25714
« on: January 25, 2013, 01:42:07 AM »
OK, not every college can be a faction so here is the organisation, please comment, discuss, banter etc:
The Backs Alliance
Members: St Catherine's, Clare, King's, Trinity, Trinity Hall
Government: Prosperous, forward-looking, trade-focussed populist oligarchy
Faction words: For the Alliance!
Suggested music: We Are the Champions
Notable Quote: "They say that money is the sinews of war. I disagree; it is a lot more than that. Wooly-minded idealism is all very well, but at the end of the day it's a coin in the bag that gives John's a bloody nose, it's a coin in the bag that we can then use to keep our students safe, it's a coin in the bag that's really going to win this war for us. Us, I say! Come on, give a little! For the Alliance!" - Money collector for the Alliance war effort
Synopsis: The Alliance formed early on due to a desire to monopolise river trade from the South and thereby prosper at the expense of John's; the college fellows at the different colleges banded together, using their influence to get the students to fall in line. Their governance tends to be efficient and the areas under their command well managed, with a generally open society and a popular leadership. The oligarchy of the fellows has remained stable, except at Queen's where the fellows decided their academic freedom was compromised (they defected and signed the Western Treaty). Populous and wealthy, the river colleges hold a central position that gives them many opportunities both heading towards the town centre and out across the river, as well as holding most of the major river crossings. However, due to their centralised location they are faced by rivals on many sides: the republic of South Cambridge to the south, the Western Treaty to the West and the River Entente to the north.
The Republic of South Cambridge
Members: Pembroke, Corpus Christi, Emmanuel, Peterhouse, Downing
Government: Enlightened but disorganised scientific republic
Faction words: The south shall sing!
Suggested music: Do You Hear the People Sing?
Notable Quote: "Friends of the republic, remember what we are fighting for. Your colleges demand of you that you do not what is easy, but what is right - that you stand with flags held high and know that what you are defending is not just your college but your rights, and your votes. Students of Emmanuel! Stand firm! Students of Peterhouse! Remember your traditions! Students of Corpus! Let them know their time has been eaten whole! And students of Pembroke... let the martlets fly, and prepare to receive unwelcome guests!" - Captain Baillie, defending the back gate of Pembroke College
Synopsis: After seeing the rest of the colleges falling into alliances, the colleges of Pembroke, Corpus Christi, Emmanuel, Downing and Peterhouse formed together as students and fellows alike met in small cafes, built barricades, and eventually declared that the rights of students and fellows could only be preserved by allowing each one to vote on their leaders. They were the last group to repudiate the suzerainty of the central University, but the revolutionary ideas of liberal democracy they are signed up to are seen as being worryingly infectious by the more centralised powers to the north. Being on the southern edge the of the city they hold a strong defensive position and the presence of the New Museums and Downing sites could give them a crucial advantage later on, but for now they must man the barricades and keep a careful watch on their nearby rivals along the river and the Sainsbury's Pact to the north.
The Sainsbury's Pact
Members: Christ's, Jesus, Sidney Sussex
Government: Highly organised egalitarian authoritarians
Faction words: Comrades of the pact, to war!
Suggested music: Red Fly the Banners, O
Notable Quote: By these presents, the students of the colleges of Cambridge, be they present or not to the signing of this document, make this declaration: that the student proletariat stand in unity, that the fellows and masters are nothing more than students in themselves, and that all the inequalities of our bourgeois past can be borne no longer. - Preamble to the Sainsbury's Pact
Synopsis: Upon seeing the Entente and the Alliance begin to square off, radical students at Christ's saw in this not just a battle, but an opportunity. Meeting with students at nearby Sidney Sussex and Jesus in the porch of Sainsbury's, they signed the Sainsbury's Pact; a constitution promising to share the goods of the store and the colleges equally, and to do all they could to spread their revolution. The resulting politburo then organised revolts in each of the three colleges, with the former fellows being pressed into service as comrades and leaders of the Pact forces. The Pact has the advantage of fervour amongst its students and the disputed town centre between them and the power bases of the Alliance or the Entente - and, even better, close access to the food-producing centre of Sainsbury's. This economic power, however, makes them a target for their many rivals along the river to the west and from the Republic to the south.
The River Entente
Members: St John's, Gonville & Caius, Magdalene
Government: Traditionalist high-church collegiate principalities
Faction words: By ancient right and ancient river
Suggested music: Land of Hope and Glory
Notable quote "May every battle go in your favour; may your duty to your liege never waver, may your hope and your courage never fail, may your enemies shrink from your righteousness. Let your sword be swift, and your justice true, and your faith resolute. Be not afraid, for remember that your honour makes you strong." - a divinity student recruited to the chapel at John's blesses the levies as they march to war.
Synopsis: Upon seeing the backs alliance beginning to form against them, the master of St. John's realised he needed to react. Calling upon Gonville & Caius and Magdalene as partners, the three college masters banded together to prevent a monopoly on river trade forming, taking the northern river trade for themselves! The old John's/Trinity rivalry stands at the centre of the dispute, John's insisting that they are upholding the traditions of the university and placing the entente's chapels at the centre of their ability to keep the students and fellows united under their masters. Their centralised location leas to them sharing borders with many rival alliances: the Backs Alliance to the south, the Sainsbury's pact to the east and the Hill College Confederacy to the north-west. They nevertheless start with significant wealth, and the location of Caius in particular gives them early opportunities to strike towards the town centre.
