Military Blunders: Nationstates
By Kandarin
Kandarin - Jul 25 2006 - Proving I have no life, one step at a time, it’s my treatise on NS OOC military history, which I am finally reposting here. It’s rather long, but if you’re up to reading it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
In Nationstates, as in any real conflict, battles are won and lost by more than men and guns (or endorsements). The actions of an army’s commander under fire make or break a battle. Great victories, such as Ballotonia’s defeat of Great Bight, are rightfully credited to the leader of the winning side. The memory of the battle is filled with accounts of how the victor’s skill, intelligence, and tact won the day.
But what of errors, ignorance and unpursued opportunities that led to defeat, or at best, retreat? Too easily we dismiss the failure of the losing side as being due to stupidity or weakness. In truth, battles are won and lost by a variety of factors, not all of which are clear to observers. Battles considered a one-sided foregone conclusion are often decided well after they start, with one side crossing the line from victory to defeat while victory is still possible. Battle that seem well-matched, conversely, are often decided weeks in advance. These are a series of examinations of the causes of four military failures throughout the history of Nationstates.
This is a takeoff on Major Stephen Eden’s excellent book http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1567991750/qid=1115173161/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/104-5975789-3937518?v=glance&s=books. I apologize to anyone who has read it for butchering the style, but if you’ve read it you would also know that the book is a lot of fun and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Please note that “International” means “Interregional” here. Also, since three of the four chapters involve me in some way or another, but only one was really decided by my actions, I will refer to myself in the third person. This is not an autobiography, so I will try to reduce references to my own actions as much as possible. However, so nobody can accuse me of being an armchair general 
, the first chapter is largely about my own mistake.
Chapter 1: The East Pacific
On the morning of Sunday, June 8, 2003, the government of the East Pacific collapsed as a UN multi seized control of the region and expelled hundreds of members. To the armies of the neighboring Rejected Realms, who had long coveted this region, this was a godsend. They had long been preparing to invade the East Pacific; however the vigilance of its Delegate, 1 Infinite Loop, had prevented any such invasion. Shortly after the collapse of the East Pacific, Rejected Realms troopers began moving in, beginning the largest invasion of 2003, and the first such attempt made on a feeder region.
The invasion of the East Pacific was born out of a strong nationalism on the part of the Rejected Realms inhabitants of May 2003, and particularly their leader Gres. Gres had initially been an agent of the international conquering conglomerate Atlantic Central Command, who had gone rogue once established in the RR Delegate seat. Gres vision was that of converting the Rejected Realms from a haven of outcasts to a respected region.
Gres was a dedicated politician, who set about trying various means to achieve this vision. He lobbied the moderators for some form of ejection powers to bring law to the region, and, failing that, decided that the actions of the populace would do so. His plan also called for international respect, a difficult prospect as dislike for the Rejected Realms and its inhabitants were common at the time.
At this point, Gres faced several difficulties that defined the rest of his Nationstates career. Tainted by both ACC connections and his break from the ACC, Gres was not an internationally popular figure. In addition, the ACC was still a very powerful international force, and few neutrals existed that could be convinced to support a leader at odds with them. Gres solution, combining his goals of popular rule and international reputation, was to establish his own region as a military power and to achieve respect in the same way as the ACC had: through conquest. As such, he established the Rejected Realms Army to spearhead his new plan. Stationed in a satellite region, the RRA was fueled by recruiting advertisements posted in the RRs World Factbook Entry. It soon gained several dozen active members.
At this point, Gres made a number of critical errors. First, he based promotions on how many endorsements an RRA soldier could achieve in the RRA region. Endorsement-swapping skill is a sign of political savvy, not of military ability or (as the world later learned) moral strength. As a result, he nominated a corps of officers entirely unskilled in the ways of war. Secondly, while glorifying endorsement-swapping among his followers, he neglected to do it himself as Delegate of the Rejected Realms. In addition, he allowed a friend to log in on his computer, always a dangerous activity for a UN member, much less a UN Delegate.
Gres final error was that he announced the target of his attack publicly and without delay. For a target he chose another feeder region: The East Pacific.
The choice of a target was no mistake, for The East Pacific was also plagued with problems.
