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3rd Place Prize
BuzzyTheCat-Entry 23

2nd Place Prize
Jazar-Entry 4

1st Place Prize
James Mayne-Entry 27


Congratulations!

1st Place receives 10 GOLD courtesy of AIL Industries (Code-y)
2nd Place receives 5 GOLD and erepublik.ws tools access (courtesy of Big Brother)
3rd Place Receives 2 GOLD (courtesy Mustache Dictator), 2 Q4 Weapons (courtesy of marcchelalla)

Thank you for writing.









First Place Article
Entry 27
Title
"Finality is not the language of politics." -Benjamin Disraeli




The political aspect of eRepubliK is far too narrow. A state should be able to create its own methodology for parliamentary/congressional/ presidential elections and should be able to determine its own structure. These reforms do not have to be complicated. Simply, a state should be formed as democratic and parties should be able to select their structural affiliation in the same way that they choose orientations. If a party is elected which supports autocracy then elections should be suspended, and either a popular or military coup would be able to depose the leader. Typically, most states will be loathe to give themselves a despot but the occurrence of such leaders would likely not be exceptional. The selections that a party could make in these matters could be: Republic, Responsible Governance, Despotism, Anarchy and Oligarchy.*
Non-democratic government forms would require a new form of regime change. This could be caused by conquest, from a change in party policy or most interestingly by protest. The ability to protest needs to be implemented into eRepubliK. During a protest, citizens would simply refuse to work, but it must be more complicated than this; since most citizens are self-interested, a wide protest would not be workable. Instead a protest must be simplified to the push of a link or option and a few minimal demerits to make it less desirable than a stable government. A protest would require a minimum amount of a states total levels to succeed. Therefore a person who is level 12 will be equal in protest points to 12 level one citizens. A minimum percentile of protest points would be achieved and elections would be forced to decide a new regime. Of course it is more interesting than this. The regime that is facing the protests could also opt respond. Either he/she could submit and allow an election by resigning, he could wait and exert his influence in hopes that the protest does not spread(this could be by bribery, extortion etc.) or he could attempt to end the protest by military action. In effect the regime could declare war on its people. Thus an autocratic government would likely need to have close ties to its military. If a ruling regime chooses to put down a protest with force the violence could erupt into a civil war and leave the country highly vulnerable to outside influence. This sort of civil war would be very similar to a "resistance war." The outcome of the war will decide who gets to rule the country. A protest is not limited to undemocratic governments, they could also occur in democratic governments and could be used to influence congressional policies.
Now that regime changes have been discussed, it is important to look at the distinction between electoral processes that could also be implemented. First of all, a ruling state should be able to choose the requirements for the ability to vote: a certain level, a certain amount of money, a certain amount of military prowess, a home owner, a company owner, only members of a certain party etc. The state should also be able to choose the power of its own congressmen and presidents. For example, under responsible governance, a president can only be president if the congress agrees to pass confidence votes. Any vote on war measures or taxation would be considered a confidence measure. Of course, if the president's party holds the majority of seats in the congress he shouldn't have to worry about this. In a republic, the president serves a fixed term so congressmen are more able to vote freely. Under an oligarchy all decisions are made in camera and regulations on who is an oligarch is entirely up to the oligarchs themselves. These sorts of things would be labelled 'Constitutional Regulations**' and would be chosen at the will of party when it is first created. Changes could be implemented later on for a fee.
You can imagine the consequences of this, wars could be fought over political ideology, military dictatorships could exist, one-party states, civil wars, aristocracies--essentially all the nuances of real historical political interaction could be supplanted into the game with some worthwhile effort. Alliances would be formed by despotic states hoping to keep their citizens in order, migrations may occur to more liberal democratic countries, protests could be created by a despondent influential congressman and spread through newspapers to the general population. Citizens could overthrow governments whimsically, militaries could stage coup d'etates, disgraced presidents would be forced to resign, anarchistic proletariat states or laissez-faire states could pop up. More and more people would move to countries that would allow for their ideological affluence and populations would be more wide spread throughout the world instead of being concentrated in certain areas. Experimental government types could be formed in fringe nations and quickly spread their influence abroad. Revolutions could be staged by populations upset about taxation without representation or oppressive voter restrictions. The possibilities become almost endless as far as a political game can be concerned.
Once these reforms are implemented eRepubliK can be a truly interesting political experiment. Until then this game is anaemic and lackadaisical politically while it has the overt potential to be vibrant. Take some time to imagine the activity of an unstable government over the course of six months and imagine how quickly and beautifully things could change through caprice, popular will, subterfuge. Imagine.



