Join the new world

There’s no question about it: PEACE GC is in decline. Virtually every invader that tried to carve itself a piece of North America has been ejected from the continent. Also see: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/exclusive-story-looking-inside-peace-gc-headquarters-949191/1/20 for some prose on the matter.

Only the Hungarian presence remains and even that has been reduced in recent days. At the time of this writing, France technically still occupies the District of Columbia but with just over three hours to go, the wall stands at -1.64 million; I don’t think anyone will get on my case about declaring that one a win for the good guys.

With victory fast approaching for EDEN and Fortis in the Third World War, there are many newspapers that begin to look ahead. Unfortunately, the articles published often argue in favour of revenge and advocate an invasion of PEACE GC’s home territories to see how they like it. This imperialist alliance may be bloated, but it is no white whale and we should not assume the role of Captain Ahab.

But let me be clear: as satisfying as it would be to do so (and I don’t deny it), we must avoid this temptation at all costs. If the history of eRepublik has taught us anything, it is that aggressive wars ultimately will fail, no matter how successful the invader is initially.

Also, someone has to be the bigger man (or alliance in this case) and put an end to the blood feud and the need for retaliation to restore honour. What do I mean by that? In reading various interviews with high-ranking members of PEACE GC, they universally cite ATLANTIS’s prior imperialism as the reason for which they have invaded. Some of my readers may disagree with that interpretation (for the record, I don’t) but the point is nevertheless vali😛 that’s how they see it and that’s the only thing that matters to them. And maybe ATLANTIS’s aggressive behaviour was the reason for some other, even earlier offense committed by the other side; but I don’t know for sure since it would have been before my time.

The recent history of the game has been driven by the need to settle scores and it is easy to want to do so because even though there are wars, unlike real life, no one “dies” as a result of fighting in battles – there is no “human cost” as it were. This means that insults are remembered and grudges held for a long time. In real life wars, soldiers die and corpses cannot hold grudges but this does not happen in eRepublik.

So, people of Fortis and EDEN, learn something from all of this and work toward a peaceful solution. When you throw something in the trash the way we are disposing of PEACE GC, it’s finished right then and there. You don’t need to dynamite the receptacle afterwards to ensure that the trash becomes even trashier.

At this juncture, you might say: “but hold on, PEACE GC isn’t an inanimate object, it actually could come out of the trash and attack so you DO need to throw a stick of dynamite in there just to be sure”. You could, but it would be unnecessary because the balance of power lies in favour of Fortis and EDEN. Because we are the invaded, the war has brought us closer together, we truly work as a team and that is our major advantage over PEACE GC. More specifically, our war effort isn’t being subverted by a race to conquer and hold territories and beat our fellow alliance members to the punch. Because our home territories are the ones being invaded, we know exactly what belongs to whom and we can truly work as a team without fear that our alliance members will abandon us at a crucial time to look after their own interests (i.e. capture more territory). We’ve seen it several times in this war, Italy being PTOed and told to look after themselves, France and the UK left holding the bag in North American and Spain, Russia betraying her allies in its quest for more territory by refusing to abide by the peace treaty with the USA, etc.

The fact that Fortis and EDEN aren’t subject to this type of potential betrayal means we are able to better project our power in our defence. This isn’t simply a shallow concept meant to make ourselves feel better; it actually is a great tactical advantage over the enemy. If we invade, we allow PEACE GC to also have this advantage, we lose the moral high ground, and the cycle of revenge continues to no end. Don’t fall into this trap.

---

In lighter news, I’d like to extend an official welcome to members of the Red Patch Boys, one of the major supporter groups of Toronto FC, several of whom have decided to join Canada (or the USA for our American members) after myself and another RPB talked about the game on our forum. I may not get a boatload of “society builder” medals but at least, we have dozens of new players fighting on our side. Welcome!