Complete Guide to Military Gameplay

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:09 pm

Complete Guide to Military Gameplay
A complete guide to NationStates military combat, tactics, and regional security.

Update 4.0
Recently Updated
Guide returned to Nephmir.
Coming Soon!
Complete guide revamp 2017

Quoting Sections
When a new chapter is added, all of the chapters may be rearranged in order to place the added chapter within a logical order. This means that chapters are subject to move up or down posts as they are edited.

To link someone to a specific section or chapter, click the "quote" button at the far right next to the section's name and copy the URL. This way, you are linking to the section with the relevant information without the content being subject to change.

Note: this guide was written to update and expand upon the "Basics of Military Gameplay" guide by Naivetry.

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:09 pm

« Table of Contents »

I. Introduction
1. Military Gameplay and Game Mechanics »»
II. Fundamental Game Mechanics
1. What is a region? »»
2. What is Regional Influence? »»
3. What are Game Created Regions? »»
4. What are Warzones? »»
5. What is an "Update"? »»
6. What is the World Assembly? »»
7. What is raiding? »»
8. What is defending? »»
9. What can a delegate do to a region? »»
10. Is there an "opt-out" from this? »»
11. How do I become the delegate? »»
III. Natives and Regional Defense
1. What is a "Native"? »»
2. Regional Founders »»
3. Delegates and Vice Delegates »»
4. Endorsement Caps »»
5. Endoswapping/Endotarting »»
6. Offsite Forums »»
7. Raising Awarness »»
8. Switching Delegates »»
9. Native Refounds »»
10. Merges »»
11. Interregional Defense Alliances »»
12. Immigration/Border Security »»
IV. Liberating and Defending
1. Defending »»
2. Spotting »»
3. Sleeper Networks »»
4. Liberating vs. Detagging »»
5. World Assembly Liberations »»
6. Detagging and Preparations »»
7. Detagging: Before the Update »»
8. Detagging: During the Update »»
9. Detagging: After the Update »»
VI. Leading an Update Operation
1. Gathering your targets list »»
2. Set up your update team(s) »»
3. After the update »»

VII. Occupations (Part I)
1. What is an occupation? »»
2. Types of occupations »»
3. Seizing a region »»
4. Reinforcing »»
5. Repelling liberations and counter-raids »»
6. World Assembly Liberations »»
7. Repelling attrition runs »»
VIII. Occupations (Part II)
1. Gathering Support »»
2. Preparing the jump »»
3. Triggering »»
4. Taking the stealth approach »»
5. Attrition runs »»
IX. Regional Destruction
1. Why destroy regions? »»
2. What is Stealth Raiding? »»
3. Stealth Raiding: Preparations »»
4. Stealth Raiding: Infiltrating the region »»
5. Stealth Raiding: Gathering Influence »»
6. Stealth Raiding: Joining the World Assembly »»
7. Founderless region destruction (Stealth Raiding) »»
8. Founderless region destruction (Occupations) »»
9. Founder region destruction »»
10. Tactical Maneuvering »»
11. Refounding »»
12. Intercepting a refound »»
X. Tools/References
1. Declassified Update Tools »»
2. Building a military »»
3. Upcoming Gameplay Changes »»

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:10 pm

« Introduction »

Military Gameplay and The Complete Guide to Military Gameplay.

FAQ wrote:There are two types of war games that have been developed by the NationStates community. One is regional invasions, where nations attempt to move into another region and topple the Regional Delegate; the other is an in-depth role-playing game that takes place in the International Incidents forum.

This guide focuses on the war game that concerns NS mechanics, regional invasions. To learn about the Role Play warfare, see the stickies in the International Incidents forum.

Military Gameplay is the conflict between regions or organizations (a coalition of regions) who fight for control over the World Assembly Delegacy (and therefore gain control) of other regions. The fundamental actions of gameplay are Raiding (seizing control of the WA delegate position) and Defending (interfering with Raider groups and protecting regions from foreign attack).

In addition, there are also Interregional Organizations that are not based in a single region, but an alliance of several. Some organizations exist solely of individuals and do not officially represent any region. There are also some players who work alone, seizing regions naturally by getting elected delegate, providing an endorsement to various regions as a mercenary or freelancer, and even some players that coup regions (becoming delegate by inspiring others to join them in a revolution, and then holding the region as long as they wish and making it their own, whether to improve the region or establish a new order within it). There are many ways in which the game can be played!

These regions and organizations build governments, establish alliances, forge treaties, form militaries, and wage war on each other based on their regional or interregional interests and ideologies, using game mechanics such as World Assembly Delegate election, influence, and the Security Council to fight over other regions and gain superiority on whatever conflict or war they are engaged in. Usually, this conflict is political and players must work together to accomplish their larger goals. Regional governments are also established to create a long-lasting community and to protect their own regions from Invasion. Regional politics have expanded to include everyone in the game; whether you're in a Role Play-only region or a Game Created Region (GCR), you are part of regional politics from the moment you are founded:

[violet] wrote:RP regions are founded in the gameplay world. They create their own space, with a unique culture and rules, in a similar manner to tribes and religions and nations throughout history. But they're rooted in the real world and they never leave it. Whether you're a tribe or a religion or a nation or an NS region, if you create something valuable but don't protect it, the world outside will come to get it. History is littered with tragic examples of remarkable cultures brought low by brute military force. And while you can certainly say this proves there should be fewer military brutes, the fundamental lesson is that security is important. You ignore that at your peril. NationStates isn't a strict simulation, of course, but we do adhere to certain core principles of the real world, and while I don't think every region should have to spend all its time dealing with the fact that bad guys are out there, trying to get in, they should spend some time thinking about it. Because this is the nature of the real world.

Gameplay, in a general sense, is necessary for the survival of a region (for more details on regional defense, see "Natives and Regional Defense") and is just as important to military conflict as it is to securing a region from conflict. It is important for regions and regional founders to know how to defend their region and secure it from hostile outside threats, stemming from the knowledge of how the World Assembly and similar game mechanics work, to the tactics exercised by these organizations.

While regions can be fought over and even destroyed (by emptying it of nations and letting it cease to exist at one of the region's twice daily update times), nations themselves cannot be touched or destroyed; they are completely safe. The only thing that can happen to a nation from another nation is that it can be transported from its region to the Rejected Realms forcibly if ejected from the region by the region's founder, current delegate, or a regional officer; other than this individual nations cannot be raided or destroyed by other nations, regions, or organizations.

This guide was written to help new players see the basics of the advanced tactics these regions use to fight each other, whether to get involved in one of these regions or to establish and/or defend your own.

Good luck and I hope you find this guide helpful!

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:10 pm

« Fundamental Game Mechanics »

The fundamental game mechanics in which all operations use. Before learning advanced combat, you must learn the fundamentals of each.

What is a region?

A region is place where nations can reside and/or work together towards a common goal or purpose. You can see a complete list of regions here and can join any region by clicking the "Move NationName to RegionName" button on the region's page. If you can't find a region you like, you can also found your own here.

What is Regional Influence?

Regional Influence is a hidden numerical value attached to your nation that rises based on how long you've been present within a region and the number of endorsements you have. Regional Influence, only applies to the total amount of influence within a single region, and is independent from the amount of influence in any other region in the world.

Regional Influence levels (lowest to highest)
1. Zero
2. Unproven
3. Hatchling
4. Newcomer
5. Nipper
6. Minnow
7. Sprat
8. Shoeshiner
9. Page
10. Squire
11. Apprentice
12. Vassal
13. Truckler
14. Handshaker
15. Duckspeaker
16. Envoy
17. Diplomat
18. Ambassador
19. Auxiliary
20. Negotiator
21. Contender
22. Instigator
23. Dealmaker
24. Enforcer
25. Eminence Grise
26. Powerbroker
27. Power
28. Superpower
29. Dominator
30. Hegemony
31. Hermit

(Note: After a week of not logging into a nation, it will stop gathering influence, so be sure not to leave the nation unattended. Nations Cease To Exist (CTE) after 28 days, or 60 days in vacation mode.)

Unlike founders, who can change Regional Controls as they please (unless they set themselves as a non-executive when founding the region), WA Delegates must spend Influence in order to ban or eject other nations, or to password protect a region. Hidden passwords cost more Influence than passwords that are visible to the residents of a region, and it costs more Influence to eject and ban ("banject") a nation than it costs to just eject them. The more Influence a nation has, the more Influence it costs to eject and ban them. This is to prevent foreign invaders from securing the WA Delegacy and destroying the region instantly without giving the residents a chance to fight back.

The Regional Influence label shown on your nation page is only valid for your current region. The longer you have been in a given region, the more Influence you will have there. New nations that have not yet updated in the region have no Influence at all (and hence do not require influence to banject). Nations that are World Assembly members can gain influence faster; the more endorsements a World Assembly nation has, the quicker that nation will gain influence.

There is a set total amount of influence in the region that rises as nations obtain more influence, in which owning a specific, unknown percentage of the total value in a region dictates what category you have on your nation page (IE- "Minnow" or "Vassal"). Two nations in different regions marked as "Duckspeaker" may have the same category but a different amount of influence altogether, as regions do not affect each other influence wise. You can compare influence levels between nations here. It should be noted that the amount of influence shown on this page is the influence a nation has accumulated in all regions, and may be higher than the influence a nation has attained in its current region.

What are Game Created Regions?

Game Created Regions, or GCRs, are regions created by the game to serve a purpose. There are currently 15 GCRs, including 5 Feeders, 4 Sinkers, and 6 Warzones.

