This is General I believe.

[Land des Schmerzes]

I have been discussing with my allies how to start a raid and though I look through forums, none specify how exactly to START the raid. It is very much appreciated if anyone would like to explain this process to me.

[Shaggai]

Belongs in Gameplay and needs a more descriptive title.

[Breadknife]

I think you mean to ask this question in Gameplay/whatever. (Or see if it's already covered in a Sticky.)

But, for what it's worth, I'd start a raid by... moving into the region you wish to raid. (If a passworded region, then by stealth, infiltrating one individual at a time, covering one's tracks while each immigrant ingratiates themselves with the holder of the regional keys... Or just one person, who then shares the password¹ with the others, so they can barge in.)

But this is the wrong place, and I'm probably the wrong person to provide such advice as well...



¹ I think there's call for a "one-time-usage" (or "auto-change-on-next-use") password-generating options... At some kind of cost to the one with their hands on the controls, so that it isn't over-used.

[Especially Dirty Hippies]

Belongs in Gameplay and needs a more descriptive title.

I know, right? I was expecting something about epistemologically inclined Spartans.

[Venico]

Man people have written up guides to this. And here I'll go again!

1) Create a nation! Now this may seem obvious but you need to do it. If you want to do a sneaky raid and hope to fly under the radar, this has to look as normal as possible.
2) Decide your target! Choose where you would like to raid and also find out when it updates. There are a few more advanced tools to do this but the easiest way is to check to see if any of the nations have answered issues in the region. Find out what time the the issue turned and bingo! You know when the region updates and the time you need to get in by (may vary which is why triggers are nice but we'll cover that later...maybe)
3) Move your nation! Put your nation in a region that updates LATER (can also figure this out via the daily dump) than what your target does. Again you want your movements to look as normal as possible to look through some of your recruitment telegrams and see if any of those regions update later. This may make it look more normal.
4)Organize! Set the time of the raid (major or minor update? Day of the week?) and get this out to your troops, make sure their nations are clean and the like. Also make sure you all have an interface to be on during the raid, (Skype, Yahoo? Is Yahoo still a thing? Just use Skype) and get everyone logged on and have each other's contacts.
5) Check! Make sure you will have enough endorsements (Remember you have a point and then troops. So if 6 troops enter a region, there will only be 5 endorsements on the lead) that you can overtake the current delegate. You need one more than s/he has.
6) Optional, kind of, Trigger! You're going to go look in the daily dump. Find the nations of the region you are looking to raid and you're going to have to count back nations from there. Each nation takes .031 seconds to update so a 15 second trigger would take 484 nations back. Put the trigger nation in that region and remember how long you have. You're going to set up this trigger to answer an issue. Once you see the issue take effect during update, you now have the amount of seconds you determined before, until your target region updates.
7) Wait for your trigger or your estimated time! Have your troops all ready in chat, with their mouses hovering over the move nation to region button and if you're not pre endorsing (pre endorsing is more obvious to defenders and thus can be avoided if you want to be stealthy) a page open to the lead nation who will be taking the delegacy. Once you see your trigger update, or the time approaching...
8 ) GO! Give the go command and move in! Take the region!
9) (if you didn't pre endorse) Endorse! Endorse who you want to be taking the lead.
10) Wait until the region updates. The easiest way to tell this is to answer an issue before the raid. So when the issue takes effect, you updated!
11) Check...again! Are you still waiting to update? Well you probably missed or got your time wrong and went in a minute early. Best option here is to wait. Did you update but you're not delegate?! Well then you didn't get enough endorsements in on time. Are you Delegate?! Well put up a new WFE, close embassies, set one up with your region, post on the RMB and in the gameplay forums! Yeah.
12) Celebrate! Even if you missed, good job for trying and you'll get better next time. Every person's first raid conducted by themselves is a shit show. But you get better.

This has been Raiding with Venico! Also I always suggest triggering. It's much more accurate than guessing on variables. Any questions, contact me. *tips hat*

[Consular]

More comprehensive info can be found in Naivetry's guide: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=99173

[Venico]

More comprehensive info can be found in Naivetry's guide: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=99173

Mine was very comprehensive D: