1st Small Alliance Tournament Begins

The small alliance tournament has now begun.

The teams and locations are are follows:

Blue Team
G!	High Hills	363/-1975	/323/-1827/
ICON	Fremorn	-846/173
BLX	High Hills	276/-1899/	/205/-1805
Red Team
Q&S	Kal Tirikan	-343/712/
MoV	Kormandly	-560/-2664	-364/-2438/
*AA*	Kal Tirikan/ Ragallon	-474/594	322/444

Blue team one is surrounded by a mixture
 of large and small hills with a volcano
to the South East. The town itself is on a
large hill.

Blue team two has plains to the East but
otherwise is surrounded by small hills.
The town is on a small hill.

Blue team three is on a small hill with
other small hills to the South and West.
The rest of the squares around the town
are small forests. 

Blue team four only has 3 squares from
which it can be sieged. These squares are
all small hills while the town is on plains.

Blue team five has a small forest to the
South West and large hills to the North East
and North West. The remainder are small
hills with the town also on a small hill

Red team one is on a large mountain with
more large mountains to the North, East
and West. Directly to the South is a small
mountain with small hills on the South
East and South West corners.

Red team two is on a small hill surrounded
by a mixture of large hills, small mountains
and large forests with a small hill to the
North East

Red team three is on a small mountain
and is surrounded with small mountains,
large mountains, and small hills. There
is also a volcanic peak to the West.

Red team four is on a small forest with a
large forest to the South West and plains to
the West. All the other squares around it are
small forests.

Red team five is on a large hill with other
large hills to the South, North and North
West. There are small hills to the West,
South West and North East. To the East is a
small mountain and to the South East is a
small forest.

Author: Eowan 

pTory at War With BSH and TCol

On the 8th of August, TCol declared war on pTory after after Arthur, who was in pTory at the time, sieged one of Bkka's cities.

Bkka is reportedly away from the game at the moment as a result of real life issues and as a result of this, they dropped out of TCol in order to remain neutral. This then apparently gave Arthur the impression that the account was unattached and available for sieging. When asked for comment, Arthur said the following:

'I was looking for a new town and stumbled across her account with flat lined growth, no alliance and decent pop. I captured a town and Tcol took offence since she was a former member. I had incoming attacks before an igm, and they declared war before I made my 2nd reply. Several ptory members had incoming/quit the alliance soon after the wardec so I left the alliance and told Tcol to focus on me instead, that it didn't involve ptory.'

The issue comes from the fact that as a result of a surrender agreement from an earlier war with TCol, pTory were not allowed into the CDS. Arthur sieging the town violated this agreement though as Arthur was a recent entrant to pTory meaning there is a chance he was not aware of this.

A peace deal was offered to pTory by TCol which goes as follows:

'I have talked to my counsil and to Bkka, as well as with Arthur. Since Arthur exo´d our city away, and has since left pTory we have deicded to take one of his cities in return for ours. Since it seems pTory had little knowledge of the fact beforehand, we will once again strive to be lenient. These are our terms for a (renewed) surrender agreement; 

1) 500 million gold, by way of fine for breaking your original surrender terms, 

2) A paragraph will be added and maintained on the pTory alliance profile explaining that its members are not allowed to enter CDS territory for any reason, as part of a surrender to Tcol (this is to avoid repetition of this incident, and I expect it to be written in respectful language. I don´t want to see the word bully or similar appear in this text).

3) pTory will apologize to Bkka for the transgression against her while she was ill. 

If you agree to these terms, please reply directly to this message stating that you accept. A peace offer will then be issued in good faith that you will fulfill your obligations, and Tcol will be ordered to stop all actions against pTory. Attacks on route will continue, but no new operations, diplo or military, will be launched.'

When I asked Grombrindal about the 500 million payment he said the following:
'Because I felt it would be an easy sum to pay, and expected it to be accepted in a heartbeat. It´s not our fault pTory doesn´t educate its new members on its political realities. Althought the other part of this surrender deal is that they do from now on.'

