A March of War: Lazy_Comrade - Prologue

What is March of War? - A Prologue

During my freshman year at university, I found myself with a lot of spare time and a new laptop. Being a gamer, I quickly filled it with all sorts of games I found on Steam. During one of my quests to find a game worthy to sink my time into, I found a turn-based strategy game set in an alternate timeline of the World War 2 era. It seemed interesting, and I like strategy games, but March of war met my most important requirement: it was free. I downloaded it, and quickly did not play it. In fact, I did not play it for several months, which was one of my biggest regrets towards the end of my time in MoW. But after thinking about it, I doubt that the incredible story that I witnessed and helped shape, would have been the same if I had immediately started. In some ways, that would be extremely useful. There are some instances, events, conversations, wars, and battles that I would gladly erase from my past. However, I doubt that I would have made some of the very good friends that I have today. In short, I am glad that I waited, because it ensured that the story I am about to tell you is the way it is.
So, when I finally decided to load up March of War one boring afternoon, I was immediately hooked. The first step was to create a name for my character, and I had the perfect one. A few months before, I had come up with the alias “Lazy_Paladin” and had used it on a few occasions. I also toyed with using my username on Steam: “Brass_Monster” but quickly decided that Lazy_Paladin was the right choice. After selecting a name for your character, you had to choose one of six factions to align yourself with in the game. The factions each had a unique color, natural territory of the globe, and playstyles. This last part was extremely crucial, as I was about to find out.
Each faction’s playstyle was due to the units that a player of that faction had available to them in their army. Except for the infinite basic infantry, no factions shared any units with any other faction. The United Republic (or UR) was located in North America, and was a support-heavy faction. They had many units that gave buffs to others and had the widest range of artillery and airborne units. The European Alliance (EA) consisted of Europe plus Australia, and the majority of the MoW players. Their playstyle was expensive, durable, long-lasting units, with a massive amount of tanks. The African Warlords (AW) used beasts in their army, from rhinoceroses to the lumbering fortress of death, the Overlord, and had united all of Africa and the Middle East. The Shogun Empire (SE) was home to cheap, light armor and heavy use of fire weaponry and ruled over the majority of the South Pacific all the way to northern Mongolia. The Soviet Union (SU) was the “Jack of all trades” or “Master of none” of the six factions, with largely average, but extremely varied units, consisting of large mechanical “walkers”. The Latin Junta (LJ) was located in South America including modern day Mexico, and was the “Glass Cannon” of the factions: extremely fast, cheap, and powerful infantry and vehicles, but with low survivability.
All six of these factions were run completely by the players. There was no set story, progression, or timeline in place at all. This is the key element to everything that follows. Each faction had a High Command (HC) consisting of around 30 of the top ranked players, and a Faction Leader (FL) who was elected by the faction. The HC members could put attack votes on territories held by other factions and open battle fronts for their faction to fight on, and the FL could sign peace treaties with other FLs and give Hate Speeches (HS) against another faction which would increase their faction’s player’s effectiveness in war. Every other player was in charge of fighting the wars that their FL and HC ordered. The FL and HC could fight as well, but they needed the other players, because there were hundreds of active players in each faction.
The borders between these factions were in constant flux, and by the time the game was over, every faction had fought every other faction probably dozens of times. An election for FL was held every two weeks, and the members of the HC changed frequently as well. Because of this, agreements between two FLs could be overturned if a new FL was elected. HC members loyal to the current FL could be replaced by players loyal to another faction who had created another character to infiltrate an enemy’s HC. From there, they could not only gather intelligence, but also divert the faction’s players away from where they were needed. They could do this by either posting false orders and/or by opening fronts against the wrong faction. Alliances were made and broken, treaties were signed and violated, and promises were made and forgotten as the March of War continued on.
So, the globe was set up like a giant game of RISK, except that there were no turns, no dice, and it never stopped. Territories (Terrys) were battle zones decided upon by the HC, and victory or defeat was decided by the entirety of the faction. A territory was won or lost depending on Battle Points (BP). When a front was opened, each faction participating in the battle had a certain amount of BP that had to be drained from the other faction which was dependent on the population of the faction. For example, the LJ were consistently a very small faction population-wise. They would need to drain around 10,000 BP from their enemy. A larger faction, like the EA, would need to drain upwards of 40,000 BP. There were two battle options: PvE (Player vs. environment) and PvP (Player vs. Player). PvE offered much less BP than PvP, rewarding the player a few hundred BP per victory, but was much faster. Each player that achieved victory would drain BP from the opposing faction. The faction that drained all of the enemy’s BP would win the battle for the territory. Players could make a name for themselves in these battles for a front by “earning” a large amount of BP. During the late night shifts, it was not uncommon for a single player to claim a front by themselves.
Because of the uncertain nature of MoW, a maximum of three offensive fronts was in place for each faction. Not all of the offensive fronts had to be against the same faction, and defensive fronts could be filled by any number of attacking factions. I learned all of this information after asking a multitude of questions either in the World Chat, or of my first faction leader, Majik_Mewt. I had decided to align myself, Lazy_Paladin, with the LJ. I liked the idea of hit and run tactics, and powerful but fragile units. I quickly became hooked to the game, and would spend many hours throughout the day, and especially into the night, conquering territories for the glory of the Latin Junta, and defending the homeland against ravenous foreign dogs. Majik_Mewt was very helpful and patient with me and with all new players, and he was a leader that I followed every order from. Wherever he wanted us to fight, I fought. And I fought well. Or rather, well enough to gain the BP necessary to rise through the ranks of the faction. Every point of BP you drained from the enemy, you “earned” and it was put into a collective pool of BP that your character had earned. Players were ranked both within their faction, and globally, based on how much BP they had earned. Within a few weeks, I was getting close to being within range of the HC, but I did not really feel ready for that. I did not have a great understanding of the game, and its intricate politics and timing which is necessary for members of the HC.
I was also getting a little frustrated with my army, and was trying to play in a style that the units were not built for. I rarely beat any other players, and if I did, it was because of luck, or they were as inexperienced as I was. This further proved that I was not ready for the sacred chamber of the HC. My frustration and schoolwork eventually convinced me to leave MoW alone for a while, and I stopped playing for a few months, which was probably a good thing. I needed to rest for the coming storm.

Picture source: http://bsnscb.com/soviet-wallpapers.html