The Glory and Fall of Empires
From eRepublik Official Wiki
| Languages: |
|
This article was originally published in a Newspaper.
The Glory and Fall of Empires was a series of articles written by a famous citizen of Hungary, Quicksilver. The articles are not exactly written like historical documents, as she herself says:
| “ I am planning to write a series of eRepublik's great empires; as the title says about their glory and their downfall. As is my style it is not a historical data-collection, but rather a description, a story, as I see it - so there might be mistakes in it. I will correct those of couse. ” |
The articles caught lot of attention and were very popular, making their way to the top rated more than once. The series consisted of five parts, telling the story of Pakistan, Sweden, Norway, Iran and Romania. Each were published both in English and Hungarian. The series was published in her newspaper Legendarium.
Contents |
Part 1. The first empire - Pakistan
(official motto: PRIDE, POWER, PAKISTAN!)
Pakistan started the game with only four regions in Asia, and there was nothing to say that it would be an empire later - until an 4chan.org forum's /v/ members have not discovered the game and decided to settle in Pakistan, making the country's population almost to the thousands - at the time (2007 nov-dec) it was by far the most populous country on eRepublik. At this time was the Holy Empire of Pakistan formed, lead by Dio Brando, and before the introduction of the war module, a complex, slightly communistic, heavily centralized, planned economy was created, that worked best at the time. By the time the war module was introduced in April, many players left Pakistan, but it was then still among the most populous countries on eRep.
The first step towards the formation of the great empire was the agreed joining (some say India was PTO-ed too) with India, in April, 2007 - the almost empty regions of India were occupied in a matter of days. The next step was the conquest of China. Here they have PTO-ed the country - although they denied it, but Gyro_Zeppeli became the president of China, and immediately declared war to Pakistan, which between 5th and 14th of May conquered China's regions without much effort. Pakistan with this achieved its greatest extents, 50 regions. The power was completely in the hands of the God-Emperor, Dio Brando, and his party, the Stardust Crusaders.
But the next step was the slow decline... with the inevitable decadency of great empires that have no new goals, and the introduction of v.1, and its new game-mechanics, a lot of people left the game, and especially Pakistan. In november 2008, Pakistan lost its first regions by RWs, one to China, and one to India, and the Pakistan got its first non-Stardust Crusader president, showing the decrease of numbers in the dioist party.Although Pakistan was a member of FIST and its successor PEACE, because of its isolationist policies, it has never got much help from the alliance, even in the period of decay - and so it continued to loose regions, even original regions to neighbouring countries - it is called the dark ages of Pakistan.
In the first months of 2009, Pakistan was again renewed by players all over the world, and it started again to play a role in the long-awaited conflict between Romania and Indonesia; letting Indonesia go through Pakistani regions on their way to WSR. As an offshot for dioism, and an alliance for the country, the theocrat state of Switzerland was formed, with Dio Brando presiding over it. But the role in Asia also proved to be their downfall too; in March 2009 a romanian, Han Solo PTO-ed the presidency of Pakistan (Operation Great Justice), and from a PEACE member, the country became a Romanian puppet-state, doing its bidding, blocking and RW-ing regions and declaring wars as Romania saw fit. Generally, due to its central position in Asia, it used fully its strategical advantages. PEACE was unfortunately too slow to realize the consequences of the PTO.
In the Han Solo era, Pakistan's economy was ruined (the process actually started earlier), the dioism banned, and he even wanted to change the country's name officially to Matzalandia. In the Asian theater of operations, he slowly lost all the regions of the country, and by May, the country was fully occupied by Indonesia and Iran. Before this, Pakistan came to the brink of dissappearence a number of times, but Romania always gave over some more regions to the country, so that it could continue blocking Indonesia, Iran and China. in April 2009 Agent Chieftain was elected as president with PEACE hep, but the romanian majority congress impeached him, and Han Solo could countinue his rule.
