Defeating a superior opponent
PatriotASR
The original article was published by Fight4 in slovenian, this is a translation for our friends and allies.
Vote and sub the original article: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/premagati-mo-nej-scaron-ega-nasprotnika-1967128/1/20
Right now the main topic is the disagreements between Slovenia and the ONE HQ, but I will not be writing about that. Some of you know that in recent months I have said that the ONE command is incompetent and dumb in the area where it should be the most successful, strategy.
Anyone that has done any strategical thinking in his life can see the incompetence of the ONE HQ based on their decisions so far. In addition to that you can notice poor awareness of the current situation and the inaptitude to face the current situation.
In the article I will not be writing about what is bad with the ONE HQ, quite the contrary I will answer the title and give the ONE HQ a lesion in strategy.
Fighting a superior opponent
Right now the situation is that the first time since it's creation ONE is facing a superior opponent. Why the opponent is superior is not important, but it is important to know how to efficiently and effectively fight him.
The answer to this question is nothing new, it is an old military tactic called guerrilla warfare.
Guerilla tactic is currently the only option for ONE, even thou some still dream of defeating the enemy in a one-on-one engagement (If you saw the film Patriot you can see the reasoning). Open warfare with a numerically and economically superior opponent, that has a better strategic position and organization is dumb, to use a kind word.
The advantages of EDEN:
Organization: I think it was Romper that wrote, »EDEN learned organization in the era of strong ONE domination«. While EDEN adapted to the situation and survived, ONE is keeping it's head in the sand. I have to add that the EDEN forces relied on certain tanks in key moments and without those the strategy would not be nearly as successful, but that is not the excuse for ONE not to act.
Numerical advantage: Due to the proEDEN stance of Turkey, EDEN has the advantage and even if Turkey doesn't join EDEN it will probably remain antiONE and that means that the numerical advantages will stay with EDEN.
Economy: Without a doubt EDEN has a more stabile economy and more countries with all or almost all the resources. I will not count all the countries as you can see them yourself in the World Map, I will only mention China and Brazil, where many EDEN units have their productions and are almost impervious to the loss of resource bonuses. In ONE the closest to having all the resources is Slovenia, which says a lot about ONE.
Strategic position (geographically): It doesn't take a genius to see the huge geographical advantage of EDEN/TERRA. I will only mention a few, since I doubt you would be willing to read a list of all of them. The most obvious are the four isolated countries with all the resources: China, USA, Brazil and Argentina.
These countries are either geographically hard to reach (Brazil) or in the case of the US, very large and are very difficult to attack with any effect. The position of EDEN countries in Europe is also very important, because they neighbor the strongest ONE country and are weakening it with constant attacks, or in other words, keeping the strongest ONE force under control. A direct conflict with Serbia is not in the interest of any EDEN country, so they are using attrition tactics and ONE HQ is going along with it.
Don't worry, things are not as bleak as they may seem and as I already said the solution is in guerrilla warfare. I will now try to show the weaknesses of EDEN/TERRA, areas where our enemies are the most vulnerable.
Attacks to temporarily or permanently weaken the economy of EDEN/TERRA.
Any good strategist knows that the base for war is a strong economy. An army can not fight without food or weapons and with the lack of supplies comes the loss of morale. In RL it is even more obvious, but even here we can see that an economic decline is linked to results in battles.
Bulgaria is one of the strongest countries, but it is also a country with the most weak points. They are, of course, their borrowed regions in Ukraine and Russia. Without those regions Bulgaria is left with only four, without a real possibility of expansion. The loss of those regions would likely be permanent, since the shared MPPs would prevent Bulgaria attacking Ukraine and Russia.
The loss of these regions would also deepen the political crisis between Turkey and Bulgaria and as a result the EDEN alliance. Bulgaria would probably see their opportunity for resources in the regions originally held by Iran and since Iran has MPPs signed with ONE countries that would be the most realistic scenario for Bulgarian expansion.
At this point I will also remind you that guerrilla warfare is not only combat in the field (as most people imagine), it also a combat in the political arena.
