Shadryk 01
Guest
There has been much discussion about the justifications for INSO's war against N.E.B. Here is my perspective:
INSO does not need any justification for war. Unless prohibited by diplomacy, we will attack any player or any tribe at any time. We will attack for any good reason, any bad reason, or no reason at all. We will attack with notice or without notice. We will attack with a declared war or without a declared war. We will attack with an 18,000 nuke onslaught, or we will simply allow our players to feed at their leisure. The choice is ours alone. Every member of INSO is their own diplomat. They can do whatever they want to whomever they want, whenever and however they want. We will hear no cries from our victims. That is the INSO way.
Having said that, we did have alliances with TR and Beyond. But they were not equal alliances. Here's the story:
The following is my best understanding of the facts. Some of the details may be a bit off, but the general idea should be clear.
Three years ago, we attacked and defeated a series of tribes to our South and West. From the ashes, we recruited several fine players. One substandard player who was brought in was Kenski. I was personally opposed to his joining, but Marco insisted and pledged to tutor him, so I dropped my opposition. Kenski later left the game, and gave his password to another tribe. At the time, I believed he gave it to Solace, a short-time member of INSO who was booted for spying. We reported the rule breach. The mods replied by saying they took "appropriate action," which means they caught someone. I checked the Dicpl players to see if anybody was banned. Per my best recollection, Hoss (not Solace) was locked out of the game. Hoss denies being banned. Normally, I take players at their word, but Hoss was in the same small tribe as Solace, and the new Kenski is a very close associate of Hoss. Despite his denials, I believe there is a good chance that Hoss was involved in spy action against INSO, and the acquisition of an INSO account. That's an old issue and not a major one. But it is one that I have kept in my head over time.
During the first World War, triggered by our attack on FLUX, it became necessary for all tribes in W13 to choose a side. TR (a tribe of players that we earlier fought against) sided with INSO. Kobbra was my contact and the person I recognized as the Leader. Hoss, Solace and Kenski were members, and the former 2 probably held some position of influence. TR's alliance with INSO sparked a civil war. Solace quit the tribe along with a few others, and formed THOR. They were immediately crushed. INSO provided the firepower. TR cleaned them up.
We unwittingly found ourselves "allied" with TR's crap academy tribe as well. These players were mostly refugees from an earlier war, plus some low-level players along the rim. They took every gray in sight and moved into our core. With Kobbra as leader, we were able to handle these issues. He had players vacate entire clusters under threat of dismissal.
Kobbra eventually left with a few others to form NMMA. A civil war ensued. Proriley (a NMMA co-leader) begged for us to intervene. We did not. Despite the regime change in TR, we kept the alliance in place. If we ended it, it would have created disquiet in an area that we did not want to be active in.
Regarding Beyond: At the start of WWI (FLUX), we upgraded our NAP with Beyond to an alliance. Beyond is different. The loyalties and friendship run deep. Many of our own members come from Beyond. They've helped a number of us with support when we were on the ropes.
TR wanted to merge with Riders so they could get closer to the action down South. I offered to support a package-recruit of their top players as an alternate, but they did not want to leave their underperforming members behind. The sentiment is kind, but poor players ruin a tribe and we do not want to recruit a package of players that we believe has a significant number of low-performers. So, they merged with Beyond. Beyond was encouraged by Raider to do the merge. I was personally opposed to it, but did not intervene. Beyond was the "better" alliance. With the merge, TR improved their alliance with INSO by way of associating with Beyond. I did not want an improved alliance with TR because that relationship required aggressive management.
Riders was replete with problems, some of which had to do with us. The TR-half was "assertive" in nobling issues, occasionally issuing orders to INSO warriors (e.g. that barb belonged to one our our deleted players - clear you troops so I can noble it). CarieO (N.E.B/Rider/TR co-duke) recruited an obvious refugee, wyethamos, without consulting us or the leadership from Beyond. Hoss allowed his members to start clusters using barbs in K16 to see if we would tolerate it. Again, we were not consulted. Peterrope is a refugee from an early war who is a sworn enemy of INSO. He hates us and badly and welcomed the change to get his revenge. He is in N.E.B. The list goes on....
Basically, they pushed & pushed everywhere they could and continually tested the bounds of the alliance. We have always had issues with other tribes using diplomacy as cover to do things that would normally trigger a military response. TR was no different. So, while we had 2 allies, Beyond was by far our preferred ally.
Around October of last year, a spy informed me that Hoss and Kenski wanted to form a NAP with ORION and attack INSO. They were unclear or doubtful that others would go along, but it was their desire nonetheless. It seems I may have learned of their ideas before the rest of the Rider leadership. However, the data was "single-sourced," which is not always reliable. I advised the council and we "monitored" it.
Since that time, we continued to receive some bits of intel regarding TR aspirations to attack INSO. I don't know how serious these "ideas" were or if they were moved into an operational phase. My best guess is that their plans never became operational.
PWC was an ally. They turned on us, taking a lot of isolated clusters and killing a few players. We will not tolerate any more "PWC" alliances. While TR's plan was more aspirational than operational, their intent is what matters. Bottom line: These guys were not our friends. I believe they would stab us in the back if given the chance.
So, Hoss sent me a PM, asking us to stay out of the way while they attacked Beyond. To which, I delivered this reply to our tribe:
[spoil]INSO Declares WAR!!![/spoil]
Of course, these are merely background facts. The bottom line is they were attacked because they were without diplomacy, they are not friends of INSO, and we had the means to dispose of them. Red = dead.