"Feeders" are regions where newly founded nations appear, consisting of the following regions:
The Pacific
The North Pacific
The South Pacific
The East Pacific
The West Pacific

"Sinkers" are regions where newly refounded nations (nations that are deleted after 28 days for inactivity and are eventually restored again if the person returns) appear, and the region where nations go when they are ejected from another region, listed respectively, below:
Osiris
Balder
Lazarus
the Rejected Realms

Unlike in User-Created Region (UCRs), influence in Game Created Regions (GCRs), excluding Warzones, can not only grow, but can also decay. If a nation has the same number of endorsements it had six months ago, its influence will remain the same; that is to say, it will gain as much influence as it will lose. If a nation has more endorsements now than it did six months ago, its influence will continue to rise. If a nation has fewer endorsements than it did six months ago, its influence will begin to decay to reflect it's current standing within the region. Spending influence at that time means one replenishes the spent influence in subsequent updates. Non-WA or low-endorsement nations will continue to gain influence, free from decay, until they reach the level of influence equal to that which would be gained by a nation with 10 endorsements for a six month period.

What are Warzones?

There are 6 Warzones:
Warzone Africa
Warzone Airspace
Warzone Asia
Warzone Australia
Warzone Europe
Warzone Sandbox

In Warzones, there is no founder, and bans are temporary and expire and cost no influence to carry out (as influence in Warzones is "frozen" as if the region was just created). Warzones also do not cease to exist when emptied.

What is an "Update"?

There are two game updates each day. At this time, nations update (national population increases, change in regional influence occurs, etc.) However, they don't all update at the same time. The following is a list of all that takes place during the update:

National population increases.*
A New Featured World Census Report is Issued.*
A new featured region is selected.*
World Assembly resolutions finish voting and new ones arrive (at the beginning of update).
Influence increases (or decreases, for a nation that has left the region).
Inactive nations and empty regions cease to exist.
WA endorsements are verified and new WA Delegates are elected, if necessary.

*Major Update only

Each update is known as the following:

12:00AM-1:00AM EDT - this is known as the Major Update, since it not only updates the nations and regions, but compiles a WA Census Report, chooses a new featured region, and updates the population of each nation.
12:00PM-1:00PM EDT - this is known as the Minor Update, since it is generally shorter than the Major Update and only does a basic update of the nations and regions.

Over the course of an hour (or longer, typically for the Major Update), each region updates, one by one, although less than a second after each other. During this time, nations are updated within the region (one by one, right after each other back to back in less than a second each) in order of how long they've been present within the region, with the long time residents updating first and newer arrivals last.

During these times, the endorsements are also recounted within the region. The nation in the region with the most World Assembly endorsements at this time becomes the region’s WA Delegate.

Each region updates at a specific time within this time frame, and can only update once per update. Likewise, each nation can only update once. Therefore, once a nation updates, it can no longer be used during the course of that update for Gameplay purposes. Once a region updates, it cannot be updated again until the next update. If you move to a region that has already updated before your nation updates, and leave it there until the end of the update, your nation will not be updated, and none of the effects of update will occur to your nation.

For more information on updates and the combat that takes place at them, see "Update Operations").

What is the World Assembly?

The World Assembly (WA), split into 2 sub-assemblies, The General Assembly (GA) and The Security Council (SC), is a large legislative body that anyone can participate in and become a member of. You can not join one or the other, but you can choose to ignore one or even both if you so desire. The legislation passed may still affect your nation, however, though generally these effects are limited and minimal.

Councils and Proposals
The General Assembly is based around In-Character (IC) nation-based Role Play, and may affect your nation stats very slightly. The Security Council can pass three types of proposals: Commendations, Condemnations, and Liberations. A Commendation and Condemnation is a badge that appears on a region or nation's page as a way of recognizing the deeds (typically out-of-character (OOC) actions) by said nation or region (to encourage or discourage their actions). A Liberation is a badge that is placed to remove a delegate-imposed password on a region and block the delegate from making another one. This does not affect a founder’s ability to password a region, though, and cannot be imposed upon nations. Security Council Liberations do not evict WA Delegates or occupying forces.

Choosing a nation
If you wish to use your World Assembly nation for defending or raiding, without needing to leave the region you reside in, it is highly recommended that you log out and create a separate nation to join the World Assembly. World Assembly nations are also used for combat, and need to travel often, so making a secondary nation your World Assembly nation is typically a good idea if this is what you are interested in. If you are not interested in this, however, regions may ask that you endorse a specific nation or nation(s) as elected World Assembly delegates.

Joining the World Assembly
To join the World Assembly, go to your settings and enter in an email address that you check regularly . Next, go to the World Assembly page and you'll see a button near the top of the page that says "Apply to Join". You'll then be sent a confirmation email.

This email should arrive instantly. If it does not, check your spam folder, it is usually found in there. Be sure to remove the email from the spam folder if you want your email provider to recognize that emails from NS aren't spam.

Click the link inside the email, followed by the confirmation button on NS, and you'll automatically be logged in and accepted into the World Assembly! You can now vote on resolutions, endorse other nations, and move your World Assembly nation as your military puppet! Note that it is against the rules to have more than one nation in the World Assembly at a time; the game may eject you from the World Assembly and even ban you from it if you try to have more than one nation with membership at the same time. You can have as many nations as you want and as many applications and confirmation emails for as many nations as you want, but only one can be in the WA at a time. You must resign from that nation to transfer membership to another nation if you wish to change it. In order to help prevent you from accidentally getting a second WA nation, you should use the same email address for every nation you make. The game has a built in safety mechanism that will prevent you from breaking the rules if you follow that procedure.

Endorsing a nation
To endorse a nation, you must both be in the World Assembly and in the same region. Simply scroll to the bottom of that nation's nation page, and click the button at the bottom that says "Endorse NationName". You have then successfully endorsed a nation! You can also see who has endorsed you at the bottom of your own nation page.

What is raiding?

Raiding is when a group of nations join the World Assembly (WA) and move to a region to elect a delegate (giving control of that region over to that player), to capture or destroy the region. NATIONS CANNOT BE RAIDED. Only regions can be raided.

What is defending?

Defending is when a group of nations join the World Assembly (WA) and move to a region to either boost a native nation and/or WA Delegate’s endorsement count or to impose a WA Delegate of their own (giving control of that region over to that player), to protect the region from a raid, restore the region from a previous raid, and/or to preserve said region's original native community and/or history.

What can a delegate do to a region?

Provided that the delegate is allowed access to the regional controls, the delegate can alter and/or utilize the following:

A WA Delegate can only grant Border Control (BC) access to Regional Officers to one RO every 26 hours while in the Delegacy. In addition, there is a 1 second ejection rate limit, meaning WA Delegates and ROs cannot eject more than one nation every 1 second, total region-wide. Provided they have sufficient influence however, Delegates are free to exercise power as they see fit:

FAQ wrote:My region's WA Delegate is an evil dictator who ejects nations for no reason! Make him stop!
Delegates are elected: if you don't like yours, it's up to you to get him/her unelected. While in power, Delegates can use or abuse their powers as they see fit.

How do I become the delegate?

To become delegate, you have to have the most World Assembly endorsements in the region at the next time the region updates. If there is a tie that does not involve a current delegate, the nation that has been there the longest gets elected.

« Table of Contents »

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:11 pm

« Natives and Regional Defense »

As seen in the previous chapter, security of a region and knowledge of game mechanics is vital to the region's survival, and must therefore be examined.

What is a "Native"?

A native is defined as 2 or more of the following:

(1) Any nation that has membership or citizenship status in a region where a legitimate, sovereign government is present
(2) A nation which takes up residence in a region without the intention of furthering the goals and aims of a foreign force
(3) Nations that possess more Regional Influence in a region than in any other region

These are the 'regular members' of a region, whether they participate in the military forces if existent or not. There is a solid difference between 'native' and 'civilian'.

Natives are the ones who are responsible for protecting the region they inhabit, usually by forming a government within the region for protection. There are many policies a government may enforce or implement to protect a region from foreign powers.

Regional Founders

Since Regional Founders have unlimited access to the Region Controls, the safety of the Regional Founder is crucial! If the Regional Founder leaves the region or is deleted for 28 days of inactivity or as punishment for breaking site rules, your region is highly vulnerable to a raid!

Having an active founder that abides by site rules is best for keeping a region alive without the need for a refound or extreme security measures. It is usually a good idea to found a region with a puppet that you can share with one or two people you trust if you are not that active, who can help maintain founder activity by logging into the puppet and running the region, but sharing nations is risky. This is a security measure that you use at your own risk!

Using a different puppet (typically named the same as the region with a pre-title of "protectorate", "commander", or "representative", etc.) also means that if the founder chooses to leave NationStates or remove him/herself as founder, he or she can give the nation to someone else while preserving the sovereignty of his or her actual nation.

Delegates and Vice Delegates

Although having an active founder present in the region at all times and a non-executive delegacy is 100% secure, some regions like to elect executive Delegates and Vice Delegates, who can help protect the region from foreign powers, whether that be if the founder Ceases To Exist (CTE) or while the founder is in power. If a native is firmly rooted as a delegate, then the region is harder to overthrow. The more endorsements a delegate has, the more secure the region is.

However, if a delegate were to CTE, especially for a founderless region or a region where the founder nation is inactive, a Vice Delegate would be of great importance to inherit the position in this instance. A Vice Delegate is a native who has the second most endorsements in a region, not too far behind the actual WA Delegate, so that if the delegate CTEs or steps down, he or she is next in line to get the delegacy at the update immediately following the CTE. Regions with Vice Delegates should also enforce an Endorsement Cap (see below).

