"Unsurprisingly, with the fragmentation of the lands in the eastern lands of the Hindu religious group, there was far fewer changes than in the rest of the world. I think we can safely assume that the more varied the strength, the more pressured the players are to achieve a lead early on!"
Sitting on the comfortable sofa in the main, living room, Natan and his friends were sipping on the soda while watching the rewind of what happened during the first session.
'I thought we did great, but it seems these guys from Lauvoghia ended up being the greatest winner...'
Thinking to himself, Natan couldn't help but massage his temple.
While they managed to obtain what they wanted, from the bigger player base, a great boost to the prestige and most importantly securing the most valuable cities and monopolizing all the northern ports of the southern sea, compared to the horde that accurately struck against the league of smaller nations that was formed to protect each other against this behemoth.
What was absolutely the worst, that thanks to this small aggression of theirs, their country ranked at fifteen places according to the population at first, jumped all the way to the sixth! Even if they shared the spot with two other nations, with how small and stretched on the vertical plane their country was, it would take only two countries on the opposite ends of their lands to overwhelm their defences!
"Let's think this through. We managed to secure a pact with Nahia this turn. You guys should've seen their faces when they heard our proposition!"
Paul, the one serving as the main diplomat and one of the guys left behind in the hinterlands of the Holy Land bragged.
"I don't know how they managed to do it with the stale faces of in-game models, but I could feel how grateful they were for this!"
While just on the map, Nahia looked like a strong contender to the table of local powerhouses, it's scarce population and mostly mountainous terrain made them insanely weak. Even if that was going to change when the technology would develop to a level where mountain dungeons became staple for exping characters, they were still two hundred levels away from that point!
"I wouldn't be so happy. While we got a lot of profits from our quick war and what's more important, we managed to finish it in one go, this also means that we have no way of joining this league. Wabia will never forgive us the loss of their monopoly on the southern ports."
The problem of splitting their target between them and the Horde lied in the disparity of development between the west and east sides of the country.
The east, located on the shore of the insanely important southern sea, was home to various communities that used the trade routes to facilitate the ingame sea trade with all the benefits of lower transportation costs. Even if the more south one would go, the lower levels of the local monsters would become, it was still a bustling region with lots of commerce to it. On the other side, the western part lacked almost any players, with no established cities and only one exception to this rule.
Thinking about the disparity of the efforts placed in conquering these lands, it was fair for the Holy Land to take the better half, especially with the horde having no access to it at all, but by taking over one of the southern ports, they intruded on the area of the coalition influence!
"Speaking about forgiving, we still have to deal with the former government. What do you guys think about this?"
This contest was designed to be as lifelike as possible. Even when a country died, the team responsible for leading it would have a chance to roll the dice to check whether their character managed to escape the invading forces. With a correct throw or good enough deal from their occupants, even after losing one country, a player could still take a part in-game as a leader of the mercenary band, commander of the rebels or even assistant recruited to the victorious side!
With all the regulations and rules put in place for the sake of fairness, in most of the cases, the victorious team would have the right of the first proposition to the defeated side. As long they would be able to convince the other side that working with them was more profitable than betting everything on going rebel or mercenary, victors would not only gain new lands, population and resources, but also more hands to work!
"Thinking about this from strategical point of view, there are as many downsides as pros to trying to recruit them. We can legitimise our invasion, get them to administer those regions or even ease the tension with the coalition. But at the same time, inviting them in can pose a great threat if they decide to change sides."
Speaking his mind freely, Natan couldn't help but worry about this.
Being as unsocial as he was, there was no way he could act as cool in person as he did when hidden behind his awesome avatar!
Wouldn't his image fall into ruin if people learned that this imposing BattlePope was in reality just a frail, young adult?