The Jacob Hill Recwar System
(101) Definition of Recwar
Recwar means "Recreational Warfare". Recwar is a primarily literary activity that is carried out via electronic publishing of creative writing about fictional wars and war gaming on Micras.
(102) The "Credible Press Release System"
Recwar is a form of war gaming carried out via the "Credible Press Release System" and the "Propaganda Principle" with neutral appointed arbitrators to prevent irreconcilable disagreements about events in the recwars.
Participants in the recwar post an "Order of Battle" in a forum designated for that purpose listing the military forces they start with.
Participants then post "press releases" with descriptions of what their troops do in a forum designated for that purpose. Other participants may then react to these actions. One or more arbitrators appointed by the may clarify situations with their own posts.
Participants may treat some or all of the press releases of other participants as not credible, and post their own alternative version of events that they insist is the truth. The arbitrator will also post reports of events in the recwar that are true. Anyone whose press releases deviates too far from the version of events endorsed by the arbitrator is likely to have their press releases completely ignored by all other participants.
Messages and postings directly from the arbitrator for a particular recwar should be assumed to be credible and accurate. They may only be superseded by subsequent postings by the same arbitrator or a successor arbitrator, if there is one, or another arbitrator for another sanctioned recwar. However, an arbitrator may post in-character postings of some fictional character which need not be accurate. Arbitrators should be clear about whether they are posting as an arbitrator or as a fictional character.
(103) The "Propaganda Principle"
In the Credible Press Release System, all of this is easily reconciled by the "Propaganda Principle". Since anything written by a recwar participant is assumed to be a press release of questionable accuracy, anything that is not credible may be deemed to be mere propaganda with little or no basis in reality. Each participant and even each observer may make their own judgement as to which press releases are credible and accurate and which are not. Each participant issuing a press release may choose to make the report as accurate as possible or may deliberately fill their posts with fictitious propaganda.
(104) The Arbitrator's Role
An arbitrator is required to make decisions in an impartial manner. It is against the rules for an arbitrator to allow personal bias towards or against any participant state to affect his or her decisions on recwar matters.
There can be more than one arbitrator for the same recwar at the same time. In such a case, the arbitrators should have an order of precedence to indicate which one's decisions take precedence if there is a contradiction. If no other order of precedence is specified, precedence shall be in the order of seniority with the arbitrator appointed first being the one whose authority is greatest. Seniority shall be determined based on when an arbitrator was appointed for the particular recwar in question, who has been an arbitrator for recwars longest is irrelevant. If they were all appointed at once, the one whose name was listed first in the appointment is senior.
It is against the rules for anyone to bribe, coerce or otherwise attempt to exert undue influence on an arbitrator regarding recwar decisions. It is against the rules for an arbitrator to accept any bribe or give in to coercion or undue influence. Arbitrators may penalize those who break this rule. Arbitrators who break this rule may be summarily removed by an officiating body, where one exists, even in the middle of a recwar.
A participant may send an e-mail or other private message directly to an arbitrator. Not everything needs to be publicly posted.
The arbitrator's primary role is to post information about what reality is in the recwar. The arbitrator is especially needed to provide definitive information about what happens on the battlefield such as troop movements, casualties, reaction of civilians, terrain and weather, etc. The arbitrator is also authorized by the charter to determine any other matter which is relevant to the recwar.
(105) Maps and Changes of Territory
If a recwar ends with an arbitrator saying that an army is still occupying foreign territory, the participants shall recognize the continuing "de facto" (actual) control of that territory by the occupier. Such continuing control may be contested in the future by anyone who previously had control of that territory. If that happens, the power currently in control may face a new recwar in which they may have to defend it. The arbitrator must ensure that reasonable efforts are made to contact any relevant persons to inform them of the resumption of hostilities and ensure that they have a reasonable amount of time (generally up to 30 days) to find time in their real world schedules for resumption of the recwar.