Images:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/Banach/1848Revolution.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c113/Banach/Senate.jpg

*A description of these governments is as follows:
-Republic: What is now implemented, A president and a Congress that are somewhat in opposition to each other. Ex. U.S.
-Responsible Governance: A prime minister with a relatively powerless Congress. As long as the Congress has 'confidence' in the President, the President can operate with near absolute authority. Ex. Britain
-Despotism: One absolute ruler, congress is made up of advisers and their voting is dismissed. Ex Iran
-Anarchy: No ruler. Decisions about the direction of the state are uncontrolled. Diplomatic relations would be nonexistent and such a country would be incapable of declaring war. Ex. Ukraine 1917
-Oligarchy: Rule by elites. Basically a small congress would rule multi-laterally and future elections would be canceled. Ex. China

**The list for the party Constitution would be:
-Economic orientation: Far-Left, Center-Left, Center, Center-Right, Far-Right
-Social orientation: Totalitarian, Authoritarian, Liberal, Libertarian,
-Political orientation: Republic, Responsible Governance, Despotism, Oligarchy, Anarchy
-Vote only if: property, x dollars, x experience, x strength, belong to x parties, employ x amount of workers


Second Place Article
Entry 4
War as it’s supposed to be.

I took a moment to take a breath.
Two soldiers run passed me. One of them carries a Javelin, type FGM-148. A bag with two rockets is hanging from the shoulders of his buddy. I barely take notice. It’s the sound of grating rocks that draw my attention.
I peek around the corner, but there is no movement in the alley. It’s quiet now. I pull back my head. ‘Quiet’. I chuckle. Only minutes ago all hell had broken lose. Our squad had encountered enemy forces hiding in the mall. I know we killed a number of them. However, what had been an immense shout-out had quickly turned into a game of cat and mice.
I follow two of my comrades into the alley. We stop just before at a closed door, suspecting enemy forces to hide in the room behind it. Each of us takes his position. Private Koning will cover our entrance, corporal Maheed and I will enter and clear the room.
I reload my P90 and check the scope. Instinctively I close my eyes when I hear the automated message ‘Flash out!’ through my in-ear headphones. Koning had kicked open the door in order to throw in a grenade. A burst of white light shines through my eyelids, while a scream from the other side of the room proves the grenade’s effectiveness. I step into the room, my weapon searching for a target. The red dot created by my laser sight almost immediately lits up the shoulder of a soldier wearing a grey uniform. I pull the trigger. 5.7mm Bullets shatter the bone in his shoulder and the massive pressure throws him off his feet, flat on his back. A loud crack is caused by his skull breaking as a result of the massive impact.
I take a quick look around searching for more signs of enemy soldiers. Corporal Maheed had taken out a second soldier hidden behind a bench. Sweat is dripping from Maheed’s face. Blood is gushing from a wound in his torso. We quickly make the decision to treat the wound before continuing to our rendezvous point. Leaving the wound untreated will seriously slow us down.
In order to give first aid, I open the refrigerator to look for some ice or alcohol to help treating the wound. Something snaps.
I never saw it coming. My health bar dropped to zero when a fragmentation grenade, used as an improvised booby trap, exploded at my feet. A message appears on my screen.
“Game Over Colonel. You received an additional 0.034 strength.”
I lean backwards in my chair and sigh. ‘Better luck next time’ I think, ‘that V13.4 update really made training a lot tougher.’



