Published in United States of America - Warfare analysis - 27 Dec 2018 10:31 - 22
The Taiwan campaign is over after less than a week of fighting. One of the most powerful and stocked countridesh in IM, getting high levels of support from its allies, is completely obliterated.
Why is this?
According to many players on the losing side, VISA, and VISA alone.
I'm writing this article as a followup to the Art of War to prove something else. No, Pantheon didn't win through brilliant organization or brilliant strategy. In many ways, Pantheon organization is horrible.
It won because of less bad strategy. I'm publishing this article because I want future campaigns to be more challenging and for all sides to better understand what goes into a successful campaign.
Opening Moves
Taiwan found out about the US invasion through a leak before it began, and smartly raised an RW in Luzon. By releasing Luzon, they could block-attack the region after the USA took Visayas. The battle of Visayas started and was until then the largest battle to date. IM team spirit was far better than Pantheon's, so the USA's victory was narrow. However, this battle should have never been fought. The correct way to defend against a stronger country is to delay them, let them get to your cores, put DS5 in the capital, as this is the only region that matters. Taking the capital means a lot of players wake up in a foreign country and quit, while many players also forget to move or don't do it for days. As USA demonstrated in WW1, as long as you hold the capital region, you can't be wiped and your damage does not decrease. The task of a weaker defender is to keep their stock in tact and make the attacker waste until they get to the capital, then hold the DS at all costs.
War of Maneuver
After Visayas, I was able to attack Luzon before Taiwan. This meant the Luzon "blocking" plan backfired since USA got a free region instead and didn't even need to fight a battle for it. Taiwan then attacked Visayas before the Luzon battle could finish calculating (so I couldn't move onto Tainan), which was the correct thing to do.
DS5 Catastrophe
The correct move for Taiwan at this point would have been to RW Luzon, rush the Luzon RW, and to put a DS in Tainan and build a giant wall in Tainan. This would have delayed the US conquest of Taipei by over 160 hours. To demonstrate on map - the black line is the original invasion route, and the red is the alternate invasion route:
Red involved a DoW on China, which owned Fujian, and would have been much longer. Additionally, by winning RW Luzon and Tainan, the enemy had the initiative for 24 hours, and would have forced us to retake Luzon after that.
Instead, Irregular Militia raised an RW in Visayas, a completely useless region, and only built a 40 million wall for the Tainan DS. At the same time, we had 6 RWs on our bonuses. Instead of bashing down the DS with brute force, which would have failed, USA put DO on all the RWs. I put Ace in charge of organizing a bomb squad on short notice, and he did a masterful job of that. We also hired mercs, so we were able to do a sudden bomb-hit and crush the DS.
The fact that the enemy chose to rush Visayas in the last seconds instead of building a bigger wall for the DS was a sign of amateur MCing. Good MCs care about winning, bad MCs care about "waste". The biggest waste is losing. The enemy dumped 60 million into Visayas that could have been used to secure their DS and delay the USA for a week.
After the DS5 disaster, Taiwan largely gave up. They took 15 minutes to RW Tainan, and put DO on that battle instead of the direct battle. You should always put DO on the direct battle all wars and try to snipe the RWs, because whoever wins the direct battle gets the initiative and can attack for the next 24 hours.
Capital Battle
Ace and Gerachi organized an armored squadron for the US on short notice, and we supplied them with large amounts of guns to drop their damage in the early minutes of the Taipei battle. The reason for this is that the correct move for Taiwan would have been to wait for us to attack, then put a DS5 in the region, so we had to get our damage out before they put down the DS5.
To put down a DS was probably IM's plan. I say this because their command was apparently in shock that we dumped 200 million in the first minutes of the battle, making any possible DS useless - Taiwan did not move the capital for 9 hours after the battle started, and there was no coordinated effort to m-message and move people out of Taipei.
What ensued after was both hilarious and sad. Some IM citizens were trying to convince us in general chat that the capital was useless, and that the HOSPITAL EXPIRED TOMORROW ANYWAY. The point of attacking a capital was never to take down a hospital, only to trap large numbers of people in our country. 2 days after the battle, 60% of Taiwan's MU still had not moved away from the USA, and the country's damage output dropped dramatically.
Capital battle the 2nd
Taiwan moved the capital to a region vulnerable to RW - Central China. To give them credit, this was not as stupid as some Pantheon supporters have claimed. USA bordered all their cores, so there was nowhere to run to. USA opened RW and sniped it the next day. To this day, Taiwan still has not moved its capital. Because of game mechanics, this means that they have almost no bonus from company production. Another huge number of Taiwanese players have still not moved from Central China, and are trapped in the PRC.
It must have been the VISAs
After defeat, crying intensified. Clearly, the Taiwan campaign was won only by my VISA.
However, there are 2 problems with this theory.
First, 13 of the top 20 players are IM or allies of IM. Only 6 are Pantheon, and 1 is a merc. IM/NL has always had more VISAs than Pantheon. Both IM and Pantheon have 1 supertank each.
