Hey everyone,

Welcome to the newest season of SWWP! We have a lot of new players this time around, which is fantastic, but it means that many of you might have some questions as to how SWWP works in relation to other xPowers subs. In addition, we are trying out a number of new systems - including pre-written war orders in the MilDrives - which could further lend itself to confusion at season start. This is something we would prefer to avoid, so here are some key things to know about this great subreddit:

What is /r/SWWP? How should I participate in it? How do I win?

SecondWorldWarPowers is, at its foundation, a collaborative role-playing experience focused around the crazy Interwar period between World War I and World War II. This means that there is no winning or losing, simply different parts to play in the grand story we are telling together.

Starting the moment of the armistice on November 11th, we as players will control the governments and leadership of a variety of different states, rebel movements, and unrecognized nations. For example, let's say you have claimed the Tripolitanian Republic - a movement set to declare the independence of Tripolitania from Italian Libya on November 16^th, 1918. As the Tripolitanian Republic, you control the different parts of the government established by the movement, including:

• Control over the Council of Four - The head leadership group of Ramadan al-Suwayhli, Sulayman al-Baruni, Ahmad Murayyid of Tarhuna, and Abd al-Nabi Bilkhayr. You can look to play these individuals as individuals or as a more cohesive group - whatever most makes sense for your RP purposes, so long as it follows a general idea of historical feasibility

• Partial control over the Twenty-four member advisory group - Representatives from the various provinces and regions of the Republic. I specify partial control because while you can try and force policies and decisions on the regional leaders within a republic, that is not likely to lend itself to a stable government. Note that this does not mean that you have to have a moderator deal with every instance of national decision making - just be mindful of how different internal factions might respond to your actions, and RP accordingly. We as moderators will let you know if we believe your actions are not in line with what would be historically feasible.

• Control over government agents and bureaucrats - these are the men (and sometimes women) who are handling the day-to-day implementation of your orders, policy, and decisions

• Control over the military - the men who will fight and die to follow your war orders as best they can

Of course, control is not always as secure as you may want it to be. Say, for example, that Ramadan al-Suwayhli - a prominent member of the afore-mentioned Council of Four - is no longer completely loyal to Tripolitania, and he starts accepting bribes from those evil Italians*. Posts and operations concerning al-Suwayhli, directly or indirectly, could be sabotaged or otherwise mishandled due to his divided loyalties, to the point where al-Suwayhli may completely disregard your orders or directions and your post fails if those in charge of his bribes decide they want him to interfere.

^{* al-Suwayhli is known to be from a long line of horse thieves so his loyalty was always really suspect}

Again note that none of this means that you control the actual citizens of the Republic - only those within your government or your agents (as long as they're loyal, unlike that son-of-a-horse-thief, al-Suwayhli). The citizenry must live with and respond to your policies, but as long as you are keeping their best interests at heart then you should not hear anything from them except your praise.

What does normal posting look like?

Now it's time to post as the Tripolitanian Republic. The Republic is a proud nation, but is quite weak militarily, so it's time to increase our power over Tripoli to prevent those evil, stinky Italians from taking over. You could post something like this:

Title:

[EVENT] Fortifying our Borders

(Remember to flair up! Post types include [EVENT], [DIPLOMACY], [CLAIM], [META], [SECRET], [PROPAGANDA], [NEWS], and [POLITICS]. Including these bracketed post types in your title will automatically flare them when they are posted. See the Rules page on which type to use)

Body Text:

(Here you would include some roleplay, plans on the kinds and locations of fortifications to be built by Tripoli, plans on funding the construction, construction time, etc.) 

After that, tag an unbiased moderator to mod your post in the comments. A moderator (usually the one you tagged, but possibly another that they have tricked into doing their work for them asked to do the resolution for them) will do a dice roll and use some common sense to weight the outcome appropriately, before commenting with the result and what that means in terms of the resolution:

Moderation:

[18/20] The fortifications are finished, on time, and ahead of schedule. Units invading your territory across these areas will run into significant difficulty, both increasing their travel time and leaving them susceptible to ambush attacks

Hooray! Everything worked! The development and infrastructure you post about will not always be so successful, but you get a nice little boost of Serotonin when it does!

What is this "BLOPS" system I keep hearing about?