Third Place Article
Entry 23
My Fantasy War Module

My fantasy war module is actually very reasonable, and could easily be included within the confines of the game. It is simple…

First comes the inclusion of Air Forces’, Navies, and Armies. When you begin training, your training will go into a particular skill. For an Air Force pilot, their skill would be aviation. Someone with 10 skill in aviation will be an Ace and all but unstoppable while in his aircraft… however the best aviator in the world is still less powerful on land than a soldier with 3 skill. However being an aviator will not stop you from joining a land battle. You will just be very very weak compared to soldiers.

Second comes the re-inclusion of player verses player combat. (To a degree) Soldiers will fight soldiers on land. Aviators will fight aviators in the air. Ships while technically PvP will require many midshipmen to operate. So while technically it is PvP, it is much more like 20v25 PvP combat.

Now for a little real life military lesson.

In real life, some countries are simply unreachable to all but the most wealthy and best militaries in the world. Example, the US and China wont be fighting on each other’s soil anytime soon. Why? Because the logististics of moving a few million men and keeping them supplied would be an utter nightmare. However, it can be done. The main problem is the US and China both have very large and powerful navies and air forces’. If you can’t move men by air, or sea, how are you going to get them across 3000 miles of ocean? You don’t.

Here comes the first part of my war module. Air and sea power.

Think of a defense system. Countries would need to build and buy supply ships, troop ships, even submarines to ever have a hope of attacking a foreign country. Conversely, they could also build and buy transport aircraft like the US C130 Hercules. This will expand the war module while at the same time expanding the use of raw materials. Battleships are obviously made of Iron. They will also need to run on oil. Kind of like a company, the battleship first needs to be built with iron. However to actually leave port, it needs a fuel to run on. This means the country will need to deposit oil into the ship to do anything with it.

These can be countered by battleships, destroyers, aircraft carriers (which will be explained in the “air power” section) fighter jets, bombers, etc. These will also be expendable. If you sink a US battleship, obviously, the US is 1 battleship less than they were this morning. If you shoot down a bomber or fighter jet, they are gone for good.

To fight with a battleship, it would be very similar to a city. All ships would have hit points. If you successfully reduce the ships hit points to zero the ship is sunk, and any men on that ship will have a wellness reduced to 10 and will not have the ability to use a hospital. (Last time I checked, there are no floating hospitals at sea) However, men fighting on a battleship, cruiser, destroyer, or aircraft carrier will not lose wellness while fighting. The ship takes damage, not the men on the ship.

Air Power.

Some countries have insane air defense systems. (See Iran) Their cities are nearly untouchable by air because of the SAM sites around cities and military assets. These will perform just like current defense systems. If you believe you are in danger of an air assault, but at the same time, you are an island country (like Australia) and you have little fear of a land invasion, you would want to build SAM sites instead of defense systems.

However, we have not touched on actual air assaults yet. Fighter jets and bombers will also be build able. However while powerful, they will have limited range. You wont see too many F16’s circumnavigating earth. Jets will be place able onto aircraft carriers and sent to sea. This will increase their range indefinitely, however it will also place them in great danger. If the Aircraft carrier is sunk at sea (by a foreign ship or armada) all planes on board will also be lost.

Bombers and fighter jets will be able to strike defense systems. If say, Washington DC has a Q5 defense system, a land invasion of that coastal city is going to be very difficult (explained later) So what should we do? You send in your bombers (with fighter escorts to defend against an aerial counter attack) to blow the hell out of the Defense system (which will also now be expendable) This now means Washington DC is vulnerable to a land assault.

However, if DC happens to have a strong SAM system around its city, and the air assault is repelled, but you also have troop ships sitting just off of the coast waiting for the land invasion, the troop ships are now target able by the fighter jets in the city. (They will always be target able by other ships) Once again, if the troop ships are sunk, the soldiers on board are reduced to 10 wellness and automatically taken back to their departure city. The troop ship is also lost.

