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Working with Raiders
Topic Started: Jun 29 2015, 10:24 PM (70 Views)
Jakker Jun 29 2015, 10:24 PM Post #1
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How has your experience of working with raiding organizations been? How have the relationships between you and your region with raiders develop over time? What do you see the future hold for your regions, non-raider regions, and raiders?

Please discuss the dynamic of non-raider regions working with raiders.
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OnderKelkia Jul 2 2015, 05:15 PM Post #2

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Although raider regions largely inhabit a different social and cultural milieu, the LKE and the Imperialist sphere as a whole have generally enjoyed good relationships with raiders. This encouraging state of affairs partly stems from mutual interests, with raider regions and Imperialist regions being able to reinforce each other's operations and defeat defender organisations together. At an operational level, cooperation between Imperialists and raiders can be explained by pragmatism on both sides. Yet the foundations of this cooperation have always rested on a degree of compatibility between the raider mind-set and Independence. Specific acts of cooperation between raiders and Imperialists can be explained by what they can offer each other, but the only reason why these relationships are possible is raiders' general tendency, compared to defenders, for accepting the Independence and sovereignty of political gameplay regions.

Raiders, unlike idealistic defenders, make no claims about how sovereign regions should behave. To enjoy good relations with the major defender organisations, the Imperialist regions would have had to abandon many of our offensive military operations. Raiders make no such demands in relation to defensive operations. Indeed, going beyond mere tolerance for defensive military action,The Black Riders supported the LKE's counter-invasion of The United Kingdom of Britain in June 2012, when we acted together against The Greater German Reich. The Black Riders also joined with the UIAF of the LKE, TNI and Albion in signing the Green Black Concordat and 'liberating' Anzia in March 2014. Defender regions seek to restrict the capacity of political gameplay regions to pursue military operations according to their foreign policies, so they are actively disinclined to tolerate Independence and refuse to support offensive military operations in the same way that some raiders have supported offensive military action. Raiders are therefore more straightforward partners for non-raider regions interested in military activity.

Both raider regions and Imperialist regions have benefited significantly from cooperation. In mid and late 2006, Great Britain and Ireland began the process of forging ties with raider regions, in particular DEN (and indeed newer imperialist regions) in order to broaden its ties beyond ACCEL. On 12th and 13th December 2006, several raider groups participated the siege battles in Iraq and Valhalla on behalf of the LKE and TNI respectively. Some raider groups even joined Pactium Imperium, the organisation founded by the LKE and TNI to organise inter-regional efforts against the FRA and the RLA. The Cathedral and the LKE undertook several joint operations in that period, including the occupation of The Plains of Karim. Since 2006, raider-imperialist military cooperation has only grown stronger, especially Imperialist cooperation with The Black Riders and The Black Hawks from 2011 onwards. Imperialist regions and raider regions have happily exchanged reinforcements for each other's operations.

Going beyond joint operations, raider regions have also provided personnel experienced in military matters to Imperialist regions. The New Inquisition in particular has benefited from a string of raiders brought in to lead its military. Some of these appointments were more effective than others. Belgium Fighters of DEN is the most successful example. He was brought in to command The New Inquisition Armed Forces (TNIAF) from April 2008 (roughly coinciding with my own arrival in TNI, from the LKE, in May 2008 to head up TNI's intelligence services). In the few short months before October of that year, Belgium Fighters successfully transformed TNIAF's capability and activity beyond the levels it had previously reached, raising it to a standard which it was not to reach again until late 2009. Evil Wolf and Savaer also had relatively brief stints commanding TNIAF, although less happened during these periods. The most recent example of a raider being brought in to head an imperialist region's military is Bob Moran of The Black Riders becoming Chief of the Imperial General Staff of the LKE. As I'm sure those reading this will already be aware, the outcome of Bob Moran's appointment was less than positive, not because of any deficiencies in his military leadership, but because of his use of an illegal recruitment script. Nonetheless, it is tantamount to the levels of trust between raider and Imperialist regions that senior raiders have loyally served as commanders of Imperialist regions' militaries.

Nonetheless, despite the general dynamics of positive relationships between raider regions and Imperialist regions, tensions have existed. Most disagreements between raider regions and Imperialist regions have been relatively minor and have been resolved through discussions at command level. The majority of such conflicts have fallen into one of three categories: differing priorities in the context of joint operations (including attitudes to native ejections); raider activity against Imperialist possessions or allies; suggestions that Imperialists should observe "Raider Unity". I take each of these three points in turn.

1. Differing priorities in the context of joint operations (including attitudes to native ejections)

As raiders primarily derive enjoyment from the excitement of the process of raiding on its own terms, seeing "R-D" as a game in itself rather as part of the wider political process, they often want an element of competition in military gameplay. That means that they want to give defenders a chance to win. For the LKE and TNI, whose reasons for raiding have little to do with finding it enjoyable (I have always found it most tedious), who are at war with the FRA and the UDL, and who are concerned about the propaganda surrounding military operations as well as the military battles, conducting operations in a way that allows defenders a chance of winning is anathema. On many occasions, I can recall dealing with requests to TNIAF or UIAF to limit the level of reinforcements we sent, because raiders wanted to give defenders the opportunity to try at a 'liberating' a region. On one occasion, where this contributed to defenders actually succeeding (ITALIA in April 2012), this caused great annoyance (not least because the UDL used the incident to mock TNIAF as well as the raiders involved) and there was a discussion within TNIAF command about whehter future reinforcements to raiders should be provided on a strictly all or nothing basis.

