not saying you SHOULD beat other factions into the dust just because you can for fun. 

And anyways, as the great poet Tyrion Lannister once said: "The powerful always prey on the weak, that's how they became powerful in the first place."

[Talanarsis]

Whats the point of owning half the world if you don't even have wars... I mean, I guess if thats your idea of fun, but I think its kinda lame to just own half the world for no reason really. But my point still remains. And no, I'm not saying you SHOULD beat other factions into the dust just because you can for fun. 

And anyways, as the great poet Tyrion Lannister once said: "The powerful always prey on the weak, that's how they became powerful in the first place."

We became powerful because the weak joined together.

[Bryggan]

Oh, we'll have wars.  Gotta do something with our ticks.  But we don't want to wipe factions, unless they are total douchebags of course.  But we can encroach, we can have field battles, and we can always make peace after a few fights.

And Dutchy still has lots and lots of men and gear.  Right now he is the only one I want to crush- just because I know I can't.  Still, it is fun trying.  Also, if I don't fight him, he'll just waste his stuff in XP battles.  Can't have that.

[Voncrow]

We became powerful because the weak joined together.

And by weak, you mean three of the larger factions on the map?

[Tristan_of_Erzoth]

And by weak, you mean three of the larger factions on the map?

Not to knock anyone in our faction, they're all great people, but its pretty obvious that we are mostly comprised of average players myself included.

[Doom_Carrot]

We became powerful because the weak joined together.

Since everyone says I don't know the history of this faction, you have piqued my interest. Write me a letter 

[Talanarsis]

And by weak, you mean three of the larger factions on the map?

What do you mean? When we formed Acre and Merchants of Curaw only had a few fiefs, and we were just done getting our arses destroyed by WoTN, and LL declared war right after we surrendered to WoTN. We may have had many fiefs, but we were not strong.

[njames89]

What do you mean? When we formed Acre and Merchants of Curaw only had a few fiefs, and we were just done getting our arses destroyed by WoTN, and LL declared war right after we surrendered to WoTN. We may have had many fiefs, but we were not strong.

Well said. Acre was just reforming after Jimmy and Dutchy backstabbed us like total shitlords  and threw months of their allies strat work down the drain.

[Dutchydave]

Back on topic, it was never an option to cancel the battle as HCE would of killed the 1800 troops to do so and lost all the gear. The only real option would of been to offer the village back after the battle but I honestly cant say that would be reasonable considering this clan had just declared war on HCE, Im sure the Beserks learnt a lot from this encounter and I encourage them to rebuild and attack shit again.

[Doom_Carrot]

What do you mean? When we formed Acre and Merchants of Curaw only had a few fiefs, and we were just done getting our arses destroyed by WoTN, and LL declared war right after we surrendered to WoTN. We may have had many fiefs, but we were not strong.

So basically HCE was formed by a handful of weak, collapsing, chaotic factions that were trying to survive wars on multiple fronts, including from allies. So you banded together and raised massive armies and equipment and fended off the attackers and now play more of a defensive game to protect the land you have so valiantly fought to protect. Amiright?

I respect that. 

[Voncrow]

So basically HCE was formed by a handful of weak, collapsing, chaotic factions that were trying to survive wars on multiple fronts, including from allies. So you banded together and raised massive armies and equipment and fended off the attackers and now play more of a defensive game to protect the land you have so valiantly fought to protect. Amiright?

I respect that. 

Actually most their fiefs they raided or just took without a fight. Not Valiantly. And even after being beat, each of the three factions that joined together were in the top 5 strongest factions easily. Not to mention they were all pretty much working together anyway. So not much changed.

[Bryggan]

When the Starks took most of their land, strat was dead and dying.  People thought the game was about to reset, so it was like one last fling for those still playing.  More of a joke than anything.  The Starks went for a land grab, I attacked my good friends Acre (who I used to be a vassal to), then attacked my good friend Go Do the Dishes (who gave me gear to fight Acre), then attacked the Wardens (who allied with me in my war against Acre).

But then Strat didn't end.  So, instead of taking our especially spiked cool-aid like most factions, we just kept on playing.  The rash moments of late autumn strat became a little more cautious.  As someone else said, we were the furry mammals crawling out of our holes after the dinosaurs died.  Then we set new rules- new rules that would prevent us going the way of the dinosaur.  The Starks stopped raiding.  We agreed with out enemies about decent battle times.  We stopped ninja rostering (though that is coming back apparently).  We stopped being dick head wannabes who thought winning was the point of the game.

