Subject: Non-aligned banding together...

Message: ...for Mutual Defense!

Rather than being on your own against alliances or picking on other non-aligned, please consider joining our guerrilla army of independent nations. NONE offers a place for non-aligned nations to connect with, mentor and defend each other in fighting under extremely adverse conditions.

THIS IS NOT AN ALLIANCE, but we have one rule: Offensive wars of any kind are strictly prohibited. Don't worry; we will get plenty of action defending each other.

We have a well-organized, effective defensive combat system and a solid corps of experienced fighters who have never surrendered -- and never will. Few want to tangle with us more than once. We are constantly learning and adapting in our aim to make victimizing independent nations costly.

Your nation won't grow large in NONE, but it will grow hard and formidable. You will come to know what it is like to be hated, feared and respected as a warrior.

If you pledge to defend yourself and help other non-aligned under attack, you are welcome to register here:
http://s10.zetaboards.com/TE_Non_Aligned

We also are on good terms with several alliances and are willing to consider non-aggression agreements. Diplomats are welcome to register also.

EDIT: New flag

I have checked to see first if it is OK to bump old recruiting threads before posting this, and it seems that it is OK. I wanted to tag this explanation here rather than create a new thread on what NONE's purpose is so potential recruits and outsiders can understand where we are coming from.

A newer member of NONE asked this question and I wanted to offer my answer here so others can see.

I originally founded NONE in Standard with all of us indistinguishable from the non-aligned. The purpose was to create an element of uncertainty amongst tech-raiders.

The wimps who hide behind alliances while victimizing the non-aligned basically look at those who do not wish to play the alliance system to have to pay for their independence by being subject to continual attack. They hope to use perpetual violence to either motivate the non-aligned to join their alliances or serve as tech-cows/punching bags. Those who fight back are subject to be gang-attacked "Tech-raid, accept peace or ZI."

Those who were non-aligned in Standard in the first year can tell you that it was not always this way; most spent the better part of that year with hardly any action. In those days, non-aligned were largely left alone so long as they didn't start fights.
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Anyway, we quickly found that when we fought alongside each other as indistinguishable from other non-aligned, we would be gang-attacked by alliances that didn't even have treaties with the original aggressor alliance. We were at one point facing 5 alliances each of which was much larger than our group and suffered multiple first-strike nukes. They demanded apologies, "reparations," extortion, POW status, etc.

That was because the other alliances were outraged that non-aligned would be banding together for self-defense.

They used force to either subjugate us or wipe us out with the object of making sure that those who tech-raided the non-aligned could do so with assurance that it was safe to do so because their victims would be operating once more in complete isolation.

We never surrendered and IMO, this is why I was designated EZI [an OOC ZI that follows the user even after his/her nation is deleted and a new persona is created] in Standard and anyone found associating with me were hounded from the game. Excepting for an ignominious few who actually joined the enemy during a war of extermination against us, nearly all of us either left the game for good or went underground in Standard.

We have experimented with being open in TE and so far are doing OK.
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I would prefer that we did not have to capitalize our AA as NONE and distinguish ourselves from the other non-aligned. That would allow us to be more of an agent of deterrent, but for the reasons I explained above, that simply is not possible even in TE.

As we have seen from discussions in OWF, the tech-raiding alliances simply cannot abide living with non-aligned who defend each other. Even two non-aligned who do so will typically be subject to being driven from the game. Non-aligned who defend each other are viewed by this sort of bully as being guilty of entrapment for appearing to be all alone with our juicy tech and thus view tech-raiders who find themselves facing coordinated resistance as victims.
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Given this, we capitalize our AA as NONE so those who wish to avoid us can do so and so we can be "allowed" to survive. Also we still hope to provide some kind of haven for non-aligned who are willing to participate and abide by our singular rule of reserving our military for defense.

I am not looking for agreement here, but hope at least our position can be understood as sincere, consistent and well-thought-out.

Good luck!

Wonder how many people are going to tholl this thread Oo

Elsewhere, someone offered a definition of an alliance to "prove" that we are an alliance, but I think that "confederation" is more accurate. Some definitions that I have found:

A group of confederates, especially of states or nations, united for a common purpose; a league

A group of sovereign states, each of which is free to act independently from the others

A form of government where major geographical subdivisions of the country have their own governmental organizations and retain independent rights of policy making and decisions that cannot be overridden by the main government.

Excepting in the case of NONE, there is no main government. We do have a ranking system that is based upon participation, so in some ways NONE is a military unit.

I think confederation is better and I shall refer to our members as "confederates."

On another note, the Angolan flag that we are currently using was originally used by GOONS in Standard until their Something Awful flag was incorporated in-game. They then disappeared from the game for a time and lost their flag. When they reconstituted later, they have reverted to the Angolan flag once more.

GOONS

So we should find another flag, I think.

Will advise....

If you are someone who doesn't like to be lost in a big alliance or if you merely find tech-raiding immoral, then I'd say NONE is a great choice for you. Some people just don't like the rigidness or the rules you find in an alliance. They value freedom. There are no overly stringent political doctrines to follow, no oppressive orders from above from people telling you what to do with your own nation. The rules of NONE are simple enough to follow, do so, and you'll still have protection from people who will fight to the death for you. NONE FIGHTS for their own.

For those who don't like tech-raiding NONE is perfect for you in this respect. Not only does NONE not endorse any of their own members tech-raiding, it's your best chance to make a stand against the practice because unwary tech raiders get punished readily by NONE. It's TE and you'll still get all the war you could ever find or ask for. In NONE, these wars come to you.

I am not a member of NONE but I can still respect their philosophy.
NONE is an honorable group dedicated to an honorable stand for their principles.

^^^ The above post is currently being reviewed by NONE membership.

I calls 'em as I sees 'em.
Did I get any of the details wrong?

No, which is why we are astonished.

Personally I find the concept of NONE reprehensible. How dare you organize yourselves for the defense of your rights as sovereign rulers? What gives you the insolence to think that just because you fly a certain flag and locate yourselves on a certain color that we should be able to identify you? Not everyone has the time to log into your forums and check your member lists you know- we only have the time to steal your tech! And your organization is pitiful. It took a whole 20 minutes for me to get a reply about a potential NONE ghost, and then another 10 minutes until NONE took action against him!
This NONE threat must be ended. I call on all Tournament players to attack NONE wherever they find them...oh wait...we already do that...

I guess we'll have to put that shopping mall project off a bit longer.

tl;dr: If you find tech-raiding immoral, yet still love to war, join NONE.


Most. Sarcasm. EVA.

Not at all; I actually think that there should be a set group of peopole to serve as my tech farms. It's kinda like the massive cattle farms out west that make sure the McDonalds burgers are cheap and plentiful. And just like the McDonalds cows, I prefer that my targets not fight back.

Well, we've made it more sporting...