Powerplay Faction: Felicia Winters Winters Cycle 361: Vampire Breath

[Khan Tannhauser]

I just want to be sure that false accusations don't go unanswered.

False accusations.... sure.

I only see two possibilities here:

• Imperials decided to blanket UM without sniping, just crossing their fingers and hoping Hudson would mishandle his forts so badly that his systems weaponizing empire space would end up on the chopping block, which is a big ask given that the attack was obvious from the first day of the cycle. It's a risky move but the Imperials decided to try their luck anyway, do 2M merits and see what happens. The YOLO plan ended up working nicely for them somehow, and Hudson wasn't able to scrap bad systems.

• Imperials knew the only way to secure an advantageous result from a blanket UM without sniping was to have some specific Hudson systems forted. They knew their UM effort could end up helping Hudson instead of hurting him and that would be bad for Aisling's interests. Fast-forward a few days, the big UM operation starts and by Monday 35 systems have been conveniently forted. Some of these systems not forted in months are now forted to exactly 100%, no merits wasted. Clearly "randos" work! Said forting effectively removes any possibility of Hudson having control over which systems end up in turmoil and ZYADA claims victory again!

To sum it up: the Empire was either reckless by starting an unprecedented 2M merits attack even when the outcome was uncertain and depended on the hypothetical help from random Hudson pledges, or ZYADA knew what was going to happen with the forts, making sure Hudson couldn't take advantage of the attack, and that's why they went ahead with the plan in the first place.

Imperial leaders aren't new and definitely know what they're doing, and experience tells me that they wouldn't risk turning a big operation like this one into a federal victory, so... I think things are pretty clear. More clear than ever.

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

Oh, believe me, it's not a popular opinion in ADC. But on the other hand, 5C happens regardless of whether it's taboo or not. I don't think we've had a single week since I've joined where 5C prep hauling was lower than 100k merits. I'd rather be able to face my enemy than having to take a stab in the dark at guessing who is doing what, as you're doing in this thread and as we have done in the past. Now everyone's mad about it, and innocent people are getting accused. You may be able to relate. Or maybe your party is responsible for the 5C against us, and we haven't been falsely accusing you. I can't really know for sure since that's the nature of rules that function on the honor system, but from our side it looks like it's feds 5Cing us.



I don't know where you got the impression that we're bitter. I'm having a blast burning Hudson to the ground. I just want to be sure that false accusations don't go unanswered.

Yeah, it seems like slightly too frothy enjoyment maybe, or it's just me, or it's a big op so there's investment, so that might be it.

Well the story tends to go that everything doesn't go right for Aisling, or the Feds pull off a feat, and cooked up accusations start flying our way. Meanwhile, AD (which is a broad church and I'm generalising) race for the bottom in terms of honour rules, apparently justified by something Feds did, while we have no interest in joining that race. I'm just saying, that's the optic we get. When we have remarkable evidence like last cycle, it's brushed off as gaslighting, unlucky coincidence, whatever. Your attitude to 5C fits with that asymmetry. It's notable that you feel confident to speak as a representative voice in this discussion. Whereas you'd not last long at all in the Fed server, never mind feel confident you speak for the group. Again, that tends to be the way it goes. What's espoused in fora is a barometer of the background culture in the group. And Aisling's 5C of course is much easier to ascribe to unorganised players, since half the pledged player base are with her, because overpowered shield reward. And her 5C problem is never all that bad (weekly same rando prep aside) . So there's this great asymmetry that's presented as six of one, half a dozen of the other. And it's really hard to prove empirically that it isn't, so I'm not going to bother!

 

[Khan Tannhauser]

Wasn't Fed FUC players with type 10 turret bots. Was Randoms.

It's funny you mention this because a few days ago a known imperial pilot I won't name here posted a video of his turret boat cutter AFK farming merits in a RES site.

 

[QueensPawn]

I only see two possibilities here:

I'm not going to take responsibility for your lack of strategic insight. The initial plan was not to blanket UM, but we adapted our strategy as the week progressed.

It's funny you mention this because a few days ago a known imperial pilot I won't name here posted a video of his turret boat cutter AFK farming merits in a RES site.

Good lord, do you really not understand that video was a joke? That turret boat took... what, 30 minutes to destroy 8 ships and nearly died in the process? It was clearly not optimised in any way. Please work on your sense of humor.

