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That is not to say that this server was always doomed - in fact, at the start, we had a great time! So today I wish to answer three very important question pertaining to the fate of this server:
2. What is Russia in this server anyway?
3. What led to the World Wipe and was there anything that could have been done to prevent it?
1. Why did this server die?
Well, it's not a very difficult answer. Servers lose players naturally over time, as the initial hype dies down, however, I think everyone and their mother knows by now that the mass depopulation of Ethnica is caused by the Russian World Wipe. It's a thing any experienced e-sim player will tell you when a new server starts - Don't create an OP alliance, it will kill the server! - it has happened before. In this server most countries wisely tried to avoid this. I remember, back in the founding days of the now defunct alliance Balkans Bastards we discussed about how we should limit the amount of members in the alliance, so as to not destroy the server. We rejected several proposals because of this. The other alliances, such as the also now defunct Vendetta also kept themselves compact. However, this time we saw something completely different - it was not an alliance that destroyed the server, but a country.
2. What is Russia in this server anyway?
The first thing we need to understand when talking about Russia is what Russia actually is in Ethnica. The players are not actually Russians - they are, essentially, a very well organized PTO. In reality - they come from all across the globe and they are also considerably experienced players. This puts them naturally in a very good position - they can fight troughout both the day and night, and they know how to clutch batles well and not waste damage. They also have the discipline to know when a round is lost and should be conceded, rather than overspending to win it.
This does not mean that they cannot lose. We proved this several times, by defeating them in open battle, however, they have one advantage that was steadily growing since the start of this server and that is resources. Russia was taking regions left and right - upgrading their productivity significantly. They are now at the point where at any day they can rely on having a nice stock of Q5 weapons to fight with buffs in any battle they want. They can also afford luxuries such as houses and estates and have the food and gifts to supply them. Now let us see how and why this happened...
3. What led to the World Wipe and was there anything that could have been done to prevent it?
From the first days of this server, I knew that Russia would be a strong country, however, it seems as though many governments failed to spot this. Russia was taking regions very aggresively - Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, South Korea, USA, Canada and Poland were among the first. They also signed a "ceasefire" with Norway, which required Norway to pay them gold and prohibited their mercenaries from fighting against Russia. At this point, Russia was bordering with Romania and Croatia - members of the Balkans Bastards alliance.
War was inevitable at this point and surely enough it began. I expected mostly a stalemate - however Russia managed to beat both Romania and Croatia and started encroaching on their territorries. This is when the world leaders had their first chance to realize the potential of Russia and had a chance to stop it. This, however, did not happen. Russia kept winning battle after battle - and at this point, I made the choice to abandon my colonial ambitions in order to stop Russia. We called on the world to realize that they are a threat to the server and need to be stopped. Russia's Empire had a major achillie's heel at this point. This was the region of Mazuria. It was a bridge to all of Russia's holdings in Europe. If it would fall - Russia would be forced to fight at -20% in all battles in Europe.
Trough a quick but descisive intervention, Bulgaria, with help from locals, managed to not only Liberate Mazuria and as such destroy their bridge to Europe, but also Sheki (their bridge to the Caucasus) and Alaska (their bridge to America)
As you can see in the images above - we managed to destroy all of Russia's bridges in one day. This was our invitation to the world - then was the time to put an end to the Russian Threat. Sadly, however, our invitation was rejected by the world, many of whoom seemed not to care all that much about the purple blob that is devouring the map.
"They will never reach us", wold leaders thought, "perhaps we should ally with them instead", thought others.
This major opportunity was missed. We were left to fight alone against an enemy with a lot more productivity than ours. Shortly thereafter - Russia regained its bridges.
Several governments, formerly allied with us decided to turn their back on us and allied with Russia - which led to the disintegration of the Balkans Bastards alliance.
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Opportunity 2 - Russia, now having added the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bosnia, Norway, parts of Sweden and Serbia to their empire was now definitely a threat to the server. Again I appealed to the major alliances of the server for a mass intervention - it would have caused a World War, but we could have won.
Surely enough - war broke out between Namibia (Then a powerful colonial country and a member of the then powerful Vendetta alliance) and Russia. This was the second time when Russia could have been defeated. They were not powerful enough back then to defeat the entire alliance plus Bulgaria and the resistance of the occupied countries. However, that is not what happened.
The Vendetta alliance fell appart almost instantly - several alliance members refused to help Namibia in battles and some even went so far as to offer Russia an alliance! Namibia was left without backup and surely enough - they lost all of their colonial holdings, and soon thereafter - their cores. This marked an important milestone in the war - with the Russian occupation of the region of Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania - a second bridge was opened to Russia and from then on, defeating them would be much harder. We fought as much as our supply allowed us to in Bulgaria - but without backup at this point it was simply not enough and we fell around the same time as well.
So what did the turncoat countries get for supporting Russia? A promotion to full slave member - Russia betrayed them in the same way as they betrayed us and deleted them from the map. This opened Sheki as a third Russian bridge to Europe, essentially removing their achillie's heel entirely.
Mexico and China decided to join Russia and were voluntarily annexed. At this point the server started losing players at an astonishing rate. The second great opportunity to unite and defeat Russia was missed. So, what then?
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Opportunity 3 - Around mid-december, we organized a meeting and invited the governments of all nations occupied by Russia to join, as well as the Algerian government. The idea was simple - start coordinated RWs and force Russia to surrender several regions per day. It worked - at the start - we managed to liberate two out of the three Russian bridges, even though they had defence systems, but quickly we found out that several governments didn't care much and refused to join, others would rather support Russia. We had some support from Algeria, although we found that major elements in their society did not wish to help us.
With the failure of many countries to fight for their own freedom, this attempt ran out of steam after a few tries. On the 5th of January 2017, Algeria fell to a Russian PTO with a member of the Russian mission elected as President of Algeria. After this, Algeria decided to give regions to Russia.
With this, effectively the server is over. There is no force great enough to stop Russia anymore. They have way too much production and can crush any opposition.
So what now? Well, this screws Russia over even more than it does us - let me explain. This Russian conquest didn't pop out of thin air. They paid lots of real money in order to setup their organization, however, they made the major mistake of destroying the very server that they paid for. World conquest is supposed to be done in the last month or two of the server. Since they decided to press so hard that they wiped the map - they caused a complete crash in the server population, which, as I mentioned, is only going to deepen.
What this means is that Russia will have a great empire, but nobody to covet it. They will have the best MUs - but no worthy opponent to fight. They will have tons of production, but noone to trade with. They will play by themselves for the rest of the server - and keep in mind - at the point that this article was written, it's just about only halfway over.
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About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. It's creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.