INES III: Storm Tapestry

I went through FUBAR before, which, unlike Nuke, I prefer in its FUBAll Recognition variant. Which implies recovery is possible. But for the end of this game, I'm not sure I'd award it to anybody. All the quick-dying nations fell in 2062.

I'd say the FUBAR goes to everyone except CWOH and Tibet, since the war pretty much scarred this planet horribly.

Great awards! Favorites are Immac's and ZeletDude's; I just had to lol. And lastly... Hyperion represent! Nuke, Kozmos, you were great teammates, and helped make this an awesome experience. Great job, guys!

I thought mine was funny as well, I shouldn't of taken that week off >_<..

What was CWOH's secret weapon, btw? It's alright to say, now.

Another plague, triggered to go off if any enemy set foot inside CWOH. I&#8217;ll let Anonymoose go into more detail.

***

Thank you all for being such great players! That certainly deserved to be said earlier. Each one of you made the game exciting in a different way.

I guess I'll drift back to RL now, but this was a fun excursion, and I hope to run another game when I can.

He carried a large stick and spoke quietly.

I'm not sure if some of my awards are good things or bad things, but nonetheless you have given more, Imago, in making at least me smile as I read through them all. Overall, this has been a very good experience for me. Thank you.

Any thoughts on personal favorite story, Imago? Or would you never answer such a thing? Or favorite country? (not implying any favoritism, but we all have our favorites)

I personally liked Nuke's The Coup I-IV, if I recall correctly. They kept me on edge, dun dun dunnnnn. Also I thought the USACs was the most fun to follow, what with it's crazy genocidal hijinx and invasions.

Well, that last award was kind of in-between, but it's all in good fun. Honestly, I was more worried about putting in the rankings, as they're based on my opinion as much as any straight metric, and taking a snapshot at the last turn dosen't do everyone justice.

Not sure what my favourite story was, but the my first reaction to that question was remembering Blacktyde's drunken rant about other worlds. With the coup I knew what was coming, so there wasn't the same edge. As for country, I will say this much--out of all the NPCs, I was really rooting for Demetros' Ethiopia.

Gosh Eltain, you're making us all look unappreciative.

I enjoyed playing Japan, and am inordinately pleased at getting "Best One Liners". I may have mentioned that Gone Is the Old Guard got me into NESing. It was great to have the chance to play in an INES. Thanks for all the fun.

Anything that surprised you the most in the NES?

Hmm. The Atlantic explosion had been sketched out really early on, so what was more interesting to me was the way the other PCs of the TUA reacted. Instead of evicting their oversize partner, they defected to PADTA, leaving the Atlantic with a good deal more tech than it would have had otherwise. But the biggest curiosity from my perspective might seem quite technical--early in the game the TUA and the NEU spent a lot of points on techs, but most in Asia and Africa didn't bother. Which worked out fine until the two worlds collided.

Raising a What If here- what do people think would have happened if Immaculate had stayed in the game? At the time I was despairing for my posistion, but once the Union emerged I likely would have defected or at least tried to defect to LIARS. The UAK would likely have lost, but the question does emerge- who would have come out on top?

Immaculate is a lot brighter and we had covert dealings before so I'd reckon he'd side with us and help us end the damned war much sooner.

Kozmos said:

Immaculate is a lot brighter and we had covert dealings before so I'd reckon he'd side with us and help us end the damned war much sooner.

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If you'd offered to let him join the Union as well, I can see that happening. The price, however, would be that you wouldn't be able to overrun Europe. I'm also unsure if Circuit would be willing to join as a fourth partner in such a Union- given the stronger LIARS position in Europe, there would be at least a small chance he'd switch sides.

I'm so glad you left France. If you stayed I'm certain we would have lost. The future war I mean. You do not know how to role-play or even play. Bad game sense as well. Not that you can't improve but you seem particularly intent on continuing as you do.

If anyone wants to blame someone for World War 3, it was because of Nuke. Nuke essentially promised to help me attack Europe, so long as I could get the Umma and LIARS help. So blah Nuke! But I do love you.

