** -> News from the Sith High Warrior <- **

It's been a productive week with the completion of the last parts of the battles for the Great Jedi War and some major development on the Sith Holocron. My appologies however for not having been available on IRC that much this week, as I had to work late thursday and friday, either way, I think that everyone will be very pleased with the space oriented section of the Great Jedi War. However I must extend an advance notice out to everyone, for I have exams spread between May 24th and July 1st, so during the first month of the Great Jedi War itself I may not be online and offline a little more sporadically than usual. I'll be done with school after that however, so as of July 1st you can expect to see a whole lot more of me, as for the subsequent four months I'll be more or less entirely dedicated to the Dark Brotherhood.

My congratulations also to the new Lord Marshal and Commander of the Guard. Being one who supports the integration of new platforms and expansion of the club this is a good step in the right direction, and so I look forward to what things come out of the new office of the Lord Marshal. It also is good to see another fellow Sith and member of the Serpenti on the Dark Council, so my congratulations to Demosthenes on his appointment also.

** -> Battlegroups of the Seven Clans <- **

Well I am pleased to say I have almost got all the information in from the Clans to have the Order of Battle updated with the chosen structural organisations that the Consuls have supplied me with. I still need full details from Clans Exar Kun and Arcona however, so if someone from those Clans could get back to me that would be most helpful, or if the members of those Clans could remember to persistently bug their Consuls about it that would also be appreciated.

That said, I believe the Order of Battle may be taking a somewhat less organised approach. The decisions each Clan has made are rather varied, so I am beginning to believe that the idea suggested initially by a couple of them, to simply list the starfighters, is likely to be the best option. Even so, the sooner Exar Kun and Arcona can get me their Clan's choices the sooner we'll be able to come to a final conclusion regarding the situation. Bare in mind for the Great Jedi War it will greatly help in the fiction sections if your Clan's navy is organised into something that can transfer consistently between different media, so if you have your ships arranged into squadrons that will help your writers to make their work feature the same units as those that will be found in the missions your pilots will fly in, etc.

** -> Battleteams of the Sith Order <- **

In my usual method of putting out a topic of interest for the week to discuss, I'm interested this week in hearing back on what people think of the way in which Sith battleteams are currently organised. I know for a fact that an appreciable number, myself included actually, do not favour the term "Squadron" and would prefer something a little more elite or mystical, perhaps akin to an elite strike team or group of commandos. My question: what is your view?

I'm simply looking for feedback, mail me if you want, or just reply to this report as a comment. If you want, I'd also appreciate any possible suggestions for a replacement name, so that if we get enough possible alternatives I can put out a poll next weekend to see which is the preferred choice.

** -> Mission Designers? Battle Testers? Game Players? <- **

Being that I've been neglecting it a little of late due to my prior commitments to making sure the Great Jedi War goes ahead successfully, I'm going to go back and finish off what was the unfinished battle center project. The difficulty is managing it, and with a staff of only myself, my Praetor, and my Magistrate, that is a rather inhumane task. What I really need above all others right now is a team of beta testers who can go through some of the battles that were submitted for the Sith Wars and evaluate them for bugs and other problems. Once we ensure they are all workable they can then be uploaded and placed on the battle board.

I also want to put a call out to any potential mission designers out there. Past or present, it doesn't matter. I know for a fact that some of you used to be mission designers, and so would like to ask for those interested in resubmitting their old work to the Dark Brotherhood to contact me via email. That way we can start to build up our battle board.

And don't forget... there are Crests of the Strategist to be awarded for all beta testing and mission design.

** -> Allegiance and its Integration <- **

In response of being told that not enough has been done to properly integrate Allegiance I'm going to start mentioning it more often. I'd therefore like to remind everyone about the game, where you can get it from, what you can do with it, and how awards go.

Allegiance is an entirely free game that can be downloaded legally at http://www.freeallegiance.org/. The game is a futuristic space based flight simulator that provides both real time dogfighting combat and tactical and strategic planning. The download itself is no larger than many demos and includes the full game.

The great thing about Allegiance is that you can play large dramatic battles with multiple players on either team, rather than the somewhat repetative setup of one on one that is usually all the older X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance engines can handle. The bonus here is also that the whole of the winning team recieves Clusters of Fire, not just a single individual, meaning that the game relies as strongly on teamwork and numbers as it does simply being the most skilled player in the club, giving added incentive even if you are new to the game or not that good with flight simulators.

Anyhow, I figured I would just remind you all about it as interest in Allegiance has dropped recently. Remember that it counts as much as Jedi Outcast or X-Wing Alliance do for activity, so feel free to play it all the time- it wasn't just a one off thing for the Sith War. If you want to play it at the ICTE or other gaming nights then please feel free to. If interest picks up again I may also make the game a little more flexible- considering the time it takes some days to get a full team together to set up a match- allowing Clusters to be awarded no matter what time of the week you choose to play. For those waiting for a real competition though, don't forget that my Independance Game competition was an Allegiance Ladder and that there will be one in the upcoming Great Jedi War's multiplayer section.

<table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tr><td></td><td>His Excellency,
Dark Adept Xanos Zorrixor Serpenti-Sadow
Sith High Warrior of the Dark Brotherhood
Manus Argent of the Order of Serpentis
(RS)/(SBx2)/(GCx2)/(SC-SoI/SC-SoA)/(StA-LS)/(DC-KC-O-CS-Dx2)
(SNB)/(BNG/BNB)/(Cr-1R)/(CFx4)/(LSP)/(DSS)/(SoLx2)</td></tr></table>