You're right, looks like it worked out pretty well for him.
You're right, looks like it worked out pretty well for him.
And now, the rest of the story.
Were you aware that two weeks prior to taking HIP 116045, Patreus nearly exploited it? Were you aware that Aisling leadership was well aware that Patreus prepped HIP 116045 and HIP 116377 (under 15 light years from HIP 116045) during cycle 38 (when Aisling also prepped HIP 116045). This is a practice we like to call a "piggyback prep." It permits a power to cleanly burn excess CC to avoid expansions. Patreus has used this tactic to great effect, but it costs us in Galactic standing because we are failing preps.
Aisling leadership later acknowledged that a decision was made during the final hours of cycle 38 to push HIP 116045 off of the prep list in favor of Madngela, without notifying Patreus.
At the end of Cycle 38, the publicly available raw data records:
| Power Id | Value | Starsystem |
|---|---|---|
| Aisling Duval | 144994 | Chnumar |
| Aisling Duval | 76520 | Madngela |
| Aisling Duval | 70912 | HIP 116045 |
| Power Id | Value | Starsystem |
|---|---|---|
| Denton Patreus | 7000 | HIP 116377 |
| Denton Patreus | 6630 | Neali |
| Denton Patreus | 6432 | HIP 116045 |
| Denton Patreus | 6422 | HIP 2239 |
As you can see, Aisling prepped Madngela by 5,608 more than HIP 116045, effectively pushing HIP 116045 off the prep list for Aisling. Patreus had been assured Aisling would successfully prep HIP 116045 that cycle by Aisling leadership.
As a result of Aisling failing to prep HIP 116045 during Cycle 38, Patreus was stuck with an expansion into HIP 116377 during Cycle 39. Again, please note, we had also prepped HIP 116045, but HIP 116377 had a grand total of 568 merits more, so it won out. Please also note that HIP 116377 would have exploited HIP 116045, and taken it off the table entirely. Knowing Aisling wanted HIP 116045, and not wanting HIP 116377 for Patreus (it was not nearly as profitable, and would have actually hurt our economy), our leaders reached out to Aisling leaders and requested assistance with SCRAPing HIP 116377. When it was ascertained that the "cargo swapping piracy method" could not work in combat expansions, we were effectively told by our allies that we could not expect their help SCRAP-ing this system that would both caused us harm, and take HIP 116045 off the table.
Opposing this expansion could only be done by people pledged to a non-Imperial faction, so it would require a dedicated wing or two to defect to another power for a cycle to oppose this expansion. Module shoppers loyal to Aisling could have easily opposed the expansion, just as Antal ultimately did. Interestingly enough, when Patreus prepped HIP 116045 the following cycle, the cycle Patreus would have already exploited HIP 116045 without any fanfare from Aisling Duval, Aisling folks suddenly took notice. Aisling players then threatened they would oppose HIP 116045 were issued.
What changed? Aisling was unable to oppose HIP 116377 when both she and an ally would benefit, but HIP 116045 was doable? Did Aisling actually muster direct opposition to HIP 116045? You tell me.
However, in good faith, Patreus leadership was involved in negotiations with Aisling leadership until Aisling leadership apparently felt Patreus had no chance of actually taking the system (since we were well behind) and Aisling representatives ceased negotiations.
The fact Patreus waited as long as before actually attempting to take HIP 116045 is a testament to our commitment to Imperial Unity. No power owns a system that is not their control system. Every other power has learned this the hard way. Aisling has taken quite a few ex-ALD systems. Systems that were forcibly shed by her enemies. That has worked out pretty well for Aisling, and Imperial Unity has never been in jeopardy as a result of Aisling "taking her allies' systems." But then again, McFergus knows ALD doesn't pay attention to his "advice," so he doesn't bother trying to manipulate them.
Ah, on second thought, you are probably citing Patreus' expansion into Cemplangpa.
If that is the case, I would point out that Nyalayan was originally an ALD system, which Aisling took over. Aisling lost it and Patreus took Cemplangpa with the blessing of Aisling leadership. If the Aisling community was not apprised of this, perhaps the Aisling community ought to petition their leaders for greater transparency.
Right? This one was great, but with the current Fed/Alliance situation in Cycle 45, I'm going for more popcorn.
Not gonna get involved in the argument but I will try to help clear something up. The "Mercs of Mikunn" are a faction that was gifted to the player faction that was backing the "Dukes of Mikunn" 2 weeks after launch. Dukes of Mikunn = Mercs of Mikunn. They are one in the same.
Yeah, it seems the Mercs claim a number of Feudal minor factions as theirs, maybe all of them
Corrigendum: This said one of the leaders to one of pledgers:
"I'm not sure what you're looking for, but if we chose to prep Madngela above HIP 116045 it was because the prep war against Chnumar was lost. So we wanted to lock Chnumar in expansion along with another system, so we could prep HIP 116045 next cycle without having to face Chnumar.
Unfortunately the BH (Black Hand) came in and tried to undermine us, making us turmoil an placing Conii on the turmoil list. That meant we simply couldn't prep anything next cycle, so we lost our shot at a HIP 116045 prep.
As for the opposition of HIP 116377, we had many people helping there, what Patreus is saying isn't true. Although we probably were not responsible of the majority of the opposition."
"I'm not sure what you're looking for, but if we chose to prep Madngela above HIP 116045 it was because the prep war against Chnumar was lost. So we wanted to lock Chnumar in expansion along with another system, so we could prep HIP 116045 next cycle without having to face Chnumar.
Unfortunately the BH (Black Hand) came in and tried to undermine us, making us turmoil an placing Conii on the turmoil list. That meant we simply couldn't prep anything next cycle, so we lost our shot at a HIP 116045 prep.
As for the opposition of HIP 116377, we had many people helping there, what Patreus is saying isn't true. Although we probably were not responsible of the majority of the opposition."