The Hill College Confederacy
Members: St Edmund's, Lucy Cavendish, Fitzwilliam, Murray Edwards
Government: Militarised, semi-tribal confederacy
Faction words: The Hill Remembers
Suggested music: While we were marching through Georgia Magdalene
Notable Quote: "The hill remembers. It remembers the days when we were seen as a backwater, it remembers the days when the banners of our colleges stood dusty and unrecognised, when we were merely seen as outposts of the city. And because it remembers, we know what to do. We have longed for this for many years; longed for the chance to fortify, to train, to let our old foes know the meaning of fear. You can become our ally if you co-operate or our vassal if you do not; it matters little to me. There is no other negotiation. The hill remembers." - General Longley refuses parley before the Battle of Magdalene Bridge
Synopsis: As unrest stirred within the city the hill colleges rallied around to hold the only piece of high ground in the city. With an eye for tactics and long-standing grudges against the so-called "cultured" city centre, the Confederacy had little difficulty pulling its students into military service and now looks hungrily at the richer lowlands to the south. They are economically not the largest or richest colleges, but are both in a strong defensive and offensive position overlooking their nearby rivals, the Western Treaty to the south and the River Entente to the east.
The Western Treaty
Members: Churchill, Newnham, Darwin, Queen's, Selwyn, Wolfson
Government: Alliance of libertarian and anarchist freedom fighters
Faction words: Freedom and the West
Suggested music: The Ballad of Serenity (Firefly theme)
Notable Quote: "And so this we beg of you; not just that you remember the name of Churchill, not just that you remember our old friendship, but that each of you thinks on yourselves too. Think upon all that you hold dear, the chance to walk and say that you are beholden to no man. My friends, I beg of you - think of freedom!" - A Churchill messenger calls for aid
Synopsis: The Western Treaty was created when messengers from Churchill college came south to ask Newnham and Selwyn for aid in protecting their freedoms from the growing Confederacy; Churchill college defected and joined the alliance brewing in the JPs of the Western colleges and on the Sidgwick site. Signing a treaty declaring that no alliance should ever take away their ancient collegiate freedoms, the three colleges swore to protect one another, joined soon afterwards by Darwin and Wolfson. Also, seeing the Backs Alliance as contrary to the goals of the university, Queen's college too defected to the Sidgwick colleges. The Western Treaty forces are now in training, and the nearby UL and Sidgwick Site could prove valuable if rapidly claimed. Due to the nature of the more open west Cambridge landscape their lines are spread thin, with the Backs Alliance and the Republic to the west and the Hill College Confederacy to the north.
The Exarchate
Members: Homerton, Hughes Hall
Government: Highly focussed militarised war bureaucracy
Faction words: Cambridge and unity
Suggested music: 1812 Overture
Notable Quote: "There was a time, my friends, when the name of this town was spoken the world over. Do they talk of Robinson the world over? Of Girton, of Corpus Christi, of Murray Edwards - even of Hughes Hall? No. They talk of Cambridge, and that is why we must fight. For Cambridge and unity!" - The Master of Hughes Hall rallies his forces
Synopsis: The fleeing administrators of the central University headed south to find safety, and then proclaimed the two remaining loyal southern colleges to be an Exarchate. Setting up a central administrative system, they did their best to mobilise Hughes Hall and Homerton to war on behalf of the University. They quickly lost power to the collegiate forces, however; the Master of Homerton claimed the title of "Exarch" and inherited the bureaucrat's plan of reconquering Cambridge. On behalf of the University's unity, of course. The Exarchate has just two colleges to begin with - the least of any faction - but has a lot of lands nearby to expand into and a good starting treasury. Homerton, in the far south, is also well protected by the few crossings of the railway line.
The Kingdom of the Outlands
Members: Girton, Robinson, Clare Hall
Government: Opportunist raiding Dukes and Kings
Faction words: Be the wilderness
Suggested music: Anything by Howard Shore
Notable Quote: "Some don't even think we're in the bubble, you know. That beyond the hill is just some frozen wasteland. But we know who we are, and that we're a college like any other. And more, because we're not just going to sit and take orders like Clare or Jesus or Caius. Miles away we might be, but a game of Colleges is beginning, and Cambridge is about to find out that we know how to play." - the Mistress of Girton, speaking a day before her death in an ambush
Synopsis: As central Cambridge dissolved into warfare, the Mistress of Girton sent her forces south through the West Cambridge Site and the forests of Arbury on raiding missions, unable to take the main road from the Hill Confederacy. Girtonian raiding bands established the far outer colleges of Robinson and Clare Hall as allied raiding bases ready to prey on the weak Western Colleges or capture the Hill. The Mistress of Girton proclaimed the Robinson and Clare Hall masters to be Palatine Dukes, and gave the Girton Bursar a similar title and the college mastery, herself leaving her college ties to become the Queen of the Outer Lands. Unexpectedly killed in a Western Treaty ambush as she visited Clare Hall, her successor, the former Bursar, is now already the second monarch of the two week old Kingdom. The Outer Lands are mainly protected by their remoteness and wild terrain. They are one of the more difficult factions to start conquering Cambridge as rapidly, and need time to turn from a nation of raiders and guerilla fighters into real student-soliders. Nevertheless the hard lands of the north and west breed fine men and will be difficult for foes to capture.
NB: Other Locations
There are a number of other locations ingame, as follows:
Market Square
Sainsbury's
The Union
New Museums Site
Downing Site
Sidgwick Site
The University Library (UL)
Castle Mound
Arbury Outpost
Science Park Outpost
Train Station
Botanic Gardens
Engineering Dept.
West Cambridge Site
Anglia Ruskin
The Grafton Centre
Old Addenbrooke's Site
The Fitzwilliam Museum
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