146 replies to this topic

[GI Journalist]

Free World League/Capellan Confederation Border Dispute

SPECIAL REPORT

At the heart of the current dispute between House Marik and House Liao lies the planet of Phact. A Capellan world captured by Federated Suns during 4th Succession War, it was finally liberated by Free Worlds League on December 19, 3050.

That victory was usurped by Antares Scorpions under the House Liao banner on December 20, 3050.

Following this first violation of the long standing non-aggression pact between House Marik and House Liao, came a disturbing message from one of the mercenaries responsible.

eSeifer, on 21 December 2015 - 06:27 AM, said:

Liao will attack Marik. Not the mercs, not the Loyalist, the new and reformed Liao as a whole.

At about this time, eSeifer began campaigning for the formation of a Liao Council. As proposed, this council would make far reaching decisions on diplomacy and each loyalist group of more than 8 member would receive a vote. It is not clear how many loyalist units responded to this proposal, as few saw merit in a council assembled by a mercenary motivated by apparently nothing more than the potential profits generated by a conflict on the border with House Marik. Some loyalist units disregarded the notice entirely.

This was a grave mistake. In the absence of other loyalist units, eSeifer and other mercenary under temporary contract reached an accommodation with the Tikonov Commonality Armed Forces [TCAF], persuading them of the merits of violating the cease-fire.

eSeifer, on 03 January 2016 - 01:50 PM, said:

My men will be paid well for every Purple chicken planet taken and Davion Scum wiped off another planet.
We formed a none existent high command among the chaos that are the loyalist outside of TCAF, who seen the need to form an alliance with the MERCs. (Ty TCAF for your coordination.)

We have taken both fronts and will continue to do so. As one contract expires more will come. Liao will be the empire it should be.

With other mercenaries and TCAF in the lead, House Marik worlds began to fall with the new year: Elnath, Ventabren and Suzano. House Marik patiently ignored this as other House Liao loyalist units began to protest.

Phact and Elnath had historically belonged to Liao. Those two attacks might have been overlooked, but Ventabren, Suzano, and Asuncion? Mercenaries were straying far into the Free Worlds League, and it wasn't even for the thrill of combat. They were dropping on the unprotected planets of a long standing ally and bragging about it!

Something was very wrong.

House Liao loyalists began to protest against mercenaries who were unilaterally declaring war on the Free World League.

The Antares Scorpions were disavowed, but the damage was done.

With the support of TCAF, the mercenaries could claim the attacks were under contract, even as they undermined years of diplomatic good faith.

The time has come to recognize this border conflict for what it is: a well orchestrated piece of statecraft. It is equally important to recognize that eSeifer and the Antares Scorpions are not to blame for it. They are mercenaries, who were paid to start a fight on the Free Worlds League border between House Liao and House Marik, and they executed their mission exceedingly well.

There remains the question of who paid them to do the job. Unfortunately, while conspiracy theorists on both sides will point fingers, it will be impossible to prove who was responsible. Mercenaries can either be tight-lipped, paid to lie, or themselves not know when it comes to employers.

We may never know for certain what agent hired them to do the job, or even whether it was a House, mercenary or Clan.

We can only examine the situation and see who benefited the most. Who benefits from a conflict between House Marik and House Liao?

Not House Liao. As the smallest standing military in the Inner Sphere, it seems apparent that some of its members were seduced by the promise of vast mercenary forces arriving in the Capellan Confederation to support their dreams of military expansion. TCAF isn't talking, but it appears they mistook the tough talk of sell-swords for dedication to their cause. House Liao is far from blameless thanks to this blunder. Reparations will have to be made, and the negotiations are going slowly.

Not House Marik. House Liao remains an intractable enemy, dedicated to reclaiming worlds lost during the Fourth Succession War. The Capellans may have put up little or no resistance on ill-gotten Free World League planets taken by the unruly mercenaries, but worlds recently retaken from the Federated Suns by House Liao will keep House Marik military units needlessly occupied.

Yet House Davion is a clear winner. They are no longer being attacked by House Marik, and House Liao must split its forces. House Davion is happy to have the opportunity to roll back any Capellan advance on its territory. None of the mercenaries promised to TCAF have arrived. No evidence can be traced to House Davion.

Indubitably, the ever suspicious House Liao will blame House Davion for this treacherous attack, but nothing will ever be proven.

[MovinTarget]

Clearly they don't test for narcotics in the capellan armed forces...

It makes no sense that we would hire mercs to take our own worlds. Because, remember, they would run up the davion planet(s) FIRST and then attack Marik.

