Summary and Recognitions

The War against the Commonwealth came to an end on the 1st of May, when under great pressure from losses and lack of coordination we agreed to surrender, according to terms given by OW. A great deal of speculation has taken place in regards to the sudden termination of the war, especially in light of the fact that much of our leadership was still gone and we were largely disorganized. At this time, we cannot be absolutely certain why they put forth the cease-fire agreement to us and pulled out when they did, but there are two main theories as to the reason.

The first theory is that they had more pressing issues back in their home territories to deal with, and since we were already fairly beaten, they had little more to gain by staying and so they pulled out.
The other theory is that they knew (since they'd been monitoring us with their spy for more than a month prior to the invasion) our top players would be returning soon, and in conjunction with them, several high-level players from BOB were on their way to assist us, and when they arrived and began coordinating our resistance efforts, we would begin a lengthy guerrilla warfare against OW that would only lead to OW suffering many losses in a drawn-out conflict that would end up costing them more than it was worth.
Either way, OW gave us the opportunity to agree to a cease-fire, and we accepted it. At the time we were in little position to fight back. Acting Commander Ufal advocated taking the cease-fire arrangement, at least until our top leadership could return, and we did. Under its terms the CW was to refrain from hitting any OW fleets, or attempting to free any occupied bases held by OW members or their affiliates for 5 days.

Total Losses for the War
The Commonwealth lost approximately 40 million in fleet overall during the three days of fighting. Among our members that sacrificed of their own to defend B56 were:
YukiKashimaru, first to the fight at Saratoga, who lost his leviathan, 9k recyclers, 30k fighters, and 50 fleet carriers, dealing damage of 3k cruisers, 500 fleet carriers, and 50k fighters and other smaller ships to the enemy.
shaunthegamer, another one of the first to the fight at Saratoga, who lost 285k in fleet, and took out approximately 250k of enemy ships.
§ŦЯдΰβŽ™, involved in the battle at BT-020-J and others, who lost 2.6mil in fleet for the CommonWealth.
Bowtie Bob (BCL), who's Main JG at BT-020-J was heavily fought over during the war, lost 361,545 in fleet, of which there were 5 BS, 26 HC, and numerous smaller vessels. He destroyed 441,860 in enemy fleet, of which there were 22 BS, 54 HC, 27 FC, and numerous smaller ships.
Ufal, temporary fleet commander and one of the first into the fight at Saratoga, lost 54K in fleet, and destroyed 268K of the invaders.
Spiritus Fortis, late to the war, lost 12k in fleet when his base at LVI-XI (B56:45:41:13) was hit by elfofnordale, in the process he destroyed 14k enemy fleet.
Irongeorge of BCL lost approximately 1.1mil of fleet in the three days of fighting, but was also able to dish out about the same, dealing around 1.1mil of destruction to OW.
Wolfe359, also late to the fight, suffered a loss of 9,595,885 in fleet, including 35 Dreadnoughts, 20 Titans, and 11 Leviathans He managed to deal 7,498,410 in destruction of enemy fleet, but since it was a defensive operation, he was at a serious disadvantage.
WookieeJediMaster, joining the fight late on the 29th at Saratoga, lost 78k in fleet against ┼ r ª╘ who hit him hard and quick. Wookiee managed to destroy 30k of ┼ r ª╘'s fleet in the process.
Gat of Blerontis, at the battle of Einor and in defense of his bases, lost about 980k in fleet. Unknown his damage at Einor, but in defense of his base he destroyed 142k of enemy fleet. As of the Cease-fire, only one of his bases remained occupied.

These were the players of Commonwealth that gave of their own in our defense. May their sacrifices never be forgot, nor their losses in vane. To all who's bases fly the CW banner, or who pride themselves in being called a member of the CW, I call a time of memorial, and a resolution to stand together for the future. I call to your attention the words of Lycurgu of Sparta, when he was asked about the defenses of his city. He pointed to his army and said: "There thou beholds the walls of Sparta, and every man a brick."

For further recognition, I would like to add special mention of those from BOB who came to aid us in the battle and give advice. It's too bad you weren't able to get in on the action.
Dяєαмşιαyєя
Skale
° ‡MØrß ؃ ßØ߇°
The Goddess Kālī
froggy
SilverKnight
For your willingness to come and kick some OW @$$, on behalf of the CommonWealth I say thankyou. I hope that in the future we can stand with such as you again, and make a noble fight against a vile foe...

Day One of the Invasion (29/April/2008)

Invasion of the newly established CommonWealth fortress galaxy B56 began on the 27th of April, 2008, at 12:30 PM server time when over 200 million worth of ships from the guild Our Wealth Too were seen inbound to B56, with an LZ at (B56:49:81:11).

