Join the new world

Let me start by saying that I've only been playing eRepublik for 3 weeks. So I apologise if all this has been said before. Regardless, it needs saying again.

What is our military strategy? Do we have one?

Since the day I joined I've been hearing how we needed to have a congress. There are various reasons and advantages to having one. Not least for democratic reasons, i.e letting people have a more direct influence on their government. From the government's point of view, it would help direct some of the genuine discontent that is around, re' government policy, in a more positive direction. Unfortunately we have let the opportunity pass us by, yet again.

We could easily have taken (and held for election day) either Wales or N.Ireland, from Ireland (our weakest occupier). Many eUK citizens had been saving up their bazookas and energy bars ready to partake in just such an attack, as promised by our leaders. All we needed to do was attack one of these regions late on the 24th (the day before elections). Each 'war' takes roughly 16 hours, to win (assuming each 'battle'/round is won by the same side). We can add between 105 to 120 minutes for each battle/round lost. If we had attacked around 6pm on the 24th we could have taken the region by 10am on election day. even if we lost a couple of rounds during the war, we would still have had enough time to vote. It couldn't be recaptured until the following day, since our opponents would only have had 14 hours, or less in which to recapture it. Not enough time for them to do so, considering that each war takes at least 16 hours (as previously stated).

This is what actually happened. Late on the 24th we were attacking, simultaneously, THREE different regions, against THREE different nations. Subsequently we lost all 3 wars, due to lack of coordination and the fact that our limited resources were split 3 ways against 3 different nations. On the 25th we eventually attacked Ireland in Wales but also chose to open a second front against Canada, in Yorkshire. We also had our campaign of the day in Macedonia! Thus we, once again, split our limited resources between wars against 2 different nations, who were each able to focus on one war, as well as a foreign war. i'm all for helping our allies but this was neither the time nor the place. Luckily, enough people had saved their bazookas and energy bars and realised that Wales was the sensible target. Thus, we are going to win in Wales. Unfortunately, due to the war being started much too late, we are not going to win it in time to vote. All those stores of bazookas and energy bars (& other weapons/food etc) will have been completely wasted & we end up back at square one - no congress. The whole thing was a complete shambles.

As for a longer term strategy, once again there doesn't appear to be one. If we are to liberate those parts of the UK presently occupied by Canada & Ireland, attacking 2 or 3 regions constantly (splitting and wasting our resources) is not the answer. We will not hold them that way. Our best strategy would be to hold off from attempting to retake them, for at least 3 months. Meanwhile we could be helping our nearby allies, so that when we do strike they will be in a better position to help us out. During this period we should be saving our energy bars and bazookas, building up our production and trying to build cash reserves with which to buy additional weapons once the liberation war begins. When we do eventually strike, we should attack either Ireland or Canada alone. Attack one region, then when almost won begin attacking a second region (still focusing on the first until it is taken). Continue this pattern, occasionally pausing to hold against counter attacks until either we wipe Ireland, or drive Canada out of the UK. Then turn our attention to the other occupier. To achieve this we would need the resources saved and good coordination from the MoD. It is perfectly feasable and perfectly do-able it merely needs long term planning and strategy. We should also be making better attempts at recruiting and retaining new citizens. This is where our achilles heel is and this is what we need to do to defeat France and liberate the south.

Against France, our strategy should be the same as above but in order to work we need a larger population. Until we have significantly increased our population, any attack against France is pointless. Our population problem has 2 main elements, namely recruitment and retention. Let's turn first to retention.

