Anunia Convention

The Anunia Convention is a convention and system for administering and judging Recwars and was drafted in Anun, Amokolia, in 2008. Previously the SNARL (Shirereithan-Natopian-Antican RecWar League) Convention was the RecWar convention of choice for the Micran Sector.

Text of the Convention

The Anunia Convention

I. Organisation

A. The Convention recognises two bodies of previous knowledge are applicable to war beyond this charter. They are defined as the 'Existing National Defence# as defined in III.A and B, and 'Common Law' of judging as defined in VI.E and F.

B. At the current time, 'Existing National Defence' is held within the Ministry of Defence of individual nations, and the 'Common Law' will be held in the Convention Forum, and only information within the Convention Forum or individual Ministry of Defence BEFORE the commencement of fighting will be used in the war.

C. This convention may be judged by any Judge agreed upon by both opposing parties. For the judgements of the war to be added to the Common Law at the cessation of hostilities, the conflict must be international, unless otherwise approved by the international community.

II. Politics

A. Any Member who can provide two opposing sides may submit a declaration of war to the Convention. Wars should be provided with their own forums as soon as possible. The war may either be held on a forum mutually agreed by both sides, such as a national forum, or on a suitably impartial forum such as MCS.

B. Declarations of war must contain the fictional parameters of the war, such as what technology level is allowed, whether or not to allow magic, whether or not to allow nuclear weapons, and any modifications to standard Convention rules. They must also contain an end date. Where the parameters for the war are not defined, it is assumed that Nuclear Weapons, Chemical Weapons, Biological Weapons and Magic are banned, and that any technology used must be in use (or have been in use) in real world military operations, and sufficient data must be obtained about its specifications. Where magic is used, it will be fought under the NCM system. The assumed end date, if not defined, is one month from the commencement of fighting.

C. A declaration of war must also contain acceptable outcomes in terms of real assets lost or gained. Nations can choose to engage in Convention wars without any actual results or can choose to gamble territory, currency, military technology or some other incentive upon the outcome. Where the real asset losses are not defined at the start of the war, no assets can be lost based on the outcome of the war unless the losing nation agrees. Anything stolen that exists [was specifically mentioned before the war, eg a national building; compare to an individual's cell phone] and was not included in the list of gambled assets at the start of the war must be returned - only knowledge recorded in the memory of the in-character war participants may be kept without the other nation's agreement.

D. Belligerent parties can include nations, organizations, and individuals. Once a war has started, no new belligerent party may join except at the invitation of a belligerent party already participating. See section IV.O for details on where they can start.

E. Once a nation is involved in a war, it cannot leave the war until it has signed a peace treaty with every nation it was formerly at war with, either separately or all together. The peace treaty may have any terms that the parties negotiating will agree upon. Non-national belligerent parties may leave the war whenever they wish.

F. At any time, a nation that wants to leave the war can surrender, in which case they lose everything they offered in Step C but are considered at peace with the opposing nations. At that point, Convention rules are considered to be no longer in force. At any time past the end-date of a war, if the war is still going on a nation that wants to leave it can ask the Judge for a forced peace, in which the Judge drafts what he considers a fair peace treaty based on the progress of the war thus far and forces both parties to sign it. No force peace will take more from either side than they offered in Step C.

G. When all nations have made peace with each other, or when the conflict has become inactive, the war is considered closed.

III. Pre-War Preparation

A. Nations may utilise pre-existing defences in their country if they follow two requirements.

i. Detail their defensive structures in a single, public post in their Ministry of Defence or equivalent. This post can include links to other posts and to city or terrain descriptions. Where such descriptions do not exist, the MCS Physical Map or equivalent will be considered authoritative.
ii. When entering the war, place a link to their existing defensive structures in their nation's Form. The opposing side then has 2 days before the commencement of fighting to look over the defences and raise any concerns they have about it with the Judge.

B. Such defensive structures cannot require manpower to damage orbatted units, otherwise said manpower must be included in the their orbat. eg. A wall, or a mine, is appropriate, but a SAM or a gun turret is not. They can include manpower in purely non-offensive terms (eg a Radar Station or a Train Network). If these structures are to affect orbatted units, they must also be within the reality constraints placed on the war as a whole, otherwise the entire offending thing [that is, the person/object/defensive structure that includes an element outside the reality constraints placed on the war as a whole] is considered not to exist for the purposes of orbatted units.

