An excellent 164th Nation War; a very good turnout with some newer players joining in.

Please note that swarms and Lmines are banned from NWs due to lag problems, but that the latter are under review. Oh, and Biocom mines are too... and don't even think about bringing a pet Furie.

Please note that folk coming back to watch should be in an EC class ship, and stay 2000m from the action using zoom to watch. If you come back in anything else it makes it very difficult for the host to work out what is going on, and in extreme circumstances may lead to the disqualification of your team.

The Itanis:
Ghost
Niki
iry
Jestatis Bess
Solitary
Spedy
Big Rat
Kopika Shaddai

The Sercos:
Riddik Willennium
Keria Willennium
Folks Dokaris
Alioni Royhu
sheffield
largus morona
Solra Bizna
Seragyn
A-Dawg
Blitzkrieg Bob
Xenis

The Grey/pirate team: (Native KOS will be strictly adhered to from now on)
No team this week

The UIT:
John Eldritch
Wild Gramps
tsreknor
Gerty
Fatus Lachesis
Faustino Bashkir
Veselio
WickerNipple
Maegereg
Breazle
Yann Buttar

A great NW with lots of excellent combat action - most of which I didn't see, as I was too busy trying to ambush lone SCPs. The Itani and UiT teams engaged Serco from the off, with lots of engagements developing throughout the roid field. Good flying was displayed all round as the sides gradually got whittled down to the last few combatants. Faustino Bashkir hung on well for the UiT but eventually fell, leaving Alioni Royhu, Niki and Ghost to slug it out. Despite some excellent flying from Alioni, the two Itani finally finished him off for a narrow win.

The surviving Itani team members, Ghost and Niki, split the 20 million cr prize.

The NW prize is sponsored jointly by TGFT, CLM, M.Wittman, Waldoze, Tworivers, John Eldritch, Blitzkreig Bob, Pickaxe Pete, Wild Gramps, Jestasis Bess, ITAN and Tohasandra Chi.

Thanks to all the newer players that joined in, practice and ignore the yellow Prom next time ;-)

Please can all players to stay close to their nation group and remain relatively stationary at the start, as it makes it easier to record names. And turn up on time!

The wins: (Thanks RentaGhost)

Itani 55
Serco 30
UIT 65
Grey 7

Same time, same place next week... and hopefully with the normal host! And if I missed anyone, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

JE

Serco cheated i'm glad they didn't win :) they were about 4900M from the itani at the start and quickly dispeared from the radar.

I know i don't need to say it but Niki and Ghost rock. I'm glad to even briefly be allowed on there team (as cannon fodder)

GF's all. Alioni held out real well at the end. A good showing from everyone.

Congratulations Niki and Ghost on your victory. You guys really do rock, and set the bar for combat.

As for Serco "cheating" what would you call the "Non Aggression Pact" (NAP) between the Itani and the UIT seemingly every week? A bit of an unfair advantage don't you think?

Nation war is about a combative face-off against nations, not about who can maneuver the best back-room deal for their side. Many pilots in [ONE] happen to agree, some even talking of boycotting NW due to these NAP's.

Heyheyhey. When I get back into NW action I want to see every ONE member there. Can't do NW all on my own you know...

though I think I've seen "The Itani and UiT teams engaged Serco from the off" every NW for the last 10 or more. Then again, we've won nearly half of those, so I'm not complaining too loudly.

Personally, I'll argue against NAPs every time. They ruin the fun of a 3 way battle. That being said, if you're smart, you'll only honor a NAP for roughly the first 5 minutes of the fight. Otherwise, your survival depends too much on chance.

To play devil's advocate though, due to having 3 sides, someone always has to get teamed up on and it's usually the largest threat. Without giving too much away (which I probably am), whichever nation you fly for, you'll find that you win more if you whittle both sides down at the same time.

Although I personally find NAPs to be a pain in the ass, the UiT aren't blessed with a large number of combat veterans and the luxury of strong nationalist guilds to provide the backbone of our team. We also consistently have the greatest proportion of newer pilots and first-timers in a rag tag display of ships. Therefore, if the general feeling of the team is to go for a NAP I'm not going to resist - after all, negotiation isn't alien to the UiT mindset.

On numerous occasions in the past when UiT have had superior numbers, the Itani and Serco had NAPs against us, (and I'm sure I don't have to point out how wrong that is from a roleplaying standpoint). Serco have typically had a very strong showing at Nation Wars recently so NAPs against them are going to be more common, but it certainly isn't every war, and never when the 2 or 3 of the sides have roughly similar numbers.

At the time the NAP was arranged yesterday, the combined Itani and UiT numbers roughly matched those of the Serco, with half the Serco side in SCPs. In my opinion, the fact the war lasted 20 minutes with representatives of all 3 teams still in the fighting until near the very end suggested it was a good contest despite the NAP. I'm sorry if people only find enjoyment from Nation Wars if they survive. As a major sponsor of the event, I guess it's lucky I don't feel that way.

A-Dawg I agree with you (/me has bad taste in my mouth :)

I didn't lead Itani in this nation war. I was how ever to do a NAP. I told them to ask the leader. NAP should only be used when one team has very few players.

Itani and serco should never have a NAP. JE is right there is no RP reason for it.

But good fighting all around on all sides:)

Many thanks for running the Nation War JE . I timed out and couldn't get back in.

serco has never napped with itani when i've had anything to do with it.

I nap a lot from the sideline. Peace y'all

Could the reportage of NW stop saying "UIT and Itani engaged Serco from the off" every time.
Only say this when itani and uit had a non-aggression pack.
Likewise you could say "UIT and Serco engaged Itani from the off"
when a NAP between UIT and Serco happened.
If no (known) NAP, say "UIT, Serco and Itani engaged each other from the off"
I also get fed up with the verbage "A fun NW" but i'll stfu for now.

Most of it is copy pasta ;P

trolley: Even without a NAP the UIT and Itani usually engage Serco 1st. Since the serco mostly use scp thats just what happens. Have you ever been to a nation war where that didn't happen?

Not recently no. But I say it is because we use superior strategy :p.

I resent that, Shar! OK, I did copy and paste it, but then I reviewed every word, (I even changed a few), and it was only through sheer force of will I resisted the urge to order all the participants alphabetically.

As for you, sheff, I specifically left "The Itani and UiT teams engaged Serco from the off" because there was a NAP, and at no point did I use "Fun NW", so there! :-P

Here's an idea. Immediately following Sunday's NW, maybe even Wed., we have a tournament style NW. It would consist of a double elimination with the following:

UIT vs. Itani
UIT vs. Serco
Itani vs. Serco

We randomly determine who begins the tournament and each nation must be beaten twice to be eliminated. For example:

UIT vs. Itani : UIT win

Itani then fight Serco: If Serco win, Itani are eliminated and Serco move on to fight UIT. Because neither team has lost yet, they still need to be beaten twice.

If Itani win, they have a rematch with UIT. UIT would still need to lose twice though. If Itani lose, they are eliminated. Serco would then play UIT for the win.

If UIT lose the fight with the Itani, they fight the serco. The loser is eliminated as both teams have lost once. Etc. Etc.

It's pretty standard double elimination and would take out the idea of a NAP. Again, this wouldn't replace the 3 way NW, it would take place afterwards.

Ghost: sounds expensive (not really a problem). Also sounds like it would take awhile. Getting that many people to stay for the whole thing might be difficult.

Of course, more fighting is more fighting, and I'm for it.