The Black Hawks | Still Winning

by **Miravana** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:40 am

The Black Hawks

The Most Feared Military Organization in NationStates

The Black Hawks are one of the best known and most dangerous raider regions in the history of NationStates. We credit our success to the strong personalities that compose our leadership, a helpful and supportive atmosphere for new members, a firm military discipline on the battlefield (in combination with the levity and humor befitting an online game), and Raider Unity, as the guiding force behind our foreign affairs. You can learn more by joining us at our offsite forum.

Notice

This is not a chat thread. This is a news thread. As such, discussion should primarily be about recent events connected to The Black Hawks, and Gameplay issues directly related to these events. NOT tolerated will be off-topic chatter, spam, random criticism of other organizations (when not directly related to recent events in TBH), etc. We want this to be a high-quality thread that anyone interested in TBH would enjoy reading through in its entirety. This thread will serve as a living history of TBH, not a catalog of random conversations between gameplayers.

Previous News Threads:
Used from June 2012-July 2015
Used from August 2011-June 2012

Hawk Command

The Black Hawks are led by a group of high-ranking officers called Hawk Command. The number of council members and the positions they hold are subject to change by the consensus of Command. Traditionally, decisions are made by consensus of Command, although Generals tend to have the final say in most matters. Usually, the Commander-in-Chief is only consulted when a major change in the direction of the region is being considered, or his unique powers (as founder and root admin) are required.

The current Hawk Command is is:

Council of Hawks
Commander-In-Chief Red Back
Major Pterodaxtyl, Overseer of Terra Corps
Lieutenant Soviet Socialist Liechtenstein, Overseer of Blade Corps
Major Big Birdz, Overseer of Talon Corps
Major Aleena Connolly, Head of Foreign Affairs
General Ever-Wandering Souls
General Miravana
Major Drexlore
Lieutenant Rushalor

Ranks and Promotions

The dynamic promotions system of The Black Hawks is designed to reward troops for contributing to the success of The Black Hawks. In continuous use since April 2008, the ranks have come to take on a certain character, described below:

Private (PVT): A new member of The Black Hawks. Still in training, they have yet to complete their first successful raid.

Private First Class (PFC): A raider is promoted to this rank when they have completed their first successful raid. This promotion represents the end of the training process.

Corporal (CPL): No longer a “new member”, this raider has proven to be reliable and talented.

Sergeant (SGT): A master raider. At this rank, raiders are authorized to plan and organize their own raids, under the supervision of the Council of the Hawks.

Lieutenant (LTN): A master raider with strong leadership potential. This is generally considered the minimum rank for Council membership. This is the first officer rank, and promotions tend to become farther apart once this rank is achieved.

Major (MAJ): This raider has proven to be a strong leader, and a major (get it?) contributor to the success of the region.

Colonel (COL): Just a step below General, this raider is one of the best The Black Hawks has ever seen. This raider is considered vital to the continued success of the region.

General (GEN): Effectively the highest rank, this raider has the final say on most matters involving TBH foreign policy, military policy, and internal policy. Always a Council member and forum admin, Generals represent long-established members of the region entrusted with creating its legacy. Unlike other ranks, when Generals become inactive, they keep their forum mask, although they lose admin power. Sometimes they are also removed from the Council, although on several occasions they have stayed on in the capacity of Military Adviser.

Commander in Chief (CIC): The autocratic supreme leader of The Black Hawks. Although the Council generally provides leadership to the region, the Commander can override any Council decisions. As stated above, he generally doesn’t get involved unless there is a major change to the ethical direction of TBH, or his unique powers are called for (root admin, founder). Since the refounding of The Black Hawks in June 2007, Red Back has held this rank continuously.

*Fun Fact: At times, there has been a second commander in addition to Red Back, although on the Council, no one but Red Back has ever been given then title of Commander-in-Chief. Sorenity2, Diddly Squitt, and Crushing Our Enemies have been the only raiders ever to serve in this capacity.

News Updates

2015:

2016:

2017:

by **Miravana** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:43 am

The Black Hawks were first founded by Halcones in July of 2005. Halcones began Nationstates in the region of Aequus Isles in the summer of 2004 where he was contacted by the Black Eagles General. The Black Eagles was a raiding group that Halcones joined and it was where he first learned how to raid. The group was mostly inactive, which spurred Halcones to create his own raiding organization. He enjoyed the name “The Black Eagles,” so he made a similar name, “The Black Hawks.”

