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Well at the risk of severe trolling and being called a traitor I will say the UK.

If it were not for past history then it would make sense.

Alliance. We are not in an alliance so maintaining good relations with all alliances would be to our benefit. We would not have to join their alliance just have an agreement such as the NAP we have now.

Resources. Well there is the fish for fruit trade we have done in the past. Northern Ireland for Louth. We did it once before to both our benefit.

Geography. Well we are an invasion route from Europe to N. America. Any nation going either way has to go through us and usually the path is to North America as we are friends with both the US and Canada. A friendly UK who would also have to facilitate any westward invasion would allow us to maybe swap a region temporarily instead of a wipe.

Just my thoughts. NOT going to happen. But maybe good enough for the gold.

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"Well at the risk of severe trolling and being called a traitor I will say the UK." Traitor! 😛

Enjoy your gold, traitor scum.

Actually Anthony, UK borders Canada and USA directly

Nobody's perfect. lol

OK so anyone going to NA either will got through the UK or us. Which would would be easier? So a friendly UK may stick up for us.

Thanks Sweet. I had forgotten that. I read your article.

Currently, said traitor scum is up 15 gold seeing as traitor scum is the only one to correctly respond to the rules!

1 comment later...

Keeping Ireland out of entangling alliances, whilst holding cordial relations with all of them to prevent wipes and to facilitate swaps.

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this was confusing. giveaway is something different than a competition.

It's not as simple as alliance, resources & geography, though. For some, real life history is just as important, and more so to some, hence a significant number of Irish will never countenance an alliance with the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFM7Ty1EEvs

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I'm going to disagree with Anthony, as about the only thing I want to see with the eUK is them used as the aiming point for a nuclear strike. On the logical, purely game mechanics side, yes it makes sense. On the human side, not even close.

My proposal is the eUSA. My reasons are that they are a reasonably strong country that is friendly toward eIreland and many of our citizens have favorable impressions of them also. This gives the game mechanic reason as well as a reason many of our citizens would be willing to. The second reason being resources. They are a large enough country, with enough of a variety of resources that something such as a region swap could very well be possible. Such would also give us another area to look at expanding from in the future, as well as providing the same for them. For the geography my map isn't cooperating for me to look at transportation routes, but I would believe that some of our regions, that might be swapped or based from for a MPP fight, would provide access to regions the eUS don't have direct access to from their shores. We would have the same benefit.

So, I think I have an answer that meets Mal's 3 criteria of game mechanics, while also being something acceptable to the majority of our ecitizens.

well said mate

You make several good points.

I am not a fan of the eUK either.

cheers man, and of course not, the eUK don't deserve much respect 😛

Resources:

- The US gets raped every summer. They will never be a long term 10/10 nation

Geography:

- We border nothing of any value that the US doesn't already naturally border.

- If we have an MPP with them then swapping just becomes more hassle than it's worth.

- We no longer have the muscle to attack an occupier of a US region.


We were, at times in the past, a useful ally for the US, and we prospered as a nation because of that.

Right now we are absolutely and utterly useless to the US and that doesn't look like changing anytime soon. The US will not waste it's time on something they get no benefit from and that has been proven time and again. Usefulness is a two way street, and while we remain useless to them, we'll get little reward from a relationship with them till that changes.

Until we quit kneeling at the feet of the eUK like good little servants, what usefulness do we have to anyone?

eChina

1. Strong enough of an enation to be worth allying with.
2. Large enough to have a variety of resources, so they don't need us as a supply farm, and might be willing to consider a mutually advantageous swap of some type.
3. Not in our current geographical area, so the MPP and possible region swap would give us access to a new area to possible carve out new regions for ourselves that aren't in the direct path of the major TWO nations. It would also give eChina access to new areas if they wished.

Using Paddy's idea of human relationships, from what I've seen, eIrish and eChinese relations are neutral to positive.

At the risk of sounding totally out of context, perhaps being framed by my oldest e.enemies (hahaha!), or sounding like I have an agenda (which I do not), I would make a few other pointers that I think relevant about choosing allies:

- Time zone: All countries go to sleep, all countries have prime-times... any country needs a good ally or more in timezones where their prime time corresponds more or less to the time your countrymen go to sleep. If you dont have a country with close relations to yours

- A near-by ally and a near-by rival combo: If your country does not have enough dmg to beat your closest rival on a regular basis (the one you share borders with and wants your bonuses or you want theirs) in an RW without having to get mercenaries every time, your country needs a near-by ally; one that the expense of travel from one region to the next does not exceed 40cc. This way you can both keep each others' back in RW against a relatively stronger enemy. This tactic works well: it used to be the case for example of Mexico + Venezuela vs Colombia; Colombia was stronger than both countries, but unable to conquer properly either Venezuela or Mexico by itself, always had to bring in Asian Huge countries to see if they could do the job.
An extra prop about this configuration, is that your time zones are similar, so if things go well, both countries hit really like one, you can have them in the same military mp or IRC channel.