C. Pre-existing National Defence can include 'standard orders' (eg for a Radar Station 'alert people when missiles are coming') as part of the above post. These orders are assumed to be in force unless specifically stated otherwise and do not need to be relayed to Judge to be used.

D. Where a nation does not have all its citizens enter the war at an outset, but considers that some might join later, a list of all possible citizens that might join should be included with their nation's Form. While there is no obligation for these citizens to join, it ensures that other participants are aware that new participants may join from that nation if it is attacked etc. It is permissible to have this list in the National Defence post and have it include all possible commanders of the nation (including ones already in the war) if that is easier for the member nation.

E. A nation's forces, within their orbat, may also be prepared beforehand in one of three ways.
i. Have fought and survived a previous Recwar which was not too recent as to have sapped morale.
ii. Had a backstory of reasonable quality written for them explaining their training/origin/loyalty, and why they are more experienced than a normal unit.
iii. Participated in regular training exercises in their nation.

F. Such a force is counted as 'more experienced,' and should be considered better in battle than an identical force which has not had any previous preparation. This experience applies only to the specific forces the preparation above applies to, and not the commander's unit as a whole. For ii. backstory may be written up to the commencement of fighting. This experience should be noted in the orbat.

G. The Judge or Judges will be declared before the start of combat. Where further judges are invited in during the course of the war, they must be approved by both original belligerent parties.

H. Upon entering the war each nation must fill out one copy of the National Form. This ensures that important pre-war preparation is not missed. Nations cannot commence fighting until they have submitted a National Form.

IV. Forces

A. The basic division of military strength is the unit. One real person equals one military unit.

B. However, within a nation, the actual command of each person can be rearranged to suit the nation as a whole. One real person can command a maximum of 4 units worth of troops, and each real person must command a minimum of 1/4 units worth of troops.

C. A unit has a strength equivalent to 25,000 soldiers, except where a different value is agreed upon by the two belligerent parties at the start of the war. Players are encouraged to have creative unit compositions, but units keep this basic strength no matter what their composition is. For example, a player could have 5,000 well trained soldiers backed up by a group of tanks - with a strength still equal to 25,000 normal soldiers. See below for exact values of each item type. Barring experience and other variables to be discussed below, all units start with equal strength.

D. The strength of 25000 soldiers may be divided in the orbat into stronger 'items' as the Player sees fit. Following is the cost of a 'standard' item of the type listed below. Standard is understood as a basic level in use in current military, and an example of what is understood as standard is included in brackets afterwards. Orbats may use any or all of these items as they see fit.

• Infantry = Light Infantry - 1 - (no special training or equipment)
• Paratroops - 3 - (akin to the 81st and 101st Airborne)
• Marines - 3 - (More relative to the British Royal Marines than the US Marine Corps)
• Special Forces - 5 - (US SEALS and SAS)
• APC = 15 (This does NOT include IFVs) - (German Boxer or Russian BTR-60)
• Armour = Main Battle Tank - 50 - (M1A2 Abrams or UK Challenger II)
• Infantry Fighting Vehicle - 40 (US Bradley or UK Warrior)
• Light Tank - 35 - (US M551 Sheridan or equivalent)
• Reconnaissance Tank - 30 - (British Scimitar Tank)
• Armoured Artillery - 25 - (M109A6 Paladin or British AS-90s)
• Armoured Anti-Air - 20 - (US Avenger Air Defence System or ALVIS Stormer HVM)
• Towed Artillery pieces - 10 - (L118 Light Gun)
• Multi-Purpose Helicopter = 60 - (Huey - UH-1 Iroquois)
• Attack Helicopter = 75 - (Apache Helicopter)
• Bomber = 1,000 - (US B-52 Bomber)
• Fighter = 500 - (Eurofighter, no stealth capabilities)
• Stealth Plane = 1, 200 (A standard fighter or bomber with Stealth)
• Battleship = 5,000 - (USS Iowa, with moderate anti-air defences and conventionally powered)
• Carrier = 1,000 - (This does NOT include Aircraft) (non-nuclear powered AC capable of carrying 85 aircraft (not necessarily all combat aircraft)
• Diesel Sub = 500 - (Soviet Kilo Class)
• Nuclear powered submarine = 1,000 - (US Los Angeles Class and British Trafalgar Class)
• Submarine capable of ICBMS = 2,500 - (British Vanguard Class)
• Destroyer/Frigate = 1,000 - (British Type 45 Destroyer or British Type 23 Frigate)
• Cruiser = 2,500 - (No modern day Navies operate conventional cruisers so we use the De Zeven Provinciën Class the Dutch created, the British Tiger Class or the british Town class with SAM capabilities and limited VLS or box launcher capability)
• Corvette/Minesweeper = 500 - British River Class.
• Cruise missile: 10 (BGM-109 Tomahawk, anything supersonic or over 1000km range)
• Short-range cruise missile: 6 (AGM-84 Harpoon, anything subsonic and below 1000km range)
• ICBM: 5,000
  