Halcones received advice and assistance on setting up a forum from Silver Tongue and Domination from Invaders. Through recruiting, The Black Hawks gained members including Missing Dog Head, All Holy Names, Anarchy 2005, and Black Buzzards. In the beginning, TBH was viewed as “loud noobs” according to Halcones. More valuable members joined TBH such as Crushing Our Enemies, Red Back, Sorenity2, Holbornius and Jarron. Red Back was a native of 3 mile island, a region raided by TBH before joining the organization.

Another recruitment tactic that Halcones used was: Project Alpha. He created a new region called The Great British Empire, under puppet accounts. According to Halcones, “The plan with TGBE was to setup an attractive region, which would pull in lots of new nations. We would then merge it with The Black Hawks, bringing a sudden surge of new nations into TBH. This didn't go as well as planned.”

In the summer of 2006, The Black Hawks went through a period of inactivity. Halcones decided to merge TBH with The Blades of Conquest, another raiding group. In the Blades of Conquest, Halcones became Head of Intelligence, and made the Phantom Operatives, a close inner circle of long serving Black Hawks - this included Halcones, Jarron, Marthior, Sorenity2, Holbornius, Red Back and others. The Phantom Operatives started to become independent of BoC and The Black Hawks were recreated out of the Phantom Operatives in November of 2006. The Great British Empire was merged with TBH bringing in Lisvania from TGBE. Lisvani replaced Halcones as the Commander in Chief of The Black Hawks, while Halcones concentrated on intelligence.

Halcones set up Project Omicron - an intelligence project with the aim to setup a new defender intelligence summit, called Global Defence Intelligence Summit (GDIS). RedSeven, from Counter Terrorism Unit brought evidence that Halcones was a double agent. The evidence suggested that Halcones had joined the Counter Terrorism Unit under the name of Zarvon, and was feeding them secret intelligence information on the Black Hawks, and was attempting to lead The Black Hawks and The Blades of Conquest into war with CTU. After his conviction and because of real life issues, Halcones took a break from Nationstates. Thus, the region of The Black Hawks lost its founder.

Red Back founded Red Back Island and Sorenity2 founded F.E.A.R. Both of these raiding regions grew in time. On April 1st, 2007, it was announced that Red Back, with the help of Sorenity2, would be re-founding The Black Hawks. The regions 'TBH' and 'The Black Hawks Nest' were created temporarily until Red Back completed the long process of re-founding the main region, 'The Black Hawks', which he completed in early June 2007. Red Back worked with Sorenity2 to merge their two raider regions together, recreating The Black Hawks.

Due to issues with the forum host, TBH moved to a new forum in March of 2008. In December of 2009, the council decided to stop maintaining forum embassies, so that TBH could focus exclusively on raiding. One of The Black Hawk’s first forums was destroyed by an RLA spy during the latter half of 2005. TBH’s flag was designed by RLA spy, The Red Factions. The current forum has been used since August of 2011. Around this time was also when the council decided to permit people who rank Sergeants and above the ability to lead raids for TBH as opposed to solely Field Marshals as was the case before.

The Black Hawks began raiding multiple regions in late 2010. When Halcones returned in December of 2010 and worked his way back up to Field Marshal, he put a focus on what became “tag raiding.” Between February 2011-August 2011, TBH became known for tag raiding. In April of 2011, The Black Hawks became the first region to be condemned by the Security Council exclusively for raiding.

The Black Hawks transitioned to a new forum hosted by zetaboards during the Summer of 2011. This change in forum also came with the rank of sergeant gaining the ability to lead raids. In the Fall of 2011, Halcones suddenly became inactive. With Red Back, COE, and Halcones inactive, the activity of The Black Hawks dropped. In November of 2011, Jakker was promoted to Field Marshal. With Jakker leading raids, The Black Hawks’ focus shifted to raiding larger targets.

In 2012, The Black Hawks teamed up with multiple groups including TBR, UIAF, Unknown, LWU, and DEN to raid regions with large populations and high endorsement counts on the delegates. In January of 2012, Mallorea and Riva, a Lieutenant of The United Defenders League switch sides and joined The Black Hawks. Only a few weeks later, Spartzerium, the second in command of UDL joined TBH also. The highlights of 2012 for TBH included the raid of Capitalist Paradise which involved an update team of 23 raiding a region of 300 nations and a delegate holding over 60 endorsements, and the raid of Eastern Islands of Dharma, which was a region founded by Unibot, the founder of UDL and housed many defenders.