Second, how much money you spend is far less important than how you spend it. This entire war, I have bought only 2 energy packs. Having built 9 WQ5 early in the game, I make enough to buy EB with gold and to supply myself for free.
So, if the VISA argument is bull, why do people keep bringing it up?
It's not good propaganda. It's actually the opposite. If my wallet is so invincible, then it follows that you all should just give up and submit, and that's what people do - just give up - when they hear this argument.
It's because it's easy to stomach.
We lost because victory was hopeless. Diesel spent too much money, so we never could have won. The game is imbalanced, woe is us. Winning is impossible, so let's all just give up.
This is just like old people who say their deaths are God's will. In game, MasterCard is a God that can decide your fate, and there is nothing you can do about it.
This theory is depressing and pathetic. However, it's far easier to stomach than the truth:
IM could have won this war and the last one, if only the MC team was better.
Why is this?
According to many players on the losing side, VISA, and VISA alone.
I'm writing this article as a followup to the Art of War to prove something else. No, Pantheon didn't win through brilliant organization or brilliant strategy. In many ways, Pantheon organization is horrible.
It won because of less bad strategy. I'm publishing this article because I want future campaigns to be more challenging and for all sides to better understand what goes into a successful campaign.
Opening Moves
Taiwan found out about the US invasion through a leak before it began, and smartly raised an RW in Luzon. By releasing Luzon, they could block-attack the region after the USA took Visayas. The battle of Visayas started and was until then the largest battle to date. IM team spirit was far better than Pantheon's, so the USA's victory was narrow. However, this battle should have never been fought. The correct way to defend against a stronger country is to delay them, let them get to your cores, put DS5 in the capital, as this is the only region that matters. Taking the capital means a lot of players wake up in a foreign country and quit, while many players also forget to move or don't do it for days. As USA demonstrated in WW1, as long as you hold the capital region, you can't be wiped and your damage does not decrease. The task of a weaker defender is to keep their stock in tact and make the attacker waste until they get to the capital, then hold the DS at all costs.
War of Maneuver
After Visayas, I was able to attack Luzon before Taiwan. This meant the Luzon "blocking" plan backfired since USA got a free region instead and didn't even need to fight a battle for it. Taiwan then attacked Visayas before the Luzon battle could finish calculating (so I couldn't move onto Tainan), which was the correct thing to do.
DS5 Catastrophe
The correct move for Taiwan at this point would have been to RW Luzon, rush the Luzon RW, and to put a DS in Tainan and build a giant wall in Tainan. This would have delayed the US conquest of Taipei by over 160 hours. To demonstrate on map - the black line is the original invasion route, and the red is the alternate invasion route:
Red involved a DoW on China, which owned Fujian, and would have been much longer. Additionally, by winning RW Luzon and Tainan, the enemy had the initiative for 24 hours, and would have forced us to retake Luzon after that.
Instead, Irregular Militia raised an RW in Visayas, a completely useless region, and only built a 40 million wall for the Tainan DS. At the same time, we had 6 RWs on our bonuses. Instead of bashing down the DS with brute force, which would have failed, USA put DO on all the RWs. I put Ace in charge of organizing a bomb squad on short notice, and he did a masterful job of that. We also hired mercs, so we were able to do a sudden bomb-hit and crush the DS.
The fact that the enemy chose to rush Visayas in the last seconds instead of building a bigger wall for the DS was a sign of amateur MCing. Good MCs care about winning, bad MCs care about "waste". The biggest waste is losing. The enemy dumped 60 million into Visayas that could have been used to secure their DS and delay the USA for a week.
After the DS5 disaster, Taiwan largely gave up. They took 15 minutes to RW Tainan, and put DO on that battle instead of the direct battle. You should always put DO on the direct battle all wars and try to snipe the RWs, because whoever wins the direct battle gets the initiative and can attack for the next 24 hours.
Capital Battle
Ace and Gerachi organized an armored squadron for the US on short notice, and we supplied them with large amounts of guns to drop their damage in the early minutes of the Taipei battle. The reason for this is that the correct move for Taiwan would have been to wait for us to attack, then put a DS5 in the region, so we had to get our damage out before they put down the DS5.
To put down a DS was probably IM's plan. I say this because their command was apparently in shock that we dumped 200 million in the first minutes of the battle, making any possible DS useless - Taiwan did not move the capital for 9 hours after the battle started, and there was no coordinated effort to m-message and move people out of Taipei.
What ensued after was both hilarious and sad. Some IM citizens were trying to convince us in general chat that the capital was useless, and that the HOSPITAL EXPIRED TOMORROW ANYWAY. The point of attacking a capital was never to take down a hospital, only to trap large numbers of people in our country. 2 days after the battle, 60% of Taiwan's MU still had not moved away from the USA, and the country's damage output dropped dramatically.
