War for Lugh
The War for Lugh started when President Halsey declared war against the Crimson State Group on the 13th of March 3301. Halsey decided to send the new Farragut Battle Cruiser FNS Nevermore to fight in Lugh for its maiden flight. [1]
The Crimson State group had lobbied for help from the Alliance of Independent Systems, to provide military aid and combat ready pilots. Alliance Prime Minister Edmund Mahon refused to aid the Crimson State Group, arguing that Lugh was legally ruled by the Federation, hence the Crimson State Group did not rule a functioning independent state that would be a legitimate target for Alliance military aid.[2]
Core Dynamics postponed the maiden flight of the FNS Nevermore following an embarrassing systems failure. During a weapons test, its systems opened fire on Hudson Dock instead of the target drone ship. This caused the station to automatically fire back. The result was dozens of deaths and hundreds of millions of credits worth of damage to both structures. [3]
The Federation received false intelligence that Éamonn Uí Laoghire, leader of the Crimson State Group, was aboard an unarmed refugee convoy near Lugh 6. Halsey ordered Federal pilots to attack the convoy. An estimated 9,322 innocent Federal civilians died in the attack. Halsey's approval rating fell to 26% and Shadow President Hudson swore there would be an investigation into the attack. [4]
The Crimson State Group took control of Hartsfield Market, the station with the master controls of Lugh’s military defence network. [5]
Congress decided to withdraw the Federal Navy from Lugh. [6]
The Crimson State Group won the conflict, taking control of the system and freeing it from Federation rule.
How the War in Lugh Worked
The conflict was completely player directed. There were 5 different Community Goals run simultaneously. There was:
Federation
Fighting goal- represented the frontline fighting against CSG
Trading goal- represented the supply line to the military
Crimson State Group
Fighting Goal-represented the frontline fighting against the Federation
Trading Goal-represented the supply line to CSG
Stealth/Pirate Goal-represented infiltration and sabotage by CSG
The way this worked:
The Trade Goals and the Fighting Goals were attached to each other. If your Trade and Fighting Goals rose in synchrony, then each station available in the system would rise, fall, or remain the same depending how each side maintained their respective CG's. The Stealth/Pirate goal was actually over the ownership of the main station in the system. There was a written decision tree the developers were following for each of the possibilities of station ownership as each level was reached and its related outcome since each station was up for grabs. The changes to a given stations win/lost/blocked states was predicated on how the trade CG and the Fighting CG rose in level. The war would be over when either side completed both the Fighting CG and the Trading CG.
The community failed to understand the interconnectedness of the Community Goals, which created an interesting outcome.
Since the Federation players failed to work diligently on the Trade CG, they lost opportunities to flip stations. The Crimson State Group, being outnumbered 2:1 through the whole fight, could not match the Fighting Community goal rate so focused on the Trade and Stealth CG's. Once the Trade Goal was finished, they switched and started working on the Fighting Community Goal.
The Federation players felt that since the Fighting Goal was won, they had finished and Crimson State Group had lost. The Federation Trade Goal moved...but slowly. This allowed the Crimson State Group to move it's Fighting Goal...but the Federation Trade Goal was moving faster than the CSG Fighting goal...and the end of the war looked like it was going to go to the Federation.
But....the mercenary force of the game started to come into the play. Since there was no credits to be had for the players that wanted to fight, they started working on the Crimson State Group Fighting CG. And to all these folks, you have CSG's undying thanks! Your efforts to put credits into your pockets, actually allowed CSG to finish their Fighting Community Goal, roughly 4 hours faster than the Federation would have finished their Trade Goal. This immediately ended the war, and prompted the removal of the Federation military, as well as some minor political changes to the game.