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SUMMARY

All major wars that were triggered during and after the North American War have now fused together into a massive explosion of armed conflict. The power struggle between EDEN and Phoenix has become so widespread, even avowedly neutral nations such as Malaysia have been drawn into the fray. This is a World War that exceeds any other conflict in eRepublik history by its shear scope and size. The conflict is so massive, not one eNation is neutral (except Singapore, but they don't count). Every last country on the planet is now listed somewhere on an MPP roster, or is an active belligerent in one of the many fronts that have now opened up. The following article is an explanation of all the theaters of combat now active in the world, as well as a background on each. Not listed are the North American and South American Fronts, which have been quiet since Canada and the US ejected the UK from New England, and Peru pushed back Argentina and Brazil.


WESTERN EUROPEAN FRONT

The Western European Front of the war is a by product of the North American War. During the invasion of the United States, a powerful PEACE force spearheaded by France invaded Spain and completely occupied country. What followed was an intense resistance war that saw Spain claw back their entire country unconventionally and promise revenge on the French. While Spain plotted its revenge on France, the United States and Romania overthrew the United Netherlands in a coup in Belgium, establishing an EDEN bastion in Brussels and Flanders. This was part of a deception campaign to draw Phoenix attention towards the United Kingdom, rather then EDEN’s true objectives in East Asia. As the time for the US attack on Japan grew close, Spain initiated its invasion of France, securing the lower portions of the country and putting itself in position to prevent a UK blocking invasion of the United States (as well as get their pay back). Once the US became fully committed to the Asian Invasion, the United Kingdom launched its own invasion of Belgium and wrested it back from EDEN control. Tactically, Belgium no longer served any further useful purpose for EDEN. Losing it also freed up “The Group” from its administrative responsibilities. Many of its members are powerful tanks, and were needed elsewhere. Now, the Western European Front is principally the war between Spain and France, with the Spanish advancing towards the French capital of Paris. The French for their part do not have much allied support in this fight due to their nasty divorce from the Phoenix powers. Should France fall, the United Kingdom will find itself hard pressed to hang on to Belgium, though it could be accomplished if Spain finds itself in a position to be permanently initiative blocked by the British, something they will be keen to avoid.


AEGEAN FRONT

The Aegean Front is part of a very old and bitter war between Greece and Turkey. At one point the two countries were united under the banner of the “Byzantine Empire”. Over time, this actually became a Turkish hegemony over the Peloponnesian Peninsula, and is also the reason why Greece is so firmly in the EDEN camp rather than with Serbia, a traditional RL Greek ally. Greece was a founding member of PEACE GC, but Turkey was also a member and controlled Greece’s High Iron region of Central Greece, refusing to relinquish control of the territory. As consequence, Greece turned to the United States who responded with “Operation Turkish Delight”. US and Greek forces liberated Central Greece and other occupied Greek regions in one of America’s first successful expeditionary campaigns. This solidified the alliance between Greece and the United States and contributed greatly to bringing Greece in on the EDEN side. During the North America War, Turkey would continually attack Greece in order to draw off EDEN damage from critical battles. These attacks triggered all of Greece’s MPP’s which are now used against Turkey for the Greek attacks on the Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts. Thus far, Greece has been unable to breach the Turkish border, thanks to the nations powerful list of MPP’s. Complicating matters further, the Greek President was unable to initiate his normal blocking attack on Turkey today, due to a Bulgarian blocking attack. This has allowed the Turks to mount a counterattack on Israel and the Aegean Islands. How successful they will be with most of Phoenix now fighting Romania remains to be seen.


CENTRAL EUROPEAN FRONT

The Central European Front is the product of Geography. Central Europe has the highest concentration of both EDEN and Phoenix powers, with the most powerful country in eRepublik, Hungary, located right in the center of it all. This Front has often produced some of eRepubliks most devastating wars, with the more recent being the Slavonia conflict between Hungary/Serbia and Croatia. In addition to the Croatian conflict, the war between Germany and Poland/Sweden (the conflict that brought down ATLANTIS) reignited on the advent of the United States’ invasion of East Asia. This time however, nobody complained as Germany is a signatory member of Phoenix and thus has no more pretenses of neutrality. But this is just the background. The present is much more serious.