(106) Order of Battle
In accordance with the Credible Press Release System, any participant member state of the MCS, may claim to have any number of military forces of any types that they wish. Arbitrators are usually supposed to recognize the existence of any and all military units that any participant claims to have. Arbitrators should feel free to report the quality and quantity of personnel and equipment in such units differently than their owners do -- to the extent necessary to maintain consistency and realism. Participants may inspect their troops and get information directly from the arbitrator on the numbers and other observable facts about their forces.
It is permissible to manufacture additional equipment and recruit and train new troops during a recwar, but the arbitrator should be very careful about what is possible and how much time is required.
(107) Quality of Troops and Equipment
Military units that have been in existence longer should be expected to be more capable than newer units. Units that have had more combat experience should be expected to be more capable than units with less combat experience.
This same principle applies to military weaponry and equipment. New types of weapons and equipment frequently are found to have problems that the designers did not anticipate. The best equipment is often the third or fourth or even tenth generation of its type.
Arbitrators should apply these principles by ascribing the highest quality to weapons and equipment that comes from established manufacturers who have the most relevant experience.
The arbitrator should take into account morale in determining combat results.
(108) Population and Economy Size
Participants may publish any figures they wish on the size of their population or how productive their economy is.
Arbitrators should determine the size of the populations and economies of various states based on the territory they control and, where realistic and consistent, the published figures of the participant states themselves.
(109) International Observers
Any participant in a recwar may invite or permit international observers to come into its territory or accompany its military forces and report what they see. International observers need not be citizens of a state participating in the recwar or of any state at all.
There is no rule requiring international observers to be neutral. International observers may be from nations allied with one side in the conflict and may be bribed or subjected to simulated coercion (not real-world coercion) or otherwise influenced to substitute propaganda for the truth in their posted reports.
(110) Espionage
Simulated espionage is permitted. This can be accomplished by notifying the arbitrator and the arbitrator will determine the results. If these activities would become known to other participants, the arbitrator may notify them.
Attempting Recwar espionage by out of character methods, such as attempting to compromise e-mails, forum accounts, restricted forum areas, etc, is a violation of the charter rules and must be considered by the arbitrator to be grounds for the suspension or expulsion of a participant, depending on the severity of the offence.
The gathering of open source intelligence, that is to say reading written material posted on forums or wikis, is permissible where due consideration is given to the context in which the information has been presented, aka whether there are cues in the narrative or text that would explain why the details contained therein would be privileged information not readily available to a hostile party. To be allowed to bring this privileged information into play, the hostile party would have to submit covert moves to the arbitrator, detailing the espionage campaign undertaken to acquire said information, allowing the arbitrator to determine the probability of success.
Asking citizens of a hostile state questions that would reveal secret recwar information is not a violation of these rules.
Breaking the laws of states participating in the conflict is not a violation of these rules, but may still be punished by the state whose laws were broken. If it is unclear whether a particular espionage activity will be deemed a violation of the rules, a participant may ask the arbitrator for a private ruling. If an arbitrator rules to permit an activity and that ruling has not been reversed, the arbitrator must not reveal to other participants in the recwar that such a ruling was requested, by whom or what espionage activity was being contemplated.
Any form of real world intimidation, threat, harassment, or coercion in furtherance of any recwar objective, espionage-related or otherwise, is against the rules and will result in consequences for the offender in line with the seriousness of the offence.
(111) Fog of War
The arbitrator may choose to help simulate "Fog of War" confusion by not publicly posting combat results out of character (which according to the rules must be accurate.) Instead an arbitrator may post some or all results in the guise of some character (in which case they are not required to be accurate) and/or sending the results or part of the results directly to those who are in a position to know them such as unit commanders and eyewitnesses.
(112) Covert Operations and Secret Units
Since private communications between participants and the arbitrator are permitted, these can be used to carry out covert operations and even to create entire secret units that don't appear on any published order of battle. If the arbitrator deems that such activities have been successfully kept secret, other participants may be given little, if any, information about them by the arbitrator. If the arbitrator determines that such activities or units have been discovered by other foreign units, observers, spies or if the results of their activities would be known to other participants, then the arbitrator may reveal such information to the relevant participants or publish it so everyone will know.
