Join the new world

Dear readers, today I bring you another interesting interview, this time with the Dictator of eSpain, Lord Doel.

Note that I won't change any words from Lord Doel answers and I won't translate the article in Romanian language, just not to alter his ideas or to became somehow subjective about some things. Thank you for your understanding!



1. Please tell me, in few words, a little bit about yourself as a player and what's the current situation of Spain in foreign relations.

Well, I'm Lord Doel, most people call me Rezo (name I usually use on internet, including here, but Plato decided to not delete my old account but ban it), I have been playing since V1 but didn't come to full activity until 2012 or so. About my country... well, Spain used to be a major power in this game, we have one of the biggest communities out there, but as in real life most of Spaniards are jobless, we don't play with visas too much, so most Spaniards are bored as hell with game as it is currently, there are very few pack buyers and we excel on lower divisions because our good job in previous years, in foreign affairs we are aligned with our own alliance, Pluto and we are friends of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Chile and Croatia (I dont know if I should add Turkey around... I don't think we love them... probably more close to indifference). We are branded as enemies of Serbia, so all Asteria loves us too much :3. And not too much else to say... uhm... Georgia is one of our best friends out there.

2. Spain had countless wars with Argentina and Portugal. What are your relations with those countries today and how they will evolve in the future?

Well, Portugal and Spain had a very bad relationship because when the game had random bonuses on provinces they used to have an important bonus we needed... so most of our governments out of greed used to bully them in order to get that bonus, yet despite that Portugal managed to be always a challenge. Once the bonuses were changed... the only rivalry was from Portugal side (totally justified in my opinion), but recently we have come closer to a friendly terms (we don't need NAP to not attack each other, that's a miracle xD).
Argentina is harder stuff... very ancient rivalry because very ancient stuff... probably not even their eldest remember why we are rivals... but I like to think its a healthy rivalry, its not like your wars in the Balkans which are plagued of real life issues... here wars between Spain and Argentina used to be holy crusades to expand eReligions.
I know getting in touch with Argentina is almost impossible, they don't like us, we don't like them, many things should change in order to get our relations well... its a pity since we share language we should be kinda neutral at least.
About Portugal I hope we keep fixing our past and moving towards a future together, but that's also a hard issue since they are closer to CUAP and we are enemy of half that group.

3. What's your opinion on this conflict between Bulgaria and Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) vs Greece? What are the stakes involved for the belligerents?

I don't think I can explain my opinion... I wonder what's inside the head of some Greeks. I understand they like wars with Bulgarians and Macedonians, also they consider USA their friend so that's why they helped them. But Turkey and Croatia are closer friends of them and they didn't even moved a finger (as nation, some individuals did helped both). It's very awkward and considering Bulgaria and Macedonia never betrays each other I think we choosed well our side... loyalty is more important than damage.
Neither side risks anything to be honest, aside from causing headaches to Croatia, Chile, Turkey and Spain and several jokes from all other countries.

4. What do you think about the attempts of Croatia, Greece, Poland or Hungary to disband ASTERIA? Do you think in the near future is possible to appear a new alliance, to oppose ASTERIA?

If you are talking about that castle in the air of "EDEN 2.0" that had no serious base, it was deemed to fail since beginning. I'm not fan of saying the phrase "no balls", but most countries today have lost their warrior spirit... most like to stay in peace, calm with their bonuses fighting with countries 10 times lesser than they and having the biggest amount of allies they can afford. But isn't their fault either... Plato messed the game when he decided "bonus for everybody!". If Serbia had to keep Aquitaine (like in the past) they would not have France as ally for example, no matter what they say or do.
About new alliances... hardly doubt it unless Greece has a leader with brains... Myrmydones was nice, but not enough, they need to realize they aren't alone in the Balkans and other allies of them suffer because their inappropriate wars.

5. Somehow related to the question above, there are some players saying that Greece became a pro-ASTERIA country this month. What's your opinion and, if so, do you think this will affect the efforts to create a balance of power in eRepublik?

Greece is proGreece. If it suits them to be friends of Asteria to get their objective, they will go there, if it suits them to go with Cro-Tur, they will do. They are big enough to have their own sphere and to be wanted on every side. I'm afraid though they have been jumping around for years and I find very hard to believe anyone would trust them. Strength isn't everything... Loyalty is quite more important.

6. Spain used to be a powerful country in the past. From some time, consumed maybe by the wars with Argentina and Poland and not being part of a major alliance, Spain seems to stop evolving from military and diplomatic point of view (sorry if I'm mistaken). What will Spain do in the near future to became once again a big and powerful country. Will you form or join some kind of an alliance (if there will be one). Will you cooperate with some specific countries (Croatia, Chile, Bulgaria, Turkey etc.)? Will you try to expand your borders (without revealing specific internal strategies, of course).

Well, we have our own alliance. Big countries have stopped caring about their lesser allies and we decided to stand with the countries that were suffering a certain fate as we did (alone, forgotten, conquered yet loyal, friendly and helpful)... 30 days ago we managed to be 7/7 free with our hard work. Obviously it didn't lasted forever, we must strive for a stronger alliance... But I'm afraid that requires other countries to take an step and more work to do.
About our internal country... we suffer from the visa effect, we have a very large population (and that can be easily spotted in the taxes) yet we have a very few visas... Players need packs to play this game now and to be relevant in military module. Since we have a small amount of visas, we have a small amount of military strength... Yet despite that, more than 80% our strength is D1 D2 and D3... A lot of our D4 still living in other countries (Serbia, Poland, Australia, etc), but our D1 and D2 fully working in war are amongst the mightiest in the world.

Thank you, Lord Doel, for your answers! It was a real pleasure having you as guest in my newspaper!
o7



Remember, stay informed and fight hard!