Stormthorn, on 19 February 2015 - 12:18 AM, said:
If Marik wanted to have the wormhole stay open, they shouldn't have voted to back stab Kurita tonight. It would have been great to keep it around for the exact reason you stated, but now it is a risk, not an advantage. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but I doubt it will change now.
Wait. But you guys where going to close the wormhole before that night anyway... So your point became... What again?
Remember it was MS who started this. Also remember what MS has done since the start of CW. They have jumped from faction to faction, hitting allies of that faction to cause strafe. When they are with the Clans, they attack a fellow Clan despite their own cease fires between each other. They moved to Marik and attacked the DC. Thus upsetting the balance of power and causing tension between us. Then, when they are done placing worlds under their TAGs in the "name of Marik", they move to Clan Ghost Bear and attack Clan Smoke Jaguars, whom have a current standing treaty going between them, causing more strafe and chaos there.
However, before Marik even fought back (besides MS and a few other rouge elements), you guys where the ones saying you were closing down the wormhole. You, from the sounds of it, have not contacted your allies about this and have taken actions of your own. To protect the wormhole, which once it is gone will not come back, we have started to fight back.
So, you guys where already going to close the wormhole. Your statement of "they shouldn't have stabbed Kurita tonight" in relation to keeping the wormhole open is false. You already were going to close it, no matter the outcome of the recent "stabbings".
Now, consider this situation in reverse. What if, instead of MS joining up with Marik, they joined with Kurita. Kurita and FRR are allies, correct? You two don't attack each other officially. What if MS suddenly started to attack FRR unprovoked in your name. When they leave, you try to smooth things over, but because of MS, FRR starts attacking you full force now. How would you (as a house) feel about that? Same thing here...
This whole thing started with MS and rouge elements (or people who didn't know what was going on) attacking from Purple Dragon Island. Now, you start to attack us to "close the project down". Do you know how long and hard we have been trying to connect that Island to Marik so that the attack path can start to move up instead of down? We've almost made it there through Steiner and Davion territory, and now after all that work you want to just "shut it all down" because of one event.
So, go ahead. Attack Marik. Close down the Wormhole. You just let MS win. This was their goal from my observations of their previous attack patterns. By letting this whole event explode as it has, you have let MS win at separating our alliances.
Divine Retribution, on 19 February 2015 - 03:43 AM, said:
...All the while the FRR suffers...
How many days of breathing room do you Southern houses think you have left? Can Marik build a wall around Terra in that time? Can Marik then defend Terra from all the clans? Southern houses plus the battle-hardened FRR managed to stop the clans for 2 days, even retake a few FRR worlds. Two glorious days. Then this happened and I don't think the idea was properly vetted.
My contract is to the FRR; I don't care if Terra burns. If paid enough I'll help make Terra burn. I'm not fighting the clans to stop them from getting to Terra, I'm simply trying to protect and reclaim the territories of my employer. I doubt I'm the only merc that feels this way. If Marik has some magic superweapon no one has seen yet, maybe they can defend a wall around Terra all on their own. I'm a realist. All you are doing is hastening the clan advance to Terra, the rock you seem to care about, and the world you likely cannot protect alone.
EDIT: And if this has nothing to do with protecting Terra then Marik went full derp. You are pulling troops off the clan front to attack people that aren't fully engaging the clans... because that will make them fight the clans, right? The FRR knows a thing or two about full commitment to fighting the clans and the loss of... everything in that endeavor. Yet the FRR and Combine remain peaceful neighbors. But I'm sure Marik has committed more resources and sacrificed more to the clan front than the FRR, making whatever this is a righteous undertaking...
Marik has sent help your way. We are trying to push the Clans back as hard as we can. With no attack corridor to the clans ourselves though, there is only so much we can do. If we can get an attack path to a clan, then we can place another whole faction's worth of people right to them. It's worked well for the Clans against the FRR so far... So many fronts that FRR is pressed just to hold them at bay, forgot about actively trying to push them back.
Here's the math:
- Clans don't really attack each other here. They all have tried and held rather true to a cease fire between them all.
- The Clans have 4 fronts on FRR, and only a total of 3 fronts to worry about attacking back themselves. (Steiner, FRR and Kurita.)
- Steiner has really only one Clan front. Jade Falcon has two.
- Wolf has only FRR to attack.
- Ghost Bears has only FRR to attack (and a small blob of Kurita remaining near them, unless that's gone now too.)
- Smoke Jaguar has two fronts, FRR and Kurita.
- FRR has six fronts total to fight along. 4 of which are clans.
- Observe map now, and see how well FRR has faired having to fight 4 separate factions on their own.
This leads me to believe that if we, the IS, can get just a few more houses up to that clan front (in more than just defense), we'll be able to place more pressure on them. It's worked for the clans, we need it to work for us. For now, we mercs are there to help. This war that is brewing with the DC though is going to hinder our efforts against the Clans, as some Marik mercs are returning home... (Sorry. Seraphim will remain for at least another week though. Hopefully this will be a short "war" and we will be able to remain with you guys for a bit longer.)
Update: Well, we have removed (together for the record) the CSJ attack path to FRR. That's a bonus. However, Kurita lost connection to their Capital... again...
YCSLiesmith, on 19 February 2015 - 04:04 AM, said:
This is a deeply flawed statement. The Vernacular English has been delegitimized for centuries, but is a representation of English as it lives today, serving the purpose that language has always served in actually conveying meaning to people. Is Robbie Burns less worthy because he uses the Scots dialect? is Chaucer or Shakespeare 'improper' because they wrote in the language as it was spoken? If anything, the 'proper' English is less worthy, as it is a product of Victorian imperialists desperate to order their world and hiding from the impossibility of doing so.
Now, I've got a copy of the Elements of Style next to my computer right now, and within a year will be an English teacher. but when I tell you that 'toss off' is a phrase with a vulgar meaning, it doesn't mean i have my mind in the gutter, it means I speak modern conversational English. You may not want your words to mean what they do, and clearly that wasn't your intended meaning. However English is bigger than you are, and when you meet in a corridor going opposite directions it is not English that will give way.
Language is adaptive. However, expressions and slang meaning shifts from area to area. So, for example, if I say pop, you might think Soda. Where I am from, we don't call it Pop.
Thus, when talking from distances of unknown lengths, a lot of slang and expressions becomes lost. Thus, you should avoid the slang meanings.
As far as my expression "Toss off", it actually was often used for revolts. "We tossed off the yolk of the British." In this case, the literal meaning of the words "Toss" and "Off" should be used. Anyone who connects that phrase with the slang meaning within the way I had used it would be far off from what was being discussed, as it should have remained obvious that I wasn't referring to the slang of the expression, but the actual words. (Unless this conversation started to head towards topics I was not aware of.)
As I was not currently aware of that phrase (I goggled it, and got what was meant), it should be obvious that it is not a common expression from my area. That is the problem with slang and expressions.
As I hinted above, language is adaptive. it grows, shifts and changes over time. There becomes different dialects (England English and American English) and different slang/expressions (Torch. England: Is a "flashlight" as well as also referring still to the burning stick. American: Only means a burning stick used for light. Does not mean "Flashlight") and the meaning of words can shift (Gay use to mean happy. Now it is a slang term (and official definition) for meaning "same sex relationship" (if you get what I mean)). So, for your area, "Toss off" may mean something very different from where I live. Thus, why i used it as "proper" English says I can, as literal definitions. Now that I am aware of it's connotations, I shall try to avoid the expression in the future.