Paladin's Honor

14 December 2009, Day 755 of the New World. During the first attempt by the United States to conquer Kyushu and open the door to the oppressed peoples of Asia, the United Kingdom invaded New England to attempt to block the United States. Some commentators proclaimed that America was not prepared for a two-front war, but it was really a one-front war with a pest nipping at the U.S. in Connecticut. The United Kingdom conquered New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, all simply because the United States retreated the regions to not be globally blocked and able to invade Kyushu after the war declaration passed in the United States Congress.

While all these free regions for the United Kingdom might not seem like a bad deal, a critical failure on the part of their president, Mr Woldy, came when the United Kingdom invaded Pennsylvania, which borders Ontario across Lake Erie. With a border between Canada and British-occupied United States now a reality, Canada was able to invade without activating British mutual protection pacts.

Though this war, Canada came into possession of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. The other regions conquered by the United Kingdom were reclaimed by the United States and the many mutual protection pacts it was endowed with during the war games with Ireland.

Now that Canada controls three American regions, we are presented with a unique opportunity: Canada could hang on to one. Let’s take a look at why this might be an attractive proposition.

To begin, let’s consider the current political geography of North America:



This is based on Old World, not eRepublik, geography.

Let’s make this more useful by considering the borders between the eUS and eCanada:



If an aggressive power touches one of the blue regions, it can be blocked by Canada. This happened to Hungary, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom, thwarting invasions against the United States. Then it happened to Russia again, and possibly a third time.

The United Kingdom shares a border with New Jersey at Southwest of England, so an annoying British invasion could start there, hop to Delaware, and continue into the American heartland without conquering a region that shares a border with Canada. Of course, if the United States seriously wanted to repel this attack, its vastly superior military could; this discussion assumes the United States is busy with more important targets and retreats to maintain global initiative.

Let’s consider the map if Delaware is a Canadian region.



Now, one can see that the only regions the British can safely conquer are Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Delaware shares a border with France, but the risk of a French invasion is extremely low at this time. Brittany and Pays de la Loire, northwest regions of France, border Delaware, New Jersey, and Nova Scotia. France also has borders with Maryland at Poitou Charentes (currently occupied by Spain) and Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina at Aquitaine (currently occupied by Spain). With Delaware Canadian, New Jersey and Maryland become potential traps for invading armies. The only strategic problem would be the capabilities it grants a military in control of Pays de la Loire and Brittany.

Let’s consider the result of giving a different region to Canada from a military perspective.



Kentucky is a medium grain and medium wood region, so it does not carry the significance that Tennessee, a high wood and medium grain region, does to the American economy. A British invasion could take a greater number of regions, but it would inevitably be stopped in or before Virginia. A Canadian Kentucky would turn four more regions into blocking traps and would make both the high wood regions of the United States blocking traps. Furthermore, as Kentucky has no foreign borders, it does not grant a first-strike capability to a foreign army like a Canadian Delaware does. To come from Europe outside of Iberia, an army would need to control Aquitaine, France and invade North Carolina for a way around this. This map does not mention which borders America’s other allied neighbor, Spain, possesses. Galicia, Spain borders Georgia and South Carolina, meaning that North Carolina is as far as an army could go before hitting a trap.

Delaware has the benefit of being in Canadian hands right now, though. It would take another tactical error by some other country to bring Canada to Kentucky. The United States and Canada would open a war to land-swap themselves, but that could seriously hinder EDEN mutual protection pacts for at least one of the two Bros.

For fun, here is the result of Delaware and Kentucky remaining Canadian.



The resource impact in both situations should be minimal to both nations. Some companies would find themselves in Canada, however.

The division of Congressional seats would be affected by this maneuver. The United States, as a nation with 40 or more regions, is entitled to one Congressman per region and no wildcards. This means that the Congress of the United States would see relatively little change – just one or two fewer seats.

Canada originally has 13 regions, which entitles them to two Congressmen per region with 14 wildcard candidates for a total of 40 seats. In the November election, all ten candidates in Albert won at least a wildcard seat in Congress. A 14-region nation would get 12 wildcard seats, and a 15-region nation would get 10 wildcard seats. More Canadian regions would likely mean that not every Alberta candidate would be elected.

This is something the leaders of Canada and the United States will have to consider in the coming days. An American campaign in Asia is just beginning, and it would be helpful to be able to block any pesky redcoats.