eyriq

This war was a PB/DH ploy to weaken all our rivals while we collect stats.

[quote name='Schad' timestamp='1324110019' post='2880437'] If those states existed in a world where global war was -- relatively -- common, and they comprised somewhere in the range of 15% of the world's total strength, they too would be eyed pretty warily, whether or not they took an aggressive political tack. In terms of what IR framework can be best applied to CN, while I think that offensive realism is a loathsome, near-suicidal doctrine in reality (well, post-1850 reality, at least), it does pretty much work here. Power maximization and the pursuit of the position of hegemon is the name of the game, cooperation is generally fleeting and the bonds easily broken as political units maneuver each other to best advantage, and it is very much a zero sum game in which the costs of successfully prosecuting a war are typically smaller than the gain in power experienced by the victor. [/quote] Destroying actors that think that power maximization is the name of the game is the name of the game post-Karma BN is led by hegemon wannabe scum! Really though, I think you have it backwards, bigger is better in RL, where as in this game it can lead to stagnation and competitive deficits.

This is due a upgrade.

TOP gets all the fun.

Nuking nations twice in the same day, peace exploits, what is next BN? Not even NPO was this bad.

Where do you fall on the scale, MCXA?

The circle is complete. This is now GOD vs Pork Shrimp (Asgaard/BN/SC/NEAT) [img]http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090105003648/cybernations/images/thumb/1/18/Pork_Shrimp.gif/250px-Pork_Shrimp.gif[/img]

Holy hell, that just happened. GATO, that video was awesome.

[quote name='Archon' timestamp='1323397646' post='2870028'] A sub-24 hour victory literally removing a member of one of the core enemy blocs from the war. Sometimes it's just that easy. [/quote] This needs to be emphasized.

This was a strategical move meant to move this coalition one step closer to victory. It is a world war and if you are a political playa then play with your eyes wide open. Anyway, here is to a good, clean fight. o/ DOOMHOUSE For those lurking on the sidelines thinking to slip stealthily away from their obligations... [img] http://i.imgur.com/bpPgg.png[/img]

That Death guy has gotten really good at propaganda. I am, quite frankly, impressed.

Things are still refining. All is well.

Whelp, Nordic Ballers doing work! I'm so jelly

Kochers, your effort is not unappreciated

So dreary

Super Grievances FTW

Looks to me like they are still enjoying the offensive.

Basketball Ninjas are rocking the Pink team. Also, awesome stats, awesome effort, sad this global war had to screw with Survivor!

If you wanna go on a PR campaign to influence who I perceive to be the driving force behind XX more power to ya. Just so you know I have a lot of respect for MHA too

[quote name='majorddf' timestamp='1323039458' post='2862707'] MHA need to be on there, without our contribution and hard work XX would not have happened. And #1, got to count for something lol. [/quote] No doubt, but it seems to be FARK's FA that really defines the bloc...

I would go with one of the following: [u]Nordreich[/u] for their leadership in forming the Mj bloc (NoR is the common denominator in that group. Also, Mj has been central at driving the political narrative that is just now coming to fruition) [u]FARK[/u] for their leadership in putting together XX and setting the table for what should be a great showdown with their enemies [u]Mushroom Kingdom[/u] for again co-opting a central role in this years defining political narrative Ultimately I'd still probably go with Mushroom Kingdom Edit: And yeah, I agree with Ardus, we should actually play out the year before making serious nominations. For instance, if FARK's side wins this war....