USA have their weak points, maybe not as big as Bulgaria, but they have them. They lie in France where the US holds two recourses, that would be difficult to replace, because they share MPPs with the original owner – France.
One resource is rubber, the other is deer in Navarra (Spanish region) and it can only be reached (at the moment anyway) through France. I have also marked fish, that US holds both in France and Spain, but with the loss of Aquitaine they would only have the access to those in Spain and would be further vulnerable. It is unlikely that the liberation of Spanish regions would be permanent, but it is a great opportunity for harassing the enemy.
The idea is very simple and is based in the idea of breaking the enemy's supply lines, the RL example would be the cutting of railways in WW2, the guerrilla fighters then did not have the means to hold and defend the railways, so they disrupted them as much as possible.
In this game we don't have supply lines, but we do need connections to get the resource bonuses and if they are broken it takes almost 48 hours to reconnect (in ideal conditions). That is not an insignificant effect and in addition to that is also causes the fluctuations in the job and raw markets, which also adds to the enemies problems.
After the liberation of their regions the Spanish could employ an unusual strategy and attack Brazil, with that they would force Brazil to conquer their regions and in turn deny them to the US. It is likely that Brazil would give those regions back to the US, but again that would take time and resources.
Another weak point is in the Mexican region of Baja, where the US holds the only region with this resource and would be a great location for starting RWs that would divert their forces and that with the RWs in Spain would force the US to constantly propose NE against these countries (in the event there RWs would be successful) and by doing that extend the time without certain resources.
Turkey has only one connection to their resources in Asia and a very small chance to shift their capital. With a successful RW of one region Turkey would be significantly weakened. The other weakness of Turkey is in the fact that they have regions in many different countries, and with an attack on their connection region, RWs (which under normal circumstances would have no chance of success) in other regions would have a decent chance to succeed.
Greece also has only one connection region and as in the case of Turkey is dependent on a single region for their production bonuses.
There are also other weak points in other countries, but I will not list them all now, because that would take too much time and from the examples given you can see the countries and regions where guerrilla warfare is needed.
For any of the ideas to work you need organization. Guerrilla units are small and well armed, that have the mobility which prevents the enemy to track it and prepare a successful defense.
Units must be independent, but coordinated for them to be efficient. This sort of warfare would, in a short amount of time, significantly weaken EDEN/TERRA, with a series of real and diversionary attacks ONE mobile units would strike fear in all EDEN countries that have weak points. Attacks should come at different times and locations with the real goal revealed at the last possible moment so to have the element of surprise. Defending against such attacks is difficult and demoralizes the enemy due to the unpredictable nature of these kinds of attacks and the battle weariness that comes with attempting to control regions all around the world 24/7.
Even if the enemy organizes some sort of watches, they would have to be divided in shifts and would be outnumbered by the ONE mobile units that would be coordinated and organized.
Imagine a citizen of Turkey that has a few employees and not knowing if the next morning he would wake up to a country with all the resources or almost non of them. Imagine the costs he would have with the reduced production every time this would happen and the damage to the countries economy that would cause.
Focusing on Spain
ONE should divert economic aid to Spain. They are the only country with a significant increase in population, but there is a chance that many of these will quit due to the current situation, to prevent that ONE should immediately set up a daily supply of food from other member countries and distribute it to the new Spanish citizens.
The results of this kind of action would be seen very soon, because in the early stages development of new player is very fast - if they are able to fight on a regular basis. With a campaign like this Spain's strength would increase significantly and Spain would be a real thorn in the side of Brazil and could defeat it in one RW after another.
With this in mind I suggest that Slovenia by it self organizes help for Spain in the form of food donations, as much as we can afford – I am sure our finance minister can do the math of how much we can afford.
What makes a good strategist?
A few tips for all those would like to be successful strategists. Without following these you will leave every situation and battle to chance.