It should be noted that during this conversation with Grombrindal, he mentioned that the payment had already been made though by someone external to pTory saying that 'double' the amount requested had been paid.

During this, Grombrindal had a spy monitoring pTory AC and after the offer of a peace agreement was sent to Hellie, she sent out the following mass mail:

'I am doing my best to keep you all updated on every communication with Grombindl.  Please share your communications with tCol in our alliance wide.  It is aparent that tcol members are now bullying our members with private igms.  POST them alliance wide, so we can all see what the tactics are.

I do not want this to escalate.  We will not retaliate.  We are not at war, and have no aggresive intentions in this matter.  Arthur, the gent who seiged a town in mal moshta is paying the price for his actions.

We are negotiating a fair treaty, with resonable terms.  We have not been an agressor here, there has been no actions taken by our members to defend, they are only executing attacks that hide the bullying from global chat and abusing our integrety by breaching our alliance chat.

Taunting, and goading are a war tacticis  that I abhore, I will not willingly partiipate in.  Please refrain from being dragged into the muck in global chat.

Any personal igms you receive, that are a threat or veiled attempt at subverting our council should be posted alliance wide, to ensure that you all are kept in the loop and that we can provide you with appropriate council.  Please mark these notes in the subject line with ''alliance wide''.

To our Traitor, 1.  good show, several have left this alliance, two have abandoned, and i lost an hour of my life trying to save another, she will abandon shortly: congratulations. Best of luck poaching our elgean members, nothing like a hostage on your team.   2.  you are still with us, you must really have a thing for ptory?  isn't your own alliance fun and filled with positive encouragement? and 3. most importantly #3, when you are copy and pasting from our a/c , ensure it is accurate.  as the first note you sent to Grmbrindle was inaccurate and out of context.  I said ''hold on, Bianca..... I'm thinking...... and it hurts.'' it was a joke.  

For the rest of you Purgatorians...... move your towns, use the resources that I have set up in Chulbran.  I'll make it fun and a game, to see who can get their towns there the fastest!

Hellie.'

Grombrindal then reportedly sent the following IGM to several pTory members:

'Hail pTory ,

This mail is going out to several, or all, of your roster because once more Yuki (that´s Hellie for you poor new pTory members) has chosen to complicate a simple matter with unnecessary drama and an approach of mock transparency. This mail will address why Tcol declared war on pTroy, and why we think our surrender terms are more than reasonable. It will also serve as an introduction for a request I will make of you at the end.

Last year pTory was led into war with Tcol and TA2IN (then 2 separate alliances) by Yuki. She ragequit shortly after, leaving it to Ubi to negotiate a surrender. The surrender terms were mild, with Tcol only demanding that pTory permanently leave the CDS landclaim, and laying claim to Yuki´s (now abandoned) cities in that area. After this occurred, TomR returned and claimed leadership of pTory (I will not go into the injustice suffered by Ubi after this occurrence, you can ask your leadership if you are interested). Upon being asked, TomR reaffirmed his compliance with the surrender terms agreed by Ubi.

Since this event, no further conflict (or even contact) was had between Tcol and pTory. Until last week, when a pTory member entered the CDS claim to capture the city of a hospitalized Tcol member. Not only was this a cowardly act of aggression, but it clearly constituted a breach of the surrender terms agreed last year. 

Trough dialogue with all involved parties, Tcol reached the tentative conclusion that pTory leadership did not have advanced knowledge of the act committed by Arthur. In this light we offered a set of 3 very mild surrender terms; a round sum of 500M gold, paid not for the city, but as a fine for breaking the earlier treaty; a clause on the pTory profile to avoid future incidents, and an apology.

Now, it has come to my attention that your leadership considers 500M too steep a price. New players in your AC are quick to agree, not understanding the merely symbolic value of such a sum. To put things in perspective for those, yet poor, players; most Tcol members keep at least 100M in each city to offset goldburns of several tons. To further put things in perspective, pTory has a trade rank of over 20 Billion, and former pTory council members that have been in Tcol since the previous war assure me pTory could easily get together 5 Billion. 