E. Where a player is using any 'non-standard' items, its cost is determined relative to the difference in its strength from the equivalent 'standard' item. So this can be properly assessed, they must define the item in their orbat, both with a name, and with basic strength details which show how they differ from the 'standard'. Even if the item named is an item existing in the real world, basic strength details MUST still be included on the orbat, so the strength of each orbat can be properly understood before combat, instead of relying on people's military knowledge. 'Non-standard' items will differ from the 'standard' cost by the difference in their strength from the 'standard'. For example, if the 'standard' bomber had was guided by GPS and contained 20 bombs, and the 'non-standard' bomber proposed was Satellite Guided by an advanced computer system, and contained 25 bombs, it would be costed at 1100 compared to the standard 1000.

F. Items should clearly state any exceptional capabilities at the beginning of combat so there is no temptation to do something dodgy like claim an item has paradrop capabilities when you really need to get behind enemy lines. If a unit wants to have certain surprise abilities that the enemy does not know about, they must get the Judge's approval as close as possible to the beginning of combat and BEFORE the abilities are used. Even surprise abilities MUST be included when determining the cost for an item, and any surprise abilities would increase its cost from the 'standard'.

G. Missiles represent considerable military cost and strength and so are required to be costed separately. Units that carry missiles as a standard can be considered to start with the number of missiles purchasable with 5% of their points (eg a Battleship (5000) can have 250 worth of missiles, so 25 cruise missiles. A submarine (1000) could have 50 worth of missiles so 10 cruise missiles), except where this amount is greater than their normal complement of missiles, in which case they take the lower of the two. Any further missiles they require must be costed separately.

H. Two people can pool their units into a larger army if they agree on who has control of the group and can post for it. However, at all times each unit must correspond to a person who has posted at some point in the last three days - no creating a unit, giving it to your friend, and then leaving so that the reallocation of units in part B is for. Any unit that does not have any orders will automatically defend itself if attacked but do nothing else. In the interests of fairness, players are asked not to accept pooled units if it places them over the 4 unit maximum for control, and instead allocate the units to a different military commander. The only exception on this is for short and forewarned LOAs. If the judge feels that the LOA exception is being abused (that is, a commander is creating LOAs to give his friend greater than 4 units control and does not plan to actually fight the war) then he may halt that action and force the excess units to be allocated to another commander.

I. If a person doesn't post for more than 3 days, their unit is considered to have deserted. If the person returns, they must announce their return, and it will take their unit 24 hours to reassemble. During this time they can make no actions with it, apart from defending themselves, but their opponents may attack them. If a unit deserted in a location (such as a city) where enemy forces now occupy, they must state the point they are reassembling in, which must be in an area an opposing army is not directly in, and no more than a days move away (depending on the items within their unit). That is, they cannot reassemble in a city where an opposing force is occupying, but they could assemble outside it.

J. Land Vehicles can move about 50 pixels on the MCS map per real time day, perhaps a hundred if you push them. Boats can move about five hundred pixels a day. Planes move relatively instantaneously but cannot move far from a base - either a friendly city or a carrier.