1. There is no strong army, without a strong economy
2. Always have two backup plans if the primary fails
3. Do not underestimate your opponent
4. Wars start because of emotions, but are planned without them
5. Stagnation is defeat, you always have to advance
6. Predict every possible outcome, that is the only way you will be one step ahead of your opponent
7. Always use deception and keep the opponent in doubt
8. Everyone can win, but a good commander wins with the minimal amount of resources used
9. Never show weakness to the enemy, he will use it against you.
10. Learn from the mistakes of others, the one you make might be your last.
There are many other things a good strategist should know, but these points are key to any successful strategy and that is why I wrote them.
With what you just read, You decide for yourself if the offensive on Romania is a good strategy (in which the ONE HQ sees as a strike against EDEN) or not. Romania is not a key country to weaken EDEN, at least not at this point.
ONE without leadership and organization
Realism is what is missing in the ONE HQ, living in an imaginary world will not solve our problems. ONE is not on the top of the food chain and it has to start acting with this in mind. For Slovenia that is not a problem, but it seems to be for Poland, Hungary and Macedonia. These three countries do not understand their positions and are suffering defeat after defeat.
The first step in the evolution of ONE is a change of leadership with people who have the knowledge and time to plan and execute a successful strategy. The second step is to organize the professional armies in all ONE countries and the third work on mutual respect, without which no alliance can be successful.
ONE should take Slovenia as an example and not despise it. Slovenia is currently the most powerful country ONE, believe it or not. You are probably thinking what am I talking about? Slovenia has certain advantages that no other country in ONE has. Slovenia currently has unity, political, economic and external stability, one of the best organized armies (professional and regular units), good relations with most neighboring countries, organized training and integration of new citizens, generous subsidies for building and (in most cases) experienced people in the leadership of the country. Don’t get your ego up too much, a lot has yet to be done and many things need to improve, but we can be proud of what we achieved.
ONE will evolve or die, the choice is simple.
Comments
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o7
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Good moaning! xD
true.
In order to help Spain One should Rw 2 regions from Brazil. This way they would need to open 2 wars, and not focus on Spain.
The second target should be Turkey, Iran should be put back on the map.
agreed
Fight4 is the first citizen from ONE/proONE who shows good strategical skills. Without any irony, I'm proud of him.
Vote!
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very well written and inspirational.
you just need copy-paste EDEN strategical from 5-6 month ago...
Wait, this is copy-paste :😁 now just do it!
it so easy :😁
oh wait, you don't have croatian tanks (romper/argrob/baptir...)
well, i seem it not that easy 🙁
Good. I say it also but my words can't reach the leaders flaps.
Some of you know that in recent months I have said that the ONE command is incompetent and dumb in the area where it should be the most successful, strategy. x1000
Dok se ne uzme govnjiva motka i ne isteraju svi iz onog ONE HQ i dovesti nove ljude, ne mozemo nista zapoceti da radimo kako treba.
There is one Problem and that's
ONE Leaders Are Fag
tako je
@Fabius
Guerilla tactic was there long before EDEN used it, it's not like I invented something new, I just wrote it down
yes it's more difficult to organize 40 soldiers with 1 M damage,
for EDEN sending one soldier with 40 M damage is not really a problem
For me EDEN took a shortcut and with that avoided full strategic planning, that is more effective in the game, but for a real strategic commander that is not a real success
There are a few weak pints in there but it is a start. Guerrilla warfare means nothing if you cannot keep the advances long enough, the comparison with WWII is inappropriate or at least it fails to mention that there was guerrilla warfare from the start but it started having an effect only after Germany was unable to repair fast enough the damage at the end of the war.
The misguided and foolish tactics of Guerrilla warfare that EDEN undertook, delayed by weeks, maybe even a month or two the turning of fortunes. It took Bulgaria's initiative to demonstrate how guerrilla warfare backed with diplomacy can be effective and it was then applied very efficiently on most battlefields.
As far as Slovenia, what you have to understand (if you really want to be thinking in tactical terms), that Slovenia has a huge economic advantage over Serbia, Macedonia, Poland and Hungary by virtue of it's smaller population and army. This is thanks to the mechanics of the game which has put a cap of 100 K local currency as the income of each country, thus Slovenia has 3-4 times higher per capita income then the bigger countries. So do not overly pride yourself for something that is not due to your prowess. Middle countries are the ones that are best off economically in the game currently and as the accumulation continues that advantage will be growing.
