Stormlamds Civil War (ID 11590493)

Turns
 Location
 Results
* Bilouface eliminated
 House Baratheon
House Swann
 Lyonel Baratheon
Ormund Baratheon
 Vauia Rex
Player 1 (AKA Max)
 2173 Baratheon
1702 Swann
 786 Baratheon
357 Swann

Between Turn 2 - 5 ( CET 2016/07/21 18:51:06 - 2016/07/27 19:41:13) House Baratheon (Vauia Rex) and House Swann (Player1/Max) overthrew undeclared stormlord Bilouface, over its refusal to swear fealty and cooperate with their land-redistribution plan.

## **The Stormlands Land Exchange (Turn 0 - 1)**

The Stormlands were divided between three players: Vauia Rex controlled Storm's End and roleplayed as House Baratheon - specifically Lyonel Baratheon at the time. The south was controlled by Max, who at the time was called Player 1, roleplaying as Elise Swann. The third player was Bilouface, who never wrote in the chat, and so they never assumed an alias, or declared themselves a house - they could be House Tarth or Connington. In all likelihood they did not read the chat, either because they weren't aware of it's impotance, or because they gave up facing the huge amount of texting in this game.

The Baratheons and Swanns quickly took stepts to establish warm relations. Swanns swore fealty early on, then Elise married Lyonel's son Ormund on 18th July. It was Lady Swann hin the very beginning, who pitched the idea of the Stormlands Land Exchange. Here is how it would have worked:

Alongside the small regional bonuses, and a large total bonus, the Stormlands were divided into three large bonuses: Dornish Marches, Cape Wrath, Northern Stormlands, worth 120, 120, and 150 respectively. The players were distributed in such a way that neither occupied any of these bonuses, but with the exchange of a few regions, they could all occupy one:

 **Bilouface** to Vauia Rex
 **Player 1** to Biluface

 Bilouface
 Player 1

Barathons agreed to this, and they started to enact the land exchange with Ruins of Summerhall in Turn 1. However Bilouface was, like I said, silent. This was of course most worring to Barathon whose bonus dependent on it. Even worse, Bilouface's starting army of 300 was stationed at Evenfall Hall, the only enterence to Tarth, blocking Baratheon advance into the island.

Wheather Bilouface was acting in good faith or not is in the end irrelevant. If Bilouface won't participate in the chat, the Baratheons can't obtain their bonus, or have any diplomatic power over them. They had to be eliminated for a strong Stormland.

## **Growing tensions (Turn 1-2)**

Baratheons demanded time and time again that Bilouface must swear fealty to him, and empty Tarth. He also offered Shipbreaker Bay as a temporary withdrawal route (not quite understanding how airlifts work), but all to no avail. Finally during Turn 2, 2016/07/20 12:54:21 an ultimatum was made:

*"Bilouface! Despite of I asked you twice, you did nothing with your army in Evenfall Hall. Instead you placed huge armies to my and Lady Swann's border. I give you a last chance to swear fealty, and clear your name. Otherwise you rebelled against your overlord, and againnst your king."*

Later that day (20:07:21), after no response from Bilouface, the Baratheons returned with a declaration:ű

"*Well, I have to finish this turn, I still have no answer from Bilouface, and I have a strong feeling I never will... Bilouface is a rebel lord now, and I, Lyonel Baratheon declare war on him/her."*

Lady Swann quickly announced her support, and declared war at 20:18:21:

"*The rebel lord must be removed unless they can redeem themselves, House Swann follows House Baratheon into war with Lord Bilouface, we are after all connected by marriage and must work together"*

The logic of the redistribution presented a dilemma when it came to plans of post-war reorganisation: Tarth would obviously go to the Baratheons, but the Cape Wrath bonus couldn't be divided, it had to go to one player, so one player must control two bonuses while the other only one. Lady Swann was already on her way to take the Dornish Marches bonus, and already had territories to Cape Wrath, so Baratheons taking the bonus wouldn't provide much of an incentive to join. So the Bartatheons were quick to announce that Cape Wrath will be Swann territory (20:29:25).

In the wider community, the sudden declaration was welcomed with attempts of deescalation. Grand Maester Leyton Hightower (godspeed) argued that the war isn't justified, and that they should wait a year (a turn). Lord Redwyne (Xeque), though agreeing that Bilouface must swear fealty, also opposed taking agressive steps. Lady Swann however came to defend the war against them.

## The first year of the invasion (Turn 2)

If Bilouface's moves are any indication, they were truly unaware of the coming invasion. They coninued their deployment into border regions, but they didn't make any offensive moves. Their forces were concentrated to 7 territories alongside the border, plus the original 300 at Tarth.

Baratheons played spy and sanction card on Bilou. Most Baratheon forces (500) were at Storm's end, one territory behind the front line, thus anable to be involved with the fighting just yet, so initial Baratheon advances were limited. The taking of Tarth being top priority for him, he deployed almost half of his income (215), at the Straits of Tarth, and moved the Storm's end army to Shipbreaker Bay. Of course the initial attack with this force against 300 was unsuccesfull, and wasteful even. On the mainland, Baratheon forces were also outnumbered, and could only advance in the gaps between Bilouface's armies (since Baratheons deployed their forces spread out in the whole front). They also took the lightly defended Rain House from the sea

Swann forces on the other hand were ready to advance, and at the battles of West Slayne Bank, East Slayne Bank and House Morrigen, she destroyed 3 out of 4 enemy armies along her border. The forces were led by Ormund Baratheon, Elise's newly wed husband.

Later, during Turn 3 2016/07/22 9:49:42 King Jon Snow Targaryen came out denouncing the war, demanding that peace should be made with "some but not all" territories returned, and with Bilouface swearing fealty. Lady Swann, again, came to the defense, pointing out that yeah, they are not going to swear fealty any time soon. Nothing really came out of this, which illustrates the weakness of the Iron Throne in this game.

## The second year of the invasion (Turn 3)

Now that even Bilouface understood that they are in war, though their situation was quite hopeless, attempted some offensive steps.

One of them was to strengthen the mostly intact army at Storm's Break to 132, then push to Storm's end via North Shipbreaker Bay. Unfortunately the Baratheons also understood that, and deployed 144 there, stoping Bilou's advance then counterattacking. He also took the surraunded Durrandon army, and a detachment from the original Storm's end army took Griffin's Roost by sea.

Another offensive happened further east: the largely intact Wood's Way army (95) was sent to retake Gallowsgrey from the Swanns, while a new army of 48 at East Rainwood was sent to eliminate the Rain House bridgehead. The Swanns deployed triple digit armies to Galowsgrey, as well as East Cape Wrath, and Weeping Tower. Safe to say, the offensive failed. The Rain House attack also failed, but not by much, eleminating almost the entire Baratheon garison foiling further Baratheon expansion. By the end of the turn, Swann armies took almost all of Bilous's mainland territories, safe for two territories at House Wylde.

While all of this, Baratheons finally took Evenfall Hall from both surrounding sea territories. He also pulls 232 reinforsments from the Stepstones to Shipbreaker Bay.

## Final cleanup (Turn 4-5)

During Turn 4, Swann forces take Bilouface's last two holdings in Cape Wrath. Meanwhile Baratheons pulled their forces from the Cape, thus the Swann's obtained the bonus.

Bilouface depployed their income in one army in North Tarth, which was overrun by the Baratheon invasion of the island. Then at Turn 5, Baratheons's take Bilouface's last holding in House Lonmouth, Tarth, obtaining the Northern Stormlands bonus.