The Rise of a Mighty Viking Empire!

Day 871, 12:13 • Published in Sweden Austria • by Alex Lorre



So I had an idea (probably not a new one) about a union of the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland) and the more I thought about it the more pros I saw for it. With Finland and Norway under partial foreign occupation and most real Danish citizens wanting a merger with Sweden anyway it seems like it couldn't hurt right? There are 3 major problems I see Nordic countries facing currently that can be solved by such a union and after a little bit of research I'd like to outline how.


1.) Low Population

Nordic countries have had a tough time with population growth ever since the fall of the Norwegian empire back when I was first joining this game well over a year ago (on my old account mind you). However Nordic countries have a large proportion of strong and dedicated soldiers (at least it appears that way to me). So it would seem to make sense that by joining these small but Spartan states together it would make a large Spartan state correct? Not huge but large. Now the figures that follow are from the eRepublik map counted up per natural region so I realize they are not all that great but for the sake of my random suggestion I think they at least serve for a demonstration. Holding current population numbers constant, such a union would have 9801 people which is almost 10,000 (yes indeed I can count that high). This puts said union right below China and above Greece. So like I said not huge but still in the top 20 and almost the top 10. This would help put more power behind the Nordic players in eWorld politics and help centralize their fighting force which should help counterbalance the inability to activate MPPs should a jealous or hostile nation try to attack the natural regions of whichever countries are not the "representative" nation, that is, the nation who actually annexes the other countries as per the fact that unions can not be officially declared as of yet. Perhaps this will be addressed in V2, in which case they would be even stronger due to only having to pay for one MPP with an ally instead of all individually having to MPP with every ally.


2.) PTOs

This goes almost hand in hand with population but I felt I had too much to talk about so I decided to break it up into two separate fields and indeed both my arguments regarding population deals with two distinct problems it causes. So, as we can see with Norway's recent fall to PTO and the history of Denmark's being PTOd including their current debacle with the Serbian PTOs, Nordic countries, due of course to low populations yet unfairly high congressional numbers, are easy targets for PTOs. Given that each country already has 40 congress people separately with their natural regions, a union would be perfect for stopping this since this union would include 26 regions which is still, even with all their regions combined, exactly the same number of congressional seats as they had individually but now with all the added voters! Now of course you would have to move voters around to the less populated regions still but this isn't all that hard. After all it has become standard protocol in America, especially after the ungodly number we had this past election with so many foreign regions to account for. Also there are still 14 wild card seats that two-clickers can help safeguard in the main regions, with only 1 seat available in each less populated region.


3.) Resources

The Nordic countries also lack many high resources. In fact only Norway and Denmark have even one high region apiece, Oil for Norway and Grain for Denmark. Nor does every country at least even have every medium resource. However, with this union, the whole union would have access to both Norway's high oil and Denmark's high grain giving the option for state sponsored ticket and food companies, the former to help move voters during congressional elections to the aforementioned wasteland regions and the latter because, well... everyone needs food! Not only would they all gain access to these two high resources, with existing companies only needing to purchase one export license to the host country as opposed to one for all 3 of the other Nordic countries to achieve access to such a larger market, but the union would also give the union access to every medium resource save for diamonds, and while medium isn't as efficient, it can still make products if need be that can be protected by high import taxes. This (I would think) would lead to greater economic stability, and even prosperity, for the region and its citizens, leading to greater quality of life.


Now the only problem with this (at least in my narrow minded analysis) is the question of nationalism and self determination. I can understand the appeal of having you own country to rule as you see fit, but when your own country is constantly under threat of attack and PTO how long can you expect to hold it before you end up with nothing? And I know some people try to argue that getting conquered and having to fight for your freedom is fun and brings in new players, but it really really isn't all that fun if you aren't a big country guaranteed to win your independence back, especially if you lose thousands of gold in structures when you get conquered that you then have to repurchase and further hurt your country that you say you want to protect.

My answer is this: Wouldn't it be a million times more fun to be the proud citizens, soldiers, merchants, workers, congressmen/women, and journalists of an empire? A VIKING EMPIRE!?!?!?! One wor😛 EPIC!!!



Oh and P.S. : You should considering extending an offer to Minnesota to join as well 😉