(113) SNAFU
Arbitrators should make some effort to simulate realistic levels of military incompetence and mistakes. Participants should be prepared for this and not get overly upset when things go wrong.
(114) Command and Control
Real people may command units in the recwar. Units whose commanders are not real people will be commanded by fictional people. The arbitrator may determine what their actions are
If a commander or all commanders from a state cease participating in an ongoing recwar or refuse to participate to begin with, their troops, if still involved in the recwar will carry on and the arbitrator may decide what orders, if any, they are receiving from their commanders and national leaders, if any.
(115) Movement of Forces
Participants should take care to calculate how long it will take various units to cover distances on the map before claiming they have reached their destination. International observers and the arbitrator should double check this.
Posted reports saying that forces have reached a location faster than is possible should be dealt with by the Propaganda Principle and assumed to be untrue.
(116) Determination of Combat Results
Arbitrators may use any reasonably realistic and consistent method of determining the results of combat in a recwar provided that it includes all relevant factors mentioned this charter and also some amount of luck.
(117) History and Consistency
Arbitrators should endeavour to make sure that all their decisions are consistent with all other arbitrator decisions, past and present and with the history of the relevant states, especially other sanctioned recwars.
Records should be kept of all sanctioned recwars including details of unit and equipment quality known only to the arbitrator. This information should be available to future arbitrators.
(118) Time
There are no strict limits on how often a participant may post reports or press releases. In general it is expected that participants will post once per day and that time in the recwar will progress at the same rate as real time, but both of these may be altered by the arbitrator.
Participants and arbitrators should ensure that defenders have a reasonable opportunity to respond and react where appropriate before attackers get to do anything more.
(119) Thread Locations
Arbitrators may decide on what forum a recwar will be hosted, though if the participants agree on one, the arbitrator should not overrule this without a very good reason.
(120) Out of Character Posts
Participants may post out of character posts so long as they are identified as such or are in a place set aside for such posts.
In-character posts by the arbitrator may not be accurate. Out of character posts by the arbitrator must be accurate.
(121) Logistics
Arbitrators should consider military units with insufficient logistics support to be weaker than they otherwise would be. This includes units without supply units, with interdicted lines of communications, or without access to a MCS noted base or settlement which would otherwise serve as a supply depot.
1. For ease of analysis, the summary of a combat unit's action includes a basic description of their size and asset composition in generic terms (e.g. two battalions of mechanised infantry and a battery of self-propelled artillery pieces) or alternatively a link to the relevant part of any pre-existing orbat or TOE in which they feature. That way the enemy, the casual observer and most importantly myself can better understand the implications of a given unit's presence without having to trawl through some archive or rely on guesswork. Basically if you want a unit to make a name for itself, it's your job to 'sell' it in concise terms. Keeping clear figures to adjust for combat losses etc. would also be appreciated. Naturally for any huge strategic offensives of the Barbarossa/Bagration scale, the smaller subunits would not need listing in great detail unless they distinguished themselves in battle.
2. Each movement/offensive of a combat unit allows at least 24 hours for an enemy response before moving again (this being an established custom I probably don't need to remind you, but just in case there are questions).
3. Any units not deployed in the prelude phase are understood to be located in their home garrison/port at the beginning of the active phase or, where no home base is assigned, they are considered to originate in their native capital city (or its nearest sea port).
4. Participants wait to suffer a first strike by a tactical WMD (<1000km range) before it releases any strategic WMDs or space-based weaponry. Space-based surveillance assets can of course be used without restriction.
5. Such futuristic assets as gravimetric armour are used responsibly out of consideration for those operating on a 1950s Asian or 1990s Yugoslavian tech level. Again I like to think this doesn't need mentioning.
6. Any occult warfare is conducted under the maxim that magic is essentially a game of alignment and probability entirely outside materialist notions of cause and effect, therefore highly unreliable with results that are never entirely tangible.
7. I am allowed to draft such other rules as may be required mid-war to maintain the participants' enjoyment.
I will also offer to log and validate secret moves by participants via PM.