ErikWijmeersch
Strategos
Part 1 Introduction and Background
It is now a fact the undisputed total victory of HERT,credit goes to all of us.
But we also need to write the history of the alliance which won the server,which is closely connected in a large part with the history of the server itself
How did start the project which ultimately won the hearts of the finest players of the server?
Which is the route prescribed?
Contrary to the end,the start of the alliance was an unconspicous one.
At the start of Dec 2013 myself and Erik were exchanging some ideas while Myonia was being won.
There were several factors which weighed in our minds:
- Bellerophon world where lots(most actually)of my fiends were was dead and my friends there were dying of boredom.
-Myonia was coming to an end and soon the players would be unemployed.
-Erik got banned in Myonia a couple of days before the start of Eubea.
- Apolonia was failing to attract my mind fully(I was a leader in the no 1 alliance,but the overall leader had a different viewpoint for the strategy,and in the end we failed to win by ourselves,and were forced to merge in another alliance for the ww race after several blows,chief among them was the ghosting of the main founder,still being the no 1 lol.
I refused,cough Lymond,to go in the Reservoir Dogs,who won easily the world and stayed behind with Admiral Naji).
So the thought of starting a new adventure was attracting our minds.
Fortunately Eubea had very good settings-speed 2 everything,no morale,cap 75.
By chance one or two days before the opening of the server one ex team mate of Erik,ravenous 2,had contacted him and asked him to come in a pre made in whom he was a part.
Apparently Erik trusted his judgement and to cut short I agreed to bring in this premade the good elements of Bellerophon Styx(where already I had notified my desire to bring them in another server with the intention of giving them a fair chance and then quit since my rl was getting busy to the point of not allowing me to play) while Erik brought also some friends from EN Myonia.
Most of us fell in west 55(we started on the third day) but some fell far away-in sw 45 and even in nw 46!
The trill of game tools!
This pre made was Rim Agency.
I did not know many there,except wvil (with whom I had very loud arguments in Apollonia about the strategy to be followed,and was the chief reason I never invested myself fully in that server.wvil was a leader in Rim Agency)) and darnoc-a very old Zeta mate!
My ocean leader in Lost Boys,and in a way my own first mentor!
But unfortunately my relations with him were very cold-to put it better he blamed me for splitting our project(of Lost Boys) in Knossoss,and was brainwashed very good from the founder there
In this weird atmosphere,knowing almost nobody,spread in 2-3 oceans,Erik,myself and some 25 friends,started the Eubea adventure on Dec 16.
I had advisory rights in Rim Agency to rapresent the players we would bring in.
Intending to give my position to Bruizer at the start of January,while Erik did not want even to be talked about leadership role(he was depressed from the Myonia ban affair).
I remember well those days,the anxious start,lack of time due to rl.
It was clear from almost the start we fell in a very weird motley crew!
The overall leader of Rim Agency was a 17 year old boy!
The co founder(nominated a few days later) was a drunkard youngster,jimmy007!
It is indescribable the mounting mistakes of Indianboy and the rest of leadership(who appear to have been a collection of ex enemies in another server).
In less then a week it was clear for me and Erik we had done a grave mistake by accepting the proposal of Ravenous 2(who in turn did not know them well himself and was shy to face me and Erik for this blunder).
The freaking kid who was the overall leader had not led an alliance before,and lacked tact(a few here may remember his famous cut offs which did not bear in mind the reality-players were busy with end Year feasts).
Erik and me tried hard to make the project work.
It was due to my knowledges the alliance with Grepo Addicts and the NAP with BE.
To shed a bit more light:
we found Rim Agency in a full pact with an alliance named Funny Bunch,based mostly in ocean 45,with Vinschat as leader.
Also in ocean 45 was based Byzantine Empire.
In 3-4 days it was clear to me and Erik that our allies were just a MRA,WHILE RECOGNIZING IN PRIVATE THAT BE WAS THE REAL DANGER(COMPETITOR) IN EUBEA!
We did not know many if at all in BE(spongebob was one of them,lol) but their rate of growth,policy of recruitment etc made it clear they were a serious competitor!
I had a nominal personal knowledge with the founder of GA(original account holder of Captain Rainbow dash account) who was the main force in ocean 54,and succeeded to forge an alliance between Rim Agency and GA,while a few days later(a week or so after we started in Eubea) mentored a NAP with BE through a casual knowledge with Biikej(how could I forget his blue eyes and bald head,lol) who was for a couple of months in Bellerophon in our alliance there.
Had the first contact with Boris(to whom Biikej led me),and after arranging with him the basics of the NAP,we both passed the matter in the hands of respective founders,jtribs(the original account holder) and indianboy.
One who has had the chance to deal with me as diplo can perhaps imagine my shock when I found out our Idiotboy signed the NAP with a single sentence with jtribs.
Yes,a single sentence-no terms at all!
Erik told me to quit the alliance since we were dealing with a bunch of noobs-but I (since my rl was very busy) asked him to wait a few more days.
With protection over the first moves of the alliances started,BE gaining fast the upper hand over Funny Bunch(we were in a NAP with BE),and Vinschat soon had enough and asked to merge in RA(short for Rim agency).
This of course would bring the matter with BE to a head.
To make room for the players of Funny Bunch,a sister alliance was created,Death Unit,with Avera as founder,and a couple from leadership.
Erik surpassed his bad moment from Myonia and become loud pointing the obvious mistakes of Indianboy.
Among the rest of leaders of RA the thought indianboy was the wrong choice was taking place,and the creation of this second alliance was for them an opportunitty to create a pole to gather the fast growing discontents.
Erik passed in this sister alliance,and was promoted leader by Avera(who of course noted his open opposition for the policy of indianboy).
The NAP with BE was over due to the merge of Funny Bunch and the first exchanges started.
Part 2
At the end of December the proccess of fusion of the weaker alliances was gaining momentum,with some middlesize alliances disappearing fast(for example Sim city,new world order,the "spanish" group of Tremendus lol,etc).
While GA and BE were being strengthened by merging several groups RA was losing weight from a clear lack of sound leadership.
At the end of December/start of January an initially smaller group,The Barbarians,were gaining momentum.
Being practically in the same area,it was obvious sooner or later a clash would happen.
At this time GA took the lead of the forming anti BE coalition,and after merging Little Monsters they became the dominant power in ocean 44 too.
Captain Rainbow Dash brokered a deal at the end of December between us and Barbarians(spread roughly in East 45 and West 55 ) and a common forum for defence was created,with plans laid to hit BE after the New Year Peace.
The obvious inadequacies of Indianboy led the other leaders to plot in secret his downfall,using the new sister alliance,Death Unit,to replace RA.
After the first exccesses of Indianboy I took over the activity evaluations,trying to create a more reasonable schedule of growth requirements,avoiding some of the obvious exccesses(among other things saved zdog who was kicked for having a slower growth for 1 or 2 days on Christmas Eve,lol).
Yet the feeling it was a doomed effort was growing by the day!
To describe the mood I am showing an amusing incident:
around Dec 27 we were discussing about the Funny Bunch merge,relations with Barbarians,plans to coordinate an attack against BE,and we were waiting Indianboy to come online and decide.
He did come online and posted-Please hold on for three hours,have an idea but have a rl issue.
After three hours he came online and posted:
Sorry for the delay,was watching a movie with my mum.I agree with your proposals!
It is impossible to describe our feelings after this happened:d
The same idiot tried to plant a spy in Yialisos EN,the same player (Jiffyjeff) he used here,and whose name he wrote in Senate,forgetting one of those who could read it was Erik,one of the leaders of EN:d
On January 1 avera and his entourage passed in action by officially splitting and calling in the shared forum for all to join Death Unit.
Me and Erik were caught by surprise
At the end of December I had chatted with Jimmy 007 about the failed leadership of indianboy and he promised to react after New Year when he would be sober.
He (as I understood from our chats)was supposed to remove foundership and assign another more able leader as co founder in a last ditch effort to improve things.
The Avera move appeared as a usual coup to seize power.
In my chat with Avera he used the argument of the inept leadership of indianboy and did not mention anything about the plot same time trying to recruit me and Erik by promising leaderships for us lol.
Same time he kicked several of our friends in Death Unit after Erik flatly refused his offers and instead sent a mass mail condeming Avera and calling for loyalty to RA.
Meanwhile the exodus of big guns and among them several leaders and senate members into this smaller ex sister alliance was continuing with our friends kicked or left in RA without any clue what was going on.
Nor jimmy was coming online nor even Indianboy lol.
In those fateful moments Erik with my assent took the decision to leave this dying body and show solidarity with our kicked friends(who were ex EN Myonia that started later).
here is my invite,lol
http://gyazo.com/d2024277f8443f4510b0b0e329ec8b41
Finally in the afternoon Jimmy came online and to my amazement he told me that the Avera coup was the Move they intended to do to get rid of Indianboy!
After chating with Bruizer we decided that the ex Bellerophon Styx players would go in Death Unit while I would go in this new alliance to share the same fate with Erik and the other friends(Tonia,Rondrews etc).
Not being fully aware of what was going on in leadership Bruizer wanted to give a final chance to this initial project.
In the next couple of days arranged the transfer of the players in Death Unit, smoothing the relations with the old alliance,securing invites for all the active players of RA who were not part of the Avera&Jimmy group(in a surreal situation this stranded players were asking me invites in Death Unit while I would leave for the new alliance as soon as the transfer would be over and I was going to be one of the two founders of the new alliance).
With the transfer done I was free to leave for the new alliance,helping Avera with nominations who would rapressent the ex Belle Styx and advising him what to do in the dangerous situation in which Death Unit was.
To complete the tale of that fateful Jan 1-It was only a few days before the birth of my second child,with lots of people in the house for the feast with me sat in front of pc thinking what to do instead of staying close to my wife-no wonder she hates you all:d
It was clear the impossibility of creating our base where we fell at the start with our tiny numbers spread from SE 54 to NW 46 lol(many of them recent starters) and with several alliances several times bigger then us
.
After studying the ocean stats Erik decided to create our base in sw 34,and we started the migration move from our 55 cities.
http://gyazo.com/6f3ff99359441d300a14dc0d917de7d7
http://gyazo.com/a2e31c129001a241c72a23a6a081070e
Those were very tensioned days,since our lone cities in 55 were isolated and we were without allies,save private knowledges.
After a few days in vm I came back and took my place as co founder.
Erik choose the name Hawklords Electissimus for this new alliance(He is in love with this name,lol).
As was to be expected Avera did not take long to disappoint those friends who stayed in Death Unit and we gladly added our ranks with this friends,while Death Unit disappeared completely,it's members spreading in DW,BE,GA,BARBARIANS etc.
After settling in sw 34,in my absence Erik made a full pact with a small alliance roughly in the same area,led by Ra-Ceren,the first mentor of Erik(which explains why Erik is a noob).
While our numbers were growing with other friends who were joining from Myonia,and all our members were gathering in sw 34,the relations with the other local alliances came to the fore.
We had just a few tiny cities,while they already had 3-4 weeks in those areas!!
In the core the start of New year was furious,RA/Death Unit disappeared,while BE group was reinforced by taking many of it's players,while GA grew fast and clearly became the main competitor of BE with Barbarians(and their academy Dogz of war) as allies(in 55 and 45),while on the other hand BE had Dire Wolves and the fast growing Stalwarts as close allies(Stalwarts more like a NAP).
Beyond the core oceans were fast fusing several middle sized alliances,like Fishies in 63/64,Devil's disciples in 43,Sucker Punch in 36,BBN in 35,Big Cops in 46,Enigma in 37 made it's appearance,Toons in 57/56 and rapidly growing in importance Minions in the East(65/66).
Around our area were:
BBN well established in 35(and west 45),Rotten Tomatoes in East and central 34,Noobs Inc in North 34,Styx in 25.
It was clear in our mind(Erik's and mine) that in the West was a good chance to create a third competitive force except BE and GA.
There were 2 routes-direct clash with the local alliances to decide who was the boss,or a cooperative project based on mutual interest.
Our choice was decisively for the second alternative.
Talks started with both BBN and Rotten Tomatoes presenting them our project,while the first contacts were established with Noobs Inc(a minor force compared to the other two).
This lasted around 2 weeks(Jan 10 to Jan 25),with BBN refusing our project,and instead opting to merge the smaller alliance Styx,while Rotten Tomatoes accepted to merge with us(Hawklords Electissimus) based on parity of Leadership at the start(Their hostility toward BE was a helping factor).
BBN was divided badly between those favouring the project,those who wanted BBN to be the major force in the West on it's own,and those who favoured closer ties with BE in their east(45).
There was a cease fire among the partners while the talks would last,deadline was jan 31.
So,on Jan 25 we became officially HERT(Initials of Hawklords Electissimus and Rotten Tomatoes) and based on size ,players were divided on the main and the rest in Rotten Tomatoes since numbers were over 75 combined.
I remember we had some 57 members at that time,vast majority ex Belle Styx and Myonia EN.
Nulak would be a co founder in the main while mathieu1949 would be the founder in the wing.
It was decided that we would treat the second branch as an equal partner and not as an academy(which nor us nor RT favoured),with same forums etc.
As usual plenty of difficulties were met,since among RT leaders existed dissension who would be in Council.
And they(ex RT) were pressing for war with Noobs Inc.
But of course the situation with BBN was more pressing,and our merge jumped us several ranks in Eubea.
We were not under the radar anymore
While (the enlarged) BBN leadership wavered which course to adopt,we got rid of the alliance with Ra Ceren who was turning his alliance in a MRA recruiting in areas beyond our reach,and who was making some weird things(for example only Ra ceren could post in the shared forum as we discovered to our surprise) and eleminated this weak link in our core.
Soon the wavering has it's effects on BBN,Styx faction split after a week or ten days,while a few of their players came here(Kosova,Stoka1)at the start of Febbruary.
Soon after start of Febbruary BBN blowned up altogether,and SilentJ joined us,and a few other of their players(Xene,who quit fast,laztkauz on orders from kirstyleigh to have a look,and left a couple of hours later,the only player who has come here and left for an enemy(DW).
While most went to either the re created Styx or to Dire wolves,who were allied with BE.
While BBN was disappearing,Styx being reformed,the last cities of Erysian Guards(The alliance of Ra ceren) were being taken on the evening of February 5 BE started a sudden attack on us together with Dire Wolves,so the longest and most ferocious war of Eubea started.
I will prolong a bit to explain a bit more the situation at the start of February:
In the core(45/55/44/54) the small or middle sized alliances in the past month(since Jan 1) almost disappeared completely.
BE took hold firmly of ocean 45 directly or indirectly(via Dire Wolves and being in a NAP with BBN,actually if I am not wrong they,BBN, even had a shared forum) with the anti BE coalition being weakened greatly with the smashing of Death Unit,while the Barbarians who grew rapidly at the start of January were losing steam fast during the second half of January and at the start of February finally merged(those left after the Aceswild group left Eubea) in GA,who created a second alliance to shelter the excessive numbers.
Stalwarts became a force in 55,with Dire Wolves gathering the players left our of BE in 55/45 and 35.
Grepo Addicts became the no 1 alliance by bringing under it's shelter various factions(Little Monsters,Sim City partly,barbs,RA,Hads group etc) by firmly dominating 54/44 and a strong presence in North 55 and 45 while direct encounters with BE were mostly in her favour,but without achieving a serious breakthrough.
Strategically from Jan 1(when HERT original group was formed) BE was victorious since it succeeded to break the stranglehold around her from GA/RA/Barbs/little Monsters etc,and via DW+Stalwarts had eliminated opposition of smaller alliances(W.A.R etc) in 45/55 being poised strategically in the southern borders of GA.
GA(as it turned out lately) lost strategically since in the North (43) they had Devil's Disciples(who were not friendly to them),in NE surrounded by entering in a war with Fishies for the price of merging hadesspartans group,directly South of their main positions(44/54) was BE/DW and Stalwarts,East at this point(Start of Febbruary) Minions were rapidly being strengthened too.
Only in their West a force who could be amicable to them was emerging(HERT).
In the rest of the server at this date(Feb 5) Enigma was slowly becoming an obvious force of middle size in EUBEA,having started at the end of January(same time with our initial merge) a war with Sucker punch who owned ocean 36(Enigma originated in ocean 37) and Big Cops(and Cops claws,lol)
Big Cats(or Cops if you wish) was established as a force in O 46 having over run the local alliances(an ephemere Myonia Wargasm among others) and were exchanging hits with Enigma and Toons.
Fishies were dominating 64/63 ,having signed a strategic NAP with Minions who were in their South,having just 53(Devil's Disciples) and 54(GA) to expand.
New Toon was dominating 57, and were at war with Minions soon.
Minions after fast killing local alliances in 65/66 were killing Pythons(Monty Pythons) in 56,having a safe Northern flank and poised to strike SW(in 56) or West(55).
Soon they would shake Eubea but Minions Spring ended as fast as it came.
So,in this atmosphere the war with BE begun after their attack.
In the first month we had succeeded to create a base out of our hopeless positions in the core,merge with another group established close to us and were a middle size alliance dominating 2/3 of 34,a small base in sw 45,and via recruitment we had a larger share in 35 then Styx(smaller overall) and Dire Wolves(bigger overall) ,the allies of BE.
But situation was not sorry as one may think.
Half of those who joined from Myonia in December and especially in January at the end of January joined their parent alliance,Eviction Notice,in their new project in Yialisos,and soon they quit Eubea altogether(up to mid February),and we lost first class players like say praehelios,Manster,Prateek,etc.
Much of the "original" material was lost.
Our base at sw 45:
At the start of our adventure in Eubea,as explained,some of our friends invite via game tools in RA,fell in sw 45(Zdog,Dirk Thrust,Vassiliss,etc).
At the end of Decemeber,and start of January(Before the creation of HE) I insisted that our friends in west 55 as safety measure should all gain 1 or 2 cities in sw 45,outside the circle around us at the time,and consequently a few more cities were added there.
We based this move on the correct estimation BE would not run after them,being more busy elsewhere.
When RA/Death Unit was destroyed,some of our players in sw 45 for tactical expediency joined Wargasm,who was operating in that area.
With Big Cops ,BBN,Sucker Punch,attacking them,Wargasm soon as destroyed,zdog a couple others passed in BBN(with whom we were in talks),while Vassilis choose the easy way of joining BE.
With BBN gone,Zdog etc joined us,and we had a good number of major players of BBN inside(Kosova,jester,Mr Mad a bit later,Silent J,Z Dog etc).
One can well say that for BE to attack us was almost an automatic move after rest of resistance in 45/55 was smashed,except those inside GA.
So,in their eyes,we were an easy prey,who for the more were not connected to them.
And for the more we were not anymore the tiny group of the start,but a rising power in the West who was replacing the pro BE BBN in 35 after merging with their RT enemies!!!
During January contacts(unofficial) were kept with BE via Biikej(mostly) and Boris,and with J Tribs himself,relations which culminated in a NAP "offer" on condition not to help the enemies of each other:
To the question what do you mean with NAP,we got this reply:
boris the cat on 2014-01-13 at 07:09
If I am attacking another alliance, and you send support to that alliance to stop my attack. Supporting them against my attack. Non Aggression to us means, no aggression towards each other in any form.
To the simple question what will you do if we go at war with DW,since based on this "offer" you must not support them there was no answer from the smarties of BE
To cut short BE+DW(Stalwarts much less so) hit our positions in West 55.
