War Update

Day 5,679, 09:57 • Published in USA USA • by Herr Vootsman


Background
China, due to her many regions available to host training wars, has been a main target in the conflict between Asteria. It was most recently conquered by Asteria in January of this year: https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/asteria-military-report-4-operation-china-russia-2762953

Our dominance in that area (along with our occupation of Russia) was unchallenged until last month, when after we decided to release Turkey and Greece, CODE, lead by Croatia, spread through Russia and ultimately invaded through Western Siberia into Xinjiang China. This was followed by numerous CODE Air strikes into our bases in China, which were ultimately repelled, and then a final push by Macedonia to remove Croatia from China. I detailed this defense of China in a WHPR last month: https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/whpr-5663-voots-takes-us-to-war--2769584



Another Invasion
Only two weeks later, Croatia entered China again. After a few missed blocks, Croatia was able to take Xinjiang from Lithuana (May 25th) essentially uncontested. Once they entered China, they immediately put laws on Romania and Macedonia. USA responded with a NE proposal against Croatia.

By May 27th, Tibet (Macedonia) was under attack. To avoid our law, Croatia RW’d Xinjiang and ultimately took Tibet from Macedonia to stay in the area. They then declared war on China, and on Sunday the 28th, retook Xinjiang from China, gaining a border with USA. This time they declared war on USA and we replied minutes later with another NE proposal. Croatia attacked Sichuan (Romania), and was able to win there as well.


Balloon Event Week Begins (aka Stingers everywhere)
On Tuesday, May 30th, Croatia began their attack on USA (Inner Mongolia). The attack was launched at 2:35 AM, and when I woke up the score was 36-5. We won the first air epic, but lost all the ground epics with a score of 52-19. We pushed a few times again that day, but ultimately scored no more points, and focused on our other battles (winning in Belarus and defending other RWs).

Elsewhere, Serbia had lost to Turkey (who entered China from South Korea), Bosnia was beating Moldova to land on Shanghai, Ukraine lost Donbas to Chile (uncontested, as they were saving damage to fight Croatia later). And even later that day, Serbia was attacked in their cores by Hungary, and was attacked again in China by Turkey in Liaoning. Serbia was able to attack Croatia in Sichuan, but Serbia ultimately lost all those campaigns.

Tuesday did not go well to say the least.


A second chance
Unlike many campaigns, which are over in a single battle, we had a second chance to defend China. In discussion with tanks, it was felt that we still had plenty ground strength in reserve, and the assumption was that Code had burned much of their stingers in the first battle. So, rather than ran we decided to fight again.


The rematch
Croatia continued their attack on USA in Gansu, attacking us at 1am. Ukraine launched their airstrike shortly after to help shift some damage.

Wednesday morning, I wake up to find Gansu under attack, with a score of 47-7. We were able to turn air around, but only managed to secure D2 – giving us a score of 56-16. In round 5, we pushed hard, turning D2 and D3 epics (winning), ignored D1 and D4, and had contested Air, turning the wall in our favor, but ultimately getting blowin out once it went epic. Score 76-26.

Round 6 starts, and we pushed hard again. For those not in the know, USA is a top air power, and to be honest, I can’t remember the previous time we lost an important air epic, so I felt like we had a good chance this round. We fought hard in ground, winning D234 (didn’t contest D1), and again contested air. Things looked good at first, but it went epic around T80, and again we started getting blown out. We managed to rally at T110 to turn the wall around, but couldn’t hold it and lost our second air epic of the day. Score 91-41.

Round 7 was much better. We won D2 uncontested (and lost D1 the same), but pushed in Air, D3 and D4, to make hold hold epics, going 32-1 that round. Starting to get a bit more hope – but score was still underwater at 92-73.

Round 8 started quiet at first, but then Cro came out hard in D4. It went epic at around T90, and we both fought hard, with the wall sitting at 50:50 for about 15 minutes, shifting up and down slightly, until we won with roughly 1.02 trillion damage (to 998 billion). Fired up by that win, we also turned D3 around to win that epic (and won d2 uncontested and lost D1 the same). Somehow, yet again, despite holding air most that round, once it went epic, we again got blown out, losing at roughly 50 to 60 million. Had we won air that round, it would have put us firmly in the lead, but we didn’t and so score was 107-91.

Round 9 was quiet – Cro fought, but nothing was pushed to epic and we won 18 points. (In retrospect, I should have dumped the 3 million in air it needed to push to epic for an extra 7 points). Score 107-109. Finally in the lead

Round 10 was quiet to start, and we won D234 (lost D1), without any epics. Air, once again, was a problem. This time things were looking nice for most the round, but Code (Albania and Chile mostly) turned it epic and we were unable to turn the wall in time to win it. Score 122-122.

Round 11 was similar, won another D4 epic as well as D23 (lost D1), and again managed to lose an air epic, this time Cro/Russia. Another close epic, with the wall turning periodically, they won 132 million to 130 million. UGH. That epic would have won it for us.. Score 138 – 137.

Round 12 (11 pm) – we knew we needed 13 points, so we chose to fight only D34 (to win with epics). (due to game mechanics, even if they were to turn air epic, which would get them enough points to win, the lower d points are added first).

It was a 23 hour battle, but we won. Code went all out in air trying to stop us. They thought we would give up, but they we wrong.

The Afteramth

After this battle, Code seemed to lose their will to fight.

Macedonia cleared Bosnia from Shanghai.

Croatia lost to both Macedonia and Portugal.

Iran defended air strike from South Korea, and landed on Montenegro, removing them.

Macedonia removed Slovenia from Zhejiang and Anhui.

Iran defended Ha’il from Thailand.

USA took Hungary out of Xinjiang, while Bulgaria moved into Russia and took both Siberias.

Iran defend Yunnan from Albania (who landed on China), and then counter attacked and removed them from Sichuan.

Macedonia defended against an Argentinian attack and then removed Argentina from Jiangsu.

Thus by June 3 and 4, only Croatia and Albania remained in China. Iran had initiative on Albania (and removed them from their last region in Henan). Croatia jumped to Shandong, while USA and Lithuania prepared air strikes on China. USA landed on Shandong uneventfully, and Lithuania ended up removing Croatia from Russia. Croatia still had initiative on Romania and was able to attack them in Shanxi, and take the region, but it was then RW’d by China, who with minimal resistance removed Croatia, thus securing China. (and accidentally conquering half of Russia)


Notes: When I say Asteria, I really mean the combined forces of Astera+Hydra (and other allies like South Africa)