The other major area, where differing operational priorities have caused tensions between raiders and Imperialists, has been the treatment of natives. This is not because Imperialist regions like the LKE particularly care about natives or apply ethical principles to military gameplay. The entire basis of the ideologies of Independence and Imperialism is that universal morals should not be inappropriately adopted when dealing with in-game matters. So why do Imperialist regions sometimes object to raider activity in joint operations involving ejections, passwording and re-founding? Mainly this is because the Imperialist regions involved, being involved in political gameplay, have allies who don't share the same attitudes on these issues. A relatively recent example of this phenomenon was the Canada invasion and occupation in August 2014. The initial UIAF occupation was supported by a number of prominent political regions, such as Europeia, and was generally regarded (by those who use such terms) as a "non-griefing" raid. The subsequent TBH occupation heralded greater native ejections. Before handing the region over to TBH, the UIAF obtained a commitment that there would be no attempt at re-founding and discouraged a lengthy occupation, largely because of public opinion in allies who where uncomfortable with so-called 'griefing'.

A similar incident to Canada occurred in September 2012,.On this occasion, I actually went as far as to order TNI and LKE forces out of Hippiedom and Hell, putting the continued occupation at serious risk, after a misunderstanding arose when an assurance that natives not be ejected had not been communicated to the point nation, leading to natives being ejected; TNI had originally sought this assurance in order to request Europeia's assistance. We subsequently returned our forces after it was clarified the point nation was unaware of the assurance and the miscommunication was cleared up amicably. Differences of opinion on such matters have not been fatal to imperialist-raider cooperation because matters have been resolved through productive discussions. Nevertheless, the political nature of Imperialist and Independent regions means that we must have regard for such factors, which raider regions need not consider. This inevitably creates the potential for divergent approaches.
2. Raider activity against Imperialist possessions or allies

Imperialist regions will not tolerate military action against their colonies or allies. Most of the major raider regions, as close military partners of the Imperialist regions, generally avoid attacking regions associated with our interests. For instance, The Black Riders maintained an exclusion list of regions, supplied by LKE and TNI, exempted from its tagging operations. As a result of this, disagreements relating to raider attacks on targets connected to our interests were relatively rare.

When problems have arisen from raider attacks on Imperialist colonies or allies, they have often been capitalised on by those who seeking to create tensions between the Imperialist and raider spheres. To give an example, Frattastan and Karputsk of the FRA brought the issue of The Black Riders' invasion of Moldavia, an LKE colony (albeit under rebel control), into the public domain in February 2014. The matter had previously been resolved privately between the LKE and TBR, with LKE forces detagging the region after a TBR invasion. Due to the rarity of these incidents, raiders' efforts to avoid tagging Imperialist posessions and close working relationships between regional leaderships, multiple defender attempts to create division over this issue have been thwarted.

However, cooperation between the Imperialist sphere and the raider world generally involves the established raider regions, such as The Black Hawks. Amateurish raider groups, lacking any relationship with the imperialist sphere (or indeed with the principal raider regions), have occasionally been less respectful of LKE sovereignty, such as when, in March 2012, a small raider group invaded the former LKE colony of Cingeta. Such incidents have had no effect on the overall tenor of relations between raiders and Imperialists, as the Imperialist regions see the raider regions as individual entities.


3. Suggestions that Imperialists should observe "Raider Unity"

Rather than differing operational priorities or the occasional mishap in accidentally raiding a former LKE colony, the potentially most serious threat to harmony between raiders and imperialists has come from crude attempts at applying the idea of "Raider Unity" to the decisions and operations of Imperialist regions. I stress here that I am talking about the greatest potential threat to raider-imperialist relations rather than about the actual factor which has caused the greatest strain on relations. Most raider regions are respectful of the traditions and principles of Imperialism and Independence, so problems around supposed Imperialist non-compliance with "Raider Unity" have mainly originated from minority or extremist voices. While making references to "Raider Unity", Coraxion, a member of The Black Riders, consistently made ill-informed and unwise comments about UIAF operations, as well as remarks failing to appreciate the distinctions between Imperialist and raider regions. These comments have generally been ignored on the basis they lacked any official standing. The overall actual impact on relations between the Imperialist and raider spheres of these comments has been insignificant, but if Coraxion's views had been more widespread, the potential for disputes would have been much greater.

Another source of tensions between the Imperialist sphere and some raiders, regarding arguments over "Raider Unity", was Lone Wolves United's attitude towards The Greater German Reich, the Nazi region, in late 2011 and 2012. I withdrew TNI forces from LWU's invasion of Anarchy in protest of GGR's participation in the operation. Evil Wolf argued that GGR were covered by "Raider Unity", whereas our fundamental point was that as non-raider regions, we do not consider ourselves as bound by any such concept. Subsequently, when a coalition of Imperialist and Independent regions, led by the LkE, 'liberated' the former LKE colony of The United Kingdom of Britain from GGR in June 2012, tensions increased further; the LKE had also declared war on GGR, sparking a chain of declarations of war against GGR from other regions. Public complaints from Evil Wolf about the position of TNI and the LKE on this matter continued as late as March 2013. However, no other raider organisation expressed similar opinions, which limited the scope of the fallout, and, since that period, LWU and the Imperialist regions have enjoyed fruitful cooperation.
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Kraketopia Jul 3 2015, 01:55 AM Post #3
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The main raiding group that I have worked with is TBH, of which I only have positive things to say. While our ultimate goals differ - them wanting to raid because they love raiding and us wanting to accomplish foreign policy objectives - I have always found them easy to work with. Jakker in particular has always been very accommodating, and we've enjoyed a good working relationship (the mutual love of Seinfeld helps :P ).

We have worked with other raiding groups as well, and I've yet to have any issues with them. Raiders realize that if they choose to raid with us, there will be some restrictions applied, and they accept them going in. The ERN has always enjoyed working with raiding organizations; they're some of the most fun, awesome people.
Edited by Kraketopia, Jul 3 2015, 01:56 AM.
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