This is the main failure of ONE as well in their blinded rush for damage they scorned and alienated a lot of smaller and medium countries and this is the reason it is absolutely impotent economically now.
Turkey is not a real factor, damage is important but more important is motivation, organization and economy. This is why we're seeing the same amount of battles being won daily by ONE now as 2 months ago, the difference is that back then ONE still had ground to loose and now it only has ground to gain so it seems as if there has been a big change. On a day to day basis no, ONE was loosing 80% of it's battles back then.
The difference being there were still accumulated regions from the long months of domination still left.
I always said ONE HQ is tactically inept or they would have killed the game long ago, still this is only a weak beginning you'll need to do much better to level the fields, let alone begin to turn the tide and trust me it will get worst, much worst first, as TEDEN countries are just now starting to accumulate it's advantage which will mean even harder and costlier initial campaign to turn the tide.
To be honest with so many weak countries in ONE, it does not have the tools to turn things, and under weak I mean something else. What used to be the strength of ONE, few big and strong countries is it's main weakness now. Because income is limited and thus size beyond a certain point becomes a liability and not a strength, if not for bots, big countries like Serbia and Poland would not matter how many bonuses they have as their income could be 100K even without bonuses without putting too large of a strain on their citizens and the monetary markets would adapt as lees stock would be sold to the bot, thus even the income of the players would no change much.
ONE at this point can't recruit middle sized countries in the short term and is inept at playing to their strength that is why it will continue to fight for the weaknesses in the alliance (Serbia, Spain, Poland, Macedonia) and leave the strengths permanently occupied.
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@eDarkAngel
This is only part, an example it's not meant as whole strategy, if I wrote that down it would be several pages long.
As for our economy, you clearly don't now enough about it, because of that you don't understand all of our measures. Because of them Slovenia is much stronger, the fact our budget is larger because of small population it not our real advantega. It's how you invest money, that is important.
All you said ; )
Serbia tried to do it, sacrificed all po 4-5 days. Half job was done.
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@fight4
Oh I understand, I've been there done that, all of it from 0 to #1 economically. The main difference is in the ability to organize, this is why you have a smaller, better supplied and more organized army.
When you loose your bonuses, then you'll understand what I'm talking about.
this is not the first article on these subjects and some steps were made, but with no big results for now except that Croatia was weakened
i know that people in one qh are not incompetent, but things are really improving very slowly...
spread the word, that's important
as Sparkabot said, we/i've been in Croatia 4,5 days without DO done..we need to push harder
Fight4 is the first citizen from ONE/proONE who shows good strategical skills. Without any irony, I'm proud of him. x2
Very good article. : )
o_O
Totally agreed!
o.O
SiNGeD
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There is another thing important in EDEN and it is fighting united 🙂 EDEN never had problems with multiple attacks. Guerrila is certainly possible and already brought victories to ONE last month in Croatia, point is it is always working best if u also put direct pressure.
Slovenia is far from beeing competent. NAP and renting agreement with Italy, NAP and renting agreement with Switzerland, NAP with Croatia, NAP with Romania. How did Slovenia obtain such possibility? By not beeing threat to it's enemies 🙂 If Hungary and ONE didn't do what they did last month when bulgarian and romanian attack were launched against Slovenia, Slovenia would have 0 regions for quite some time already 🙂 After EDEN failed to erase Slovenia twice, they realized that they don't even have to do it because it's not country against which they should spend their influence as it's not a threat for them and retreated, focused on more important countries.