TLK's Awards

Circuit: Best Stories hands down. Yeah, other players had good stories, Kozmos and LoE included, but yours.. I felt like were proffesionally written. No lie. Also, Strongest UKA Holdout. I'll give it to you. You were the last, if not one of the last, nations to throw your sovereighnty behind the UKA. Which, from my perspective was an even bigger pain in the a**, and now the only European territory LIARS or the MDI did not take control of. You were, from what I could tell, the wrench in a lot of our (MDI not in the America's) plans, and and did damn well, till you completely threw in with you. We had some pre-war deals, and I really meant to keep them, but things such as my spies, and other players is what ultimately lead to our WAR. So because of that, I give you Most Level Headed Opposing Player, because of my ability to have frank, almost rambling conversations with you, before diplomacy totally came crashing down.

Kozmos: I have to get it off my chest. Most Annoying Mother F***ing Tech. Hell, from the get go, I figured this NES would be semi-tech based. But you took the cake. I don't know if your ideas were stupid, or ingenious, and based off the updates, I'm leaning towards the latter. Wether or not you played 'correctly' is open to debate. Hell, I have one way of playing, and you have another, more respect to you. That's a conversation for another day. But you had at least me, if not the rest of LIARS angry, and honestly frightened since our war with China. You had some great stories too, so I have to mention that. We never did any real diplomacy from what I recall, but your tech-minded brains really made my lesser brain think hard. So I have to give you Most Worthy Opponent. Yes, points can be made, but I feel like me, and my allies against almost any other collection of players in an NES wouldn't of led to a dragged out war for so long. So kudos. I bestow upon you Biggest Pain In the A**. Seriously mate, take it. I do mean it as a compliment.

Nuke Kid: Ah, you jerk. You're the reason this whole mess started, and arguably, the reason the game went the way it did. When I found out about your annexation of Brazil and South Africa, I sort of realized that this game was going to take a very interesting turn. For turning your secondary American power into the strongest nation I've ever played in an NES, I give you the From Rags to Riches award. Hell, you might as well share this with Kozmos. As I said before, the talk about wether or not the annexations were 'cool' or 'fair' belong somewhere else. You gave me quite a run for my money. In terms of honest military confrontations, I really couldn't tell you where you'd land with me. Your tech always gave you the advantage, so I can't call that. But diplomatically, you were.. interesting. So I give you the Stubborn As A Bull award. Which is also a good thing, at least I view it to be. Wether convincing me to just allow myself to be annexed, or attempting to give my allies the same offer, you always at least attempted, which, I have to say, isn't that awful. With that, I also have to give you the Frenemy award. Yes, we had our arguments. But when push came to shove, this war was no more then a laugh between us. I'm sure half of our conversations had some alterior IC motive, but hell, you're a good friend, and you did compliment me quite a bit. I wish you the best at West Point, and hope to play with you again sometime. You're meh' bud.

Anonymoose: The Big Neutral. Off the bat, I give you that award. The Big Neutral. Their came points in the NES when I wish I was just like you.. chillen, and minding my own business. Of course, I'm too big of a jerk to let that happen, but I digress. We never had any direct communications, at least as far as I remember, but their are various points in which me, and several others viewed you as part of the UKA in disguise. Wether or not that's true, I'm forced to give you the Is He For Real award, as in all honesty, we just couldn't tell. Well at least I couldn't! Inactivity doesn't nescessarily mean a player is bad, and in this situation, it means a player is good. And I sir, have to admit, you are good. Your techs also scared me a bit, which added into my hesitation. So you get the Big Bad Wolf award. As you were simply the bear, I did not want to poke.