Capital battle the 2nd
Taiwan moved the capital to a region vulnerable to RW - Central China. To give them credit, this was not as stupid as some Pantheon supporters have claimed. USA bordered all their cores, so there was nowhere to run to. USA opened RW and sniped it the next day. To this day, Taiwan still has not moved its capital. Because of game mechanics, this means that they have almost no bonus from company production. Another huge number of Taiwanese players have still not moved from Central China, and are trapped in the PRC.
It must have been the VISAs
After defeat, crying intensified. Clearly, the Taiwan campaign was won only by my VISA.
However, there are 2 problems with this theory.
First, 13 of the top 20 players are IM or allies of IM. Only 6 are Pantheon, and 1 is a merc. IM/NL has always had more VISAs than Pantheon. Both IM and Pantheon have 1 supertank each.
Second, how much money you spend is far less important than how you spend it. This entire war, I have bought only 2 energy packs. Having built 9 WQ5 early in the game, I make enough to buy EB with gold and to supply myself for free.
So, if the VISA argument is bull, why do people keep bringing it up?
It's not good propaganda. It's actually the opposite. If my wallet is so invincible, then it follows that you all should just give up and submit, and that's what people do - just give up - when they hear this argument.
It's because it's easy to stomach.
We lost because victory was hopeless. Diesel spent too much money, so we never could have won. The game is imbalanced, woe is us. Winning is impossible, so let's all just give up.
This is just like old people who say their deaths are God's will. In game, MasterCard is a God that can decide your fate, and there is nothing you can do about it.
This theory is depressing and pathetic. However, it's far easier to stomach than the truth:
IM could have won this war and the last one, if only the MC team was better.
Support
ShiroeThe ShamanThe ShamanKosingasPunisherBRDrethAlcekComments (22)
First
Rename it to: How to win against Pantheon 101. Great job, Diesel o7
Diesel-sensei teaching those IM kiddos
4θ
o7
Anyway throwing 240M damage in a battle from a single player was demoralizing for enemy and irregular or DO players who do not spent many resources in this battle thinking is useless anyway.If Celio the Brazilian supertank had been throwed 200M too the moral of IM can (maybe) become restored and could turn the battle. Amurica concentrate his strenght in a single point (as Napoleon said sic) and had victory.
Anyway congratz Pantheon, is one of rare moments when we see a coherent strategy and an idea of... how to play. o7
o7
Didnt read
Ha ha why ?
VISA 
@guepo maybe you should. Tired of hearing your crying in world chat
Didn t read lol 
Your IQ is not more then 20. I wrote you one more time maybe this time you got point. We made mistakes, but thats only because lack of gold. Its going easy when u hire KFC to rush on DS5. Tai have not this gold. 95% countrys not.
2. Most powerfull country in our alliance Brazil have an agreement with you. Not fight each other. What are we talking about?? Its really smart move, says all about real balance in this game
3. Tai had great support of Korea, Indonesia, Georgia all the other countrys are wiped, almost wiped or NAPed. America has more NAPs than MPPs.
You all knows this and publish some celebrating articles. It would be shame for me. But thats you right. Thank God we are not all the same.
This is not crying, thats facts. I dont care about some region. On this way of playin you can wipe us xD
First, 13 of the top 20 players are IM or allies of IM. Only 6 are Pantheon, and 1 is a merc. IM/NL has always had more VISAs than Pantheon. Both IM and Pantheon have 1 supertank each. Really
You should check the general damage, and there you can see what the Visas players really are, not the experience.
hik hik hura
Couple things you are wrong and I would like to correct that. First, half of Taiwan populations are refuges from previously wiped countries, they don t have stocks, and Taiwan did helped a lot of allies making us NOT a powerful and stocked country in the IM. You cannot put names on us to make your victory more glorify. Second, the opening move from USA side was to sign a treaty with Brazil, then DW to Taiwan, THEN had Brazil to sign MPP with us without letting us know about your secrete treaty. Got to say this is a pretty dirty opening move. We had less than 24 hours to make plans, and then be betrayed by brazil and scrap all plans to trash. It is true our HQ did a lot of mistakes, that one I cannot agree more. If they actually listens to my plan and I didn t spent too much time in Christmas party instead of eRev, you could have know why we give up our cores and capital. Too bad now there is no way I can show how brilliant that plan was. Maybe not as good as tricking us to sign MPP with Brazil but still pretty good.
The level of masturbation is too damn high ಠ_ಠ
The economics of spending thousands of dollars on expensive gamer hardware is logical. Making profit through streaming and tournaments. Concentrating around a douche who can afford to spend the biggest amount of cash in game like this and calling it strategy is ridiculous. The effort on making graphic articles like these is more respectable than the gameplay
Visa is a part of the game and the better you start playing with that in mind instead of crying the better you will be. But i guess the sjw culture is infecting the game population. Ppl want to win by crying instead of by merit. Grow a pair
^
Lmao you managed to mention sjw. Imagine being this retarded
That is what you get being educated on YT