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In a state of boredom with the game I’ve decided to do something I’ve not done in a while and pick up a pen. The topic I want to speak about is the problems arising within CTRL recently.



The hot topic with regard to CTRL recently has been with regard to an ultimatum given by the USA to Poland regarding its MPPs with Hungary and Serbia. The USA is unhappy with Poland maintaining MPPs with its former ONE friends due to (amongst other reasons) their involvement in PTO efforts against the USA.

If we consider the purpose of CTRL as I understand it the idea behind CTRL is to break away from the Balkan focused game that has existed for as long as most players have been around. This isn’t an idea I’m opposed to. Personally I’m fed up with the seemingly never ending wars largely based on real life hatreds; Serbia vs Croatia, Hungary vs Romania, Macedonia (FYROM) vs Greece

So how does CTRL go about breaking away from the Balkans? First let’s consider its position and its options.

It is difficult to accurately measure the influence of CTRL as an alliance as the USA has a large amount of foreign players from both alliances which surely contribute a significant amount of their influence. Despite this I think that CTRL can be conservatively estimated at putting out around 9 billion influence a day.

When you look at the members who constitute CTRL however what do they need all this influence for? They all comfortably boast (or can boast) 10/10 resources with the exception of Spain who boast a modest 9/10.

Combined they occupy regions from: Austria, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, and Switzerland. Combined these nations put out just shy of 2 billion influence a day, this leaves CTRL with a 7 billion influence surplus and as it seems to me, no real purpose to put it towards.



What is the next step for CTRL if it wants to survive? The answer for me is for it to find a cause to fight for. It is all very well saying that you want to avoid the Balkans, but where do you look for a fight and for what reason?

I think it is fair to say that Poland is still very much pro (ex) ONE, and the USA is still very much leaning towards Eden. Neither side seems prepared to budge much on these positions. If Poland is unwilling to fight for Eden and the USA is unwilling to fight for (ex)ONE then what opportunity does the alliance really have of surviving?


For me the answer is that the alliance tries to carve out its own path. Rather than following one of the two existing blocks it needs to create its own. This means it needs to find nations it is prepared to support and defend. This is unless I’m very much mistaken the purpose of ALT. As I understand it so far two countries have accepted the status of ‘ALT’ member, the countries being Pakistan and Venezuela.

If we bring this back to the original position of CTRL, namely that of avoiding a Balkan centralised game then I see cause for concern with regards to the USA’s recent actions. The USA gave Poland an ultimatum telling them not to renew their MPPs with Serbia and Hungary. Whilst I don’t think this is an entirely unreasonable request to make, I do believe that it is an unreasonable demand to make at this very early stage. It is asking Poland to cut ties it has built over more than a year for the sake of an alliance whose long term existence seems little more than a pipe dream. (Iain Keers goes over this in far more detail and puts it far more eloquently than myself in his article here.)



At the same time as this the USA has just attacked Austria as it makes its way towards Hungary. Whilst the principle of the alliance is to break away from the Balkans the USA seems to be heading for the very heart of it. I can understand that the USA holds grudges against Hungary and Serbia for their involvement in twice wiping the USA. I cannot understand however why the USA thinks it is reasonable to ask Poland to drop its friends but that she has no responsibility for dropping or at least putting her grudges on hold for now for the sake of the alliance.

So what should the USA and CTRL be doing instead then?

To bring this article to its conclusion I would suggest that CTRL looks to expand ALT. It needs to find more friendly nations who it is willing to support and defend the sovereignty of. The issue is however why expand ALT if CTRL isn’t taking care of existing ALT nations?

I find it laudable that the USA is making ultimatums to Poland. On the contrary I think CTRL should look to honour its pledge to defend the nations of ALT and in fact the ultimatum that the USA delivered would have been better off directed at say China who is currently occupying 4 of Pakistan’s regions.

It seems to me that tensions are high on both sides of the Atlantic for CTRL and the alliance’s very existence could be at stake before it has ever really gotten going. If the alliance is to last it needs to show a willingness not to be another Terra to Eden or EPIC to ONE but to be an alliance in its own right which will stand on its own two feet and will defend itself and its smaller allies from ANY threat. If it wants to flex its muscles then it should do so against countries which are closer to its members in size, and it should look to do so without violating its founding principles.

If CTRL is to survive then its members are going to have to be prepared sooner or later to go ‘all the way’.


(The alternative).

Thank you for reading; I am interested in any constructive or informed feedback in the comments below. Trolling will be ignored.

Greatmoff
-Ex MC of CoT-
-3 x MoD eUk-
-1 x MoD Slovakia-
-2 x MoFA Japan-

p.s. 10 Q6 weapons to the first (non-balkan) person to message me with the name of the first artist/band who sang a song sharing the name of the article.