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Hello again, Britain. I am jamesw, 3 time ex President, and this months serving Minister of Foreign Affairs. I'll be using this term to introduce everyone that wants to into the rules, implications and subtleties of our war module, albeit in its current reduced state. I'll also be explaining the past three days battles, their implications for our allies and on us as well as documenting the global war which is currently taking place. First of all, if you missed the last article, in which I covered the basics of the war module. You should give that a read here. If you want to see what was happened last week, also give that one another read.

Today I will be discussed some of the more advanced parts of the war module, and the implications they can have on military strategy (or the little that remains) as well as the implications for the countries which suffer these tactics. Firstly, let me introduce to you, the alliance system, referred to in game as Mutual Protection Pacts (or MPP for short).



Mutual Protection Pacts


An MPP is a congressional law started by a country's President. The proposal in its current form means that the two countries involved will be allowed to fight in each others battles, as allies. Let us take the UK and France, and the UK and the Netherlands. In the case of UK and France, we can MPP that country at any time, because we are currently in a state of neutrality. To be in neutrality, you must have no contrasting alliances, or be at a state of war. By contrasting alliances, I mean that your other MPPs must not clash: for instance, of the UK had an MPP with Russia, and France with Romania, then those MPPs would clash putting the UK and France in a theoretical state of war (although no battles could be opened). This is because Romania and Russia have an open war, meaning Russia and all of her allies, as well as Romania and all of her allies, are in a state of war: with each country not directly involved in the war (so Romania and Russia) being in a theoretical war, as they are allies of contrasting sides of a battle. Thus, an ally of Romania could not sign an MPP with an ally of Russia. As the UK and France have compatible alliances, and no current open war, both countries are ready to sign an alliance.

Lets leave UK-France there for a moment, and look at the relationship between the UK and the Netherlands. Whilst both countries are members of the alliance Phoenix (I will be covering what this is in my next article), they are not allies. This is because of a more advanced form of strategy known as region swapping. Again, I will cover this at a later date, so do not worry about what it means for now. In short, to help beat back enemies of both countries, there is an existing war between both countries. As they are at war, it is impossible for the UK to propose an MPP with the Netherlands.

Now lets return to the UK and France. Both countries are able, willing, and ready, to propose an alliance. Before the law is launched, both countries accounts (the in game "bank" if you will) must have 100 gold in. This is the fee the game charges for supporting your allies in battles - 100 gold each. Once that is sorted, either president can propose the MPP, and it will go to a 48 hour voting process. Both countries will have a 24 hour voting period, one at a time, with the country who proposes the MPP voting first. For the MPP to pass, the congress of both nations must accept the proposal. Once the proposal is accepted, the UK and France can participate in any attack started by, or started against, each other.

Finally, attacks can kill or invalidate MPPs. Should both of the countries in a war have the same MPPs, the defenders common MPPs will be deemed invalid, and destroyed. So in the case of Russia-Romania, should both countries have an MPP with Sweden, the Sweden-Russia MPP would be destroyed, should Romania attack a Russian region.



Timing

With the nature of the war module, now more than ever, the timing of a battle is vital. Battles are, on the most part, timed and planned to ensure that maximum advantage towards the agressor, although obviously some will just disregard tactics and prey/spend/cheat their way to victory. For now, lets look at the UK, and our old friends, the USA.
The UK has 5 main allies: Russia, Serbia, Hungary, Brazil and Indonesia.
The USA has 13 main allies: Japan, Canada, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Poland, Finland, Italy, Romania, Spain, China, Sweden and Latvia.

For timing to be taken into account, its important to calculate the peak time of each nation, and ensure that the main parts of the battle (the start, or finish) occur within an acceptable time. The majority of eRepublik players are not going to be up when it is 4am; and the number who are on at that time is certainly going to be much less than, for instance, those who are online at 8-10pm, which is pretty much the accepted "peak time." Thus, for the UK to have any chance of success in a battle, it must either start, spend a long period of time in, or finish, during the peak hours of Mainland Europe (UK, hungary and serbia), South America (Brazil) or Southeast Asia (Indonesia). As the strongest timezone which occurs here is Mainland Europe, it would be vital for the UK to start any battle at around 1pm British time. In that way, the USA, Canada and China would be in the middle of the mid-morning (on the way to work, or school) whilst there would be many more people (early finishers, university students etc) online for the UK and their european allies.

However, this is where the fun begins, because as we can see, the USA has "timezone coverage" in that there are a lot of european countries as their allies too. The art of timezone warfare can only occur when a country has a high concentration of their damage within one timezone, and with that timezone being relatively far away from the opponents timezone. A prime example of this strategy is with the UK and Canada war, which was recently won by the UK (with me as President, might i add ^.^) Canada and her allies would be able to start battles (which at the time had a minimum duration of 24 hours) at 3am in the UK and on the European Continent. This meant that there was basically no-one online for the end of the battle, which was at that time, the most important. Whilst this module is slightly different than that, the salient points remains: timezone will play a vital part within any war.

