OK, I don't have a ton of spare time, so please pardon my long delay in responding, but you are right -- my dark hint deserves clarification.
Let me start my saying this is not an attempt to flame, it is an attempt to set the facts straight over the history of W1, and explain my present conclusions and motivations. Since I don't browse the forums often and I don't know the proper tone here, I apologize in advance if my post seems a little aggressive.
I am the new head duke of BJ, and I am currently managing a war with my former closest ally, Sie AQ.
The duke of Sie AQ has been putting out that he chose to attack one of our members and war us because one our player attacked one of his players. What I will do here is explain how this was a carefully planned and crafted provocation on his part, and that this particular episode is one in a series of similar acts on his part.
Here is what he saw: he saw his ally develop several inactive players at the top, and he saw his ally's duke become one of the some-time inactives. He had an ongoing problem over 7x7 nobling between one of his players and one of ours, and HIS player was going inactive as well. So he took the player's sit, decided that the time was right for the dagger in the back, and decided to pick a fight with our player.
BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE: Kategikos had been allowed in to our tribe by our former duke to become warlord and diplomate, and he promptly used our tribe to attack his enemy ~AD~ with our players and troops. That's how this game is played sometimes, he had a plan and our duke's approval, and we followed orders and most didn't grumble (some did leave the tribe in protest) In doing this, he learned that we were in transition, and some players were weak and exploitable. Because of a language barrier, some players didn't have sitters. As duke, he could of course see who.
Now, for his latest provocation -- our player had tried repeatedly over nearly a six month period to get their player to stop nobling so close to his villages.
There have been loooooong long threads in the forum, mails, etc. kategikos has been asked again and again to discipline the player.
What we DIDNT know was that the player was going inactive and being sat.
When our player finally took a village back like he said he would over and over, did kategikos reach out to our duke? No, he sent over 2000 attacks at our player, demanded the player be kicked, and (MORE IMPORTANTLY) began separately nobling our biggest inactive and declared war.
Remarkably, he also kicked his player out of Sie AQ, we assume to manage his war stats. Craven.
CRAVEN JUST LIKE THE OLD EXP days, when our ally was Sie AQ in the war was against Ego?, and then MagicX declared. And we could handle it. Then BJ declared, and we were strained to the limit. IT WAS THAT POINT THAT kategikos CHOSE TO INVITE OUR LARGEST PLAYER. Yeah, I remember. That's the good old kategikos timing. The timing of a vulture with a dagger, not the timing of an ally.
Like THAT, this was clearly premeditated. When our player responded with attacks of his own, kategikos posted a big, inflammatory POLL in his forum: "BJ are attacking us!! Should we war them? Yes or No???" Yeah, nice propaganda job, selling a war on your closest ally that you had just used like a cheap tart. Try telling your players the truth next time. It's them that will suffer because of the reputation you've helped to create. Do you ever THINK about the consequences in terms of player game enjoyment? Nice.
Well, GUESS WHAT: kategikos' vulture eye is failing him this time. He busted up EXP and took credit for it, and this time, he was counting on inactivity, lack of leadership, and a difficult internal language barrier to keep his victim down until he could gut us. But this time, he overreached. His victim (lo and behold) had an orderly transfer of leadership, overcame the language barrier to get sits for all the inactives, and has come together and unified for some FUN! We should send his treacherous self a Christmas card, because we are really enjoying this.
This war will demonstrate that BJ are a worthy ally in both strength AND trust. We have a core of players that kategikos is finding out are united and skilled. We are strong when we are wrongly attacked, and we are trustable -- we would NEVER do something like this to an ally.
ALL: an alliance with kategikos is a warm and fuzzy thing, as long as YOU are STRONG and he happens to need your stacks to help him cover another problem he has. But the minute he senses weakness, you will find his customary clouds of fakes heading your way, or him inviting your largest player, or him telling you to kick one of your barons or else. A real friend, huh?
Sie AQ has survived because of tricks. They have a strong core in the center, and they have played other tribes like fools. Some how, everyone always ends up thinking they are stronger - but it's because SIE never supports anyone. They always want help defending their villages, but never rush to support allies. So when war came, they were defended. And then, they have always been ready with the dagger hand.
This time will be different!
I stand by my words.
Snake Pliskin
.... any thoughts?