Storyline

[Unseelie]

So, not being privy to the future of the lore, but having been privy to what was supposed to happen, and being involved in some debates, I've been thinking about gallia.

To start, I hate gallia as a deus ex machina plot device that needs more to be cleaned up..but as I live with it, here's what I'd love to see.

I'd like to see, fairly quickly, the military collapse of Bretonia as it has been for the last duration.

In the first stage of this, I'd like to see Bretonia roll out military defensive emplacements of mines, turrets, and death, a la trench warfare in space, throughout the Leeds system, centering around making a fortress of Planet Leeds.

Close on the heels of this, I'd like to see Gallia shove its ugly tentacle through Tau 31 into Leeds (and take Harris while they're at it), and ram it down the paths, taking the gate, then stokes and 31 in succession.

I'd like all of this to be done through iterations of server updates, over, say, week periods, to give us the feel of progressing events. (my wishful thinking here, so I'll keep being wishful...and changes to -one- system don't take all that long.) Each of these points could be seen as its own update, each a week later than the last

Not long after, I'd like to see battles open up in Newcastle, from the Tau side, forcing the current three battlegroups in Newcastle (why are they all there?) back into Leeds. This should put five Great Fleet's in Leeds. (or maybe my count is wrong. still, rather a lot). An effective tactical surrender of the system.
This gives the ronnin rather a lot to do, and a fairly reasonable way for them to get out of the focus of hate from Bretonia.

Leeds, then, is very wartorn, with a rather high density of forces and fortress around the planet. Gallia settles in for a long siege

While settling into the siege of Planet Leeds, Gallia starts pushing into Dublin and London systems, each of which become their own battleground.

Bretonia abandons Dublin to Gallia, pulling the Essex Great fleet back to the defense of London, mining the gate.

London hauls Southampton piecemeal to the Defended Zone of London, the London-Cambridge JG lane, and the Gate , scatters mines, and settles in to defend that key military corridor.

Gallia moves into Manchester, and meets the full force of the Liberty Navy there.

By the beginning of the 'long siege', Bretonia only holds Cambridge as a full system, with a planet, station, gate and Lane in New London, and only the Planet in Leeds (connected to the house via the Cambridge JH).
Leeds System is deeply embedded in a trench warefare style minefield operation, and refugees flee toward GC via blockade running and smuggling.
Dublin is the meatgrinder for Gallia that it was for Bretonia, Courtesy of the Mollies' deathgrip on the system.
Planet Sprague becomes refugee destination #1, and, finally, no new systems are added.

Whatever Deus Ex Machina is planned to roll back the Gallics can proceed however it wants to..but please, enact some real, significant, longterm changes to the systems.

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[Avalanche]

I do agree with the concept of making Leeds into a last ditch battlefield. I don't get (Personally) the feel of real combat when I read the lines "The Armed Forces moved the Battlefleet Warwickshire into Leeds to act as a last line of defense" what I would like to see is, mines scattered lightly over the lanes to Kusari territory, ship wrecks littering the system in logical locations. Increased patrols and decreased patrols in NL/Cambridge/Manchester etc. Radiation maybe from Battleship leaking reactors around the wrecks. Stuff like that. And I don't mean like those weird peices of metal lumps you see around Junker bases, but actual Bretonian Battleships with like a big hole in their side and Kusari likewise. With Fighters lieing around and cruisers likewise. You get my point.

[Kentivilas]

I agree with the OP, but there are a few things I would add;
Personally, I would like to see Gallia push down past Dublin into the Omegas, and start trying to establish a link between the Royalists and the Corsairs, in an attempt to gain access to Gamma and lauch their project to attempt to return to Old Sol, for whatever reason. Secondly, I would like to see the Omegas become much more wartorn, as the Corsairs move to assemble a battlegroup to strike Cambridge as Bretonia is weakened, while the Hessians increase their power, leading to a massive shizstorm between Bretonia, the Corsairs, the Hessians and Rheinland. Thirdly, I would like to see Liberty not only massing warships to defend the Manchester - California border, but also attempt to gain passage through new Kusari, in an effort to launch a counter-attack on the Gallics from the Upper Taus. Lastly, I would like to see the deadly alien race which has been residing behind the minefield that initially seperated Gallia from Sirius to finally reveal itself, and the war between these Aliens and the Nomads to start up.

And yes, I'm being serious.

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Nothing is certain except the fact that nothing is certain.
See beauty all around you.
Honor the deal.
Love unconditionally.

[Drake]

Once the southern half of Leeds becomes a real siege, I think it would be pretty hard for Gallia to push much farther into New London/Manchester/Dublin. It'd be terrible tactics, for one thing: You don't leave an enemy stronghold behind your lines. Also, they'd be forced to use a small handful of jump holes to continue deeper into Bretonia territory, and those aren't really ideal for a major assault (one of them drops you into the middle of a scrap field, for example).

[quantum244]

Lastly, I would like to see the deadly alien race which has been residing behind the minefield that initially seperated Gallia from Sirius to finally reveal itself, and the war between these Aliens and the Nomads to start up.

