Looking at Leadership from the end of the road

DeletedUser

Guest
This is my first post to a TW board, and very well may be my last, and it will be long, sorry, skip it if you like.

First to TarrynAshley, I hope you get a chance to read this. As far as opponents go the only one I've faced in my four worlds that is in the same league as you is konarkg (and that is presuming that he was a single player). You certainly seem like a genuine person and please understand that the reason I didn't communicate to you more is a couple fold. 1) I have to allocate and prioritize my time and I must give my time to my tribe-mates before I give it to opponents. 2) I don't trust myself enough to not accidentally give up valuable intel in a pleasant conversation to engage in one.

Certainly what little contact I have with you and via Silverwolf I am sure that you are a very caring individual who wants to just have fun in this game. Please understand that I hold you in high regard.

The GR*FM/FOME war is in many ways the most poignant engagement that I have been in, and it is so for reasons that continue to escape me. So first I feel the need to discuss it in detail where I have not felt inclined to for the other wars I have been in.

With the world well in hand Ephette, Dutchess of Shadow made an offer to GR*FM and FOME. Have a war, decide who's best, then when the fighting is over we will induct the survivors into Shadow. Oh, and by the way, if you don't we will declare war on both of you.

That said, let's talk about the leadership of the tribes involed and specifically where they failed.

Ephette: I am sorry to say this, but if you really wanted a GR*FM/FOME war, that was the wrong mail. It said everything that needed to be said, but it needed to be said differently.

TarrynAshley/Styv: You were presented with a gift. You were offered, in a world that has been decided, to be allowed to test and hone your skills against a roughly equal opponent, without intervention of the dominant power. The only one that you should be worried about. And you spazzed, you both chose to take insult rather than inquiry. All you needed to do was to ask for clarification, but you didn't. You both said "My Honor" won't allow me to fight "My friend", which makes sense, since you didn't bother to ask WHY was Shadow going to declare war.

Winvarwen: I should have sent the damn e-Mail. I knew that, presuming that my Dutchess actually wanted a GR*FM/FOME war, that it was the wrong one. So I drafted a mail to send to Styv (and then I would have sent a similar one to TA) explaining what the offer was, since they obviously didn't understand the true spirit of the offer. But Styv's interview with the newsletter convinced me that he had no desire for any conflict, friendly or otherwise and so the mail went unsent. OK I'm an idiot too.

Honor:

As a point of honor, honor and truth are consistent, they are not mailable. If you are to say, I am fighting you because I am honorable and you are dishonorable, then for you to maintain your honor, you must conduct yourself in an honorable fashion, even if your opponent is not. (In this I am *not* saying that Ephette conducted herself dishonorably. I'm saying if HITLER were the one hosing you, you still need to be honorable to be considered so.)

If you take umbrage to an opponent telling you, hey, do what we want or we will destroy you. Oh, and by the way it will be on this date. Even if the opponent is completely dishonorable in action and deed, you cannot strike first without warning AND maintain honor. Just so ya know. What a dissapointment.

Leadership:

Leadership is not measured by your accomplishments, but by the accomplishments of those you lead.

If Ephette had but one village I would station half my troops there, because what she gives to the tribe exceeds anything that those troops would be worth. I do not know TA well enough to know whether she is a good leader or poor. That she is the largest member of her tribe actually speaks against her, but that (at least in my case) she lead the assault and let her brethren take the villages speaks for her.

What I do know, is that I would not trade one for the other. Leadership is more than just one dimension and Ephette has proven herself to me in every dimension that I could conceive to test. She is a servant leader and should be commended as such, not degraded because she isn't the biggest fish in the pond. About the only thing she lacks is a little tact. I can live with that, even if it means I have to take a month out to engage someone I should not have been at war with (TA).

The War:

Unlike the Feb.13 war and the first "Coalation" war. The war with GR*FM was never in doubt. The whole course I mean. GR*Fm was a very tight group. TA in particular had her villages very close to each other. Shadows member are spread all over the place. I'm all over the place. Not only that but I had most of my troops on long range missions when GR*FM attacked. This gave GR*FM a tremendous short term advantage.

The initial losses were inevitable. Especially given the lack of warning (though 24 hour warning would have done very little for me anyway). After the initial triage of the losses however comes the support -- lots of it -- Shadow is not dominant without reason. Teamwork is the reason, supporting your tribe mate even when it may be inconieniant is the reason. Then once the bleeding stops the counter attacks begin. Sadly (and I keep doing this which annoys me to no end) I/we tried to be slick, and that failed. TA was just too tight, it was too quick and easy for her to move her troops.

I am no General Lee (American Civil War General for the South, generally considered the most brilliant general of the war), I am a General Grant (they guy who defeated Lee, only because he was too obstinate to quit when he lost) and eventually I went back to my ways and just started pounding her until she pretty much ran out of troops. And that was when she quit. She was going to start losing villages, and it was going to be a lot, and it was going to be quick.

TA I laud you, you did a great job defending, and you did so knowing that the inevitable was going to happen, and you stuck it out far longer than any opponent I have met, and certainly longer than I would have.

I just wish, that in your role of leadership, that you would have taken the road of clarification rather than insult, because I am certain that GR*FM would have succeeded over FOME and that you would have become my tribe-mate rather than my enemy.

God bless you in all your future endeavours.

Sincerely (no wax)

Winvarwen
Don Rollins
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Well, that was quite the speech :)
konarkg (and that is presuming that he was a single player).
Yes, he didn't have a co-player.
 
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