I have just returned to Discovery several weeks ago after a break of about half a year.
I had kept my characters alive, including my BAF ones whom you may have met:
-Lord Admiral Percy Nelles (a useless fat old drunk), the former Fleet Admiral, dating back to the days when I started BAF in 2008, until I stepped down to be replaced by LeMaitre in 2009.
-Lieutenant Robert Lawrence, an alternate since it does not make that much sense for old Percy to be shoehorning himself into a Templar.
Shortly after returning, I learned from Beunt that he wanted to step down from running BAF. I offered to step up. He accepted.
I am looking forward to doing this again. Bretonia is the underdog in Disco. In 4.85 we got beat up by the Kusari, and in 4.86, I guess, by the GRN. Good. Can you think of a better reason for us to start taking names?
The new Fleet Admiral will be my old character James Ralston. He was Minister of Defense. In brief, he (a staunch supporter of the Crown) gets assigned to the position of Fleet Admiral by the Royalists in order to lock in traditionalist control of the Bretonian Armed Forces prior to possible election victories by the Populists.
Fleet Admiral Martin Bridge will be demoted to Admiral, but given a Knighthood to try to sway him to the Royalists. Will that ploy work? Dunno. Ask Beunt.. Anyway, Sir Admiral Martin Bridge has a nice ring to it.
I'm going to do a bunch of rollcalls to try to sort out who is out there in the Bretonian community doing what, following which I will update the Faction Status. Stay tuned...
Oh, and download "Fall" here. Oldy but goody. Get you all in the mood to pillage Kusari.
The following Principles are the ones which I intend to use in running BAF. They are the same ones that I always have had.
1) Inclusion. Almost anyone will be accepted into BAF, and will be provided their ship(s) and gear if they do not have the means. Any existing Indy, or new player, or an old out-of-practice one that wants to come back. Reason: Almost any inexperienced player can be made better. Treat ALL players with courtesy and respect.
2) RP/PVP Balance : Competence and fairness. We shall use good tactics with squads of small ships to win, but we always try to ensure a fair fight. Capital ships will be primarily RP devices. All that is especially important when we have the weekly events, which I hope to start up again. The weekly events should have good RP backstories (although "Lets meet KNF in Dundee and Pew-Pew" has merit sometimes...)
3) Encouraged Multifactioning, especially with our "enemies". Then it makes it possible to even out any possible RP/PVP event, and also makes players see the other side's point of view. Multifactioners do not have a "us" versus "them" mentality. It's like a big game of dodgeball, and sometimes you are "shirts" and sometimes "skins".
4) The perpetuation of the Bretonian Government players is encouraged, and I do not want to control it, but as the leader of BAF I need to know what you are doing with diplomatic proposals before they are implemented. Don't surprise me, please.
I want to thank Beunt for this opportunity. He sees this game very much the way I do. Like I said, stay tuned.