From the overall number of 37 cities(we did not add a single city since the moment a player joined HE) in the next 2 weeks from the repeated attacks of BE+DW(they had around 700 cities around them,lol) we lost 13,and from our most important players(Erik,Bruizer,mauro,Myself,maynard etc) almost none,lol(Jtribs himself had a nice unpleasant surprise when he hit mauro at the start of their op),help from our 34 cities being negligible due to distance.
In West 45 further losses where incurred when Xene went inactive after the start of the war with BE,and we delayed internalizing him not to interfere with our own op.
In the first 24 hours,we signed a MAP(Mutual Assistence Pact) with GA,and we had a shared tab thence on.
Admittedly support from them was less then expected,and it became clear we could not realistically keep our 24 cities so far away from our base,so we decided to give them to our allies of GA,and use those slots in the West.
All but 7 cities were given to them around February 20.
In the West our avalanche struck Moddey Dhoo(who had joined BBN and then DW being unhappy with his RT mates)who ghosted after finding all his cities revolted,lol,Broke man(the most anti HE player of BBN who had joined DW) and kirstyLeigh etc during February,increasing our presence in 35.
At mid February Erik's health deteriorated,and he was hospitalized for roughly 4 weeks(before he was hospitalize twice for short intervals of a couple of days),so all the burden fell to me(sole founder at the time).
Unfortunately the sickness he incurred from contact with gwantagor was not deadly and he healed
Same time our co founder Nulak and another ex RT leader went vm and never came back.
Most of important RT players were gone by this time with the exception of Codger,who stepped forward to take part in leadership.
Part 3 Early Months of the Server
Relations in the West.
With Noobs INC we had a tenuous unofficial NAP,and they were smart and built up only in the upper part of 34 and spread toward 33 fighting European Union in conjunction with Devil's Disciples.
With Styx too we had a tenuous unofficial NAP since the moment they split from BBN.
Yet,further collaboration was difficult due to their aim to expand in 35,who was naturally seen as a field of expansion from us too and for the more was a future base to hit BE.
According to our MAP with GA we could not expand in 44(save a bit in sw 44),so except from jumping in nw 45,via ocean 35 was the obvious way to fight BE+DW).
In 25/24/26 also was a small MRA alliance,Atalante,whose leaders had good relations with Styx.
First contacts with Sucker Punch did not result in anything and they too after BE Coalition hit us joined the party by hitting our 36(very few) and south 35 cities.
In general their attacks were repulsed very easily,and since our focus was elsewhere this lads reached the conclusion we were turtles,lol
In turn Suckers were at war with Enigma,and during Febbruary the later alliance took the upper hand,and at the start of March Sucker Punch died with it's players being killed off by Enigma,or spread in Enigma,a few in Styx and a few in HERT(baldarse,lol)
Around mid February was an approach from Enigma for a common war against SP,but no collaboration came of this.
In short-during February,regardless of quittings or forced vm,we were emerging as the largest force in the West,allied with GA after BE attack.
In the core during February major events took place.
From the fall of Barbarians(start of Feb) the major force who profited in 55 were Stalwarts.
After eliminating the pro GA forces in most 45 and 55 BE forged an alliance with Minions to eliminate Stalwarts,who were not counted as close allies by them.
Part of DW leadership was shocked by this move(who would be net after Stalwarts?),and both Stalwarts and DW changed alignment and went both in GA side to destroy BE.
BE moved fast,and proffiting from the dissension within DW Leadership first struck DW(end of Febbruary),who was destroyed fast(have to mention here the ugly side of grepo,emotions translated in RL threats toward lady viv,and as rumour went this threats were urged from Meta-Man)and then in conjuction with Minions hit hard Stalwarts at the start of March.
Some DW players on their west joined us(Kirsty leigh,belenkokksai etc),and so most BBN (original) players left in the game were now under the banner of HERT,while we strictly kept ourself out of the core.
The rest of DW players either joined BE(Aggrippa,Von bez etc) or GA,or Stalwarts.
With DW gone from the table BE+Minions(who merged with Toons roughly this time and became no 1!!!) concentrated at the start of March against Stalwarts.
Soon,independent Stalwarts were gone and they too became part officially part of GA.
Two major changes in respective camps(BE and GA) were the quittings of Jtribs(temporary) and original accountholder of Captain rainbow Dash account(Zero Point) on the second half of Febbruary.
In BE power passed in the hands of Meta-Man,and in GA in the hands of the noob who has Captain Rainbow dash account now(ex leader of Little Monsters who merged in GA).
Soon after the quitting of Zero Point(at the start of March) the "bubonic plague" players left GA to form The Commission,supposedly to fight Fishies but in a week they changed stance 180 degree and allied with BE(and Fishies of course:d) to attack GA!
The first inner earthquake started to tremble our allies.
With Erik back around March 10(he hastened his coming but was well under his average activity for 2-3 more weeks) the moment to be more aggressive came(in his absence with the help of Dimitra and Bruizer in administration,I had avoided making important decisions).
At this time (March 10) the situation around us was growing more tense.
The unemployed Styx(after the destruction of SP) was a growing concern-all our offers were being repudiated,Steve Grant was more off then on and b2bracer was misinterpreting anything coming from us.
Enigma at the start of March finally subdued Sucker Punch,and spent the rest of the month mopping up the stragglers and reinforcing 36 with their original players.
Big Cops were becoming aware of the growing danger from the duopoli BE+MINIONS but efforts to include them in the anti BE coalition failed(at one point they were ready to support Stalwarts who were being oped by Minions),since at this time(as was learned later) they signed a strategic deal with Enigma to face together Minions while the phoney war with BE CAME TO AN END(no doubt Meta was happy with Cops coming under the orbit of Enigma).
In our north Noobs Inc were showing disquieting signs of rapid growth at the expense first of Europian Union,paving the way to 33, and then at the expense of Devil's Disciples with whom we had a formal NAP.
In the North in one month the middle size power of Devil's Disciples disappeared from the scene.
Pressed from Noobs Inc on the West and from the combo Fish+F.T.W From the East they crumbled fast(and poor health of Ashley Buxley certainly did not help).
At the start,a war between DD and Noobs Inc was a good news for us since it kept the later busy while our attention was in the South.
But they showed a small group of professional players could overcome a much bigger MRA like DD.
On paper DD was impressive,but it was a motley crew collection based on diplomacy and not decided through war.
Ashley had filled the ranks with everyone he could lay hands in the North(if I remember correctly at one point he was ready to include even Battle Show in DD:d),rapidly owing 43,most of 53 and spread West in 33,ultimately including Hammer in it's group(the source of war with Noobs Inc) and included some survivors from Shield of Ares when Velite's alliance(Velite was a team mate in Apollonia) was smashed by GA,one of this survivors was... was... Alireza,who else:d
And to poke a bit a few herene of his foot soldiers was sradhoo
Rest of the server in March:
Fishies became more agressive(and succesful) after the "bubonic plague" left GA and started to penetrate 54 and pushed West in 53(together with FTW)
Big cats were feeling the heat,and consequently reached a strategic deal with Enigma.
Toons merged into Minions.
Minions? Wasted their chance to be the winner
This apparently unstoppable octopus after helping BE to smash Stalwarts(whose leftovers joined GA mostly) suddenly stopped expansion toward the West(55) no doubt since they would clash with BE.
Having at the same time a NAP with Fishies(another BE ally) in their Northern flank,they started to march against Big Cats(Enigma started to back them) only...
Why SF thought this narrow epansion and care for BE interests would be shared by his big guns only the Almighty knows..
For the rest of March we continued to pound BE with the goal of chasing them out of 35,and we achieved good results(including almost all Duramor cities in 35,and by chance one the victims was jaatee,lol.Denis may give more info who was this la,lol) and took some even in west 45.
Yet it was clear for us our big brother,GA,was losing steam,though as a group they continued to be no 1.
In the second half of March a few things were becoming clear and pressing:
1. We did not have safe backs with 3 uncertain factors,Styx,Noobs Inc,and Enigma all around us.
2. Logistic matters in fighting BE in 45 were becoming obvious after we took their 35 cities,since our main base continued up to this point to be lower 34.
3. Our main allies were starting to fall.Which in turn made point 1 acute.
Mid March Styx reached an agreement with BE,keeping this secret from us,and still smiling to us to gain time.
At the end of March DD group (with whom we had a NAP and through our good offices were becoming friendly with GA too)was crumbling.
So,we took in some of their most active and promising players like Steve Johnson,Mexiwop,tatipavlov,mwizz etc who were based in 43.
GA took in some more(XRTO,119977 etc) while Hammer regained indipendence,offering their friendship to us.
Our force move in 43 also brought closer the inevitable conflict with Noobs Inc who was at war with them.
From the start Noobs Inc was not warm toward our project of creating in the West a competitive power,nor due to RT faction could we promise much.
A tactical mistake from Erik(who cut it short and sent Likasil a personal mail from me to him with some blunt language since it was intended for his eyes,lol) worsened things more,and Noobs Inc too signed a pact with BE against us,since localism unfortunately still played a role
Especially on the part of Styx leadership(admittedly we mishandled the diplomacy toward Noobs Inc,since up to this time there was still dualism in HERT regarding diplomacy) shortsightedness prevented a fast and very profitable solution.
Steve Grant(eh my friend,you trusted to much jaatee,lol) and b2bracer went to the point of not even informing Styx leadership about our full offer(the leaders of Styx later were surprised when confronted with our terms which included even co foundership and 1/3 of leadership lol).
The decisive moment came,we would face the worse scenario,enemies in all sides(Enigma in 36 and Big Cops in 46 were too an uncertain factor) and an hardpressed ally only in our side!!
We learned about Styx plans,but were taken somewhat by surprise by the inclusion of Noobs Inc(we did guess though from some sign they too were up to something).
There was some uncertainty about the course to follow.Erik made a thread in Council asking what to do ,hit Styx or make a preventive strike against Noobs Inc,and had a famous reply from me:Moscow first!!!
Which meant Styx(for whom we were prepared) first!!
We were confident our Wehrmacht was up to the task!!
From around 80 active players(RTHE was due to shrinking numbers almost to the closing point) around 60 were first class material of which some 40+ were battle hardened Styx(Belle Styx) and EN veterans and some 20 proven players of RT+BBN.
We did not needed just a victory-we needed a total blitzkrieg victory in the shortest possible time in order to be able to face the BE challenge now that was becoming clearer by the day GA was faltering!!!
And so it was-in 10 days in two mega ops,Styx and Noobs Inc were both beaten soundly,and the way was paved for the ultimate merge of the west under one banner!!!
Gods of grepolis were with us,by a stroke of fortune both Steve Grant and b2bracer were absent on the eve of the battle,and this facilitated our success.
Localism was over,now with our backs safe we could look with confidence toward the ultimate challenge with BE!!!
Of course job was not done by this 2 merges,but it created the conditions to effectuate the long needed reforms to prepare for the challenges ahead.
As mentioned,at the end of March the logistic issues in the fight against BE were being felt.
The basic problem in grepo is to achieve the needed density vs space.
With great care we had created a dense base in lower 34-and from this major base were the succesful ops toward DW,BE,STYX+NOOBS INC launched in 35/NE 25 and upper 34(actually we did have some difficulties with long range cs toward Noobs Inc targets).
But the fight toward BE in 45 could not be sustained from lower 34,nor effective help toward GA given from lower 34,let alone help our 43 base,lol
except lower 34 the rest of our oceans were like Hiroshima after A bomb,lol
especially 35 was like a desert.
By mid April there were less then 300 ready built cities in ocean 35,which was supposed to be our major base toward BE and toward Enigma if it came to war.
Even 34 was better(some 400+ ready built cities).
At the time o 45(owned by BE) had some 700 ready built cities...
No wonder we were beaten off with ease in our ops against 45 cities.
Unfortunately our numbers up to this point did not allow us to prosecute a sound and systematic "irrigation programm"(I have used exactly this term in Council,lol).
The massive quittings of EN players+most big guns of RT+half of BBn made impossible to consume internals,build new cities and same time push toward BE.
But now at last(Styx+Noobs inc brought around 60-65 players and RTHE Was filled at the brim) we had both the manpower and urge to prosecute with systematic work the creation of a sound base!
A fatal mistake which was paid dearly was the lack of a comprehensive common strategy between us and GA regarding the creation of a sound mutually supportive base via colonizations.
The major fault for this fell to GA as the major partner,and of course the delay of uniting West under one banner prevented us from pushing aggressively in this direction.
More clearly-since end of January GA had increased the density of the lower parts of 44/54(and partly in North 45/55) with colonizations,but little attention was paid from them to develop methodically the rest of this 2 oceans(44/54).
Hence the difficulty of countering successfully Fish penetrations in North/Northeast 54.
We on the other hand,as mentioned,had created since the start of January our major base in lower 34,and we had little density in the rest of our areas and hand to mouth manpower resources did not allow to do more then was done.
In retrospective I wonder about what could have been done if all went well-BbN+RT+(at a slightly later stage) Noobs Inc+Styx would have been united up to the end of January and the massive quittings both inside us and in this alliances due to the strife would not have happened...
2+ precious months were lost
The core powers have the advantage of proffiting from the massive density of initial start-rim powers need to do this themselves!
The basic profit of BE diplomacy in preventing an early unity of West lies exactly in forbidding us the creation of a sound base-hat off to them,fools have only themselves to blame!
In short-on the second half of April we started the colonization program on a systematic base,with 35 (east 35/border with 45) taking priority.
Part of the reason why I did not let Hammer(who stayed true allies to the end) expand in 33 was exactly to make this mainly simming alliance dense 43,and in conjunction with our more aggressive 43 team form both a barrier toward Fish expansion and a staging ground to back the war in ocean 44(technically up to end of April a GA ocean).
Another major success in mid April was also the signing of a NAP with Enigma,which allowed a certain safety in our Southern flank.
No doubt our blitzkrieg could not fail to influence their minds and deter them.
Later they would claim the lack of a sound base in 36 made them delay the aggression toward us,but this version of course does not explain their willingness to enter the war in order to save Styx(or to put it better to prevent a total success from us):d
With backs relatively safe we started in earnest the creation of the barrier in East 35/sw 44.
In the meantime GA was rapidly losing ground(and players) during March and April.
By mid April it was clear they were doomed,and soon rats started to leave the sinking ship.
Some will not feel good with this term,but unfortunately I can not find a better name
We took the decision to stay true to our allies,and accept them in HERT whatever the consequences!
So,on the last week of April the process of merging GA started.
It was not an easy process as it may appear at first sight.
On the rest of the server during the period mid March-end of April no major change was happening.
Fishies in NE of the server continued to expand toward 54,allied with BE and the Bubonic plague alliance(The Commission) and profited from the crumble of DD to own 53,and even look toward 43.
A few GA players joined them.
Minions lost their impetus after "Peace in our time" deal with BE to concentrate only against Big Cats.
Many of their major guns apparently could not understand why they had to fight to be a second team,lol
Big Cats in turn were being helped more and more from Enigma,and succeeded to keep Minions at bay,and were the major gainers from the peace in our time policy of Minions.
Enigma after mopping up the Sucker stragglers in March continued to solidify their hold on 36,and after a short lived spur to enter the war against HERT at the start of April,finally decided to put the tail between their legs for some more time after the "July oil embargo":d(read the merge of Styx in HERT which cut the easy profits).
Instead,they started to march East to help Big Cops,and at the end of April it was clear something more then a simple pact was between them.
We on the other hand,having reached the desired extension in the West(from North 26 to 43/42) were free to concentrate on BE,and after the Styx/Noobs campaigns clearly became a serious competitor.
Soon The Commission declared war on us,and the first contacts with Fishies made it clear they were aiming toward o 54,and even aimed at expansion in 43(on the pretext of being at war with Hammer).
Maybe their good luck in being on the winning coalition up to this time had increased their apetite to the point of deserving the Palmerstonian quote-big apetite but few teeth.
The Commission lay between Fishies and BE and it was clear there was friction between them and Fishies.
BE appeared to favor Commission-but Fishies had no balls at this time to work for themselves.
The major gainer from the downfall of GA regarding players who left GA was(as expected) BE,who gladly added it's thinning ranks with some 10+ big guns of GA.
Fortunately the GA leadership understood and agreed with our strategy of using our Eastern possessions(vast majority GA posessions) to delay BE while at the same time marching West their players,while we would march East our players from 33/34/25/35 until a strong barrier would be created in West 44/border 35/45+ our strong grouping in 43 which together with Hammer was strong enough to hold off Fish advance and could put some pressure on the advancing enemies in East 44.
In short-we would shorten the front by pulling off bit by bit from the cul de sac positions in 54/55/East 45 while fortifying the mentioned barrier to create our unbreakable Hindenburg Line.
Fortunately the lied elements who under the lurid lies of Bethlen Gabor went in The Commission fast understood their mistake and were welcomed in our Group(Old Monster,Evil Hero etc).
When this massive manoeuvre would be over it would be BE group to suffer from the long lines of communications,while for us with around 250+ players(Hammer included) would be easy to hold them off behind our fortifications,regardless of quittings(and we did have our own share of quitters,among them first class players like Volsking,and quite unfortunate was the quitting of promising players like Baltiske and Maccat).
And of course we expected the various factions of BE coalition to fall among themselves with the uniting motive gone from the field.
With the help of maxi+anathe(who in line with our policy of including in Council players from all groups merged in our banner) and zdog a LTS system was expanded to help resist longer in the East(54/55/SE 44).
BE in the meantime was following the glittering prizes in the core and 54 and failed to interfere in the creation of our barrier in border 35/45 and further North in West 44.
It takes time of course to build cities and our barrier was not created overnight-nor was it easy to convince Raivo type fighters of the neccessity of simming.
In the next 1,5 months(May and first half of June) the war between us and BE evolved around this pattern:
BE oped repeatedly our core cities(Eastern cities from our point of view) gradually taking possession of 54(together with their allies)/our long time isolated 55/and our SE 44 cities.
Some unfortunate inactivity greatly helped them(denchious,bain of doon ,kirstyleigh etc)
We on the other hand continued to strike in West 45 and sw 44 trying to choose carefully our targets,in order to clean red dots from the intended barrier,and we achieved great results both in clearing our core(Jnc+Todd in 33/34) and clearing 35 from them(lauztkauz+aggripa etc) and in pushing away them from west 45/west 44(pescarus,Fishers,wombferret etc).
We were surprised from the failure of BE to strike our barrier in build while it was still vulnerable,constantly being attracted by the 54 candy:d
The vast flow of bp(slots) was continuously invested in further investment in our barrier (or thicken our interior) and to consume the inevitable inactives.
Especially among ex Styx players ,many of whom were new grepo players unused with this endurance game,inactivity was felt-and alliance policy was not favourable to them(the NAP with Enigma).
The transfer in frontline via (mostly) colonization takes time and requires nerves of steel.
And most of those who marched in border 35/45 quit(auditorre,St Athanasiuis etc).
In 43 we kept a defensive stance both since 53 was not a goal,as well as to minimize antagonizing Fishies more then needed.
Few if any city was lost there,their only successes were toward inactives/semi actives of Hammer.
Clearly Fishies lacked teeth in prosecuting an aggressive offense,but of course their energies were mostly directed in the 54 candy:d
Talks with them made it clear their dissatisfaction toward the policy of BE who appeared more and more neglective toward Fishies,favouring Commission before them.
