SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread II

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

The Duke of Death plays by Koprulu Zone Rules too.

He dreams of riding Byzon, the Bragule, too.

[Force Lord]

Part II of BB's POV posted.

Let's see if I can post something different. All this Datton stuff is getting boring.

[Force Lord]

Sorry for the double post.

The Centralists decide to play the game the Technocracy and the Commune are playing and goes to make a pact of its own with...Shepistan.

EDIT: Hey, I might as well go and have an alliance with the Grand Dominion, then.

[Darkevilme]

I want to see an alliance between Shepistan and the Byzantine imperium. Just to see if the resulting joint battle fleets can restrain themselves from incinerating every planet they pass by.

[Force Lord]

I want to see an alliance between Shepistan and the Byzantine imperium. Just to see if the resulting joint battle fleets can restrain themselves from incinerating every planet they pass by.

If they do that, they're gonna have a huge planet repair bill.

[Darkevilme]

And now we wait to see if Sneakily will be discovered or the Monolith's will leave soon enough for Sneakily to enact the Plan Of Questionable Forethought.

[Siege]

And now we wait to see if Sneakily will be discovered or the Monolith's will leave soon enough for Sneakily to enact the Plan Of Questionable Forethought.

PeZook and I between us worked out the most likely sequence of events wrt the Sneakily Does It, we'll be working on getting it up soon-ish. Probably won't happen 'till Thursday though (unless 'Zook wants to do the honours, that is.)

[DarthShady]

He definitely dreams of waging a victorious war on the Karlacks, at the bare minimum.

That War will someday come, but the God Emperor's dreams will be quickly turned into nightmares.

[Simon_Jester]

Prussian Fleet

The order to turn back was heard by every ship in the fleet. It had taken some time for the information to reach the capital, but the war had been unexpectedly called off. And that meant that there was no need to fight any more. The ships changed direction, back toward the New Prussia sector. Hoffman definitely wasn't going to risk some trigger happy Byzantines or Bragulans blowing up the pride of his fleet. That was just common sense.

Darn. It would have been hilarious.

Sorry for the double post.

The Centralists decide to play the game the Technocracy and the Commune are playing and goes to make a pact of its own with...Shepistan.

EDIT: Hey, I might as well go and have an alliance with the Grand Dominion, then.

Now, I can't help but wonder... how the hell did the Centrality even find out what the fuck was going on? It's not like we broadcast this in the clear- the decision was made to pursue a diplomatic agreement at a high level, and one of our Cabinet officials went off with a packet of sealed orders in a courier boat.

I can understand that Third Technarch Bowinger's movements would be known and that there might be some rumors (cited in the Centrality's own diplomatic notes to Umeria). But they do not know the details of Bowinger's orders; at most they know that a diplomatic mission has been sent, and they may reasonably suppose that the mission is aimed at establishing a (somewhat) closer relationship with Umeria.

However, the Centrality appears to be reacting to these rumors as if they were hard facts, and to a pact that hasn't been signed yet as if it were a concrete full blown alliance binding Umeria to launch unprovoked attacks on the Centrality.

Coming hard on the heels of the Fifth Fleet debacle at Pendleton, this is getting ridiculous.

I haven't heard word one from Stas, nor have ANY material negotiations taken place between the Commune and the other prospective alliance partners. Any agreement the Centrality might be facing hasn't materialized yet; they don't know who would be a member and they have absolutely zero information on what qualifications the members would place on their participation in foreign wars.

Seriously, Force Lord, I understand that your leadership is supposed to be wacked-out paranoid, but if they collectively shit their pants this thoroughly every time anything they can imagine being a threat arises, they shouldn't have survived this long. They'd be pestering the galaxy with an endless stream of provocations and saber-rattling, and sooner or later someone would have ripped their heads off for them as a consequence.

The Centralist leadership should have at least some bare minimum of ability to wait and see rather than immediately overreacting to every rumor that wafts through the quadrant as if it spelled the imminent doom of their entire nation.

I want to see an alliance between Shepistan and the Byzantine imperium. Just to see if the resulting joint battle fleets can restrain themselves from incinerating every planet they pass by.

...Uh, no? No, they can't. I mean come on, be realistic here. No way would they not be Space Huns.

And now we wait to see if Sneakily will be discovered or the Monolith's will leave soon enough for Sneakily to enact the Plan Of Questionable Forethought.

Somehow that does sound rather feline, the whole thing: the ship name, the overly ambitious plan to go after something unreasonably large compared to itself...

[Force Lord]

Well Simon, I guess I have to find some way to ameliorate it. The Central Party is not a monolithical construct: there's a lot of bickering now and then.

Hey, maybe it's time to shake things up a bit in the Centrality.

[DarthShady]

Prussian Fleet

The order to turn back was heard by every ship in the fleet. It had taken some time for the information to reach the capital, but the war had been unexpectedly called off. And that meant that there was no need to fight any more. The ships changed direction, back toward the New Prussia sector. Hoffman definitely wasn't going to risk some trigger happy Byzantines or Bragulans blowing up the pride of his fleet. That was just common sense.

Darn. It would have been hilarious.

They're not home yet. I'm about to post something that will make their trip home far more eventful then their trip to the Koprulu zone.

[Simon_Jester]

Well Simon, I guess I have to find some way to ameliorate it. The Central Party is not a monolithical construct: there's a lot of bickering now and then.