With the dissappearance, and the loss of active wars, the importance of the country was annulled, even when it was re-formed in the end of May, with agreement to Indonesia, in Punjab region. Pakistan now is ruled again by Dio Brando, and is neutral militarily.
So this was the first great empire of the erep's New World... Pakistan
Part 2. The rich empire - Sweden
Sweden got off a normal start in the game, as many other countries had back then; people coming slowly and forming the first structures of a country, calling friends, and making companies and so on. But just before 2007 Christmas, Sweden was discovered by yet another forum in the game, this time a native one, the Flasback, from which the members formed a party, the FBS which won the Swedish presidential elections ever since. The forum also brought a huge (in those times) baby-boom too, which took the most populous country's title from Pakistan, and made the country strong both militarily and economically. Flashback Forum is the biggest "non-regulated" forum in Sweden. They were the first to allow threads about hacking, political extremism and so on; and through a thread there Sweden recruited +2000 players until the forum moderators closed the thread.
The contest and rivalry between the two strongest nations of the era, and various propaganda articles started a flame war between Sweden and Pakistan; an enemity that still smolders, but never came to open war, most likely because of the distance between them. They most often came to loggerheads as 'warmongering Swedes' and 'Peace-keeeping Dioists', and it was complicated by the fact that some Pakistanis, even on the highest level were actually Swedes. The era and the articles from then are an interesting read for all who love these media-wars...
After the population-growth, the region growth was the next logical step, and in April 2008, the Danish president, Grev Per insulted Sweden (among many others as I recall - it was his habit apparently), and as an answer, Sweden attacked and conquered Denmark in a scant 3 days' war, despite Denmark having Bulgaria and South Africa as allies. The occupation inspired a lot of propaganda and flame being released everywhere, as it was usually condemned in Europe.
The next step was Germany, who were expecting the Swedish attack, but not so soon (they were in the process of allying with Indonesia and Pakistan), and were quite unprepared, when in the 1st of May, Sweden attacked Schleswig-Holstein, and overwhelmed it with sheer numbers (it is still the PvP era, when people fight with each other, not a wall). The allies send only few troops, mostly from Pakistan, some people on their own, while Romania would only send soldiers for a fee, and Indonesia fought on another front. Sweden conquered almost all German regions in five days, leaving only Saarland to be German, when the two presidents agree to a peace-treaty, enforced by admins a month later. According the contract Germany got back 3 regions, Sweden got heavy indemnities, and the two country becomes allies.
But Germany broke the contract by cancelling the agreed MPP and trade agreements; they attacked and conquered Poland for regions; and so the second Sweden-Germany war ensued between 18th and 28th of July 2008, with the result that Sweden conquered all German regions, including the Polish ones. With this conquest, Sweden reached its greatest extent, spanning 32 regions and around 4000 citizens altogether, earning thereby the name of an empire on eRepublik. Here I want to mention that in beta, there were no resources, and so wars were not fought for rich regions.
Poland started its independence war in October, 2008, with the RW in Little Poland, followed soon after all the original Polish regions, as per agreement between Sweden's president Flammbar and Polish leader Popolo - in exchange for a trade agreement and MPP signed. Poland soon after became the member of Atlantis too. In the Atlantis invasion of France (Operation French Toast) Sweden at first managed to grab regions from France, but was pushed back later. Shortly after, in January 2009, in the Operation Burning Spirit PEACE GC forces with German fighters started simultaneous RWs in all German regions, winning all of them from the somewhat surprised Sweden. The RWs were started because Sweden was unwilling to conclude negotiations to restore any German regions.
Sweden did not back off for good, and in May, Kalle Holm won the presidential elections with promise to give war to Sweden, and with Germany, who were by that time passive members of Atlantis too. This intention has spawned a lot of controversy in Atlantis circles; many members supported Sweden (its traditional allies, like Poland, Romania and Spain), while some Germany, on moral or practical grounds (like the English-speaking countries). Finally it was decided that Sweden could attack Germany, and so the third Swedis-German war ensued, in May 18th - with the participation of Poland who wanted a bite from Germany too - the high grain bite of Brandenburg.