1 Infinite Loop was at the time a young Delegate, having received his post less than three weeks prior to the attack. Almost all of his time had been spent threatened by the RRA, and as such he was more uneasy than a new Pacific Delegate normally is when presented with their responsibilities. Loops reputation was also somewhat tarnished by the fact that he had initially left his predecessors World Factbook Entry, a variant on endorse the Delegate or be ejected, in place for some time before replacing it with his own entry.
Infinite Loop, like Gres, was not actively involved in endorsement-swapping and had inherited his position from the previous regime. To exacerbate this lack of communication, the East Pacific had no active forum; The current East Pacific forum had been established only a week earlier. With less than 50 endorsements, Infinite Loop made a prime target for any large-scale invader.
Unfortunately for both regions, more invaders than just the early RRA saw the EP as a target. A serial griefer of unknown name had recently been plaguing Nationstates, seizing regions with large numbers of puppets and leaving only a website link to a National Stalinists website in the World Factbook Entry as the last remaining part of the destroyed region.
This National Stalinist griefer assembled 80 UN multi nations and attacked the East Pacific during the night of June 8, seizing the Delegacy. He was in the process of ejecting hundreds of nations, most notably 1 Infinite Loop, when he and his puppets were discovered and expelled from the UN. They were later deleted.
The subsequent power vacuum emboldened the RRA, but the RRA itself remained stationary. Gres had been camping for most of the weekend and was absent at the time of the griefing. Kandarin, one of Gres lieutenants, examined the situation with disappointment. As Delegate of the RRAs puppet region, he commanded some authority but no official power over troop movements. Annoyed with the lack of movement orders in light of such a tempting military situation, Kandarin moved to the East Pacific himself, instructing all RRA soldiers to move there and endorse him. Several hours later Gres signed on and added his own voice to the move order.
The absence of their leader added delay to the RRAs panicked situation. 1 Infinite Loop had returned to the East Pacific as soon as he could, and since the RRA was threatening the EP at the time of the griefing, most players first thought them to be responsible for the National Stalinist attack. International players began moving in to endorse Infinite Loop. Loop began campaigning vigorously to get his lost endorsements back.
Gres earlier error in computer security proved fatal; several hours after he returned to Nationstates, a UN multi check made of suspects in the griefing revealed that he had shared his computer with another player, and he was ejected from the UN. Gres was not connected to the griefers, but his reputation took a further blow. MrNonchalant, an ACC commander who had infiltrated the Rejected Realms during the griefing, began endorsement-swapping and became Delegate of the Rejected Realms upon update.
Kandarins forces were eventually outnumbered by East Pacificans, and by update 1 Infinite Loop once again became Delegate of the East Pacific. Upon doing so, he ejected Kandarin and almost all of the RRA forces in the region.
What went wrong? First of all, in Kandarin, Gres had selected an officer who, while dedicated to the cause and skilled as a politician, was incompetent and over reactive in his role as a military officer. Kandarin lacked skill in dealing with his soldiers. He lacked understanding of interregional politics and the politics of feeder regions, and most importantly he ignored endorsement-swapping as a tactic.
Some historians credit the assistance of foreign regions for the East Pacificans return to power. However, a fact that is often overlooked is that both sides received heavy international assistance. The enigmatic Driftwood Beach Alliance supported the RRAs attack. The myth later perpetuated by Pilmour, the commander of the expeditiary force sent from the region of North America, by far the largest supporter of Loop, was that North Americas armies were integral in Loops victory. However, they were ordered in and out of the region several times during the campaign, and many North Americans contested Pilmours right to command them, deserting his hastily-assembled army.
The fact is that Kandarins complete lack of endorsement-swapping crippled the attack. With thousands of UN nations in the region and no one taking advantage of the opportunity to swap endorsements, even a small campaign could have yielded dozens of endorsements for the invader- and the ability to easily hold the region after a victory, a tactic deployed later by the New Pacific Order on several occasions with great success. Instead, Kandarin relied entirely on Gres soldiers to win the battle. Kandarin had forgotten that no plan survives contact with the enemy, and the number he brought were tried and found wanting. The fact that Loop won the day by only three endorsements further demonstrated the RRA commanders failure as a tactician to exploit a clear opportunity.
Gres had also neglected the home front element of his campaign. Although he was caught off guard by the battle, he failed both in the security of his nation and his region. For many (including Kandarin, for a short time), Gres removal from the UN by the moderators confirmed a rumor that he had been the National Stalinist griefer, which completely ruined his already damaged international stature. Even had he not been ejected from the UN, his lack of endorsement-swapping meant that the ACC would have overrun the Rejected Realms with or without Gres survival.