K. Each unit should generally have one post per day, giving opponents a full day (24 hours) to react to any actions. It is much more permissible to multiple posts per day dealing with backstory than to have a unit perform multiple actions per day.

L. Actions can be made in secret only if there is a legitimate in-game reason and it makes sense. A wing of stealth planes can presumably attack in secret, as can a sub - an army of 100,000 men can probably not secretly march across populated enemy territory, nor a whole fleet sail around undetected. Secret actions can either be 'stealth moves', revealed overtly with a disclaimer that they are secret and the enemy should not know about them (such as sending a wing of stealth planes to a hidden base) or, if there is too much of a temptation for the enemy to respond, can be told to the Judge only without a corresponding post (for example, if you are getting guerrillas in position to attack an enemy city and don't want the enemy to send defenders there, or sending a few spies to infiltrate an enemy camp). The Judge has the ability to post the situation where one players move is affected by another players secret move, and where the secret move player does not want to reveal who it is doing the secret move (for example, ambushing people who move through a certain area while pretending your army is to the north of there). It is the Judge's responsibility to alert a player if a secret move cannot be done secretly and must be posted publicly, otherwise the secret move is assumed to have been successful.

M. Any persons joining the war midway is subject to the following restrictions:
i. Where fighting has occurred within or by the country they are fighting for (whether because their country is already involved in the war and they are only now joining and posting their orbat, or because of an agreement by their country to allow fighting within it before their country entered the war) they MUST start within their country's capital OR their personal region, whichever is appropriate. Where their appropriate starting location is occupied by the enemy/being attacked, they must start in a suitably nearby friendly location agreed between them and the enemy occupying/attacking the starting location. Where their country has not had fighting occurring within it already, it is assumed their forces may already have been mobilized and may start anywhere within their country's territory.
ii. They must make a post in the war thread explaining their starting location. For the next 24 hours, they can take no further actions except to defend themselves, but they may be attacked.
iii. Where their country has already entered the war without them, they must have been named in the country's earlier National Form, as in III.D. This requirement may be waived by agreement with the opposing side.

V. Battles

A. A battle occurs when any item or group of items attacks any other item or group of items.

B. The goal of the Convention is to have the outcome of all battles decided by mutual consent of the two parties involved without the Convention itself interfering, although the Convention realizes this might not always be possible.

C. The variables that might decide battles beyond sheer points are terrain, backstory, experience and gold stars.

D. Rough or high terrain tends to favour defenders and more experienced troops. Familiar terrain confers some advantage, as does settled terrain where the people support your side.

E. Backstory can affect combat - for example, if a unit is exhausted, or has low morale, it might do worse in a fight, whereas if they are desperately fighting for their homes and families under a charismatic leader, that might help them.

F. Experience, as defined in Pre-war Preparation can also increase the strength of a unit. All experience is 'granted' before a unit enters combat and cannot be gained in the middle of a war.

F. Gold stars are awarded by the Judge or by any other people who he or the belligerent parties by mutual agreement empower to award them. They are given as a reward for literary and strategic merit, and each one increases the power of the unit wearing it by 50% of base. Gold stars should be awarded during the war they are to be used in, or not at all.

G. Where a commander is responding to an opponent's attack within 24 hours, they are to post what they believe to be their losses, and then how they respond to the attack. Their opponent then has 24 hours to respond to that defence, and so on until they agree the battle is ended.

H. Where a commander has not responded within 24 hours, the attacker has the right to assume the battle went in their favour and post reasonable losses for both sides. They may NOT assume the opposing army just stood there and was slaughtered; they must assume the army defended itself. But they may post slightly higher losses than they would otherwise have achieved. In order to use the 24 hour rule a second time against the same commander, right after having used the 24-hour rule already, a player must wait for 48 hours instead of the usual 24 hours. At the end of the 48 hours, the player can use the rule against the commander. However, directly after the play of this rule, the 3-day rule would apply on the commander who was 24-houred against. (IV.I)

I. "God-modding", defined as determining your opponents reaction/result, or the failure to play within acceptable reality as set by the society, is unacceptable. Where persistent and/or deliberate, it results in an appropriate action being taken by the Judge. In essence, your attack post should only include what you plan to do. It may not include how the opponent responds, or assume the attack is successful. This is up to the opponent to respond to. Even if there is no way you can see for the opponent to stop your attack, you must still not god-mod the results. The only exception to this is invoking the 24 hour rule above.