In July of 2012, TBH invented “spelling raids.” An idea originally by Severisen, these were tag raids that spelled a certain phrase using a letter from the raided region’s name (usually the first letter). Spartz led the first-ever spelling raids with the phrase “Fendas Suck.”

During the summer of 2013, Jakker became inactive which caused TBH to go through a period of inactivity. While raids still occurred sporadically, the activity of the region diminished. In August of 2014, Jakker returned to Nationstates with the raid of Canada. Jakker continued to lead TBH until July of 2015 when a new council was established that included Ever-Wandering Souls.

In honor of TBH’s 10 year anniversary, Jakker created RaiderCon, an annual convention that celebrates the history of raiding, in July of 2015. This event also included the establishment of the Raiding Hall of Fame, which enshrines the greatest contributors to raiding in NationStates history.

Souls capped RaiderCon by taking back the region of The Black Riders. After the founder had been deleted, nations came together to take over the former raiding region. An undercover infiltration was led by Souls whose puppet, Harenhime, was unknowingly put into the delegacy.

For years, The Black Hawks have sought to unseat delegates who had consistently been in power for a long period of time. This goal became more of a focus starting in January of 2015 with the raid of Texas. With the delegacy having non-excutive power, TBH led a raiding group into the region to endorse a native to snap NewTexas’ streak of 3776 days.

Other delegate streaks soon fell afterwards including Antarctica’s streak of 3808 days, United States’ streak of 3304 days, and Forest’s streak of 2989 days. Virtually all long delegacy streaks have ended thanks to TBH.

Thanks to the efforts of Plagentine, medals were introduced into TBH’s reward system in January 2016. These serve to recognize players within and outside of The Black Hawks who have provided appreciated service to the region.

In April 2016, a script known as Predator used by some raiders was found to be illegal and moderators handed out punishments to players including some from The Black Hawks. In response to the incident, the Council of the Hawks implemented certain policies to protect TBH’s community and future as a region. One such policy was the required council approval of scripts before usage.

Reventus Koth was added to the Council of the Hawks in May 2016 with Plagentine stepping down.

During an update in August of 2016, Raionitu led teams of Hawks to hit 121 regions. Dubbed, “Operation Blackout,” this set the new all-time record for number of regions raided in one region. Not only did TBH set a new standard for tag raiding, but all targets were triggered manually.

The Black Hawks moved their main off-site communications to Discord during August 2016. Although the region’s forum is still regarded as the main source for introductions, announcements, and record-keeping, TBH’s discord server has allowed for greater community engagement with games, roleplay, and other allies.

The Council of the Hawks had two new additions with The Sygian joining in October 2016 and Raionitu in March 2017.

In March of 2017, The Black Hawks became the first region in NS history to gain a second condemnation without the intention of repealing the other. TBH’s two condemnations stand as a testament to the region’s significant long-term raiding impact.

For over 10 years, The Black Hawks have been a top raiding organization and we hope to continue to carry on the legacy of the most feared organization in Nationstates.

Compiled by Jakker, July 2015 (updated July 2017)

by **Ambroscus Koth** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:57 am

Woah, new thread. So exciting!

by **Riftdania** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:59 am

OP is fucking massive :blink:

I'll need to get around to reading it

by **94 block** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 11:02 am

I'm glad I've been around long enough to witness and help out TBH with most of this. I can attest to TBH being the most enjoyable Organization to complete operations with. I look forward to helping see them through another ten years. GO HAWKS!

by **The Sapientia** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:48 am

I feel so young compared to you folks... Gosh.

by **Of crazed** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 8:31 am

What do you guys have against other colored hawks?

by **Trick Shot** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 9:50 am

Black hawks matter

by **Of crazed** » Sun Jul 19, 2015 2:03 pm

Trick Shot wrote:Black hawks matter

by **SevHawk** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:47 pm

Major Update - 24 July 2015

Whoa. What? Hawks and Wolves? You betcha!

<Transmission Incoming:>
A Hawk, a former Hawk and a Wolf went on a hunt tonight.

The following regions were hit tonight.

Holy Regime of the French Vanilla Waffle
La Realisme
Land of Absolute Freedom
Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del
Operation Blame Sopo
Operation House of the Napping Ocelot
The Acolytes
The International Waters
Third Empire
Umbria

Upon further examination, a message was discovered.