Germanicus: Germy. What to say. You were the main person I looked to in my fight against the UKA in the Americas. Not offense Merciary or NWAG, but Germanicus for better or worse has a track record of fighting to the end, and that is definently respectable. So from the get-go, I have to give you the award of Most Assuring American Ally. You wanted to do your own thing, and that's respectable, so you get Most Independent MDI Member. Of course, with that, I have to mention that what you and the PADTA did was mostly without my knowledge or support. Finally, from an IC perspective, I have to give you the Most IC Nation Award. Your stories were interesting, and your attitude, was, well what I imagined a real Texan Republic to be like. You quit the original American allies, purely on the principle that the UKA was getting too strong, instead of taking what I consider the easy way out. So again, kudos. You're a good player, and it was good to have you as a counter-weight.

NWAG: Hm. Hard to really place anything on you, to be honest. So right from the get-go, I have to say you have the Wild Card award. Good or bad, your actions were either incredibly IC, or questionably OOC. As the CWA you were a good ally at least until you jumped ship to the UKA which definently dashed a lot of hopes the MDI had for the future. So I do question that. But leading up to that point, you were a most willing ally, and helped pay for some of our larger projects. You get the Most Interesting Situation award, as while I felt militarily you were weak, you were also economically dominant surpassing my own ASP more often then not. You also have the Why The Hell... award, for your unnescessary Civil War in France. Hey, I'm not complaining, made my invasion of Iberia easier. But, you were an interesting player to play with.

Merciary: Ah, Merciary. I had a few long discussions with you over NES-Chat, and we are of similar opinions and mindsets OOC and IC. So I have to give you the Long Lost Brother award. You probably never felt the same way. But of all the nations in the game, you and me had similar long-term mindsets, and had our hands forced the other way. I also have to give you the 360 award, as no matter what I did, we seemed to be at odds with each other. I'll admit to the initial Communist uprisings in Brazil, but even when I tried to not screw you over in some way shape or form, I did. I also have to give you the Welcome Back award, as you mentioned that this was your first NES back from your dry spell. I hope we can play together extensively again in the future.

Agent 89: Without too much though, I have to give you the With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies award. You attacked LIARS nations several times, to take large chunks of land, taken land I've wanted, and actively tried to undermine LIARS successes at various times. Not to say I haven't done the same to you. I've wanted to make war against you several times, but every time other world events beckoned USACS attention. You're a damn good player. I played against you in INES II, and I've modded for you several times. I admire you as an ally, and as such, from the start of the game, I've tried to get us in a 'more formal relationship'. But you always hinted at the possibility, but never acted on it. So I have to give you the Biggest Tease award. Finally, I have to give you the United States to my Soviet Union, or Vice Versa award. My other allies in MDI were in dispensable, and it's hard to say which one was the best. But in terms of money, size, willingness to work with me despite our obviously different intentions, you were a great ally to have protecting my back. Finally, I have to give you, almost as a tack on The Greatest Fight That Never Happened award. You and me played similar games with different charactors. While the UKA gave me a run for my money with tech, a war with you would have all been strategy, something I honestly would have had some fun with. We could of had one hell of a fight, and I would have actually found it refreshing. Perhaps in another nes.

Eltain: First off, I love you. Second off, the most glaring award you need to recieve is the Most Unlikely LIAR award. Me and LoE make fun of you for running a 'hippy' government, and you really did, compared to us. Not that that's bad, mind you. When we were talking about killing 500 million Chinamen, you screamed and cried like a real republic, and when it came down to establishng a Chinese Communist state, you did the same thing. Your ICness was a pain in the butt sometimes, but it also kept things interesting. I have to give you the Most Interesting UU's award, as your UU's were helpful, ingenius, but also.. different. As the UKA was creating Nano-Robot Death Machines of Rape and Chaos, you were making Volunteer Divisions, and the like. And it wasn't a bad idea. Hell, we got what, 20-30 divisions for 1 ASP investment? I'll take it. Finally, you get the Silent But Deadly award. You weren't one to often post in the thread, but behind the scenes, you did handle quite a bit, and gave me some really great ideas that certainly helped LIARS and MDI out greatly as a whole.

