A Dilettante into Politics

[MCRABT]

[quote name='Azaghul' timestamp='1299114945' post='2650230']
How "competitive" and "even" does it have to be? Every side has the exact same set of nations with the exact same levels of activity?[/quote]

The more competitive a war is then naturally the more fun it will be. I realise the odds of an even war are near on non-existent but the closer you get to even the more fun it will be for everyone.

[quote]This war is relatively even, compared to most wars in the past. The simple fact of the matter is we are never going to have a completely even war. And we are never going to have a functioning war if the first response of whoever has a disadvantage is to run to peace mode at the first sign of trouble.[/quote]

And we will never have a competitive or fun cycle if the response to war by the winning party is to slam the their defeated opponents into the shackles of reparations for the next six months. Nor if we attack alliances for no reason because they are threatening to compete, the honous is on the dominant party to seek out a cause for war in order that it has some line of thought to justify what it is doing, otherwise this isn't really politics is it? The argument on whether or not a war is valid is part of the "fun" and part of the politics.

[quote]If they don't want war, they should declare neutrality. Or disband and all join neutral alliances as we have enough neutral alliances. This game of running to peace mode when the numbers are against you is pathetic (OOC: It will kill the game too, this game needs war to be interesting).[/quote]

It is a tactic of war there is no denying it is not the "fun" way of fighting wars but it is a bi-product of killing competitiveness with heavy reparations and wars for the sake of it. A good war should read like a beautiful narrative, there should be fuel, a spark then finally flames.

[quote]NPO had had peace for nearly a year and half. That was plenty of time to develop. And 1-2 years is way to long to give people to "develop" and keep things interesting. We need wars a lot more often then that. As I said in my topic a while ago, when the system of CBs failed to produce war in a reasonable period of time, we had to bypass it.[/quote]

They developed militarily, politically they were just beginning to piece together some sort of political opposition. It is no fault of yours that they were ineffective in their FA efforts and it took them so long to develop anything nearing an opposition. Indeed they have no one to blame but themselves for that. However as the status-quo the honous is on you to find a cause for war, if you couldn't find one it is a clear sign that they were not politically developed enough to be anything near a competitive player.


[quote]I agree about reparations. I only support reparations as way to punish people for peace mode (and as an added incentive to get out) if we have to, and NPO won't be getting peace with so many in peace regardless.[/quote]

Why would you want to punish someone for fighting a war, the whole basis of this debate is that war is fun. If war is fun for everyone involved then punishing them for participating in it is non-sensical. As for the peace mode problem, as has been well documented in this thread the most effective way to deal with that is simply not allow them to surrender until they exit peace mode. Threatening them with reparations after they have fought is likely only to prolong their stay in peace mode. If they know they can exit peace mode and have a good clean fight for x amount of days then they are allowed to retire, regroup and re-organize then we will have not only a more fluid cycle of warfare but also a more competitive one.

Reparations are effective in ensuring only the following:

- They act as a deterrent for war and are therefore a deterrent for fun.
- They prop up the status-quo thus inhabiting competition and by association fun.



[quote]This war is much more even, and we have "allowed" it to be much more even, than any of the wars since possibly the great wars. NPO wasn't going to win but it was far from going to be just a curbstomp.
[/quote]

I've known this war would be a curb stomp from day 1 and I am not psychic.