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Recently the eUK has been treated to a rare event barely seen in our isles - an interview with an outside politician, giving us a glimpse into the fact there is more happening in the game than our own training wars. As has happened for the vast majority of the games life, there is a tug of war going on between two mighty rival alliances - CODE and Asteria. Whilst it may appear to many as pretty quiet on the Western Front, it appears as though there are political events happening and making waves that threaten to upset the balance of power between the two juggernauts.

If you speak to older players about alliances (and I have!) they will tell you that alliances always rise, and always fall. I myself was a part of the largest alliance in eHistory, The World Order, and got the opportunity to see how alliances actually function. Recent events and membership changes of CODE have led to widespread speculation that they might be on the precipice of a ‘fall’. It is going to be an interesting year and as much as only time will tell if CODE goes the way of ATLANTIS, (Or PEACE, or Phoenix, or indeed TWO) I have summarised recent events below and will consider what they mean for geopolitics. Leavers

This month Asteria have marked their 10th anniversary celebrating a decade of collaboration, strategic planning, and defence. They have celebrated their member nations and their significance in the geopolitical landscape. However, this month has also marked a large shift in the order of things at CODE HQ and possibly the war currently raging.

Five months ago Turkey left CODE, but that has proven not to be the only cracks forming in the alliance.

On the first of February Chile announced they were leaving the alliance in order to pursue neutrality. Decisions for joining or leaving an alliance are handled by an in game congress vote, and the majority voted to leave.

Hungary’s Country President is the most recent person to consider leaving the alliance, which surprised many. The vote went up to leave CODE but finished 7 for and 7 against, meaning mechanically they currently reside in the alliance. The Hungarian President launched the proposal having had concerns for some time around the lack of cohesion and strategic leadership within the alliance, with these recent attacks demonstrating their doubts over CODE’s ability to handle external threats. They do not seem to be looking to a path of neutrality like Slovakia, and the CP pointed fingers at the internal structure of the alliance in a detailed article. Exasperated with the recent expansion of Serbia into Croatia, Hungary feels that Croatia’s actions diverged from the alliance’s objectives which CODE failed to address, citing that as they both attacked Serbia in different regions to try and force them out of the area. Croatia chose to fight in New Zealand forcing Hungary to put damage in both battles alone, and therefore being largely to blame in the eyes of the Hungarian CP for the Serbian incursion into CODE occupied regions.

A long time partner of CODE (but not member) Slovakia has published an article following suit, reiterating their neutrality and introducing some distance between themselves and the alliance. They have made this decision after a year of being a frontline country in the current war. Last year they had been completely wiped from the map and were liberated - and they have become weary and do not want to fight other people's battles. Slovakia sees this as an opportunity to explore their own sovereignty. Despite wanting to be neutral, they are looking to potentially attack other countries if it is in their interests as they do not want to become a TW farm to prevent sucking any remaining fun out of the game. The Questioning

With Asteria already occupying much of France and launching successful attacks in Greece, some CODE members have voiced their concern.

With the conquest of Croatian regions, there is an increased pressure on members of CODE to coordinate their defences which as discussed, many feel has been lacking. The attack on Croatia forms part of a multi-pronged attack in Northern Hungary and Greek regions which struck a blow to CODE by pushing Croatia out of Albania, where they were threatening Romanian interests in the region and leaving Hungary on the brink of boeing removed from the map. This precipitated Hungary’s proposal to leave, which certainly felt like a key moment to eRepublik’s commentators.

Hungary’s CP took the decision to launch a proposal to leave the alliance to generate discussion of their issues It seems that Hungary, as a historically strong nation, are not concerned about going alone without the blanket of neutrality and are looking ahead to see whether a new alliance might be more appealing suggesting they longterm hope to rival CODE and Asteria.

Greece has also been critical of CODE as they are hit by an Airstrike by the US. They were not happy by the response of CODE in battles between Slovakia and Sweden in which Greece feel that Asteria were putting their full might into the invasion, and there was not the same support from their own alliance for Slovakia and claim that the only real support outside of Slovakia was from France and Greece. They have also criticised Bulgaria for breaching an agreement between France and the US which said that no Franco-American battles were to take place in order to catch France unaware to prevent them France taking the region of Macedonia which is a key region as it would mean that Bulgaria were unable to gain additional borders in the northern region. Romania, a member of Asteria, has said they have chosen the Balkan area as their focus which seems to have caused the disillusion amongst CODE members. Greece is included in this new offensive which has seen multiple regions now under occupation by the alliance.

The Others

A lot will now depend on Hungary and Croatia. If they can decide to continue working with one another and the wider alliance, then other member states would have to be seriously disillusioned to walk away. However, alliance cohesion appears from the outside to be pretty low. If Asteria signalled they weren’t interested in punitive measures against other members, then they might be interested in peeling away and trying their hand as neutral nations.

Likewise it will be interesting to see if CODE leadership changes, or finds its rhythm. With coordination and support being the hot topic of many of the less-content members there’s a chance cohesion can improve across the alliance if a few symbolic victories can be won, or even if multinational efforts to turn a few walls can be pulled off. Key takeaways

The most striking feature of CODE’s internal politics is the sense of alliance cohesion being at an all time low. This appears rooted in poor leadership and coordination. This isn’t something to take lightly, it in fact shows to the world how much a well-coordinated military, nimble damage deployment and decent, knowledgeable leadership can ‘add value’ to a nation, its standing, and its choice of alliance. In a sense this highlights the duality of perma-TW alliances. Yes, training and medal opportunities are important to all nations. But this also serves as an example of when coordination and international cohesion have been diminished by an over-indulgence of the farming playstyle, leaving an entire alliance without an energetic leadership or the ability to deploy damage strategically during war.

An interesting feature of a recent interview with Spanish diplomats also highlights this point - the active diplomatic efforts of Asteria have closed a conflict in Cuba, in part to prevent damage draining. This shows that Asteria are conscious of their battle readiness and are taking direct action on their ability to deploy damage, rather than have it whittled away in battles outside conflict zones.

Silver Linings on the Horizon?

Despite what could be described as a tumultuous past few weeks from CODE, could this have spurred the alliance on to patch their wounds as they attempt to dust themselves off from recent criticisms? Two juggernauts went up against each other causing an air epic in Central Transdanubia between Hungary and Romania, and after a hard fought fight Hungary managed to gain initiative. Is this a turning point and a sign of things to come or the dying breaths of an alliance in disarray? Only time will tell.
Sources -
An article by the Romanian CP on current events
An article by the Hungarian CP on the recent attacks by Asteria and why they launched a ‘leave alliance’ law
An article by the Greek CP on the attacks on Greece
A declaration of neutrality by Chile
An article from the Serbian CP detailing the counter attacks on CODE and celebrating their achievements