But we still like winning.  We love to crush our enemies. See them driven before us.  Hear the lamentations of their women.  Cuz that is what is good in life.  But, much like the KGB, we realized that if we ran out of enemies, we'd run ourselves out of a job.  But unlike the KGB, where they had a population of 200 million or so, and thus could always 'find' new enemies, we gotta keep the ones we got.

So yes.  We have become a strong faction.  The individuals in this faction have become a lot more active than they were in Kingdoms of the North. Probably because this time we are not the aggressor.  So- now we are filthy rich, and have many large armies... what do we do?

(click to show/hide)

I sent Doom Carrot a very long and tedious background of the HCE.  If you like dry history, here it is:

(click to show/hide)

In the beginning it was just me and a guy named Dirk.  We captured New Shulus from the AI, but being new to Strat we feared our Acre neighbours and asked for vassalship.  They asked we give up our village to Fenris, a powerful Eu faction.  We did, so then captured Slekzh castle and gave it to James.  Then we were on the forefront of the wars against G-Force and the Squids.

Then we turned mercenary, and were hired by Keskimsit, a squid.  After several victories, I was defeated by a tiny 150 man army because of crappy rosters, so my contract was ended.

Then we got a third member, Albus, who was attacked by a faction named LCO.  We started taking villages to draw them out to fight us, but they just disappeard.  I finally found the army that attacked Albus in a crime fief <edit- he was obviously down to 100 men, so easy victory>, so I killed him and got some really, really nice gear.

Strat was dying by then, so I decided to attack Acre, claiming to be the True king of Acre.  After a few victories, Acre surrendered, and I withdrew my claim as King of Acre and declared myself High King of the Kingdoms of the north.  Dutchy, leader of Go do the Dishes, surrendered after a few attacks and joined the faction, and then we found ourselves at war with the Wardens for accidentally attacking a Black Company village in the tundra (i thought it was an AFKer).

The Wardens were wonderful enemies, and fun was had.  Then King James was accused of being a dick, so I charged him with treason for interfering in a fief transfer- I gave Curaw to sJimmy, on Dutchy's request.  The Wardens were kind enough to give me peace so I could deal with any trouble if Acre resisted my justice.  But I ended up acquitting James, on the condition he stopped being rude to people.  Then the squabbling began.  I tried to keep the two sides happy, by giving Acre the southern fronts while Dutchy, sJimmy and the 13 Knights fought in the north.  That way they would not have to deal with each other.

Then sJimmy, who I had defended long and hard against the Acre folk- who claimed he would betray me- betrayed me.  He did give back Curaw, saying he wanted to do a long trade run.  Instead he walked into the Steppes, past all the Acre and C-bot armies, and went to Tulga.  Then he and Dutchy left the faction, and attacked Tulga, a city captured by King Volkwin of C-bots.

I will admit this pissed me off.  I had told sJimmy that I trusted him because I was just playing for fun, and if I had to deal with betrayals and such, I'd just dissolve the Kingdom and GTX.  So I did that.

Perhaps I was a little hasty, for I said I had no problem with rebellions as that was part of the game.  But they rebelled right when the Wardens attacked again.  They knew all our strengths and weaknesses, and also knew I was pretty much alone in the northern steppes.  So I got cranky and did what I promised to do.

The members of the kingdom took a beating, as, because of my tantrum, several other people quit, leaving our merc pools kinda small.  Dutchy ordered all ex-Kingdom of the North people out of the Steppes and Tundra.  The survivors formed a bunch of small factions and moved to the desert areas.  I eventually came back and joined the Merchants of Curaw.  I had given Curaw away, and now Blue had it.  They were exempt from Dutchy's order, because they got Warden protection.

Then Dutchy declared war on Acre and all its vassals, and invaded the desert.  He attacked all the new factions, and even threw in the Starks for good measure.  I just traded, until I saw New Ahmerrad being attacked, so I transferred them a lot of nice gear.  Then I was informed that the beset upon factions would only unite if I led them.

Unwillingly I agreed, because leading means you got to be messaging all the time.

And now, here we are.

If you disagree with any of this, feel free to say so.  I never claimed I had the best memory, and I'm sure what I wrote was biased to make me look better.