If you want to be first class liars you need to start with plausible conceits.

Edited by MovinTarget, 11 January 2016 - 06:37 PM.

[eSeifer]

Mission Accomplished.

[MovinTarget]

Okay, look I could buy that the mercs have have an agenda of their own. Just don't try to infer that Davion "gained" by backing this agenda because last time I checked losing planets is not "winning".

If it was then you should be asking FWL to thank you since they are now winning more due to the 8 planets they lost.

Please explain to us and FWL how this was some sort of advantage gained.

Edited by MovinTarget, 11 January 2016 - 08:13 PM.

[Maxwell Albritten]

chaas, on 11 January 2016 - 04:49 PM, said:

That hurts man. As a fedrat, I say only this...

But we coo' now.

[GI Journalist]

MovinTarget, on 11 January 2016 - 08:12 PM, said:

Please explain to us and FWL how this was some sort of advantage gained.

Of the three Houses, only House Davion benefits from the end of the NAP between House Marik and House Liao, so of course, House Liao will assume House Davion is responsible. The underhanded strategy of taking the Capellan Confederation down from the inside is practically House Davion's signature move. Whether we admit it or not, it is how the Federated Suns beat the Capellan Confederations so badly during the Fourth Succession War.

However, as I keep saying, there is no proof that House Davion is responsible. Why do you keep denying House Davion involvement, when I'm not making accusations? A paranoid person might think you had a guilty conscience, so it's a good thing that Capellan Chancellors have a reputation for their level headed responses.

More significantly, some of eSeifer's earliest comments are not directed at attacking either House Marik or House Davion. Rather it is to the effect that there needs to be more "Inner Sphere vs. Inner Sphere" conflict. This could be suggestive of another motive, such as a mercenary plot to make working for House Liao more profitable or even something crazy like a Clan plot to create strife in the Inner Sphere in order to make their invasion easier.

But that's lunatic conspiracy theory talk. There's no way to determine the culprit. It's madness to think otherwise. We must deal with the consequences, and move forward.

[slide]

GI Journalist, on 11 January 2016 - 09:24 PM, said:

so it's a good thing that Capellan Chancellors have a reputation for their level headed responses.

From a lore perspective that's the funniest thing I have read on the forums for quite a while, not sure my monitor will recover.

[Karl Marlow]

Oh I dunno. Since the NAP with Davion the FWL hasn't lost anymore worlds to Liao. I would say that puts the FWL in the gain column.

[BigRed40Tech]

The Free World's League has stood to directly benefit from from the ceasefire with House Davion, and the engagement of hostilities with the Capellan Confederation.

Really, the only one to lose anything in this tossup, is a particularly deceitful House named Liao. This really only hurts one group, aka, Liao. To be quite honest, I'm not all that sad either. You guys stabbed us in the back. Let the fires take your house, and burn it to its very foundation.

[MADMaxLiao]

*Spend 10 seconds looking for a good popcorn meme...then gets hungry and looks for real popcorn*

[MovinTarget]

GI Journalist, on 11 January 2016 - 09:24 PM, said:

Of the three Houses, only House Davion benefits from the end of the NAP between House Marik and House Liao, so of course, House Liao will assume House Davion is responsible. The underhanded strategy of taking the Capellan Confederation down from the inside is practically House Davion's signature move. Whether we admit it or not, it is how the Federated Suns beat the Capellan Confederations so badly during the Fourth Succession War.

However, as I keep saying, there is no proof that House Davion is responsible. Why do you keep denying House Davion involvement, when I'm not making accusations? A paranoid person might think you had a guilty conscience, so it's a good thing that Capellan Chancellors have a reputation for their level headed responses.

More significantly, some of eSeifer's earliest comments are not directed at attacking either House Marik or House Davion. Rather it is to the effect that there needs to be more "Inner Sphere vs. Inner Sphere" conflict. This could be suggestive of another motive, such as a mercenary plot to make working for House Liao more profitable or even something crazy like a Clan plot to create strife in the Inner Sphere in order to make their invasion easier.

But that's lunatic conspiracy theory talk. There's no way to determine the culprit. It's madness to think otherwise. We must deal with the consequences, and move forward.

I raise issue with this assertion because the tone smacks of implication. Like its being insinuated that we would really sacrifice multiple world's just to break your NAP. That would have been a rather incredible gamble, were it true. You guys could have just as easily kissed and made up and we'd still be out a lot of planets. This is what I'm trying to point out.