As a Nomad junkie, I approve and +1 this idea.

Back on topic, however, I, personally, rather hate the idea of Bretonia capitulating to anyone. I do agree that Leeds should feel more besieged, but allowing Gallians to venture further into Sirius space? This I must protest. I've already been blown up numerous times (in Leeds, Dublin, Edinburgh, etc...) while flying various ships by lolwuts in Gallic bombers who didn't say more than two words before opening fire.

Regardless of RP continuity and realism, I, for one, still want to roam Bretonia without fear of being destroyed every thirty minutes. Pirates I can handle. PVP whores, I cannot. And, insofar as I have seen to this point, all Gallic factions are havens for just such players (with a few exceptions, of course).

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The Greycliffe -- Conscientia et Tacitus

[Unseelie]

My thought on the invasion of London is that the Gallics will capture the southern end of the lane, at which point, it makes sense to push through and wreak havock on the industry on the other side. They'll be using the gate, while Bretonia will be supplying the Leeds fortress via JH from Cambridge.

The situation with Gallia is that they're pressing in from Edinburgh, which has already fallen, and has direct links to Dublin. As they push down the lane, they'll have another direct link to Dublin...ignoring that system cuts as a way for Bretonia and/or the Mollies to get behind Gallic lines. I think they have to deal with it. The siege I invision is one where Gallia controls the lane and the NL gate, and have Bretonia pretty well pinned down. Still, the point remains, they need to make some sort of military mistake for Sirius to be able to cast them back.



As far as the lore is concerned, the Gallics are large enough that they may easily make the mistake of overreach without realizing they're close to overreach. Bretonia is currently in a position of overreach, and abandoning the systems of newcastle and Dublin to defend their core makes a great deal of sense, and I wouldn't call it capitulating.

As far as fear of PVP goes, by god, man, its a war, supposedly one with a much scarier foe than Kusari. It should be scary venturing out into hostile territory.


As to the nomad point, I don't think there are any nomads on that side of sirius. The K'Hara have been saying such things for a while. "No Nomads in Gallia" is the tune.

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[Tomtomrawr]

It'd be terrible tactics, for one thing: You don't leave an enemy stronghold behind your lines.

I respectfully disagree. The war above sounded very rapid - almost blitzkrieg level of speed - and in that sort of war you need to press an advantage and rush forward before the enemy has a chance to establish defences. A fort such as planet Leeds would have little offensive capabilities and could be crushed in an offensive entirely separate from the one happening in space.

This sounds like a lot of work for the system editors and lore writers and I don't believe the development team could maintain this high level of production for very long.

It's unrealistic. As a system editor myself I can say it would take hours, even days to make a single system into a fortress with realistically placed mine fields, weapon platforms and wrecks (which would have to have models made for them with textures). And every week the fortifications would have to be changed as the Gallics advance and create their own defences facing the Bretonian ones.

To conclude: It's a nice idea, but too much of a work load for the dev team.

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[17:45:39] Wolfs Ghost (Murphy): Tom, you have problems. Go kill yourself.
[19:25:12] Johnny (Jam): Tomtom, I will beat you with a spoon.
[14:22:56] Prarabdh Thakur: KILL HIM WITH A SHEEP.
[17:40:48] Eagle (Junes): Tom should be slapped with a spoon.
[11:32:18] Warspite: Thank you for being so awesome Tom. <3
[18:17:36] Metano: I love you tomtom
[20:06:24] Warspite: I will seriously give you epic head.

Edit: also, Tomtomrawr, fappin' like a boss.

[Zelot]

Unseelie, I am find your viewpoint cool, and would be interested in subscribing to your newsletter.

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[jammi]

Tom, this sort of thing would be implemented either in bulk as a single mod release, or over two or three as the mod progresses. It wouldn't be any more dynamic or fluid than current mod updates are (which they aren't at all).

Personally, I'd very much be up for this. Maybe I would be crippling my own favourite House, but at the moment it's the only thing that makes any logical sense in light of Igiss' awful lore. The sheer scale of the assault on the already weakened Bretonia indicates that anything other than being crushed is simply poor story telling and deus ex machina.

You simply don't bounce back from a battleship ratio of 30:120, when you're having to defend an entire house from one concerted spearhead and numerous minor flanking manoeuvres.

Having Bretonia abandon its peripheral systems, fortify its planets and slowly initiate a fighting withdrawal towards the Omegas makes a lot of sense. It's economic suicide and would eventually destroy the House, but it'd be entirely about survival at that point.

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[quantum244]

As far as fear of PVP goes, by god, man, its a war, supposedly one with a much scarier foe than Kusari. It should be scary venturing out into hostile territory.

Scary I can handle as well, but I do like to have at least a little RP before I'm assaulted. But with cries of 'Die, Sirian!' being all that's said between us before combat ensues, I am more than a little irritated at Gallian factions and indies.

Nonetheless, this is rather off-topic, and so I digress.

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The Greycliffe -- Conscientia et Tacitus