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I'm proudly presenting you an interview with one of my favourite players. He's one of those Croats who sometimes write articles to explain things, he always makes rational decisions and doesn't let his passionate nature beats his logical thinking. We've met long time ago and I don't remember we ever had a single argue, which isn't that often when two Croats are working on the same goals, projects or something similar.

He's Sexy Macan, former Commander, party leader and a long time member of Croatian Government, one of those that make decisions. He answered some juicy questions and I'm glad that 'Espresso with Warbhoy' is back in stylish way.



Q1: Hi Sexy Macan, it's always a pleasure to talk to you, thank you for being my guest in Espresso with Warbhoy. You've always been one of the favourite Croatian players for me due to your logical conclusions and your ability to express yourself in a nice way. So tell me, who is Sexy Macan in real life and how did he join this game?

SexyMacan is a relatively normal guy, freshly entered his 30-s few days ago, unsuccessfull historian, now working in aviation (definitively an upgrade 😃 ). Kind to animals, charming to women, every mother would want me for her son-in-law. I joined the game looooong time ago, on summer of 2009 through facebook when eCroatia had it's 2nd (I think) baby boom, played for few months but quit and then came back during winter again with first SexyMacan. That account got banned for multies (which was a good lecture for me but I'll never get over that 25k strength I lost cause of that 😃

Q2: You've been involved in eCroatian Governments for years by now, what's the hardest thing to manage in eCroatia? What are the biggest issues you're facing?

Uh, hard question. Hardest thing is to keep everyone satisfied. Actually I don't believe we've ever been this united before, the general trust in the government is on a pretty high level, probably also helps a lot cause in the government are people from different parties, different MU's but we're also constantly opened to include new people, even players that only recently started playing, we don't expect them to become tactical masterminds in 3 days but if they can (and more importantly want) to help, hey, you're more than welcome. Hardest thing (internaly) would be just to arrange and inform everyone cause game is really dinamic now (not just the current wars but the general system of constant wars compared to V1 for example) and a lot of decisions needs to made on the go. Luckily we have much less individual ego problems than before so we make it work.

On international level, biggest problem we faced were that our friends and allies were not sure if we came back only temporary and will leave again or if we came to stay. I'm glad to say that everybody can see that this time we came to stay. 2nd biggest issue was that everyone (on all sides) believed that Asteria is invincible. Through constant effort and being a thorn in their asses, revitalizing and activating some communities (Greek for example) we (all of us together) have managed to show that that is not true. They can and will be taken down. we just need to continue working together, comunicate and trust each other.




Q3: During some periods Croatia is one of the strongest countries in the world, however, during some other periods things aren't that good. Why is that so? Is it a regular stock up & burn tactics behind it, or there are some less obvious reasons for it?

Actually the explanation is rather simple. Croatia is generaly country that has a lot of seasonal jobs due to huge ammount of tourists we get annualy so people would just work more during summer months and then our activity would fall down. This summer we avoided it cause we in the government have managed to organise ourselves a bit better, we were lucky that we didn't alltogether go on a summer vacation so there was always someone able to make a minute decision. Higher quality phones with faster internet and chat applications also help.

Q4: EDEN was the last alliance Croats felt like 'their own', everything that happened after EDEN could be marked as a fail in a diplomatic aspect. Do you think there's going to be an alliance in the future which might change that?

To be honest, I cannot answer completely about EDEN and alliances that followed cause I was not that much included in neither domestic nor international politics. Lead my MU and that was most of my activity back in the days. One thing I believe why everything was a diplomatic fail (as you say it) is cause a lot of times, eCroatia, as an influental, strong country, was brought in front to a wall where we had to "choose sides" and pick a team when 2 of the other allies fought between. Of course, the side that was not "chosen" would instantly hold a grudge. Of course, a lot of times mistakes were made by our side as well. You're a Croat too, we're Medditerraneans and Balkans, we're passionate and tend to say straight to the face when we think someone is wrong or bullshitting or something like that or when our blood boils and we say before we think. We won't lie to your face and pretend everything is fine while bullshiting behind your back against you and there are some countries and people in this game that are masterminds in that. But, yeah, we did work a lot for the past year on that, not to talk behind back, but to think first before saying so we avoid some badmouthing while our blood is still hot.

Q5: Since we're talking about the alliances...would you say there is a need for 'our side' to found an official alliance with a HQ, its rules and other things that makes formal alliance? Would it be easier to coordinate and create strategies while being a member of a formal alliance?

Regarding alliance, tbh, this game has a lot of history, a lot of bad blood and a lot of good, nice memories, respect and friendships. It's not hard to guess whose good with who and whose not. Honestly I just don't see the need for the alliance cause I don't think it would change anything. We already have a lot of mutual channels, coordinations, capable people from every country which share and coordinate. Making it all official with putting some people in charge is (in my opinion) completely unnecessary. We would just put a burden on a small ammount of people "in position" while we would also discourage other people to openly say what they want/need/think. At the start, when we started all this bigger scale to organise our side, it was slow as a snail, but now we know each other, we all know what to watch, who to call and so on. I don't see the need for making it all official with a statute, hierarchy and so on. You also risk that some person won't be able to come online and is Alliance MOD or something and we miss a moment cause everyone is waiting for that person. Also someone can be put in charge who someone else can't stand and you immediately get a situation that coordination and relationships suffer. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against an alliance, I just don't really see the purpose of it.