Finally, it is important to note that the public nature of Gres campaign against the East Pacific caused 1 Infinite Loop to be able to prepare himself for the coming attack. During the weeks leading up to the battle, Loop had been able to raise his endorsement count from 40 to 70. While this made no difference against the griefer, the raised awareness among the East Pacifics residents allowed Loop to more effectively raise his endorsements after being ejected. Considering his slim margin of victory, it is clear that this, too, was a cause of Loops success.
When the dust settled from the East Pacific campaign, the Atlantic Central Command was left in an enviable position. Having captured the RRAs home region in a bold night raid, they took much of the credit for defeating the RRAs invader threat. This improved their standing among those regions that had supported Infinite Loop. However, within six months of this victory, as a result of errors as serious as any Kandarin or Gres made, the ACC was barely a functional force, having been reduced to a very small size. We will discuss these mistakes in the next chapter.
Chapter 2: The Atlantic Central Command
The origins of the invader group known as the Atlantic Central Command, also known as the Atlantic Alliance, are prior to the memory of most players. They were founded by their brilliant Commander Nusseberg, and expanded to several dozen active members. With an excellent intelligence and diplomatic service, they were able to secure positive relations with many regions, and infiltrate others. Their goal of world domination was opposed by some, but such figures were always outspoken and divided.
However, by the end of May 2003 their empire was in recession. Several of their enemies had united in opposition to their movements. They had gained a powerful new enemy in the democratic New Meritocracy, which captured their home region of Atlantic. The new leader of the ACC, MrNonchalant, developed a complex plan to revitalize the ACC and restore its former glory. This plan, while initially effective, had several flaws which eventually doomed it, and the ACC, before the year was out.
In essence, MrNonchalants new strategy was a public-relations makeover. The ACC would appear to become an anti-invader alliance, ally with the Meritocracy, and unite with them against some third-party scapegoat. The RRA attack on the East Pacific provided the impetus for this move. As has been described in the preceding chapter, MrNonchalant himself moved to the Rejected Realms and took over the Delegacy there. His victory was rather easy, as Gres was removed from the UN shortly afterwards, and his successor was still struggling to understand endorsement-swapping. Having claimed victory over his new enemy, MrNonchalant activated the next stage of his plan, resigning from both his post as commander of the ACC and his post as Delegate of the Rejected Realms.
He turned, thus, to the Meritocracy. To turn them against the RRA he had Louldamin, an ACC officer who was at odds with the Meritocrats and whose behavior had originally antagonized them, quit the ACC and join the RRA. Although Louldamin shortly resigned from the RRA and announced that he had been a spy, the Meritocrats seemed not to notice that they were deceived. As the new ACC commander he appointed a puppet of Thomasia, a prominent citizen of the Meritocracy. The puppet, Accelsior, declared that the ACC was becoming a force against invaders, and that to that effect he would organize an anti-invader alliance, the Allied Liberation League, which quickly expanded to include The West Pacific and North America as well as the Meritocracy and ACC.
Up to this point MrNonchalant had conducted a brilliant campaign, as far as PR was concerned. With such a prominent ally as the Meritocracy, the ACCs international reputation was saved. They were able to recruit many prominent citizens of many regions, and their members with dual citizenship, particularly Ladyrebels of the South Pacific, enjoyed wider respect among their own countrymen.
At this point, several months into the life of the new ACC, something happened which nobody expected or understood: Accelsior vanished from the face of Nationstates. He did not answer telegrams, barely ever logged in, and failed to perform his administrative functions. The result was catastrophic for the ACC. RRA diplomats, already present on the forums of the ACCs allies, were able to convince many Meritocrats that the RRA was not in fact the alliance of destructive crashers that the ACC had sold it as. Indeed, over the previous several months the RRA had transformed into one of the earliest defender movements, and had all but completely dropped its invader origins. With Accelsior absent, other ACC members were too busy trying to keep their own force together to counter this diplomatic campaign as effectively as they could have otherwise.