- That your close allies are not all at war Forever (or you): an unofficial alliance (I mean, something more domestic, not things like CoT or TWO) functioning for the best for all its participants relies on the "passing the war torch and the peace pipe" through all its members at different times. If you are constantly in a huge war that gives to pause, no rest, you are pretty useless to your allies: you always gotta keep dmg for your war, many times at your prime time you will need mercenaries (taking them away from your allies that might need them), and the never ending war just continues with no real gain. If your country is like this, you wont be a very good ally even if you totally want to and help.
Conversely, a country should then pick allies who are also able to negotiate a NAP every one in a while (have good, active and reasonable diplomats), so the torch of war can be passed around between your allies for everyone's benefit, as well as the peace pipe.

I think these 3 factors make sense theoretically, and several countries have semi-similar diplomatic configurations.

However, TWO basically is taking in most EDEN countries turning the issue into merely +dmg vs -dmg, which is fine and ok, but rather more simplistic than what could be achieved for the game to be more fun for everybody. When there was EDEN, CoT and TWO (and CoT and TWO did not cooperate constantly) it was really worth a shot for any country to liberate itself, to negociate, etc...

Now I see massive stagnation... I wish current EDEN would be more active. And neutral or non aligned countries participated more, since they actually have the potential of putting some movement and even get a relatively decent upper hand in the long run now.

What country/s would be good allies for Ireland concretely? To answer that one also needs to know the eHistory of the country and the friendships between players, old and new. There I do not know much.
In the end, all theoretical points are useless if the allied countries are not actually friends (see each other often, share internal and military info at ease, and their citizens like each other independently of what parties might be at government).

Well, I can't speak for everybody but I reckon the last 4 posts give an excellent insight into game strategy and tactics. I'm really impressed and I've said before, yo and your eHubby make an excellent addition to our little community. Thank you

Currently, I think crazy mexican chick has a shot at the 15 g 😛
C'est pas vrai? :3

Well we have the near by rival part wrapped up. Now we just need a near by ally.

I really think Germany and Italy would be these near-by allies for Ireland. But I honestly have no clue about how Ireland's History and Diplomacy is doing in those countries.

Still, I would focus on developing really good and tight relations with both.

Well Italy and Ireland have had good relations in the past. It was a while ago.

germany is a good choice for 2 reasons :

1- strike Uk

2- wipe Uk

Poland.

Alliance: They are the bedrock of their alliance, good relations with them means we have no hassle with their alliance.

Resources: They got em all and always will. Good relations with them means relatively easy access to avail of their resources.

Geography: We're in their sphere of influence. Many possibilities for military co-operation.

Can't argue with the logic.

maybe not the logic, just the thugs that they are

Logic wins the game. It's a game. Not a very good one admittedly but a game nonetheless.

A game.

The goal is to win.

Culture: The Poles are drunk Catholics just like we are.

Iceland

germany is a good choice for 2 reasons :

1- strike Uk

2- wipe Uk

x2

OK -End of competition and thank you everyone for voting.

So, let's go through the rationale.

AC - [UK] nothing for AC although his logic is sound in terms of our relationship with eUK in short, because of RL nationalistic and historical baggage we are never going to sign an MPP with the UK unless we want a split nation. So from a game mechanic perspective it's null points.

Paddy O'Brien - [US] this is an easy alliance to talk about and put forward. The reality is much harder. What makes it work though is that the US has good relations with parts of TWO, They get on very well with Spain and are able to keep a civil relationship with Poland. In short, being allied to the US maintains our neutrality in relation to our biggest threats - UK/Poland/Spain

Ryan Flaherty - [China] this is a very difficult country to do MPP's with as the majority of its citizens are there as farmers and company owners. In essence, you only tend to see Chinese firepower when they are threatened (like the Polish invasion). In essence, while they are useful in a large alliance, I personally don't rate them in anything else.

Cry of the Banshee - [Germany] this is a home run for me. I wouldn't rate it high on the list, but there's no doubt if Germany could get over her Irish hangover (there have been many issues in the past) this would be an obvious alliance.

Chief - [Poland] I'm not so sure about the resources bit, but there's no doubt that in spite of a lot of antagonism from our side, Poland have been very good to us. The only negative is that I can't see what we can offer to Poland as we're well behind the queue of other nations bowing down before TWO

So, the result? Well, there's no winner as such. The purpose of this article is to get people talking about which direction we want to go in. The Irish Military party wants an Irish citizens regardless of level or nationality to play their part.

We are giving 5 gold each to Paddy, Ryan and Cry of the Banshee

🙁 I did not even count as a participant?

Coyo. the advice you gave was priceless, there is no value on friendship and good council. If there was, you would be rich beyond compare.

One idiotic "war" with Poland hardly counts as a lot antagonism Mal when taken in context with our dealings with them over the years. All other moves we made either with or against them in the past were sound in terms of strategy, and they just see that as part of the game. Quite a few of them tipped their hat to us and said 'well played' They allowed us that one fuck up because we've never been real enemies. As things stand and for the foreseeable future, we'd be a more significant ally than we would be a significant enemy. Not that that'd be hard.

Dang. Don't I get points for difficulty?

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As for resources, Poland are a 10/10 nation. Being an ally gives our commune holders access to those. If you're talking about expansion in our own right? We can't even hold our own regions atm and whatever little bonus they would give us. Being allied to them gets us those back right away. There's expansion of resources that p much no other MPP gives us.

Btw I'm not saying we should ally with them, but since the IMP is supposed to be all about pragmatism then on that grounds Poland wins every day of the week.

thank you

Also: Alliances in eRepublik Part One:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/alliances-in-erepublik-part-one-2296594/1/20