Endorsement Caps

Endorsement Caps, or "EndoCaps", is a limit on the number of endorsements a WA member of the region may hold. The EndoCap is usually set anywhere from 2 (the amount needed to submit WA proposals) to anywhere around 50% of that of the WA Delegate's endorsements. Obviously, the Delegate and Vice Delegate (if applicable) are exempt from the EndoCap. Some regions make a small endorsement cap for those not endorsing the delegate and a larger one for those that do, to provide extra incentive to endorse the delegate.

Those that exceed this limit (which is set by each region themselves), are given a warning to remove the endorsements by resigning and rejoining the WA, or are banned from the region either permanently or until the next regional update, depending on previous offenses and how strict regional governments are at enforcing the policy, when their endorsements are removed.

If a nation is going around and endorsing nations above the limit purposefully, that nation is the one that gets ejected as the security threat, not the innocent nation(s) that was endorsed. It is usually up to the delegate to enforce this policy if executive controls are permitted by the founder.

The number of endorsements on the delegate divided by the total number of WA nations in the region (recorded as a percentage) is known as "endorsement productivity". The higher a region's endorsement productivity, the more efficient a region is in defending the region and increasing the delegate's powers.

Endoswapping/Endotarting

Instead of an Endo Cap, in which power is focused on the current delegate, some regions prefer to freely allow members to "Endoswap" (giving an endorsement to another nation in the hope of receiving an endorsement in return) or "Endotart" (giving an endorsement to another nation along with a telegram asking for an endorsement in return) to high levels of endorsements, usually with the limit being just short of whatever the vice delegate's endorsements are.

This slightly increases the chance of a coup, however if the region is couped, the delegate cannot ban or eject a lot of WA members with high endorsements (ejecting one or two would deplete the influence supply of the delegate). This makes destroying or holding the region difficult and the delegate can be easily overthrown, however it also makes native refounds more difficult and greatly restricts the native delegate's powers, especially in password protecting the region.

The total amount of endorsements swapped over the total amount of endorsement swaps possible (recorded as a percentage) is known as "endorsement saturation". Higher levels of endorsement saturation restrict delegate powers, but spread out the influence rapidly, while lower levels of endorsement saturation increase delegate powers and decrease the influence spread.

Offsite Forums

The most common complaint from natives during an invasion is that months or years of information will be erased on the Regional Message Board along with the destruction of the region. Therefore, the best way to store information is in a place you control yet are certain cannot be destroyed: on an offsite forum.

There are several free forum providers, such as ZetaBoards, InvisionFree, and FreeForums. These sites allow you to create a free forum that you can customize for your region and place a link to in the World Factbook Entry for your region members to register on (Note: NationStates moderators cannot regulate offsite forums! It is up to you to do that yourself!). Regions use these forums for Role Playing, organizing the government and/or military forces, and maintaining forum embassies or consulates with allied regions, as well as storing important information. With all of this information stored on the offsite forum, if your region is raided you can easily found another region and have the region move there, or refound the region before it is raided (see "Native Refounds" below).

Raising Awareness

While living in ignorance of your surroundings may be peaceful, it won't last long. Educating the population of your region and raising awareness of the existence of foreign threats and the importance of regional security is the first step to establishing a proper defense of the region. Do not neglect this!

It is important that your region is aware of both the causes and consequences of raids, and why maintaining security is necessary at all times. Even Role Play regions need to secure themselves from invasion!

Switching Delegates

Switching delegates, especially in large and/or founderless regions, is a risky process if not done correctly. Below is the steps that should be taken to elect a new delegate into power safely while decreasing the chances of a raid significantly:

Indicate that the new delegate should be endorsed in the World Factbook Entry and through regional telegram.
Have a few other government members and other active region members unendorse the current delegate.
When a high number of endorsements have been reached by the new delegate, the previous delegate may resign from the World Assembly and rejoin and endorse the new delegate.
This delegate will become the new delegate at the next regional update.

Note: when you resign from the World Assembly, or move to a different region and update there, you lose all of your endorsements! This action cannot be undone!

Native Refounds

If your regional founder Ceases To Exist, you may wish to refound your region (the process of emptying a region of inhabitants, destroying it, and founding it anew).

When a region has 0 nations in it, it Ceases To Exist, just like a nation does for inactivity, and the name of the region becomes available again to be founded.

(1) Make sure most or all of your government or region agrees to the refound- this makes the process easier and faster. You may also wish to begin saving any important data on the Regional Message Board onto an offsite forum or shareable document.
(2) Choose the most trustworthy, active, and willing member with the most Regional Influence to be elected delegate if there is currently no delegate in place.
(3) Choose who will re-found your region. You may choose to have the founder nation under the control of several trusted members.
(4) Password-protect the region! If you don't have the influence to do this, you may have to wait until you can, and get trusted allies and any wiling Defender organizations to send WA nations to support you. Make sure that the password is not visible to nations within your region, and that only the bare minimum of members know it (preferably only the person who passwords the region, and the person who will be doing the re-founding). Note that after password protecting no more reinforcements can get in!
(5) Found a temporary region, preferably with a similar name, with the founding nation being controlled by either the one who will refound the new region or the current delegate of the password protected one.
(6) Inform all members of your region of the details of your plan for re-founding (excluding the password and the date of planned refounding). They have to know what is going on to be able to co-operate. Also, some people might need quite a long period of notice before they move. Do this by telegramming them, posting announcements on your RMB, putting it in the WFE, and if you have an off-site forum, put an announcement there and email all members an update.
(7) Ask all non-WA nations to move to the temporary region (an exception is whatever nation you will be using to re-found your region - keep that in the home region until the end). Contact them via telegram, and also post on the RMB/in the WFE. Any that do not move after several warnings should be ejected.
(9) Once step 7 is completed, ask about half of the WA nations to move, in the exact same way as step 7.
(8) You will inevitably have to eject nations that don't move - many of them will be inactive.
(9) Ask all the remaining WA nations to move, except for the delegate and 1-2 other trusted and active WA nations. Inform them as above, and eject all those that don't move.
(10) Get the remaining WA nations to move to the temporary region. The only nation left should be the nation that will be used to re-found the region! The previous delegate should also leave once all of the nations have been ejected.
(11) Do not necessarily re-found at the first possible update! If your region is well known, it may be being watched. It is usually best to wait a few days before re-founding. Make sure that you know what time your region updates (by answering issues with the remaining nation to see the exact time the legislation is passed. Note that update times fluctuate slightly from day to day), and then move out just before it updates on the desired date and update of the refound, and then found your region on the "Create a Region" page as fast as possible over and over until it says "Success! You have successfully founded the region "RegionName".
(12) Inform all nations that moved that they can return to the region.

Merges

Merges are another good way to make regions stronger, more active, and safer. Typically, the smaller region merges into the larger one, and gives up it's sovereignty but comes to an agreement prior to the merge about keeping some aspects of the region (such as the government or military), based inside the other region.

Several regions may also agree to found a new region where they agree upon the name and founder nation and merge their regions into the new region. Merging can take weeks, and inactive members are usually lost in the process, but if done carefully and not hastily, may prove to be rewarding.

Interregional Defense Alliances

Some regions that don't want to participate in Military Gameplay sometimes establish protective alliances and create a defense pact or alliance, where each region in the alliance helps protect each other if their founder CTEs or if raided. These regions typically have a volunteer military force that members can sign up for to provide aid to the regions when necessary. These alliances should not be heavily relied upon, but are a good way to provide additional mutual protection and security. Sometimes, new Defender organizations can emerge from a simple protective pact, where the regions in the pact agree to help out other regions not in the pact as Defenders, restoring the region's previous settings and removing the invading forces.

Immigration/Border Security

Some regions may choose to have a governing or volunteer position to background check new arrivals. These background checks consist of three parts; a search of the arrival's existing forum posts (if applicable), a Regional Message Board (RMB) search (by scrolling to the bottom of the region's RMB, clicking "forum view", and then clicking "search" in the top right hand corner, followed by clicking "[+]Advanced" and removing the region name and filling in the new arrival's name), and lastly a search of previously visited region using NS History, a third-party program that can provide background checks on national history. New nations that fail background checks can then be reported to higher regional officials and/or questioned. However keep in mind that if you chase away arrivals that may not pose as a threat, they may try returning with a new nation later on, that can pass the background check! It is oftentimes best to keep these arrivals in sight, where you can keep them under control.

« Table of Contents »

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:12 pm

« Liberating and Defending »

It is important for those that wish to defend a region to know how to do so properly and effectively.

Defending

The goal in defending a region is to completely remove foreign control of the designated region(s), and to restore them to the previous settings under the control of the natives if any remain. This requires that those with Defender aims seize a region under the control of a foreign force, restore it, and remove all traces of the foreign force wherever possible.

Native regions can also be protected by supplying endorsements to the native delegate, thereby making the region harder to raid, or through the use of Sleepers (see "Sleeper Networks" in this chapter).

Spotting

Spotting is the act of watching for suspicious activity utilizing the Activity Page to gain the advantage of noticing raids or invasions before they begin, so that troops may be mobilized to prevent or stop a raid in its early stages.

This page can also be filtered to watch for specific happenings (tracking nation movement, endorsements, and WA membership) during the update, so that the forces may activity intercept raids or aid allies in doing so.

