Thoughts on Rhone Alps from the other side of the pond.

Day 946, 03:26 • Published in France USA • by Sossu

The argument between your nation and Hungary considering a possible rental agreement for Rhone Alps has reached international interest, including mine. Before we go in to the actual article, I want to say that I have no ill intentions. Like the title implies, I’m an American and I don’t fully understand the French mentality nor your complete views on this particular diplomatic incident. During the past couple days I have wandered through the Hungarian and French media, and nearly every claim I make in this article are based on those various articles I have read. If you happen to find logical fallacies, I’m happy to be corrected. Looking at some comment trails of my previous articles, I know there is a fair amount of Serbs eagerly waiting to post a correction, always with a friendly and loving tone. 😉

I’m not trying to hide my Eden background. Instead, I’ll take a deeper look at some claims made to distract your nation’s officials in the rental negotiations, correct some fallacies thrown at you to undermine your right to territorial sovereignty and take a deeper look to all the intriguing possibilities France is facing now, having the choice of collaborating with either Phoenix or indeed Eden.

Guests should obey the rules of the household.



What seems to itch people the most is that there was apparently a deal between France and Hungary already before the invasion of Rhone Alps even began. This is the only right way to make such agreements. Residing in allies’ territories always needs permission from the nation the region originally belongs to, even if the offender claimed it from a third party, like in Rhone Alps’ case. USA, currently being the only nation bound by a valid rental agreement, carefully negotiated with India before claiming Karnataka and starting to reside there under an agreement already forged before the invasion. Not only does a pre-invasion agreement honor the relationship between the two perpetuators, it is the only logical way of signing these kinds of agreements. By trying to renegotiate the terms of the agreement, Rhone Alps basically transfers to Hungary and now they are bargaining with France about their own region.
I doubt the full contents of the original agreement ever come under observation of the public eye, but trying to immediately rewrite the rental agreement, Hungary is trying to claim more bargaining chips and already there has been alarming voices heard about Hungary keeping the region by force or auctioning it if France doesn’t agree to a lower rent.

Apart from the most blatant claims, three arguments have been repeated frequently in defense of a lower rent for Hungary. These claims are:

1. France wouldn’t have any regions at all without the help of Phoenix. They should be happy with what they got.
2. Because the heavy financial contribution of Phoenix, the French requests of a high rent are almost insulting.
3. The French requests don’t meet with the financial gain Hungary will get access to when residing in Rhone Alps.

The first claim is partially true, but at the same time extremely arrogant. It is true that the aid of Phoenix greatly helped the independence fight of France, but it must be remembered though that it was initially the lack of Phoenix’s help that caused the suitable circumstances for Spain and USA to take over the entire country. It must be noted that France caused the freezing relationship with Phoenix by themselves, even being the final straw for PEACE, leading to its collapse. However France suddenly became interesting when Eden planned to transport Croatia through the occupied regions, jeopardizing the Phoenix colonies in Asia. It suited Phoenix’s interest to liberate the strategically important regions, and it was natural for your nation to continue the cooperation and liberate the rest of them, too.

What I’m trying to say is that no nation is in debt after being liberated. Many considered USA to be accountable to the various European nations for the immense help they gave during the North American war. Instead of being in debt, the relationship between our nation and Europe strengthened and got closer so immensely that we felt it was a privilege to fight for them in the future. By no means was America somehow accountable, and neither is France to Phoenix. The liberation benefited Phoenix greatly, and therefore you paid your imaginary debt to them by merely existing, thus blocking Croatia’s way to Asia.

The second claim is just plain wrong. This claim is strongly linked to the first argument, about France somehow owing Phoenix when they successfully invaded Rhone Alps and helped in the independence war before that. Firstly, I highly doubt that Phoenix would have won anything without a strong double attack on both regions. Had they attacked only Rhone Alps, Spain would have probably fended Hungary off. They made 2mil in Aquitaine, 800k in Rhone Alps and 1,3mil in Liaoning. A total of over 4 million damage, almost double the damage inflicted by Hungarians, but diverted between three separate battles. Eden miscalculated the Phoenix effort in France, counting that they would be exhausted and couldn’t defend Liaoning. Had there been just one attack, Eden most likely would have refrained from launching attacks of their own, resulting to a victory in Rhone Alps.

The contributions of both nations were critical in order to achieve any success, and Hungary seems to have forgotten that. They don’t seem to have a sort of mentality of helping nations in need and not requiring some sort of reimbursement in return. They might be deliberately leaving out the fact that Phoenix benefited greatly from invading Rhone Alps even if it’s ultimately returned to France. By having Spain thrown out from there and Aquitaine meant a drop of 23% in their GDP, greatly evening the economic gap between alliances and slowing down Eden’s rate of replenishing Gold reserves in order to launch an attack on Liaoning yet again.