Q6: Croatia & Serbia are 'eternal enemies', no matter how much time pass there's that one thing that never changes. Do you think it will ever change though? What would be your opinion on a hypothetical alliance with Serbs and why?

First of all, I disagree with you calling us "enemies". We're not enemies, we're opponents. We've been on opposite sides ever since our countries came in this game. After so many years of fighting, playing chess on battlefield and in diplomacy, deleting each other and outthinking.... You gotta have some respect for the other side as well. We're opponents, but we've grow to respect each other across the battlefield. I'm also glad that most of the people that hated each other cause of RL issues have left the game, in eCroatia almost all of theme but 1-2 that everyone ignores, in Serbia Ugac's crew while you can normal talk with others. You could almost say that our relationship is all time best. We fight, but we respect each other, we don't insult. I don't see us ever allying with each other, there's too much ingame history between us plus it would become boring. You saw our battle a month ago and how much dmg there was, now imagine it all on the same side. If we allied together (of course, with few more countries, not just the 2 of us, I'm not that arrogant), it would destroy the game the same way founding of ONE and all of it's succesors did. Concentrate the majority of fire power in one place and be a bully that will either delete you our your gonna lick our ass. The only possible way we would ally with eSerbia (and I don't see a 1% chance of that happening) would be to keep eRomania permanently wiped.

Q7: Through the history of Erep there were many Croats playing this game for some other countries, including myself. Would you say that Croatian emigration in this game contributes to eCroatia at all?

Absolutely. Now there is not much Croats playing for other countries and most of them are in your MU, but before that we had USA's Chief of stuff HisAirness, LnL MU in Egypt, looong time ago even Roby Petric as POTUS, Croatia was the first country to be added extra and it was cause of people playing for other countries. Now there's much less of that, the general player's base of the game is slowly declining through the years so it's not suprising but also a lot of players that played elsewhere came back to Croatia during the last year, Rommel Erwin, Insightz, Monster grinder, to name a few.
There's less of us in other countries, but to say that players outside of eCroatia do not help eCroatia would be not just false but rude as well.




Q8: Ireland & Croatia have been allies since they were added to the game, what's your opinion on eIreland? Is there anything you would suggest us to do? Would eIreland be listed as one of the top allies for a regular eCroat?

Regarding Ireland, as far as I remember, I could be wrong, they are one of the 3 countries that were always allied with us (other two being Albania and Greece). Ireland has always been one of our most trusted and devoted allies that has always gone an extra mile to aid us (and by saying that I absolutely do not want to diminish other allies) and I would dare to say we did the same for them. And that opinion is shared by majority (if not all) eCroats. For advice, uh, I can't help you with that, what I see as an outsider is that you are very organised and active while I don not have an insight view so I'll just have to continue trusting eIrish that you know what you're doing

Q9: The only time our two countries disagreed was about Bulgaria. Ireland has decided to support Bulgarians several years ago and we kinda kept those relations until recently. Croatia always seen them as their enemies. Is there anything you'd comment on that? Do you understand what was our point of view?

Regarding Bulgaria, we did not always see them as enemies. We used to be allies years ago. Damn, Bulgarian cs was the first foreign CS that I ever had, there was several Bulgarians in my MU as well. I was not in EDEN HQ then (or ever for that matter) so I don't know exactly how and why they left. I actually felt pretty bad for them leaving and thought that could and should have been avoided, most of the informations for them leaving EDEN I got from newspappers and private talks with other players (cro, bul, 3rd party). For Bulgaria's cause definitively did not help that after they left EDEN, their 1st and biggest tank, Flausino, not just started fighting like crazy against EDEN countries (which I understand) but also cursing countries and players like crazy, such awful words I do not even want to write. Ok, that's one player, legit, but main Bulgarian propaganda was saying how they were mistreated, insulted, stepped on but others, how they did all they could to prevail problems but others just insulted them and didn't want them there. When that happened 1st time, I believed it. When it happened 3rd, 4th, 5th and so on time.... well, you can guess it.

I would also say the same for Northern Macedonia (which we also tend to disagree), just insults and blaming others and then switching sides while insulting players they were allied 2 days before. I cannot understand that. And most of players that had experience with them both in the past have similar opinion. The reason while they're allied with Ser-Ro nowadays is because Ser-Ro need their dmg and nothing else. They'll always be treated as 2nd grade in Asteria and it's a matter of time before they're "insulted" again and leave. I can understand that you personally had a different experience and that's why you had different opinion, but I also know that I am not the only one that told you this stated above, you just didn't want to believe it until you saw it for yourself few days ago.




Q10: Croatia is one of the leading Anti Asteria countries, there's a huge responsibility on your shoulders. I believe many smaller countries are often waiting for your moves to make a move themselves. Do you even feel your importance in that aspect and how does it affect you?