 

[LDFR_Prozer]

You've got your timeline a little wrong. Each of those systems were about 30% undermined first, then fortified, then fully undermined.

I like how a rando is telling me that I have the timeline of my power wrong. Again, you have no clue the tools we've developed to keep track of events like this.

 

[QueensPawn]

I like how a rando is telling me that I have the timeline of my power wrong. Again, you have no clue the tools we've developed to keep track of events like this.

I don't know what tools you may have, true. But given that I was the proverbial boots on the ground in many of the systems you were talking about and looked at the numbers as I was turning in, you may want to work on your tools. It would seem they're not working properly.

 

[Khan Tannhauser]

I'm not going to take responsibility for your lack of strategic insight. The initial plan was not to blanket UM, but we adapted our strategy as the week progressed.

The plan was to turmoil Hudson without sniping, and that requires a blanket UM, there's no other way. Also, you guys planned for two weeks of work and rallied all the manpower you could get, so please, don't play dumb.

Good lord, do you really not understand that video was a joke? That turret boat took... what, 30 minutes to destroy 8 ships and nearly died in the process? It was clearly not optimised in any way. Please work on your sense of humor.

Oh, I see. It was a joke. All good then lol

 

[QueensPawn]

The plan was to turmoil Hudson without sniping

I've specifically addressed this already.

There was zero reliance on systems being fortified. We hoped we could goad the randoms into fortifying, but we still were preparing snipes of course. But once it became clear we were safe to turn in, we did.

 

[Khan Tannhauser]

I've specifically addressed this already.

Yeah, I saw your post saying you guys went YOLO with a 2 million merits operation, crossing fingers and "hoping" random people would secure a victory for the empire. Again, don't play dumb, it's insulting.

 

[QueensPawn]

Yeah, I saw your post saying you guys went YOLO with a 2 million merits operation, crossing fingers and "hoping" random people would secure a victory for the empire. Again, don't play dumb, it's insulting.

Please read back and quote where I said we were dependent on randoms forting to achieve victory. I'll wait.

 

[Khan Tannhauser]

Please read back and quote where I said we were dependent on randoms forting to achieve victory. I'll wait.

Man, it's in the post you quoted above: "We hoped we could goad the randoms into fortifying"

Then you said "but we still were preparing snipes of course", which is funny because once you've UM'ed a ton of systems and handed in your merits the first two days of the cycle there's no way any snipe could take Hudson by surprise. It makes no sense... talk about "strategic insight" lol

As it have been said already, without the forced fortification all this operation would have resulted in a scrap beneficial to Hudson. It doesn't matter if half of your UM merits where sniped or not, all your plan relied on Hudson being forted against his will.

 

[QueensPawn]

I don't know what the exact plan was, obviously. I'm a BGS nerd more than I understand the exact nuts and bolts of powerplay. But what I do know is that there were backup plans upon backup plans. Surprise was obviously not on the table, but there are other ways to snipe that don't involve using a broken powerplay update to complete it in total secrecy. I can understand why you might not be familiar with that though, since you only have experience with the one thing.

 

[Khan Tannhauser]

there are other ways to snipe that don't involve using a broken powerplay update to complete it in total secrecy

What? Now I have no idea what you're talking about. Please elaborate.

 

[QueensPawn]

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then perhaps I need to stop here. I wouldn't want to give strategy tips to the enemy.

 

[Khan Tannhauser]

Is this how you're trying to derail the conversation when you run out of arguments? I'm not really interested in your strategy tips, I was asking about the broken powerplay update thing you mentioned.

 

[QueensPawn]

Ask Prozer. I hear he's the expert.

 

[Khan Tannhauser]

Ask Prozer. I hear he's the expert.

Lol, not this again, I think we had enough with Oraki's post. We're talking about how the empire benefited from 5C last cycle, how your plan to UM Hudson relayed on "randos" forting and when you run out of ideas to justify your story it's time to bring up Prozer, the mean words BRNN told you in syschat and whatnot. What's next? Misaniovent showing up to talk about BID? lmao. Enough derailing, thank you.

 

[Ozric]

Well that lasted long didn't it?

There are a few rules on this forum that I think people need to refresh themselves of:
No naming and shaming
No targeted harassment
Discuss the post and not the poster

If I was to do some cleanup there would only be a couple of posts left. Please don't do this again.