Land of Absolute Freedom
Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del
Holy Regime of the French vanilla Waffle
Third empire

The AcolYtes
Operation Blame Sopo
Operation House of the Napping Ocelot

UmBria
La realisme
The International Waters

We miss you, Tramiar!

<Transmission Complete>

by **94 block** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 5:54 am

I just have to ask, what's with the LWU undertones?

by **SevHawk** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 7:48 am

A member of LWU joined in.

by **Ambroscus Koth** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:15 am

Woah, been a while since I spotted a SevHawk. You back on the dark side, bud?

by **Kekel My Shekel** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:18 am

Please say this is the return, Sev! Spread your dark wings and fly to us!
-Festavo

by **Jakker** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 10:20 am

<3 Tram

She is one of the main reasons I became anything in this game and am still around. A true delight for anyone who has gotten a chance to get to know her. Such a great thing to recognize her and I am sorry I wasn't there. We love you Tramiar! :hug:

by **Knot** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 10:21 am

A TBH airship battles with natives in the skies above NationStates

>>> 7/26/15 | Minor Update <<<

>>> Corporal Knot (t/s) <<<
>>> Lieutenant Marselesk (p/s) <<<
>>> Sergeant Gladio IV (s) <<<

>>> Hit List (17): <<<

>>> A Sandbox <<<
>>> Arkan Islands <<<
>>> Catan <<<
>>> Democratic Republic of the Natan Region <<<
>>> Innervale Province <<<
>>> Land of Protestants and Catholics <<<
>>> Mitch Mcconnell Above All <<<
>>> Neotref Empire <<<
>>> New Caodaism <<<
>>> Our Lord Shreks Holy Lands <<<
>>> SAS Brigade <<<
>>> Slavic Union <<<
>>> The Kingdoms <<<
>>> The Legion of Empires and Emirates <<<
>>> The Mountains to the East <<<
>>> United League <<<
>>> University of Queensland <<<

Reinforcement (1):

>>> SPACE <<<

by **Jakker** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:05 pm

Nicely done by all including newly promoted, Sgt. Knot o7

by **King Nephmir II** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:43 pm

Natives are definitely not that well armed. Or funded.

by **Marselesk** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 2:24 pm

King Nephmir II wrote:Natives are definitely not that well armed. Or funded.

They were obviously using console cheats!

by **Cora II** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 6:48 pm

Congratulations Knot! That promotion went to 100% correct address.

Amazing attitude and activity level! o7

by **Marselesk** » Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:23 am

Private Pygmalionia starts off his first flight in his newly made fighter-class ship

A hawk hatchling has faced it's first action today, as it helped smoosh five regions in a training run. Needless to say, the new addition to the nest is indeed a great one, as the young hawk shows promise and talent and will surely take down larger pray with easy in no time. When the training raid was concluded, the trio of hawks returned to home-base, and sorted out the loot that they gathered.

The hawks that flew through:
Lieutenant Marselesk
Sergeant Knot
Private Pygmalionia

The raided regions:
Console Alliance
Lonia
New Terra Firma
The Bangerian Region
Zombie Network

by **Charles Cerebella** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:33 am

Congrats!

by **The Silver Sentinel** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:39 am

Yay. Now the Hawks are out tagging regions. Have long term occupations and wild parties become a thing of the past? Tell Jakker to get off his ass, as I demand some entertainment.

by **Marselesk** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:55 am

The Silver Sentinel wrote:Yay. Now the Hawks are out tagging regions. Have long term occupations and wild parties become a thing of the past? Tell Jakker to get off his ass, as I demand some entertainment.

That certainly is a reasonable argument. Or would be, if we weren't about two months into a large occupation already

by **Knot** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:49 am

The Silver Sentinel wrote:Yay. Now the Hawks are out tagging regions. Have long term occupations and wild parties become a thing of the past? Tell Jakker to get off his ass, as I demand some entertainment.

Jakker will get off his ass when you stop jumping into invaded regions four minutes after they update, which will be quite some time since he's Vizier of Osiris.

As for tagging: I suppose all you care about are those grand occupations with no thought about the planning and training that come before them. Perhaps you expect us to line up all our new recruits and tell them to jump into European Union without them even knowing how to endorse? TBH is good, but apparently not good enough to stop practicing.

But don't worry about it, Chester. You'll get your "grand occupations" very soon.

The Black Hawks | Still Winning

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