In sum,we at the start of June were happy since the merge with GA went smoothly,and we inherited most of their players,with relatively few players going in the ranks of BE coalition.
Our barrier in border 35/45 was almost complete and wood soon make itself felt while further North good progress was being made.
All ex GA players had secured cities west and bonds of friendship were strengthened.
On the other hand,at the end of May/start of June my own activity was falling,and I was in the verge of quitting due to increased pressure on my rl.
I was clearly slackening behind,and was not pressing strong enough the colonization program in South 35 for example.
To deal with the event of my impossibility to bear my responsibility Bruizer was nominated co founder,Kronnoss too was persuaded by Erik to stay(he came to open up a possible ww site in o 24 and was liking the challenge) and was brought in Council,and furthermore I brought from Belle our founder and Diplo Zatoichi(he took over the account of Garrus Vakarian).
During this period(end of April-start of June) in the rest of server things were moving too.
Toons split from the decaying Minions and soon found themselves under the concentrated attack of Big Cops,Enigma,Antigonian Guards and Minions!
The old "enemies" Minions and Cops signed a NAP and together hit the unfortunate Toons.
At the end of May Cops officially merged with Enigma,who grew strong enough to be the third ranking power.
Same time they were proceeding to strengthen their North 36/border positions,which clearly indicated they were preparing to open up against us.
Their colonization effort though was suffering from lack of manpower(having done the parasites as most fighters do,they killed off all small simmers,and did not keep in mind the usefulness of simmers in populating oceans.
In our areas the effect of this type of hunting were reflected in a striking manner in ocean 35 in which BBN acted in the same manner.
To prolong a bit on this much debated theme:
Simmers vc fighters.
Most fighters despise the quiet players,especially in small alliances,and they tend to forget it is via cities grown by simmers they are able to grow without having to sim themselves.
In HERT too the tendency of being a parasite killer exists.
With the backing of Erik I strove hard to minimize as much as possible the practice of slaughtering of small non allied(or in small alliances) players who had just started.
In 34 for example we tolerated the safe removel of Battle Show players further North(in 33).
In 43 there were enough simmers to do the job and colonization there was minimal.
In 44 there were plenty of simmers,and problem was the misplacing of colonization from GA not lack of manpower.
The most striking example of our policy of tolerating small simmers to populate quietly the area was Atalante case.
They were spread mostly in 25 as well as in south 24 and north 26,heavily intermingled with Styx.
Part of Styx leadership watched them as some sort of unofficial academy-while others wanted to feed on their flesh.
Up to Styx merge they were off our radar,they barely existed in our areas.
As soon as the Styx merge happened part of Styx players asked for a free hand toward them.
Contacts and efforts to check the possibility of using them as simmers indicated the total inability of their leadership for anything like an organized body.
Use them as a small scale rear war to keep busy our rear players?
Next to impossible to hope in any kind of resistance from them,lol
With the connivance of Erik I simply allowed them to sim at peace and grow in 25/15 at their pace-even allowing the handing over of some cities from ex Styx players to relieve slots for their march to the front.
In short a sort of unilateral unofficial NAP.
At the end of June there was a split in them,with the most warlike faction passed in the ranks of a friendly alliance,whose formation was casual:d
One of our friends who quit active playing(mjboyer) kept a couple of cities for a while(via mm our players were reminded not to attack him) and to open space for GA players went indipendent.
A couple of small players in RTHE were transfered there to make space for the remaining GA players too.
Then another couple of small players from Atalante were transfered there to open space in RTHE for the same reason,one of them shereek,lol
Mj himself was having some fun gathering a couple of 1k point noobs to make them grow some cities for us,lol
In my absence codger had mailed mj to give shereek (or another,do not exactly remember well now) some rights.
Then shereek in his own initiative had extended invites to the warlike faction of Atalante:d
In 1 or 2 days some 20 were gathered:d
I was vm at the time,and all,starting with codger and ending with me were like :d
Bruizer was with both me and Codger about this(thinking it was some kind of trick from me,lol):d
mj was shocked to have gone sleeping with 4 or 5 small noobs and to come from work to find himself at the head of an alliance with 25 players,lol
So I sent Codger there to take the reins,assess quickly if there was anyone good to bring him in RTHE and shut down this unwanted offspring:d
But this offspring proved to be quite lively and so Titanomachia was born:d
Soon there the worthy Atalante were gathered(with few exceptions like Littlehoopeep) and Codger was able to make them worth and achieve some good results.
Titan was never considered part of HERT though,more like a close ally.
Good players like shereek,susury etc came from this unwanted offspring.
Part 4 A Taste of the Things to Come
On June 12 EBC attacked us without warning,disregarding the NAP who clearly stated there would be a period of advance warning of 4 days if any partner wanted to cancel the NAP.
This move took us by surprise.
The major move which would shake Eubea(author of the saying is Biikej,lol) had started!!
No doubt EBC counted on surprise,knowing well we were using those safe areas to LTS our front with BE.
Protests against this gangster move in total disregard of elementary diplomacy were answered with it's show time type of replies!!!
I have only to thank them on a personal level,since this bull gave me renewed strength to come back and double the efforts to punish these bastards.
As is common activity requirements in safe areas are lower compare to front line players,so obviously we had some weak players bordering this new front.
Their sudden attack coincided with a strong BE op(this op was a few hours ahead of their strike,no doubt this morons had no balls to strike first,but had to follow the op of their bigger partner),so initially we had few support to send in this new front(most cities in the area were used for LTS and were rather naked).
Now we had the whole server against us,since BE was allied with everyone,and only Minions were not actively atacking us.
Some losses were incurred in the new front,especially among semi active/semi trained players(mostly e Styx) facing them.
In a month(less in fact) the natural proccess eleminated this weak links,and at the start of July our losses toward this new enemy fell to a minimum(some 5-6 cities per op).
On the other hand,our eastern candie had to be given up more rapidly,since we had less LTS available.
The usual summer fall of activity hit us hard too.
It was obvious that BE and EBC were failing to follow a common strategy,and ops in the same direction were lacking,BE again following the 54 candy,and EBC trying to advance in border 36/35.
Our barriers were starting to bring fruits by this time and support to the core cities was reaching faster,though the heavy intermingling there as usual made it difficult to create strong enough bunkers due to large numbers of easy revolts.
Attacks toward our barriers in border 35/45 and West 44 were few,and during the whole citical period from mid June to the end of July there was only one loss in this newly created barriers(a city of raivo taken from pescarus during a mega op on him),reflected in a nervous mm from Erik.
Up to EBC war slots and effort toward strengthening South 35 with a similar barrier were negligible (compared to what was achieved toward BE front) or small scale at best.
On the second half of June with haste the program of colonization was accelerated,but of course fruits could not be seen before August
Even with numbers obviously against us,we made attacks against BE(pescarus again,lol) while some tests against EBC were conducted too.
In mid July a strong op against Fishies was conducted too and since the start there were lots of cities in our bag,lol
Apparently Poglavnik Denis was not happy with the whole server behind him,and Jiggle da on his behalf 3 days after EBC entered the field sent a proposal even to Atalante with some nice hints about WW race
of course I did not lose the chance to put this jewel to good use
Part 5 The Great Pretenders
The "HERT in full retreat scenario" set in motion the hidden egos inside BE coalition.
No doubt Jt faction envied the subordinate role in a Meta Man run BE,and this was also reflected in the change of diplo priorities from a vs Minion and Fish to a vs EBC direction(what matters of course is what is perceived,not how things are in reality).
Add to this the known enmity between Fishies and Hades group(or between Minions and Hades) and one can easily gather 1+1=2:d
In short-the envy of jtribs fit well with the envy of both Fishies and Minions for the more and more subordinate role they were having in a Poglavnik Denis led BE.
As long as we were a threat to all of them,they could still find more reasons to stay together then to kill each other,hence the need for the "Hert in full retreat scenario":d
First contacts with Fishies made it clear they were exactly the Palmerstonian Italians of mid 19 century-great appetite but no teeth to match this appetite:d
While Jtribs of course found it expedient to spoil their ego:d
Hence the split in BE was almost unavoidable,and Morti helped align Minions alongside Jtribs with the post Pear Harbor exilerating atmosphere ,where this modern Tojoferium emperor thought he could touch the sky and arrogantly took Toons inside Enigma in the first week of July leaving the modest(by now) Minions unemployed and taking the food off their table:d
Poor Fartin Fury appealed to Fyhrer Denis for justice,but of course Denis could not sell Tojoferium:d
so he wanted or not Fartin Fury run into the arms of Jtribs-ready to promise 70 virgins and clemency of all sins to whoever would help him avenge on the "ungrateful" Fyhrer Denis:d
Hirohitoferium was unable by now to frown the Cops,and like the Toon slap was not enough they now wanted Fartin Fury dead,lol
Quickly Minions fell back from the assault of Enigma,and merged in the Fish+JT alliance(Honor).
Fishies and JT had reached an agreement for a merge where the name Honorable Hellfish was chosen(no Minion indication,lol),in which all Fishies,Minions and more and more ex Actium BE players were gathered during July.
Right after the split (at the start of July)a NAP between Honor and BE was signed.
There was an incident right after they were kicked(they,Jt+Manek, actually were kicked,not exactly left) in which they both were banned after a few hours.
As an old SOB, Jt knew well he needed a detente with BE for a while-so the guise of anti HERT stance was used to reach the NAP with BE(who foolishly accepted right away for fear they might join us-apparently they should have thought we were so desperate as to accept anyone here,lol).
Sheltered by this NAP this new alliance started to attack us(lacking strength the expediency of hitting cities cleared by BE was used from them in most cases).
We kept calm,and did not allow retaliation against them-a strong op on them would frown other would be splitters
So during all the time this new enemy enjoyed unilateral immunity,and of course this apparent immunity facilitated those fans of Jt inside BE to jump in Honor.
During July our ops(not at the max of our capability) were directed solely against BE and Fishies.
The latter,technically were independent and marked red,while Honor was not and only self defense was allowed(in theory retaliation was allowed-in practice was frowned upon by keeping the player's attention elsewhere).
In short,the Jt Bubble was encouraged,and this arrogant Shasta Mountains Highlander on the second half of July naturally thought the time to settle the accounts with "usurper Denis":d
Hert was practically dead-so no danger from this side:d(I have several pieces of evidence indicating this frame of mind from Jt and Manek,don't ask how)
So,at the end of July our glorious enemies had reached the conclusion it was time to kill each other-with the common enemy dead:d
The Minion merge in Fishies and the official transformation of Jt Followers+Fishies and Miniions in a single group was the waking up bell for BE and Cops:d
The verbal fight in externals(at the start of July wireless silence was ordered by me on externals-it was time to keep quiet and not to show a sign of life:d) was indication clearly the panic-ezypezy in a rare moment of himself commented:guys,whatever happens between us we all should not pact with HERT,right?
This amusing post made Erik to send me a private mail-what a f....g coward!
During July Fishies had declined an official understanding ,and after their official merge directed me at Jt as their official diplo:d
I had spoiled Jt a bit when he split-and quickly established his peacock stance.
But of course arrogance is the worst adviser,and at the end of July my(forced due to previous talks with Fishies) NAP offer to Honourable Hellfish Group from Jt was refused on the grounds it would harm them more,since BE(read Meta group) propaganda was saying JT was a collaborator of HERT.
A very restricted circle here has an idea of my joy after this refusal!
We had our hands free!
We were bound by promises to Fishies up to this moment,after this rash refusal I was free!
How could he have made this mistake?
It can be explained only with arrogance,an arrogance reinforced from our "Hert in full retreat" move!
One or two days later Poglavnik Denis decided to drop from the high horse and sent a mail:d
Even Morti was interested for my health,lol
Up to now Jt Refusal we were spectators-but now the time came to make Eubea dance on our tunes:d
Quickly a NAP with BE was arranged(up to the end of August),and a chat room would of course be helpful to check their frame of mind:d
Now before us were 2 alternatives:
1. Back BE to kill Fishies.
2. Back Fishies(and Jt) To kill BE.
But of course each of these courses had pros and cons,and our steps should be calculated to make us victorious,not any of them.
The tone of Poglavnik Denis clearly indicated he/they had not understood independent BE was dead,and all the logical arguments that a combo HERT+BE was the best possible alternative,a server winning+fun guaranteeing combo in the true sense of the word were cancelled by the obvious danger that once BE would kill the Fishies,they could simply turn on us,collaborating with their old choice-Enigma.
Fishies on the other hand were struck by the foolishness of jt,who in turn got sober after the start of the war with BE(Enigma had already marked them red after Minion merge).
So Lascaux took the place of John tribble as interlocutor.
I enjoy a high regard for her on a personal level,but poor Kat had a mission impossible since the start:d
Part 6 : Skirmishing
After alternative 1 was discarded as premature due to the frame of mind in BE,of course alternative 2 was chosen until the proper frame of mind in BE(read practically Shadow Guards).
During the first half of August "the turtles" followed 2 directions in their ops:
1. Main effort toward Cops(it was time to make them taste their own medicine).
2. Weaker efforts toward Fishies(original Fishies,Honor core positions were left intact to avoid a total victory of BE) BOTH TO PUT PRESSURE ON THEM AND RETAKE SOME OF THEIR FORWARD POSITIONS IN 43 AND WEST/CENTRAL 44.
A NAP with Honorable Hellfish Group was signed at Mid August,which predicted a common war toward BE at a proper moment.
An Enigma op at the start of August was beaten off with ease-it is to be noted after the first ops vast majority of participants in their later ops was from original members of Enigma+Sucker punch,and very few participation from the ex Big Cops faction,who together with Noobian Guards of dumbspace followed the much more easy targets in The East(in practice Minions).
Our own op started on Aug 5 quickly met success,and while Enigma was still assessing the course to follow a follow up op a week later on Red General had very good results and he was chased from his forward positions.
In external forum Enigmatic apologets justified with some structural problems the earthquakes and promised reforms,lol
Soon it was clearly established this reform consisted in giving a new meaning to the grepo term Turtle:d
The first couple of weeks of HH-BE war were more or less equal,but the signing of a NAP between HERT and BE gave a new moral impetus to HH with more and more players of BE passing in the ranks of HH,yet,till the end of month BE was still a force to be reckoned and clearly HH by itself was far away from a decisive victory.
Around ten days from the start of HH-BE war John quit grepo:d
Officially it was due to rl issues,though perhaps his loss of face for his blunder toward us which gave Fishies a more decisive role in the merged alliance may have had a role.
For us of course it was a good news and I learned very fast this news,while for some ten more days this news did not reach the ears of BE.
The NAP between us and HH (negotiated from me and Lascaux) was very detailed and contained a territorial agreement which except recognizing a slight advance for the HERT exclusivity area in 44/45,also contained a black list of forbidden players to be recruited from each side as well as a list of swaps with +9 cities in favor of HERT.
In the first half of August,while the NAP with them was negotiated,we kept a low scale offensive toward Fishies as mentioned before,who had their hands full.
Yet even this half hearted pressure at times was really much for them,and willing to reach the NAP without desiring a humiliating defeat right before it,I had to stop entirely any offense action via personal mails to our hawks(Steve,Mexi,soultaker,Jc Stolen etc).
By knowing the full tale each of you can now imagine my rage and disappointment when only a couple of days after signing the NAP,HH via Lascaux started to try to circumvent the NAP-more specifically the swap agreement,saying it was unfavorable to them,it would put them in a bad situation toward their members,they would lose face and bla bla bla.
It was very soon clear it was Manek behind lascaux!
After Jt decided to R.I.P leadership of ex Actium byzies passed in the hands of manek,who took over the account of Jt,Vamsi108,giving his own to Taras Bulba(please do not call me a liar,since I know the rules say you have to ghost to take over another account,but this rule is for mortals,not for special ones).
The usual problems of this hastened merge,with leaders full of themselves and no sense of reality,were translated in the impossibility of being honest with the members and telling them the truth-namely:HERT has the rope around our neck,so for the immense advantages we are gaining the sacrifice of 9 cities(or later of half an ocean) is just a triffle!
It was not a question of pure stupidity,once Manek himself told me he knew well what they owed to us,but they were unable to tell the truth to the ordinary members!
Also,I neglected a careful check of the famous black list,and did not pay much attention to it,while the ex Actium smarties profited from the haste to finish the NAP(and the completition of black list+swaps were left after the NAP signature) in order to include into it wholesale all the BE players belonging to Actium Shadow Guards,regardless of being players or Leaders.
On our side the forwarded names were some 4 or 5 Plus the Hades Group leaders(3 names).
HH profiting from our neglect to prepare the list before signature of course included en bloc all of them,lol
Early on I had the chance to verify the tricks which were a normal practice of ex Actium byzies as well as the info I had from those who knew them they were mind gamers(my reply to OJ when he told me this was-I am the right guy for this!).
To illustrate-Manek and SCH at the start did not give a clear cut answer if mioune was or was not to be classified for the black list.
Then a few hours later he had a chat with mioune,got a freak off answer and suddenly the name of mioune was insited to be included in the list:d
This early incidents only a few days after the NAP signature showed to us the neccessity to be on guard toward this guys!
Part 7 Trouble in the Enemy Ranks
On Sept 1 the war with BE was renewed(our NAP was just a month long cease fire),and a combined op with HH was started on them.
I want to take a minute and explain here the famous "bubonic plague" mass mail.
On Aug 29 BE was notified officially the NAP/cease fire would not be renewed,so hostilities would re start.
Barely the ink of my pen was dry on the mail of notification to Meta Man,and Hades sent Erik a mail asking him to shelter him and his group promising to fight HH on our behalf and so on.
Erik was so from this unscrupulous betrayal that forwarded the mail to wholesale alliances,calling him and his cronies "-you are like the rats which in Medieval Ages spread the bubonic plague abandoning a sinking ship!
"
So his fate was sealed once and forever,and unfortunately Manek and Lascaux could hardly lose the chance to profit and insist to include all ex Commission players(whom they knew would never join HH) in the black list,not just the leaders
Of course it was beyond any doubt the rapid destruction of BE ,and at this time they had a couple of players in vm due to rl issues(Biikej,Mioune) and more and more scared players going in Vm.
Soon all left in BE were all in vm-it was time for Poglavnik Denis to do some yoga and have some normal sleep,and rethink where the road to Heaven might be,lol
The approaching disaster of BE turned the normal practice of recruiting the good players of the losing alliance in a 19-th century Gold Rush race on the HH side.
Soon it was clear they had no self restraint and recruited anyone who was able to say yes(of course they knew well the BE players,unlike us,and knew well in advance who would say no,and almost all of the later category were put on the black list in advance:d),regardless of skill,or location.
We had discussed the recruiting issue,and we had in mind to recruit some 8-10 players(Pescarus,Aggrippa,Lime,Tremendus,Todd,Kyrioz,De friissii,duramor etc),based on a set of criteria,including location..
A great help in identifying the valuable players gave IamHERODOTUS,an ex BE player who joined us in July(he was disappointed by the inner conflict),whom I consulted.
I am taking a minute to salute this serious player,regardless of his personal relations,he did not hesitate to vouch for the good souls,and some members here owe him the invitation in HERT.
In accordance with the NAP all the new members were notified in advance that their Eastern cities were subject of swaps or free handovers with/to HH.
