ThomasMarik, on 28 December 2014 - 11:57 AM, said:
A Marik/Davion alliance would put Liao in a very uncomfortable position. Liao doesn't have many choices and if Marik takes pressure off of Davion Liao will suffer for it. Not that I personally care about Liao space per se but they have been faithfully keeping to the Marik/Liao alliance.
What would the nature of a ceasefire be? Would we stop attacking Steiner to fight the clans? Will Davion stop attacking Liao and Kurita? If not Liao would be screwed and Kurita/Steier would be split which takes pressure off of the clans. A ceasefire is also not the same as an alliance which leaves Liao exposed as mentioned above. Are we only ceasefiring to protect FRR?
A cease fire in it's most basic terms means that the parties involved don't shoot each other. So this could go multiple ways:
Scenario A: Best case scenario, it means that Davion, Steiner, Marik, and Liao, all cease hostilities against one another.
Scenario B: More plausible scenario, Marik retain their cease fire/peace treaty with Liao, Marik and Steiner remain hostile, but Davion no longer attacks Marik, Davion still attacks Liao
Scenario C: Plausible 2, Marik retain their cease fire/alliance with Liao, Marike and Steiner cease hostilities, Davion still attacks Liao.
Scenario D: Another plausible one, Marik ,Steiner, and Davion cease hostilities. Davion will still be attacking Liao.
So as you can see, it could be that the cease-fire goes no further than quieting the MRK/DAV border, but it does have the potential of going as far as freeing up 4 FOUR IS factions (Davion, Marik, Liao, Steiner) from infighting.
Notice also that the cease-fire means that the parties don't attack one another, but it doesn't say they are mandated to help one another (that's more of a good will thing, if it happens. So if Davion and Liao remain hostile to one another, after the DAV/MRK cease-fire goes through, that doesn't mean Marik is in league with Davion, and is hostile towards Liao.
Also, the cease-fire is more about krumping the clans, than it is about saving the FRR, not to mention that if we don't save the FRR, for the sake of keeping it in the fight at least, we are all next on the menu. If we could form actual unions, then I would put my all into forging a Star League ASAP. Sadly, the interface does not allow us to ally properly with other factions.
Right now the Marik/Davion front is taking some pressure off the Liao/Davion front, which as you mentioned above, would be gone if the two (MRK, and DAV) get a cease-fire. Allowing those assets to be relocated elsewhere. I personally would rather see those assets relocated to fighting the clans full-time. However, I don't know what will happen.
If we can get some Liao commanders in on this, that would be most helpful. Since you guys have an alliance with them, you can talk to them about it, and whether they would be okay with a cease-fire with Davion. At the same time, we need to get our commanders on the horn, and see if they would be okay with closing down 2 fronts (meaning our units will not be capturing any planets anymore, and won't be planting their flags there) {BTW: That silly reason could have been mitigated if CW allowed us to hold planets through successful defense.}. If we can get those two (Davion, and Liao) to agree to stop shooting each other in the face for a while, we can get a Davion/Marik/Liao cease-fire going, and I think we can get Steiner in on that as well. Since they are to us, as Liao is to you.
Ladies, and gentlemen, if we pull this through, we will have brokered a deal that frees up 4 Inner Sphere powers from almost all internal conflict (Davion, and Steiner share a border with Kurita, and Steiner shares one with the FRR too). This could lay down the foundations for an actual Star League. This deal might allow us to get the other two factions to join us, and who knows? We might be able to get some alliance talks going.
EDIT: added a 4th scenario
Edited by IraqiWalker, 28 December 2014 - 12:26 PM.