You are a strong nation, and a strong nation should have control upon all of her regions unless some of them are willingly given to a friendly nation. When negotiating about a rent agreement, your views should become before Hungary’s. On the base line the region will be yours even if it is temporarily commandeered by Hungary, and they should respect your views and feelings with the deepest concern.

The third claim requires a section of it’s own. Prepare to scroll through lots of economic ramble.

A closer look at the economics of Rhone Alps.

There is no simple way to count the worth of a region. There are however some great articles compiling data found from either API or straight from the game, and other conclusions can be drawn for instance from tax policy.

Firstly, some Hungarians have tried to undermine the importance of Rhone Alps by claiming that it’s worth less than Karnataka and USA pays 800g monthly for the iron extracted from there. Both are lies. USA pays 1300G monthly for Iron, and Karnataka has never been more valuable than Rhone Alps. If you look at the wood production in Allied nations, you’ll see the importance of Rhone Alps and Aquitaine. Wood is surprisingly rare, and it’s the second-most valuable resource in the world. Canada has 5 sources of Wood, but they are mainly producing diamonds. India has a very low production, and USA has Iron in Karnataka, making Spain the largest producer of wood in Eden.

Rhone Alps will have an immense meaning to Hungary. It’d practically be their only natural resource (grain is not important), salvaging their domestic land sector and probably making them the largest producer of wood in Phoenix. Russia has a myriad of other resources and Brazil too is relying mostly on producing Iron. Hungary undermining the meaning of Rhone Alps is simply a bluff to lower the rent.

The widest spread estimate of the lease being 1600-2300G monthly is a fair price for Rhone Alps. America is paying 1300G for a region that is lower in value, and we have a healthy land sector of our own even without Karnataka, while Rhone Alps would be single handedly responsible for the entire land sector of Hungary. There are lots of companies in Rhone Alps, and if they continue to be in operation, the addition of new companies started by Hungarians will raise the value of the region even more.



There are several ways to try to count the value of a region by different formulas. None of them are bullet proof however, and France must be careful to avoid carefully crafted calculations designed to underestimate the value of the region, thus justifying a lower rent. The bottom line is that USA pays 1300G for an additional region that is lower in worth. Hungary on the other hand would get a profitable region, and it would be the only notable resource source. Rhone Alps is worth more than Karnataka, and so should the rent be higher, too.

We all know how vastly Spain profited from the region. But did you know that Spain has one of the lowest taxation percentages in the World? Their income tax is only 5% while Hungary’s is 15%, meaning Hungary gains three times the amount of taxes than what Spain collected.

It is beneficial for France to rent the other wood region. They are both highly developed, offering enough jobs to the entire French land sector alone. The thousands of Gold coming from the other region as a rent will make France a serious economical player in the future. Despite Hungary obviously trying to negotiate the rent as low as possible, you should stay firm and demand a fair price for the region. It must be reminded also that dating from the times Rhone Alps was a French region, there are still some working manufacturing and housing companies in there. There are 33 manufacturing companies who have over 5 workers and 13 housing companies with over 10 workers.

Then there are alternatives.

Hungary is pulling another bluff when they are threatening France with keeping RA forcefully or giving it away to some other nation. As far as I know the Hungarian officials have been pretty silent from the start of the crisis but many notable Hungarians have published numerous articles, suggesting an auction amongst other blatant threats to gain leverage over France. The fact is that no nation can hold regions forever against the will of another nation. Not even Serbia who seem to be invincible, but with the cost of falling prey to a massive national debt.
I am fairly certain that Spain would beat Hungary 1on1, why would Hungary otherwise ask specifically for Rhone Alps? They know they can’t protect Aquitaine, as they aren’t capable of turning it in to a massive fortress like Liaoning. 3500 citizens is a positive estimate of the amount of Hungarians able to move to fortify a colony outside their borders. And what comes to a direct assault against Hungary if they decide to keep it without your consent, France isn’t a nation from the weaker end either. Inflicting nearly two million in Aquitaine is a great achievement, and Hungary couldn’t hold off a determined, possibly two-pronged attack on Rhone Alps.

You’ve probably noticed the Polish offer of paying 3k G for Rhone Alps. Considering your history with them I don’t doubt your healthy reluctance to lease the very same region they once held by force, but looking at the general Hungarian attitude towards you that is slowly unveiling when they aren’t allowed to unilaterally dictate the terms of the contract, you should keep doors open to all directions. That is one of the advantages of not being a part of an alliance.

Unlike the troll article falsely claimed, I doubt your willingness to switch sides, but if the unacceptable attitude towards you continues, I want you to know that there are surprisingly many in the Eden camp who think that you are a pretty cool nation and deserve the best, no matter how you decide to pursue it.

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I wouldn’t mind some !!, I’m 166 away from my third Media Mogul.