The war raged on with many German defeats and Swedis tactical retreats and re-attacks until the June presidential elections, which saw the most beautifully executed PTO in erepublik history. Shoot was a sleeping Swedish agent, who patiently worked his way into German politics, until he was elected to the Presidency with only a little Swedish and Polish voting help, but mainly by German ones - just to reveal after the elections of his allegiance, and retreat from all remaining German regions; and the RW in previously occupied Voralberg, a former Austrian region topped off the war, and saw Germany as a country dissappearing again from the maps.
But it took only a few days for PEACE to respond, for of course Germany turned to it after being somewhat betrayed by Atlantis. The concerted efforts of Hungary, Italy and France in early June (the Unnamed operation, because the original name was deemed unacceptable by admins) pushed back Polish and Swedish forces behind their original borders, liberating almost the whole of Germany (except for agreed regions for strategic reasons) and parts of Denmark too in the process. Ever since Sweden lost its German and Danish regions, it keeps attacking Nordjylland, to block Hungary in the 3rd world war efforts, but without much success.
Sweden is not really a fallen empire nowadays, like Pakistan which has lost even its independence at a time, or like Norway which fallen very hard from past glories; although it was pushed back into its original regions only, by no means is Sweden a gone-by power. The secret of Sweden has always been its highly efficient economy and the cost-efficient way of making war; I am told that it is mostly secret, but that Sweden also achieved its economical success by a state-controlled company sector (my suspicion is that it was both inspired by and similar to Pakistan's system), and with clever businessmen working for themselves and for the state. Even nowadays Sweden is a rich country, even though it occupies no high resources regions, and hiding most of its assets from prying eyes; and also having some of the strongest tanks of the New World, while not advertising it either. With even a smallest of population booms, Sweden could easily be amongst the powers of the New World again.
So, this was the richest empire on the New World - Sweden.
Part 3. The torn empire - Norway
As is the secret of all empires on eRepublik, Norway too started its path to greatness with being discovered by two forums, and getting a big population growth from their members. It happened in early January, 2008, and soon Norway was up to second place in population (around 1500 people), only beaten by Sweden, its ally. Together they formed the Northern Alliance, which was the forerunner of Atlantis - and together, they started their conquests on the road that led to their separate empires. Norway started it off with a fast conquest of Finland, in mid-April 2008; it was admittedly only a strategic move to open up the way towards the Russian steppes.
Norway at the time claimed to be threatened by Russia's planned MPP with Indonesia, but in fact they, as every growing country needed a real war, to keep citizens in the game, by building up an empire. The war with Russia kicked off in 1st May 2008, just before Russia could make its MPP with Indonesia. Russia was at the time being converted to communism, being hampered by the theft of the state assets by the previous president, and in general having very few people for the huge country that spanned the whole northern part of Asia. Since the huge territory is only divided to a few regions, Norway conquered it quickly; Russia's allies could only send a few fighters to help mainly from Iran and Indonesia - the so-called Great Patriotic War ended in 6th May, and Russia, the first communist country of eRepublik has dissappeared from the maps.
This was the height of the Norwegian Empire, and the way led downwards ever since. It started with Finnish freedom fighters in August starting a great recruiting campaign, that effectively doubled Norway's population, and started to PTO Norway from the inside, by making a party (Sovereign Finland) and running for elections. The relations between Finns and Vikings were not as peaceful at first as we might think from the end-result...and so they succeeded gaining the presidency in September and October (inunova), and it was their work and diplomacy that finally came to fruitition in the Finnish Independece War 2008 October-November, and its continuation, the Finnish-Norwegian war (2008 November-December), that was organized as a training war for both countries (Operation Spear). It was the first such on erep, and also Finland the first conquered country to regain independence.
