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by Funkadelia. . 1,451 reads.

A few words on No region and the future

A few words on No region

20 days ago, Lone Wolves United invaded No region, a peaceful region whose founder nation had ceased to exist. 3 days ago, after major update, the invading Delegate established a password on the region, thereby finalizing the occupation. While this may sound like just a successful operation by the raiders, this was also a tremendous (and hopefully trend-setting) failure for defenders.

What is missing from the full story here is the efforts of defenders and restorers in those five days. Dedicated defenders from a variety of regions struck out at the raiders every single update since the beginning of their occupation, dealing glancing blows to the attempt to build up influence in the region.

The result?

  • Every single native nation was banjected from the region.

  • The raiders were able to build up enough influence that was used towards establishing a password for the region.

  • Defenders were unable to build a foothold in the region, additionally, the typically stronger presence of defender updaters on weekends should have made an effort for a liberation at each major update, but unfortunately it did not.

The raiders left gracefully, but not after the inevitable passwording, and (to their credit) left an acknowledgement of the failed efforts of defenders and the lack of TITO support on the region's World Factbook Entry before leaving. At the following major update, another LWU nation assumed the Delegacy of the region to lock it up.

Lessons learned

Defending has been around for 13 years (and influence for 11), so this approach has surely been done in some fashion before, but it has certainly not been attempted recently, and there are quite a few insights that this operation has brought about.

First, “attrition runs” don’t work. This isn't really a new insight, as it's always been known that attrition runs don’t work, but this operation showed us just how terribly they work. All natives banned, plus huge influence gains, plus an unejectable raider foothold of 24 nations in the region after 2 weeks. This amassing of influence was the result of failed attrition runs at every update, most of which with a force less than half the pilers on the raider delegate. Simple tactics show why this doesn’t work. If you don’t have enough endorsements to take the delegacy, you will never take the delegacy. If you can’t do that, the region will be destroyed with no thanks to your attrition runs.

Second, Solidarity’s concept doesn’t work. Sure, defender contact with natives has always been a thing, and defenders have always worked diligently to try to return control back to the oppressed natives, but Solidarity’s unique pitch, founded in disillusion, doesn’t bring much of a different feel to the entire affair. The natives felt better, as they were constantly kept up to date with the number of defenders that had failed to “seige” the region. It’s a more wholesome approach than what regular defenders provide (and frankly, they don’t need to provide it).

Third, attrition fatigue is a thing, and is not manageable. In the past months, I was always told that the reason attrition runs cannot be sustained is because “people get fatigued.” But after this operation, defenders realized it’s not only the individuals helping that got fatigued (they’ve been asked, and they’ve said yes). But having failed many operations, officers noticed that they were also getting fatigued. Approaching people, getting them together, making sure a trigger was there, posting orders, etc. are all part of the job, and individual parts that they consider fun, but there is a certain grating quality to that when it’s done 17 days in a row with nothing to show for it. If defenders spread that effort around, that dreaded attrition fatigue will still remain an issue.

The Future

So we’ve learned a few things, but how do we put that into practice? I think we, as raiders in general, need to continue to show the futility of attrition runs as a viable tool in the long-term, and I believe doing so will help us with all our other operations too.

We should make it culture that update is seen as a chore for defenders, something to be called to when they would like to waste their time. We should make it culture that the first person to show up dreads the update ahead, and is reluctant to notify their fellow defenders. Others should say “hey, nobody spotting yet? Ok, I’m not gonna bother, I think I’m gonna go eat a banana.” Yet another can say “oh hey, I’ve never spotted before, help me out?” and receive no reply.

We should make it culture that defender leadership is empowered to attempt actual liberations. RIASF Officer Scez, SPSF Officer Vietnam, the Warden-Constables Birdkeeper and Dolen, etc. are all in leadership positions in their respective militaries, and they should show it! Not only should we encourage them to improve the quality of their operations, we should help them do so by making sure they know everything that needs doing. We should trust them enough that we can give this information to them and expect them to continue to do nothing. Finally, a very convenient side-effect is that it increases fatigue on the commanders, and gives the officers more incentive to leave defending altogether.

We should make it culture that update isn’t just those 60-120 minutes of the game processing all the regions in order, but rather an event with complete raider dominance and defender angst, starting long before update begins and going long after update ends. These are the things that make Lone Wolves United one of the most accomplished crasher regions in NationStates, and it’s not going to change any time soon.

-- LinkDepartment of Organized Media, Lone Wolves United

Funkadelia

Edited:

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