Again if this were all machinations and not one particular house bumbling through politics and war (that's Liao for those having trouble following this space soap opera) it woulD be much more conceivable that certain Merc companies are the winners since they lose absolutely nothing and gain more employment...

...but I am still banking on Liao ineptitude to be the root of all evil. This is why they should not be given nice things.

Stepping out of rp for a moment, I hope that as Merc ops change in phase 3 and they can really get paid that there would be a way to always see who is really paying mercs though that may be unrealistic...

Edited by MovinTarget, 12 January 2016 - 01:59 AM.

[Kjudoon]

MADmadLiao, on 11 January 2016 - 10:22 PM, said:

*Spend 10 seconds looking for a good popcorn meme...then gets hungry and looks for real popcorn*

How's dis?

Quote

Stepping out of rp for a moment, I hope that as Merc ops change in phase 3 and they can really get paid that there would be a way to always see who is really paying mercs though that may be unrealistic...

Oh look! Another reason to hammer this point home! /shameless promotion of good idea

http://mwomercs.com/...34#entry4940034

[Gonta]

War never changes

(c) Fallout Intro

Many of TCAF members asked me to write here our official position in this conflict, so here it is:

Official TCAF postion

GI Journalist, on 11 January 2016 - 06:05 PM, said:

In the absence of other loyalist units, eSeifer and other mercenary under temporary contract reached an accommodation with the Tikonov Commonality Armed Forces [TCAF], persuading them of the merits of violating the cease-fire.

GI Journalist, on 11 January 2016 - 06:05 PM, said:

None of the mercenaries promised to TCAF have arrived.

The above is absolutely True.

Last CW phase was like a swamp, we had tired to stomp Dav pugs every evening in previous phase. So decision was taken to try a 'Big War'.

We had freezed the alliance with the mariks for the current CW phase, because in it's end the map will wipe and planets have no value now, so no one can say that he will loose something in this war. We expected that NA mercs will capture or defend planets in NA prime-time, but this did not come true.

Anyway it was an interesting experience. So now i just want to ask Mariks no to have butthurt and keep fighting with us until the end of the current phase. Do you remeber when last time it was a more than 200 players who atacks and defends planets? I think it was worth this.

When we get next CW with planets value, alliances and other benefits, then we will unfreeze the alliance and many positions should be reviewed (like Liao Council, mercs hiring etc.)

And now keep calm and continue to fight. We came into this game for war, not for peace. Push your Rage, capture more planets than you can or die!

[Heart of Storm]

stormeagle, on 11 January 2016 - 09:39 PM, said:

The Free World's League has stood to directly benefit from from the ceasefire with House Davion, and the engagement of hostilities with the Capellan Confederation.

Really, the only one to lose anything in this tossup, is a particularly deceitful House named Liao. This really only hurts one group, aka, Liao. To be quite honest, I'm not all that sad either. You guys stabbed us in the back. Let the fires take your house, and burn it to its very foundation.

Allow me to step OOC for a second to explore this, because actually this isn't true.

House Liao doesn't have the population to sustain a war on two fronts, and since planets are worthless in this current iteration of CW, ghost dropping to gain planets also provides no benefit.

Davion will always be our number two priority in war, pretty much all units have a 'Davions first' policy, as such in a two fronted war most Liao will drop on Davion, leaving you with ghost drops and maybe the odd PUG assembly. A NAP with Davion deprives you of your most ready supply of CW battles, especially considering you are not active against Steiner (something I note you are also in favour of...)

As such, a NAP with Davion to join them against Liao simply means you won't be playing CW battles with anywhere near the regularity you have been enjoying so far, we don't have the population to provide opponents to two houses at once.

So yeah, when you say Marik will gain from this, as a MWO player I can only see you losing out...


Right, back to being in character.....

[Maxwell Albritten]

TCAF made it very clear that they were only waiting until the phase 3 CW reset and had no intention on permanently harming the NAP. They also waited until the took the Davion planet before messing with Marik. It was reasonable and, even though not everyone agreed with it, no one on our side made it personal or threatened alliance with the Davions,

The Mariks responded by full scale temper tantrum. My opinion of them is forever tarnished and I'm embarassed for them.

I will continue to focus on ending the Davion threat and will support any diplomatic effort towards that goal, but seeing the caliber of character of our "allies" I can't help but say that I stand with TCAF.