With the loss of Finland, Norway also lost a great percentage of its population; and also the older players started to leave the game; and so Norway's population dropped sharply, and with it its ability too to defend regions from inside and outside. Russians started their independence movement, just like the Finns, and the Red Resistance Front became a threat to the Norwegian congress in December, with some Iranian help - and forced Salve to negotiate with them. The negotiations got off a rocky start, both parties accusing the other with a lot of things both behind the scenes and in the public media, but were surprisingly successful later, as Norway agreed to free certain Russian regions, and giving option of freeing others later - in exchange for the Russians leaving the congress and stop ruining Norway's economy.
The first of the RW-d regions was Volga Vyatka, to give the new country the needed high grain, followed by West Siberia. But then the secret part of the pact came to light, when Romanians vetoed Russia's entry to Atlantis (not membership but Russia was trying to get close to Atlantis), started the RW first in Moscow region, and then for Northern Russia, and declared war to Russia with agreement from Norwegian government - to acquire the resources-rich region of West Siberia region - WSR as everyone knows by today. It was a crude forerunner of the region-swaps of today - only they did not ask the Russians about it... They conquered Moscow without problems, but the battle for Northern region proved to be more diffincult - in fact it became one of the epic battles of the New World. It was so, because Russia acquired 6 MPPs with most of the strongest PEACE countries (became member of PEACE in fact), so Romania after this choose the method of presidential PTO to conquer Russia.
So, Norway lost its resource-rich Russian regions one by one; some to Romania and some to the reforming Russia later (like Kaliningrad), and also started to loose players, who got bored by the game; until it found itself again in a strategic position in the Indonesian-Romanian war, swapping regions with Romania and Finland to avoid Hungary or Ukrain blocking Romania. But Norway this time played too much with fire and burned itself... for in March and April 2009 Hungary decided to PTO the country, and not in a secret either - it was one of the first great PTO successes of the famous HUNTER unit of Hungary. With Marginaldefeat as president, and with Hungarian congress majority Norway was taken out of commission both militarily and economically - and it never recovered either ever since.
Norway had one more failed move in the third world war, when it tried to block Russia, by attacking Northern Russia in 23rd July 2009 - but was defeated soundly, and lost even Nord-Norge region in the Russian retaliation. Norway now is down to five regions and barely 500 people - and is out of contention, despite of the still open wars and activated MPP-s. Norway is a member of Atlantis as always, or rather its eurpean successor, EDEN, but contributing little to it nowadays.
Norway IMHO failed as an empire, because it nurtured its enemies inside the country; from the Finnish separatist to the Red Resistance Front - even including Hungarians, who as necessity demanded because of the country's lack of high resources, worked in great numbers in Norway - like the author of this piece... some Hungarians became so ingrained to Norway's society, that their allegiance only came to light in the Hungarian PTO, which at first was thought to be a tie between the fraction. And Norway, as the true Vikings slowly left the game has always been trying to negotiate with its enemies - but somehow always pulling the short straw - because by wanting to please everyone, they managed to fall to the ground in the middle... the interesting fact is in Norway's history is that it is not very empire-like... thing somehow happened to them, not they instigated them - except at the beginning.
And so it was the biggest empire of eRepublik - Norway.
Part 4. The secret empire - Iran
Iran has always been and still is a secret empire, isolated by both language and culture from the rest of the world, connecting to it with few ties, talking to it only on a few channels, only showing its might in battles and conquests - never giving up an inch and never the easiest to negotiate with either.
Iran's history started side-by-side with Pakistan, with whom it is neighbours in central Asia. Iran was also discovered by a 4chan board, the /b/tard and its users who first populated the country. Ironically, the boards' war was carried on to eRepublik media, and the rivalry with Pakistan's /v/ members characterized the first, warless months of both countries' existence. However, while the /V/s built up a strong economy and a religion in Pakistan, Iran fared less well, as the /B/ members looted the treasury and left its economy in ruins. At a time even food was not on the markets, until Indonesia has not started to export some there. Iran then was last in the rankings with not even the government working.
