47
Raw materials in Ireland
Political debates and analysis 
Note: In this article I will analyze raw materials situation in Ireland. When I write "we", "us" I mean "Ireland". English isn't my native language, so I'm sorry for all those mistakes and typos I will make here.
Outline
1. Basic situation
2. 2 ways to get new raw materials
3. Further analyze
4. Summary
1. Basic situation
First let's look at resources available in Ireland. Core irish regions contain:
Dublin - iron, Cork - cattle, Shanon - fruits, Mayo - cattle, Wexford - iron, Louth - fruits.
Overall: 2 x cattle, 2 x fruits, 2 x iron.
Figure 1. Ireland: map of resources.
Let me remind you all available resources in game:
For food:
cattle, fruits, fish, grain, deer
For weapons:
iron, oil, rubber, aluminium, saltpeter.
Figure 2. Resources available in eRepublik.
So as you can see Ireland has: 2/5 in food and 1/5 in weapons. The presence of each raw material in the country of the producing company, will benefit production of food/weapon raw materials (food and weapons also) by +20%. It means that Ireland will get +40% in food and +20% in weapon.
2. 2 ways to get new raws
Well, all those assumptions was taken in situation when Ireland owns all core regions, but the situation in reality is not that simple. As everyone can see Irl is in permanent state of war against UK. That means - from time to time we lost some resources or we get some from UK regions. Situation is not stable and tho economy isn't too. But the question is: can we somehow gain some regions with resources we lack and hold them for a longer period of time?
Well, the answer is not that simple (again). We can aquire regions in two different ways:
(1) in war against enemy,
(2) make an agreement with ally to lend us region with resources we need.
Ireland has a border with UK, USA, Canada: please check figures (I know these aren't cute but it will help you to get familiar with borders which are represented by white lines).
Figure 3. UK - Ireland borders.
Figure 4. Canada and USA - Ireland borders. (click to enlarge)
3. Further analyze
Ireland is small country and we cannot dominate UK, I mean we will have difficulties in conquering their regions and holding them for longer period of time (I mentioned that above). But remember, we also have (2) option. Let's check resources map of Canada and USA.
Canada has all food raw materials but fruits! I will remind you that Ireland has 2 fruits on core and Canada has more then 1 fish. Both countries should consider making agreement: Ireland will give fruits and Canada for exchange will give fish. But it isn't that simple (again). We should note that there MUST be connectivity to the capital of country. So let's assume, we gave Canada Shannon (fruits) and they gave us Newfoundland and Labrador (fish). We will have connectivity (through Newfoundland and Labrador - Cork or Newfoundland and Labrador - Mayo route), but they will not have. Weak deal for Canada.
Can we somehow solve that problem? Yes we can. Check map above. We can use route to the USA. Consider new scenario: Ireland gives Canada Shannon (fruits). USA gives Ireland Maine (aluminium). Canada gives Ireland New Brunswick (just for connectivity), Prince Edward Island (deer) and Nova Scotia (fish).
So let's sum up:
Canada will get fruits and they will have all food resources. Ireland will gain deer and fish (food resources) and aluminium (wepon resources). Both countries will benefit, but again it isn't that simple. It requiers good co-operation of three countries USA, Canada and Ireland. New regions will have to be protected against RW's or direct war - assume that some regions have also connectivity with Brittany, french core. Such a swaps will give huge economical advantage for both countries.
4. Summary
Can common citizen of Ireland do something in that matter? I think they can't. These stuff is reserved for MoFA/President since it contains international co-operation. Are those scenarios presented in article even possible? Of course they are but as I wrote earlier it will require good partnership of listed countries.
That's all I wanted to deliver in that article. Thanks for reading and stay tuned.
PS. Some propaganda
Join IPP (click banner for more info):
Facebook
Twitter
good thought but i have some doubts,to obtain all those regions we have to make wars between us which means we will lose mpp that we have already paid
really good article..I'm lucky to have you in IA and IPP bro o/
@columbia, Yes these mpps are huge problem, too bad I forgot to mention it in the article.
@MUFC92, ty bro o/
Good article :]
I attempted to do that in Oct. The parties involved in the arrangement were quite willing.
Unfortunately the firepower required to police the borders of this agreement is prohibitive....
The deciding factor being a rapist neigbour obsessed with ruining anything Ireland does.
Trading regions is a waste, there will be continuous RWs because of game mechanics. Eventually one of them will accidentally be successful. Ceding regions to friends is just a damage drain, and costly to your MPP situation.
If eRep introduced some way for congress to block RWs, then trading could work. It would be great if Congress could pass a law that says "RWs in Maine will be blocked, as long as Ireland is the country occupying Maine." This would allow regions to be given to a certain country, but allow for RWs if another country takes it from your friend.
In order to prevent a wholesale PTO abuse of this rule, the "RW block" should be limited.
Maybe only one region could be "blocked" at any given time. Maybe only one region could be blocked to any given country at a time. Maybe only one region of each resource type could be RW blocked at a time. Maybe RWs could not be blocked if your country has no other resources of that type available. Maybe a combination of those limitations, like one of each resource, and only one region to any given country at a time.
Good thinking but unfortunately Bhane is right.
good article,
but Ireland just got a rough deal, we've always suffered with raw matériels and probable always will,
bhane's thinking on the subject is intersting, but then again when did the admins do anything to improve the game mechanics eh?
I know that all those scenarios is fantasy and will probably never come true. But, I just wanted to analyze that. I had fun writing that article and if you liked that it seems that writing that article (even if it's pointless) was a good decision .
There is one way to get extra region bonus's , It would involve agreement with UK and an effort from both sides to keep attacking/losing battles over n over. We could keep NE open and both countries could help their allies more often , But a proper effort would have to be made to stop from winning battles and rw's that shouldnt be won. This is the only viable option in the medium to long term but highly unlikely to happen