Haven't heard back from Boggles yet. They are probably wondering whether it's a good move to support my GCW idea considering that Exodus is about to launch CW season 2, and that would conflict for player attention with GCW. Exodus would also not want them to support me, I am sure.
The BRN guys are nice, but I think in the long run we'll have trouble getting many clans to join. So I've worked out a plan that will allow us to start playing on our own, but also be able to incorporate other clans if they see how much fun we are having and decide to join.
My idea is called Universal War, and it includes Galactic Clan Wars as mini-games. It works exactly as I explained GCW above, but when a clan wins a galaxy, they get 1 point on the galactic scoreboard, and that galaxy becomes from that point on THEIRS. There are trillions of galaxies in the universe, so we'll keep score and see how many each clan can accumulate.
Note that once a system has been used in a galaxy, it can never be used again, since no two systems in the universe are identical (this includes clan home systems). This rule will spur the creation of new systems, and will form part of the creation of the PA UNIVERSE referred to in the name "Universal War".
Moreover, to make things spicier, once a clan has won a galaxy, it gets the opportunity to attack a galaxy held by another clan. The culmination of each Galactic War, in other words, will be a two-clan fight over an existing galaxy (which, since there are only 2 clans involved, will probably be decided in a single evening -- and will probably also involve a giant 20v20 or something, which should be hilarious, especially on small systems in which all these commanders will be spawning right on top of each other. Pure chaos.)
There will be a website where we'll post updates of galactic war maps after all the clans have played their turns, and a scoreboard of how many galaxies (and WHICH galaxies, since they'll all be unique) each clan currently holds. And there will be a thread on the PA forum where we'll be posting updates of the Universal War, and where new clans can state their interest in joining.
As for how we can begin playing without any other clans, we'll just divide ourselves into the official PA factions: Legonis Machina, The Foundation, The Revenants, etc., and start playing between ourselves. If a NEW CHALLENGER suddenly arrives, he will be incorporated as a new faction. So let's say AC decides to join us after we've already played 4 Galactic Wars (and therefore, after 4 galaxies in the universe are already under someone's control): then "Angel's Court" will become a new PA faction. We discovered this faction in the universe while travelling across it and fighting each other. So new clans can join in at any time and be incorporated into the war in a perfectly aesthetically justified manner. After all, this makes more sense than all factions being aware of the existence of each other instantaneously. And we'll riff this off the PA release trailer, which spoke of "The Awakening" of the machines. The Universal War BEGINS with "The Awakening", and it rages on forever (or at least until a single faction grabs all the trillions of galaxies available lol. We can even come up with a number for the hell of it).
Also, when other clans join it will obviously put OUR factions at a disadvantage, because they'll be smaller. But we can start merging them, if we need to do so. For example, if I take The Foundation and jeff takes The Revenants, and suddenly Angel's Court joins the Universal War, then jeff and I can merge our factions to create The Cult. And thus The Cult will be born!
And so on and so forth.
So, essentially, all we have to do is start playing and having lots of fun and streaming and casting and youtubing everything, and the other clans are BOUND to join us sooner or later. If we do this well, it will be a thousand times more fun than 4v4 Clan Wars. So let's do it guys! I am 100% up for it, and we can begin playing with 10 or 12 players. So let's start reading up on the factions, deciding who the supreme commanders will be, picking our preferred colors and teammates, start thinking about our home systems, and let's play a small galactic war. We might as well email BRN and call the trial off, since there's no point in doing a trial: we'll work out all the details in a relaxed manner between us, and once we've played a couple of wars everyone will be able to see how things work on our dedicated website and our streams and youtube videos, and they'll be able to judge for themselves if they want to join.
So, steps needed to be done:
1: jeff PMs Mishtakashi that we have decided to test the format internally, because it will be quicker and easier this way. Once the format has been tested and we've decided that it works, we'll make a thread in the PA forum and BRN and other clans will be able to join, if they like it.
2. We register the domain universalwar.pa on this site:
https://www.101domain.com/ It is a killer name and we REALLY want it (because we want a killer name and a killer website to give ourselves maximum exposure and attract a maximum of clans and players), but the problem is that it costs "240.00 USD for 2 Years" plus "0.00 - 99.00 USD" setup fee. And it doesn't look like I can grab it for just 1 year, so we'll have to fork up anywhere between 240 and 340 right away. I am willing to put up 100, can you guys put up the rest? Start sending money into my PayPal account immediately if so, and if I see money accumulating there I'll grab it asap. We will then have the domain for 2 years, and we can ask clans that join to give us 20 or 30 bucks to help cover our costs, so that they spread more or less equally among everyone. But in order to get the thing kickstarted we'll need to put up money up front, so help out in any way you can to make this happen.
3. Once we have the name we put up a WordPress site but with a KILLER template from RocketTheme.com (same site that did the Insomnia template).
4. We contact Maldor who does nice galactic maps to make our first map for us.
5. Once we have decided on the (small) teams for war #1, we put up the rules and the initial map on our website, and start a thread in the PA forum, to let people know that war #1 has started and that they can follow it on our site and our stream.
6. At the end of the first war (which could take place as quickly as next weekend if we hurry), one of the factions will have won a galaxy, and then we'll all start adding more members among us to play the second one.
7. After 3-4 wars all the Cult members should be divided between our 3-4 teams (preferably 4, since with 3 teams it will be much easier for one of them to get sandwiched by the other 2, and it won't be very fair to them), and at that point we can start incorporating other clans, if any of them have expressed an interest in joining us. And the war will continue...