Mayan Storyline War

[Kaiser Kirk]

It all makes sense, it just sucks. So I had a thought...

Why don't we just split off battles and call them "exercises"? Yearly we can pick or randomly select two or more to have an exercise, random location, random scenario, and fight it out? We all get to see how our ships function without actually risking them and we can do scenarios that would be impossible otherwise (ie IJN Philippines littoral fleet vs Wilno Baltic Fleet). We can rotate who runs the battles so that everyone gets to fight.

While players are already welcome to conduct storylines, and can/have asked for scenarios gamed out,
this idea also provides for the implausible- such as the example.

I think arranging an OOC sandbox to play in is quite 'doable'.
Especially if others want to step up and adjudicate things.

From my experience.... the number of hulls and different ship types really matters.
MTBs and DDs can be moved as squadrons, but the larger have to be handled separately.

So keeping the conflicts down to a Battlesquadron with an attached cruiser wing and supporting DDs
would make it far more 'doable'.

While not the Mahan concept, in a world of sprawling Empires and NPCs it's plausible.

[The Rock Doctor]

I had the thought that it might be amusing to get into some kind of "Cod War" or whaling-related conflict with whichever Indian state holds South Georgia (or whatever that place is way down south).

[Kaiser Kirk]

Looks like the Deccans.
They are weak, beat up on them !

So, funny story - one player was looking at taking an NPC island possession.
Now for simplicity they are all aggressively neutral.

So a scouting mission was sent... and never heard from again.
OOC....there was a critical engine failure and the vessel was adrift in territorial waters,
it was boarded. While ostensibly a fishing trawler, it had very new turbo-electric generators
and other gear that was noticed...

So otherwise we likely would have had a small conflict.

MOST neutral conflicts...end there.
The San Diego bit just made nice window dressing when there was a need for a backstory.

Beyond that...  one can assume there might be some pirates - such as Rocky's current story,
or even military vessels that have gone Potemkin and rebelled.

The Deccan Sultanates are a great source for that, as the Sultanates are a bit unstable,
and their confederation means each supplies vessels. A loosing heir could grab a vessel of loyalists
and set forth to make his fortune.