BlueTuba
| http://www.fido.cc/BlueTuba/Blue_Tuba_4-1.gif |
Introduction
BlueTuba was an alliance seeped in magic and mystery, with a healthy helping of insanity. Founded in Round 1, Tuba enjoyed initial success - winning the round with the official number one galaxy. However Round 2 saw Tuba inflate out of control, with a huge internal bereaucracy, vastly bloated membership and an ineffectual leadership bringing the alliance to its knees when the pressure, ably provided by Legion and Fury launching an all out war, became too much to handle. The majority of the leadership at that point quickly disappeared leaving Vaio and Nakir on their own. Three independant groups then started plans to rebuild the alliance and it wasn't until they all realised their commom aim that all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
A small group of 'survivors', led by McIvan sifted through the ashes and began to mount what resistance they could. The round ended with Tuba utterly devestated, but with small core representing hope for the future. Round 3 marked a period of significant reconstruction for Tuba, with the alliance making great strides in reorganising into a more efficient machine. Disagreements over how the alliance should proceed caused a split in the HC early in the round. Those that left would later go on to found Out of Order - Tuba carried on with reforms such as abolishing the outdated democratic structure and introducing more efficient communication and command structures, going from strength to strength under the control of Patrician, Lokken, Vaio and GaRFIELD (as Techie); with Miserableman joining the HC at a later time. QueenDax brought her formidable people skills to the alliance as Chief Officer. Round 4 was a huge success for the alliance, creating what was arguably the finest defensive machine PA had yet seen; regularly covering all hostile incoming while aiding their embattled ally Fury. The successes of the round were marred by Legion and Fury ignoring their deep dislike of each other to unite against NoS and CELL, who were headed for a clear victory. This rendered the hard fought struggle that had been VeX vs WTF somewhat meaningless, and left a bad taste in Tuba HC's mouths. Sadly, this pattern of events carried into Round 5, with CELL and NoS, now joined by Xanadu; hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered, meaning their destruction came swiftly, plunging the 'victorious' force into a galaxy of boredom and frustration. This sorry state of play coupled with continuing technical support problems, and general command burnout - Patrician, Vaio and Lokken decided to fold the alliance on a high, and move onto new things.
BlueTuba was notable for its policies promoting honour and fair play; never taking itself too seriously. The Tuba community was prized above all else, as was seen by the large influx of Tuba forming the bulk of the initial core of Deus Ex Machina, and the continuing activity in #bluetubas today.
History
Round 1 - The Beginning
What is in a name? Some names conjure images of elite grandeur, others of ruthless efficiency in battle. The name BlueTuba conjured up something very simple, but spine chilling none the less – and that thing was… er, well – Ooooomph! The story goes that a member of the round 1 galaxy 4:4 was strolling though town one day, and walked past a music shop. The shop happened to have an advertisement in the window for ‘The BlueTuba Men’. Thinking this would be a rather good name for his galaxy, he went home and made it so – and thus the legend was born. At the time there were two big guns in the universe, Concordium and Rhinoas Eclipse. The people of 4:4 were RE members; however they disagreed with RE leadership over how relations to the Concordium should be approached. 4:4 and friends wanted closer ties, RE leadership wanted to cool things down. So 4:4 and a few other galaxies split from RE and formed a new alliance, adopting the name of the flagship galaxy – BlueTuba. The new alliance did well, forming close ties with the Concordium, and encountering no real problems in their ascendancy. By the end of the round BlueTuba was an effective alliance with quality players, ready to go into round 2 and carry on as they had started. Unfortunately round 2 had other ideas.