To their credit-none of them came here before their ship was practically sunk and captain of the ship himself advised them to do so.
It was normal friction would develop from the dishonest practice and tricks of HH.
To illustrate-during talks about the black list,Manek told us that they had no objection toward mickruth,but he was just a useless simmer.
Stats backed his claim and some food had to be left on the table,lol
so no attempt to bring him here was done.
Then one beautiful sunny day we found him in.... HH!
With BE gone from Eubea,we turned attention back to Cops again,lol
Summer over,our average activity came back to normal,and inactivity was reduced to a trickle at times.
At the start of August one of our leaders,Zdog,had a terrible accident,and later in September we had to internalize him.
In the last 3 weeks of September we hit EBC repeatedly ,who by this time had turtled fully in front of us,and their only serious offensive effort was directed against the weak Minions(inside HH).
According to our agreement after finishing BE it was expected that HH would march South to hit EBC.
The front with EBC was a particularly difficult one to attack.
Roughly it lay from the Northern 26,along border 35/36 and in the westermost part of 45/46 border.
During the NAP with us(and even before,since second half of March) EBC had fortified at max the Northern part of o 36,close to the border with 35,forming a barrier alike with the one we had built in East 35 and further North.
And since it was a prepared position it was manned mostly by good active players.
There was little intermingling between us,what cities we had(few in number) deeper then borderline belonged mostly to small semi active or defensive type of players, many of them lost in the initial attack from Enigma.
It was a classic head on attack on well prepared fortifications.
On the other hand,we had relatively few players in the southern half of 35/25 and sw 45.
Transferring whole accounts of active attackers from the other areas was next to impossible,and since up to this time other fronts had priority,it was late to start a new colonization effort as the only way for massive relocation.
Some density in south/central 35 was gained from colonization efforts in June and July,but away from a proper base of attack.
Many active attackers from other areas had few cities in close striking distance(often just a couple).
Incidentally one can imagine what was going to happen if things would come that BE coalition would have to hit our barriers in border 35/45 and west 44!
And we had both bigger numbers and better players.
And even if we had started a new campaign of colonizations,slots from bp at this time were lesser.
From a high peak of 7,4 million bp on the period 13 June- 12 July(5,1 million dbp and 2,3 million abp) for HERT alone,we dropped at around 4 million,over 3/4 abp.
And of course the approaching ww race left no room for "luxury" investments.
To cut short,the only way to overcome our difficulties was a massive strategic offensive on them from HH.
On their front Enigma was less turtled(in fact they were in attack!).
This would draw defensive assets away from our frontline,and combined with the chance to use our full offensive strength by using our Northern players(so far almost none was used) would create the neccessary superiority in numbers to break their fortifications.
Once breached and some intermingling was done(like the one we have now for example),it was an easy job then.
As it was up to 3 main islands from the frontline practically every city had lts!
We also have to give credit to cops about the good set up of their frontline players,with the exception of Red General(who paid dearly) they had no soultaker/raivo(until June/july) type of players with almost all cities frontline!
So it was impossible to hit a single player to overwhelm him/her in enough cities
nor of course were they short of gold to repair walls,lol(100 cuts per wall was almost routine for Morti,loxias etc)
Of course main positions of the big active guns were in the same situation as us toward them.
So we did not epext them to hit Enigma overnight.
But for almost a month after Sept 10 (around start of October relations were rapidly deteriorating so there is a valid excuse,lol) ex Actium BE(let aone Fishies who were even more North) now in HH did practically nothing to attack EBC.
They used the death of BE and the safety of the NAP with us to LTS their frontline cities which for the most belonged to ex Minions,but even them did not use the chance given to do anything worthy of mention.
We thought to test their resolve and seriousity at the end of September by organizing a classic methodical concentrated attack on a Red General city in sw 35(he took a ghost from a banned player).
HH was notified some 5 days in advance and we made it clear it would be us who will hit first,in order to attract and destroy their defense,so their cities elsewhere would be vulnerable(sold in public as a ww bust drill,lol).
We also made it clear we will use our Northern players with long range attacks,so they would have no excuse altogether!
The day came,we hit as planned the bunker,and as expected enigma gathered vast amount of support!
And to our surprise vast majority of their support was in biremes,not vast numbers of land behind a goldened wall!
Even better then what we expected!
So HH had nothing to fear to send long range land attacks like we were doing!
40k biremes were killed in that city and some land too at a huge cost for us!
HH reaction?
One or two days later Manek(Vamsi) and Chopper Mad discharged their respective offense and defense in each other to profit from a double bp offer of Inno Games and got around 300k bp each!
Guess words to imagine our legit rage are not enough!
We replied ordering suicide on a much larger scale,gaining around 5 million bp if I remember correctly.
Part 8 The Start of the End
At the end of September we were at a cross road!
With BE gone 2/3 of our players were dying from boredom.
The random recruitment of HH eleminated what food was left.
The only food left were the players of BE in vm.
And the intrasigence of Manek was shown well in our efforts to lift the blockade of black list for a couple of players(spanjolc,aussie bulldog etc).
In an effort to find a modus vivendi I proposed to Lascaux to change the territorial aggreement in order to secure a certain expansion of HERT,so we could keep happy our jobless players,and at the same time secure an extension of our front toward Enigma,so we could somewhat thin their LTS in front of us.
More specifically,to extend the zone of our exclusive growth to include the whole of 44/45(se corner of 44 and Eastern half of 45 were mixed areas of growth).
To make them lift some rope I even asked a total swap,lol
btw,the arranged swaps were procceeding very slowly,and with pretext after pretext Roo Dog,and Chopper Mad especially were refusing swaps.
The efforts of HH to show we were delaying too were confronted with mails of our players showing none was asking them to hand over their 54 cities arranged!
Same time HH was no lacking slots to take e BE cities in mixed zone!
We were disadvataged due to longer cs travel times,and how can you expect from Maneks and choppy chops to lose the chance to deny us any kind of solitary gain???
In this ever more frustrating atmosphere happened the said test.
Lascaux understood from my tone they(ex Actium Byzies) were really exaggerating in their unhidden effort to deny us any kind of advantage,regardless of the immense profits from our pro HH stance.
So at last she put enough pressure on them to accept a moderate deal:the cities belonging to BE players in 45 and SE 44 who would come out of vm would be taken exclusively from HERT,and the black list would be reduced to include only the ring leaders of BE!
This famous list was reduced now to just 4 names-Biikej,Mioune,Curadh and of course Poglavnik Denis:d
An amusing incident happened for the case of Blade102.
We had no idea he was an ex BE leader/founder,and of course I asked his removal.
Lascaux asked time to ask manek,there was either a delay or miscommunication between them,so lascaux said ok,blade is fine.
But manek then came online(of course he could easily imagine there was a reason why i was asking to remove this players from the list:d) and asked her to cancel his name:d
So poor Lascaux did what he asked:d
But it was too late:d
My reply-The word of HERT FOUNDER is sacred!
I have given my word to blade now,who has agreed to respect the terms!
It is not my fault you are unable to properly communicate with manek!
Of course poor Kat said yes,you are perfectly right,you got me this time.
Actually I had not communicated with Blade:d
Also,the black list recruits would hand over automatically cities in the East if they would join us or their cities in the West if they would join HH.
Raivo by this time had fallen in love with poglavnik Denis,and resigned from Council at this time since he thought I was either a coward(of course he did not tell me this but should have thought this:d) or a fool manipulated from Byzies:d
New agreement done,manek himself sending a mm to notify the members,plus some new promises of action toward Enigma lifted somewhat the tension.
I had a brief moment of hope that perhaps the HH NAP could after all secure the normal game.
Our unofficial word with them was that after killing Enigma together we could compete thereafter with each other for the Crown.
And may the best win!
Of course Poglavnik Denis would understand that sacrificing himself and 3 others to give victory to the rest was after all not the end of the world,lol
How long lasted this hope?
2 days...
Aussie Bulldog back(spanjolc had gone vm again,after some ugly scenes of lack of respect for his plight.he got in trouble out of loyalty to the alliance he was in,and Hades had included him in his list of followers!
Enough of a reason for Manek to put him on the black list!
How could he know what was in my mind and what I was enduring daily with this intrasigent trickers??) the agreement started to be put in practice.
Poor Aussie with desperate words told me after showing the unescorted attacks of HH players on him:they do not deserve my cities mate...
But with cold eyes was ordered to hand them over.
One city taken in our zone was retaken.
Then De Friissii came out ot Vm at the start of October.
Barely 1 or 2 days after the agreement.
6(six) cities taken in our zone contrary to the agreement!
The record was held by choppy chop with 3 cities taken!
Loud protest to Lascaux-prompt action promised!
On the morrow Manek had a chat with Codger,telling him he wanted to talk with me,and also left a skype note asking to chat with me.
A few hours before Jason118 had asked Erik via mail an invite since he was unallied after a quarrel with someone.
Erik was offline,and when he read the mail Jason was a HH member.
Forwarded me the mail,and we were both wondering was doing this fool?
lascaux in the meantime told me she was having some arguments with manek about the swaps and the cities of De Frissii taken in our zone!
Evening came and as arranged opened skype to talk with Manek(was Oct 3 or 4).
A strange Marious after some weird words passed on the theme:
Hey,we(the Ex Actium members of BE) are bored.
The merge is a failure,fishies are useless,Minions even worse!
Be prepared that we may kill this useless simmers(Fishies),but which would be your stance?
I hid my emotions,and told him inner developments of HH are none of our business as long as agreements are respected.
Oh,do not worry,there is no problem with the NAP.
A few hours later had a chat with Lascaux-told her openly the plot of Manek and ex Actium Byzies,and warned her.
Maybe she did not believe me fully.
The Jason incident was part of the talk, is this provocation?
No,not a provocation.
Jason had an incident with Mahim,one of the leaders,and Mahim kicked Jason,that is why he has asked an invite.
I canceled the rights of Mahim after his rash action.
A few hours later Manek cancels the rights of Lascaux(the co founder) supposedly to avenge Mahim,lol
who is Mahim?Boris the cat,who else?
That day mailed a HH player who was blocking a swap,asking why.
Reply-Manek sent a mass mail freezing all swaps and handovers.
Shortly after canceling the rights of lascaux.
Manek had just signed his death sentence....
Part 9 HERT Moves to the Fore
The events had fully shown the duplicity of ex Actium Byzies.
If someone goes to the point of plotting in cold blood the extermination of his own mates,will he have scruples toward us?
They were useless against Enigma too as the events of almost a month had shown.
It was time to destroy HH.
Poglavnik Denis on the other side after the holidays,lol,had understood who was able to fulfil his desires.
The set of motions to destroy HH were started.
Enigma was no threat,and we had pushed them back away from forward positions.
To waste offense on them was to just feed the turtles.
Cops were complaining in external forum that ganging up all against them was a moral sin.
Up to end of July ganging up on us was perfectly fine for them:d
Artemisia was a good exercise for cooperating as a team.
In 55 hours 2 cities were taken,later even a third,lol
others barely took one,lol
On HH camp the move of Manek did not find the universal approval,lol
Lascaux was replaced from Straight Cash Homey,the most blinded Fish of all.
He justified the plot of Manek as a test to prove if we were honest toward Fishies(please don't laugh,it is true,still have the chat,lol)
Shortly it was clear this " Palmerstonian italians" would not move to defend themselves,instead convinced themselves the propaganda of Manek how would they crush HERT would be true,lol
Fine by us of course:d
Shortly after Mid October-Meta Man and the other 3 "musketeers" were admitted in HERT.
Some last minute talks to find a solution brought an ultimatum from Manek-a ransom of 65 cities was required "to pardon" this breach:d
Loud protests about the "imoral" HERT were heard:d
Of course asking mioune in skype a couple of hours after my official notification NAP would be freezed after the endless violations and plots which side they would take in case of a war HH-HERT was not a sin,
Nor of course secret talks with Morti(lying fellow Fish leaders they were "just tests",and this version was sold to us by SCH,lol)
Would never like to be in their place-caught between Schilla and Caribda:d
Humbugg was the only voice to be heard openly condemning the suicide...
Finally Raivo was smiling again,even writting in forum I am back(no clarification given where was he to be back,lol)
The start of this new war was furious.
HH opened the action by hitting first.
Todd goes MIA,HH in ecxtasy-the first round is for HH yells SCH:d
The next day our reply started.
Targets were koklander,Mickruth,Taras Bulba(manek81 account) etc.
It was hugely successful,and even toward Bulba who was a deception targets results very very good.
The heavy intermingling facilitated a large number of revolts,very difficult to be covered,and for the more support was not impressive.
The weak links in the form of Kyrioz caused further lossess,but in sum the first week was very favorable for us,with 100 captures for some 30+ losses(the MIA Todd and Kyrioz mostly).
More importantly-signs of discouragement were appearing,with players going vm on HH side.
Enigma tried to see if there was a chance to fish but failed totally.
After a few days to rebuild,the action with HH flared up again.
In a final effort(as it turned out) they hit Meta Man(deception),Tremendus and then Lime*Bsk.
The most strenuous resistance was shown by those close,but of course the great distance from the major base made difficult the quick support,and turn around took lots of time too.
So,when on the second phase the enemy hit Lime,there were more difficulties to cover his revolted cities(at the first phase lots of close range support was killed,so cheap revolts were easier.
The coming of Aggripa at this time helped to reduce somewhat this cheap revolts).
But in general we could be happy with just 12 or 15 cities lost after their major effort,and some nervosism shows the tension.
The thread of Tremendus,and the way he directed defense and sent back support were a model.
The counterop which followed shortly later cut the back of HH,who lost morale totally.
Against over 100 takeovers in some 5 days,lack of slots was preventing more takeovers,lol,and clicking vm was turning into a race in the HH ranks.
"By chance" an op from Cops started a few hours before the HH op was over.
Target Mushyajp.
Lime,after some 3 or more sleepless days keeps large amount of support in his cities for another night to prevent cheap revolts,sending it on the morrow in the morning,while op against Mushy was at full motion by now.
And it takes 10+ hours to come back home.
Well,it has to be said-they found the weakest link at the front(SilentJ was hit too,no need to mention the already known outcome:d),Mush both neglected the peril,gave some confusing updates(with one city lost since none knew it was revolted,lol) and large amount of support were not ready at hand.
4 or 5 cities lost.
Support home and better updates cut any further hope for Cops.
A desperate Manek around mid November,abbandonned by the run in vm ex Actium byzies like Growling Jack,Grapeleaf,Mod Chopper etc leaving him alone to bear the shame,had understood all was lost.
Inside HH was the time for whitch hunting,with novels like "The eight against Thebe" published in externals,new amusing nicknames by Boris(mahim) like Silly,Scumbugg and Laxative,and the by now conscious Marious asking shelter for as many of his "group" as possible.
A debate followed here to avoid the black list in reverse by the "Mostar Bridge" proffesor,and in general excesses were avoided.
In the end we got the worthy souls we wanted.
The dream of "Emperor John Justinian the Old" and "Justinian the younger" to recreate the Old Rome with more tricks then bravery had ended!
Part 10 The ww race
By know ww race was knocking on the door,so all attention was directed accordingly.
Hellfishes(the old Fish Leadership took the reins after the hardliners quit) asked a cease fire and was granted,a bit later(end of Nov) turned into a NAP.
Minions split from Fishies and created The Mercenaries,who immediately threw officially the veil of supposed hostilities toward EBC,signed a pact with them,and attacked us.
It became clear certain circles of HH were hand in glove with EBC(manek knew this in advance and was clearly not hostile toward this move of spartan-fury) and the Fish faction had prevented an open collaboration before staying true to official stance.
Nonetheless most players of HH stayed in it and did not join Enigma via Mercs.
The plans of anti HERT circles to create a competing force to deny us total victory(the Crown,this was the only reasonable hope by now) took a strong blow.
Our final preparations for the ww race started at the start of October,filling empty spots in assigned islands,colonizing new cities,swapping cities etc
The results of planned efforts to dense our areas with methodical colonizations gave good results.
Since end of April until end of November in 43/44/west 45/34/24 and 35 over 1500 new cities sprang up,guarateeing both the creation of barriers and close range resources to planned sites.
Our final sites were in Sw/west and Central 34(6 of them) and one(the seventh) in SE 24).
The reason was to ensure safety-at the time(Start of October) HH was at full strength,and we also had to think about a possible combo EBC-HH(which certain circles of HH desired as it turned out later).
So roughly a distance of 1,5 oceans from the mass of HH+EBC cities seemed a reasonable precaution.
With hindsight is easy to say a couple of hours resources travel time more East would have been the perfect sites to ensure max use of our core cities-but at the time nor the crumble of HH nor the massive numbers at the core were a distinct possibility.
EBC was unprepared and the failure to achieve a massive collaboration with HH made them put their hopes in the foolish tactic of delaying ww race-to make our players quit(only a Cop brain can deduce a player who spends a year will quit for 2 weeks delay,but so it is:d).
Actually this delay gave us more time to prepare(both the sites and the neccessary city buildings which take huge amount of time for semi active players or big players).
The race started on Dec 9 at 2:40 am.
By now Fish Group was not a serious competitor both due to lack of numbers compared to the other 2 competitors,as well as to the fact that the split that followed the loss of the war with us destroyed their ww sites(with the "moralist" Boris the Cat taking the lead by sabotating 4 ww sites,lol).
Anyway-they kept racing,respecting their players,and did not end up in Cops Minions as others did,with the sabotaging intent.
From the other 2 competitors,HERT was clearly the one who had an edge both in numbers,as well as in organisation.
The only hope for Cops was to build one ww to deny us the Crown.
The team kept up to expectation,and finished in 14 days all seven ww,being perhaps the most efficient team in the whole Grepo compared to size and speed of the server.
On Dec 23 Santa gave to us a Crown as a gift!
A well deserved one!
And to close it as it should,to prevent Cops from giving the excuse of having been beaten only via simming both before the race with a successful op,and especially with the EPIC WW BUST OF THEIR TOMB(Dec 22),we proudly won the server!
After the Christmas Peace we gave the wing players the well deserved Crown(strict criterias about participation were followed to decide the names) and a few active Fish players who did not have a Crown (8) were included to respect those who respected the honest game,playing independently(as they had done during the whole server) rather then ending up as Minions!
The ww race tactically was directed by Wildnisa with Kronnoss(who was promoted as founder) as helper.
On the EBC side the "tactician" was Noobellator,who wasted with his mediocrity any chance they had to build one ww.
Part 11 With Thanks To.....
Now it is impossible to list all those who contributed to this rare achievement(in this days strong pre mades win servers,not a few players who join another pre made).
Being perhaps a bit unfair I will anyway list a few who really made a difference:
1. Erikwijmeersch-our untiring Opp Commander.
2. Steve Johnson-the perfect soldier.As ocean commander and later as leader he shone over the rest,and succeeded to keep motivated the Northern Team,who often felt alienated from alliance policy.
3. Codger- few if any know his contribution for the victory of the alliance.
Has given an immense help,and this alliance owes him a lot.
4. Mioune- in a short time became indispensable,and was a champion of action.
5. Bruizer-he has a good Smile,that is why,not for his personality who reflects solidness,rofl.
6. Captain Rainbow Dash-successfully neutralized the usual problems of the merge HERT-GA.
All have their part,but of course we can not list them all
I thank you all for the contribution and trust in our project and Leadership.
