I always found the "B-b-b-but... but I... but I claimed it! I claimed it before you did!" argument to be absolutely ridiculous in each and every strat. Who even cares? All you do by making a fancy thread in diplomacy before strat starts is tell everyone else that you plan on taking X fief(s). You haven't done shit to deserve it more than the next guy by "laying claim to it first." Sometimes it might be beneficial to let everyone know you plan on taking over a certain region if you heard rumors of others contemplating the idea, and plenty of times it is equally beneficial to keep your plans to yourself so that no one knows what exactly you're going for, since keeping everyone else guessing is always a good thing. HoC has never put any stock in claims, and we only declared a few fiefs we were gunning for at the start of this strat just as a heads up to everyone else really. But we're going to take more than the ones we "officially claimed," and who knows, maybe even not take some that we did (fat chance). Of all the many ways for nerds to pop a blood vessel over strat, this one has always made me chuckle the most. Like shit breh, did any other factions even sign a piece of e-paper stating that they back your claim?