I'm not saying at all u are wrong with part about tactics, u are wrong about stating that Slovenia is doing well with it. Ignoring opponents and making deals with them so that they don't feel threatened by you and can be free to fight your friends which they consider far more important after some of them sacrifised their own countries to put u in position from where it would be possible is something u didn't mention as part of good tactics anywhere 🙂
Tactics exist in ONE and always existed, domination would be impossible without it and it was good enough to force EDEN to retreat for long time. EDEN tactics were useless till they got Turkey to increase their direct firepower and give them possibility to keep what they conquired. We were aware of that, but still decided to follow that road as we are not selling our asses for influence or regions, and we are not selling Iran to them just because it's weak. Currently EDEN is selling it's ass for influence and that's all they are basing their domination on.
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The whole strategy in this game = Buy Gold + Bot + Have no RL ; )
@gid1
Let me explain once more!
You can't fight wars if you don't have strong economy. You can't fight wars on many fronts day after day.
Slovenia is smart, we choose our battles, we don't let our enemies choose for us. We avoid battles on more then one front, because we don't have the strenght, resources or man power to support war for a long period of time.
I am done with trying to explain to so many persons how to make proper strategy, I've played strategy since I can remember (about 5 years old), I played strategy games(board or computer), I leaded teams in RL, for me creation of strategic plan is joy, so please stop with remarks about what is and what isn't. Most of you have to little knowledge about Slovenia to comment on it.
gid1, the only thing about ONE strategy I need to mention is, that Brazil (and USA also, I think) in the time when Turkey was still by us already had colonies (Peru, South Africa, France?), Croatia was warming up it's ass in Mexico, China constantly occupying India etc. etc.
How's that possible if ONE had like 500 milions more damage?
Because countries like Poland, Serbia, Macedonia raised their walls to heaven in unimportant battles!
So don't preach there were tactics before in ONE! There was just brutal power!
But about Slovenia - if we gain more from bonuses than we pay for them, it's wise! So, if two fronts (against Switzerland and Italy in our case) are closed, less problems for ONE, which already has much problems with organisation...
But for repelling bulgarians - Slovenia spent half of treasury for tanks being given to ONE citiziens. So I dare to say that without that, we wouldn't gather enough allies help to win against Bulgaria and in a way we paid really a lot to stay as we are!
Best regards and change the leaders in ONE HQ!
@gid1
da je ONE-HQ sposobniji, Slovenija NIKAD nebi trebala imati te NAPove!
nije tu greska u Sloveniji i nije Slovenija za sve kriva! krivo je drustvo u HQ!
ako ne znate kako to srediti, dajte priliku drugima, SPOSOBNIJIMA. howg
zato sto je Slovenija koliko toliko osigurala svoje granice i resurse, sada NA PUNO pomaze ONE preko MPPja! prije se gubilo brdo DMGa u svakom RWu, a pogotovo sto su znali pripadnici ONE trcati za BH na SUPROTNOJ strani!!! sta je bolje? da izgubimo rese i natezemo se medjusobno za BHje?
Menjajte se pelenari tamo u HQ i ne solite pamet boljima od sebe...
Vezuv bravo! o7
Lahko kdo napise tukaj seznam ljudi iz ONE HQ? Kje se da vidt te bizgece?
Hvala
@gid1
moram se jos jednom javiti!
ti kazes, da Slovenija nije kompetentna? ti? SRAM, da te BILO!
zasto je Slovenija sve to uspela? zato, sto je UVEK igrala fair-play! prvo sa svojim saveznicima a i sa protivnicima. zasto je madjar dosao i pomogao Sloveniji? zato, jer je VRLO dobro znao, koliko smo bili puta brisani, da smo pomogli Madjarima i Srbima!
njegov je bio greh, sto je posle toga isao kukati hrvatima, da nema snage pa su ih zato i brisali!
zasto je uspela Slovenija sklopiti NEe sa suprotnicima? zato jer je uvek igrala fair-play i prema njima! pitaj hrvate. oni su nas jednom presli pa smo im to vratili. i zato nas svi postuju, sto se drzimo dogovora. sto znamo strategiju, sto znamo diplomaciju, sto imamo obraz.
imajte ga i vi pa se skinite sa HQ, posto vam ocito nisu jasne ni najprostije stvari, kako u igri, tako u medjusobnim odnosima...
U mater...
Deda so se raspizdli...
Čuvaj srce bre! xD