Parganos game for 6 players (running)

[ajr]

I'm back, and I believe we're currently back to normal schedule with no one away (although I still haven't finished going through the giant piles of mail in my inbox). However, the server will be down for several hours tonight for software upgrades, so the timer will remain off for another day or so.

[ajr]

OK, the server is back up now.

[Tuidjy]

The vile nation of Man has moved its hordes against the empire of C'tis.
Here is a short history of the despicable practices of Man.

While Mictlan's warriors were engaged against our troops, Man strode, unopposed,
into northern Mictlan, and conquered more than half the empire. When they had
gobbled up what they needed, instead of honoring their alliance with C'tis,
and actually contribute to the victory, they let Mictlan retreat and regroup.

Not content with just letting down their first ally, they had their diplomats
negotiate with Jomon for a common attack against C'tis. Once Jomon was
committed, Man stayed within its borders, betraying their second ally, and
leaving them to their doom. Doom that has since struck.

At the time they betrayed Jomon, Man made everything possible to make us believe
that their dishonorable behavior was mostly due to misunderstanding, and Jomon's
actions. It shames us to admit, we were taken by what I believed was sincere
apologies, and failed to act against Man.

Due to their brilliant, but disgustingly vile politics, Man has grown in strength
and now is moving against C'tis, with no declaration of war, or just cause.
He will enjoy a lot of early success, as unfortunately our back is just as open
as it was against Jomon in the beginning of that war.

Nations of the world. Man is the most powerful nation right now, and once he
conquers northwestern C'tis, and takes the capital, he may be unstoppable. I
honestly do not believe that there is any way in which I could prevent the above
from happening. I will fight him, but in the next five turns, I will not be able
to oppose his hordes in any significant way.

Unless we want to reward Man's revolting behavior with victory, it is time to
put our differences to rest, and strike now. We know that Man is a fearsome
opponent, and we do not expect anyone to come to our help openly, but anonymous
spells can make their progress into C'tis quite costly.

Let us all show Man that vile treachery does not pay!

Peter, head scribe for C'tis

[Arghaii]

A nation of lying lizards, C'tis truly is.
Jomon attacked C'tis after receiveing an ultimatum of surrendering our provinces and razing our temples.

Jomon may fall, but no lowly lizard may ever call Jomon a treacherous nation.
Jomon kept to its peace agreements through endless lamentations from the kingdom of C'tis concerning how fragile their infrastructure is and how weak their war against Mictlan has left them.

One thing for sure, after the last war it won't take you five turns to stop the next attacker. You just cannot stop them. Your troops are diseased and afflicted with all kinds of maladictions due to famine and black magic.

We believe that the next chapter of this story will be... "Vultures prey on a wounded lizard".

Leander Jomon

[Tuidjy]

Could you please point out where we have have called you treacherous
or accused you of lying or breaking an agreement? Our only accusation
against you has been that while you were supposed to be helping us,
you were effecting a domain push in our east. The ultimatum did not
call for surrendering any provinces, but only to destroy the temples
that were destroying our income.

And do not forget that this ultimatum came only after Man stated that
you guys were allied and coming after me. Even then, we did not attack.
We did not even invade you until you started a scorched earth policy
against the population in our northern provinces, as opposed to honorably
fighting on the front lines. As for honorable commanders like your
prophet, it is with regret that we saw him fall in the last major
battle. If only the sauromancers had held their fire until our
enchanter had reached out to him...

As for who will stop whom, this remains to be seen. Our empire is
indeed weakened after fighting two exhausting wars and Man is fresh
and fat on unearned spoils of war. But my diseased and exhausted
armies have not lost an engagement yet, and I do not see Man looking
for an army clash either. All I see is cowardly hordes attacking
undefended provinces.

[st.patrik]

Treachery! C'Tis has launched an unprovoked attack on the armies of Man

My armies were engaging in training exercises near the border with C'Tis when they were ruthlessly attacked by an Air Queen under the command of C'Tis.
Man has not attacked C'Tis or done any other action that would justify this kind of unprovoked attack.

C'Tis has the temerity to come on this forum and complain about my despicable and dishonourable practices? I am not the one who has launched an unjustified attack without warning on a neighbour. All of you should take note of this. All of you have a border with C'Tis. If he is willing to attack without warning or provocation we should all look to our defense.

As for the charges he has raised against Man - they are a pack of lies. I will not sink to the level of defending my actions on this public board. If anyone wants to know the other side of the story I will be more than happy to share the truth about what happened through some private means of communication. Send me a PM or e-mail and I will be happy to reply.

[Ewierl]

Hey, all of C'tis' charges have been in-character, is Man not going to fire back with in-character propaganda of its own? C'mon, we wanna hear the juicy news!

[Tuidjy]

Training exerices, you say? Training exercises which
involved getting 1500 elite troops and probably 100
mages in a position where they could crack open three
castles in the next month? No resposible ruler would
have ignored this threat, and by starting to pull our
armies west, we allowed Jomon a respite that we can
hardly afford.

A squad of brave and reckless samurai managed to carve
a second Jomon empire out of Northeastern C'tis, and
the only reason that they are not facing a reaction
force are your training exercises. Your action were
threatening, your action harmed us, and the 'exercise'
my air queen provided for your army was well deserved.

We are certain that the only reason that our castles
do not lie in ruins is that you were afraid of being
attacked by your neighbors. Betrayers expect betrayal.
What they get is justice.

[st.patrik]

Fact: Man has not attacked C'Tis
Fact: C'Tis has attacked Man

It's one thing to not ignore a threat, it's another to attack without provocation. I wouldn't have had a problem with C'Tis taking any number of defensive actions. I do have a problem with being attacked without warning or provocation.

You claim my action harmed you; My action did not harm you - If any harm was done in your war against Jomon it was your choice and therefore YOU harmed you. Besides, one of my scouts observed your armies continuing to push the attack against Jomon, so your claim that you pulled your armies west is simply not true.

Sending your Air Queen to attack one of my territories is not an 'exercise' but an unprovoked attack that is tantamount to a declaration of war.

[Tuidjy]

There is no point in splitting hairs and trying to prove that
technically my air queen attacked first. No one denies that.
No one denies that you are very skilled at getting something
for nothing, washing your hands, and walking away.

The 'exercises' were a provocation. We do not know whether
you only intended to derail our Jomon campaign. Maybe you
meant to invade, but were scared of actually having to fight
instead of tricking someone else to pay the butcher's bill.
Maybe you came to believe that others would attack you as soon
as you became engaged with our returning forces. Maybe you
even wanted to trick us into throwing flames and plagues at
your forces and retreat back under the Gift of Health.

We do not care, and we hope no other nation does. Through
skillful and disgusting maneuvering you have achieved a
position of power. It remains to be seen whether it will
survive any actual combat. The people of C'tis hope that
other nations see you for the threat you are.