In December however some players arrived who started to build up Iran's economy and political systems. Koroush, Ahmadinejad and Shakir Nasrollah came from different backgrounds, but started finally to work for Iran. The Pasargad party was formed, along with companies, and in January, Koroush was elected as Shah of Iran, the first sovereign ruler on eRepubik, and Iran became the Imperial State of Iran. He formed the government structures, including an intelligence agency (Eyes and Ears of the Shah - by Aryamehr), a cabinet, military, and also started to recruit people to the country from various Iranian chats and forums - and building hospitals for the coming people. He also started to make diplomatic ties with other countries. His work took Iran through its growth and strenghtening in the first few months of 2008.
In May, Iran became a member of the FIST, the forerunner of PEACE, and later, in August the member of PEACE too. The first months of the war module saw Iran being left out - mainly because of internal problems, like the scandals of the first and second mojtabaw governments. Between these, atilaa strenghtened the Iranian economy and created numerous companies abroad for stockpiling goods. He also established the first embassies and tried to build diplomatic ties with other countries. In October and November goons threatened with a PTO but they failed to gain the presidency - gonde brought not only unity but economic strenght to Iran. By this time Iranian troops appeared in numerous battlefields, as we, Hungarians can remember them in the SGP battles too.
In November, Iran took part with troops in the Romanian advances in Russia-Norway, and later declared war to Pakistan, first for region swaps, and later, in Pakistan's Han Solo-era as real battles. It was surprisingly late, that Iran fought its first real war, in 2009 January, when Iran annexed Beijing and Liaoning, the latter being the high iron resource and then Heilongjiang and Jilin. The war was preceeded by Balash PTO-ing Chinese presidency and consequently surrendering China to Iran when it finally attacked. Ironic, knowing that Iran had started the first RW in Beijing in November, to liberate China from Pakistani occupation. Also in January Iran declared war to India, to conquer Jharkhand.
In February, the 22nd, Romanian President dsalageanu declared war to Iran, as per the Operation Alexander the Great, the great operation to conquer Asia, supposedly to liberate China, and punish Iran for its actions in the Russia war (the Iranian-Russian PTO of the Noorish congress) - but deep down everyone knew that the real targets were PEACE's high iron resources in Liaoning, Heilongjiang and most importantly Karnataka. The plan called for a route Xinjiang -> Qinghai -> Ningxia -> Inner Mongolia -> Beijing -> Liaoning [TOP SECRET Romanian plan!] but it was defused completely when PEACE invented the chatterbox, the three-sided region swap to deny an attackable region to Romania.
In the region swaps, Iran gained a lot of former Pakistani regions, as Pakistan at the time was trying to avoid the Romanian PTO (unsuccessfully). Romania got around the problem by taking over Norway's Eastern Siberia region, and attacking Iran from Inner Mongolia, advancing quickly southwards with the help of PTO-ed Pakistan blocking and RW-ing regions. Iran then tried to RW some Chinese regions to stop Romania's advance, but some border-irregularities allowed Romania to overcome this too. Later the war became more a Romanian-Indonesian conflict that we are all more familiar with, but Iran was there all way through and not as visibly as Indonesia, but it gained a lot of regions in Asia, at a point ruling over 29 regions from China, Pakistan and India.
In the present world war, Iran's exact role was for long a secret, until Hungary has not started the Operation Hellokitty, that took the Hungarian army through numerous region swaps with UK, Russia and Iran to Heilongjiang, the high iron region for what Hungary gave back Urals to Russia. Iran in the same operation gained a high diamond region from Kanada, and a foothold there too in North-America. Iran lately had its problems that stemmed from IRL events in the country, but it is still a strong power in Asia, and an empire too that has not fallen, nor has it any intention to do so.
So, this was the secretive empire of the New World - Iran.
