Join the new world

Warning to my loyal readers (all 1 of you, thanks Mom), while there are are few serious points I am trying to make in this article...it is mostly just for fun...

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. – George Santayana

We are fortunate as eUS citizens that events like the recent invasion, and subsequent retreat, from Mexico is rare. I’m sure that many eMericans would concur with my assessment that the event has significantly altered our perception of our strength when compared to othr nations in eRepublik and, in many ways, has even transformed our cherished self-identity as “one of the good guys” among nations.

I guess that is to be expected, eAmericans just like RL Americans, hate losing, even when the “loss” still nets a gain in wellness and strength. But, in my opinion, there is a greater reward in the loss of a few regions that just a few short weeks ago we did not have, that even the retention of those regions…the lessons learned.

I have been thinking quite a bit about how to approach this article, so, of course, I have decided to do so in the most radical and provocative means possible, since surely that will “sell” more papers.

For the next few paragraphs, eAmerica is a Dictatorship, and Ananias, is the ruthless, soul-crushing, despot….

Day of Darkness 1

Ananias slakes the hunger for iron for his ravenous minions by siphoning funds from the oppressed multitudes to build 4 Q1 mines in the slave camps of Utah and Nevada. These mines, richly adorned by the blood and sweat of the hapless souls toiling within, produce iron for only the future date when Ananias can extend his gnarled claws toward the unsuspecting citizens in the neighboring states that will, in his mind, serve as lowly vassals to his empire, compelled to pay tribute and serve as mere fodder in his war on all that is good and right in the world.

Day of Darkness 2

Ananias forces the blacksmiths and armorers of his dominion to work night and day creating his weapons of war. With spirit crushing finality he imposes upon them this treasure of cheap iron, the product of the poor wretches forced to serve in the bile stained holes of Utah and Nevada. Even his simplest direction is accepted as the law of life, thus his blacksmiths know well the verity of his comman😛 “Give me weapons for my minions, or you will be food my hounds of war”.

Day of Darkness 3

Ananias purges the political dissidents of his domain with a simple order to his inner circle of crones, “If any of these ig-noble ingrates chooses to question my strategy, and does not offer a tribute to me of sage alternatives…they too shall be ground to kibble for my hounds…” Ananias, still covered in the gore of the last enemy he has chosen to honor through his benevolent evisceration, knows full well that the advice of his few sage opponents is of exponentially greater value than the sycophantic ravings of his loyal minions. And if he cannot extort their wisdom through threats, his army of torturers posing as the media will certainly extricate the information he so sorely requires.

Day of Darkness 4

Ananias organizes the oppressed multitudes into groups of tens and hundreds, he forces them to march to barren border states providing only the cheapest of tickets to board freight cars, and the minimum of food, so that they have just barely the amount of strength to create a defensive wall of flesh and marrow. Now, any usurper would be forced to dull their blades and war axes as they cleaved through the wall of humanity…only to emerge from the barrier, exhausted with broken or useless weapons, to face a sea of elite, merciless minions crashing down upon them like a tidal wave of death and pain.

Okay enough of that…well maybe I’ll try days 5 and beyond in another article. My points, if there are any, are the following.

1) If we are to be a successful war power we cannot pine away about the lack of high iron regions or depend on the international market alone to feed our weapons industries. We must exploit those resources that we do have. Although medium iron regions do not produce enough iron to make a successful for-profit business, they will generate enough supplemental iron that if placed in reserve would be more than sufficient to cap raw materials prices for domestic weapons companies that provide the firepower for our military and civilian soldiers.

2) Weapons makers that enter into contractual agreements for supplying weapons to the government for arming our military should have the reserve of iron distributed to them so that they can furnish the weapons required at less expense and in greater numbers while still maintaining the profit incentive necessary to function during times of peace.


3) Strategy should not be developed in a vacuum, the development of a strategic think tank within the eUS Forum would be beneficial, in which those selected to participate could engage in developing strategies for future opportunities or perceived threats, while allowing for critical analysis and determination of risk and weaknesses so that multiple scenarios for expansion and defense might be generated for review by the President, a select Congressional Committee, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) for consideration and implementation, if merited.

4) Finally, our population is currently distributed on the sole basis of projection of military power rather than defense. While the highest density of congregation are naturally around higher quality hospitals, the fact remains that in order to provide a successful, or at least much more expensive to the enemy, defense, we need to better organize, utilize, and communicate to one of our strengths…our population. Every single unit of population in a state, every single citizen (you included) is worth 100 points of defense to a region without the addition of defense system modifiers, even if they are inactive or choose not to fight, the mere presence of another soul in a region forces an invader to inflict at least 100 points of damage. Now do the math on a population of 200, 300 or 400 and consider the value in population redistribution.

Just some thoughts…most of you know that I am more of the bullet point guy at the end of the article, but I must admit role-playing Bad Ananias, the Soul-Crusher, was kind of fun too…I’ll let you all decide in the comments which you prefer.

Be well, and thanks for reading...