Finally, after weeks of Accelsiors absence, the ACC officers corps held an election to appoint a new commander of their organization. After a few days deliberation, the nation of Pilmour was narrowly elected. Pilmour was a controversial choice and most former ACC members would now say he was a bad choice. A relatively new officer, Pilmour had no appreciation of the idea of faking status as a defender alliance and promoted invasions more or less openly.
The backlash from allies over this apparent change in policy was remarkable. Several ACC officers, including and especially Ladyrebels, resigned quickly. ACC discipline and competence among the ranks (many of whom had been instructed that they were a defender alliance) failed on a large scale. The alliance with the Meritocracy, already failing, was effectively cut off. After a few weeks of this dithering, MrNonchalant and the remaining ACC officers removed Pilmour in a military coup and cut his rank. The damage, however, had already been done. For six months after removing Pilmour, the ACC under MrNonchalant and later Commander New People survived in a diminishing form. By February 2004, lacking allies, with few members, and harried by the rising power of the defender movement, the ACC finally shut down.
It is easy to blame the ACCs failure on Accelsiors abandonment of the organization and Pilmours subsequent failed administration. Indeed, it is likely that these are the main reasons why the ACC collapsed. However, MrNonchalants initial plan had a number of flaws that heavily contributed to the ACCs subsequent nose-dive in international respect.
First of all, MrNonchalant abandoned his hold on the Rejected Realms. The RRAs remaining members were consistently failing to threaten his position. Although Accelsior advised the pullout, it was unnecessary for public-relations purposes. The Meritocracy had no admiration for the RRA and did not support it. By abandoning the Rejected Realms, the ACC gave their rivals an enviable defensive position that subsequent attacks consistently failed to take.
Having abandoned the goal of destroying the RRA, the ACC failed to effectively respond to the RRAs transformation from an invader to a defender organization. The ACCs agents continued to tell their allies that the RRA was pure evil even though their allies own spies told a different story. With a multitude of invader organizations all over the world that could serve as targets, the ACCs officers continued to target the RRA long after it had ceased to be practical. This eroded their disguise as a defender organization, which was in itself an error. Given the future success of the defender movement, an invader group with such a remarkable battle record as the ACC would have been wise to go defender.
Finally, the ACC failed to place its agents properly. They had successfully placed their members in high-ranking positions in many organizations. However, the very success of their placements doomed their efforts. When given a choice between being a little-respected subordinate for a larger organization and heading ones own, many spies or open members of the ACC made the wiser choice.
In September of 2003, as the ACC was fading from the world scene, the newly born defender movement faced a new opponent. The government of the Pacific collapsed, and the new Delegate seemed content to remain in power by wiping out his entire opposition, which amounted to most of the active members of the region. International opposition to the piratical regime was nearly universal. However, all efforts to remove the hostile Delegate failed, and his successors still rule the Pacific. The reasons for this repeated failure will be discussed in the next chapter.
Chapter 3: Francos Spain
Few Nationstates players are remembered as well, and few are remembered less fondly, as Francos Spain. He effectively invented a style of raiding that continues to stymie peaceful regions to this day. Despite the unfortunate death of the player behind Francos Spain, he is still remembered fondly by his followers and angrily by his foes, as a cunning and wise leader and a cunning and evil leader, respectively. In truth, what FS did required neither cunning nor wisdom, but only a little common sense and a disregard for others.
In September of 2003, Francos Spain endorsement-swapped his way to the Delegacy of The Pacific. It was a fairly simple matter, as the previous delegate had no rules for preventing another from taking his place. He made little effort to stop FS from taking power; he ejected the new swapper, but did not ban him. Predictably, he returned. The result of an unknown Delegate was also predictable- he ejected his opposition for the Delegacy and anyone else close to him in endorsements. The result was great anger among the citizens of the region. Those who had done lesser endorsement-swapping resumed it in earnest, and massive numbers of people spoke loudly against Francos Spain and unendorsed him. The Delegates response was to eject all of those who now threatened him or criticized him.
As the exiles gathered in the region of Pacific Army to stay organized, international opinion was abuzz. Virtually all major regions were critical of Francos Spain, and many planned to overthrow him. However, none were powerful enough to do it on their own, and numerous among them- in particular the South Pacific, the Meritocracy, and the RRA- convened to discuss plans for assaulting the Pacific. In the meantime, the inhabitants of the Pacific Army made numerous attacks and unendorsement campaigns against Francos Spain. All were unsuccessful.