Last year was not just the year of growth of eCroatia (or coming back from the dead if you wanna say it like that), reviving it's players and accounts but also a huuuuuuuge work in order to establish communication and trust with allies, to help them "grow" in activity, communication with us and each other, to get back the will and joy in playing this game. You wouldn't believe how much time and effort went into bringing people and chat, to geting them to trust us, each other and themselves again. There were some countries that were organised but just lacked the players to go against Asteria themselves and needed others too (for example Turkey, top class organised country) but we also had for example Greece who Romainans effectively tried to destroy as a community which we put a lot of effort in bringing back from the dead, so to say.

There was a lot of trust issues during the past year, and I truly understand where did that come from, a lot of times I had a feeling that everyone is just waiting for us to make moves and plans for everyone which would bring miracles and then just wait to see if it would work for us before joining. Even Asteria's propaganda was actively working to undermine that even further by giving months and years old shouts to our allies but that time is now far, far behind us. Croatia is now just one of the equal in the group of allies where everyone has the same voice and same influence in decission making and I couldn't be more happy for that. It was a hard work that took a lot of time to rebuild that trust, but subjectively, I think that general relationships in our allies group is better then ever. We're not running away from the fact that we are one of the "big guns" of our side, but it is by far from a feeling that everyone is rellying on us or anything like that. We do our best, and Turkey does it's best, Ireland does it's, Cyprus, USA and so on, and so on, bigger and smaller.... we all work together towards a common goal. Noone expects that for example Ireland takes head on both Serbia and Romania simultaneously, we do have a responsibility to deliver The Big Punch with some others, but by knowing that everyone else will also give it's best punch when needed and when able too, makes it oh, so much easier and more enjoyable. It's not hard to guess that I really like our allies!

Q11: We all know Croatia has a very organized army. You often fight together and deliver damage exactly when it's needed. Are the other aspects of the country that organized? Economy, production, media and so on?

Well, eCroatia is and always has been primarily military country. We've always been in hostile neighborhood, we're shaped like a banana and we've always lacked resources. What we as a country did in that term was to secure resources so people who understand economy really well (for example Baranac1, Fiktorius, Jablancro and Riker when they get ahold of it again) can always provide others with advices and we all together work on making it as best as possible for everyone. Luckily we're extremely active, there's more than a hundred people on our main chat so whoever needs can always get an advice there (sometimes even too many of them at the same time). We don't have a specific country strategy towards economy, but with active people always willing to help and provide their opinion and advice, I don't think it's really that needed.

Regarding journalism, I have to be honest and say I'm a bit dissapointed with that aspect in eCroatia. We do have one of the best MOD newspappers with constantly updated battles but I would encourage EVERYONE to write articles, whatever you want about, just don't write that "I need 25 comments", come on, put just a little bit of effort into it. The other problem is that we from the government sometimes forget that not everybody is on chat where we give pretty much all the information and could use articles about what's going on but with something always going on, with talks between us, with allies, planning and everything else, it just kinda always goes under the radar. My biggest problem when I try to explain some things is what I can and what I can't say. For example, I can't write that we attacked ROC to go to China and explain it to our players when our opponents can read it too. I couldn't write publicy why were we making epics in last 5 minutes and so on, I want to tell them but I should better not. So yeah, all of you in Cro, write the damn articles about whatever you want




Q12: Lots of countries are using the strategy that makes legends fight only in TP battles since that's where they aren't "wasting" their health due to high rank bonuses. Would you say that's a good or a bad thing? We used to have loads of Croatian troops fighting for Ireland when it's needed, but recently that number has decreased heavily. Is that the reason for it?

Well, it's a legit tactics, that's how the game works. For example, my FF for Cro as leg XI is around a billion and for some ally, around 400 mil. That's a huge difference. The legend bonus and game mechanichs just work like that and all of the countries have addapted to it. Regarding Ireland, I can not say for every player, but my opinion is that we just fight more in air where general dmg is much lower so not that much showed when seen in charts. Other thing is that most of our players is growing in legend ranks so the difference is becoming bigger thus players don't feel like they can help that much when they see it and avoid it altogether. They believe they can help in other ways more (for example fighting in air or throwing bombs which always have the same dmg like me)

Q13: What are your future plans? What are your next personal goals? Also, just like everyone else you get to pick who's the next person to be interviewed?

My plans and goals? God knows 😃 I live in the moment. But seriously, I just go with the flow. My personal desire is that Croatia and all ouf our allies continue to grow, first in activity and then everything else. Can't say I have everything planed out. Regarding country plans, well, they're obvious, work with allies, take down Asteria. You don't need to be genius to see that. For next person, well, I would recommend Arrlo. That guy has so much experience in this game that I will never have and it would be interesting to see what's in his head now.




I'd like to thank Sexy Macan for taking part in my interview series. He's always been a great friend and ally and people like him often makes me want to play for eCroatia again every once in a while, so I'm trying to avoid him most of the time. Arrlo, you heard him, talk to you soon!

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