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In the history of Austria, there have been many battles which stand out - ones which would prove pivotal in a greater series of events and have great impact on the coming months. Though any of these could be written about, this is the story of the November 2010 Battle of Vorarlberg - a battle where defeat would have come with the greatest consequences, and whose success is still felt today.

A Month of Difficulties

An old challenge for nations, which we fortunately no longer face, was known as open citizenship. If a nation were not able to elect a congress, due to being wiped during the congress elections, for the next month there would be open citizenship: anyone and everyone who applied would be granted it. This was an instant boon to any would-be PTO effort, and several large scale efforts were launched in large nations, coming quite close to success. To smaller nations, it was viewed as a death wish: a large PTO could displace any legitimate players and permanently disrupt the community.

In early November 2010, President N I K A N used the ongoing war with Italy, and a need for “quick access,” to ask for more passwords to Austrian organizations. Within several days he would use this access to steal nearly the entire treasury and give it to EDEN, leaving the nation in disbelief and confirming worst fears. After a speedy impeachment, the new President, Travis James, began to pick up the pieces and work to settle a peace with Italy. But N I K A N’s plan had not reached its end - an arrangement was made with Italy to see Austria wiped before the election, causing open citizenship to support a renewed EDEN-led PTO effort.

Publicly, and privately to Austria’s government, Italy’s government expressed sympathy for the unfortunate situation, and “promised” to not take advantage. Already most of the nation was occupied by this time, with Austria only holding Tyrol and Vorarlberg. After invading Vorarlberg around November 20th, it was again “promised” that this would be the last region taken. But on November 22nd, Italy would indeed invade the final region of Tyrol. The battle proceeded as the previous battles in the war, with Italy taking an overwhelming lead. With a virtually empty treasury, there was not much ability to mount a defense.

Austria had been wiped. If we could not return to the map by the end of November 23rd to run candidates for congress, we would have open citizenship. But just as things looked their darkest, an old light still burned.



South Korea

Some months earlier, in May 2010, the nation of South Korea faced its own invasion from the stronger Japan. Recently freed from a PTO, the invasion held the possibility of destroying what progress had been made. Austria quickly answered the call to help South Korea - remembering past help South Korea gave to Austria - and deployed its mobile forces. Spending hundreds of gold in several battles, the Austrian government felt that this would be a chance where Austrian firepower could make a difference for a good cause. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eisenhorn, would act as the lead Austrian tank, going toe to toe with top Japanese fighters.

While early battles would prove narrow wins for Japan, the cost of battles for them was greater than initially planned and soon the war effort dragged to a halt. Turning the tide, South Korea repelled the invasion and would reclaim lost regions by months end. The decision to help South Korea was a clear success, yet some remained skeptical, even critical of the war. South Korea was another small nation, could they ever repay Austria for the help? While the government dismissed the question - noting we ourselves had called for help from larger nations before - it would not remain unanswered.

The Battle of Vorarlberg

The clock was ticking. There would not be enough time to open a new resistance war - but by some lucky circumstance, one had been opened hours earlier as a damage drain in Vorarlberg, keeping open the possibility of a return. But it would be the only possibility - the battle had to be won, and won in a timely manner. Italy was once again formidable, while our best soldiers - from the Bundesheer to the Szeklers - struggled to make headway.

Frantically seeking to contact allied fighters, the government looked far and wide. Familiar faces would return in this time of nee😛 former President Fragreg and others from OmniCorp joined Szeklers like Manitou and mobra from Hungary. Metallon, long time player and former President, performed his final public act by donating his entire savings to the bank to help make up for lost money.

Meanwhile, Minister of Finance JaFe would find his way to Alfagrem - a friend from South Korea. Alfagrem remembered Austria’s help months earlier, and he did not require convincing.

Alfagrem

In this era of the game, it’s important to understand that 20 to 30,000 damage was probably enough to secure a battle hero medal. A whole nation might do about 100 to 200,000 in a single round. Italy brought solid performances such as these to the table each battle, and it previously proved too high a bar for Austria to beat.

Alfagrem delivered 250,000 damage into single rounds as one soldier. Not only was the wall pushed, it wasn’t even close: staying up into the late hours of the night, and into the morning, he blew it away. Unsure of how to react, many offered Alfagrem gold to help cover the cost of tanking - he would return the gold and then donate more to the Austrian treasury.

Though it would be wrong to ignore the contributions of others to the battle, his contribution would prove undoubtedly decisive - with well over a million damage done in total, taking on the shape of a force of nature. By mid-day on November 23rd, the battle had concluded and Austria returned to the map in Vorarlberg - just short of a day after Tyrol had fallen.

As parties were wiped too in these days, all party leaders came together to form a temporary “Austrian Unity Party” that quickly ran candidates for congress, averting open citizenship. In the midst of these discussions and celebrations, Alfagrem joined the chat room to simply state: he remembered Austria’s help to South Korea, this was his repayment of this debt.



A Month of Opportunity

To unanimous agreement, it was clear then that Austria had seen something remarkable. This would be a victory long remembered. But victories could be thrown away, the opportunities granted from them missed. At the time, I noted that this victory would not mean an end to our troubles; but it would mean we secured the nation another month. It would be up to us to make this month a memorable one, doing justice to the promise afforded us. We would have to use our time to build something better.

Though it is hard to believe, this was 27 months ago. Many of my favorite memories of time here came after this event - people I became closer to as friends and got to know, or had the pleasure of working with on some project or another. Many players today probably do not know an Austria besides the one after this era. When I said then that it was up to us to seize the opportunity afforded to us - to accomplish things we could not have had the battle's outcome been different - I could only have hoped that Austria would grow into a place with such people as it has - that it would provide the experiences it has provided.

It is my hope that it will continue to be such a place for long into the future. But with certainty we can say that it provides this now, due in no small part to the events of that November.

(This is an entry in the Ministry of Community's Writing Contest)