INSO does not need any justification for war. Unless prohibited by diplomacy, we will attack any player or any tribe at any time. We will attack for any good reason, any bad reason, or no reason at all. We will attack with notice or without notice. We will attack with a declared war or without a declared war. We will attack with an 18,000 nuke onslaught, or we will simply allow our players to feed at their leisure. The choice is ours alone. Every member of INSO is their own diplomat. They can do whatever they want to whomever they want, whenever and however they want. We will hear no cries from our victims. That is the INSO way.
Having said that, we did have alliances with TR and Beyond. But they were not equal alliances. Here's the story:
The following is my best understanding of the facts. Some of the details may be a bit off, but the general idea should be clear.
Three years ago, we attacked and defeated a series of tribes to our South and West. From the ashes, we recruited several fine players. One substandard player who was brought in was Kenski. I was personally opposed to his joining, but Marco insisted and pledged to tutor him, so I dropped my opposition. Kenski later left the game, and gave his password to another tribe. At the time, I believed he gave it to Solace, a short-time member of INSO who was booted for spying. We reported the rule breach. The mods replied by saying they took "appropriate action," which means they caught someone. I checked the Dicpl players to see if anybody was banned. Per my best recollection, Hoss (not Solace) was locked out of the game. Hoss denies being banned. Normally, I take players at their word, but Hoss was in the same small tribe as Solace, and the new Kenski is a very close associate of Hoss. Despite his denials, I believe there is a good chance that Hoss was involved in spy action against INSO, and the acquisition of an INSO account. That's an old issue and not a major one. But it is one that I have kept in my head over time.
During the first World War, triggered by our attack on FLUX, it became necessary for all tribes in W13 to choose a side. TR (a tribe of players that we earlier fought against) sided with INSO. Kobbra was my contact and the person I recognized as the Leader. Hoss, Solace and Kenski were members, and the former 2 probably held some position of influence. TR's alliance with INSO sparked a civil war. Solace quit the tribe along with a few others, and formed THOR. They were immediately crushed. INSO provided the firepower. TR cleaned them up.
We unwittingly found ourselves "allied" with TR's crap academy tribe as well. These players were mostly refugees from an earlier war, plus some low-level players along the rim. They took every gray in sight and moved into our core. With Kobbra as leader, we were able to handle these issues. He had players vacate entire clusters under threat of dismissal.
Kobbra eventually left with a few others to form NMMA. A civil war ensued. Proriley (a NMMA co-leader) begged for us to intervene. We did not. Despite the regime change in TR, we kept the alliance in place. If we ended it, it would have created disquiet in an area that we did not want to be active in.
Regarding Beyond: At the start of WWI (FLUX), we upgraded our NAP with Beyond to an alliance. Beyond is different. The loyalties and friendship run deep. Many of our own members come from Beyond. They've helped a number of us with support when we were on the ropes.
TR wanted to merge with Riders so they could get closer to the action down South. I offered to support a package-recruit of their top players as an alternate, but they did not want to leave their underperforming members behind. The sentiment is kind, but poor players ruin a tribe and we do not want to recruit a package of players that we believe has a significant number of low-performers. So, they merged with Beyond. Beyond was encouraged by Raider to do the merge. I was personally opposed to it, but did not intervene. Beyond was the "better" alliance. With the merge, TR improved their alliance with INSO by way of associating with Beyond. I did not want an improved alliance with TR because that relationship required aggressive management.
Riders was replete with problems, some of which had to do with us. The TR-half was "assertive" in nobling issues, occasionally issuing orders to INSO warriors (e.g. that barb belonged to one our our deleted players - clear you troops so I can noble it). CarieO (N.E.B/Rider/TR co-duke) recruited an obvious refugee, wyethamos, without consulting us or the leadership from Beyond. Hoss allowed his members to start clusters using barbs in K16 to see if we would tolerate it. Again, we were not consulted. Peterrope is a refugee from an early war who is a sworn enemy of INSO. He hates us and badly and welcomed the change to get his revenge. He is in N.E.B. The list goes on....
Basically, they pushed & pushed everywhere they could and continually tested the bounds of the alliance. We have always had issues with other tribes using diplomacy as cover to do things that would normally trigger a military response. TR was no different. So, while we had 2 allies, Beyond was by far our preferred ally.
Around October of last year, a spy informed me that Hoss and Kenski wanted to form a NAP with ORION and attack INSO. They were unclear or doubtful that others would go along, but it was their desire nonetheless. It seems I may have learned of their ideas before the rest of the Rider leadership. However, the data was "single-sourced," which is not always reliable. I advised the council and we "monitored" it.
Since that time, we continued to receive some bits of intel regarding TR aspirations to attack INSO. I don't know how serious these "ideas" were or if they were moved into an operational phase. My best guess is that their plans never became operational.
PWC was an ally. They turned on us, taking a lot of isolated clusters and killing a few players. We will not tolerate any more "PWC" alliances. While TR's plan was more aspirational than operational, their intent is what matters. Bottom line: These guys were not our friends. I believe they would stab us in the back if given the chance.
So, Hoss sent me a PM, asking us to stay out of the way while they attacked Beyond. To which, I delivered this reply to our tribe:
[spoil]INSO Declares WAR!!![/spoil]
Of course, these are merely background facts. The bottom line is they were attacked because they were without diplomacy, they are not friends of INSO, and we had the means to dispose of them. Red = dead.
Last edited:
