By now, you are probably well familiar with the antics and exploits of the notorious ICON.

You are probably also familiar with the considerable might of your overlords, the top dogs of the server Harmless?.

Some of you, may have had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of the iron fist of these tyrants as they trample underfoot the weak on their way to server domination.

If you have EVER favored the underdog, or simply have a grudge against H?, then I request you consider the following, as we ICON, the champion of the people seeks to undermine the totalitarian state being imposed upon the server by the all powerful masters of your Illy fate:

ICON moved South to avoid two alliances that declared war on us. RES and CHAMPS.

Little did we realise, that contrary to what we have all been told in GC, there are territories that are claimed and enforced by several alliances. We setup shop in Tallimar, which is close to many alliances, some that we count as friends. Unfortunately, it is also home to H?, an alliance that values it's considerable control on this server.

So, like the Mal Motshans before them, they seek to drive us from "their" lands and bully us into doing their will!

We at ICON have decided to stand our ground in the face of this aggression and ask you, the once free citizens of this server to support our cause!

In the immortal words of The Dude (Not Theunderscoredude) "This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man. "

Please consider supporting our efforts with your donations to the cities below!

I will gladly purchase prestige to support Illyriad and ensure your resources do not go to waste!

So send resources and support the developers!

ICON has two cities here and one player to yet be determined.

1.) Zork2012, Daggerclutches -  http://uk1.illyriad.co.uk/#/World/Map/-491/-866/6" rel="nofollow - http://uk1.illyriad.co.uk/#/World/Map/-491/-866/6

2.) StJude, Hail Dark Blight! -  http://uk1.illyriad.co.uk/#/World/Map/-290/-830/6" rel="nofollow - http://uk1.illyriad.co.uk/#/World/Map/-290/-830/6

3.) Wolfgangvondi, ? - ?

Come, join The RESISTANCE!

oh, wait ... Harmless? has thieves ...

/me guesses that StJude really likes Harmless? and wants people to give them money

Jude, even though you could be using your talents for better things - I admire your determination... 

If they do not claim sovereignty over the land, it is open for settlement, or for someone else to claim sovereignty over it. This is not merely guidelines, it is the war the world works. 

Being a free land, Lords and alliances are welcome to engage in war to remove cities that they do not like, for one reason or another. However, this is a form of tyranny, and there could be consequences for such tyranny. 

If H? wishes to remove towns that they previously had no claim over, they are setting themselves up to be tyrants. If they truly want to "reserve" land, it should be done officially with sovereignty. Any turf war dispute not involving canceling sovereignty on a square becomes bullying. Except in the case of smaller towns who have not the resources nor the research to claim sovereignty on so many squares. 

StJude seems to have a righteous cause, and I would not be surprised if many like minded righteous and justice seeking Lords come to his aid. 

Yes, Stjude instigated the war, suffered monumental losses, and gave up his cause. He even went so far as to remove his last city, loosing thousands of villagers in the process. StJude started the war, we can all agree the Harmless? and Champs ended it. 

StJude no longer stands a threat to Harmless?, or anyone for that matter. He has become a struggling Lord, trying his best to improve his small villages. And after moving his city, he still faces prosecution for crimes he has already paid for. 

Furthermore, I was not painting them as a tyrant as I have no proof of anything, besides StJude's wicked words. I was just pointing out that if an alliance was to defend land from settlers, they should claim sovereignty on it, or be prepared to be labeled as a Tyrant. 

SunStorm wrote: So turning around and painting them as a tyrant is just plain ridiculous.

This is one of the daftest arguments I continue to hear. Abandoning my account due to bullies would actually be me not lying in the bed I made or not reaping what I have sown.

I continue to play my account and I continue to reap what I sow. However, that does not mean that I simply give up and say, yeah, you won. Because, no, they have not.

I am still at 2k pop, despite being attacked by 8 different alliances with at least 4 of those being page 1 alliances in size. (RES, Chimps, H?, mCrows)

So in short, do not expect me to continue to fight and claim I am not "lying in the bed I made" because that is simply shortsighted and narrowminded.

I am going to go  with Southern Dwarf on this.

Harmless? are a big alliance who have helped many alliances in the past. Also they have contributed so much to  the game like their work on the Arcanum Illyria. All that should never be forgotten.

But in a 15 round mismatch where the little guy should have been put away in round one yet is still on his feet fighting on -  I'll shout for the underdog everytime. I got to say that their players like Zork, AB, Venita  and whoever  must have nerves of steel.

Harmless? have many smart players but that StJude has put them in a position where they are beginning to look more and more like the Sheriff of Nottingham with each passing day.

Hope this comes to a sensible end though.

You are very wise Kilotov. I agree that the larger army has more power. BUT, that larger army must be careful not to upset the hundreds of smaller armies, else they might combine forces to overthrow the tyrant. 

I genuinely wish it were that easy. We can all probably think of examples from history--or, maybe stories we were told about history--where many small groups joined together to form a single force that beat a much larger attacker. Unfortunately, online games such as Illy don't work that way. Forty armies of 500 troops each from small players may total 20,000 troops, but they'll always be individual armies of 500. You can't join them together under a single command structure to coordinate an attack. Using them to attack an army of 20,000 is the equivalent of hurling a handful of pebbles at a house. You might chip a little plaster and crack a window or two, but in the end you'll just irritate the crap out of the owner. On defense, using the 40 armies to defend one town leaves 39 towns completely vulnerable. When push comes to shove, the underdog has a seriously tough row to hoe in this game. Not too different from RL, I guess. Make your choices, take your chances.

