Join the new world

So, today I got my second Hard Worker Award. It's been a strange two months.

My first employer was BlackAdder Holdings - and BlackAdder is still the best manager I've seen in the game. It's very surreal to see that I now have more eps and military ranks than he does; a brutal example of how peace in this game smothers, kills.

My first intro to the squabble between peace and war factions in eAus occurred when I dismantled a pitiful trolling post by a 'black armband' proponent of colonial history - Australian Warlord misinterpreted my response and snapped back at me. Despite that bad start, we would soon be allies fighting in eRomania. I am habitually cautious, well aware of how easy it is destroy delicate situations through ignorance, but within a fortnight I was convinced that eAus was hemorraging to death, and threw my support completely behind the war faction. And was immediately part of the venomous flame wars that wracked the public forums. Accusations of 'newbie' and 'ignorant' were replaced by 'greedy' and 'self-centred' as I waxed stronger than many of my opponents. How did they think they could build up eAus when they were so puny?

My first election - I couldn't vote in. Another example of peace=death. Had eAus had a war, even a wargame with a Q2 Hospital, I'd have been 6th level and been able to vote. Instead, the election passed me by. I also missed my chance to help stop the Czech & Balkan PTOs; my own fault. But since then, I've TO'd Turkish and Italian political parties (just for fun, you can't achieve anything by doing so) been decisive in stopping the attempted PTO of eSA, voted for a computer scripter (hey, the obvious way to thank him for making the game more fun), been kicked out of a political party by the war swarming over Podolia, and circled the globe avoiding war zones to vote for a friend.

Karnataka! That was the holy grail we fought for. Karnataka was eIndonesia's only source of iron - if we took it, it would cripple their military machine, allowing eAus, eSA, eIndia, ePakistan and eArgentina to rise in revolt. We were close, so close! But desperation taught PEACE the importance of teamwork, and fine tactics and organised cooperation held us at bay. Then we were forced back, step by step, region by region: not by tactics or determination, but by endless supplies of fake weapons.

With multiple battles raging, it became important to know where to fight. Sure, I could rely on the eRomanian battle orders, but they could be 20 hours out of date. Often, I had to sit watching the battles, working out which were lost, which were guaranteed victories, which were worth throwing my own meager support behind. The second best was when we saved Sindh in a last minute rush, stacking 40K onto the wall in just a few minutes. The best of all was watching the battle for the eMalaysian Peninsula, and watching in delight at the Malays won decisively.
Far more often though, it was watching battle after battle be clearly lost, and just throwing my weight into whichever new battle was just opening, hoping that this would be the one that turned the tide.

Jackson Philllip and Lord Tobio both added flavour to the struggle; ATAG's real value was to remind us that this is just a game. It also became a fine place to teach new players, and mentor new fighters. By the end of my first month, I was teaching new players, loaning moving tickets, explaining combat tricks, arranging gifts and high quality food for the truly unwell. I arranged for IsDonIsBest to invite four of our mutual friends, pushing him closer to eAustralia's first Society Builder Medal. Other fora joined ATAG: the eUN, Free eSAfrica, the Australian Legion, The eNew Zealand Movement.Each added to the game.

By this stage IsDonIsBest and I were ready to buy a weapons company, and were introduced to the rollercoaster ride that is wartime arms manufacture. In 24 hours, we could have 100% turn over of the workforce; weapons might stockpile to 100 or so and then disappear; raw materials costs were all over the place. I'm fairly certain that our 'profit' has been purely the result of market variations. Strangely, emailing intros to the company paid off well, with workers asking for advice and being careful to use the hospital before working; used to the hire & fire standard of eRomania they were surprisingly loyal. And of course, taking care of them paid off in increased wellness, meaning more production. So even in a wild bull market, consideration pays.

This newspaper is very recent; created largely to prevent the diappearance of a Dutch political party. At a cost of 40 Gold each, political parties are worth saving! Attempts to auction off a Turkish party proved futile though. 😛 Still, I succeeded in saving the Dutch party.

The future? eRomania has fallen - even Moldavia is attacking her! eSpain perhaps? I guess we'll see. Until eIndoneisa's power is clipped though, eAus will remain a fringe enation, and that I intend to fight against.