Regards,Wildnisa/T
It is now a fact the undisputed total victory of HERT,credit goes to all of us.
But we also need to write the history of the alliance which won the server,which is closely connected in a large part with the history of the server itself
How did start the project which ultimately won the hearts of the finest players of the server?
Which is the route prescribed?
Contrary to the end,the start of the alliance was an unconspicous one.
At the start of Dec 2013 myself and Erik were exchanging some ideas while Myonia was being won.
There were several factors which weighed in our minds:
- Bellerophon world where lots(most actually)of my fiends were was dead and my friends there were dying of boredom.
-Myonia was coming to an end and soon the players would be unemployed.
-Erik got banned in Myonia a couple of days before the start of Eubea.
- Apolonia was failing to attract my mind fully(I was a leader in the no 1 alliance,but the overall leader had a different viewpoint for the strategy,and in the end we failed to win by ourselves,and were forced to merge in another alliance for the ww race after several blows,chief among them was the ghosting of the main founder,still being the no 1 lol.
I refused,cough Lymond,to go in the Reservoir Dogs,who won easily the world and stayed behind with Admiral Naji).
So the thought of starting a new adventure was attracting our minds.
Fortunately Eubea had very good settings-speed 2 everything,no morale,cap 75.
By chance one or two days before the opening of the server one ex team mate of Erik,ravenous 2,had contacted him and asked him to come in a pre made in whom he was a part.
Apparently Erik trusted his judgement and to cut short I agreed to bring in this premade the good elements of Bellerophon Styx(where already I had notified my desire to bring them in another server with the intention of giving them a fair chance and then quit since my rl was getting busy to the point of not allowing me to play) while Erik brought also some friends from EN Myonia.
Most of us fell in west 55(we started on the third day) but some fell far away-in sw 45 and even in nw 46!
The trill of game tools!
This pre made was Rim Agency.
I did not know many there,except wvil (with whom I had very loud arguments in Apollonia about the strategy to be followed,and was the chief reason I never invested myself fully in that server.wvil was a leader in Rim Agency)) and darnoc-a very old Zeta mate!
My ocean leader in Lost Boys,and in a way my own first mentor!
But unfortunately my relations with him were very cold-to put it better he blamed me for splitting our project(of Lost Boys) in Knossoss,and was brainwashed very good from the founder there
In this weird atmosphere,knowing almost nobody,spread in 2-3 oceans,Erik,myself and some 25 friends,started the Eubea adventure on Dec 16.
I had advisory rights in Rim Agency to rapresent the players we would bring in.
Intending to give my position to Bruizer at the start of January,while Erik did not want even to be talked about leadership role(he was depressed from the Myonia ban affair).
I remember well those days,the anxious start,lack of time due to rl.
It was clear from almost the start we fell in a very weird motley crew!
The overall leader of Rim Agency was a 17 year old boy!
The co founder(nominated a few days later) was a drunkard youngster,jimmy007!
It is indescribable the mounting mistakes of Indianboy and the rest of leadership(who appear to have been a collection of ex enemies in another server).
In less then a week it was clear for me and Erik we had done a grave mistake by accepting the proposal of Ravenous 2(who in turn did not know them well himself and was shy to face me and Erik for this blunder).
The freaking kid who was the overall leader had not led an alliance before,and lacked tact(a few here may remember his famous cut offs which did not bear in mind the reality-players were busy with end Year feasts).
Erik and me tried hard to make the project work.
It was due to my knowledges the alliance with Grepo Addicts and the NAP with BE.
To shed a bit more light:
we found Rim Agency in a full pact with an alliance named Funny Bunch,based mostly in ocean 45,with Vinschat as leader.
Also in ocean 45 was based Byzantine Empire.
In 3-4 days it was clear to me and Erik that our allies were just a MRA,WHILE RECOGNIZING IN PRIVATE THAT BE WAS THE REAL DANGER(COMPETITOR) IN EUBEA!
We did not know many if at all in BE(spongebob was one of them,lol) but their rate of growth,policy of recruitment etc made it clear they were a serious competitor!
I had a nominal personal knowledge with the founder of GA(original account holder of Captain Rainbow dash account) who was the main force in ocean 54,and succeeded to forge an alliance between Rim Agency and GA,while a few days later(a week or so after we started in Eubea) mentored a NAP with BE through a casual knowledge with Biikej(how could I forget his blue eyes and bald head,lol) who was for a couple of months in Bellerophon in our alliance there.
Had the first contact with Boris(to whom Biikej led me),and after arranging with him the basics of the NAP,we both passed the matter in the hands of respective founders,jtribs(the original account holder) and indianboy.
One who has had the chance to deal with me as diplo can perhaps imagine my shock when I found out our Idiotboy signed the NAP with a single sentence with jtribs.
Yes,a single sentence-no terms at all!
Erik told me to quit the alliance since we were dealing with a bunch of noobs-but I (since my rl was very busy) asked him to wait a few more days.
With protection over the first moves of the alliances started,BE gaining fast the upper hand over Funny Bunch(we were in a NAP with BE),and Vinschat soon had enough and asked to merge in RA(short for Rim agency).
This of course would bring the matter with BE to a head.
To make room for the players of Funny Bunch,a sister alliance was created,Death Unit,with Avera as founder,and a couple from leadership.
Erik surpassed his bad moment from Myonia and become loud pointing the obvious mistakes of Indianboy.
Among the rest of leaders of RA the thought indianboy was the wrong choice was taking place,and the creation of this second alliance was for them an opportunitty to create a pole to gather the fast growing discontents.
Erik passed in this sister alliance,and was promoted leader by Avera(who of course noted his open opposition for the policy of indianboy).
The NAP with BE was over due to the merge of Funny Bunch and the first exchanges started.
Part 2
At the end of December the proccess of fusion of the weaker alliances was gaining momentum,with some middlesize alliances disappearing fast(for example Sim city,new world order,the "spanish" group of Tremendus lol,etc).
While GA and BE were being strengthened by merging several groups RA was losing weight from a clear lack of sound leadership.
At the end of December/start of January an initially smaller group,The Barbarians,were gaining momentum.
Being practically in the same area,it was obvious sooner or later a clash would happen.
At this time GA took the lead of the forming anti BE coalition,and after merging Little Monsters they became the dominant power in ocean 44 too.
Captain Rainbow Dash brokered a deal at the end of December between us and Barbarians(spread roughly in East 45 and West 55 ) and a common forum for defence was created,with plans laid to hit BE after the New Year Peace.
The obvious inadequacies of Indianboy led the other leaders to plot in secret his downfall,using the new sister alliance,Death Unit,to replace RA.
After the first exccesses of Indianboy I took over the activity evaluations,trying to create a more reasonable schedule of growth requirements,avoiding some of the obvious exccesses(among other things saved zdog who was kicked for having a slower growth for 1 or 2 days on Christmas Eve,lol).
Yet the feeling it was a doomed effort was growing by the day!
To describe the mood I am showing an amusing incident:
around Dec 27 we were discussing about the Funny Bunch merge,relations with Barbarians,plans to coordinate an attack against BE,and we were waiting Indianboy to come online and decide.
He did come online and posted-Please hold on for three hours,have an idea but have a rl issue.
After three hours he came online and posted:
Sorry for the delay,was watching a movie with my mum.I agree with your proposals!
It is impossible to describe our feelings after this happened:d
The same idiot tried to plant a spy in Yialisos EN,the same player (Jiffyjeff) he used here,and whose name he wrote in Senate,forgetting one of those who could read it was Erik,one of the leaders of EN:d
On January 1 avera and his entourage passed in action by officially splitting and calling in the shared forum for all to join Death Unit.
Me and Erik were caught by surprise
At the end of December I had chatted with Jimmy 007 about the failed leadership of indianboy and he promised to react after New Year when he would be sober.
He (as I understood from our chats)was supposed to remove foundership and assign another more able leader as co founder in a last ditch effort to improve things.
The Avera move appeared as a usual coup to seize power.
In my chat with Avera he used the argument of the inept leadership of indianboy and did not mention anything about the plot same time trying to recruit me and Erik by promising leaderships for us lol.
Same time he kicked several of our friends in Death Unit after Erik flatly refused his offers and instead sent a mass mail condeming Avera and calling for loyalty to RA.
Meanwhile the exodus of big guns and among them several leaders and senate members into this smaller ex sister alliance was continuing with our friends kicked or left in RA without any clue what was going on.
Nor jimmy was coming online nor even Indianboy lol.
In those fateful moments Erik with my assent took the decision to leave this dying body and show solidarity with our kicked friends(who were ex EN Myonia that started later).
here is my invite,lol
http://gyazo.com/d2024277f8443f4510b0b0e329ec8b41
Finally in the afternoon Jimmy came online and to my amazement he told me that the Avera coup was the Move they intended to do to get rid of Indianboy!
After chating with Bruizer we decided that the ex Bellerophon Styx players would go in Death Unit while I would go in this new alliance to share the same fate with Erik and the other friends(Tonia,Rondrews etc).
Not being fully aware of what was going on in leadership Bruizer wanted to give a final chance to this initial project.
In the next couple of days arranged the transfer of the players in Death Unit, smoothing the relations with the old alliance,securing invites for all the active players of RA who were not part of the Avera&Jimmy group(in a surreal situation this stranded players were asking me invites in Death Unit while I would leave for the new alliance as soon as the transfer would be over and I was going to be one of the two founders of the new alliance).
With the transfer done I was free to leave for the new alliance,helping Avera with nominations who would rapressent the ex Belle Styx and advising him what to do in the dangerous situation in which Death Unit was.
To complete the tale of that fateful Jan 1-It was only a few days before the birth of my second child,with lots of people in the house for the feast with me sat in front of pc thinking what to do instead of staying close to my wife-no wonder she hates you all:d
It was clear the impossibility of creating our base where we fell at the start with our tiny numbers spread from SE 54 to NW 46 lol(many of them recent starters) and with several alliances several times bigger then us
.
After studying the ocean stats Erik decided to create our base in sw 34,and we started the migration move from our 55 cities.
http://gyazo.com/6f3ff99359441d300a14dc0d917de7d7
http://gyazo.com/a2e31c129001a241c72a23a6a081070e
Those were very tensioned days,since our lone cities in 55 were isolated and we were without allies,save private knowledges.
After a few days in vm I came back and took my place as co founder.
Erik choose the name Hawklords Electissimus for this new alliance(He is in love with this name,lol).
As was to be expected Avera did not take long to disappoint those friends who stayed in Death Unit and we gladly added our ranks with this friends,while Death Unit disappeared completely,it's members spreading in DW,BE,GA,BARBARIANS etc.
After settling in sw 34,in my absence Erik made a full pact with a small alliance roughly in the same area,led by Ra-Ceren,the first mentor of Erik(which explains why Erik is a noob
).While our numbers were growing with other friends who were joining from Myonia,and all our members were gathering in sw 34,the relations with the other local alliances came to the fore.
We had just a few tiny cities,while they already had 3-4 weeks in those areas!!
In the core the start of New year was furious,RA/Death Unit disappeared,while BE group was reinforced by taking many of it's players,while GA grew fast and clearly became the main competitor of BE with Barbarians(and their academy Dogz of war) as allies(in 55 and 45),while on the other hand BE had Dire Wolves and the fast growing Stalwarts as close allies(Stalwarts more like a NAP).
Beyond the core oceans were fast fusing several middle sized alliances,like Fishies in 63/64,Devil's disciples in 43,Sucker Punch in 36,BBN in 35,Big Cops in 46,Enigma in 37 made it's appearance,Toons in 57/56 and rapidly growing in importance Minions in the East(65/66).
Around our area were:
BBN well established in 35(and west 45),Rotten Tomatoes in East and central 34,Noobs Inc in North 34,Styx in 25.
It was clear in our mind(Erik's and mine) that in the West was a good chance to create a third competitive force except BE and GA.
There were 2 routes-direct clash with the local alliances to decide who was the boss,or a cooperative project based on mutual interest.
Our choice was decisively for the second alternative.
Talks started with both BBN and Rotten Tomatoes presenting them our project,while the first contacts were established with Noobs Inc(a minor force compared to the other two).
This lasted around 2 weeks(Jan 10 to Jan 25),with BBN refusing our project,and instead opting to merge the smaller alliance Styx,while Rotten Tomatoes accepted to merge with us(Hawklords Electissimus) based on parity of Leadership at the start(Their hostility toward BE was a helping factor).
BBN was divided badly between those favouring the project,those who wanted BBN to be the major force in the West on it's own,and those who favoured closer ties with BE in their east(45).
There was a cease fire among the partners while the talks would last,deadline was jan 31.
So,on Jan 25 we became officially HERT(Initials of Hawklords Electissimus and Rotten Tomatoes) and based on size ,players were divided on the main and the rest in Rotten Tomatoes since numbers were over 75 combined.
I remember we had some 57 members at that time,vast majority ex Belle Styx and Myonia EN.
Nulak would be a co founder in the main while mathieu1949 would be the founder in the wing.
It was decided that we would treat the second branch as an equal partner and not as an academy(which nor us nor RT favoured),with same forums etc.
As usual plenty of difficulties were met,since among RT leaders existed dissension who would be in Council.
And they(ex RT) were pressing for war with Noobs Inc.
But of course the situation with BBN was more pressing,and our merge jumped us several ranks in Eubea.
We were not under the radar anymore
While (the enlarged) BBN leadership wavered which course to adopt,we got rid of the alliance with Ra Ceren who was turning his alliance in a MRA recruiting in areas beyond our reach,and who was making some weird things(for example only Ra ceren could post in the shared forum as we discovered to our surprise) and eleminated this weak link in our core.
Soon the wavering has it's effects on BBN,Styx faction split after a week or ten days,while a few of their players came here(Kosova,Stoka1)at the start of Febbruary.
Soon after start of Febbruary BBN blowned up altogether,and SilentJ joined us,and a few other of their players(Xene,who quit fast,laztkauz on orders from kirstyleigh to have a look,and left a couple of hours later,the only player who has come here and left for an enemy(DW).
While most went to either the re created Styx or to Dire wolves,who were allied with BE.
While BBN was disappearing,Styx being reformed,the last cities of Erysian Guards(The alliance of Ra ceren) were being taken on the evening of February 5 BE started a sudden attack on us together with Dire Wolves,so the longest and most ferocious war of Eubea started.
I will prolong a bit to explain a bit more the situation at the start of February:
In the core(45/55/44/54) the small or middle sized alliances in the past month(since Jan 1) almost disappeared completely.
BE took hold firmly of ocean 45 directly or indirectly(via Dire Wolves and being in a NAP with BBN,actually if I am not wrong they,BBN, even had a shared forum) with the anti BE coalition being weakened greatly with the smashing of Death Unit,while the Barbarians who grew rapidly at the start of January were losing steam fast during the second half of January and at the start of February finally merged(those left after the Aceswild group left Eubea) in GA,who created a second alliance to shelter the excessive numbers.
Stalwarts became a force in 55,with Dire Wolves gathering the players left our of BE in 55/45 and 35.
Grepo Addicts became the no 1 alliance by bringing under it's shelter various factions(Little Monsters,Sim City partly,barbs,RA,Hads group etc) by firmly dominating 54/44 and a strong presence in North 55 and 45 while direct encounters with BE were mostly in her favour,but without achieving a serious breakthrough.
Strategically from Jan 1(when HERT original group was formed) BE was victorious since it succeeded to break the stranglehold around her from GA/RA/Barbs/little Monsters etc,and via DW+Stalwarts had eliminated opposition of smaller alliances(W.A.R etc) in 45/55 being poised strategically in the southern borders of GA.
GA(as it turned out lately) lost strategically since in the North (43) they had Devil's Disciples(who were not friendly to them),in NE surrounded by entering in a war with Fishies for the price of merging hadesspartans group,directly South of their main positions(44/54) was BE/DW and Stalwarts,East at this point(Start of Febbruary) Minions were rapidly being strengthened too.
Only in their West a force who could be amicable to them was emerging(HERT).
In the rest of the server at this date(Feb 5) Enigma was slowly becoming an obvious force of middle size in EUBEA,having started at the end of January(same time with our initial merge) a war with Sucker punch who owned ocean 36(Enigma originated in ocean 37) and Big Cops(and Cops claws,lol)
Big Cats(or Cops if you wish) was established as a force in O 46 having over run the local alliances(an ephemere Myonia Wargasm among others) and were exchanging hits with Enigma and Toons.
Fishies were dominating 64/63 ,having signed a strategic NAP with Minions who were in their South,having just 53(Devil's Disciples) and 54(GA) to expand.
New Toon was dominating 57, and were at war with Minions soon.
Minions after fast killing local alliances in 65/66 were killing Pythons(Monty Pythons) in 56,having a safe Northern flank and poised to strike SW(in 56) or West(55).
Soon they would shake Eubea but Minions Spring ended as fast as it came.
So,in this atmosphere the war with BE begun after their attack.
In the first month we had succeeded to create a base out of our hopeless positions in the core,merge with another group established close to us and were a middle size alliance dominating 2/3 of 34,a small base in sw 45,and via recruitment we had a larger share in 35 then Styx(smaller overall) and Dire Wolves(bigger overall) ,the allies of BE.
But situation was not sorry as one may think.
Half of those who joined from Myonia in December and especially in January at the end of January joined their parent alliance,Eviction Notice,in their new project in Yialisos,and soon they quit Eubea altogether(up to mid February),and we lost first class players like say praehelios,Manster,Prateek,etc.
Much of the "original" material was lost.
Our base at sw 45:
At the start of our adventure in Eubea,as explained,some of our friends invite via game tools in RA,fell in sw 45(Zdog,Dirk Thrust,Vassiliss,etc).
At the end of Decemeber,and start of January(Before the creation of HE) I insisted that our friends in west 55 as safety measure should all gain 1 or 2 cities in sw 45,outside the circle around us at the time,and consequently a few more cities were added there.
We based this move on the correct estimation BE would not run after them,being more busy elsewhere.
When RA/Death Unit was destroyed,some of our players in sw 45 for tactical expediency joined Wargasm,who was operating in that area.
With Big Cops ,BBN,Sucker Punch,attacking them,Wargasm soon as destroyed,zdog a couple others passed in BBN(with whom we were in talks),while Vassilis choose the easy way of joining BE.
With BBN gone,Zdog etc joined us,and we had a good number of major players of BBN inside(Kosova,jester,Mr Mad a bit later,Silent J,Z Dog etc).
One can well say that for BE to attack us was almost an automatic move after rest of resistance in 45/55 was smashed,except those inside GA.
So,in their eyes,we were an easy prey,who for the more were not connected to them.
And for the more we were not anymore the tiny group of the start,but a rising power in the West who was replacing the pro BE BBN in 35 after merging with their RT enemies!!!
During January contacts(unofficial) were kept with BE via Biikej(mostly) and Boris,and with J Tribs himself,relations which culminated in a NAP "offer" on condition not to help the enemies of each other:
To the question what do you mean with NAP,we got this reply:
boris the cat on 2014-01-13 at 07:09
If I am attacking another alliance, and you send support to that alliance to stop my attack. Supporting them against my attack. Non Aggression to us means, no aggression towards each other in any form.
To the simple question what will you do if we go at war with DW,since based on this "offer" you must not support them there was no answer from the smarties of BE
To cut short BE+DW(Stalwarts much less so) hit our positions in West 55.
