Deus baptized in fire
Deus Ex Machina: Baptized in Fire posted by AlbinoSquirrel
ashes to ashes
dust to dust
Deus Ex Machina is formally disbanded as a Planetarion alliance.
We will begin converting our forum into a public system within the next few days, and open a public portal before R7 begins (if everything goes to plan).
I have decided to post up some amusing tidbits from Deus - we are far more sinister and evil than most people give us credit for.
beginnings
The original plan for Deus was not to form an open alliance. We were initially going to form a two-tier alliance, with an inner trusted core, and an outer mass of players. The inner core would know our true plans, while the outer mass would be oblivious to the reality. Our initial plan was to ally with FLVT.
What?
Oh yes. Ally with FLVT, and get arbiter access. After a short time, after compiling a list of their galaxies, use the inner core to launch several attacks on their forces, sharing our ill-gained list with Xeta and other forces, then announcing our true intentions to the universe.
Naturally, we didn't do this. We didn't have the time, and we were so security paranoid that it was deemed to be next to impossible. I still think it would have been highly amusing.
We relied far too much on Titans before the round. We were impatiently waiting and waiting for them to announce and break from Legion. Finally they did, then days later, turned around and left the hirr/ND/Deus/Titans group.
This was rather annoying, though I believe we benefitted from the matter. We got Agamemnon. We win. \o/
FLVT war
We were a hard-core killing machine at the time. Deus was doing the best out of any alliance in FoS for some time, even rivalling or beating Xan. Not a boast, just fact. We took out the supports, and Xeta hit their main forces. It worked surprisingly well.
Two weeks into the round, many Deus HC were convinced that we were going to lose. The FLVT farming system looked unbeatable - till we ripped the supports out, and they fell down.
Feelings toward FLVT at this time
We initially had a lot of dislike toward FLVT, though this cooled down slowly. Patrician was so anti-Fury that he repeatedly told us he wanted to spend the entire round Fury-bashing. I personally wanted to beat Fury, just to beat Sid at his own game. I also wanted to beat Titans for their "betrayal" of us early on.
After we began to interact more with Xeta and FoS, our focus of dislike began to shift toward Xeta and certain parts of FoS.
Xeta war plannings
This is one of our most devious plots, though it didn't actually go off. We did plan a war with Xeta. Deus was preparing for it, and we were in deep talks with the rest of FoS for a couple days before it broke out. The war would have happened within 3 days anyways.
We wanted Xeta to declare first - simply for the PR boost. This they did, in a better way than we ever hoped for. Deus HC had a long laugh about that one, for sure.
Our key plan, however, rotated around 33:9 - Killmark's galaxy.
Killmark orchestrated the early bot attack - he kept his hands off it, personally, but we knew of it when it happened. We watched, we laughed. I figured they would be deleted, and Deus decided not to take any advantage of it - as that would be rather unfair.
Surprise surprise when I came back after taking a weekend off to find 33:9 in Deus. Several decent people in there, though, who I was very upset to lose.
Our plan revolved around using them as an excuse to short-break the NAP with Xeta. We knew that Xeta and NoS and WP were planning a joint attack on 33:9. We contacted NoS and asked them to hold back till the second wave or so.
After Xeta launched an assault on a known Deus/FoS galaxy, we would use it as an excuse to declare war on them, instantly. After that, we would drop 33:9 - effectively using them as a lightning rod.
Evil? Yes. My apologies to those in 33:9, except Killmark - I don't have an ounce of respect for a repeat cheater such as yourself.
FLVT peace treaty
We approached FLVT for a peace treaty / cease fire a couple days before the Xeta war broke out. The reasoning was this: we didn't want a two-front war, and we knew that FLVT wanted to take out Xeta. Thus, the peace treaty was beneficial to both of us.
After interacting with them for some time, we came to realize something - they were so much more organized than Xeta, it wasn't even funny. Working with them was far more rewarding.
Deus downturn
The FLVT war sapped our strength, and the Xeta war hit hard. We lost several good members due to mixed galaxies. Due to WCN deciding to let us wait while they negotiated with Xeta, we took heavy damage. Our activity dropped and never picked back up to the same level.
Still, Deus fought back as best we could and hit Xeta back. We survived and survived in decent shape.
Nearing the end
Deus nearly disbanded before the round ended. The HC was so exhausted, it wasn't even funny. Our lead BC was burned out, and we didn't have any reserves left.
Our plan before the end of the round announcement was to renew the war against FLVT. We were preparing to do it when the announcement came, and we knew that it would be pointless then. I still wanted to do it personally, but it was too late.
FLVT made such a strong comeback, that if the round had continued another 2 weeks, they may have won. We didn't want that to happen (yet again), so we were preparing to offer a peace treaty to Xeta and go back at FLVT - hoping that it would motivate our membership enough to let us finish the round in style.
Oh well.
Misc opinions
hirr and ND were excellent allies, and I wish we had gotten closer to them. We never did manage to get a server linkage with them, unfortunately.
Guild, while they came later, were also a good friend and ally.
WCN, though - bleh. They left us out to dry when Xeta declared, and that alone gains them our disrespect. NoS has earned a lot of enmity from me personally for Dingo's utter assholish attitude toward QD at some points. You are indeed a wanker.
WP and NoS owe their position in part to us, and that's that. They didn't earn it on their own merit, and their new "friendship" with Xan and Ely just illustrates their cowardice. The number 1 galaxy took their position by avoiding war in a wargame. Feh.
I'd not ally with them again for the world.
Deus propoganda
We owned you.
Closing
As I've stated before, Deus won. We didn't stop stagnation on our own, but we led the universe in trying to. We controlled enough of the political direction - we wanted FLVT and Xeta to beat on each other, and we successfully manipulated their desires to do so into our favor.
We were a group of sneaky conniving bastages, the like of which will never be seen again. Maybe.
Deus in R8 anyone? (cue evil laughter)
