AD: Cycle 265: Ambiguous Pendulum

Greetings Commanders,

It's been an interesting few weeks since my last Aisling Duval Powerplay overview. We had a patch that actually broke merits for a little while. Then they were free. Then not-not free. Then needed extra clicks. AD players worked closely with FD make them aware of the issue and come to a resolution that didn't punish players. Good times. One gold rush ended and a much bigger one followed. Fleet Carriers are a thing now and seem to be a hit. The Odyssey expansion-season-update thing got leaked accidentally. Elite: Dangerous is seeing record player numbers. What about Powerplay?

Well, if you take a picture of a pendulum, you can't tell from the photo which direction the pendulum is moving. Right now AD could be on an upswing, moving toward continuing success that's built on the back to two very strong years. Or, did we reach the top and begin a swing back toward conflict and loss? Time will tell.

If you're interested in AD's perspective on her position in Powerplay, read on. If you want to join the organized players supporting our Princess, join us on Discord. If you like playing independently and are just looking for objectives, check out our weekly objectives posts and follow our Trello.

There is one thing every AD pledged commander should do every week:

Vote Consolidation.

Sailor's Lament

As expected, our enemies in the Federation have returned to their assault on the Empire. Although our undermining attack on Winters was successful in delaying Federal plans, they have rebuilt and are again on the march. Their strategy is simple. Use a combination of weaponized expansions, undermining, and profitable preparations to position Winters to escape from the Imperial "prison" that has held her for the last two years. Without both Federal powers in fighting shape, they cannot hope to mount a successful campaign against the Empire as a whole.

I wrote several months back that Torval is the key to defending the Empire. This remains as true today as it was back then. Her numerous 'weapons' contest systems deep within Federal territory and make Winters vulnerable to increasing overheads if she expands too much. Even moderately profitable systems become negative when the overheads leap up, and without her core of profitable systems to buoy her economy, Winters becomes vulnerable to attack and the Empire turmoils her back down to size. As she tires, and largely fails, to overcome the obstacles before her, Hudson will work to "cover" Winters by launching repeated and damaging expansions of his own into Imperial space. Unable to ignore these expansions due to their danger, AD and others are forced to split their efforts between fighting weapons, countering the Feds, and out-hauling our own internal sabotage.

There is also the risk that Winters will try a work-around and gain just enough CC to skirt the overheads increase. Recent weeks have seen a probing offensive against Aisling's close friend, Admiral Denton Patreus. After a self-turmoil attempt a few weeks ago was intercepted and bent to the Shadow President's partial benefit, the Federation has moved forward with an undermining campaign against our dear Admiral. Our thoughts are with his brave commanders fighting to regain their footing. Needless to say, Imperial High Command is watching these developments closely.

Born to Move

Aisling Duval is, despite the general worries expressed above, doing quite well internally. As part of a larger community outreach program, we've launched a Discord server and seen it grow by leaps and bounds. This has led to a resurgence in AD's Powerplay capabilities. We're routinely out-hauling the sabotage prep in HIP 1572. Numerous new commanders are joining the undermining and opposition operations. The advent of fleet carriers also added logistical support for players fighting in BGS wars far from home.

Last cycle alone we hauled more than 320,000 merits to our "blocker", spending over 3.2 billion credits to defeat the 5th Column forces trying to damage the Princess' economy. No power spends more credits directly fighting 'the 5th C' than Aisling Duval. While doing that we also hauled tens of thousands of merits to successfully fortify every important AD system and successfully opposed Federal expansions. By the end of the cycle, we had commanders looking around asking for more work because everything that mattered was done.

This is the framework of a doomsday scenario for the Federation. A large, interested, coordinated player community united behind AD's banner is something they cannot hope to stop. AD doesn't just have capacity, we have excess capacity. And we're going to put it to good use.

Rude Awakening #2

Returning to the pendulum, my metaphor isn't really appropriate for the underlying situation AD finds herself in. If Powerplay really was a pendulum, we'd be powerless to change the course of its swing - up or down, the pendulum moves because of the laws of physics. There are no such laws in Powerplay. We make the pendulum swing. We, through our actions, decide if AD is on the rise or in decline.

Our enemies would like us to think their return to prominence is inevitable. That we are doomed to an eternal cycle with one power on top for a while, then another, or that these are just the laws by which Powerplay and the larger Elite galaxy operate. It's been the Federal refrain for years: Give up. Powerplay is stagnant. The mechanics are broken anyway. Never try for a fix because FD don't care. Go mining. Put your head down and submit.

Soon, they will see that they are once again in for a rude awakening. Aisling Duval makes her own destiny. The Empire chooses its own fate.

Fly free,

Quade

Article Source
https://www.reddit.com/r/AislingDuval/comments/hg6dn0/ambiguous_pendulum/