LoE: Lawd of Elvis. As with Eltain, I love you. So I have to give you the Best Bud award for this NES. I was the one to convince you to join, as the charactor you chose, and you and me had been covering each others backs from turn 1. Eltain would of had this award had hey joined the first turn, and ZD might of shared it had he stayed in. But you were in it for the long haul. That being said, we talked for hours and hours, and I have to give you the Manic Depressive award. Your pessimissim is unmatched. Joking aside, I have to give you the Sleeping Giant award, as I feel like your nation still had some untapped potentional, and if push came to shove, you've use it. You also get the Daddy War-Bucks award, as honestly, USACS owes most of its success to Japanese financial backing. And because I love you, I can give you the Most Wanna Be Evil Communist Nation Award. Because you know, that no matter what you did, the Kelen already did it.

Terrance888: Blagh. Terrance. We were allies in INES II, though you came in in and really screwed me over in this NES. So you get the Awww, Come On! award, for diverting Iranian resources away from fighting Romen and Siamese forces from.. uhh, helping me out I guess. That's not to discredit you. You fought a well, arguably IC war, though it came at the worst time. You're staunchness must be noted, and even until the last turn you managed to draw some ever so important forces away from the front. So you get the Back Door Man award. Finally, even in the face of overwhelming odds and defeat, you were highly defiant to the last turn. So I give you the Why Is He Still Fighting Award. All those awards are admirable in their own way, I have to admit. Though, from an IC perspective, I hate you.

Jules: Oh Julius. You are also my buddy. Though you did scare me several times mid-game. I have to give you the Dark Horse award, as you could have, as Egypt singularly, really messed me up, especially in combination with a European attack. Of course, your flip-flopping eventually led to the construction of a Total Fortress Africa, which came in handy later.. so in a way, I suppose I have to thank you. You also get the Greatest Team Player award, being the only player in the MDI to actively cede your nation to another one, for the sake of making things easier. Not your fault at least. You and Agent had similar agendas, though I am a bit jealous. I all but begged you to do the same for me.
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Immac: Hm, I have to agree with Imago's award, first off. Second off, I have to give you the Vague Menace award. Even when me, Japan and Siam were slugging away at China, the fact you were so demanding with me scared me s***less, and in the end, ended up giving me less forces to send to Japan to help them out. Also, you get the most Most Un-Godly Creation award for the CUWA. It was interesting and.. ingenius at the same time.

Electric926: Most IC Nation. You are what I imagine a futuristic Super-Israel would be like, I have to give it you you. Second, you're the Friend I Never Had. Back when things were getting more terse with me and Agent, I viewed you as a very possible ally in an otherwise unfriendly region.

Bestshot9: I am sorry to say, but you literally didn't have anything to do with USACS, and so it's hard to really give you an award. Without sounding insulting, I can give you the Henchman award, for joining the American alliance, that I viewed as very threatening. You were one of many very capable players, allying in what I viewed to be as a major threat against LIARS.

Ninja Dude: It seems every time you join an INES, you find yourself getting the raw end of the stuck. I gave secret verbal support of your destruction, but not much past that. You do get the Most Interesting What If? award, as had your nation survived to the late game, you could have definently mixed some things up, for either me, Agent, the MDI or the UKA.

ZD: That One Friend You Had In Highschool, That Sort of Just Stopped Talking To You award. You were missed as Germany, and I felt bad having to annex it. For some reason I feel like, perhaps having you at the helm, the total wipe out I experienced could have been avoided. But who knows. Would have loved to have you play the whole way through bud.

Shadowbound: Ah, Shadow. We have a love-hate relationship. You were ballsy though, and strategically, I have to admit, I probably would have done the same thing that you did. So you do get the Victim of Circumstance award. If the Europeans, or hell, Egyptians and Iranians of been a bit more helpful towards your cause, you probably very easily would have come off as winner.