After several weeks, the international forces had prepared a unified command. Francos Spain, although his despised position meant he had fewer than 100 endorsements, had established a forum and a government composed of handpicked real-life friends. Numerous attempts were thus made at spying on or infiltrating the Pacific. Shortly afterwards, international forces made a move under their commander, Daedalus. The result was a disappointment. Fewer than 50 nations showed up for the attack, and they were ejected shortly afterwards.
Six months of unsuccessful attacks later, the fervor for attack had worn out, and several prominent internationals, noting that many Pacific nations had declared support for Francos Spain on his forum, declared neutrality or support toward him. In truth, virtually all nations supporting FS on his forum were foreign spies. The Pacific Army had been badly damaged by their ongoing lack of success. At this point Francos Spain had enough real supporters to start raising havoc in other regions to distract attention from his own. Further attempts to remove him were haphazard and few, and he or his handpicked successors remained in office until his death.
It is folly to say in this matter that such and such a thing could have been done differently. For instance, the fact that Francos Spain needed only a single spy to detect the movements of his attackers by infiltrating one of their organizations. Had a strategy such as Ballotonias in the battle against Great Bight been known at the time, it surely would have been used, perhaps successfully. It cannot be said that there was a lack of commitment among the forces opposed to Francos Spain. Similarly, no mistakes were made in Corinthes later attack on Francos Spain, as moderator intervention decided the conflict. Nevertheless, several critical mistakes were made in the overall movement, if not by any one person, mistakes that once conducted, could not be overcome.
First of all, the actions of the Pacific Army. They represented, at least at first, a large, generally uncontrolled group of people. While their leaders were able to enforce a system of discipline upon most of them, the sheer size of the organization meant that the PA shed splinters fairly regularly. Their members also complained of Francos Spain to the mods in a massed effort, such that the moderators were swamped with reports and became sick of the entire thing, thus becoming unwilling to act despite the massively dodgy nature of FS actions. Again, it is unreasonable to assume that their leadership could have altered this; there were simply too many displaced players for them to be fully organized.
While the complexity of the situation was too great to be summed up without running out of memory on my computer, the initial international attempts, as well as the PAs major moves, were often made at times when they were not properly organized. Even though truly organizing a movement composed of so many allies is at best tricky, attacking and failing had a much worse effect than not attacking; It boosted the morale of the NPO while lowering that of the PA.
Initial moves were also hampered by the basic fact that sealed orders did not effectively exist; Instructions had to be distributed to everybody to function. This was later overcome with Puppet Master, but several allied organizations were sloppy with distribution of movement times. While Francos Spain was credited with having a massive spy organization listening in on everything, a legend that has endured fondly with his successors and bitterly with his enemies, all he actually would need in this situation is a single, low-placed spy. Whether that is what he actually did is unknown.
The result of the ease by which Francos Spains opponents moves could be known was that he was able to dispatch his foes with similar ease. When marching orders must be distributed in advance to hundreds of troops, the date and time of the attack became, despite the best efforts of anti-NPO leaders, common knowledge. For the NPO commander himself, it was a simple matter of logging on and ejecting opponents.
On the subject of spies deployed by those opposed to the NPO, there is much to be said, much of which is most effectively said by the near-total dominance of former anti-NPO spies in the successor organization, the Peoples Republic of the Pacific. Each region or organization opposed to the NPO sent in at least one spy with the purpose of infiltrating the NPO. However, for reasons of understandable paranoia, each group declined to inform any other group of the actions of their spies, beyond their existance. The result of this is that each spy was unaware of the others, despite the fact that these spies made up a majority of the NPO. Each one acted entirely independantly in their efforts to take over the NPO from the inside. Since this necessitated earning Francos Spains favor, one of the methods of which was outing spies, to some extent they actually thwarted each other. None of them were successful, but some were successful enough to earn high-ranking positions in the NPO. Unwilling to pull them out after this partial success, their patrons instructed these to remain where they were. They did so and, as can be expected from a deep-cover spy with little communication with home, many went native, some of which can still be found as the leading coalition of the PRP.