StJude wrote: I am still at 2k pop, despite being attacked by 8 different alliances with at least 4 of those being page 1 alliances in size. (RES, Chimps, H?, mCrows)

Simple Judy. Then dont declare war on them.

Honestly mate you made much more sense when claiming 'asshattery' as your 'logic' than playing the ethical card.

A tactic that worked well against the so-called "Champs" (Champs of what? Not sure what they really accomplished as it was Crows who defeated Dark Blight and not Amroth or his cronies, even though he likes claiming it was him) was to send attacks at the siege camps themselves instead of reinforcing the town. You will be surprised at the losses these encamped armies will take when you throw the pebbles.

We held Champs off for many weeks, much to their chagrin :)

Having unsiegable cities is also another boon!

Oh, thanks for the res shipments folks! Keep 'em coming please!

Thanks for the insight--much appreciated. I hope there's room for the underdog to thrive. Game's more interesting if someone can upset the apple cart every now and again.

We are well over a month since the first siege attacks sent by H? and my capital still stands on that island. (the thread is 3-4 days less than a month, but attacks were sent before that)

Keep 'em coming lads!!! Now is not the time to stop. This is your chance to thumb your noses at those who would bully, coerce and flaunt their power ingame. Please keep sending your shipments and together we can frustrate these tyrants!

You guys are as big a troll as I am.....if you go by your own self appointed definitions.

1.) I also declared war on 45 alliances. Of all the witnesses to that asshattery, H? is one of the few alliances that is trying to pretend they took that declaration seriously. That in and of itself is what is really laughable. The best part though of your statement? "....and attacked us first" No such thing, please show ANY system logs showing an attack by me or diplos by me. The fact is, there are NONE.

2.) After the VALAR fiasco, you fail to mention that LION (formerly ICON) sent an in game peace offer, which H? ignored.

3.) I don't have to "paint" myself as an underdog, I am one. The amount of players supporting me behind the scenes is testament to that.

4.) If you REALLY want me to move away from you, I have already explained how this can be achieved. Your actions indicate that you are not really interested in seeing me do so. I think you guys are somewhat entertained by the challenge. I would respect you more if you came out and said it. The fact is this, I will NOT move due to your in game bullying. Simple as that. If you want me to move, open up the lines of communication your alliance purports to value or continue sending your attacks.

What exactly are my motives? H? never bothered to ask, you guys assumed and then made an ill informed decision to try and bully me out of a location that you have made no prior claim to.

Based on what you are doing for my cause, I am happy to "stagnate" :)

Why are you reading it then?

So in short, you were interested?

  

  Icon on the other hand, is a group that has announced publicly that it's entire goal is to seed discontent and start trouble. This would indicate a true intent to make illy more like other games that abound on the net. If that game environ is to their taste, one who wonder why they do not simply play those games instead. 

It's a laugh already 'Arry.....but then again, you haven't been paying attention ;)

That's exactly what I suspected when I noticed your short commentary in here. I said to myself, "Yup, this dude is neither interested or paying attention" and now here you come to confirm those suspicions! What a world eh?

Neither does anyone else then by your own definition.

I have yet to see H? bother to find out what my motives are, which is alright if you don't really care and are enjoying the conflict. Just wish you guys would be more up front about it.

Ok, I may have loled. If I did though, I wouldn't tell you.

I think you missed the real lesson, Illyriad is awash with hypocrisy is more the point. If having a player disagree with you openly in writing is enough of a feather ruffling to cause you to nerdrage and bring your considerable in game weight to bear against said player, then there are deeper daddy/mommy issues at play here than simple "disagreement". If that sort of thing happens in real life, we call it what it is. In Illyriad, we simply siege the dissidents until they "conform" or are no more.

My (and the rest of my alliance) intentions for moving to the location I chose where not to look for a fight with H? militarily. But no one bothered to ask. At this stage, any reasonable player (so that excludes those on the H? bandwagon like Rill) would agree that I am hardly a threat and my moving in is nothing to really be concerned about. If I am a threat to H?, my location has nothing to do with that, a threat is a threat no matter what the distance is. My proximity is just as much a disadvantage as it is a perceived advantage. In fact, I would argue due to H?'s size, that it would be idiotic to move right beside H? if my intentions were to launch armies and diplos. (again, I have done NONE of that)

In short, if I wanted a fight, there are much better ways to communicate that. You guys seem bored though, and I suppose I can't blame you. The VALAR fiasco was fairly shortlived and even I was surprised at its brevity.

Ah! there we go, now we are getting to the root of things!!!

You and Kumo should present a more unified front! It would save him a lot of justifying and maneuvering on the forums.....

Good Lord, no wonder you are only in charge of recruitment.

That is exactly the point I am highlighting, YOUR motives. You are showing your hand, and it is becoming increasingly clear that your ("your" in the collective sense, I know you will most likely misread this) motives are not what you claim them to be.

At this stage, since there is little to no consistency between your rantings and Kumo's explanations, then I must conclude that the reasons being presented are nothing more than excuses to swing your epeen. If you really wanted me out of that location, I have presented an option for you to do so. But since you reject it, it is clear that your intentions are to harass and intimidate until you "get your way".

I am more and more convinced that if I move now, you will simply find another inane reason to carry on your campaign of hate and I will still see inbound armies and siege engines where ever I am.

So I may as well stay here. Fine, your choice to continue.

P.S. You should really leave this part of the metagame to the experts, you are not all that good at it and have caused more harm than anything by exposing the real underlying issues here. I look forward to hearing more from you!