Part V. The famousest empire - Romania
famousest - Alice in Wonderland, not familiar? :-P
An empire that we all know about... an empire that made the greatest waves on erep both attaining that status and in its fall; an empire that was both ruthless and compassionate, pragmatic and prideful, nationalistic and liberal.... I could heap the adjectives for a long time still, and they would all be in some ways fitting. The origin of the very game we play, the masters of it and for a long time beneficiaries too - like it or not, eRomania has characterized and dominated our New World for most of its existence. But as no power lasts forever, so theirs also came to an end once...
eRomania started out in the game differently from the early empires, in a way, that there was no baby-boom, just a simple, natural growth of citizens recruited from numerous places, and not much international role in the early months either. The country was turned inwards, building its economical and political systems, many of the old players whom we know now as great tanks or politicians starting out their careers then - and continuing, for it must be noted that the country has the most old beta players who still play.
The first steps on a long road...
Romania and Moldavia has a common history IRL too, and here, on erep, when the war module was introduced it gave an opportunity to the presidents, Pan Halippa and Titu Maiorescu to make that union come true - and after a referendum in both countries, they formed a (rather one-sided) union under the name of Great Romania. The war which took place in mid-April, lasted only a few days and caused no surprises. It was similar to the next month's Ukrainian war, although that was not an agreed union, but the few Ukrainians - who were actually Americans mainly - could not put up much opposition. The time was also the birth of the indubitably famousest elite army units, that since many countries come to respect - the FAR, or Romanian Air Force. FAR may not be the first army unit (GN is), as I am told, but as the most famous I felt it should be mentioned.
The two conquest of the neighbouring countries satisfied Romanian hunger for a while, and June-July was spent again warless - aside for the somewhat scandalous involvement in the Balkan War - only characterized by recruiting again - and a somewhat surprising move in which Romania cancelled its MPP with Hungary: not the fact itself, but for the life of me I could find no source who could tell me why there was such a contract between the two countries. :-) But the cancellation in itself signalled the worsening relations that later escalated into the first world war. Otherwise Romania spent these months with lively internal political life, as the contemporary articles show, and the famous PTO of Victor Petrescu in Ireland - never admitted as a state TO, but a Romanian nevertheless.
The end of August saw the breaking out of the First World war, by Spain attacking Mexico and Romania Hungary - Alex Craciun, the five times president declaring the war only a day after the signing of the newly formed PEACE alliance charter, before the MPP-s could be activated in either country. The Romanian attack was justified by liberating Slovakia which was conquered in the Hungary-Czech Rebublik war in June - and some flaming in each others' media which has a rich history between the two countries. After some battles won and lost on boths sides the stronger side turned to winning, and by 4th September, Romania annexed the former Slovakian regions, and 5 of the 7 Hungarian ones. The war modul's accumulating bugs caused admins then to stop it until the inroduction of v.1 - in mid october.
September mainly characterised by the increased presence of Hungarian newpapers in the Romanian media, and from this, increased tensions between Hungarians living in occupied regions and Romanians. The era also saw the birth of eRMDP-PDMeR, and with it the first Hungarian steps in Romanian politics. The restart of the war-modul brought one more region to Romania, another Hungarian one in November - Southern Transdanubia. All the way till January 2009, the peace-negotiations went on with Hungary with various terms, as the two leadership changed, and the circumstances too - the blocking ability of Hungary becoming more and more valuable, as Romania started to look for the former Russian regions. In one such block Hungary retakes Central Transdanubia, as Romania retreats to be able to fight in the Russian front.
In January, Romania makes a secret pact with Norway, partly to save them from the Russian-Iranian PTO, and when it is not successful, to take over the resource-rich Siberian regions from the decling Norway. After RW-in Moscow and the failed RW of the Northern region, which is necessary to make way to WSR, Romania first declares war to Russia, but when it gaines strong PEACE MPP-s, they decide to use PTO to gain the regions. With a last-minute entry of lic_ptg, an apparent fake to the presidential race, and the army voting him into the office, in one day, before he could be impeached, he retreats from all Russian regions, ceding them to Romania. With this move Romania gains the most valuable region on erep, and puts it to good use, strenghtening the economy and preparing for the next big war in Asia.