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Imago: Best Moderator award by far. Though it's not like there is much of a contest there. I have to give you kudos for putting up with a lot of my moaning and growning. You're a great mod, and we've had some nice non-INES related discussions about NESing in general. I'm going to miss your NES's, and I always find them to be the most stressful, yet in a strange way, the most rewarding ones ever. Your writing style is very interesting, and it's something I've shamefully attempted to emulate with little success. I wish you the best in whatever your real world-commitments are, and hope to see this NES revived in the Fall. Albeit, with a BT, so some more nations could pop up, and so we all don't have to continue dealing with this tug of war.

The Best Charactor Award in my opinion has to go to Catherine. She's hot, and she's evil. And the sad thing is, I helped 'design' her. Kozmos' Minister Blacktyde comes in a close second. LoE's Emperor would of been up here too, if he expanded him a bit.

The Best Overall Nation perhaps it's my bias/hatred of the UKA. But I have to say the Umma deserves this title. It was rich, it was powerful, and it managed to fight a 4-5 front war with relative success. Hoping that the UKA in some form or another would be toppled, I imagine that the Umma would go on to be an incredibly powerful nation in it's own right.

Greatest Success Story Honestly, again, not biased, or at least I hope not, would be LoE's Japan. From turn 2 or 3, being invaded, and almost beaten, to complete owner of Oceania, China and Russia. Yes, some things came a bit easier then expected for it, and that Chinese war really screwed over the initial success it might of had, but Japan had grown to be quite strong and powerful from it's initial placement in the world.

Most Hated Tech Grey Goo. A constant thorn in our sides, and a major reason we economically stayed down, and were so hesitant to throw any type of attack in on you guys. I suppose I need to congratulate Kozmos for taking the idea, and implementing it in an NES.

Most WTF Nation Russia, or the Balts. They were tossed around like cheap whores, and in many ways, proved to be deal breakers in successes in the European conflict. Quebec is up there too.

Most Sci-Fi Nation The UKA, no explanation needed.

My Biggest WTF Moment Having a discussion with Nuke about attacking the Euros in a broad front, then checking this thread to find out that he instead annexed England, and but me in a very difficult position.

Best War LIARS invasion of Russia. It gave us, well, Russia, and the Balt Confederacy, and put us in a great position until some people (Iran at first, followed by the System) decided to pull that away from us.

Worst War My botched invasion of India. I didn't want to win, though, I expected to at least. I even had a pretty Communist India map drawn up. The point of the war was to destract Indian resources from helping China out, and to that extent, it was successful. Past that though, I lost a lot of troops, and had a lot of stress over nothing.

Most Annoying Nation Ethiopia, hands down. They just did not know when they were beat, and then they eventually annexed themselves over to the Umma, as if to just troll me, bringing me further away from Fortress Africa.

Most Ballsy Move Starting the PADTA. I mentioned this before. But had Japan, Siam or another one of LIARS gotten too strong, I would have embraced it, albeit bitterly. This move however really set the game up for an climatic last battle.

Strong Alliance All of us at various points. It's really hard to say. It also comes down to whether or not you count the System as an alliance, you want to count the MDI, and etc.

Best UU In terms of usefulness seen in the NES, I have to give it to the Cull Gunships. Yeah, they weren't that strong, but they were numerous, and ripped through enemy Irregulars. At the time, that was all Siam and the Umma were fighting, so in a way, they became a 'super weapon'. Of course, I also have to give mention to the Empress Class Carriers, though I didn't really see their effect. Just reading their description caused me to moan to Imago though. Notable additions to this would be the Longhorns and the Janissaries. No UU was bad, though I feel like some were slightly more useful then others.

Most Over-Used UU As if it's even a question, the Queen's Wrath Fighters. I'm pretty sure almost everyone had them, and they did the job damn well, when they weren't turning against you.



Perhaps more awards later? I don't know, I had fun writing it. Great time guys! Didn't mean any offense with these, and I'm glad this didn't end like the last INES .

Just have to say, that was really rewarding to read.

TLK's rewards (and Imago's to no lesser extent) made me smile, which as he rightly points out, is a rare occurence. WE'RE ALL DOOMED!