It is always helpful to have all of your switcher puppets prepared in a late updating region ahead of time, all applied to join the World Assembly, do that they may be used at a moment's notice. See "Detagging and Preparations" in this chapter for more details.

Sleeper Networks

Placing sleeper nations (nations that cannot be traced back to any other nation or region/organization, placed in a region to gather influence to gain a significant starting advantage on operations within said region) in various regions is key! Sleepers are the foundation of which all operations are built upon!

These sleepers can "soak up" a significant amount of a region's influence, which in turn protects the natives from hostile and enemy sleepers placed afterwards. Furthermore, if a raid does take place, this nation can join the World Assembly, along with any other friendly sleepers in the region, and resist by endorsing the previous native delegate that was overrun or the native with the most endorsements. If this native proves to be inactive, and becomes delegate, then that will allow the chance to send in additional support to endorse a friendly sleeper, making him or her the new delegate, followed by banjection of all foreign forces and restoring the region under the original, native delegate before the raid took place.

Liberating Vs. Detagging

There are two primary forms of defending: liberating, and detagging. These forms are often confused by new players.

Liberating is the act of seizing a region occupied by foreign forces or an oppressive regime and occupying the region, removing the force or regime previously occupying the region, and restoring it back under native control.

Detagging is the act of seizing a region not occupied by foreign forces, typically without a delegate or founder in power, and returning the region to its previous settings before the foreign force seized and left the region.

This chapter covers how to detag. For information on how to liberate regions, see "Occupations (Part II)".

World Assembly Liberations

A World Assembly Liberation is different than a "liberation" (lowercase "L"). A WA Liberation can be drafted in the Security Council, which if passed, will place a "Liberation" medal on the region, preventing Delegates from imposing a password on a region and removing any existing Delegate-imposed password, allowing entry into a region for a military liberation to take place.

WA Liberations do not restrict the powers of a Founder (who can override it and password protect), or a delegate of a Game Created Region (as GCRs cannot be password protected in the first place). This also does not affect a Founder or Delegate's ability to ban and eject nations.

A helpful chart to decide when a WA Liberation would be appropriate that can also be found here.

For more information on drafting Liberations, see the Security Council forum.

Detagging and Preparations

In order to effectively detag regions, preparations must be made ahead of time.

Firstly, a Jump Point should be established. A Jump Point is a region that updates late in the Update, where combat puppets are prepared and stored and where operations are launched from. This is also known as a "Forward Operations Base". A Jump Point may be obtained in one of three ways:
(A) The regional commander or founder creating a group of regions before an update, answering issues with each founder puppet, then gathering the update times for each. If one updates within the last 5 minutes of the Update, and is the latest updating region of the group created, it can be used as a Jump Point. Continue making groups until you get the desired Jump Point, and let the other regions CTE (the puppets can be reused as combat puppets if you so desire).
(B) Making an alliance or agreement with another region to use theirs as a joint-base.
(C) Finding a late updating region with executive delegate status or no founder, and destroying it to use as a base (obviously, this tactic is only utilized by those with Imperialists or Raider aims, and will not be covered in this chapter).

(For information on finding update times for regions, see the next section).

After your region or organization has an official Jump Point, all military members may each move (as a suggested minimum) 20 nations to the Jump Point to use for detagging. It is important that each if these nations have the same email address, and it is recommended that a new one be created just for NationStates if you have not yet created a new one at this point. As they are placed, each nation should apply to join the World Assembly. This will generate a list of WA acceptance emails, however these emails should not be opened yet.

Note that having more than one nation in the World Assembly at the time ("Multiing") is against the rules, and if you ever have more than one member at the same time during this process, you're doing something wrong. As long as each nation has the same email address, however, joining with more than one nation is impossible, as it is prevented by the system automatically.

Flying the same flag on all of your nations is recommended for easy identification by other members of your forces mid-update; furthermore, some regions may require that all combat nations fly the region's flag.

Detagging: Before the Update

Before the update begins, the Supporters (regular military members) must simply make sure that their nations are prepared in the Jump Point, each applied to join the World Assembly, and that they are not already a WA member on any other nation at that time. These members should then show up a few minutes before update to receive orders from the commander(s).

The commander(s), however, must prepare a few hours ahead of time. For details on preparing and leading an update operation, see "Leading an Update Raid" after finishing this chapter.

Detagging: During the Update

First things first: if you don't know what an update is already, or skipped the first chapter, click the spoiler below.

Updates are when most combat takes place, where regions gather in a designated region with puppets that are members of the World Assembly (one at a time per person), who endorse the leader of the operation and 'jump' altogether into the target region a few seconds before it updates, as they attempt to seize it.

Over the course of 60-65 minutes, each region updates, one by one, although less than a second after each other. Sometimes regions overlap and update at the same time as each other. Regardless, during this time, nations are updated within the region in order of how long they've been there.

During these times, the endorsements are also recounted within the region. This means that if you endorse a World Assembly nation with as many people as possible, and all jump into the same region in need of detagging, that nation will be elected as the new delegate, and gain access to the regional controls.

As stated before, each region updates at a specific time within this 1 hour time frame, and can only update once per update. Likewise, each nation can only update once. Therefore, once a nation updates, it can no longer be used during the course of that update. Once a region updates, it cannot be updated again until the next update. If you move to a region that has already updated before your nation updates, and leave it there until the end of the update, your nation will not be updated (which means that you can use still use it during that update).

This is why several puppet nations are needed during the update. They are placed in a Jump Point, and operations are launched from it. See this example from an actual update (using main nation names as an example), as an example of seizing the delegacy of a region without a delegate or founder, on a region from the "Regional Happenings"/"Activity" page:

Seconds ago: Unified Protectors resigned from the World Assembly.
Seconds ago: Nephmir resigned from the World Assembly.
Seconds ago: Nephmir became the new WA Delegate of Brandoniat Region
Seconds ago: Following new legislation in Nephmir, the new 'Things We Stole From Other Countries' exhibition at the National Museum of Antiquities is a hit.
1 minute ago: Unified Protectors relocated from Nations of The World to Brandoniat Region
1 minute ago: Nephmir relocated from Nations of The World to Brandoniat Region
2 minute ago: Unified Protectors endorsed Nephmir
3 minutes ago: Nephmir was admitted to the World Assembly.
3 minutes ago: Unified Protectors was admitted to the World Assembly.

After this has happened, both nations have updated. This means that they cannot be used again for the rest of the update, so everyone, including the newly elected delegate, resigns from the World Assembly, and closes the window. They then open up their next email or click on the next link for their next puppet, click on the acceptance link, and join the WA automatically with their next puppet. They all then endorse the same nation (the leader's puppet), and then when the one calling the update times posts the next target and says "go", all nations move to that target region as fast as possible, and then elect the leader as delegate automatically when the region updates, then resign, and continue the process for the next region. The process is continued until the end of the update, when the leader can go back to each region seized and restore them, as detailed in the next section.

The diagram below shows an explanation in a basic tool used to make a quick chat, Chatzy. This is meant to be a reference only, and it is highly recommended that you do not rely on this tool if it can be avoided (Skype chats or a secure IRC are the most efficient means to communicate during the update).

Each time a target is seized, all players resign from the World Assembly, including the newly elected delegate, and switch to their next puppet and repeat the process for the next target. This is why the puppets are called "switcher puppets", or more commonly known just as "switchers".

Each time you switch, you should never have to type a single username or password. If you are doing any of the following at any time during the course of the update, you are doing something wrong:

All you need to do to switch nations quickly is click on an unopened email for that nation, and click the link inside. You will then open a window and be logged in automatically, no typing required, and can then move on to endorse the Point as indicated in the chat. When you are finished and have to switch, switch nations by resigning from the World Assembly and closing the window, then clicking on the next link in the next email. Go ahead, try switching between a few! How fast can you do it?

It is important to remember to resign before closing the window and joining with another nation! Even with the same email address, this will slow you down and force you to log into the other nation manually to resign!

This is oftentimes confusing to new players, and is best learned by experiencing an update for yourself by participating in an existing organization's detags or experimenting in leading your own (unofficially) with a few friends or region mates. So join in whenever you can! Experience is good!

ProTip: once you get used to switching and detagging, try removing the links from the emails before the update, and pasting them in a Word Document, Notepad, or your own private chat room. You can then switch almost instantly, no loading emails during the update required!

Detagging: After the Update

After the update, the leader can go back to each region seized and detag them.

Step 1: Restore the World Factbook Entry
You can use any of the following resources to recover native World Factbook Entries (WFEs). If a WFE cannot be found or never existed, it should be cleared completely, followed by clicking "Update World Factbook Entry".

Google: Search "site:nationstates.net/region=[RegionName_Here]" and you'll find all the subdomains available for that URL.
Wayback Machine: Archives historic domains and subdomains.
The WFE Thing: This resource was created by Johz of the United Defenders League, and will almost always give you a region's original WFE's Coding.

Step 2: Restore or Abolish the Region's Flag
Most regions never had a flag to begin with, so not finding one is not uncommon.

Flag Database - This resource was created by Eluvatar of the UDL, and will almost always have a region's original flag.

Step 3: Remove or cancel foreign embassy constructions, and cancel closing native embassies
Do not construct an embassy with your home region, or any other region!

Step 4: Unsuppress all visible Native posts and suppress all foreign posts.
Do not post on the Regional Message Board!

Step 5: Leave the region for the Jump Point and reset your nation for the next update.
Repeat steps 1-5 for all regions until all the seized regions have been successfully detagged and puppets reset.

