I think I need to make a few points.
1) The Harn Confederacy is made up of a number of independant states
that control their own foreign policy. In matters that effect all of
us we speak with one voice through myself as Ambassador. In
individual matters we speak for ourselves.
2) The ghazi was called by one state, The Horselords. It was not
endorsed by the Bobantine Empire and it was repudiated by the Kingdom
of Eastern Harn. We respect the rights of our member states to use
their own cultural traditions and ethics in responding any situation.
Under those traditions Khamath responded to a perceived insult in a
time honoured Horselord tradition, the declared ghazi followed by
symbolic raids.
Codric responded in what is a time honoured tradition amongst some
cultures, the overwhelming surprise attack.
I personally respect his right to use such cultural tools.
3) Any disputes we have had or are having with the Lords has never
had anything to do with the Yellowleaf situation.
4) I feel Codric had was being churlish to attack the Kingdom of
Eastern Harn when he was after the Horselords but he might feel he
was justified by some of the posts in the Times. Either way I think
he was silly in that by attacking two members of the Confederacy when
his main beef was with one guaranteed we would all probably become
involved.
5) Although we are, shall we say, getting the pointy end of the stick
at the moment, we have not requested assistance from any alliance. If
Inner Circle wishes to enter the fray they do so on their own behalf
and without encouragement from me.
I must say though it is nice to know that we have friends especially
when there are more Dwarves crossing the border than you can imagine
in your worst nightmares.
6) To update the situation for the sticky beaks.
Codric is outside Greton with his elites having killed over 150
troops and capturing three nobles (2 ill and on their way out). His
path can be traced by the dead garrisons and trampled peasants. We've
managed to kill 21 of the elites and 40 ghost warriors.
A Dwarven Army of 200+ has crossed the eastern border on the DA row
and is heading slowly towards Greton killing garrisons on their way.
(Dwarves don't like horseys and so can't use the movement bug)
Another force of Dwarves has landed on the south coast just east of
Harn in an apparent effort to capture the Kingdom of Eastern Harn
leader Noire Immortalis. This group consists of 50 foul undead (will
these people stop at nothing??) and about 150 mixed troops and 9
nobles (Must have run out of horses down south)
A small raider has also been working the south coast knocking off
coastal garrisons in Eastern Harn.
I think that is all they have hit us with so far.
7) For the interest of the more military minded amongst you I would
just like to say a few words on the use of large stacks of Elite
Guard, blessed soldiers and ghost warriors backed by elite archers.
They are HIDEOUSLY effective. Sir Codric's progress could only be
described as a mobile high speed massacre zone.
The most effective encounter we have had with what we call the
Panzers was when Codric attacked a garrison of ten peasants and lost
an elite guard and 3 blessed soldiers. We train our peasants tough in
these parts.
Another garrison of 10 peasants recently killed 5 soldiers in an
encounter with a presumed Dwarven raiding force landed on our south
coast.
Analysing our losses and successes we have decided the best strategy
is just to garrison everything with peasants and the tough little
buggers will eventually wear Codric's horseys down. :-)
8) Super Alliance?? I think the way things are going we are a
liability to a super alliance.
We are just trying to have a quiet war. Will the conspiracy
theorists go back to working out more philosophical questions like
if the SA kills someone but no one is around do they really die?
Look what it boils down to is various members of the Harn Confederacy
have had acrimonious exchanges with various Lords. Some of us ignored
it, some of us did a deal and some of us got upset because Codric
should have given them a goat to settle things and he didn't. You
might think that is a silly reason to ride for several months to
pillage a province and then ride home but you are not a Horselord.
Horselords probably think half the things that happen in Olympia are
strange. I know I do.
Codric has responded in his own inimitable style and I can't say we
weren't expecting something of the sort. We weren't expecting the
sheer size (and of course SPEED) of the attack and that is our own
stupid fault.
But we aren't squealing (Well I'm squealing about the MOVEMENT BUG
but I'd squeal about that whether we were being clobbered or not)
The Lords aren't squealing. If fact they haven't made an official
announcement since before the surprise attack.
So could everyone else stop squealing and get on with something more
useful and beneficial to life in general.
like complaining to Rich about the MOVEMENT BUG!!!!!!!!!
Think about it guys. If we can't stop a stack thrown together by Sir
Codric imagine if a really big alliance just did the AOO thing and
built a very large army of elite guard and archers say 200 guard 200
archers. two nobles to run it and moving 7.5 provinces a month. The
rest of the alliance does scries and visions to check what is ahead
of it. How many people's castles are more than 7 provinces from a
coast or border? How many castles could stop that attack? Or do it
with beasts and don't even bother with gold. Faster to train too.
Anyway I hope this has been of some interest.
Jheremai