VI. Non-Orbatted Units

A. Anything not mentioned in an orbat is a non-orbatted unit. Non-orbatted units can be used for two reasons - to advance the storyline, and to advance the action. There are several types of non-orbatted units, with different restrictions placed upon them. They are.
i. Existing National Defence. [As explained in III.A]
ii. Civilians, civilian infastructure and vehicles. [Normal citizens, without military training or value, or any special skills. Man in the street.]
iii. Military support units and technology. [Specifically supporting your orbatted forces]
iv. Non-civilian units. [People with military training and or use that aren't specifically attached to your orbat - eg Secret service. Can also include civilians with specialised skills (eg scientists)]

B. All non-orbatted units can be used to advance the storyline in any way that does not damage or destroy enemy orbatted units without their permission. All non-orbatted units can be used to damage or destroy other non-orbatted units in any way that would be possible given the reality of the war. Type i and type iii non-orbatted units can be used to assist orbatted units in carrying out their mission, assist in damaging or destroying other orbatted units, and to provide concrete defence to orbatted units. Type ii and type iv non-orbatted units cannot be used to damage or destroy orbatted units. They also cannot provide concrete defence to orbatted units. That is, if an ii or iv unit is attacked by orbatted unit, they can only avoid destruction by avoiding being hit by attacks (including by being defended by ally orbatted units or type i or iii non-orbatted units) - otherwise, the enemy can inflict whatever damages he wishes on non orbatted units hit by his attacks. Type i, ii and iv non-orbatted units cannot do secret moves. They can do 'stealth moves' - posting that they are trying to be stealthy and if the enemy can't detect them, they shouldn't be able to - but these most be posted with the disclaimer 'stealth moves'. This is to ensure people are not abusing their use of non-orbatted units, and their opponents can dispute inappropriate use. Type iii non-orbatted units that transport orbatted units between friendly cities cannot do this as a secret move either. Other type iii non-orbatted units can do secret moves in coordination with the orbatted units they are assisting. Type ii units are also restricted in action (see below)

C. Civilians (type ii non-orbatted unitsunits) may only be used to a limited degree in war. Friendly civilians may be used to do any activity they could be reasonably expected to do, given their national character. However, the effect of that activity against opposing forces is limited to spying and lowering their morale. Civilians may not destroy any orbatted units, but they may give them minor injuries (bruises, dents etc) that will lower their morale. Enemy civilians may only be used to do an activity that is reasonable given their circumstances. They may only be used to assist the opposing forces if it can be shown that their spirit is entirely broken, or reasonable force has been used against them to force them to do such an action. Any building or assistance carried out by enemy civilians will be of an inferior quality than that of friendly civilians.

D. Actions may be directed against civilians. Any action against a civilian may be responded to by any participant from that nation or otherwise with responsibility for that civilian. The 24 hour rule may be imposed against civilians.

E. Orbatted units are assumed to have the following supporting type iii non-orbatted units:
i. Land transport (unarmoured trucks or helicopters) for infantry units.
ii. Naval or Air transport by civilian-style (unarmoured) transports for Land units between friendly cities.
iii. Suitable food supplies for all people.
iv. Resupplies of ammunition, fuel, non-costed missiles etc at each established base.
v. Radio or similar communication to allied forces.
vi. Radar or similar detection equipment for forces that would possess it in the real world (eg SAMs, bombers etc), at the 'standard' real world quality for that unit.
vii. Commanders.

F. Where an orbatted unit wishes to have the above type of units at a strength greater than the above 'standard' provision, this must be included in their orbat and costs adjusted appropriately. For example, if land forces wished to have trucks that were armoured; advanced detection equipment; or wished to have transport being just friendly cities; this would need to be costed; provided for in Existing National Defence; or provided by another player. Any of the free transports provided here are assumed to have no defences against attack - and so if they travel through a war zone between their destinations, they risk being attacked and destroyed by the enemy.

