War with Morgan

[Googlie]

I like - I like it a lot

And a Rear-Admiral for Modo?

Lt Colonels for the other 3 unit commanding officers?

(Plus, Zeiter has quietly been assembling himself a pretty significant task force - R-112 upgraded to amphigat, a Unity Rover, and an Ogre - that's surely worth a Lt. Colonel as well?)

[Modo44]

I can live with promotions.

Just remember, that the game is still going on, and we should stay below maximum rank most of the time.

[Googlie]

Well there are still a few ranks to go:

Brigadier General
Major General
Lieutenant General
General
Field Marshal

(not sure of the order for the lesser generals)

[Kassiopeia]

That's correct, e.g. for the US army it's:

Brigadier General
Major General
Lieutenant General
General
General of the Army (only in times of war)

The European equivalent for the General of the Army being the Field Marshal. The first General of the Army was Eisenhower, the title was established so that he wouldn't be outranked by the Allied Field Marshals (mainly Montgomery).

Nothing stops us from using our own General level ranks, though, for instance:

Lieutenant General
Major General
Colonel General
General
General of the Federation

(Note that all General level officers are referred to as "Generals" unless a distinction between generals is needed; the same goes for Lieutenant Colonels, who are Colonels unless there's an actual Colonel around. Therefore Lieutenant General Maniac would be General Maniac in common Spartan lingo.)

And for the admiralty:

Commander-Admiral
Rear Admiral
Vice Admiral
Admiral
Admiral of the Federation

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
Uh, yes, because actually the University AI pulled it off and we are covering for them because it would be awfully embarrassing for us that our computerixed pactmate would pull something like that off while we twiddle our thumbs, not knowing what to do about the Morganites.

No but think about it, humor me at least. For all the Morgans know, Morgan Industries might still be standing! They have no in-game confirmation of its destruction, all they have is a claim from us.

Let me ask you this, if the Gaians announced tomorrow that they had captured Sparta Command, would you believe them? I would at the least be extremely sceptical. The Morgans defended MI intensely. We knocked out, as I recall, 8 units - and obliterated a base. All they saw coming at them were 4 impact rovers. If I were a Morgan, I would be sceptical, and would even be conjuring wild conspiracy theories as to why we would fake something like this, just as I would be now if the Gaians announced the invasion of Sparta Command.

So don't you think there is at least a debate in Morgania whether or not this claim is true?

[Googlie]

I agree with Kassi (below - edited later after his post) - while it might be cute for a week until Morgan opens their turn, we have nothing to gain long term from the attempt at deception - plus, Morgan has the Uni infiltrated and will know they're not capable of it

[Kassiopeia]

Ah, but why would we make such a claim? It would be disproven in a heartbeat the moment the Morganites find out. Why on earth would we try something like that? It makes no sense. The fact that we did it will only damage our foreign relations to boot, the only gain to be made was not the fact that we did it, but its results, which can't be faked or lied about. They simply are.

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
Ah, but why would we make such a claim? It would be disproven in a heartbeat the moment the Morganites find out. Why on earth would we try something like that? It makes no sense. The fact that we did it will only damage our foreign relations to boot, the only gain to be made was not the fact that we did it, but its results, which can't be faked or lied about. They simply are.

We have no reason to do it whatsoever!
But can the Morgans be that sure that we have no reason? I don't think they can. If the Gaians and Angels were in on the conspiracy with us, this might be a cool ploy to distract and panic them for a week. There are surely other conspiracy theories out there too, probably much better than mine.

The Morgans must be sure that we have no concievable reason to pull of a stunt like this, in order to be able to accept our statement as fact, and in my opinion they don't have the information to do that.

Of course, they might make an educated guess that we are probably not faking, but there must be room for debate in Morgania. Like I said, would you believe the Gaians if they claimed to have captured Sparta Command?

[Googlie]

here are the comparitive ranks (from the Nato website):

[Modo44]

Snoddasmannen, you are missing the obvious point: they knew it was Spartan units near their shores. Admitting to an amphibious strike should be enough for them to completely believe this. I mean, they did put Formers and unarmed Probes i our way, so we know they were not entirely sure they could stop us.

[Kassiopeia]

Like I said, would you believe the Gaians if they claimed to have captured Sparta Command?

Have we just had failed peace negotiations with the Gaians? Are the Gaians pissed off at us and out for our blood? Are the Gaians militaristic? Do they have the capability to pull of such an attack? Have we observed Gaian ships or other units move about suspiciously near our coasts?

It's all a matter of context. In the current context, my firm belief is that the Morganites are confident that we have erased Morgan Industries off the Planet, and are more concentrated on:

1) Whose fault is it that we ended up losing the PTS and our headquarter base
2) What can we do about our current social engineering disaster, what can we do to rebuild and recover
3) How can we take the fight back at the Spartans.

I am of course assuming that they are rational beings, capable of distancing themselves from the situation and judging it carefully. They may not be able to do that right now, who knows.

[Snoddasmannen]

But Modo, we might have decided to abort the attack but then attempt to pull of this elaborate hoax for whatever reason. We know there is no reason, no conspiracy, but they can't.

I believe they thought Morgan Industries was safe btw. Placing units in the fungus was to reduce damage via shore landings, not to stop an attack on MI. If they were unsure of the safety of their capital they would have moved their plasma rover there instead of out to the fungus where it did nothing to prevent the attack.

[Kassiopeia]

Unfortunately, I guess this debate won't be resolved until months from now when the game ends and the private forums are opened

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia

It's all a matter of context. In the current context, my firm belief is that the Morganites are confident that we have erased Morgan Industries off the Planet, and are more concentrated on:

Well you are probably right. But I definitely want to believe that there was room for a discussion on this issue at some point in the Morgan camp, we will see after the game I guess

EDIT: I don't mean to sound too violently convinced about my point here, I just love to theorize about these things I'm off to bed now, been a looong day.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Modo44
A simple question, Drogue. Is the obliteration of a base reason enough to give out extensions? Because I have a feeling all other factions will want them now...

Something unexpected in the turn that reasonably requires extra time will be granted an extension. Only normal activites are prohibited. For instance, because the Gaian's were first, they may need an extension to deal with their response, but the others would already have had time to formulate a response, so unless new information is there, they wouldn't get an extension.

Extensions are given because they're needed, reasonably.