At present we receive a decent number of new citizens but hardly any stay on as active citizens. It is always going to be the case that most new citizens are not going to be long term active citizens. Nevertheless we can take steps to improve the numbers that we retain. Some of the factors are macro factors. such as disillusionment over not having a congress or holding much (if any) territory. Such factors can be improved by the steps already detailed above. On a micro level more steps need to be taken to encourage new citizens to stay and be active. One easy method would be to send a (standard) welcoming letter to each new citizen, making them feel part of our nation and briefly explaining some key features(& how to use them) and the broad government policy. This could also provide links to the various fora, irc sites, bulletin boards, blogs etc that are relevant to the eUK. Similar letters could be sent to new recruits of political parties and military units (sent by the particular party/mu concerned). I believe this would help enormously. At present, new recruits are left somewhat in limbo, scrabbling about trying to work everything out for themselves and not being really 'included' in any real way. I would also suggest looking at the possibility of incentives for newer citizens. I understand why such rewards/incentives are aimed presently at more powerful and established players but long term this policy will do nothing to improve active citizen retention. I'm not suggesting abandoning such policies but we need some similar, if smaller scale, 'newbie' incentives. Doing so, we would need to accept that some resources would be wasted, as some new players would leave regardless. Nevertheless, long term it would pay dividends. Perhaps players could receive rewards for reching certain goals or milestones? These goals could be the same as the official ones but I would suggest adding some new unofficial ones. Maybe for reaching certain ranks, levels etc, or for achieving certain notable feats or gaining certain positions (captain of regiment in their mu, or being appointed a spokesperson for some task etc). Anyway that's a few ideas re' retention of new citizens, now let's look at recruitment itself.

Recruitment is our weakest area and our biggest problem. Gaining more positive results won't be easy. Unless we have some luck, progress is likely to be slow and we need to recognise that. There are certain things that can be done however. Firstly, we should enourage everyone to regularly post links to eRepublik on their favourite social networking site (Facebook etc). The majority of people's friends, on such sites, tend to be from the same country as them. It would have the added bonus of the occasional successful recruitment giving ingame gold bonuses and allowing for completion of certain missions. Secondly, we should have regular campaigns to 'spam' certain UK internet outlets with references and links to eRepublik. Lastly, we should be trying to influence national and local media to report on eRepublik, particularly on eUK. We could offer possible story titles (eg London Occupied by French Forces) to encourage interest. Alternatively we could just write explaining a litlle about how ERepublik works and describing the eUK. I'm sure we can think of all sorts of angles. This last approach is the least likley to gain results. However, it would only need such a strategy to succeed once or twice to have a big impact. These are the ideas I have come up with (I'm sure other people have already come up with most of these before, so don't shoot me 😉) I'm sure others can come up with additional strategies.

The final area that appears to need improvement is communication/strategy/planning. There needs to be much better (better coordinated, better communicated and more clearly explained) communication of government and MoD policy, to officials, (ambassadors etc) entities such as MUs and to citizens in general. Government needs to stop lecturing and berating people and instead begin to communicate and explain things properly. This will help create a better sense of purpose and inclusion, leading to better retention rates of new citizens and better coordination of strategic and military aims. I accept that certain plans (especially certain details of miltary planning) need to be kept secret for security reasons but such needs shouldn't be used as an excuse for not having more openness, inclusion and explanation of broad goals and strategies. I suspect that better coordination and communication is needed, as well, between the MoD and the MUs, as evidenced by our present uncoordinated attempts. As a relatively new player, I wouldn't know how this would be best achieved but something needs to be done. As for the structure of government, a congress would help 😉 but I would hope that the government also has (besides the MoD) departments covering economics, foreign affairs and recruitment/retention, at least. Perhaps a PR unit is also needed, for internal eUK policies?

On a more general note, we need to end cronyism and make appointments based on ability and performance. If an official is not performing well, they need to be replaced, no matter the loyalties involved. This is true for all areas, not just for government but for parties, MUs, ambassadorships etc. We also need to accept that if voting for a certain party is not producing results, then we need to have the courage to vote them out, once again regardless of other loyalties or party affiliations. I'm a member of TUP but if things don't start to improve soon, I will consider voting for other parties, until the TUP does show signs of improved performance and ending it's elitism/cronyism (real or perceived).

Once again, I apologise if any, or all, of this has been said before. Even if it has, it won't hurt for it to be said again. I really believe that we can achieve most of this but we need some real leadership, organisation and communication, in order for it to happen. I hope that these ideas will receive some support (maybe they already have, unbeknownst to me), or at least serious discussion & that they aren't just used as another excuse to 'flame the noob'. Remember, if we are to succeed, both the government and other citizens must learn to be more welcoming to newbies, especially those that show some interest (he said, hoping to cover his back 😉)