The battle for the Pacific represents as pure a form as possible of technical conflict on a large scale, where numbers, movement times, and even, to some limited extent, scripts, determined much of the outcome. It required careful, militaristic organization on the part of forces opposed to the NPO. In the present system, this is a great deal of NS war. However, it was not always this way. At the dawn of the invader movement, with no ejection capacity, morale and patience played a larger role than timing and scripting. This is mostly a thing of the past, but the addition of ejection also created one single battlefield where large-scale wars may be fought without it.
Chapter 4: RR-YoungWorld War
Wars are fought over many things. Some, like World War II and Korea were, at least from an American perspective, relatively clear-cut, with aggressive, murderous enemies, if not always the best of allies, and definite objectives for victory. Others, like World War I and Vietnam, were, again from an American perspective, enigmatic conflicts started over nebulous goals and continued beyond reason. Though all wars are grinding, the latter group deserves the description better, as the confusion of politics was added to the din of battle.
In Nationstates, where shooting wars are usually decided in a night, we rarely see a full conflict dragged out. The second requirement for a grinding war, political confusion, is far more common. Battles in the Rejected Realms, the only region without ejection, usually possess the former quality but rarely the latter. In the RR war of late 2004, we see both traits, and their result: a war decided by morale.
In September of 2004, forces from the region of The YoungWorld moved into the tiny region of Iran, for the the purpose of doing something. At the same time, forces from the Rejected Realms Army and several other ADN-affiliated groups also moved into Iran for the purpose of doing something else. Exactly what those two somethings were is not clear; It was not clear at the time and a year later, it is still not clear. Two widely varying and bitterly disputed accounts exist, both from players who now rarely log in.
What was actually clear was that the leader of both TYWs civil and armed forces, Carinthe, was very angry at the leader of the RRA expeditiary force, Crazygirl, by the next day. Shortly, Carinthe declared war on the RRA by moving to their home region of the Rejected Realms and endorsement-swapping, while bidding her colleagues to do likewise. Within a week, nearly a dozen other YoungWorlders were furiously swapping away in the RR with the purpose of unseating Crazygirls patron delegate Kandarin and presumably dissolving the RRA. Others arrived for the purpose of endorsing the swappers.
The defender community was quick to respond, albeit in the piecemeal manner that is the signature of a group composed of many free and independent regions. Several ADN- affiliated armies deployed in response, the largest of which came from the North and West Pacifics, giving the incumbent an edge over the attacking force.
As many Delegates remember, on September 27, a bug affected the Nationstates server. The result was complex and confusing to one not familiar to the games programming; Delegates who were logged on when the bug hit lost a large percentage of their endorsements. Delegates who were not logged in when the bug hit lost their Delegacies. The result was confusion, but overall no major regions suffered permanent overthrows. In the Rejected Realms the result was that one of Carinthes agents, the Republic of Orack, was declared Delegate for a single day, despite losing many endorsements to the bug. The YoungWorlders took the opportunity to declare both victory and the end of the RRA. This was ended rather quickly when on the very next day the Delegate seat was returned to its previous occupant with a margin of fully one hundred endorsements.
In the month of October, several things happened. The moderators declared the use of mass numbers of swappers from one region to be spam, and the Youngworlders were required to cease and decist their mass efforts, restricting them to a single swapper. Peace talks began on the Meritocracy forum, but these eventually went nowhere, as bickering and interference insulted both sides. Finally, and most importantly, the invader community at large entered into the fray, led by Gothicville of Aurora, who also entered the RR and began swapping, backed by several dozen invaders from an assortment of major groups. Although it was not official policy, many members of this newly arrived group endorsed, and was endorsed by, the Youngworld forces in the region. Thus they managed to present a united front against a common foe.
By November 21, however, this front had dissolved. Led by RRA Commander Greymarshes, a peace between the Youngworld and the RRA was negotiated. The Youngworlders withdrew from the region, save some few who remained to assist the defenders, leaving the invaders in a weakened position. By the end of the week, with his support badly weakened, Gothicville had also left.
The Rejected Realms is a special case. Many invaders have tried to attack it assuming that siezing the Delegacy will grant instant victory, when, as the few attempts that achieved this goal have proven, doing so is simply one step. Neither side has to quit the field until they give up or decide to leave. In this sense the aforementioned Many Invaders become as Napoleon invading Russia; used to winning victories in quick strokes, they falter when faced with opponents they cannot simply toss out of the way.