Taking into account the current war module, the following point will remain vital;

- A battle need only last 16 hours.

When you take into account a countries "prime time" of operation, is at best, 8-10 hours we see that timing will always be a huge part of battles, as well as in most cases, a contributory factor towards the victor. Thus, without ensuring 24/7 support from a well thought out MPP strategy, a country is basically signing their own death warrant.

As those topics are pretty long winded, I will be leaving "the module" there for now, and will outline the past 3 days warfare: although in one sentence: oh dear. As the high volume of battles continues, I will again be limiting the report into the battles of "importance" or "interest"



Day 1056

Poland attacked Urals, Russia

The last high Iron issue of Russia, this really would be the deathblow by Poland and EDEN. Unfortunately, this battle was followed by an attack upon Moscow: the capital, and fortress, of Russia. This was still a hugely important battle for Russia and Phoenix, as Urals is one of the last three high iron regions the alliance's members holds: with the remainder in Brazil. Thankfully, we managed to win this battle and secure the region as Russian.


Poland attacked Moscow and Central Russia, Russia.

Easily the biggest battle of the day. A loss in this battle would mean that the vast majority of russian citizens would become trapped in Poland, and would have to be moved home on an already shaky Russian budget. Unfortunately, we lost this battle, which meant that the vast majority of the Russian active population was stuck abroad temporarily, including the countries armed forces.



Spain attacked Aquitaine, France.

This was a hugely important battle for both sides, although with the following attack upon Moscow, both sides disregarded the battle to a large extent. Phoenix dedicate more force, and thus, managed to get the victory, although the alliance as a whole would've definitely preferred a victory in Moscow. However, lets not ignore victory when we manage it, and rejoice that Aquitaine remains french.


Pakistan attacked Karnataka, India.

Whilst nothing of consequence to most of us, glorious /v/akistan has been restored to its full guns blazing glory, on the quest to remove from the world, all those who support Public Discussion fans, and Sweden. This victory means that Pakistan is close to the end of its campaign against India, albeit a campaign easily undone when the world is not focused entirely upon Russian battles. For now though, /v/akistan remains most delicious to gaze upon.



Day 1057

Serbia attacked Oltenia, Romania

Opened as a draining battle, Serbia was able to drain a huge amount of Romanian and EDEN damage in this battle. Meaning that on day 1057, the chance for a huge phoenix victory was at its peak. This of course, meant Oltenia ended with an emphatic EDEN victory.


Russia attacked Western Siberia, Poland

Did someone mention huge phoenix victory? Valiant efforts on both sides for this battle meant that it was without a doubt, the biggest of the current war module. Luckily, and deservedly, however, Phoenix was able to pull of the win that no-one thought possible: kicking poland out of their Russian fortress. An emphatic 8-5 victory, meant that for the first time in a while: Phoenix smiled.


Romania attacked North Caucasus, Russia

And so, the daunting task starts: Romania in Russia once more. For those of you who don't know, around 18 months ago, Russia was completely wiped from the face of the earth by a combination of Romania and Norway. The two countries divided the territories and ensured that their regions were completely dominated, by the alliance known as ATLANTIS. Well, now Romania is back, and presumably looking for more Iron regions. This war will definitely be featuring in the next few days-weeks, hopefully Phoenix can stop Romania, however.


Day 1058

Hungary attacked Marmures, Romania

As a drain, Hungary decided to ensure that a lot of EDEN damage was removed from the Russian theatre of play, and instead, placed within the confines of a battle which neither Hungary, nor Phoenix, really had any interest in. As per usual, a lot of EDEN damage was placed to ensure that Hungary could not steal a victory, however, the battle now stands at 3-3 for each side: so there will have to be a huge EDEN push throughout the coming night and day to ensure Romania does not lose one of its sacred original regions.


Hungary attacked Northwest Croatia, Croatia

Another draining battle started, although this one is going to turn into a pretty emphatic victory for both Croatia and EDEN: albeit one which Phoenix and Hungary did not really contest in any tangible form.


Romania attacked Centrel Black Earth, Russia

Another Romanian assault, and as things stand, another Romanian victory. Its unfortunate that Phoenix and Russia don't have the damage available to nip this Romanian intrusion in the bud, but as there are more important battles ongoing at the moment, it seems logical to let Romania and EDEN waste their gol😛 we can easily undo this action once the more pressing threats have been dealt with 🙂



That concludes another huge article, and I hope you will tune in again on Saturday, when my next installment will be published. I will be looking at Resoures, Alliance Structures and Reasons for war.



Thank you
~jw