National Updates Comment Thread

[MWadwell]

They know how to organise a revolution though, untill it disorganised became extra revolting and then installed a new dictator.
What did we manage? A few bank robbers hiding in the bush, failed plans to blow up a train, and a bunch of pissed off miners who hoisted a flag and were beaten in half an hour.

WW 1 - With the Canadians, Australians were considered the Commonwealths elite troops.

WW 2 - In Rommel's opinion,  the best troops in the world were Kiwi's, followed in second place by Australians (he thought the Kiwi's better discipline made them better soldiers).


So, for a bunch of ex-cons and unionists, we make good soldiers.... 

[MarcAFK]

Oh no doubt, they say that monash essentially invented modern combined arms warfare, and achieved a major swift victory during Hamel because if it. 
But I referred to australian revolutionaries. People always think of Eureka stockade as being Australia's revolutionary moment, but really it was a strike protesting poor working conditions and oppressive taxis. Whereas Ned Kelly is seen like billy the Kidd or bonny and Clyde, but was actually involved in planning coordinated armed resistance against corrupt military forces (the Victorian police. Their attempted train robbery was a total farce though.
TLDR thread derail over. 

[Bremen]

Nothing much to say about the most recent updates, but I did want to show my appreciation for the multiple updates *and* long list of bug fixes. It seems like Steve's really been putting in the effort lately and it's been a lot of fun.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Nothing much to say about the most recent updates, but I did want to show my appreciation for the multiple updates *and* long list of bug fixes. It seems like Steve's really been putting in the effort lately and it's been a lot of fun.

Thanks. This current campaign is keeping me very interested at the moment, which is probably why I have so much enthusiasm for fixing bugs

[xeryon]

As a more recent non-player due to being busy with life I really appreciate the enthusiasm for playing out your campaign and reading the unfolding story.  It's great to come home from a rough day and be able to read a chapter on how the humans are infecting....umm... exploring space.

[Sematary]

This is one of my favorite campaigns of yours Steve. I hope it continues for quite awhile.

[Zincat]

I just read through all the threads of this AAR. I love it. Makes me want to try my hand at a game like this, once 7.1 is out.....

[Ostia]

Oh Crap. Fuel and 3 resources crunch can't be good for Germany. At least the resources are available on a mining colony.

You can do it Germany. Hang on.

[Bremen]

Russia was the main cause for concern as there was a Russian colony of twenty million in EZ Aquarii. Even so, within a few days the Russian ambassador informed Manchuria that his nation would accept the Manchurian claim.

It amuses me that Russia, often the evil faction in Steve's games, are actually coming off as so nice in this one. Not that they are nice by any means; Steve's descriptions of their motivations makes it clear that they'd gladly invade their neighbors if they thought the return was good; but simply because they made a great find while exploring and are just concentrating on exploiting it. They have no reason to attack anyone, and recognizing Manchuria's territorial claim actually helps legitimize their own, so they're just going the amiable isolationist route (France appears to be doing something similar). Since no one else knows anything about Russia's find no one has a good reason to attack them, either.

Meanwhile the nations that don't have their own hole in space to disappear into are having more trouble, and the ones that didn't find anything are plotting the best way to steal from their neighbors.

[Jakalo]

I wouldn't say any of Steves nations are played as inherently evil. They are all pragmatic adherents of Realpolitik. The reason Russia (and China and Islamic alliance or any other smaller nation) comes of as ''evil'' is that they feel threatened by the big guy (which is usually some permutation of NATO or USA) and thus take more aggressive approach.

Regarding latest updates, great work. It is nice to see appliance of seldom seen genetic modification and incorporation of advanced alien weaponry in an one off super ship design. (Go Germany!)

[Nathan_]

Steve's descriptions of their motivations makes it clear that they'd gladly invade their neighbors if they thought the return was good.

considering the recent US/German 1st strike on the caliphate that is true of everyone.

[Zincat]

Which is exactly how it works in our world, except for one thing. Aurora does not model trade and economical interdependence of the various nations. Because of that, nations A can attack nation B without direct economical consequences.

In the real world nowadays if, say, USA attacks China, there will be catastrophic economic consequences for that. That is why the developed world has been more or less at peace for decades. It's just not worth attacking a nation if that will ruin your economy and cause social problems....

But since in Aurora that's not true, it's free for all out there. Which is nice because it's a game

[Zincat]

The new commonwealth is going to be a superpower in this setting. The question remains to be seen regarding what those aliens will do...

Still it's quite interesting. Realistically the big contenders for now are Russia, USA, the new Commonwealth and japan in my opinion. The others do not have the same resources, or have more problems to contend with in the short term (Germany). Of course in Aurora, a single war is all it takes to change things a lot.

[Sematary]

Zincat, I agree on part of that.

Japan is certainly a force to be reckoned with as they just showed in the last war. It will be interesting to see where they go with it.

The Commonwealth is a superpower without a doubt BUT that all depends on their future relations with these new aliens. If they are friendly and can even ally with them, or the war they have is easy and over quickly as a complete victory for the Commonwealth, I imagine the Commonwealth would be pretty well unstoppable. If the war goes poorly it will sap a lot of their power, though they can pretend since they won't tell the other powers about the new aliens if anyone tries to call such a bluff the Commonwealth might collapse. The worst case scenario is if the war goes disastrously in which case they will have to call all the other powers in, or at least a few of them, and will have to give up major concessions plus whatever they lose to the new foe.

The US could really go either way in my opinion, they have carved out their section of the expanding sandbox and its just a matter of how they go on from here. The US occupies a top spot but its going to be a bit more difficult for them to expand and they alienated a good chunk of the international community in the last war.

Russia has been so quiet for so long its hard to gauge where they are, especially compared to the other powers. France has that issue too. They are both off doing their own thing in what I imagine is comfortably second tier power-wise.

If Germany can solve its problems regarding fuel, and in a few years they will at the outside, I think they are set to sit at the big boy's table that the Commonwealth, US, and Japan sit at. Its just a real question of how long will it take them and how much ground will they lose in that time.

I think the Second Colonial War will solidify the tiers of power, as it will any of the following.The minors fighting over the left over scraps and have a two tier system with France, Russia, Germany, Japan, the US, and the Commonwealth at the higher tier and everyone else at the lower one. France, Russia, Germany against each other, which will push the winner(s) into the top tier and the loser(s) into the bottom, again with a two tier structure. Or the minors against one of the larger powers which would set up a three power tier set up.

[Bremen]

The Commonwealth is doing too well. Am I the only one kind of hoping something bad happens so they don't run away with the lead? 

Muwahahahaha!

I find the aliens interesting for meta reasons; IIRC the campaign was set up to have only low tech aliens until the big bad were introduced, so this might be them. Which will be interesting if so; while they're a long distance from Earth and the non-Commonwealth powers, they're also positioned to cut off some of the Commonwealth's colony worlds if they advance, which potentially sets up a much more interesting strategic situation than just smashing two fleets together.

Or maybe I'm misremembering and they'll turn out friendly. Which would mean they'll start exploring on their own and potentially contact the other nations. Either way, this campaign is getting even more exciting.