Nobody wants a piece of the CCC war machine

[quote name='Londo Mollari' timestamp='1322802370' post='2858993'] I wouldn't agree with this at all. I think you are way more realpolitik than he is, and you want to win and achieve absolute political dominance at all costs, and I think he is a lot more interested in creating an interesting world. And I wish both of you luck. The world needs struggle. With that said, IMO, you would do a lot better to ally Xiph and integrate him and SF into your political sphere than to try to roll him. Letting the whole PB thing break up Supergrievances, and going to Doomhouse IMO was a huge step backwards in terms of forming a political entity that could actually control anything. An outright merger of PB, SF, and CnG back in the day (probably with some individual alliance mergers being pushed along as part of it, and bringing in people like Sparta and eventually NPO) would have created a kick ass superbloc that would probably still be around beating on people today. It would have been nice to ally TOP too before the whole BiPolar thing, but my attempts to build a relationship there mostly went nowhere. It's foolish for the most competent people to strike at the other most competent people for no real reason other than to FIGHT, because it wears down the vital strength of both - especially in the modern era of game mechanics. We could have spent a Looooooong time properly mopping up ex-Heg had the right political moves been made, but alas, they were not. And then perhaps the shattered remains of ex-Heg would have come together to form a competent alliance, much like what happened with ex-Aegis and UjP remnants forming MK. It's hard to say. [/quote] Whoa Nelly! You are really driving this pro-hegemony narrative hard. You want to create a multilateral superstructure that can pick off opposition with ease, you would prefer that wars against the old-heg continued, and yet in another thread you mentioned the hardship of our age being wars against political pariahs? If you want something, at least want it for the right reasons. Multilateral organizations are for collective security and pursuit of interests, if you build one that contains 1/4 of all available NS, you are [i]only[/i] going to get wars against political pariahs, because most of the other multilateral orgs will tie themselves bilaterally to your member orgs, leaving only those pariahs that are isolated to be targeted. Fun times? MK has it right if not a bit too extreme; multilateral orgs should be small and diverse. They seem to prefer there only existing alliances, while what have is something in between with several different blocs, ranging from tier one blocs like the SF/XX cluster and the PB/DH cluster, to your tier two Mj/DR cluster and C&G, to your tier three PF, and then others further down the list. This much diffusion in NS has led to uncertainty but not really that much as we've been enjoying the "Winter is Coming" theme and seen that defining relations. Honestly, like I said in the other thread this current political state is rather new and unique, lets see how it play out before jumping on an old and tired model. Eh?

[quote name='Londo Mollari' timestamp='1322755153' post='2858215'] As cool as your methods were back in the day and as much fun stuff as you did with them, they aren't particularly effective at advancing the interests of an alliance these days and have not been for many years - especially if said alliance is not in an absolutely commanding position in terms of strength. There is a reason that NSO essentially became a punching bag for anyone and everyone you were a dick to over the years, and that's that you didn't have the strength to back up your antagonism. All bark and no bite. Eventually it just became kind of sad, and I think you realized that as you retired. I retired from leading Athens partly for similar reasons, in that I realized that the world had grown sufficiently fragmented that directing any kind of action was becoming progressively more difficult and impossible in many cases. And indeed, since the day I hung up my hat, the only wars that have been fought have been pursued against pariah alliances with little to no meaningful political support. I don't think the problem is that people don't know how to be antagonists, but that the world is far too fragmented into different political spheres to permit very successful antagonism. Dilber had an idea to fix that... first with Initiative and later with Continuum... and that worked great except for infighting from within and assaults from without (/me bows) eventually destroying them. The political superstructures that we attempted to raise in their place after their destruction, either were not cohesive enough to permit real antagonism (Supergrievances), or lacked the necessary support, except perhaps to operate against a pariah alliance or two (Pandora's Box/Doomhouse). I think ultimately what is needed for sustainable aggression is a very large and overwhelmingly powerful organization, that permits for some kind of social mobility, both for an alliance to fall out of favor or to be inducted into its august halls. In this way, the mightiest empire ever to grace Bob(tm) can perpetuate its own strength, by culling weakness from its ranks and introducing new strength. Those who are outside the wall exist in an environment where they have to be strong to survive, which encourages strength, and those inside will tend to get lazy and complacent, which will encourage expulsion. Thus a constant flow rate can be maintained, and things can be kept stirred up and fresh. Proper organization of this Empire will ensure victory after victory, but while the Empire abides, its members will change. The greatest challenges to implementing the Empire are setting up effective mechanisms for A) governance of the Empire's actions over time, B) induction of new alliance-members, C) expulsion of old alliance members. I forsee that either a kind of democracy in the inductions and expulsion, or a benevolent tyrant king who truly acted based upon the current of the people's will, would be needed. [/quote] The result is the same, wars will be effected against "pariah alliances with little to no meaningful political support". Multipolarity or Hegemony, you don't solve [i]that[/i] problem, (though it isn't at all clear that it is a problem within a multipolar enviroment). Considering that we are just now, after 2 years post karma, [i]just[/i] starting to move into a multipolar environment, and that this is the first potential war with both old heg and SG forces mixed and matched on different sides, it is way to early to declare the multipolar world as a broke system.

Schattenmann for his TWiP productions and other contributions. [img]http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljctuzoqZC1qdlkgg.gif[/img]