NationStates Jolt Archive

I have seen a tendancy on NS for players to fight for genocide, rather than an actual goal. In real life, what nation fights to immolate his opponent? Wars have reasons, such as conquest and spoils, pre-emptive strikes, or retaliation. But a lot of NS conflict seems to revolve around annihilation, beyond even "Total War" in RL. There is no other goal other than to vaporize every enemy on the face of the Earth (or space). I think that the WMD whoring is not the disease, but the symptom of this dysfunctional combat ideology.

This is a thread for open discussion on NS conflict, not on RL conflict; keep politics in General.

Keep in mind that a majority of the people waging war in NationStates will not have any military background, and very limited knowledge of war and strategy.

Very true, and while I do not expect everyone to have deep technical knowledge, some basic data on why and how to fight would be vastly appreciated.

This is related to the "Bad Tactics" syndrome explained below (In depth RPing removed to give brief statements):

A:I advance.
B:My soldiers fall back in the center, but not the flanks.
A:I advance.
B:My sides fold in on you, flanking your soldiers.
A:I fight through.
B:OOC: Dude, you can't just waltze out of a trap like that.
A:OOC: My troops are good. They fight through.
B:I call air support and fall back.
A:I shoot down your jets with my AK.
B:OOC: Screw this, I'm out.

Keep in mind that a majority of the people waging war in NationStates will not have any military background, and very limited knowledge of war and strategy.

You don't really need a large amount of tactical knowlage to be able to pull off a NS war.

I figure, if you can know enough to play a stratigy game with something other than "mass attack" then you should be fine.

Can anyone give me a reason for the Extermination Warfare waged on NS?

(Other than "My people hate everyone else! BWAHAHA!")

Hmm, I have never seen very many war RPs turn out that badly oddly enough.

Can anyone give me a reason for the Extermination Warfare waged on NS?

(Other than "My people hate everyone else! BWAHAHA!")

Revenge.

Or

If there is no other way to deal with a particular threat.

Can anyone give me a reason for the Extermination Warfare waged on NS?

(Other than "My people hate everyone else! BWAHAHA!")

Revenge.

Or

If there is no other way to deal with a particular threat.
Slagging a country with nukes b/c of a previous attack (unless WMD itself) would prompt an international outcry and terrible things like getting overrun. The second is a valid reason, but I'm talking about incidents like the Belem/Raysia conflict a month ago when both sides cluster-nuked each other, then said it didn't happen.

Can anyone give me a reason for the Extermination Warfare waged on NS?

(Other than "My people hate everyone else! BWAHAHA!")

Revenge.

Or

If there is no other way to deal with a particular threat.
Slagging a country with nukes b/c of a previous attack (unless WMD itself) would prompt an international outcry and terrible things like getting overrun. The second is a valid reason, but I'm talking about incidents like the Belem/Raysia conflict a month ago when both sides cluster-nuked each other, then said it didn't happen.

No no, not the type of revenge I'm talking about.

I'm talking like a Blood deep revenge, like "you killed my uncle, brother, sister, mother, father, son, daughter, granfather, relative up to the 'nth generation AND my dog AND you raped my cat" type of revenge. Doesn't have to be a nuke either.

Hah hah, but since when did Belem or Raysia ever make sense in the real world?

I think.. a lot of the time folk don't like to loose, and as such will elevate a skirmish that is going badly for them into a no-holds-barred war so that they can pull-out all the stops, as they say.

The Three Day War in Dra-pol (or Kurosian's Rage as it is known on the other side) was a nice enough skirmish, and it didn't last long, as the Drapoel title suggests.. however it left too many loose ends and as more nations became involved in the unresolved situation it began to look more and more like a competition, and suddenly above three million people were dead from a series of wars unsettled three years later.

...Most of it was still fairly good fun though.

There are skirmishes and realistic actions out there, but often I think it is best to define them before hand, at least to some degree. I suppose the issue is in striking a blanace between agreeing defined reasonable action and avoidance of sucking-the-fun-out-of-it.

Oh, yes, I am suffering from a degree of sleep deprivation and am struggling to reach any solid conclusions.. thank you for noticing. Heh. Em. Sometimes it is well to prepare oneself for loss on a small scale so as to avoid loss on a larger scale.

Keep in mind that a majority of the people waging war in NationStates will not have any military background, and very limited knowledge of war and strategy.

I think that is the whole symptom of the disease, they always make reference to things they have found on-line in some technology area and introduce it in here when in RL, most of those things are just concepts and ideas when the military would not/could not use it.

I served in the Navy and the idea of stealth ship is so funny, the Navy does have 1 and cannot get around the fact that salt water makes this beautiful trail of white that can be seen as far away as space (WWII planes tracked ships by the trail and not an actual visual), if it was a grand idea, would you not see a whole fleet like that? Think about it.

I think.. a lot of the time folk don't like to loose, and as such will elevate a skirmish that is going badly for them into a no-holds-barred war so that they can pull-out all the stops, as they say.


You make a good point. It's almost like a working example of "Massive Retaliation." well..kinda...

Anyway, I think a lot of it has to do with people maybe taking it a little too seriously. By nature, most people simply don't want to lose. Therefore even a pretend fight becomes somewhat serious. I'm tired, so I apologize for the ambiguity of my point here, but the best way I can think of to explain it is through example: Many people have play-fights with their friends. Just joking around, and what-not. But the minute that one person lands an actual hit (even if it is accidental) the whole thing escalates, and it's suddenly not for play anymore. Usually takes a third party to stop it at that point.

In the real world, the pressures and influences are more greatly felt. In NS, it's nothing more than words. Perhaps if players could see the effects of battles on their countries (ie, population decreases, economic drains, etc.), and if they had strong ties to their country as they would IRL, we might not see this phenomenon so often.

I served in the Navy and the idea of stealth ship is so funny, the Navy does have 1 and cannot get around the fact that salt water makes this beautiful trail of white that can be seen as far away as space (WWII planes tracked ships by the trail and not an actual visual)
I've never heard of this. That's actually really interesting.