From the overall number of 37 cities(we did not add a single city since the moment a player joined HE) in the next 2 weeks from the repeated attacks of BE+DW(they had around 700 cities around them,lol) we lost 13,and from our most important players(Erik,Bruizer,mauro,Myself,maynard etc) almost none,lol(Jtribs himself had a nice unpleasant surprise when he hit mauro at the start of their op
),help from our 34 cities being negligible due to distance.In West 45 further losses where incurred when Xene went inactive after the start of the war with BE,and we delayed internalizing him not to interfere with our own op.
In the first 24 hours,we signed a MAP(Mutual Assistence Pact) with GA,and we had a shared tab thence on.
Admittedly support from them was less then expected,and it became clear we could not realistically keep our 24 cities so far away from our base,so we decided to give them to our allies of GA,and use those slots in the West.
All but 7 cities were given to them around February 20.
In the West our avalanche struck Moddey Dhoo(who had joined BBN and then DW being unhappy with his RT mates)who ghosted after finding all his cities revolted,lol,Broke man(the most anti HE player of BBN who had joined DW) and kirstyLeigh etc during February,increasing our presence in 35.
At mid February Erik's health deteriorated,and he was hospitalized for roughly 4 weeks(before he was hospitalize twice for short intervals of a couple of days),so all the burden fell to me(sole founder at the time).
Unfortunately the sickness he incurred from contact with gwantagor was not deadly and he healed
Same time our co founder Nulak and another ex RT leader went vm and never came back.
Most of important RT players were gone by this time with the exception of Codger,who stepped forward to take part in leadership.
Part 3 Early Months of the Server
Relations in the West.
With Noobs INC we had a tenuous unofficial NAP,and they were smart and built up only in the upper part of 34 and spread toward 33 fighting European Union in conjunction with Devil's Disciples.
With Styx too we had a tenuous unofficial NAP since the moment they split from BBN.
Yet,further collaboration was difficult due to their aim to expand in 35,who was naturally seen as a field of expansion from us too and for the more was a future base to hit BE.
According to our MAP with GA we could not expand in 44(save a bit in sw 44),so except from jumping in nw 45,via ocean 35 was the obvious way to fight BE+DW).
In 25/24/26 also was a small MRA alliance,Atalante,whose leaders had good relations with Styx.
First contacts with Sucker Punch did not result in anything and they too after BE Coalition hit us joined the party by hitting our 36(very few) and south 35 cities.
In general their attacks were repulsed very easily,and since our focus was elsewhere this lads reached the conclusion we were turtles,lol
In turn Suckers were at war with Enigma,and during Febbruary the later alliance took the upper hand,and at the start of March Sucker Punch died with it's players being killed off by Enigma,or spread in Enigma,a few in Styx and a few in HERT(baldarse,lol)
Around mid February was an approach from Enigma for a common war against SP,but no collaboration came of this.
In short-during February,regardless of quittings or forced vm,we were emerging as the largest force in the West,allied with GA after BE attack.
In the core during February major events took place.
From the fall of Barbarians(start of Feb) the major force who profited in 55 were Stalwarts.
After eliminating the pro GA forces in most 45 and 55 BE forged an alliance with Minions to eliminate Stalwarts,who were not counted as close allies by them.
Part of DW leadership was shocked by this move(who would be net after Stalwarts?),and both Stalwarts and DW changed alignment and went both in GA side to destroy BE.
BE moved fast,and proffiting from the dissension within DW Leadership first struck DW(end of Febbruary),who was destroyed fast(have to mention here the ugly side of grepo,emotions translated in RL threats toward lady viv,and as rumour went this threats were urged from Meta-Man)and then in conjuction with Minions hit hard Stalwarts at the start of March.
Some DW players on their west joined us(Kirsty leigh,belenkokksai etc),and so most BBN (original) players left in the game were now under the banner of HERT,while we strictly kept ourself out of the core.
The rest of DW players either joined BE(Aggrippa,Von bez etc) or GA,or Stalwarts.
With DW gone from the table BE+Minions(who merged with Toons roughly this time and became no 1!!!) concentrated at the start of March against Stalwarts.
Soon,independent Stalwarts were gone and they too became part officially part of GA.
Two major changes in respective camps(BE and GA) were the quittings of Jtribs(temporary) and original accountholder of Captain rainbow Dash account(Zero Point) on the second half of Febbruary.
In BE power passed in the hands of Meta-Man,and in GA in the hands of the noob who has Captain Rainbow dash account now
(ex leader of Little Monsters who merged in GA).Soon after the quitting of Zero Point(at the start of March) the "bubonic plague" players left GA to form The Commission,supposedly to fight Fishies but in a week they changed stance 180 degree and allied with BE(and Fishies of course:d) to attack GA!
The first inner earthquake started to tremble our allies.
With Erik back around March 10(he hastened his coming but was well under his average activity for 2-3 more weeks) the moment to be more aggressive came(in his absence with the help of Dimitra and Bruizer in administration,I had avoided making important decisions).
At this time (March 10) the situation around us was growing more tense.
The unemployed Styx(after the destruction of SP) was a growing concern-all our offers were being repudiated,Steve Grant was more off then on and b2bracer was misinterpreting anything coming from us.
Enigma at the start of March finally subdued Sucker Punch,and spent the rest of the month mopping up the stragglers and reinforcing 36 with their original players.
Big Cops were becoming aware of the growing danger from the duopoli BE+MINIONS but efforts to include them in the anti BE coalition failed(at one point they were ready to support Stalwarts who were being oped by Minions),since at this time(as was learned later) they signed a strategic deal with Enigma to face together Minions while the phoney war with BE CAME TO AN END(no doubt Meta was happy with Cops coming under the orbit of Enigma).
In our north Noobs Inc were showing disquieting signs of rapid growth at the expense first of Europian Union,paving the way to 33, and then at the expense of Devil's Disciples with whom we had a formal NAP.
In the North in one month the middle size power of Devil's Disciples disappeared from the scene.
Pressed from Noobs Inc on the West and from the combo Fish+F.T.W From the East they crumbled fast(and poor health of Ashley Buxley certainly did not help).
At the start,a war between DD and Noobs Inc was a good news for us since it kept the later busy while our attention was in the South.
But they showed a small group of professional players could overcome a much bigger MRA like DD.
On paper DD was impressive,but it was a motley crew collection based on diplomacy and not decided through war.
Ashley had filled the ranks with everyone he could lay hands in the North(if I remember correctly at one point he was ready to include even Battle Show in DD:d),rapidly owing 43,most of 53 and spread West in 33,ultimately including Hammer in it's group(the source of war with Noobs Inc) and included some survivors from Shield of Ares when Velite's alliance(Velite was a team mate in Apollonia) was smashed by GA,one of this survivors was... was... Alireza,who else:d
And to poke a bit a few here
ne of his foot soldiers was sradhooRest of the server in March:
Fishies became more agressive(and succesful) after the "bubonic plague" left GA and started to penetrate 54 and pushed West in 53(together with FTW)
Big cats were feeling the heat,and consequently reached a strategic deal with Enigma.
Toons merged into Minions.
Minions? Wasted their chance to be the winner
This apparently unstoppable octopus after helping BE to smash Stalwarts(whose leftovers joined GA mostly) suddenly stopped expansion toward the West(55) no doubt since they would clash with BE.
Having at the same time a NAP with Fishies(another BE ally) in their Northern flank,they started to march against Big Cats(Enigma started to back them) only...
Why SF thought this narrow epansion and care for BE interests would be shared by his big guns only the Almighty knows..
For the rest of March we continued to pound BE with the goal of chasing them out of 35,and we achieved good results(including almost all Duramor cities in 35,and by chance one the victims was jaatee,lol.Denis may give more info who was this la,lol) and took some even in west 45.
Yet it was clear for us our big brother,GA,was losing steam,though as a group they continued to be no 1.
In the second half of March a few things were becoming clear and pressing:
1. We did not have safe backs with 3 uncertain factors,Styx,Noobs Inc,and Enigma all around us.
2. Logistic matters in fighting BE in 45 were becoming obvious after we took their 35 cities,since our main base continued up to this point to be lower 34.
3. Our main allies were starting to fall.Which in turn made point 1 acute.
Mid March Styx reached an agreement with BE,keeping this secret from us,and still smiling to us to gain time.
At the end of March DD group (with whom we had a NAP and through our good offices were becoming friendly with GA too)was crumbling.
So,we took in some of their most active and promising players like Steve Johnson,Mexiwop,tatipavlov,mwizz etc who were based in 43.
GA took in some more(XRTO,119977 etc) while Hammer regained indipendence,offering their friendship to us.
Our force move in 43 also brought closer the inevitable conflict with Noobs Inc who was at war with them.
From the start Noobs Inc was not warm toward our project of creating in the West a competitive power,nor due to RT faction could we promise much.
A tactical mistake from Erik(who cut it short and sent Likasil a personal mail from me to him with some blunt language since it was intended for his eyes,lol) worsened things more,and Noobs Inc too signed a pact with BE against us,since localism unfortunately still played a role
Especially on the part of Styx leadership(admittedly we mishandled the diplomacy toward Noobs Inc,since up to this time there was still dualism in HERT regarding diplomacy) shortsightedness prevented a fast and very profitable solution.
Steve Grant(eh my friend,you trusted to much jaatee,lol) and b2bracer went to the point of not even informing Styx leadership about our full offer(the leaders of Styx later were surprised when confronted with our terms which included even co foundership and 1/3 of leadership lol).
The decisive moment came,we would face the worse scenario,enemies in all sides(Enigma in 36 and Big Cops in 46 were too an uncertain factor) and an hardpressed ally only in our side!!
We learned about Styx plans,but were taken somewhat by surprise by the inclusion of Noobs Inc(we did guess though from some sign they too were up to something).
There was some uncertainty about the course to follow.Erik made a thread in Council asking what to do ,hit Styx or make a preventive strike against Noobs Inc,and had a famous reply from me:Moscow first!!!
Which meant Styx(for whom we were prepared) first!!
We were confident our Wehrmacht was up to the task!!
From around 80 active players(RTHE was due to shrinking numbers almost to the closing point) around 60 were first class material of which some 40+ were battle hardened Styx(Belle Styx) and EN veterans and some 20 proven players of RT+BBN.
We did not needed just a victory-we needed a total blitzkrieg victory in the shortest possible time in order to be able to face the BE challenge now that was becoming clearer by the day GA was faltering!!!
And so it was-in 10 days in two mega ops,Styx and Noobs Inc were both beaten soundly,and the way was paved for the ultimate merge of the west under one banner!!!
Gods of grepolis were with us,by a stroke of fortune both Steve Grant and b2bracer were absent on the eve of the battle,and this facilitated our success.
Localism was over,now with our backs safe we could look with confidence toward the ultimate challenge with BE!!!
Of course job was not done by this 2 merges,but it created the conditions to effectuate the long needed reforms to prepare for the challenges ahead.
As mentioned,at the end of March the logistic issues in the fight against BE were being felt.
The basic problem in grepo is to achieve the needed density vs space.
With great care we had created a dense base in lower 34-and from this major base were the succesful ops toward DW,BE,STYX+NOOBS INC launched in 35/NE 25 and upper 34(actually we did have some difficulties with long range cs toward Noobs Inc targets).
But the fight toward BE in 45 could not be sustained from lower 34,nor effective help toward GA given from lower 34,let alone help our 43 base,lol
except lower 34 the rest of our oceans were like Hiroshima after A bomb,lol
especially 35 was like a desert.
By mid April there were less then 300 ready built cities in ocean 35,which was supposed to be our major base toward BE and toward Enigma if it came to war.
Even 34 was better(some 400+ ready built cities).
At the time o 45(owned by BE) had some 700 ready built cities...
No wonder we were beaten off with ease in our ops against 45 cities.
Unfortunately our numbers up to this point did not allow us to prosecute a sound and systematic "irrigation programm"(I have used exactly this term in Council,lol).
The massive quittings of EN players+most big guns of RT+half of BBn made impossible to consume internals,build new cities and same time push toward BE.
But now at last(Styx+Noobs inc brought around 60-65 players and RTHE Was filled at the brim) we had both the manpower and urge to prosecute with systematic work the creation of a sound base!
A fatal mistake which was paid dearly was the lack of a comprehensive common strategy between us and GA regarding the creation of a sound mutually supportive base via colonizations.
The major fault for this fell to GA as the major partner,and of course the delay of uniting West under one banner prevented us from pushing aggressively in this direction.
More clearly-since end of January GA had increased the density of the lower parts of 44/54(and partly in North 45/55) with colonizations,but little attention was paid from them to develop methodically the rest of this 2 oceans(44/54).
Hence the difficulty of countering successfully Fish penetrations in North/Northeast 54.
We on the other hand,as mentioned,had created since the start of January our major base in lower 34,and we had little density in the rest of our areas and hand to mouth manpower resources did not allow to do more then was done.
In retrospective I wonder about what could have been done if all went well-BbN+RT+(at a slightly later stage) Noobs Inc+Styx would have been united up to the end of January and the massive quittings both inside us and in this alliances due to the strife would not have happened...
2+ precious months were lost
The core powers have the advantage of proffiting from the massive density of initial start-rim powers need to do this themselves!
The basic profit of BE diplomacy in preventing an early unity of West lies exactly in forbidding us the creation of a sound base-hat off to them,fools have only themselves to blame!
In short-on the second half of April we started the colonization program on a systematic base,with 35 (east 35/border with 45) taking priority.
Part of the reason why I did not let Hammer(who stayed true allies to the end) expand in 33 was exactly to make this mainly simming alliance dense 43,and in conjunction with our more aggressive 43 team form both a barrier toward Fish expansion and a staging ground to back the war in ocean 44(technically up to end of April a GA ocean).
Another major success in mid April was also the signing of a NAP with Enigma,which allowed a certain safety in our Southern flank.
No doubt our blitzkrieg could not fail to influence their minds and deter them.
Later they would claim the lack of a sound base in 36 made them delay the aggression toward us,but this version of course does not explain their willingness to enter the war in order to save Styx(or to put it better to prevent a total success from us):d
With backs relatively safe we started in earnest the creation of the barrier in East 35/sw 44.
In the meantime GA was rapidly losing ground(and players) during March and April.
By mid April it was clear they were doomed,and soon rats started to leave the sinking ship.
Some will not feel good with this term,but unfortunately I can not find a better name
We took the decision to stay true to our allies,and accept them in HERT whatever the consequences!
So,on the last week of April the process of merging GA started.
It was not an easy process as it may appear at first sight.
On the rest of the server during the period mid March-end of April no major change was happening.
Fishies in NE of the server continued to expand toward 54,allied with BE and the Bubonic plague alliance(The Commission) and profited from the crumble of DD to own 53,and even look toward 43.
A few GA players joined them.
Minions lost their impetus after "Peace in our time" deal with BE to concentrate only against Big Cats.
Many of their major guns apparently could not understand why they had to fight to be a second team,lol
Big Cats in turn were being helped more and more from Enigma,and succeeded to keep Minions at bay,and were the major gainers from the peace in our time policy of Minions.
Enigma after mopping up the Sucker stragglers in March continued to solidify their hold on 36,and after a short lived spur to enter the war against HERT at the start of April,finally decided to put the tail between their legs for some more time after the "July oil embargo":d(read the merge of Styx in HERT which cut the easy profits).
Instead,they started to march East to help Big Cops,and at the end of April it was clear something more then a simple pact was between them.
We on the other hand,having reached the desired extension in the West(from North 26 to 43/42) were free to concentrate on BE,and after the Styx/Noobs campaigns clearly became a serious competitor.
Soon The Commission declared war on us,and the first contacts with Fishies made it clear they were aiming toward o 54,and even aimed at expansion in 43(on the pretext of being at war with Hammer).
Maybe their good luck in being on the winning coalition up to this time had increased their apetite to the point of deserving the Palmerstonian quote-big apetite but few teeth.
The Commission lay between Fishies and BE and it was clear there was friction between them and Fishies.
BE appeared to favor Commission-but Fishies had no balls at this time to work for themselves.
The major gainer from the downfall of GA regarding players who left GA was(as expected) BE,who gladly added it's thinning ranks with some 10+ big guns of GA.
Fortunately the GA leadership understood and agreed with our strategy of using our Eastern possessions(vast majority GA posessions) to delay BE while at the same time marching West their players,while we would march East our players from 33/34/25/35 until a strong barrier would be created in West 44/border 35/45+ our strong grouping in 43 which together with Hammer was strong enough to hold off Fish advance and could put some pressure on the advancing enemies in East 44.
In short-we would shorten the front by pulling off bit by bit from the cul de sac positions in 54/55/East 45 while fortifying the mentioned barrier to create our unbreakable Hindenburg Line.
Fortunately the lied elements who under the lurid lies of Bethlen Gabor went in The Commission fast understood their mistake and were welcomed in our Group(Old Monster,Evil Hero etc).
When this massive manoeuvre would be over it would be BE group to suffer from the long lines of communications,while for us with around 250+ players(Hammer included) would be easy to hold them off behind our fortifications,regardless of quittings(and we did have our own share of quitters,among them first class players like Volsking,and quite unfortunate was the quitting of promising players like Baltiske and Maccat).
And of course we expected the various factions of BE coalition to fall among themselves with the uniting motive gone from the field.
With the help of maxi+anathe(who in line with our policy of including in Council players from all groups merged in our banner) and zdog a LTS system was expanded to help resist longer in the East(54/55/SE 44).
BE in the meantime was following the glittering prizes in the core and 54 and failed to interfere in the creation of our barrier in border 35/45 and further North in West 44.
It takes time of course to build cities and our barrier was not created overnight-nor was it easy to convince Raivo type fighters of the neccessity of simming.
In the next 1,5 months(May and first half of June) the war between us and BE evolved around this pattern:
BE oped repeatedly our core cities(Eastern cities from our point of view) gradually taking possession of 54(together with their allies)/our long time isolated 55/and our SE 44 cities.
Some unfortunate inactivity greatly helped them(denchious,bain of doon ,kirstyleigh etc)
We on the other hand continued to strike in West 45 and sw 44 trying to choose carefully our targets,in order to clean red dots from the intended barrier,and we achieved great results both in clearing our core(Jnc+Todd in 33/34) and clearing 35 from them(lauztkauz+aggripa etc) and in pushing away them from west 45/west 44(pescarus,Fishers,wombferret etc).
We were surprised from the failure of BE to strike our barrier in build while it was still vulnerable,constantly being attracted by the 54 candy:d
The vast flow of bp(slots) was continuously invested in further investment in our barrier (or thicken our interior) and to consume the inevitable inactives.
Especially among ex Styx players ,many of whom were new grepo players unused with this endurance game,inactivity was felt-and alliance policy was not favourable to them(the NAP with Enigma).
The transfer in frontline via (mostly) colonization takes time and requires nerves of steel.
And most of those who marched in border 35/45 quit(auditorre,St Athanasiuis etc).
In 43 we kept a defensive stance both since 53 was not a goal,as well as to minimize antagonizing Fishies more then needed.
Few if any city was lost there,their only successes were toward inactives/semi actives of Hammer.
Clearly Fishies lacked teeth in prosecuting an aggressive offense,but of course their energies were mostly directed in the 54 candy:d
Talks with them made it clear their dissatisfaction toward the policy of BE who appeared more and more neglective toward Fishies,favouring Commission before them.