Hey, maybe it's time to shake things up a bit in the Centrality.

What I'm trying to get at is that any nation which survives for hundreds of years under the rule of a single entity must have some bare minimum of common sense. It's plausible for a highly unstable government to start getting stupid, but if a fanatical nationalist party remains in power for generations, it's not because they made a habit of sticking their necks out.

The Fifth Fleet incident should be the exception, not the rule. More normally I'd think the Centrality would be a bit more subtle. Also a bit more cautious about hopping into bed with strange nations from the other side of civilized space; you never know what you'll catch.

The only reason Umeria is even considering any kind of alliance-like agreement at all with the Commune is that we've been trading with them and having fairly active diplomatic relations with them for many years. We wouldn't think about agreeing to something like that arbitrarily if there weren't already a backstory of interaction with them in place. Even then, you'll note that a lot of Umeria's reservations about the proposed alliance come from its lack of familiarity with the Commune, and the lack of transparency in the Commune's decision-making process.

They're too inward-looking, with too many incompatible value judgements, to make really comfortable allies.

[Force Lord]

Well, you'll soon find out why being a Centralist dictator is not exactly ruling with impunity.

[Simon_Jester]

Actually, that would help to explain it. If dictators who are batshit crazy and make multiple major strategic moves with the potential to draw the State into a dangerous conflict in a few months' time... they may well be overthrown from within the Party.

[Force Lord]

And now it is done. Enduvos joins the ranks of disgraced Centralist dictators.

[Force Lord]

Why am I doing these bedraggled double posts?

Shutting down for today. I can't respond until later. Maybe tommorow, if I'm lucky.

[Steve]

Prussian Fleet

The order to turn back was heard by every ship in the fleet. It had taken some time for the information to reach the capital, but the war had been unexpectedly called off. And that meant that there was no need to fight any more. The ships changed direction, back toward the New Prussia sector. Hoffman definitely wasn't going to risk some trigger happy Byzantines or Bragulans blowing up the pride of his fleet. That was just common sense.

Darn. It would have been hilarious.

They're not home yet. I'm about to post something that will make their trip home far more eventful then their trip to the Koprulu zone.

Honestly, I doubt they even got to the region before the standoff ended, and are most likely outside Wild Space heading toward the Imperium border.

But it's LoC9's call if he wants to play.

And if he does and the Karlacks attack a neutral fleet in neutral space, I hope they're ready for the consequences....

[KlavoHunter]

What, a bad case of indigestion? The sudden inexplicable German accent the Karlack develop afterwards?

[Steve]

What, a bad case of indigestion? The sudden inexplicable German accent the Karlack develop afterwards?

I was thinking more along the lines of a future Imperium-Karlack War having the Imperium enjoying a lot of allies and supportive neutrals and the Karlacks none beyond those they have already (just the Bragulans at that).

[DarthShady]

Honestly, I doubt they even got to the region before the standoff ended, and are most likely outside Wild Space heading toward the Imperium border.

But it's LoC9's call if he wants to play.

And if he does and the Karlacks attack a neutral fleet in neutral space, I hope they're ready for the consequences....

I agree its LoC9's choice. If thats the call and he doesn't want to play, I'll delete the post.

And as far as the Karlack are concerned the Prussians are not neutral, they came to the Koprulu sector with the intention of assisting the Solarians and that makes them an ally of our enemy - in short, that makes them our enemy. At least thats how the Karlack see it. The Swarm is not very forgiving of such things.

That being said, the Karlack fleet has not powered up its weapons or anything like that. We're just sorta in the way .

[Steve]

Honestly, I doubt they even got to the region before the standoff ended, and are most likely outside Wild Space heading toward the Imperium border.

But it's LoC9's call if he wants to play.

And if he does and the Karlacks attack a neutral fleet in neutral space, I hope they're ready for the consequences....

I agree its LoC9's choice. If thats the call and he doesn't want to play, I'll delete the post.

And as far as the Karlack are concerned the Prussians are not neutral, they came to the Koprulu sector with the intention of assisting the Solarians and that makes them an ally of our enemy - in short, that makes them our enemy. At least thats how the Karlack see it. The Swarm is not very forgiving of such things.

That being said, the Karlack fleet has not powered up its weapons or anything like that. We're just sorta in the way .

Don't the Karlacks regard everything as an "enemy"? Or, well, rather as "food".

The only distinction is "Species we want to devour now" and "species we'll devour once their usefulness is at an end".

[Simon_Jester]

Yes, but there's also "Species we're saving for later. Much later. Hoo boy is this place overstocked!"

Which is the Karlack equivalent of "neutral."

But the Karlacks may reasonably conclude that if the Prussians are this aggressive then (1) they are a threat to be met soon and (2) they may blunder into other wars, in which case they're not going to keep and should be eaten before they get rotten and irradiated.

[K. A. Pital]

If the Centrality is that paranoid, perhaps the Commune might send a representative to talk things over. Also, I'm sorry that the Commune plotlines stalled, I just have a busy time right now.

[Steve]

If the Centrality is that paranoid, perhaps the Commune might send a representative to talk things over. Also, I'm sorry that the Commune plotlines stalled, I just have a busy time right now.

Understandable.

[KlavoHunter]

And if the Karlack decide to have their sauerkraut now rather than later, how many of those destroyed Prussian ship hulks are in condition enough to be hauled home to be infested with shipworms ( ) and eventually turned back upon their once allies?