Land power

Soldiers in the Army will also have options. If they are of significant strength and skill, they will be able to pilot a Tank. Tanks, like aircraft and ships will need to be built and will also be expendable. If the tank is destroyed, the soldier inside is reduced to 10 wellness. However land soldiers will be able to use a hospital to heal. Tanks will assault cities, and to a much lesser extent, defense systems. A tank would triple the damage of the soldier inside alone.

But what about the little guy?

So now you ask, how the hell are little countries going to spend all this gold and man all these ships. I shall tell you. They don’t. Little countries should be individually weak. While a country like Japan has few citizens and not much gold, they aren’t without their advantages. First, they are an island nation. Heavily investing in SAM sites will protect them greatly. Also, while they wont have the cash to have a large standing Navy or Air Force, they will have a strong army, further protecting them from a ground invasion.

However, the real thing to remember is this. Alliances. Even with Q5 SAM sites in every city and a fanatical 500 man army, Japan would be steamrolled by a country like the US or Indonesia who will no doubt have dozens of aircraft, aircraft carriers, entire flotillas of ships, etc. Japans only real hope of survival should hostilities break out, would be strong alliances. Which brings us to our next point.

Regional Alliances

Bombers and fighters have a limited range. Ships take a long time to sail ¾ of the way around the world. So what does this mean? It means PEACE and ATLANTIS as we know them are outdated and irrelevant. For a country like Sweden to send troops and ships to a country like the US, it would have its own battle timer. For the sake of argument, we will say 10 hours. (It would actually be determined by how far each country is in relation to each other. Indonesia for example would take much longer to put “boots on the ground” in Canada than for example, the US) That means if the US is attacked, and Sweden sends troops and ships to defend her allied, the Swedish reinforcements will not arrive until nearly half of the battle is over.

This will lead to smaller regional alliances. Your “big brother” wont help much when it will take them 18 hours to get to your country. In this case, it is better to have many smaller alliances with neighboring countries who will only have a 4 or 5-hour response time.

In summery

To get troops to a country that it does not directly boarder will require troop ships and planes.

Fighter jets are build able and destroyable. It takes 1 aviator to fly a fighter jet. Jets can attack other jets, ships, defense systems, and provide close air support to ground troops (killing tanks). They will require iron to be constructed and will use oil as fuel.

Bombers are build able and destroyable. It takes a crew of 3 aviators to man a bomber. Bombers can attack defense systems and cities. They will require iron to construct and oil will be used as fuel.

SAM sites are build able and destroyable. They provide a static defense against air assaults. Flying into a region with any type of aircraft gives an 85% chance that aircraft will be shot down by the SAM site. A Q% SAM site will shoot down a Q1 jet/bomber 99 times out of 100. A Q5 SAM site will shoot down a Q5 jet/bomber 50% of the time. Aviator skill has no bearing on if the jet/bomber is shot down by a SAM site

Defense Systems are build able and now destroyable. Throwing soldiers against a region with a defense system will result in huge casualties. Defense systems need to be taken out by air power or by sea bombardment. A defense system will give a 300% bonus to soldiers fighting on the ground. (IE making it nearly impossible to conquer a region with ground troops alone.)

Battleships, cruisers, destroyers are build able and destroyable. They can attack other ships and in the case of battleships and destroyers, can bombard coastal cities and defense systems. They will be vital in sinking enemy troop ships and for protecting your own aircraft carriers should you have some. It takes a crew of 25+ sailors to man these ships. Ships will require oil as fuel to run and will use Iron to be constructed.

Aircraft carriers are build able and destroyable. They serve as a mobile airport for jet fighters. However, they are completely defenseless aside from the jets on board. They will require the support of combat ships in order to not be sunk. It will take a crew of 25 sailors to man an aircraft carrier. The ship will also house aviators for the jets. The Aircraft carrier will require oil as fuel to run and will use Iron to be constructed.

Tanks will be build able and destroyable. Tanks will give a 3X bonus to the tank commanders damage strength. While invulnerable to normal soldiers, tanks are nearly 1 hit killed by close air support jets. They will require iron to be constructed and will use oil as fuel.

Alliances will require travel time. Time to travel will be determined by the distance between allied countries.