In sum,we at the start of June were happy since the merge with GA went smoothly,and we inherited most of their players,with relatively few players going in the ranks of BE coalition.
Our barrier in border 35/45 was almost complete and wood soon make itself felt while further North good progress was being made.
All ex GA players had secured cities west and bonds of friendship were strengthened.
On the other hand,at the end of May/start of June my own activity was falling,and I was in the verge of quitting due to increased pressure on my rl.
I was clearly slackening behind,and was not pressing strong enough the colonization program in South 35 for example.
To deal with the event of my impossibility to bear my responsibility Bruizer was nominated co founder,Kronnoss too was persuaded by Erik to stay(he came to open up a possible ww site in o 24 and was liking the challenge) and was brought in Council,and furthermore I brought from Belle our founder and Diplo Zatoichi(he took over the account of Garrus Vakarian).
During this period(end of April-start of June) in the rest of server things were moving too.
Toons split from the decaying Minions and soon found themselves under the concentrated attack of Big Cops,Enigma,Antigonian Guards and Minions!
The old "enemies" Minions and Cops signed a NAP and together hit the unfortunate Toons.
At the end of May Cops officially merged with Enigma,who grew strong enough to be the third ranking power.
Same time they were proceeding to strengthen their North 36/border positions,which clearly indicated they were preparing to open up against us.
Their colonization effort though was suffering from lack of manpower(having done the parasites as most fighters do,they killed off all small simmers,and did not keep in mind the usefulness of simmers in populating oceans.
In our areas the effect of this type of hunting were reflected in a striking manner in ocean 35 in which BBN acted in the same manner.
To prolong a bit on this much debated theme:
Simmers vc fighters.
Most fighters despise the quiet players,especially in small alliances,and they tend to forget it is via cities grown by simmers they are able to grow without having to sim themselves.
In HERT too the tendency of being a parasite killer exists.
With the backing of Erik I strove hard to minimize as much as possible the practice of slaughtering of small non allied(or in small alliances) players who had just started.
In 34 for example we tolerated the safe removel of Battle Show players further North(in 33).
In 43 there were enough simmers to do the job and colonization there was minimal.
In 44 there were plenty of simmers,and problem was the misplacing of colonization from GA not lack of manpower.
The most striking example of our policy of tolerating small simmers to populate quietly the area was Atalante case.
They were spread mostly in 25 as well as in south 24 and north 26,heavily intermingled with Styx.
Part of Styx leadership watched them as some sort of unofficial academy-while others wanted to feed on their flesh.
Up to Styx merge they were off our radar,they barely existed in our areas.
As soon as the Styx merge happened part of Styx players asked for a free hand toward them.
Contacts and efforts to check the possibility of using them as simmers indicated the total inability of their leadership for anything like an organized body.
Use them as a small scale rear war to keep busy our rear players?
Next to impossible to hope in any kind of resistance from them,lol
With the connivance of Erik I simply allowed them to sim at peace and grow in 25/15 at their pace-even allowing the handing over of some cities from ex Styx players to relieve slots for their march to the front.
In short a sort of unilateral unofficial NAP.
At the end of June there was a split in them,with the most warlike faction passed in the ranks of a friendly alliance,whose formation was casual:d
One of our friends who quit active playing(mjboyer) kept a couple of cities for a while(via mm our players were reminded not to attack him) and to open space for GA players went indipendent.
A couple of small players in RTHE were transfered there to make space for the remaining GA players too.
Then another couple of small players from Atalante were transfered there to open space in RTHE for the same reason,one of them shereek,lol
Mj himself was having some fun gathering a couple of 1k point noobs to make them grow some cities for us,lol
In my absence codger had mailed mj to give shereek (or another,do not exactly remember well now) some rights.
Then shereek in his own initiative had extended invites to the warlike faction of Atalante:d
In 1 or 2 days some 20 were gathered:d
I was vm at the time,and all,starting with codger and ending with me were like :d
Bruizer was with both me and Codger about this(thinking it was some kind of trick from me,lol):d
mj was shocked to have gone sleeping with 4 or 5 small noobs and to come from work to find himself at the head of an alliance with 25 players,lol
So I sent Codger there to take the reins,assess quickly if there was anyone good to bring him in RTHE and shut down this unwanted offspring:d
But this offspring proved to be quite lively and so Titanomachia was born:d
Soon there the worthy Atalante were gathered(with few exceptions like Littlehoopeep) and Codger was able to make them worth and achieve some good results.
Titan was never considered part of HERT though,more like a close ally.
Good players like shereek,susury etc came from this unwanted offspring.
Part 4 A Taste of the Things to Come
On June 12 EBC attacked us without warning,disregarding the NAP who clearly stated there would be a period of advance warning of 4 days if any partner wanted to cancel the NAP.
This move took us by surprise.
The major move which would shake Eubea(author of the saying is Biikej,lol) had started!!
No doubt EBC counted on surprise,knowing well we were using those safe areas to LTS our front with BE.
Protests against this gangster move in total disregard of elementary diplomacy were answered with it's show time type of replies!!!
I have only to thank them on a personal level,since this bull gave me renewed strength to come back and double the efforts to punish these bastards.
As is common activity requirements in safe areas are lower compare to front line players,so obviously we had some weak players bordering this new front.
Their sudden attack coincided with a strong BE op(this op was a few hours ahead of their strike,no doubt this morons had no balls to strike first,but had to follow the op of their bigger partner),so initially we had few support to send in this new front(most cities in the area were used for LTS and were rather naked).
Now we had the whole server against us,since BE was allied with everyone,and only Minions were not actively atacking us.
Some losses were incurred in the new front,especially among semi active/semi trained players(mostly e Styx) facing them.
In a month(less in fact) the natural proccess eleminated this weak links,and at the start of July our losses toward this new enemy fell to a minimum(some 5-6 cities per op).
On the other hand,our eastern candie had to be given up more rapidly,since we had less LTS available.
The usual summer fall of activity hit us hard too.
It was obvious that BE and EBC were failing to follow a common strategy,and ops in the same direction were lacking,BE again following the 54 candy,and EBC trying to advance in border 36/35.
Our barriers were starting to bring fruits by this time and support to the core cities was reaching faster,though the heavy intermingling there as usual made it difficult to create strong enough bunkers due to large numbers of easy revolts.
Attacks toward our barriers in border 35/45 and West 44 were few,and during the whole citical period from mid June to the end of July there was only one loss in this newly created barriers(a city of raivo taken from pescarus during a mega op on him),reflected in a nervous mm from Erik.
Up to EBC war slots and effort toward strengthening South 35 with a similar barrier were negligible (compared to what was achieved toward BE front) or small scale at best.
On the second half of June with haste the program of colonization was accelerated,but of course fruits could not be seen before August
Even with numbers obviously against us,we made attacks against BE(pescarus again,lol) while some tests against EBC were conducted too.
In mid July a strong op against Fishies was conducted too and since the start there were lots of cities in our bag,lol
Apparently Poglavnik Denis was not happy with the whole server behind him,and Jiggle da on his behalf 3 days after EBC entered the field sent a proposal even to Atalante with some nice hints about WW race
of course I did not lose the chance to put this jewel to good use
Part 5 The Great Pretenders
The "HERT in full retreat scenario" set in motion the hidden egos inside BE coalition.
No doubt Jt faction envied the subordinate role in a Meta Man run BE,and this was also reflected in the change of diplo priorities from a vs Minion and Fish to a vs EBC direction(what matters of course is what is perceived,not how things are in reality).
Add to this the known enmity between Fishies and Hades group(or between Minions and Hades) and one can easily gather 1+1=2:d
In short-the envy of jtribs fit well with the envy of both Fishies and Minions for the more and more subordinate role they were having in a Poglavnik Denis led BE.
As long as we were a threat to all of them,they could still find more reasons to stay together then to kill each other,hence the need for the "Hert in full retreat scenario":d
First contacts with Fishies made it clear they were exactly the Palmerstonian Italians of mid 19 century-great appetite but no teeth to match this appetite:d
While Jtribs of course found it expedient to spoil their ego:d
Hence the split in BE was almost unavoidable,and Morti helped align Minions alongside Jtribs with the post Pear Harbor exilerating atmosphere ,where this modern Tojoferium emperor thought he could touch the sky and arrogantly took Toons inside Enigma in the first week of July leaving the modest(by now) Minions unemployed and taking the food off their table:d
Poor Fartin Fury appealed to Fyhrer Denis for justice,but of course Denis could not sell Tojoferium:d
so he wanted or not Fartin Fury run into the arms of Jtribs-ready to promise 70 virgins and clemency of all sins to whoever would help him avenge on the "ungrateful" Fyhrer Denis:d
Hirohitoferium was unable by now to frown the Cops,and like the Toon slap was not enough they now wanted Fartin Fury dead,lol
Quickly Minions fell back from the assault of Enigma,and merged in the Fish+JT alliance(Honor).
Fishies and JT had reached an agreement for a merge where the name Honorable Hellfish was chosen(no Minion indication,lol),in which all Fishies,Minions and more and more ex Actium BE players were gathered during July.
Right after the split (at the start of July)a NAP between Honor and BE was signed.
There was an incident right after they were kicked(they,Jt+Manek, actually were kicked,not exactly left) in which they both were banned after a few hours.
As an old SOB, Jt knew well he needed a detente with BE for a while-so the guise of anti HERT stance was used to reach the NAP with BE(who foolishly accepted right away for fear they might join us-apparently they should have thought we were so desperate as to accept anyone here,lol).
Sheltered by this NAP this new alliance started to attack us(lacking strength the expediency of hitting cities cleared by BE was used from them in most cases).
We kept calm,and did not allow retaliation against them-a strong op on them would frown other would be splitters
So during all the time this new enemy enjoyed unilateral immunity,and of course this apparent immunity facilitated those fans of Jt inside BE to jump in Honor.
During July our ops(not at the max of our capability) were directed solely against BE and Fishies.
The latter,technically were independent and marked red,while Honor was not and only self defense was allowed(in theory retaliation was allowed-in practice was frowned upon by keeping the player's attention elsewhere).
In short,the Jt Bubble was encouraged,and this arrogant Shasta Mountains Highlander on the second half of July naturally thought the time to settle the accounts with "usurper Denis":d
Hert was practically dead-so no danger from this side:d(I have several pieces of evidence indicating this frame of mind from Jt and Manek,don't ask how
)So,at the end of July our glorious enemies had reached the conclusion it was time to kill each other-with the common enemy dead:d
The Minion merge in Fishies and the official transformation of Jt Followers+Fishies and Miniions in a single group was the waking up bell for BE and Cops:d
The verbal fight in externals(at the start of July wireless silence was ordered by me on externals-it was time to keep quiet and not to show a sign of life:d) was indication clearly the panic-ezypezy in a rare moment of himself commented:guys,whatever happens between us we all should not pact with HERT,right?
This amusing post made Erik to send me a private mail-what a f....g coward!
During July Fishies had declined an official understanding ,and after their official merge directed me at Jt as their official diplo:d
I had spoiled Jt a bit when he split-and quickly established his peacock stance.
But of course arrogance is the worst adviser,and at the end of July my(forced due to previous talks with Fishies) NAP offer to Honourable Hellfish Group from Jt was refused on the grounds it would harm them more,since BE(read Meta group) propaganda was saying JT was a collaborator of HERT.
A very restricted circle here has an idea of my joy after this refusal!
We had our hands free!
We were bound by promises to Fishies up to this moment,after this rash refusal I was free!
How could he have made this mistake?
It can be explained only with arrogance,an arrogance reinforced from our "Hert in full retreat" move!
One or two days later Poglavnik Denis decided to drop from the high horse and sent a mail:d
Even Morti was interested for my health,lol
Up to now Jt Refusal we were spectators-but now the time came to make Eubea dance on our tunes:d
Quickly a NAP with BE was arranged(up to the end of August),and a chat room would of course be helpful to check their frame of mind:d
Now before us were 2 alternatives:
1. Back BE to kill Fishies.
2. Back Fishies(and Jt) To kill BE.
But of course each of these courses had pros and cons,and our steps should be calculated to make us victorious,not any of them.
The tone of Poglavnik Denis clearly indicated he/they had not understood independent BE was dead,and all the logical arguments that a combo HERT+BE was the best possible alternative,a server winning+fun guaranteeing combo in the true sense of the word were cancelled by the obvious danger that once BE would kill the Fishies,they could simply turn on us,collaborating with their old choice-Enigma.
Fishies on the other hand were struck by the foolishness of jt,who in turn got sober after the start of the war with BE(Enigma had already marked them red after Minion merge).
So Lascaux took the place of John tribble as interlocutor.
I enjoy a high regard for her on a personal level,but poor Kat had a mission impossible since the start:d
Part 6 : Skirmishing
After alternative 1 was discarded as premature due to the frame of mind in BE,of course alternative 2 was chosen until the proper frame of mind in BE(read practically Shadow Guards).
During the first half of August "the turtles" followed 2 directions in their ops:
1. Main effort toward Cops(it was time to make them taste their own medicine).
2. Weaker efforts toward Fishies(original Fishies,Honor core positions were left intact to avoid a total victory of BE) BOTH TO PUT PRESSURE ON THEM AND RETAKE SOME OF THEIR FORWARD POSITIONS IN 43 AND WEST/CENTRAL 44.
A NAP with Honorable Hellfish Group was signed at Mid August,which predicted a common war toward BE at a proper moment.
An Enigma op at the start of August was beaten off with ease-it is to be noted after the first ops vast majority of participants in their later ops was from original members of Enigma+Sucker punch,and very few participation from the ex Big Cops faction,who together with Noobian Guards of dumbspace followed the much more easy targets in The East(in practice Minions).
Our own op started on Aug 5 quickly met success,and while Enigma was still assessing the course to follow a follow up op a week later on Red General had very good results and he was chased from his forward positions.
In external forum Enigmatic apologets justified with some structural problems the earthquakes and promised reforms,lol
Soon it was clearly established this reform consisted in giving a new meaning to the grepo term Turtle:d
The first couple of weeks of HH-BE war were more or less equal,but the signing of a NAP between HERT and BE gave a new moral impetus to HH with more and more players of BE passing in the ranks of HH,yet,till the end of month BE was still a force to be reckoned and clearly HH by itself was far away from a decisive victory.
Around ten days from the start of HH-BE war John quit grepo:d
Officially it was due to rl issues,though perhaps his loss of face for his blunder toward us which gave Fishies a more decisive role in the merged alliance may have had a role.
For us of course it was a good news and I learned very fast this news,while for some ten more days this news did not reach the ears of BE.
The NAP between us and HH (negotiated from me and Lascaux) was very detailed and contained a territorial agreement which except recognizing a slight advance for the HERT exclusivity area in 44/45,also contained a black list of forbidden players to be recruited from each side as well as a list of swaps with +9 cities in favor of HERT.
In the first half of August,while the NAP with them was negotiated,we kept a low scale offensive toward Fishies as mentioned before,who had their hands full.
Yet even this half hearted pressure at times was really much for them,and willing to reach the NAP without desiring a humiliating defeat right before it,I had to stop entirely any offense action via personal mails to our hawks(Steve,Mexi,soultaker,Jc Stolen etc).
By knowing the full tale each of you can now imagine my rage and disappointment when only a couple of days after signing the NAP,HH via Lascaux started to try to circumvent the NAP-more specifically the swap agreement,saying it was unfavorable to them,it would put them in a bad situation toward their members,they would lose face and bla bla bla.
It was very soon clear it was Manek behind lascaux!
After Jt decided to R.I.P leadership of ex Actium byzies passed in the hands of manek,who took over the account of Jt,Vamsi108,giving his own to Taras Bulba(please do not call me a liar,since I know the rules say you have to ghost to take over another account,but this rule is for mortals,not for special ones
).The usual problems of this hastened merge,with leaders full of themselves and no sense of reality,were translated in the impossibility of being honest with the members and telling them the truth-namely:HERT has the rope around our neck,so for the immense advantages we are gaining the sacrifice of 9 cities(or later of half an ocean) is just a triffle!
It was not a question of pure stupidity,once Manek himself told me he knew well what they owed to us,but they were unable to tell the truth to the ordinary members!
Also,I neglected a careful check of the famous black list,and did not pay much attention to it,while the ex Actium smarties profited from the haste to finish the NAP(and the completition of black list+swaps were left after the NAP signature) in order to include into it wholesale all the BE players belonging to Actium Shadow Guards,regardless of being players or Leaders.
On our side the forwarded names were some 4 or 5 Plus the Hades Group leaders(3 names).
HH profiting from our neglect to prepare the list before signature of course included en bloc all of them,lol
Early on I had the chance to verify the tricks which were a normal practice of ex Actium byzies as well as the info I had from those who knew them they were mind gamers(my reply to OJ when he told me this was-I am the right guy for this!).
To illustrate-Manek and SCH at the start did not give a clear cut answer if mioune was or was not to be classified for the black list.
Then a few hours later he had a chat with mioune,got a freak off answer and suddenly the name of mioune was insited to be included in the list:d
This early incidents only a few days after the NAP signature showed to us the neccessity to be on guard toward this guys!
Part 7 Trouble in the Enemy Ranks
On Sept 1 the war with BE was renewed(our NAP was just a month long cease fire),and a combined op with HH was started on them.
I want to take a minute and explain here the famous "bubonic plague" mass mail.
On Aug 29 BE was notified officially the NAP/cease fire would not be renewed,so hostilities would re start.
Barely the ink of my pen was dry on the mail of notification to Meta Man,and Hades sent Erik a mail asking him to shelter him and his group promising to fight HH on our behalf and so on.
Erik was so from this unscrupulous betrayal that forwarded the mail to wholesale alliances,calling him and his cronies "-you are like the rats which in Medieval Ages spread the bubonic plague abandoning a sinking ship!
"
So his fate was sealed once and forever,and unfortunately Manek and Lascaux could hardly lose the chance to profit and insist to include all ex Commission players(whom they knew would never join HH) in the black list,not just the leaders
Of course it was beyond any doubt the rapid destruction of BE ,and at this time they had a couple of players in vm due to rl issues(Biikej,Mioune) and more and more scared players going in Vm.
Soon all left in BE were all in vm-it was time for Poglavnik Denis to do some yoga and have some normal sleep,and rethink where the road to Heaven might be,lol
The approaching disaster of BE turned the normal practice of recruiting the good players of the losing alliance in a 19-th century Gold Rush race on the HH side.
Soon it was clear they had no self restraint and recruited anyone who was able to say yes(of course they knew well the BE players,unlike us,and knew well in advance who would say no,and almost all of the later category were put on the black list in advance:d),regardless of skill,or location.
We had discussed the recruiting issue,and we had in mind to recruit some 8-10 players(Pescarus,Aggrippa,Lime,Tremendus,Todd,Kyrioz,De friissii,duramor etc),based on a set of criteria,including location..
A great help in identifying the valuable players gave IamHERODOTUS,an ex BE player who joined us in July(he was disappointed by the inner conflict),whom I consulted.
I am taking a minute to salute this serious player,regardless of his personal relations,he did not hesitate to vouch for the good souls,and some members here owe him the invitation in HERT.
In accordance with the NAP all the new members were notified in advance that their Eastern cities were subject of swaps or free handovers with/to HH.