The first major engagement took place on the 29th of April, 2008, at 7:07 AM server time at the LZ Chernobyl (B56:49:81:11), a base controlled originally by the player known as Space Jim, who was a member of CommonWealth. However, as it turns out, Space Jim was a spy for the OW invaders, and as soon as the action started to heat up, he showed his true colors and switched sides, renaming himself Benedict Arnold and his base Saratoga. The first invader to land at the newly renamed Saratoga base was Evalia with 31000 fighters, 5000 heavy bombers, 3000 cruisers, and 500 carriers. He was hit immediately by YukiKashimaru with 20000 fighters, then by shaunthegamer with 31814 fighters, then by Ufal with another 20000 fighters, then by Chippy by yet another 20000 fighters and by .ЯдκÆ with 21851 fighters. These fighter drops brought Evalia down to 2773.4 cruisers and 273.4 carriers. Following this, YukiKashimaru hit him with a Leviathan in 3 attacks and reduced his fleet further to 1766 cruisers, which fled to the neighbouring system at Dune (B56:49:81:40). There was some confusion about what his intent was, but Evalia soon recalled his fleet to the LZ at Saratoga (B56:49:81:11), where it was promptly finished off by YukiKashimaru with his Leviathan and shaunthegamer with his fleet of destroyers. Total debris at Saratoga: 956304 credits.

Several hours later, additional OW forces began to land at Saratoga. ┼ r ª╘ landed with 220344 Fighters, 20499 Heavy Bombers, 5511 Corvette, 10744 Destroyer, 15999 Cruiser, 725 Carriers, 4251 Heavy Cruiser, 126 Battleship, and 287 Fleet Carrier. He was hit right away by Battalion and Chippy_, but their fighter drops only took out a very small portion of his fleet. ┼ r ª╘ then proceeded to attack and destroy YukiKashimaru’s fleet at Saratoga, including his Leviathan as he was not online at the moment and unable to move it out of harm's way... As of the 29th of April at 3:17 PM Server Time, we no longer have eyes at Saratoga. The rest of the OW invasion fleet will be landing today and tomorrow, and we no longer have any position there. Now we wait for them to spread out and begin the full-scale attack on our fortress of B56...

The 29th proved to be a busy day, as more OW fleets arrived at the LZ Saratoga (B56:49:81:11) and began spreading out to engage us in other systems. With the CW fleets scattering to avoid being caught napping at any one location, the OW invaders were able to gain occupation of several CW bases in the vicinity of the LZ with relatively little opposition. One of the first to fall was Baleares ID (B56:55:35:20) owned by Snot2000 (BLC). Following this, at (B56:55:18:20), Bowtie Bob (BCL) lost a raiding force of 2500 corvettes to Dinkydogo who hit him with a fleet of 200 battleships. Then Dinkydogo hit DΣLTÅ at (B56:55:18:20) with those same 200 battleships and destroyed DΣLTÅ's fleet of 2015 destroyers. Evalia got back into the action again at the LZ Saratoga and caught emperor quintus off guard, destroying a small fleet he had moved in there.

At 6:00 PM server time [~OW2~] Chaz arrived at Bowtie Bob (BCL)'s level 7 Jump Gate base BT-020-J at (B56:46:38:22) with a force of 68608 fighters and 14403 cruisers. With this he hit holy cow's fleet of 2072 fighters, 684 bombers, 184 ion bombers, 4 frigates, 20 ion frigates, 566 cruisers, 1 carriers, 28 heavy cruisers, and 12 battleships that was stationed there and completely destroyed it. Immediately on the heels of this attack, at 6:01 PM server time, Juggernaut landed a strike force there with 97490 fighters, 7900 destroyers, 11660 cruisers, 3353 heavy cruisers, and 626 battleships and hit §ŦЯдΰβŽ™'s fleet of 43700 fighters, 7000 recyclers, 8000 cruisers, and 200 carriers, completely destroying it. A few minutes later at 6:09 PM server time Mustakraken landed a fleet there as well. His 170364 fighters, 569 destroyers, 7350 frigates, 5 scouts, 6934 cruisers, 100 carriers, 1620 heavy cruisers, 72 battleships, and 328 fleet carriers destroyed Bowtie Bob (BCL)'s reduced defenses of 9632 fighters, 5 battleships, 10 pshields and 10 prings. Mustakraken lost 333620 credits worth of ships in the attack, including all his carriers, scouts, destroyers, and a good number of fleet carriers and battleships, making the attack quite unprofitable economically, however he did occupy the base, negating us the use of its jump gate and providing a foot hold for OW...

At 6:18 PM server time Dinkydogo hit Jordan Pulsar at Phase-Shift (B56:55:75:40) with 45268 fighters and 116 cruisers, losing practically nothing against Jordan's already damaged photon turrets and pshields. He conquered the base and made a pillage of 18875 credits. Meanwhile. Bowtie Bob (BCL) began delivering fighter spawns at BT-020-J (B56:46:38:22) to annoy the OW occupiers and make their stay unprofitable... The fighting continued at BT-020-J (B56:46:38:22) for some time as .ЯдκÆ and Chippy_ joined the fight against Mustakraken who was joined on his side by Sphinx™ and Mara Jade. These battles lasted for approximately one hour, and ended up adding over 7017181 credits in debris at BT-020-J (B56:46:38:22) as of 7:15 PM server time. With more CW and OW fleets inbound, however, these numbers are sure to increase...