I notice, to my dismay, the usual Yuki rhetoric involving bullying is emerging once more. Tcol does not recognize itself in such descriptions, and we will not be pulled into one of her drama queen episodes again. Therefore I hereby request that you remove Yuki (Hellie/Thumper) from these proceedings. If you wish to continue peace talks, have Dendro, or anyone else trustworthy you have left, contact me.

We are not bullying; we were wronged, a surrender treaty was broken, and a price must be paid. 

Kind Regards,

Grom'

He also sent the following IGM to Bianca BoeHammer (Willd):

'Please stop spreading nonsense. pTory isn´t  being asked to pay 500M for one city, they are being fined because they broke their peace terms. The alliance has a trade rank of over 20B, so it will certainly not cost anyone real money. Think very carefully about how you proceed because my mood is not improving with this charade you are putting up in AC. '

Some in pTory are saying that this shows that Grombrindal is policing their AC saying that what is said there is none of Grombrindal's business.

In a brief interview with Grombrindal, he had the following to say about it:

'Meh, Willd was an old friend. I tried to get her to reverse course...I wouldn't call that policing them'

Bianca BoeHammer and her partner Heavy Hand have both abandoned their accounts and could not be reached for comment.


The following mass mail was then sent out to TCol:
'Hail Tcol, 
Peace has been agreed on with pTory, and seperately with Arthur. Please halt all actions against pTory members, and Arthur, recall what you can, and resume operations against Saints and Aesir. 
Victory to Tcol! 
Grom'

It seems that these orders were followed as some blockades that had been placed on Walela's town of Silent Corner have been removed.

However, the peace offer with pTory has since been withdrawn, when asked why Grombrindal said the following:
'Because they did not accept it, and didn't communicate with me directly once. I only talked to <redacted> and received no official surrender....This, to me, is unacceptable. As such, pTory is now at war with Tcol indefinetely'

BSH, a supporting alliances of the CDS, declared war on pTory at 10:37 server time today.

Skorg refused to give comment and when asked for comment, Hellie sent the following IGM from Grombrindal:
'Deal is off. We will not talk again.'

I've received several IGMs about this which are not included here. This is due to the fact that while they are relevant, their inclusion would lengthen an already quotation heavy story and they do not directly add events that were already discussed in other IGMs.
I've also redacted the name of the person who paid pTory's surrender. This is because they originally asked for privacy in this when they told me about it before I had received any news of it from other players. If they wish their name to be made public, I will do this at their request.

EDIT 1:
As I published this article, the following IGM was sent to me by Hellie:

Just a quick update:

Peace was offered between Tcol and pTory, all terms were met. 

The offer has now been recinded.  There was a hidden time clause for the offer, I am sorry, Purgatory, that was never communicated to me.

BSH have now declared on pTory.

Do not retalliate, nothing has changed, we did nothing wrong.  To retaliate gives them fuel.  Bullying will stop in Illyriad if we talk about it.  We have lost many players from our alliance because of this. 

Bianca/Willd/Heavy's Other Hand has been bullied personally, and abandoned - a huge loss to the game, as she was one of the most active g/c players, and supplier of newbies - shame.

Your council are still working as a team, Bahar, Guilliem, Dendro, Gromp, Tomr, Mon Mothma and I are working on resolving this untenable situation.

H.

EDIT 2:
After the publishing of this article, Grombrindal got in touch saying that a key aspect was missed out and this was the complete reason for his decision to withdraw the peace offer. He said that it was because pTory, rather than accepting peace, were seeking out dev intervention to have the war undone rather than ended via a peace agreement.
He said the following:
'Its the combination of things. They did not negotiate, <redacted> handled it all. I accepted because I really wanted to be done with it. And then they say, meh we´ll wait to see if the devs come to our aid instead.'

