[People of Asteria] Meet Panda monium

Day 4,575, 04:03 Published in Romania Romania by Asteria HQ


We are Asterians! All of us, whether if we are fighting on the fields, commanding in the dark dank command rooms, or even in many cases, doing both.

But who are the Asterians? This is what we want to know and what led us to make this interview with no one other than the great Panda monium. Without further due, let us see what the deputy Supreme Commander has to say.



1 - For a start, how'd you like to introduce yourself to our readers?

Most Asterians know that we an alliance of pandas, but of course I think that I am the best one. I mainly focus on strategy of alliance, organisation of our trains and battle plans as well as of course my duties in Serbian government.

2 - You've got quite the fighting record... Which battles of wars do you remember most fondly?

For Serbians that play a long time, the answer to this is normally for Lionking or hellokitty battles against EDEN a long time ago, or for the Kosovo/Pampas wars when we had huge damage and record air fights against Croatia, but my answer is a little different for different reasons. Probably my favourite wars are not the biggest, but our recent campaign in USA. At the time our strategy was to land in USA for a few days to maintain Croatian borders and avoid that they cut our NE and run away. Our plan was simply to wipe Croatian cores and clear the CODE countries there because they would regularly allow Croatia to appear and disappear from map and it had a big impact on the available movements to Serbia. However, we accidentally ended up not only clearing Croatian cores, but also kicking CODE from America. It was during the event and I know that a lot of Serbians and Iranians spent a lot of damage here, but I saw the opportunity to continue the campaign so we changed our strategy from hit and run to then clearing USA. Nobody has interest in long campaign in USA, and actually I always thought their position within code was tenuous because CODE simply wiped them, and they had no choice but to agree peace and TWs with them. It wasn't personal on USA, and I think that Asteria made right move to show that we can be flexible with our diplomacy for people who are willing to look again at their relations with us. So I would probably pick that campaign, because even now in Asteria HQ people make jokes that I went to USA to maintain Croatia borders, but accidentally kicked all of CODE and Andes from USA, Canada and Mexico.

3 - And what about the battlefield companions? Whom do you consider to be the best you've ever befriended?

There are three I would pick. Firstly, Pheonixian, because if I say anyone else, he will never again fight to fix walls. He does a lot of fighting that is not in huge campaigns but is in key campaigns. 1bn from him in right place can save us 100-200bn in another battle. Secondly, Delu. He is Italian guy but flies for the whole alliance. I think apart from a week ago (France-Saudi air that we lost) I have never seen us lose an air round that he fights in. His fighting style is very Serbian even though he is Italian: we say where we want to win, he goes and fights until we win. Finally, I would pick The Shunta. His nickname is diktatura because he spent a long time controlling and coordinating Serbia, and he is always available to tank and fight all over the world. Actually, he fights more for allies than any other Serbian and I think that is why he is so popular with Asteria.

4 - What is your opinion on the current international order?

I think that the boycode thing is something that we should treat seriously. I do not agree with all of what they ask for, but simple things like no more anonymity in the tokens market is a reasonable move. Mainly I say this because they always complain that Asteria gets free tokens, so I would like Plato to prove once and for all this is not the case. Other than that, even though players on both sides (MKD and Serbia both lost a lot of pack buyers, not just CODE) have stopped buying packs, I hope that people will realise that the game is generally a fair place. There are bots on both sides, and as a strategist it hurts to see bots on our side, I prefer to win without, but, as I have no way of knowing who controls or organises, for now there is not much I can do. I would be happy to see all bots banned on both sides, because then finally we can see real fights without each side complaining that colin fights with bots, or Serbia fights with bots, etc. To summarise though, I think that the international order has been stable for almost 18 months now. CODE has more damage (in theory), but in actuality, Asteria is able to coordinate its damage more effectively. Even when we have huge fights, you will see CODE's total damage is higher than ours, but we still can win the campaign.

5 - If there was anything you'd be able to change about this game, what would you change?

I think that multis and bots are the thing which a lot of people do not like. But for hitters and air accounts, I suppose some think it is a necessary evil. What I would propose is that Plato offer an amnesty, so that whoever has multis or bots can delete them without having too much of a detrimental effect. For example, if citizens can re-set their division, and donate their strength for D123, and Air accounts to each other, it would give a lot of real players and multi or bot owners the chance to become relevant and reduce the need for colin having bots, or other bot owners doing the same. I know that I would probably donate some of my rank points to my friends. If I was Plato for a day, I would set cap on rank points and strength per division and allow all players to pick a new division. All D1 would return to L30, D2 L40, D3 L50, with associated reductions in their rank points to reflect their ability to farm more in lower divisions with high strength.

6 - What is your role in Asteria's HQ? What is your daily routine in it?

As I say, I am mainly responsible for strategy, map and battlefield. I am terrible at diplomacy because when people want peace I see no fun or interesting battles, so I leave that to others such as Emrace or Yoradorc. My daily routine is agreeing with presidents on times to be online to start trains, and coordinating our actions to ensure that trains continue smoothly to defend our backs, to allow us to look ahead and continue to fight CODE and Andes all over the world.

7 - What do you feel about Asteria, and do you have any words for all the proud Asterians out there?

I am proud to be part of this alliance, but at the same time it can be very frustrating too. We have gained so much in the last months, and that is not just because I spent my time living on maps and studying our moves and progress. Our return on this is that countries who previously had no regions, now can farm in many TWs. But I see worrying signs that a lot of people take this for granted, and want to use excuse of 'time to rebuild', or are too addicted to how much gold their account has. Actually, the game is for war, not for farming. If you farm, it should be for purpose, not just for gold. So, to Asterians I would say it has been a hard 6 months, but we must not fall into bad habits and complacency. The moment people choose to farm instead of help allies, or avoid taking part in strategy or coordination, is the moment that all we build can fall apart so easily. After all, even with 'Boycode', we still have less damage available to us, so all should remember this point and act appropriately.



Interview by: Sterben4kk