After months of taunting across the border, Hungary has now initiated its long awaited invasion of Romania, in conjunction with the Bulgarian attack that brings in additional MPP’s by virtue of Romania’s invasion of the country earlier. The conflict between Hungary and Romania is liable to draw a great deal of Hungary’s attention, which has opened up opportunities for other EDEN countries like Croatia. Croatia has been forced to deal with constant harassment attacks from its neighbor Slovenia. These attacks have been a stubborn thorn in EDEN’s side, drawing off of hundreds of thousands of points of damage. With Hungary now committed on multiple fronts, Croatia is moving to fix the Slovenian “issue”. By fix I mean completely destroying the country. Croatia has launched an attack on Slovenia’s entire border. If they successfully occupy all the regions, Slovenia will be reduced to just a single bastion in Upper Carniola. The final icing on the cake in Central Europe is Germany, which is now bordered by both Poland and Sweden. Poland in particular will be keen to take the fight to Germany, as this will be highly instrumental in retaining the more than 20,000 thousand new citizens they have received over the past couple of weeks. The reasons for this are not just nationalistic. Poland does not have any High Resource regions, while Germany possesses three High Grain. Completely occupying Germany and forcing the country to permanently cede to Poland one of these regions is an economic necessity for the Poles.


INDIAN OCEAN FRONT

After Indonesia wiped out Australia and South Africa during the early months of the War Module, the entire Oceanic Theater has lived in the shadow of the Indonesian Empire. This is part of the reason why the Sol Alliance has historically maintained such an affinity for neutrality. With Indonesia centrally located and possessing colonies all across the Asian Map, they had the power to wipe out any of these countries before any resistance could be mounted. A notable exception to Sol’s neutral stance however was Australia, the largest nation in the Alliance. Indonesia had a contract with Australia that had stipulated the occupied territory of Western Australia be returned to the country after a period of time. Once that time period had expired however, the Indonesians refused to return the territory. Agitation in Australia began to mount over the course of the North American War, with sympathizers to the EDEN cause beginning to outnumber those who advocated Australia remain strictly neutral. During one of Hungary and Serbia’s attempts on Croatia, a little remarked resistance war was triggered in Western Australia. Indonesia’s tanking forces largely ignored the battle, leaving the wall around 300,000 points; normally a safe bet for a resistance war. What happened instead was not normal. The EMC and national militaries from EDEN showed up in the closing minutes of the Western Australia Resistance and ninja tanked the wall before Indonesia could react. The liberation of the region moved Australia into a more closer alignment with EDEN and most likely contributed to Indonesia’s decision to adopt a more hostile approach to the Sol Alliance. This hostility boiled over into open war when Indonesia invaded Malaysia under the claims the country was helping EDEN with its training wars and that their official name (Federal Republic of Southeast Asia) was an insult. Indonesia came very close to wiping out Malaysia, burning through its entire national treasury. The Malaysians however, held the line successfully in their last province thanks to an intervention by France (an intervention that France is now paying for dearly).

It now seems Indonesia has not given up on its aspirations to conquer Malaysia, in particular, Malaysia’s High Wood region of Sarawak (the only resource Indonesia presently lacks). Malaysia has a solid list of MPP’s backing it up in this fight, however many of them are committed to other theaters. Malaysia can count on the combined might of Sol to help fend off the Indonesian attack, how successful they will be will largely depend on how serious Indonesia is with this attack. Indonesia possesses a very unconventional military, relying almost completely on Tanks rather than massed mid level and lower ranked soldiers like the United States. While this is incredibly expensive for Indonesia, it has been effective in the past, allowing the country to secure California from the United States both offensively and defensively. The only drawback is that it is the eRepublik version of Blitzkreig. It works only so long as you have the resources (in this case Gold) to keep moving. The moment you get bogged down in the weeds, it fails miserably and you are thrown back in utter defeat. This is what happened to Indonesia in North America, and again what happened to it during its first attempt on Malaysia. If the Malaysians can force Indonesia to blow its treasury before they have secured all the Malaysian regions, Indonesia will be defeated. This time however, they will have to do it without significant EDEN support.