G. If a player requires extra units without the restriction of use placed upon non-orbatted units, they may seek the services of type iv non-orbatted units. They must provide a suitable amount of time to locate such units, in a suitable location. They can then use such units to specific effect against the enemy - however, they still cannot damage or destroy orbatted units. For example computer specialists could be forced to disarm enemy alarm systems; or transports could be commandeered to take units into the warzone.

H. Finally, the restriction on non-orbatted units of not damaging or destroying enemy units may be waived by the enemy, if they so wish.

VII. Judging

A. Where the outcome of a battle cannot be decided by mutual consent of the two parties involved, the judge may intervene. The Judge has the final say in all events.

B. When one parties requests a judgement, they must start a new thread, clearly titled with the matter to be judged and the two opposing commanders involved. They must then explain what they believe needs to be judged (whether this be how realistic an action is, or to protest losses etc), and provide a link to the offended post or posts.

C. Their opponent must be given a chance to respond, and discuss the matter outside of the war thread with the opposing party. Once this chance has been given, the Judge may deliver his judgement based on the arguments of the two parties, the points involved, and his knowledge of realistic military combat.

D. Judging may change the losses invoked by the 24 hour rule but ONLY where this is clearly unrealistic.

E. Common Law, that is, where rulings have previously been made on an issue, is assumed to be correct unless the Judge says otherwise. That is, precedent of rulings will be followed.

F. At the cessation of conflict all judgements will be collated to add to the body of Common Law for further conflicts, where this conflict is International in scope.

G. A person appointed to judge in a recwar may not participate in the fighting of the recwar they are appointed to.

Administration

A. There shall be an administrative organisation for the Anunia Convention.

B. The name of the main body of the organisation shall be the Board of Trustees.

C. The Board of Trustees shall be made up of 5 Members;
i. The Chair of the Board of Trustees, responsible for chairing debate of Board as well as bringing proposals for discussion. He shall be tasked with preserving the spirit of the Anunia ruleset. ii. The Judicial Member, responsible for selecting and preserving the standards of a Board approved recwar judiciary. iii. The Unit Costing Member, responsible for maintaining the unit costing lists and providing guidelines upon direction from a judge. iv. The Common Law Member, responsible for maintaining the Common Law of recwar (non-Annunia included) and providing it upon direction from a judge. v. The Ordinary Member.

D. The positions shall be elected once a year.

E. If a member of the Board has been inactive for two months or more, anyone concerned may bring this up to the Board. If the member is not able to appear before the board within a month, then the Board may remove them from their position. Elections will then be held for this position. The person elected to this position shall hold it until the rest of the Board face election again.

F. The Board of Trustees may consult whomever they see fit and are obliged to listen, and if necessary act upon, the concerns of all recwarrers.

G. There shall also be a Judicial List, which shall comprise of Board approved recwar judges.

H. All members of the Board of Trustees, serving or retired, shall be considered a Board approved Judge.

I. To become a Board approved Judge, a person must pass a test set by the Board of Trustees and marked by the Judicial Member of the Board of Trustees.

J. It is not necessary for a recwar Judge to be Board approved but it is preferred by the Board of Trustees that a Judge is approved.

IX - Amendments

A. The Anunia Convention Rules may be amended.

B. They may be amended in the following ways;
i. Upon direction of the Board of Trustees, the Chair of the Board of Trustees shall place an Amendment in the general thread of the forum where any person interested may register a vote of FOR or AGAINST. If the amendment achieves an absolute majority, the Chair of the Board of Trustees shall add it onto the document.
ii. Any person interested may propose an amendment in the general thread of the forum and may register a vote of FOR or AGAINST. If the amendment achieves an absolute majority, the Board of Trustees shall consider the amendment and its members shall publish their votes of either FOR, AGAINST or ABSTAIN with reasonings behind their vote also. If the amendment is passed, the Board of Trustees shall add it into the document.

X. Miscellaneous

A. The Convention is intended primarily to have fun, improve literary and tactical skills, and to build micronational patriotism. Anyone caught taking the wars too seriously or trying to win at all costs will be reprimanded, banned, or disliked.

B. In all cases he is used when referring to the Judge or Commander. This is merely for ease of reference and she may be substituted in as applicable.