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:13 pm

Coming Soon: Invading and Tag Raiding

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:14 pm

« Leading an Update Operation »

Leading an update operation requires careful preparations, which may be time consuming at first, but worth it once it is time to celebrate your victories, or learn from your mistakes.

Gather your targets list
If you want to lead a raid or an operation to detag regions, it is strongly recommended that you first participate in some and practice.

To begin, you'll need to gather a list of regions to hit at the update.

When choosing a target for raiding, look at the region's size, activity, whether it's an ally or enemy, and the number of endorsements the Delegate has. Targets should meet these basic qualifications:

complete list

When you are choosing a target for detagging, you must seek regions that have been tagged by Raiders; attacking any other region would be classified as Raiding. Note that moving in and endorsing a native if active and in the World Assembly is also a perfectly legitimate tactic and adds an extra endorsement since there is no Pointman.

Once you have found a target that meets the above qualifications, you can add it to your list. It is recommended that you form a target list days before the update. If your region uses forums, or Google spreadsheets, you can post the list in a private area for commanders only, allowing multiple people to work on the list.

Before the next update, and as soon as possible, you should acquire the update times for your chosen targets. Several tools to find when a target updates are included in the last chapter of this guide. You can figure out when a target updates by having a nation in the target region and answering an issue with it and recording the exact time it updates (however, this is more time consuming and not suitable for update operations where multiple targets will be hit).

After the game passes your issue, record the exact time it updated, or if you've missed the exact time, open the following link in Internet Explorer. Replace "Nephmir" with the name of the nation you're looking up: cgi-bin/rss.cgi?nation=Nephmir

You can also use NationStates++, a browser extension, to find out when a region updates. However, this is not the most reliable source available.

Below are the steps to preparing a successful tag or detag operation:

1. Gather your targets
First, decide how many targets you want to hit. Choose a reasonable number, and don't over extend yourself. Now, take that number and add at least 10. That's how many regions you need to gather for your list. For this explanation, we'll say that you chose to hit 20 targets, and so now you must gather 30. Now you must create a list of 30 regions that are good targets for you to tag or detag (if detagging, looking at the established embassies of other regions that tag raid may help).

2. Attach update times
Now that you have obtained your target list, you must now attach the proper timing to each. This can be done with many tools, but for this example we'll use NS++.

Using your desired tool, find the update times for each target region, and record them next to each region on the list, like so:

Region A [12:47:12] [±4]
Region B [12:01:47] [±7]
Region C [12:13:11] [±128]
Region D - No time displayed
...etc.

Once you have all 30, move to the next step.

3. Remove irregular updating regions
Remove any region on the list that does not have an update time or has an "irregular update time", such as [11:57:32], since update is from [12:00:00] to [1:00:00] (or [1:05:00] for the Major Update), Eastern Standard Time (game time). These regions should be removed and deleted from your list entirely. If any of these regions are important targets you must hit, then you can insert a puppet into this region later on and answer issues with it to get a more accurate update time.

4. Remove regions with close update times
If two regions update within 1 minute (or less) of each other, then you will not have enough time to call and jump to the next target before it updates. You should cut these out of the list and paste it somewhere else, to use later in another upcoming step.

Region A [12:00:42] [±4]
Region B [12:01:57] [±128]
Region C [12:02:12] [±7]
Region D [12:04:00] [±72]
...

In the above segment of an example list, Region B and Region C update too close to each other. Now you must remove one. The best region to remove would be Region B, since (a) it has a large % error of [±128], and (b) this does not affect the time between Region A and C or C and D drastically. This process should be repeated for the entire list as necessary.

By now, you should have 15-25 targets left in the list, and the list should finally be completed.

5. Set yourself up
Telegram a copy of the list to yourself to be open in that window during the update as a reference or on an Excel or Google Spreadsheet. Open a new window in NS and continue through that new window. You'll also need to arrange an IRC chat or Skype network for the operation, and prepare your own puppets and WA invitation emails, as explained under "Update Operations".

Set up your update teams
Now that you have your list, you must set up your update team(s).

If you want to hit double the targets, or triple them, simply make more than one list, and a team for each one. However, keep in mind that quality is often better than quantity, and that splitting up into more than 2 groups may make the operation unorganized or weaken your forces, especially for inexperienced organizations or commanders.

For each team, select your Points (the one receiving endorsements from the supporters) and the Supporters (the ones who will endorse the point). Each one should then be assigned a separate IRC Chat or group on Skype. You should be in all chats at the same time if possible.

Next, assign a Timekeeper to each group. This person can also be the Point if needed. The Timekeeper will need their list or the link to their list telegrammed to them as well as the IRC they will be assigned to use or who will be in their group on Skype. This person will be in charge of that team.

You will be in charge of the operation. You will be the eyes, watching each team, tracking their movement and enemy interference. If things get bad for one team, you will be responsible for providing reinforcements from another team by commanding that team from the assigned IRC to either help out with one target or merge into that team. This allows flexibility and easy trampling of opponents, be it Raider or Defender or both.

If you make one large team instead of splitting up, then you can lead it as Point and Timekeeper.

Note that the Timekeeper does not use any puppets to tag or detag, unless he or she is also the Point. Never reveal any target information to anyone except the Timekeepers before the update, and arrange teams through telegram, not on the RMB or a publicly accessible area.

After the update
When the update finishes, the one(s) on Point will go back and tag or detag the regions.

The update is now over, and the celebration may commence!

« Table of Contents »

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:15 pm

« Occupations (Part I) »

Sometimes, it is necessary to hold onto a region, and occupy it with your forces. This is called an “occupation”.

What is an Occupation?

An Occupation is when a region is seized and held on to by exercising superior military force. The goal of an occupation can be one or more of the following:

This may sound like a powerful move that a region should always carry out; however, whenever a region occupies another region, it is draining the home region’s strength, since endorsements are utilized elsewhere.

There are two types of forces that occupy regions, domestic forces and foreign forces.
Domestic Force- Natives and the native government.
Foreign Force- An outside force.

Only founderless regions can be occupied in this manner, since the founder can easily return and eject the foreign forces. To see how to occupy and destroy regions with founders, see "Regional Destruction".

Types of Occupations

There are four main types of Occupations, the first three of which are covered in this chapter:

Invasion
Defense
Protection
Stealth

An Invasion is when a foreign force seizes another region's WA Delegacy, and reinforces the region, holding it for long durations of time, with the intent to inflict damage to the region or it's original government and/or native population.

A Defense is when a foreign force seizes another region's WA Delegacy, and reinforces the region, holding it for long durations of time, with the intent to protect, preserve, and/or restore the region or it's original government and/or native population.

Protection is when a foreign force moves into a region and endorses the native WA Delegate in order to protect the region from invasions that may be impending. [Note: It is usually considered polite to ask another region if they want additional protection before mobilizing.]

If a native asks for their region to be restored, protected, or defended, this native should meet two or more of the following requirements, in order to analyze the authority of the native without mobilizing into a trap by a well-placed sleeper:
(1) The native identifies themselves with the region
(2) The native has been present within the region for a lengthy amount of time
(3) The other Natives, if active and existent, share the same view

This ensures that you do not move in and endorse a Raider sleeper agent: that would be a fatal mistake resulting in damage or the destruction of the region.

A Stealth Occupation is when a foreign force infiltrates a region disguised as a domestic force, and holds the region for a lengthy amount of time, often with the aims of protecting or destroying said region secretly. For more details on these types of Occupations, see "Regional Destruction".

Seizing a Region

A region can be seized to be occupied in one of two ways:
(1) Seizing the region during the update
(2) Stealth Raiding

As you may or may not recall from earlier chapters, it was explained that "Sleepers are the foundation in which all operations are based on". Attempting to seize a region and occupy it without electing a Sleeper with a surplus of regional influence as delegate not only increases the length of the time required on the Occupation, but increases the chances of premature defeat automatically, since enemies cannot be repelled.

Reinforcing

After a region to be occupied has been successfully seized, the newly elected delegate should be reinforced by sending in friendly endorsements to secure the region from attack.

The members of the home region (Region A) should move their World Assembly puppets into the region occupied (Region B), and endorse the delegate nation. If the region is not reinforced quickly and carefully, your Occupation is at risk, and will likely be over before you have the chance to make any further decisions.

To safely secure Region B, the minimum number of endorsements needed on the delegate is 30 endorsements. This will ensure that the region can be properly defended and the goals can be carried through. The more endorsements the delegate has, and the longer the sleeper was within the region, the quicker you will accomplish your desired goals. Obviously, occupations can still be done with less than 30 endorsements, however the lower the endorsement count the more risk there is of being overpowered by enemy forces, and the longer it will take to gather enough influence to complete the desired goal or operation.

It is recommended that you seek allied aid, if necessary, before launching your initial Occupation, if your ally can be trusted not to reveal the target information. In the case of a raid, never reveal the sleeper name to anyone. This way, you can specify the date at which reinforcements are needed, and allies can aid as soon as possible, without giving away the target region (if possible) and the Sleeper name.

Repelling Liberations and Counter-Raids

The fewer endorsements you have, the greater the risk of a liberation or raid upon the occupied region. A liberation is when a foreign force frees a region from another foreign force's control, and a counter-raid is when a foreign force Invades a region occupied by another foreign force.

It is, therefore, highly important that the delegate entrusted with the power to defend the region is highly active, specifically around the region's update times. The power to defend the region rests solely in that individual's power, and is not a job to be taken lightly.