ASIAN FRONT

I won’t bore you on all the historical details of this particular region of the war, since that would take a very long time. Suffice to say it was the site of a power struggle between ATLANTIS and what is now Phoenix and Phoenix won. Now in modern times, the United States has moved to retake Asia from the Phoenix powers. Having failed to forcibly enter Asia through Japan, the US succeeded with diplomacy. One wonders if diplomacy would have worked before the US attacked Japan rather than after, but the argument is really a moot one at this point. The US invasion of East Asia was the catalyst that pushed the World over the precipice, precisely because the region is so economically vital to the World. The three pillars of Asia, Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Karnataka are of such importance to both EDEN and Phoenix, that it is worth risking even occupation of their countries if one side or the other could take or defend the pillars. While most of EDEN has been bogged down heavily in Europe fighting Phoenix, the United States has remained largely successful even with all the bugs and DDOS attacks. Indonesia was routed without resistance from China, due to Phoenix believing the Greek attack on Turkey was more determined than it actually turned out to be. The US has also successfully defeated the Iranians, ending their empire with the capture of Liaoning and Jharkhand. The loss of both their only High Iron and High Wood regions will be devastating for the Iranian economy. This devastation will not just extend to the simple fact that the resources will now be harder for the country to obtain. Their loss has removed most of Iran’s land working industry from field. Factor in the lost High Grain regions lost in India from earlier resistance wars, and the simple fact is many of Iran’s land workers will now be forced to retool as manufacturers or else move to another country. This will be a body blow to Iran’s GDP and will greatly reduce its threat to EDEN, as Iran’s military follows the Indonesian model of mass (and expensive) tanking.

With Jharkhand now secure, the United States must now begin its next phase, which will most likely involve Hungary’s regions due to the major Phoenix push against Romania. Hungary seems to have taken this into account, sacrificing its strategic position around Heilongjiang to buy a few days of unmolested attacks against Romania. Hungary has region swapped the border region of Jillin to North Korea, which will force the United States to go through the Phoenix puppet states territory before it can strike Hungarian territory. The fact that the only territory available now is Heilongjiang will most likely factor into both sides strategies. No doubt Hungary is hoping to win an F5 contest (he who pushes the attack button first) with the US President, attacking Jilin just as the US secures it from North Korea. The US could prevent this from even being an issue, either by Romania gaining a counterattack on Hungary, or by a Croatian attack on Hungary as the Jillin battle winds down. The latter carries enormous risks however, as this would trigger Hungary’s MPP’s against Croatia (but it would halt Hungary's invasion of Romania). Either option however would give the US the breathing room it needs to mount an attack on Heilongjiang. Such an attack would provide enormous relief to Romania, as it will be sure to draw much of Hungary’s damage. It would also be opportune for the United States as well, because if Hungary is still committed on the Romanian front when the US strikes Heilongjiang Phoenix’ damage may prove too divided to stop a determined US strike.

*EDIT*

It seems the US is intent to finish the job in India before Pakistan succeeds in region swapping a major Phoenix power over to the region. American forces have launched an assault on the Crown Jewel of the Indonesian Empire, Karnataka.


FINAL ANALYSIS

So many pieces are now moving across the board, it will be impossible to predict accurately who will be able to come out on top. Both sides have their enemies “right where they want them” in some areas of the globe. Unfortunately for all concerned, having the advantage in one sector is often coming at extreme cost to another. Hungary is giving up valuable positioning in East Asia in exchange for unmolested play time with Romania, who for their part had to give up their MPP with the USA in exchange for protecting India and China. Turkey has the initiative now against Greece, but they are forced to mount it with Indonesia invading Malaysia, Hungary invading Romania and Russia backing up Bulgaria. The US presently is sitting pretty in Asia, and is completely free to back the Greeks up in the Aegean Islands. Since this is a critical initiative deciding battle, this is what is likely to happen. Turkey alone could never break through Greece. Backed up by the USA two clickers, they would never have a prayer without significant Phoenix support. Note that I said two-clickers. The US Military itself could be deployed anywhere, as the two-clickers in the US (even with those who disregard instructions) would be more than enough to handle Turkey and North Korea should the US move towards Heilongjiang again. As you may no doubt have figured out, the victor of this war will not be the one who can bring the most damage, but rather the one who can coordinate its damage and strategies effectively. Oddly enough, both sides are awesome at one, and suck at the other. EDEN is horrible at coordinating damage, but has been the most inventive with its strategies, often catching Phoenix with their pants down. Phoenix by comparison formulates horrible strategies, like Russia’s awesome “lets resistance war half the US back to get away from Canada” as a glaring example. Comparatively, they are spectacular at getting their general citizenry and national governments to fight where they are needed. With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how the cards fall once this is all over.

*Note* Some people are saying I seem to be writing propaganda. If this is so, I should put the disclaimer that this is not a deliberate effort on my part. If the American point of view does not mesh with your own, I am very sorry, but I cannot help that.