Kozmos: I have to get it off my chest. Most Annoying Mother F***ing Tech. Hell, from the get go, I figured this NES would be semi-tech based. But you took the cake. I don't know if your ideas were stupid, or ingenious, and based off the updates, I'm leaning towards the latter. Wether or not you played 'correctly' is open to debate. Hell, I have one way of playing, and you have another, more respect to you. That's a conversation for another day. But you had at least me, if not the rest of LIARS angry, and honestly frightened since our war with China. You had some great stories too, so I have to mention that. We never did any real diplomacy from what I recall, but your tech-minded brains really made my lesser brain think hard. So I have to give you Most Worthy Opponent. Yes, points can be made, but I feel like me, and my allies against almost any other collection of players in an NES wouldn't of led to a dragged out war for so long. So kudos. I bestow upon you Biggest Pain In the A**. Seriously mate, take it. I do mean it as a compliment.

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Correctly? XD Physics is OP man

I spent many a hours researching and frankly you should have died at least four, maybe five times according to my internal counter. Weapons tech on scale of deadliness and counterability:
1) FOBS railgun fields Something even I would be pressed hard to figure out a counter without at least 100+ years more of future tech.
2) Grey goo - When we deployed it you had nanotech defenses of any kind at the time. I wanted to push for the whole of Africa to be disassembled on surface level, the entire Japan and Texas as well. Then we would employ the massive residual matter and assemblers to rebuild a high-tech society. Of course certain blocks were put into place
3) Black Hole Sun sky darkening op. At first I considered send special satellites into the atmosphere, nano-satellites for complete Earth coverage. They would attack themselves to your satellites and om-nom them and construct solar shades. But that would be much easier to counter so I dug around a few research papers and decided to go with aerovores, sort of a airbourne version of grey goo. The Shroud could have come online in a matter of days but again story purposes and game integrity interfered.
4) Black Death 2.0 - I was pretty pissed when a 30 ASP plague was stopped by x-ray machines, it had a counter but required a pretty similar investment which was out of your reach at the time and vectors employed should have ensured massive contamination of all your population.
5) MC nanos - These had the potential to completely mind-control (at the beginning, later I switched to simply integrating them with the System so it wasn't really mind control, more like enlightenment) the entire world when I first deployed them. But they were balanced horribly with apparent zombie like behaviour nonsense and then by even more nonsense atmospheric filters. Proper solutions in a conceptual sense but the required technology was hopelessly above your own.
6) The Little Lamb and Echelon IX - The Little Lamb metamorphic virus was slowly disseminated to your national weapons manufacturers, therefore all vehicle weapons that LIARS built were technically my weapons to play with at will. Echelon IX network was a weak AI with a distributed computing scheme existing on every computer on the planet as blip of code or two, additionally serving as the global internet protocol, intercepting all your ELINT and SIGINT as well as having complete access to your systems with the co-morbid nature of the Little Lamb. I'm not quite sure what the supposed rational was to that scale of infiltration and control but I forgot about this weapon much later and it just kinda stayed there.

I really hoped one of you guys would have picked up on my tech and built your own so we could have had an Infinite War, with giant death robots, energy shields, nukes and all. I'm fairly certain that if I was on the MDI side with their budget we would be flinging transgenics, self-replicating robots and contained black holes at each other. They'd probably win instantly if I served as their tech adviser. Though we'd need to expand from Earth predictably since it would be a barren wasteland.

Kozmos said:

I'm so glad you left France. If you stayed I'm certain we would have lost. The future war I mean. You do not know how to role-play or even play. Bad game sense as well. Not that you can't improve but you seem particularly intent on continuing as you do.

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Could you elaborate on this point, please? I want to know what your argument is for that position.

The way you handled France and then CUWA. You went about everything in a completely ass-backwards manner. The way you approach NESing. (your posts in WWW thread speak volumes about this) Just in general the way you play I personally find to be contempt-worthy. I will say no more. I have no interest in a flame war or discussions on the nature of NESing.

I'm disappointed that you think that way, but would appreciate some more detail so I can understand where you're coming from.