When a liberation or counter-raid takes place, the delegate in charge of the occupied region must prepare to ban new arrivals as the update time approaches. When they all jump in the region, begin banjecting the foreign forces as quick as possible, until they have all been ejected. Targeting the numerous Points is generally a good idea, but not at the expense of slowing down to check who is who. Banjecting is first priority.

It is sometimes a good idea to share the WA delegate puppet with a well trusted and trained member of the region's forces (if the current individual cannot attend both updates every day), and one who has not received warnings or moderator punishment, for the sake of around-the-clock defense of the region (if the original delegate can't attend an update). Note that whoever you share the nation with can't have a WA nation until that nation has been resigned from the World Assembly. The puppet is then "dirty", and should be allowed to CTE permanently after the operation has ended, after resigning from the World Assembly. Don't use any valuable nations as sleepers, or you won't be able to share them if that need arises in the future!

World Assembly Liberations

In the case of an invasion or counter-raid, if the region you are occupying cannot be liberated by military force, someone may attempt to pass a Liberation (not to be confused with a liberation, lowercase L). This WA Liberation will prevent you from password protecting the region and will remove any existing password if applicable. Be prepared for this, and prepare to bend your plan around the new development.

Repelling Attrition Runs

Attrition runs are designed to make the delegate waste influence ejecting and banning nations that update within the occupied region with WA endorsements (by endorsing each other and jumping in a few seconds before the region updates, thereby gaining some influence in the region, forcing the delegate to spend some of his or hers ejecting them. More on this in "Occupation Part II"). To repel these attacks, simply banject all nations before they have a chance to update. Not all organizations utilize this tactic or recognize it as an actual tactic.

« Table of Contents »

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:16 pm

« Occupations (Part II) »

In Part I, explanation on how to create your own occupation was provided. In this part, the information provided will cover how to fight other regions' occupations.

Not only is it important to know how to occupy a region successfully, but it is also important to know how to attack enemy occupations by liberating or counter-raiding.

Gathering Support

It takes a lot of support to end enemy occupations, and all that support must be gained days or even weeks in advance.

If you try to target an occupation with 20 endorsements on its delegate with 21 endorsements, the likelihood of victory is almost zero. This is because if the delegate bans even 1 member, the battle is lost. Even if the delegate is not on, and you call the jump, the likelihood that all 21 will jump all at the same time is also almost zero. Therefore, certain points must be taken into account.

To seize an occupation successfully, it requires three factors:

At least 25% extra endorsements above the target region's endorsements
A well timed jump
Organization and discipline

If the target region has 40 endorsements, and the delegate has a significant amount of influence, you would need 40 endorsements plus an additional 25%, giving a total of a minimum of 50 endorsements needed to attack. It must also be taken into account that not everyone who says they will show up will show up, so you will need to gather even more support then you think you'd need, (in this case, 60-70 signed up to participate). This is, simply, impractical, unless you can reduce the influence of the delegate first (see "Attrition Runs" later this chapter).

As seen in Part I, the minimum number of endorsements to secure an occupation from most organizations is 30, if the delegate has a significant amount of influence. Once 30 is achieved, successful attacks on the region get harder and harder, until it becomes impossible.

Preparing the jump

Once you have enough support, and have arranged a date and time/offsite IRC or Skype meeting place, and the time for the raid comes, you must prepare for the jump.

Depending on how many people you have preparing to jump into the region as it updates, you should decide how long before the jump you must meet and prepare. If it's 20 people or less, 10-15 minutes should be sufficient without giving your enemy too much indication or forewarning of an attack. On the contrary, if it's 30+ members, you may want to start meeting 20-25 minutes before, adding 5 minutes per 10 people afterwards.

In Update Operations, there is a Pointman, a Timekeeper, and Supporters. During an attack of such a large scale as this, however, 1 Pointman is needed per 10 members.

Let's say 30 are jumping. That's 3 Pointmen needed. Point A, Point B, and Point C. Point A will also be Timekeeper, in this instance. The point should not be revealed until the target update time and jump is approaching.

All of the Supporters endorse all three Points. Point C endorses the other two points as well. Point B endorses Point A. This will make each point have 1 more endorsement than the other. This way, when the jump is called by Point A, and the delegate begins ejecting and banning nations that arrive, all three points or more than 25% of the Supporters must be ejected to successfully defend the region.

Before jumping, however, and relaying the orders to endorse the Points, it's important to cross-endorse. This means that everyone should take a few minutes to endorse allied nations randomly as they also endorse the required nations. This ensures that (a) enemies cannot single out individual Pointmen during the jump, and (b) that more influence is rewarded to these nations when they update with extra endorsements. Nations that participated can always unendorse after the operation. One of the Pointmen may also wish to answer an issue before the jump, to know whether or not the region has updated in the event that the enemy delegate is not active to eject the new arrivals.

The goal when jumping is to jump in with only 5-8 seconds to spare before the region updates. This ensures that your enemy has no chance to eject enough nations, and that all your members have enough time to jump in quickly.

Calling jumps 5-8 seconds before a region updates is difficult, and a technique called "Triggering" must be used by the Timekeeper to ensure that he or she calls the update time correctly.

Triggering

Triggering is optional, although it can be a crucial step that means the difference between success or failure.

First, you must go to the daily dumps (Region Dumps), and find nations from the target region. Each nation takes ≈.031 seconds to update (with variance- the later the region updates, the more variance affects it), so to provide a 15 second trigger, you must count 484 nations back. Put the trigger nation in the region 484 nations back, and remember how long you planned the trigger. Next, answer an issue with the recently placed nation. Once you see the legislation pass during the update, you have the amount of seconds you previously planned until your target region updates (so the jump can be called 5-7 seconds later for a 15 second jump, giving 8-10 seconds as previously mentioned in the last section). If you answer an issue with your point nation well before the jump, you'll know when or if you've updated when you jump in. Stay until ejected or the update is over, just in case you counted wrong and jumped a minute early or confused the times.

Taking the stealth approach

Sometimes, it is best to take your enemy by complete surprise.

When the enemy begins reinforcing, it is generally a good idea to have a high ranking officer of the region (only one, assuming that you wish to take the stealth approach) to have an officer or designated rank infiltrate the region disguised as an enemy Supporter, and endorse the enemy delegate if a sleeper does not already exist in the region. When you wish to launch a stealth attack on the region, that will be your point. You will only get one chance, rarely two, to get a stealth attack right before your infiltrator is ejected along with the rest of your forces.

Several hours before the liberation or counter-raid, each participant should place a nation (disguised so that it looks like a normal nation, unaffiliated with any organization) in a random region that updates after the target region updates, as a World Assembly member. Then, the Timekeeper (known as the "Trigger" or "Triggerman" in liberations or raids on occupations) calls the jump 8-10 seconds before, followed by all of the randomly placed members jumping into the target region and endorsing the previously placed point (which should be announced beforehand). The point (if enough jump in) should then quickly remove his or her endorsement from the enemy delegate if needed.

Note that this does not work on communications with spies, so it is not used often.

Attrition Runs

As mentioned in Part I, attrition runs are designed to purposefully "fail" and take away regional influence from the delegate.

The goal in an attrition run is to make as many WA nations as possible (with as many endorsements as possible) update within the region, giving them influence upon updating and forcing the delegate to eject them and waste his or hers. This should be done in waves (1 wave per update repeatedly until the delegate runs out of influence or is forced to resign or switch to another delegate nation).

Attrition runs should be launched just like a liberation or counter-raid, but with one distinction: there is no Pointman. All nations should endorse each other randomly, or endorse everyone if they can. Then, the Trigger says "go" and all nations attempt to update within the target region. The more WA endorsements a nation has while updating there, the more influence will be required to banject them afterwards. Note that nations that are banjected before updating in the region don't cost influence to eject.

After the delegate can no longer eject anyone, simply order everyone you can to move in and reinforce a designated Point or sleeper, until finally you can overpower the delegate and seize the region at the update right after you reach a breaking point. It is generally a good idea to use a nation that has been in the region for a long time as the Point, if possible, so that you can banject the previous delegate and supporters and be immune to enemy attrition runs once captured successfully.

Note that not all organizations use or recognize this tactic.

« Table of Contents »

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:17 pm

« Regional Destruction »

To refound regions, you must first destroy them. There are multiple methods to destroying regions, each which may be used depending on the scenario and best course of action.

Why destroy regions?

Regions destroy other regions to seize control of them permanently, to either protect them, give away the founder nations to the original natives, or keep the region as a trophy or symbol of their power. It depends on the type of region and what their best interests are when destroying regions. Regions can be destroyed in many ways, usually stemming from one of the following tactics, depending on the size, age, and importance of the region:

Stealth Raiding
Occupations
"Tactical Maneuvering"

What is Stealth Raiding?

Stealth Raiding is a tactic exercised by those with the intent to forcibly seize a region disguised as natives or to seize a region without anyone noticing. This type of raiding is used to secretly occupy a region, and usually destroy it and refound it, or to set a foundation for a large-scale region-wide occupation later on. This type of combat can take place between updates, although delegates are still only elected at the region's update time.

To see how to fight Stealth Raids, see Liberating and Defending.

Stealth Raiding: Preparations

Stealth operations require the usage of nations that cannot be traced to any other nation or region, known as a "clean puppet".

To create a clean puppet, you must first create a brand new, disguised nation. Failing to disguise it properly will result in defeat. Take your time, and make the puppet look real. If you have trouble thinking of names, try using a simple random word generator or name generator to make one. Pretend it is your very first nation, and always answer issues with it, as a nation not answering issues looks suspicious.