A source also sent me a pTory AC log showing pTory leadership discussing this after publication.

Author: Eowan

YOrk Sieged Out of Keshalia for Defending His Kills /// ~NS~ Purging Keshalia

YOrk [VAST], was recently sieged out of the region of Keshalia after defending a kill he made from Briann [~NS~] who attempted to poach his kill.

The situation started when Briann noticed a kill near his city. He claims to have scouted it but despite significant investigation, no scout report has been sent to me detailing this. He then sent an army to the kill to occupy it.

YOrk, who had intended to harvest the kill, had harvesters killed by this army. Again, no evidence has been supplied by ~NS~ who claim that YOrk sent the harvesters after the army landed. YOrk then cleared the square of Briann's troops.

This led to retaliation from Briann in the form of diplos and demands from Gijak Kafak for '2k saddles, 2k horses, and 5 mill gold' in compensation for Briann's troop losses while attempting to poach a kill which was reportedly a legion of scaled chargers.

I got in touch with Gijak Kafak and YOrk and they gave the following statements:
YOrk:
Hi there man 
Im not too active lately so sorry for the late answer. Its a long story, some bugger called Briuan started occupying my kills in Keshalia. He killed quite a few of my skinners too. So i sent my army to clear it away, NS mailed me threatening and demanding some payments tpo compensate their losses but i sent them all to hell. After that they launched a campaign against me, taking my Keshalia towns. 
That's pretty it. 
Good hunting, Y.

Gijak Kafak:
Briann so a kill unattended and had been for well over a week. he had scouted it several times ( no i will not go back through thousands of igms to dredge up scout reports) never was anything there or the amount of things there change. He placed a army on it and sent harvestors. 6 hrs later YOrk saw him there and sent harvestors. Well as anyone with a brain knows troops on a sq will kill harvesters, which they did. YOrk then sent a army any killed Brianns. That is what the issue was and that was the issue. YOrk sent and you can see his copy and paste that his harvesters arrived on the square and where killed by Brianns army meaning Brianns army was there and in place. It is what I tried to explaining to YOrk. His alliance did not want to work it out and kicked him from their ranks. So we did what we had to do YOrk was unwilling to be reasonable and we deemed him unworthy of being a guest in the LC after he for no reason killed another army of Brianns 8 sqs from Brianns city. The first incident was 12sqs from Briann and 38 sq from YORk. If it was YOrks kill then that far from his city he should have had a army on it. OK there is the info you requested anything thing else in the matter is unworth my time Please do not igm me again

When I got in touch with Briann about getting hold of those scout reports or notification logs so I could have ~NS~'s full story, I was threatened with the sieging of both my account and the accounts that I was permitted to have in relation to the Small Alliance Tournament for the purposes of making flags by Gijak Kafak

YOrk has since had all of his Keshalian towns removed.

Gijak Kafak also threatened to report me if I published IGMs which can be found by clicking here.

It should be noted for those who attempt to suppress the publishing of IGMs on this site, in the past I have had problems with the DEVS in relation to the publishing of information related to the DEVS punishments of players. I was informed during these problems that as long as there was no link to articles breaching the rules in the forums, it was permitted by former Community Manager, GM Rikoo. 

YOrk's sieging comes shortly after a list of unaligned players was sent to me by a source within ~NS~ indicating it is likely that ~NS~ are beginning a general purge of the Keshalia region, the list is as follows:

Kingly

Sir Richard

wvamorgan

tanker1

Khaleesi

SnugSnug

electrician

plumberman

Chieftan

Devicus


It has been confirmed to me that SnugSnug has reached alternative arrangements to prevent sieging. Others on the list have not managed this.

After a discussion with Gijak Kafak about this list, my source then informed me that ~NS~ were attempting to locate them through the use of IGM API keys. Reportedly, kicking was meant to occur yesterday morning however, to the best of my knowledge, no one has been kicked indicating the API key method was ineffective.

Author: Eowan