Examination of Carinthes posts and those of other YoungWorlders demonstrate that while this may or may not have been the case with Gothicvilles invader cabal, the invader mindset of quick victory or none had not set in for TYW. They were there for ideological reasons, at least on paper, and many were willing to remain until Christmas if necessary. While it is doubtful that any of the remaining players would say that the war should have continued longer than it did, it could have. The YoungWorlder force was able to pose far less of a threat than it could have.
First among the reasons is, paradoxically, the initial strategy of mass swapping. This was actually, speaking as the affected party, quite effective as a shock and awe strategy of concerted assault. It effectively eliminated the possibility of an unendorsement campaign against the group as a whole. It also eliminated the danger of the attack failing because any one member had neglected in swapping.
Despite these advantages, it had several flaws. In a campaign where genuine victory depended on winning native support, it was remarkably irritating to the natives. As an extension of this, it was completely illegal, and by broadcasting their moves the YoungWorlders established a documentation trail that moderators were easily able to follow. Most importantly of all, it neglected a basic principle of endorsement-swapping. Swapping is tedious work. While the defenders counted on a single one of their number to achieve this end, Carinthe tasked many of her people to take up this remarkably boring role. While, as she repeatedly said, gaining endorsements lifted their spirits, gaining endorsements but not the delegacy has a consistent history of sapping spirits.
Secondly, the September 27 bug. This can reasonably be considered an act of god event, although given the circumstances, act of mod may be a more appropriate word. Neither side can be blamed for the actual bug. The Republic of Oracks actions upon this temporary success, claiming the region for the YoungWorld, alienated support and caused him, as the leading YoungWorld swapper, to lose even more endorsements than the bug had taken.
It cannot be left unsaid that political actions also played a role in the lack of a successful takeover. Carinthes target, Crazygirl, was (and in some circles remains) a player with many enemies. In response to a military dispute with Crazygirl, Carinthe launched an attack on an allied civilian with few enemies. It is unclear to what extent this affected her capacity to fight the war, but this move offended many people, particularly in the Alliance Defense Network, and as such Carinthes choice of a battleground shifted the balance of forces against her.
The balance of forces is an issue unto itself. Carinthe possessed massive resources in the YoungWorld itself and assorted other regions, far more than any single defender region of the time could field. Similarly, the invader coalition mustered by Gothicville was a large force. At no point in the campaign, however, did the attacking force possess an edge in manpower, as they moved at a height of the defender movement. The movement itself was quite united in a desire to defend an old ally, while communications between the YoungWorlders and the invaders were few, as evidenced by the disappearance of the former from the campaign in a penstroke. The fact that they were willing to negotiate while the invaders did not demonstrates that two separate ideologies, never truly overlapping, were at work, while the defenders were essentially of one mind in seeking a resolution fo the matter.
All wars, real or virtual, are settled as much in political circles as in whatever passes for combat. In the Youngworld-RR war we can see an example of a war that emphasizes this aspect far more than most, and an image of what Nationstates conflict might have been had ejection never been added.
Epilogue: Why we do it
Webgames have a terrible, undeserved reputation. Weve all heard about this at some point, about how theyre supposedly the domain of teenagers with no lives; guys and girls, but mostly guys, who cant get dates and waste their lives with their sad little fantasy worlds. This may in fact be true for some. Ive certainly met webgamers for whom it is true. Some styles of games certainly attract this type more than others. The swords-and-sorcery MMORPGs that are the public face of webgaming do indeed have a high density of people whod be better off outside instead of staring at their screens.
However, with experience in the subject, a wide perspective, and an eye for history, it becomes clear what webgames are: They are humanity in miniature. As one player whose name escapes me put it, you get a perspective youd have to live hundreds of years to experience in real life. Conflicts that take years or decades to play out between real groups are resolved in months. Issues that whole tomes could be written on are reduced to simple statements. People who in real life would require an entire lifetime to develop are represented by players with a year, maybe two, of time in the game. And so we have a Cold War, a Retreat from Moscow, a World War I, a French Revolution, a Labor movement, and many other events, some of which may never happen in the real world, played out by a relative handful of people who are easier to understand than the millions who shaped the real events. All in a play where the bullets are fake, the enmities are fake, and if things are going badly, you can simply pull the plug and go somewhere else. This is preferable for most by far to seeking similar experiences in more real situations where the stakes are high and failure means exile, loss of job, or loss of life.