[Heart of Storm]

Maxwell Albritten, on 12 January 2016 - 11:14 AM, said:

TCAF made it very clear that they were only waiting until the phase 3 CW reset and had no intention on permanently harming the NAP. They also waited until the took the Davion planet before messing with Marik. It was reasonable and, even though not everyone agreed with it, no one on our side made it personal or threatened alliance with the Davions,

The Mariks responded by full scale temper tantrum. My opinion of them is forever tarnished and I'm embarassed for them.

I will continue to focus on ending the Davion threat and will support any diplomatic effort towards that goal, but seeing the caliber of character of our "allies" I can't help but say that I stand with TCAF.

Firstly, you didn't remember to like your own post, I've had to do it for you.

Second, it's good to see TCAF finally making a statement to clarify what they did, personally I still think they goofed hard.

There were better ways to achieve what they wanted to achieve, they could have achieved exactly the same outcome by simply talking to the Mariks, a post on their forum saying "Hey Mariks, Davion can't provide a fight that's worth clicking the 'attack' button for, since CW is worthless until the next version rolls out, wanna fight us to try get some good games going?"

I'm pretty sure the Mariks would have said yes, heck there's posts on their part of space leaning that way anyway.

Instead they got seduced by some Mercs talking big and instead opted for the ol' shiv to the back, all the while hoping the Mariks would realise it's done for the sake of getting some real games going.

lo and behold, House Marik has taken a dim view of treachery, and we think they're gonna want to be our friends after the next wipe why?

TCAF screwed up, that's what this amounts to.

HOWEVER - I entirely agree with you about how disappointing it is to see the willingness of some elements of House Marik to jump straight into bed with Davion, and how quick some of them are to bring their trash talking A-game to the forums right from the outset, I'd almost be inclined to suggest another Merc plant in some instances if I didn't know better.

This whole episode has shamed both of our houses, Liao for the naivety of our greatest unit, and Marik by their willingness to jump into bed with the FedRats the second their fortunes change.

The only house shamed more is Davion, because House Davion will always be the epitomy of shameful conduct.

[Kjudoon]

Maxwell Albritten, on 12 January 2016 - 11:14 AM, said:

TCAF made it very clear that they were only waiting until the phase 3 CW reset and had no intention on permanently harming the NAP. They also waited until the took the Davion planet before messing with Marik. It was reasonable and, even though not everyone agreed with it, no one on our side made it personal or threatened alliance with the Davions,

The Mariks responded by full scale temper tantrum. My opinion of them is forever tarnished and I'm embarassed for them.

I will continue to focus on ending the Davion threat and will support any diplomatic effort towards that goal, but seeing the caliber of character of our "allies" I can't help but say that I stand with TCAF.

You have a lovely way of really making a hash of things, Max.

That's okay. People don't have to like each other to be honorable in agreements. Just a couple planets more and you can go back to focusing on Davion and we'll see where we go from here.

[Kjudoon]

Quote

This whole episode has shamed both of our houses, Liao for the naivety of our greatest unit, and Marik by their willingness to jump into bed with the FedRats the second their fortunes change.

An awfully powerful phrase for Marik just giving Davion a much needed breather while we take back what is ours from those who took it; then tried to feign being the victim like a soccer player flopping around like a trout on the shore after stubbing his toe on a blade of grass so his team gets a short break and maybe a penalty kick.

[Maxwell Albritten]

Heart of Storm, on 12 January 2016 - 11:47 AM, said:

Firstly, you didn't remember to like your own post, I've had to do it for you.

Thanks for the heads up. The error has been corrected. Why anyone would make a post they themselves wouldn't like is beyond me.

Kjudoon, on 12 January 2016 - 11:50 AM, said:

You have a lovely way of really making a hash of things, Max.

Everything I do is lovely.

Heart of Storm, on 12 January 2016 - 11:47 AM, said:

The only house shamed more is Davion, because House Davion will always be the epitomy of shameful conduct.

END THREAD!

Edited by Maxwell Albritten, 12 January 2016 - 12:05 PM.

[Heart of Storm]

Kjudoon, on 12 January 2016 - 11:54 AM, said:

An awfully powerful phrase for Marik just giving Davion a much needed breather while we take back what is ours from those who took it; then tried to feign being the victim like a soccer player flopping around like a trout on the shore after stubbing his toe on a blade of grass so his team gets a short break and maybe a penalty kick.

You need to pay closer attention to what some of your fellow Mariks say, and the overtures they make to the FedRat filth.

There was a time when your House treasured its Space Bacon above all other things, now I see it offered on both Steiner and Davion forums, it's a sad day to be a Marik

Edited by Heart of Storm, 12 January 2016 - 12:37 PM.