To their credit-none of them came here before their ship was practically sunk and captain of the ship himself advised them to do so.
It was normal friction would develop from the dishonest practice and tricks of HH.
To illustrate-during talks about the black list,Manek told us that they had no objection toward mickruth,but he was just a useless simmer.
Stats backed his claim and some food had to be left on the table,lol
so no attempt to bring him here was done.
Then one beautiful sunny day we found him in.... HH!
With BE gone from Eubea,we turned attention back to Cops again,lol
Summer over,our average activity came back to normal,and inactivity was reduced to a trickle at times.
At the start of August one of our leaders,Zdog,had a terrible accident,and later in September we had to internalize him.
In the last 3 weeks of September we hit EBC repeatedly ,who by this time had turtled fully in front of us,and their only serious offensive effort was directed against the weak Minions(inside HH).
According to our agreement after finishing BE it was expected that HH would march South to hit EBC.
The front with EBC was a particularly difficult one to attack.
Roughly it lay from the Northern 26,along border 35/36 and in the westermost part of 45/46 border.
During the NAP with us(and even before,since second half of March) EBC had fortified at max the Northern part of o 36,close to the border with 35,forming a barrier alike with the one we had built in East 35 and further North.
And since it was a prepared position it was manned mostly by good active players.
There was little intermingling between us,what cities we had(few in number) deeper then borderline belonged mostly to small semi active or defensive type of players, many of them lost in the initial attack from Enigma.
It was a classic head on attack on well prepared fortifications.
On the other hand,we had relatively few players in the southern half of 35/25 and sw 45.
Transferring whole accounts of active attackers from the other areas was next to impossible,and since up to this time other fronts had priority,it was late to start a new colonization effort as the only way for massive relocation.
Some density in south/central 35 was gained from colonization efforts in June and July,but away from a proper base of attack.
Many active attackers from other areas had few cities in close striking distance(often just a couple).
Incidentally one can imagine what was going to happen if things would come that BE coalition would have to hit our barriers in border 35/45 and west 44!
And we had both bigger numbers and better players.
And even if we had started a new campaign of colonizations,slots from bp at this time were lesser.
From a high peak of 7,4 million bp on the period 13 June- 12 July(5,1 million dbp and 2,3 million abp) for HERT alone,we dropped at around 4 million,over 3/4 abp.
And of course the approaching ww race left no room for "luxury" investments.
To cut short,the only way to overcome our difficulties was a massive strategic offensive on them from HH.
On their front Enigma was less turtled(in fact they were in attack!).
This would draw defensive assets away from our frontline,and combined with the chance to use our full offensive strength by using our Northern players(so far almost none was used) would create the neccessary superiority in numbers to break their fortifications.
Once breached and some intermingling was done(like the one we have now for example),it was an easy job then.
As it was up to 3 main islands from the frontline practically every city had lts!
We also have to give credit to cops about the good set up of their frontline players,with the exception of Red General(who paid dearly) they had no soultaker/raivo(until June/july) type of players with almost all cities frontline!
So it was impossible to hit a single player to overwhelm him/her in enough cities
nor of course were they short of gold to repair walls,lol(100 cuts per wall was almost routine for Morti,loxias etc)
Of course main positions of the big active guns were in the same situation as us toward them.
So we did not epext them to hit Enigma overnight.
But for almost a month after Sept 10 (around start of October relations were rapidly deteriorating so there is a valid excuse,lol) ex Actium BE(let aone Fishies who were even more North) now in HH did practically nothing to attack EBC.
They used the death of BE and the safety of the NAP with us to LTS their frontline cities which for the most belonged to ex Minions,but even them did not use the chance given to do anything worthy of mention.
We thought to test their resolve and seriousity at the end of September by organizing a classic methodical concentrated attack on a Red General city in sw 35(he took a ghost from a banned player).
HH was notified some 5 days in advance and we made it clear it would be us who will hit first,in order to attract and destroy their defense,so their cities elsewhere would be vulnerable(sold in public as a ww bust drill,lol).
We also made it clear we will use our Northern players with long range attacks,so they would have no excuse altogether!
The day came,we hit as planned the bunker,and as expected enigma gathered vast amount of support!
And to our surprise vast majority of their support was in biremes,not vast numbers of land behind a goldened wall!
Even better then what we expected!
So HH had nothing to fear to send long range land attacks like we were doing!
40k biremes were killed in that city and some land too at a huge cost for us!
HH reaction?
One or two days later Manek(Vamsi) and Chopper Mad discharged their respective offense and defense in each other to profit from a double bp offer of Inno Games and got around 300k bp each!
Guess words to imagine our legit rage are not enough!
We replied ordering suicide on a much larger scale,gaining around 5 million bp if I remember correctly.
Part 8 The Start of the End
At the end of September we were at a cross road!
With BE gone 2/3 of our players were dying from boredom.
The random recruitment of HH eleminated what food was left.
The only food left were the players of BE in vm.
And the intrasigence of Manek was shown well in our efforts to lift the blockade of black list for a couple of players(spanjolc,aussie bulldog etc).
In an effort to find a modus vivendi I proposed to Lascaux to change the territorial aggreement in order to secure a certain expansion of HERT,so we could keep happy our jobless players,and at the same time secure an extension of our front toward Enigma,so we could somewhat thin their LTS in front of us.
More specifically,to extend the zone of our exclusive growth to include the whole of 44/45(se corner of 44 and Eastern half of 45 were mixed areas of growth).
To make them lift some rope I even asked a total swap,lol
btw,the arranged swaps were procceeding very slowly,and with pretext after pretext Roo Dog,and Chopper Mad especially were refusing swaps.
The efforts of HH to show we were delaying too were confronted with mails of our players showing none was asking them to hand over their 54 cities arranged!
Same time HH was no lacking slots to take e BE cities in mixed zone!
We were disadvataged due to longer cs travel times,and how can you expect from Maneks and choppy chops to lose the chance to deny us any kind of solitary gain???
In this ever more frustrating atmosphere happened the said test.
Lascaux understood from my tone they(ex Actium Byzies) were really exaggerating in their unhidden effort to deny us any kind of advantage,regardless of the immense profits from our pro HH stance.
So at last she put enough pressure on them to accept a moderate deal:the cities belonging to BE players in 45 and SE 44 who would come out of vm would be taken exclusively from HERT,and the black list would be reduced to include only the ring leaders of BE!
This famous list was reduced now to just 4 names-Biikej,Mioune,Curadh and of course Poglavnik Denis:d
An amusing incident happened for the case of Blade102.
We had no idea he was an ex BE leader/founder,and of course I asked his removal.
Lascaux asked time to ask manek,there was either a delay or miscommunication between them,so lascaux said ok,blade is fine.
But manek then came online(of course he could easily imagine there was a reason why i was asking to remove this players from the list:d) and asked her to cancel his name:d
So poor Lascaux did what he asked:d
But it was too late:d
My reply-The word of HERT FOUNDER is sacred!
I have given my word to blade now,who has agreed to respect the terms!
It is not my fault you are unable to properly communicate with manek!
Of course poor Kat said yes,you are perfectly right,you got me this time.
Actually I had not communicated with Blade:d
Also,the black list recruits would hand over automatically cities in the East if they would join us or their cities in the West if they would join HH.
Raivo by this time had fallen in love with poglavnik Denis,and resigned from Council at this time since he thought I was either a coward(of course he did not tell me this but should have thought this:d) or a fool manipulated from Byzies:d
New agreement done,manek himself sending a mm to notify the members,plus some new promises of action toward Enigma lifted somewhat the tension.
I had a brief moment of hope that perhaps the HH NAP could after all secure the normal game.
Our unofficial word with them was that after killing Enigma together we could compete thereafter with each other for the Crown.
And may the best win!
Of course Poglavnik Denis would understand that sacrificing himself and 3 others to give victory to the rest was after all not the end of the world,lol
How long lasted this hope?
2 days...
Aussie Bulldog back(spanjolc had gone vm again,after some ugly scenes of lack of respect for his plight.he got in trouble out of loyalty to the alliance he was in,and Hades had included him in his list of followers!
Enough of a reason for Manek to put him on the black list!
How could he know what was in my mind and what I was enduring daily with this intrasigent trickers??) the agreement started to be put in practice.
Poor Aussie with desperate words told me after showing the unescorted attacks of HH players on him:they do not deserve my cities mate...
But with cold eyes was ordered to hand them over.
One city taken in our zone was retaken.
Then De Friissii came out ot Vm at the start of October.
Barely 1 or 2 days after the agreement.
6(six) cities taken in our zone contrary to the agreement!
The record was held by choppy chop with 3 cities taken!
Loud protest to Lascaux-prompt action promised!
On the morrow Manek had a chat with Codger,telling him he wanted to talk with me,and also left a skype note asking to chat with me.
A few hours before Jason118 had asked Erik via mail an invite since he was unallied after a quarrel with someone.
Erik was offline,and when he read the mail Jason was a HH member.
Forwarded me the mail,and we were both wondering was doing this fool?
lascaux in the meantime told me she was having some arguments with manek about the swaps and the cities of De Frissii taken in our zone!
Evening came and as arranged opened skype to talk with Manek(was Oct 3 or 4).
A strange Marious after some weird words passed on the theme:
Hey,we(the Ex Actium members of BE) are bored.
The merge is a failure,fishies are useless,Minions even worse!
Be prepared that we may kill this useless simmers(Fishies),but which would be your stance?
I hid my emotions,and told him inner developments of HH are none of our business as long as agreements are respected.
Oh,do not worry,there is no problem with the NAP.
A few hours later had a chat with Lascaux-told her openly the plot of Manek and ex Actium Byzies,and warned her.
Maybe she did not believe me fully.
The Jason incident was part of the talk, is this provocation?
No,not a provocation.
Jason had an incident with Mahim,one of the leaders,and Mahim kicked Jason,that is why he has asked an invite.
I canceled the rights of Mahim after his rash action.
A few hours later Manek cancels the rights of Lascaux(the co founder) supposedly to avenge Mahim,lol
who is Mahim?Boris the cat,who else?
That day mailed a HH player who was blocking a swap,asking why.
Reply-Manek sent a mass mail freezing all swaps and handovers.
Shortly after canceling the rights of lascaux.
Manek had just signed his death sentence....
Part 9 HERT Moves to the Fore
The events had fully shown the duplicity of ex Actium Byzies.
If someone goes to the point of plotting in cold blood the extermination of his own mates,will he have scruples toward us?
They were useless against Enigma too as the events of almost a month had shown.
It was time to destroy HH.
Poglavnik Denis on the other side after the holidays,lol,had understood who was able to fulfil his desires.
The set of motions to destroy HH were started.
Enigma was no threat,and we had pushed them back away from forward positions.
To waste offense on them was to just feed the turtles.
Cops were complaining in external forum that ganging up all against them was a moral sin.
Up to end of July ganging up on us was perfectly fine for them:d
Artemisia was a good exercise for cooperating as a team.
In 55 hours 2 cities were taken,later even a third,lol
others barely took one,lol
On HH camp the move of Manek did not find the universal approval,lol
Lascaux was replaced from Straight Cash Homey,the most blinded Fish of all.
He justified the plot of Manek as a test to prove if we were honest toward Fishies(please don't laugh,it is true,still have the chat,lol)
Shortly it was clear this " Palmerstonian italians" would not move to defend themselves,instead convinced themselves the propaganda of Manek how would they crush HERT would be true,lol
Fine by us of course:d
Shortly after Mid October-Meta Man and the other 3 "musketeers" were admitted in HERT.
Some last minute talks to find a solution brought an ultimatum from Manek-a ransom of 65 cities was required "to pardon" this breach:d
Loud protests about the "imoral" HERT were heard:d
Of course asking mioune in skype a couple of hours after my official notification NAP would be freezed after the endless violations and plots which side they would take in case of a war HH-HERT was not a sin,
Nor of course secret talks with Morti(lying fellow Fish leaders they were "just tests",and this version was sold to us by SCH,lol)
Would never like to be in their place-caught between Schilla and Caribda:d
Humbugg was the only voice to be heard openly condemning the suicide...
Finally Raivo was smiling again,even writting in forum I am back(no clarification given where was he to be back,lol)
The start of this new war was furious.
HH opened the action by hitting first.
Todd goes MIA,HH in ecxtasy-the first round is for HH yells SCH:d
The next day our reply started.
Targets were koklander,Mickruth,Taras Bulba(manek81 account) etc.
It was hugely successful,and even toward Bulba who was a deception targets results very very good.
The heavy intermingling facilitated a large number of revolts,very difficult to be covered,and for the more support was not impressive.
The weak links in the form of Kyrioz caused further lossess,but in sum the first week was very favorable for us,with 100 captures for some 30+ losses(the MIA Todd and Kyrioz mostly).
More importantly-signs of discouragement were appearing,with players going vm on HH side.
Enigma tried to see if there was a chance to fish but failed totally.
After a few days to rebuild,the action with HH flared up again.
In a final effort(as it turned out) they hit Meta Man(deception),Tremendus and then Lime*Bsk.
The most strenuous resistance was shown by those close,but of course the great distance from the major base made difficult the quick support,and turn around took lots of time too.
So,when on the second phase the enemy hit Lime,there were more difficulties to cover his revolted cities(at the first phase lots of close range support was killed,so cheap revolts were easier.
The coming of Aggripa at this time helped to reduce somewhat this cheap revolts).
But in general we could be happy with just 12 or 15 cities lost after their major effort,and some nervosism shows the tension.
The thread of Tremendus,and the way he directed defense and sent back support were a model.
The counterop which followed shortly later cut the back of HH,who lost morale totally.
Against over 100 takeovers in some 5 days,lack of slots was preventing more takeovers,lol,and clicking vm was turning into a race in the HH ranks.
"By chance" an op from Cops started a few hours before the HH op was over.
Target Mushyajp.
Lime,after some 3 or more sleepless days keeps large amount of support in his cities for another night to prevent cheap revolts,sending it on the morrow in the morning,while op against Mushy was at full motion by now.
And it takes 10+ hours to come back home.
Well,it has to be said-they found the weakest link at the front(SilentJ was hit too,no need to mention the already known outcome:d),Mush both neglected the peril,gave some confusing updates(with one city lost since none knew it was revolted,lol) and large amount of support were not ready at hand.
4 or 5 cities lost.
Support home and better updates cut any further hope for Cops.
A desperate Manek around mid November,abbandonned by the run in vm ex Actium byzies like Growling Jack,Grapeleaf,Mod Chopper etc leaving him alone to bear the shame,had understood all was lost.
Inside HH was the time for whitch hunting,with novels like "The eight against Thebe" published in externals,new amusing nicknames by Boris(mahim) like Silly,Scumbugg and Laxative,and the by now conscious Marious asking shelter for as many of his "group" as possible.
A debate followed here to avoid the black list in reverse by the "Mostar Bridge" proffesor,and in general excesses were avoided.
In the end we got the worthy souls we wanted.
The dream of "Emperor John Justinian the Old" and "Justinian the younger" to recreate the Old Rome with more tricks then bravery had ended!
Part 10 The ww race
By know ww race was knocking on the door,so all attention was directed accordingly.
Hellfishes(the old Fish Leadership took the reins after the hardliners quit) asked a cease fire and was granted,a bit later(end of Nov) turned into a NAP.
Minions split from Fishies and created The Mercenaries,who immediately threw officially the veil of supposed hostilities toward EBC,signed a pact with them,and attacked us.
It became clear certain circles of HH were hand in glove with EBC(manek knew this in advance and was clearly not hostile toward this move of spartan-fury) and the Fish faction had prevented an open collaboration before staying true to official stance.
Nonetheless most players of HH stayed in it and did not join Enigma via Mercs.
The plans of anti HERT circles to create a competing force to deny us total victory(the Crown,this was the only reasonable hope by now) took a strong blow.
Our final preparations for the ww race started at the start of October,filling empty spots in assigned islands,colonizing new cities,swapping cities etc
The results of planned efforts to dense our areas with methodical colonizations gave good results.
Since end of April until end of November in 43/44/west 45/34/24 and 35 over 1500 new cities sprang up,guarateeing both the creation of barriers and close range resources to planned sites.
Our final sites were in Sw/west and Central 34(6 of them) and one(the seventh) in SE 24).
The reason was to ensure safety-at the time(Start of October) HH was at full strength,and we also had to think about a possible combo EBC-HH(which certain circles of HH desired as it turned out later).
So roughly a distance of 1,5 oceans from the mass of HH+EBC cities seemed a reasonable precaution.
With hindsight is easy to say a couple of hours resources travel time more East would have been the perfect sites to ensure max use of our core cities-but at the time nor the crumble of HH nor the massive numbers at the core were a distinct possibility.
EBC was unprepared and the failure to achieve a massive collaboration with HH made them put their hopes in the foolish tactic of delaying ww race-to make our players quit(only a Cop brain can deduce a player who spends a year will quit for 2 weeks delay,but so it is:d).
Actually this delay gave us more time to prepare(both the sites and the neccessary city buildings which take huge amount of time for semi active players or big players).
The race started on Dec 9 at 2:40 am.
By now Fish Group was not a serious competitor both due to lack of numbers compared to the other 2 competitors,as well as to the fact that the split that followed the loss of the war with us destroyed their ww sites(with the "moralist" Boris the Cat taking the lead by sabotating 4 ww sites,lol).
Anyway-they kept racing,respecting their players,and did not end up in Cops Minions as others did,with the sabotaging intent.
From the other 2 competitors,HERT was clearly the one who had an edge both in numbers,as well as in organisation.
The only hope for Cops was to build one ww to deny us the Crown.
The team kept up to expectation,and finished in 14 days all seven ww,being perhaps the most efficient team in the whole Grepo compared to size and speed of the server.
On Dec 23 Santa gave to us a Crown as a gift!
A well deserved one!
And to close it as it should,to prevent Cops from giving the excuse of having been beaten only via simming both before the race with a successful op,and especially with the EPIC WW BUST OF THEIR TOMB(Dec 22),we proudly won the server!
After the Christmas Peace we gave the wing players the well deserved Crown(strict criterias about participation were followed to decide the names) and a few active Fish players who did not have a Crown (8) were included to respect those who respected the honest game,playing independently(as they had done during the whole server) rather then ending up as Minions!
The ww race tactically was directed by Wildnisa with Kronnoss(who was promoted as founder) as helper.
On the EBC side the "tactician" was Noobellator,who wasted with his mediocrity any chance they had to build one ww.
Part 11 With Thanks To.....
Now it is impossible to list all those who contributed to this rare achievement(in this days strong pre mades win servers,not a few players who join another pre made).
Being perhaps a bit unfair I will anyway list a few who really made a difference:
1. Erikwijmeersch-our untiring Opp Commander.
2. Steve Johnson-the perfect soldier.As ocean commander and later as leader he shone over the rest,and succeeded to keep motivated the Northern Team,who often felt alienated from alliance policy.
3. Codger- few if any know his contribution for the victory of the alliance.
Has given an immense help,and this alliance owes him a lot.
4. Mioune- in a short time became indispensable,and was a champion of action.
5. Bruizer-he has a good Smile,that is why,not for his personality who reflects solidness,rofl.
6. Captain Rainbow Dash-successfully neutralized the usual problems of the merge HERT-GA.
All have their part,but of course we can not list them all
I thank you all for the contribution and trust in our project and Leadership.
Regards,Wildnisa/T
