Join the new world

New Weapons Issue

Still no guns, but a new model of Swiss Army Knife.

Ctrl+Click for the Pre-Application Form in another Tab

Dateline : Monday November 22 (Day 109😎
Location: Urban Warfare Training Center
Reporter: Colonel George Armstrong "Old Man" Custer


Should conditions change after the initial publication, Col Quigley or myself will edit this same article and change the title to read "Update" with the new time.


Today's available battles: 0700 hours First Edition
Poland attacked Lorraine, France, around 03:10 hours.

The Situation:
The neighborhood is getting hot, and wars are moving closer to us. The eRep Map is being a real turd but try it anyways to see the latest Active Wars in our area.
Our MPP partner, Poland, has suffered some setbacks, including returning Alsace back to France; Kalingrad and Volga Vyatka to Russia (in RWs); and is dealing with a handful of RWs in both Russia and Germany.
Meanwhile, Italy lost three original German regions, then attacked Tyrol, Austria.
And Spain's French holdings have expanded right up to our southwestern border... "Hola, vecino!"

^{Ctrl+Click to see this image full size in a new browser tab}

Switzerland's MPP with Poland is set to expire in three days. It is our hope that the last act of official business of this session of Parliament will be to renew with Poland. Their aggressive nature makes for some really difficult politics but they've provided a steady diet of battles for us.
Diplomatic efforts are also underway to communicate with Italy, Spain, maybe France and even the USA, as possible alternatives to MPP'ing with Poland.
Any MPP arrangement brings with it some degree of risk, but that should be balanced by the economic boost of food and weapons sales, player retention and morale with added opportunity to advance, national security of having a strong partner, and building credibility as a fully participating member of the international community.

Basic Fight Instructions:
Try to fight towards the end of the 2-hour Mini-Battles (last 20 minutes).
Try to save your last 10 hits for the last 2 minutes.
Do not fight in Mini-Battles in which our MPP allies have a huge lead - save your firepower for later!

If possible come to #eSwiss-Army on Rizon for more coordinated and detailed orders!

Join the Swiss Armed Forces!
This "Pre-Application Survey Form" is mandatory, as a screening process. We will respond within a day or so, quite likely asking to meet for an interview in an IRC PM or secured room.
The actual Application to Join will be sent out individually and privately.



WTF is this?!

It's a Geek Knife!

This segment is for Swiss Armed Forces personnel. Civilians are welcome to read it, there's no classified information here. But it's a load of TL😉R, so don't say you weren't warned.

Well, the second Training Order seemed pretty straightforward to me, and it is expected that not every player would be expert at tinkering with graphics... but come on, fellas, it's just an avatar.
I have exchanged ideas with a few soldiers, and we've sent some nice samples back and forth. I was able to finally nail down exactly what components will constitute the standard Swiss Armed Forces Avatar, along with a couple optional graphics to further individualize your identity.

The basic, standard, is a heavy red bordered square, not as thick as many other nations' "frame." In the lower left corner will be a crest, composed of a red shield with our white cross, underneath that a gold ribbon with the word "Switzerland." The outside dimension is 380px square, the inside space is 300 px square.
Here is that standard avatar frame.
Swiss Armed Forces personnel are required to change their game avatar to this standard, it is our uniform. Civilians are not to wear the military avatar. Swiss President/Prime Minister Paul Proteus is a Recruit Soldier and has been issued a special version of the official uniform.

Optional are a set of RL Swiss Armed Forces speciality badges.
1 of 3 -|- 2 of 3 -|- 3 of 3
Choose a Specialty Badge that suits your RL personality or job, or your eRep game persona. I'm using the one with the quill pen, the Office Clerk, but maybe I'll switch it out for the Tank Killer Badge.

Also optional is the displaying of your Swiss Army rank (not eRep rank!), which will also be RL Swiss Army as found at this Wikipedia page. Images on this page can be lifted by right-clicking, or a regular click will take you to a page displaying the image larger, depending on what size you're working with to build your avatar.
Except for myself and Lt Colonel Quigley, all Swiss Army personnel are one-stripe Soldier rank while in Training Corps Platoon. We'll be graduating this class in a week or so, at which time soldiers will become 3-stripe Private First Class or higher, depending on their performance during Training and their next job assignment. So save that basic frame and a version with no Rank graphic, 'cause you'll be changing it soon.

The Crest graphic will be standard in the lower left corner. You might stack your Specialty Badge and Rank graphics up the left edge, remembering that our avatars get the obnoxious green square slapped onto the top-left when we leave a Comment to an article, and making the best use of the rest of the avatar space for your own personalization. But you may place these Badge and Rank graphics as you wish-- the Badge looks cool in the center square, they all look cool in the corners, you may skip the extras.. it's up to you! Long as you have that fat red square with the crest in the lower left, you'll be in uniform.

I work in basic MS Paint, so my finished work is pretty simple. I do all work in .png format for clarity-- you can shrink an image and it doesn't get all fuzzy! The the finished product is saved as a .jpg to use in the game.
Shrinking an image requires simple math, here's the formula: desired size divided by current size equals the percentage you want to shrink it to. For example, the original 380px might be too big to put your desired background in, or you just want to see the thing at the 144px or 55px sizes the game most commonly displays in.
144 / 380 = 0.3789, so shrink the thing to 37% of original.
55 / 380 = 0.1447, so shrink the thing to 14% of original.
If you just can't work with graphics, I'll be very happy to put yours together for you. Just drop me a game mail, be clear about what elements you want where, and I'll do it up for you. Some samples of my work for fellow soldiers are here:


This standard avatar frame is our Swiss Armed Forces uniform. It is our identity. It is mandatory.
One of the "final exam" elements of this Training Course is to hold a couple of coordinated mass attacks. These will be captured and posted as YouTube videos, which will be posted here in our newspaper and distributed around the game. Maybe an Army of 20 is no big deal, but we're gonna look damn sharp rolling across the screen, all together, as a cohesive fighting unit, for a minute.
And we will all be in uniform be that day, or there will be some "wash outs" from this Army.


Join the New Swiss Armed Forces, your new Swiss National Army... your Home Team.
"Pre-Application Survey Form"

Now is also the time for Swiss Soldiers to start thinking about taking on a bit more responsibility after Training. We'll need a Training Corps Drill Instructor, and Platoon Leaders for each of the Fighting Unit platoons, as well as an Intel man, and I could stand to have a full time writer for this paper.
Have a look at the flow chart and see where you'd like to fit in, and let me know so I can start getting you prepared for that job.
"Pre-Application Survey Form"


In case you missed them... The Five-part series introducing your Swiss National Army:
::One:: Introduction, Bullet Points
::Two:: Non-Partisan Army
::Three:: Appeal to Congress
::Four:: Chain of Command
::Five:: Funding the Army

"Pre-Application Survey Form"


George Armstrong Custer
Colonel, Swiss National Army -|- Editor, the Swiss Armed Forces News
Captain, US Cavalry -|- Editor, the Cavalry Saber
Crabby, Opinionated Bastard -|- Editor, Custer's Stand
:::

Your Swiss Ministry of Interior can help you!
:::