On the 2nd February dsalageanu declares war to Iran - the long-awaited clash of titans however is brought to a halt before it could really begin by the newly discovered chatterbox / morisca between Iran Indonesia and Pakistan. The forced stop in the operation once again brings forth the Hungarian relations, and the only agreed training war between the two nations. In march, after the only ever attempted PTO in Romania (in which Smile64 was second because Hungary decided to switch voters to Ukrain) dsalageanu decides to declare war to Indonesia. But the never closed Hungarian front caused the blocking continuing, and finally Indo manouvered to attack WSR and take it; also Northern region, and RW-s the latter to Russia so Romania cannot counterattack.
The first of the many later WSR battles was particularly memorable because Romania's army was ordered to fight in the blocking SGP battle, not letting it go over to Hungary, and so consequently WSR and Northern was lost. Romania answer to the annoying block by Hungary is an RW in Subcarpathia (Ukrain) to use it as puppet state in the war against Hungary - the chatterbox strategy adapted. The plan backfires, as in the great presidential race on the 5th March Hungary manages to get the presidency of Ukrain (Imre Norbert). Later in March Southern Great Plain and Southern Transdanubia returns to Hungary after 7 months of occupation - Romania not making again the mistake of defending a blocking battle, as Norway gives Urals to Romania so it can attack and conquer WSR. The regions Moscow, Central Russia, Volga-Vyatka returned to Norway.
Days later Norway gives Eastern Siberia to Romania, and it promptly attacks Inner Mongolia, Iran - the great war begins. Iran RWs few regions to stop their advance, but border anomalies allow Romania to proceed, moving southwards into China, with the help of PTO-ed Pakistan, to avoid attacking Xinjiang which is by this time fortified by Indonesia. After conquering most of China, or rather Pakistan, continuing towards former Indian regions - the goal is Karnataka, the Indo high iron region, at the time the only high iron held by PEACE beside Brazil's. Romania occupies over 40 regions then, the largest extent of the empire.
(I made this map absolutely from memory, so it is for sure not correct - just an approximation of what Romania encompassed then)
Karnataka is defended by another of the border anomalies, forcing Romania to go around the whole Indian subcontinent, conquering the Indo regions, and when it is near Indonesia RW-s the last region before it, and the only one that borders it: Tamil-Nadu, ceding it to India again. As romanian declaration of war would have cost much Romania made a contract with India, so it would attack Romania in exchange for regions later and a Q5 hospital. India did it but the 24 hour delay was enough for Hungary on the other front to solve the problem of blocking and Indonesia could attack Romania, thereby gaining the initiative and turning the tide of war. I should mention that even though the contract was never fulfilled, Romania did provide India with the promised Q5 hospital.
On this other front, the end of March saw further blocking battles from Hungary to NGP and NH regions, as Indonesia advances northward in the lately conquered Indian and Chinese regions. Later Romania gives Volhynia (Ukrain) to Poland and thereby involves it in the Hungarian-Romanian affair. March is closed by the top secret PEACE-Atlantis meeting, aptly penned by Moonlightshadow. In April Romania and Poland swaps Northern Hungary a few times so Hungary cannot retake it, and Ukraine starts to block Romania in Galicia. In April 5th Hungary attacks Poland and takes NH. and continues with Various blocking battles towards Romanian held regions. WSR changes hands once more when Romania swaps it with Norway and Norway also cedes several former Russian regions to Finland, literally minutes before the Hungarian presidential PTO in Norway.
In April Russia joins into the war by attacking Volga-Vyatka. In the meanwhile successive RW-s in former Ukrainian regions to draw Romanian damage from the Asian fronts and also numerous RW-s in various Indonesian regions. In April 10th Hungary finally conquers Central Hungary, and by this ceases to be able to block Romania, which can focus on the Asian front. Iran also attacks Belochistan to block Romania. Romania then gives some Ukrainian regions to Poland to block Hungary's way to non-original Romanian regions but Hungary conquers them as the chatterbox was taken out of the game. Ukrain attacks Maramures, thereby activating Romanian MPP-s - a highly risky blocking manouver, but necessary at the time.
