gl to everyone, but especially our side

Its a war. Noone won. Everyone lost.

The Americans lost a lot of money funding the war (yes guys, that worldwide crisis IS your fault, and i'ts tied directly to that war), leave alone a lot of good guys and girls to roadbombs, suicidebombers, rocketstrikes and whatnot.

The Iraqi and Afghans lost even more ... anyone needs that explained?

Even us 'cowardly' euros lost, coz in the end we paid part of that war due to the artificial difference in value between the euro and the dollar, and the ensuing crisis.

If anyone can point out a clear winner (even if it were some false political ideal like 'democracy' ... but that went out the window for a system of state control over the citizenry, which is quickly starting to resemble what the communists did in russia before the fall of the wall) ... please let me know, i'm still looking.

You can discuss whether it was necessary or not, but even necessary war means everyone loses.

No, pulling out isnt the 'honorable' thing to do (then again, honor was a medieval concept thought up to keep the knights from raping every semi-decent looking farmgirl they ran across unpunished, or sleep with the king's wife ... it barely has any place left in our rotten society built on self-interest). It only serves one purpose : save more american lives which would otherwise be lost for no good reason at all. It's also an admission of making the wrong choices ...

If you have to go 'liberate' a country from a bunch of hardline extremist muslims that you installed and armed yourself during the cold war, because even the Russians wouldnt be able to beat them (and honestly, the communist russians were a LOT better at those things than the US troops will ever be due to no moral restrictions whatsoever), thats obviously a wrong choice after a wrong choice.

If you have to invade a country under false pretenses, just to get their oil, after arming them yourselves during the Iran-Iraq war 'to help them stop the extremist muslims' ... thats a wrong choice after a wrong choice.

It takes a very brave man to admit to those things, and an even braver man to prefer saving lives over saving face. It takes a stupid man to believe bravery is standing firm in the face of impossible odds. And yes, impossible they are, coz you CAN NOT push the red button, and you cant win against guerilla fighters that can ignore all rules of engagement while you have to adhere to them.

But that's just the opinion of a damn euro who has no clue whatsoever, of course

pi squared

oh c'mon, he's totally entertaining... not in a respectable way like aleph, but still entertaining

wait ... is 52 now complaining about being farmed, after they bottomfed themselves to the ranking they now have, making at least 10 new players delete in the process ?

Though i usually dont approve of farming way smaller fams, in this case :
/me cheers 65 on

well it depends on the infra he had pure cf, and it was less than Vegeto, cf/to with good eco% and it was more

and yes, Gard voted a couple times too many on own fam (max 6 bro ) but whatever the case, his spread was what allowed us to move our bankers and resourcers into 3 sectors (making it a VERY tiresome task to severely cripple a player, leave alone kill someone off) and though he indeed had a gargantuan fleet in the 2nd half of the round, he did a wonderful job attacking with a modest fleet during the 1st half of the round, losing very little while gaining heaps, so if one award is very clear in my opinion, its the best attacker one

and i'd say, put best diplomacy as best leader so go change your vote j/k

Well, no discussions about who wins (NW vs size vs score) this time around.

Hmmmm to defend my fam 'napping' a lot : I'll admit we had quite a couple naps going, sure. Then again, we were hemmed in by all 3 other fams that did real good (77, 81 and 65), so diplomacy was our only way to survive, we couldnt hope to live through attacks from 3 sides by the 3 main competitors. 
Still, when i offered a nap to a fam, i proposed to make it a 10-core systems, no hard ops nap. This meant that outside the 10 systems, fighting was fair game, but it still allowed both fams to set up a basic eco in a small safe area without fear of getting nuked to bits. I actually thought up this kind of nap to allow for *some* relative safety that comes with a nap, while at the same time sticking to the HC idea of the galaxy.
I ALSO offered this type of nap to 77, but they wanted a full, no-share nap. This automatically meant we were destined to fight it out at eor as the nap was signed when the 2 fams involved were leading the rankings, and wouldnt want to jeopardize a chance to take it all by cancelling before everyone else was down and out.

All in all i think diplomacy IS an integral part of the game, HC or not. Being killed off just because you got unlucky with your position on the map would just be silly.
I think my fam did well on all fronts (eco, diplomacy, strategic planning, fighting etc.) and thus took a deserved win. Big kudos to Gard, Smaug, Galeonis, Vegeto and Walking_Corpse, you guys were awesome, and it was an honor to have been allowed to pretend to be your leader

... thats what lee did. Deleted with their 2 weeks of savings. 77 is dead. Game over.

mark may 16th 2012 in your calendars ... its bound to be the same thing all over again

Render, i dont think its an IA, but neither is it coincidence ... let me show you some msgs going back and forth between me and FA at the time of his nukes...

Week 0, 6
Reply Save
Will make you a deal, lol... I will not nuke your bankers, if you let the last 3 of us live...
Signed, FA of Rook (#4882)

This is where we hit m for like 30-40 planets Then i check my infils on 77 and find he's opped THEIR topbanker...

Week 3, 6
Send Another MessageSave
wow, XXX cf hits (they are rare) and XXX rc hits not a bad job at all Thanks for pointing m at 77 instead of us, i was holding onto my pants here allready Now, you still want to keep playing with just 2 guys, or you just dragging this out ? if first option, we might give you a nap if you like, if second option, we keep going for the heck of it
Sent to FA of Rook (#4882)

then a msg about diplomacy, which is noone's business
then :

Week 3, 6
Reply Save
Oh and there's nothing to thank me for, I was totally going to nuke your fam, but last minute I remembered Lee is 77, lol...
Signed, FA of Rook (#4882)

So, neither IA (hell, FA isnt even playing anymore), nor coincidence. Just someone's reputation hurting his fam i fear