Your puppet nation should not be traceable to your main nation, any of your other nations, or your region or organization's forces.

Stealth Raiding: Infiltrating the region

Allow your puppet to receive some recruitment telegrams, then move your puppet to one of the regions that sent you a telegram. Once moved, leave it for a while. Later, move your nation into another region, and repeat as necessary. Then, move into the target region once you can no longer be traced.

If the region being infiltrated is inactive and/or close to dead, avoid posting on the Regional Message Board to draw attention towards yourself. Also, avoid straight-up asking to become the delegate regardless of regional activity.

If the region being infiltrated is active, try to get involved where you can in the government; when you are a trusted member of the region, you may be able to initiate a coup (see "Tactical Maneuvering" below and "Coups and Rebellions" for more details).

Stealth Raiding: Gathering Influence

If you leave your nation in the target region for awhile (answering issues every now and then to avoid suspicion), you'll gain a surplus of regional influence, which allows you to use the border controls when the time comes to seize the region, which includes the banning and ejection of nations and password protecting the region.

You can find your influence value (converted to the Soft Power Disbursement Rating (SPDR)) here. Your influence category available on your nation's page let's you know how high your SPDR is in relation to the region's total as a percentage. The higher the category, the more powerful you are in comparison to other nations in the region. Gaining more endorsements increases your SPDR gain rate, where the more endorsements on your nation the faster you gain influence. This is why the delegate has an advantage in influence gain.

For more details, see "Regional Influence".

Stealth Raiding: Joining the World Assembly

This is the crucial step. Joining the WA suddenly can set off enemy alarms. You should join 2-3 days before the actual siege, if possible, or at the very least 2-3 hours before the actual raid takes place.

Before joining, you must make sure that you have no other nations in the WA. Having more than one World Assembly nation at a time is not only poor performance, but illegal. This is known as "multiing". Offending nations will likely be banned from the World Assembly, and after enough offenses may not be permitted to join the World Assembly with any nation again. If you are concerned about this being an issue, make sure that (a) all of your nations have the same email address so that the system prevents you from joining with more than one nation, and (b) you avoid sharing nations when at all possible so that the system doesn't detect one of the two players multiing.

Once you apply to join the World Assembly, wait a little while before accepting the email. Nations that accept emails instantly or after only a few minutes are watched and viewed with suspicion.

After this, at least one other player must either (a) move into the region a few hours or days after you have joined the World Assembly and endorse you a few hours after moving in (before the next update), or (b) jump into the region and endorse you at the next update (See "Update Operations" for more details)

Founderless region destruction (Stealth Raiding)

Stealth Raiding is a good way to quickly destroy a small founderless region (1-20 members). The leader must plant a sleeper into the region ahead of time, and after enough influence has been gathered, launch a normal stealth raid.

After the delegacy has been seized, you can use two different tactics depending on the amount of influence needed to banject everyone: (1) your forces should slowly withdraw over the next few hours, until all that remains is the delegate and the natives and/or enemies, or (2) continue the raid like nothing is wrong and then eject or banject everyone all at once before the update in which the region is planned to be destroyed, including your own troops.

Right before the next regional update, someone with access to the delegate nation should eject (not ban, unless they are active, since that wastes influence) every nation in the region and then leave the region, allowing the region to Cease To Exist (CTE) a few seconds later when it updates. If possible, a password can be imposed to prevent interception by other forces. The region is now destroyed, and no longer exists. See "Regional Destruction-Refounding" below for more details on refounding.

Note that it costs 1/3^rd of a nation's influence to eject them, and 1/2 of a nation's influence to ban or banject. Make sure you have enough influence to eject everyone!

Founderless region destruction (Occupations)

Occupying a region is perhaps the safest, yet longest and hardest, method of destroying a region. This is the method used to destroy a large and/or old region, typically of great importance.

First, the region must be seized and occupied successfully (for more details on how to do this, see "Occupations (Part I)"). When enough influence and reinforcements are gained to begin the process of destruction, the delegate nation and those with access to it should begin ejecting one nation at a time, between each update, that is a member of the region, starting with the ones with the highest influence if possible. It is important to let the delegate's influence recharge at each update before ejecting another. This is why reinforcements are important- the more you have, the more influence you'll gain at each update. As it gets easy to eject members, you'll be able to eject more between each update. After every member has been ejected, let the influence recharge for a few updates, and then password protect the region. After this, the region is secure and the order is given for the forces to withdraw. Any extra influence can be used for any remaining stragglers if needed. After the withdrawal, there should only be one nation left in the region; the commander puppet nation that was originally the delegate. The password is temporary, and should never be revealed to anyone except the higher commander(s) of your region if requested.

The region may also be secured in the reverse order, however this may present some downsides that may increase the chances of failure. A password can be imposed upon the region before ejecting members. While this may shield against most to all liberations, most of the influence is spent and the native and/or enemy nations are still present within the region, and cannot be ejected (banning not necessary since there is a password, which saves influence) until more influence is gained. Additionally, forces can no longer be sent in to reinforce without giving away the password, and a World Assembly Liberation may undo the password effects later on, ultimately ending the operation in a failure to achieve the desired goal(s). Unless the goal is just to password protect the region, this is not a recommended course of action.

For information on successfully destroying and refounding the secured region, see "Regional Destruction-Refounding".

Founder Region Destruction

Regions with a founder can also be destroyed, although a little luck may be involved in the success or failure of the operation.

While the sleeper is placed in the region, data over how active the founder is should be gathered, and the operation should be planned to take place after the founder is away for an extended amount of time or as a covert operation to be elected as a 'native delegate' with access to the regional controls.

The region may then be seized by either Update Raiding, Stealth Raiding, or Tactical Maneuvering (see below), and then destroyed in the same way as a founderless region at the next update (banjecting the founder and passwording if possible to slow the founder down), and should be refounded as quickly as possible to avoid an interception.

Tactical Maneuvering

Another way to seize control of a delegate and/or founder region is to assume control of it by using a sleeper to become a native, and become delegate by being elected by the natives or enemies themselves, or your own trusted members to become natives and elect you, whether purposefully or 'accidentally'. Once the position has been seized, wait a few days or updates and then eject everyone right before the next regional update, leave the region, and then follow the proper refounding procedures. This method can be used to either destroy the region, or just inflict damage (which requires less influence).

Refounding

Refounding a region quickly is the most important and crucial part, should you choose to refound it (which is strongly recommended).

The puppet used to destroy the region is not typically used to refound it, but it can be if needed. After moving to a new region, quickly go to the Create a Region page and keep trying to found the region until it says "Success! You have successfully founded the region _______!". Don't worry about the settings; the World Factbook Entry and delegate access settings can be edited later on. As long as a letter, number, or punctuation is in the World Factbook Entry box, and executive founder is enabled, you'll be able to keep trying to refound it until the region has been refounded successfully.

It is recommended that the commander has more of his or her high ranking region mates attempt to refound it all at the same time (WITH PUPPETS!) during the update, to increase the chances of getting the region before an enemy and/or Defender does, especially after an occupation, which is more noticeable.

After occupying and securing a region, it is usually a good idea to wait until attention dies down a little before leaving the region and attempting a refound, simply to decrease the chances of an interception, hence why the original puppet is the only one left in the region for an extended time period, unless the region has a founder, in which it must be refounded on the same update as it's destruction.

Intercepting a refound

If an enemy is attempting a refound, a puppet can be used to intercept the refound by either:

The refounding process is the same, only you are attempting to intercept someone else's refound. While some regions don't see this as a victory, others may, so it should always be kept in mind that someone out there will attempt to stop you from refounding the region. What you do with the region after intercepting it is entirely up to you or the region you seized it for.

« Table of Contents »

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:17 pm

Reserved

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:24 pm

« Coups and Rebellions »

Sometimes, regions must be couped from the inside in order to be reestablished, destroyed, or even defended.

What is a coup?

A coup is the sudden seizure of a government or region with the intent to instate a new government. This is most commonly carried out on Game Crated Regions (GCRs), however they can also be carried out on User Created Regions (UCRs), even in regions with active executive founders (rarely).

The coup consists of three phases: mass infiltration, intelligence & planning, and the execution.

Note that nations cannot be couped; hacking is illegal and warrants deletion and oftentimes banishment from the site.

Influence Growth

When a region is seized, it is important to know how to spend influence, especially in large regions, to prevent the former government from reassuming control.

Influence is gained at the following rate at each update:

sqrt(1+SPDR²+e)

sqrt= Square Root
SPDR= Soft Power Disbursement Rating
e= # of endorsements

If you've just moved into a region and have 0 endorsements, you would have a value of 0 for your SPDR and 0 for your endorsements. This would give you the Square Root of (1+0²+0), or 1 SPDR.

If you just moved in and have 8 endorsements, however, you would have the square root of (1+0²+8), or 3 SPDR.

A nation's SPDR is the square root of the actual influence value of the nation, which is used to compress the number to a manageable format for calculating and comparison. Therefore, the SPDR² is actually the true, raw influence value of a nation. A nation with 5 SPDR has 25 influence, while a nation with twice as much, 10 SPDR, has 100 influence. This makes the second nation four times more powerful than the first. For the remainder of this section, these nations will be referred to as Nation A and Nation B, respectively.

Let's say Nation A is the delegate, and wants to banject (ban+eject) Nation B. As you may recall, banjecting a nation costs one half of its influence, while ejections cost one-third of that nation's influence.

Therefore, to banject Nation B, it would cost Nation A 50 Influence, or 7.07 SPDR. As Nation A has 5 SPDR, this isn't enough.

