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Battle Cry 22

A Farewell to Arms

...and legs and heads, but really mostly just fingers. Restful fingers, that is. Or maybe I should just call it "A Farewell to tsewell". Too alliterative?

Today's Battle Cry is dedicated to our recently retired General tsewell who can now be found slumming in the private ranks of the Mobile Infantry continuing to kick ass for the eUSA. After many months of pestering (okay, a couple of days), tsewell finally consented to be interviewed. So here it is!



When did you start playing eRepublik? How did you get into the game (what connection)?

My eRep b-day was Apr 22, 2009. I had just severed my achilles tendon, and so was laid up in bed for a couple of months. As anyone who has been in that position knows, daytime TV sucks, unless you are into Jerry Springer type shows. Therefore I was doing a lot of surfing. At some point, one of the free games advertisements caught my eye. You know, the ones with the hot babe that has absolutely nothing to do with playing the game. Anyway, once I got to the point where they wanted my credit card info, I started looking around for other games that weren't so blatantly after money (Yes, I know, how ironic). Somewhere in that, I found a link to eRep which at the time seemed to be perfect. I was hooked in the first week.


How did you get involved in the eUS Military?

When I started eRep, I knew I wouldn't be interested in the politics module. Writing is too much of a chore, so creating a newspaper didn't appeal. Economic module had promise, but in those days, it took a while before you could even think about buying a company, I think it was level eight or so. That left the military at first. I joined the Training Corps in my first week, which happened to be not very long after it was created.


Why did you join the MI?

LOL, I probably shouldn't be admitting this here, but at the time I had no particular affinity for the MI one way or the other. I was like a lot of newbs, I figured I would eventually work my way up and join the marines. As a matter of fact, I didn't even apply to the MI. Back then, the TC consisted of completing four different tests, one each week. I had finished all four, and didn't hear anything from anybody in the TC for about two weeks. The next thing knew, I was getting messages from this guy Sir Valaro Volcrum. Turns out he was my first platoon leader in the MI. So, bottom line is I became MI by default.


Tell us about your MI career.

Hmmm... I can give you the positions I filled, but the dates are a little hazy. I started out as a grunt in platoon A8. I was there two or three months, and then decided I wanted a shot as an officer. Back in V1 days, we had more people that wanted to be officers than there were positions, so it took a while longer before I became the platoon leader of Bravo 4. That was probably the best time for me. I had a really good platoon, and I was lucky enough that I got a great group of people. Even with the extra work, I still could finish everything in under an hour. My next promotion kinda puzzles me to this day. At that time, I was not involved with IRC at all, and had absolutely no desire to be. I saw it as a time suck. Anyway, Citizen Timinator, who was my CCO at that time actually made an order that people were required, not encouraged, but required to be on IRC. I wrote some letter or post about how things should be inclusive not exclusive or some such. Next thing I know, Seuss was asking if I wanted to be Security/Recruiting Officer. That job was a lot more time consuming, and I seemed to be in that position forever. During most of that time, Goalie was XO and we got to know each other pretty well. When he finally officially took over from Seuss, he asked me to be his XO. I was thrilled because I figured that I wouldn't have to do the Security/Recruiting anymore. Let me go ahead and break it to you all. Every time you get promoted, there is more responsibility and it takes more time. Eventually, Goalie burned out, and it was my turn to be CO.


What was your favorite V1 moment?

This is embarrassing, but I can't remember details like who we were fighting and for what region. I just remember setting the alarm for like 1:45 AM to catch the final minutes of a battle, and even though we each only got limited fights, it was exciting watching the avatars go by and that stupid wall going up and down. The one battle I can remember details about was way back in the beginning, when we were gonna hammer Russia. But we lost in Far East Russia, and that was a bottleneck, so the whole campaign was a bust.


Favorite V2 moment?

When it ended. (This isn't my line originally, but I'm still gonna use it. nod to Morrigan)


Favorite officer?

Easy, but it would have to be two, not one. AutumnsDawn and Heather Fuchs were one of the few bright spots during my time as CO. They were hardworking and supportive and made being CO a lot easier.


Cake or Pie?

My favorite dessert is cheesecake, which technically is neither, it's a custard. However... it has "Cake" in it's name, and I like cherry pie filling on it, so I think it crosses the line and is both. (This answer is diplomatic, not wishy-washy, just in case you were wondering)


Favorite opponent, if you have one?

Hmmm, I'm gonna take favorite to mean the one I hate most. That would be hands down eUnited Kingdom. Their betrayal in WW3 still pisses me off.


If you could change one thing about this game, what would it be?

The obivious answer, "Make it so the game was more about an enjoyable game experience than about selling gold" is too easy. I would have to go with bringing back some strategy to the war module. I'm not sure how that could be accomplished short of taking four or five steps backwards, and there is no way the admins are gonna do that. So for something that I could actually see happening, it would be to fix the economic module by getting rid of managers working for multiple companies (Although to give credit where it's due, I like the unified inventory change. That could stay). I gotta admit I'm not sure how the latest change about the amount of food you can use in a day will affect things, but we will see.


Heartfelt thanks to General tsewell (Ret.) for taking the time to share his thoughts with us. Tune in soon for more exciting Battle Cry articles! (I promise, really)



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If you are at least 5 days old, your strength is at least 500 and your battlefield rank is Lieutenant or higher (or you can do at least 85 influence per fight barehanded) and you like pie as much as we do, you too could be a member of the Mobile Infantry!!!


If not, then you could also get your fight on in the Training Corps!


Also, see this list of important papers you should be reading:




Respectfully submitted,
Major Spamgobbler
Press Officer
eUS Mobile Infantry