Now that you have your defenses set up, you figure it is time for a little payback. The Italians bribed al-Suwayhli, tried to sabotage your national development, and undermined the very foundation of your Republic! It's time they get a taste of their own medicine! To this end, you too can employ the Black Ops (BLOPS) system - our way of letting you attempt secret actions that you wouldn't put down in a normal post. These can range from general surveillance, to stealing war plans, or even as far as assassination! You are really angry at the Italians, and decide to go big - it's time to assassinate the Italian military general "in charge" of Libya. Luckily, this is as easy as messaging your plans to an unbiased moderator. From there, they will inform you of the relative difficulty of the action you are trying to take, and if you accept the risk, they will make a dice roll and resolve it with their best judgement. Let's see what happens to our assassination attempt:

[3/20] - Your assassin did not properly maintain his weapon, and it jammed when he pulled it out and tried to shoot the general. He tries to run... [5/20] and is caught! The Italians do everything they can to interrogate the assassin... [1/20] and he cracks like an egg! He tells them everything, and now they know that you ordered the assassination attempt.

The Italians didn't like that, obviously. Italy claims all of Libya as their own territory, the Tripolitanian Republic has failed to secure international recognition, and now you've gone and pissed them off by trying to kill off one of their best generals! They will be marching on your ill-fated Republic any day now, so it's time to write some war orders!

What kind of war orders do I need? What do normal war orders look like? What is this "MilDrive" Cerce keeps going on about?

New to this season, we are looking to streamline the war resolution process by implementing a system of standing war orders and tactics through a Military Google Drive, or a MilDrive as Cerce has decided to call them. In here you should be keeping a variety of different orders, tactical plans, and more that would help moderators when resolving your war. These could include but are not limited to:

• War plans for invasions from your neighbors, or invading your neighbors. If you end up on the wrong side from a surprise attack from the Italians, it is good to have a set series of plans in place for defending your nation. These can even apply to other unsavory nations trying to take advantage of your weakness

• Layout of you military forces size, structure, and positioning. These are good tactical documents to have ready, both for your own war order-writing process, and for facilitating moderator resolution

• Equipment, supplies, vehicles, ships, anything that your troops may use. Thse too are good for both your planning, and properly conveying what you have to mods.

• Anything else that may help

These documents should be ready and available in your MilDrive before you begin any conflict. Obviously you will have a short window of time after war is declared on you to write up some specific orders, but the existence of this location for standing orders means that we are shortening the time that we are giving players to do this - resolution will most likely begin 24-48 hours after war is declared. To this end, if you think that you might be a target for an attack, make these orders as early as possible. If we are attempting to moderate a war, and a player has no available orders, we will be resolving your orders as a best guess scenario, which will never turn out as well for you as when we resolve your own written orders. In addition, it ensures that we know about all the soldiers and equipment you have available, as we cannot profess perfect knowledge of every claim.

Below are the kinds of things you might see in typical war orders, as applied to the Tripolitania example:

* Leader of the armed forces: [Ramadan Asswehly](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan_Asswehly)

* Standard issue military gear:

     * Carcano Modello 1891 (M91) Bolt-Action Service rifle - widely used by cavalry and infantry alike, this rifle was the mainstay of the Italian army during WWI. As such, many of them were stored and found in Italian Libya, including a good number captured by Tripolitanian forces

     * Beretta Model 1918 Submachine Gun - used by a number of Italian forces, often in trenches, and as such were found among the weapons captured by Tripolitanian forces

     * Beretta Model 1915 Service Pistol - general use service pistol

     * Mk 2 Fragmentation Hand Grenade, also known as the Pinapple Hand Grenade - standard issue frag grenade

* Troop breakdown:

     * 1,257 cavalry mounted gunners

     * 639 infantry

* Troop formation & tactics:

     * Half the infantry will be placed along trenches and other fortifications (link to post where fortifications were built) armed with Beretta submachine guns. They are to do their best to slow any Italian troop advance, and ideally break apart larger Italian formations into smaller groups

     * Most of the cavalry will be waiting out of range of Italian guns until their formations are broken up by the fortification lines, at which point they will charge in to take out as many of the separated troops as they can

     * Should these fortified lines fail, the remaining infantry and cavalry should fall back to being irregular warfare tactics - taking out smaller groups of soldiers separated from the main army, taking out occupying troops within cities, etc.

It is important to note that these are simplified war orders - good war orders would include descriptions and plans more fleshed out than these, as well as maps showcasing where these fortifications and troop placements were supposed to be.

What do I do now?

Hopefully this guide has helped somewhat, and you are feeling more ready for the season ahead. If not, don't worry - please do not hesitate to reach out to any of the mods on the Discord or through modmail if you still have questions as to how any of this works. We are here to help you. Other than that, get ready for what should be a fantastic season of SWWP! As long as we all do our best to produce good RP, follow the golden subreddit rule of "Don't be a dick", and enjoy this experience together, I know this can be a season we will all enjoy. Good luck to everyone, and have fun!