In the end of April Indonesia, Russia, China and Iran continue attacking Romania, mixed by some strategic retreats and counterattacks from Romania and Pakistan and uncountable RW-s in all participating countries - Han Solo, the president of Pakistan apparently is not tied to his country, because of a bug and can start RW-s which are his particular habit, in Indonesia too. :-) On April 30th South-Africa enters the war by attacking Indonesia - which it later regrets deeply. In May Hungary is again able to block Romania in the Ukrainian regions, having taken Volhynia from Poland, and conquers them one by one. The main goal of this front is unsaid, but obviously Podolia, Romania's key region, as a great part of their iron and weapons industry is located there. In this part of the war Indonesia retakes former chinese regions like a knife cutting through warm water - sometimes absolving three regions a day..
May 13. the great day. The battle for Podolia starts, and half a day later the battle for WSR - also the highest number of RW-s started in one day: 11 in all participating countries. Spain also attacks Portugal, activating their MPPs, and on the 14th, USA attacks Russia's Far-Eastern region, also activating their MPPs, that are so important factors in our wars nowadays. But back then it was all to draw firepower from the main battle, the long-awaited battle for the much contested region, the richest on eRepublik: WSR. The battle, which saw almost the complete armies of PEACE and Atlantis; in which Indonesia is punished because of a weapon-bug by adding 200 k to the almost brought-down wall; and which caused Romania to enter into the non-combat mode, becuse they demanded a more through investigation and more punishment; in which PEACE almost gives up fighting seeing the punishment that many think unjust, but deciding later to still fight and finally - win.
May 15th Indonesia finally conquers WSR from Romania, while at the same time as Hungary conquers Podolia - the grand (and highly controversial) finale of the war and the end of the Romanian Empire. The war does not end here of course, but in effect it does: Romania's declaration of non-combat, the leaving and banning of a great number of players breaks the resolve and backbone of the Romanian Empire. The rest of the war can be called only as a mop-up of the regions; Hungary is trying to secure/buffer Podolia with Ukrainian regions, but as Moldavia remains in Romanian hands it is not successful, and Hungary decides to give Podolia back to Ukrain, and instead lease Urals's high iron with agreement by GLaDOS, Russia's president at the time. For this some Russian regions are swapped between Ukraine, Russia and Hungary, so Hungary at the end can attack Romania in Urals and take the region.
After the so famous and sometimes hotly debated non-combat mode, Romania is back to its original regions, after having at a time almost 50 of them, thereby creating the greatest empire on eRepublik; encircled by countries in their own regions and Ukraine defended by MPPs and Hungary's strategically held region, Dnipro, and deprived of its former high resources regions and most of its economy and losing many of the older and newer players. Romania still tries to retake Podolia later, accumulation huge debts in the process, but the growing Hungarian army by this time is capable of beating back these attacks, and defend Ukraine.
Ever since Romania is trying to reorganize itself, the military, the economy and the players' attitudes and regroup; by utilizing their admittedly famous diplomacy, and the old weapon, the PTO. The many Romanian players stranded in Indonesian regions and the return of Victor Petrescu gives birth to a daring idea: PTO-ing the most populous country on erep: Indonesia. The Operation Matzanesia is almost a success; in the congress elections only one vote is separating Indos and romanians - and with some bans, the situation is taut. Later Romania again turns to diplomacy and PTO: taking Ukraine as a forced ally and putting back Moldova onto the map the theater of operations there again can be opened.
Romania consequently, however fallen as an empire, is coming back; they learned from their mistakes, like cooperating with allies, and created again the famous army units, repaid the loans and strenghtened the economy - and only waiting to make a comeback.
So, this was the famousest empire on eRepublik - Romania