Round 2 - The Struggle For Power
Firstly, round 2 was an entirely different kettle of fish from round 1. Planetarion had been steadily increasing in popularity, and the player-base had been expanding massively in the latter weeks of round 1. The game was larger, and there were new alliances forming by the day. It is lost in the mists of memory who made the call to start mass recruiting, but it was a fateful decision which would ultimately cost the alliance dearly. It was a highly disorganised recruitment system, anyone could join as long as they knew a current Tuba member, and could take the time to fill in a rather lengthy recruitment form – which asked everything from your Planetarion history, to what the name of your 5th year English teacher was. And so the alliance swelled out of control, yet with a feeling of self confidence that the sheer scale of the alliance would ensure its safety. For most of the round Tuba focused on smaller alliances, such as hirr. These were hit mercilessly and constantly, with wave after wave of Tuba ships strip mining enemy galaxies. This aggression wouldn’t be forgotten by the defenders, later in the round. Relations with Concordium had cooled, and a pseudo cold-war had developed, except instead of an arms race, there was a member race. Who could recruit the most, in the least amount of time. Entire alliances were swallowed up by Tuba to form wings, and the alliance became a behemoth. Estimates of Tuba member count have been exaggerated in the rounds since, but not by a great deal. The prevalence of fake taggers pushed the numbers on Tahmer up to around 1000 planets tagged BlueTuba, or variations of. A major blow to Tuba came about when a number of its top members left the alliance. This group, calling themselves Mostly Harmless, left citing the severe problems the bloated alliance had, and the inaction of the HC to combat these problems. They went on to merge with The Legion, a Concordium wing – this power boost to Legion was to prove significant later on in the round. At this stage BlueTuba was being vilified across the universe, the Planetarion Forums were choked with claims of BlueTuba bashing their galaxies, and eating their babies. The infamous BT Day was organised, with the intention of galvanising the malcontents into action against Tuba. The alliance braced itself for the expected incomings, but on the day only a few incoming fleets appeared, and these were swiftly annihilated. Tuba was choked with Non Aggression Pacts, new ones seemed to be issued by the HC everyday. Practically every major alliance was deemed not to be hit. Something had to give way, and that something came in the form of Legion and Fury. Amusingly, Tuba HC had ignored a NAP proposal from Fury – this was to cost them heavily. Legion and Fury decided to take one of the only true gambles of their Planetarion existence, and attack Tuba. To the public at large, this was a David verses Goliath scenario, but in reality it was a hopelessly mismatched battle. BlueTuba’s numbers were a smokescreen, a shell to hide in. And when the shit hit the fan, the numbers melted away. There was no strategy put down by the HC, indeed the HC melted away into inactivity – leaving the alliance adrift with no direction. The only noticeable major attack by Tuba was an all out strike on the number 1, Legion planet. The attack was a shambles, with disorganised launching, mass recalls and confusion – assisted by some cunning tactics on the defending side. Seeing the chance to get some payback, or simply free roids – The rest of the universe joined Legion and Fury on the attack, including Concordium (despite an official policy of neutrality). Tuba was left in the cold, with no organisation, no command – and no friends. Numbers in the private channel dwindled into the thirties, this from an alliance with over 500 people on its memberslist. Those still loyal to the alliance, set up small resistance cells – the war against Legion and Fury was fought in small pockets. Many loyal members left due to frustration at the lack of any leadership. However a small group of members decided that they wouldn’t let Tuba sink so easily, and Tuba Next Generation was born out of the ashes. The memberslist was slaughtered, and anyone who didn’t change tag from Tuba to TNG was booted immediately. This had the side effect of removing many spies which had choked the alliance (not that spies had been needed, it wasn’t uncommon for people tagged [Fury] to be seen in the private channel before the war) TNG was battered repeatedly, most of its galaxies and members were roided to nothing – However small victories gave them hope, such as the victory against CpV (Legions junior wing) at McIvans planet. Indeed the fact McIvans planet emerged at the end of the round as the only Tuba planet in the top 100, is a testament to the dedication of himself, and the remaining Tuba members he led. Tuba was ready to move into round 3, it faced a daunting task of rebuilding from the ground up – however the members who had endured round 2 without flinching were ready for the challenge, and it would certainly be a challenge.
Rounds 3-5
More will come when Patrician get around to it :)
BlueTuba was retired by HC in Round 5 mainly due to internal HC conflicts. The alliance split up when major players left to join Out of Order and other major alliances. Effort was made by surviving BlueTuba members to keep/ressurect the alliance in later rounds but with no luck.
A big Thank You to our techies who during the ups and downs did a great job in creating tools and maintaining the website/forum during the hole lifetime of BlueTuba.
Appendix
Documents which may be of interest:
- Notice of Dissolution of BlueTuba
- Prototype BlueTuba Newsletter end of Round 4
- Text of the infamous BlueTuba Day website of Round 2