Delegates can banject nations more powerful than they are, however doing so can be costly.

Banjecting nations that have not yet updated within the region, and therefore have 0 influence, cost nothing to banject.

GCR Influence Decay

Coming Soon!

Mass Inflitration

Coming Soon!

Endoswapping/Endotarting

Coming Soon!

Founder Coup

Coming Soon!

Intelligence and Planning

Coming Soon!

Execution

Coming Soon!

24-Hour Guard

Coming Soon!

Purging and Cleansing

Coming Soon!

Securing the Revolution

Coming Soon!

Creating a New Government

Coming Soon!

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 6:14 pm

« Tools/References »

Some basic helpful tools have been provided below in each section.

Update Tools

NationStates++
A third party browser extension with multiple functionalities, from viewing influence details to gathering fairly accurate update times for the first 30 minutes of the updates.

Pipes
http://youtu.be/CGgOr4SUS60
Tutorial to advanced tools links below. Please watch first!
http://pipes.yahoo.com/redfleet/nutcracker2
(explained in video)
http://moruna.comoj.com/delegate14.html
(explained in video)
This tool, known as "Pipes", can calculate the update times accurately, even towards the latter half of the update. It involves more work to calculate the times, since basic math is involved, but the extra work can prove to be rewarding!

Nation API Data
As usual, the more work you have to put forward into preparations, the more rewarding the operation. This is the most accurate (publicly available) tool you can use to calculate an update time, although it takes days of preparation. Not the best tool for an Update Raid, but good for finding accurate times for individual regions and for manual Triggering. Place a nation in both the target region and a good trigger region and answer issues with each before the desired update of operation each day for 2-3 days. Simply replace the word "Nephmir" with your desired nation name in the URL, and you'll see a timestamp for the exact time that nation you analyzed updated and passed the legislation. You may have to do some time zone conversions afterwards, as well as interpret the timestamps.

Building a military
Militaries are a luxury that only strong regions can afford. Create one too early, and you may damage your region in the process. It is therefore important to construct the community and forces first based around your ideology (Raider, Defender, Neutral, or Imperialist and/or Independent) before constructing the military or announcing what side you are on.

The best way to recruit for a military is to simply recruit as if you were recruiting for the rest of your region, but with one difference: you must clearly define each rank, role, and function, including military divisions, branches, officers, etc. If you build the community first, then construct the military later, then you can simply call on the community to join you and raise arms, encouraging them to join and get active by providing incentives to do so (for example, those that volunteer and enlist get automatic citizenship status and can participate in citizenship or special events). Making enlistment easy and voluntary, yet compulsory in some ways (for example, you cannot participate in Role Plays unless you have enlisted to reinforce), will help get more willing hands to join your forces without the need of strict requirements or obligations (which is something people don't like). All you must do after this is allow your forces to shape itself over time, while providing events and other optional games or Role Plays to provide incentive to keep the forces logging in and active between or during ongoing missions (Suzy as long term occupations).

Keep the ranks and divisions simple! Oftentimes new organizations attempt to get a foot hold on a military while making elaborate ranks and divisions, thereby splitting their forces into nothing of substance, or having too many commanders and not enough troops. Make a simple 1 or 2 division and 5-10 ranks military, depending on your region's main focus. More ranks and divisions can be established later if needed, when you have more forces to work with.

For a guide on recruiting (written by an experienced and successful recruiter), look no further then here:

http://textuploader.com/1rqd
Useful guide to manually recruiting for an organization, region, division, or any other system/network.

This will explain, in great detail, the best possible ways to recruit for a region, including who to send it to, how to compose a successful telegram, etc. Telegram stamps also work, although the Telegram API is too slow and inefficient to recruit for a military based region.

It is recommended that, before recruiting, you create a formal document of some sort, whether long or short, explaining how your military system, on whatever level that may be, works. This way, everyone can see their clearly defined roles and what to accomplish.

You should also have a clearly defined purpose or goal, one that is both realistic and interesting. You should also outline a general short term goal plan under that, explaining the basics (without revealing any key information or military secrets/classified information), just to show people that you have a realistic plan and get their interest. Military awards are also a good idea, as it gives people something a little extra to strive for (awards for achievements and experience, such as medals, stars for Officers (to show experience), and a few Shields for those really ambitious ones). Don't give out awards often, though, or the value of each one decreases until they are worthless and mean nothing.

It's all about initial impression. The first impression new members get can determine the strength of their loyalty and unity. If you get them exited at the beginning when they first join, they'll want to keep logging in. Also, you've got to sound like you know what you’re talking about at all times, even when you don't, which is why commanders should constantly be open minded to new ideas that may be better then their own. Displaying a sign of weakness, or breaking under pressure, could create doubt, and doubt is a poison when it comes to military forces, slowly tearing apart the forces from the inside. Encouraging activity early on is important; you have to give them a reason to keep logging in! Making them feel important, but still letting them know where their place is is crucial, especially in the early stages. Start out firm and assertive, and you can relax later on. Reward those who are active and loyal, and discipline those act out of line or orders. Enforce all policies to all members at all times!

Upcoming Gameplay Changes
There are seven changes coming to Gameplay soon!
(1) ~~Influence in Feeders/Sinkers~~ Implemented
(2) Delegate Elect
(3) Regional Officers
(4) Annex
(5) Reformation SC Proposal
(6) Custodian SC Proposal
(7) Estimated Update Times Displayed

These seven changes will be added to this guide shortly after implementation when the factors of each have been discovered and/or announced. In the mean time, all of these threads are open to ideas for the changes until implemented!

Have any additional questions or see something that needs added? Feel free to post your questions below!

« Table of Contents »

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 6:14 pm

Glossary/Index (Work In Progress)

A list of words and unofficial definitions, taken from Naivetry's former guide "Basics of Military Gameplay" with more words added. These will be formatted into the new glossary, and later as an index.

Questions? See something that needs added or edited? Feel free to telegram me!

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 6:15 pm

Reserved

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 6:15 pm

Reserved

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 6:15 pm

Reserved

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 6:16 pm

Reserved

by **King Nephmir II** » Fri Aug 08, 2014 6:16 pm

Reserved

by **King Nephmir II** » Sat Aug 09, 2014 11:03 am

Reserved

by **Sedgistan** » Sat Aug 09, 2014 11:08 am

Comments:

In general, it's a good guide, and has the potential to be a permanent stickied replacement for Nai's thread. Please be aware that if you're going to be the author of a sticky, particularly one on an area of the game that evolves and is affected by technical changes, that you need to keep it updated. That means ideally you need to stay active in military gameplay, and also not do anything stupid like getting yourself deleted

I think the introduction is lacking, and starts poorly. You start off by saying military gameplay doesn't exist (it does; that's what the sticky is for!) and then describe it as a form of Roleplay, which is isn't really (it involves actual in-game actions).

You're also keen to label groups with the "5 types of regions" - bear in mind that the definitions are loose, and that there are others that engage in military gameplay (such as the ideological groups - fascists vs. antifascists, warzone players, and others). Also, it's not just regions that are involved - there are organisations as well as individuals that work alone.

Your World Assembly guide needs breaking up with headers. It's a bit wall-of-text-ish at the moment, and not easily accessible.

"Endorsement Capacities" - I've never heard them called "Capacities" - they're "Caps" - i.e. a cap on the number of endorsements you can have.

As others have pointed out, you've got lots on how to invade, but very little on defending.

The regional defence bit could do with a new guide to re-founding, rather than quoting mine, which is out of date.

I haven't read in-depth the sections on "how to invade" (e.g. getting update times, triggering etc.) - I've not been involved in that for several years now, and I think others are in a better position to comment, as well as suggesting other methods.

You could do with a section on upcoming changes.

One key observation on your guide - it's a very good technical guide to how to invade. What it's lacking is why you'd do it (and why you'd do each type - such as stealth or tag raids), as well as broad introductions to what each is. This should be a thread that gets people interested in military gameplay - not one that just appeals to those already interested. That's a vital point to take on board.

(If you need more expansion posts, let me know, and I'll sort that out for you.)

by **Nephmir** » Sun Aug 10, 2014 1:06 pm

I believe I have incorporated and fixed all of the problems previously raised.

I have edited and/or expanded each chapter and have added more Defender tactics while removing more of the Raider bias. I would appreciate it if it could be looked over again and if you could let me know if there is anything else I need to fix. I would also encourage others reading this thread to post their thoughts on the guide here as well, so that I may edit it accordingly.

Thanks!

by **Unibot III** » Mon Aug 11, 2014 4:28 pm

This suffers very badly from largely preparing people how to invade and not focusing on any specifics about how to liberate or run a defense - the underlying language of the text assumes you're "targeting" or occupying or "destroying" regions. It also severely complicates the military gameplay experience - it's not approaching it right. It lists things in a non-intuitive order and plunks it down for people to interpret. When you teach someone how to run a mission, you start with the generalities and you work to the specifics.

I think it would benefit from an author who ... ahem, defends and liberates.

I also have to disagree with Sedgistan - the text as it is is already stuffed full of unnecessary ramblings of gameplay philosophy (like the atrocious section about how RPers should just go play ball somewhere else and how Gameplay is "necessary"). A guide really isn't the place for philosophy and at the very least it should be labelled that those sections reflect the opinion of the author - they certainly don't reflect the opinion of half of Gameplay.

by **Arandor** » Mon Aug 11, 2014 4:57 pm

Thank your for the info.

Complete Guide to Military Gameplay

Complete Guide to Military Gameplay

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