Stonewalling
Stonewalling, or 'walling' for short, is the main method of self-preservation used to postpone the death of a country during a coordinated attack meant to result in the death of that country (also known as a kill run). Stonewalling can take the form of many options, but most stonewalling is usually done by the owner of the country that is being killed (herein referred to as the 'waller'). Most stonewalling is geared towards regaining population that has been killed, but it can also include exploring (to keep land from reaching zero) during a landkill. While the main goal of stonewalling is relatively simple (stay alive for as long as possible), the methods of stonewalling are quite complex, and require a firm knowledge of warfare to pull it off to its full potential. There are several methods of stonewalling used in Earth:Empires, and several of these methods must be used simultaneously in order to achieve the greatest effect. The names of these methods are not universal, and are more of a descriptive nature than anything else. While these methods are complex, the general way of stonewalling usually involves keeping quiet, buying up small amounts of defense, then running turns to regain population close to the end of a killrun.
Contents
Methods of Stonewalling
Under the Radar
Here, the waller generally tries not to let his/her enemies know that he/she is online and watching their every move. This method of stonewalling requires a more methodical approach, and an additional goal of stonewalling is apparent here--make the enemy waste as many turns and resources as possible while killing the country. This is usually achieved by the waller buying up small amounts of defense during the early stages of the killrun, to make some incoming attacks fail, but hopefully not enough for the enemy to become suspicious. However, if the waller has logged off recently, and can use the minuscule amount of turns gained in the meantime without giving him/herself away in the process (a farmer running turns during a killrun utilizing BRs, for example), the waller can have several allies send FA to his/her country, which will usually result in several attacks being repelled, the enemy using more turns gathering information from spy ops, thinking the country just received FA and not online, and resetting the amount of units required to send for successful attacks (or, break). Whether or not the waller decides to use FA as a means of wasting the enemy's time and turns is usually dependent on how much time the waller has on hand.
Bug and Windshield
This method of stonewalling, while usually very effective, is usually performed by players with either little experience or little time at their disposal. The additional goal of making the enemy waste more turns and resources is also apparent here, but to a lesser extent. The waller will simply log on and wait, until the civilian losses are at their minimum, and the speed of incoming attacks are at their greatest--thus having the enemy use the most turns possible--before making his/her move. The waller will then buy up the required amount of defense--not too much defense, for a Slaughter Hold message will cause the enemy attacks to be stopped entirely, rather than just being unsuccessful--, and SPLAT: the subsequent attacks will be repelled, forcing the enemy to use more turns spying and making sure the waller is really online before either moving onto the next target, or, depending on the circumstances, continuing to attack the current target, regardless of the fact the waller is now known to be online.
Megaphone
The waller employing this method of stonewalling wants the enemy to know that he/she is online and available to cause trouble for their killrun, usually in its early stages. The main goal here is to get the enemy to stop their attacks on the country as soon as possible. This is generally for wallers who have pride in the countries they have built, and don't want to be left with a severely crippled country for the remainder of the reset. Attacks involving BRs or ABs usually bring on this sort of stonewalling, for those types of attacks cause the most damage to a country's infrastructure. However, launching nuclear or chemical missiles also damages infrastructure; a rapid increase in the volume sold or price of SDI, coupled with an increasing amount of missiles being destroyed before reaching their targets, and usually accompanied by a country dropping land, normally indicates the presence of a waller. This often results in the enemy quickly moving on to the next target, which, thanks to the lackluster efforts of the earlier target, will have a greater chance of being killed.
Indirect Stonewalling
Sometimes, the waller simply won't be able to get online in time to save his/her country from being killed. This is where the allies of a country under attack can help delay the country's death long enough for its owner to come online and take over. Simply sending FA will be enough to cause the enemy to waste time and turns sending spy ops to see whether or not the waller is online. Sometimes, indirect stonewalling can cause attacks to be stopped entirely. One method is to send FA to the country in the form of defense, then to send spies to bomb the country's banks. This way, it looks as if the waller of a country came online and bought defense (evidenced from the lower cash amount seen in a new spy op compared to an older op). If the waller logged out with plenty of turns and cash beforehand, this will usually be enough for the enemy to move on to the next target.
Counteracting Stonewalling
As with everything else in Earth:Empires, there are methods to either slow the effects of stonewalling, or make stonewalling ineffective or impossible entirely. These methods are usually only employed when the waller is known to be online by the enemy, and the enemy wishes to continue their attacks on the country regardless.
Using Spy Operations
Spy operations (or, spy ops) are the main method used in slowing down a country's population gain, or depleting its ability to defend itself during a killrun. Cause Dissension may be used before the actual killrun begins to help ease losses for the attackers making the initial attacks, but it also may be used in the event a country is buying up troops to stop GSs from getting through. Bio Terrorism may be used to attack a country's civilian population, but it only works when the defending country runs turns to regain population. Stir Rebellions, like Bio Terrorism, also attacks the country's population by inciting revolts, which causes a certain percentage of the population to leave the country, but its effects are more immediate than Bio Terrorism. Other spy ops may also be employed to attack a country's method of acquiring resources, but these aren't used often, for they are not very effective. Also, there are a limited number of spy ops available to be used on a single country before that country effectively becomes immune to any more spy ops.
Rushing
As its name implies, rushing involves sending many attacks at a high rate of speed at a country that's low on population, but not low on turns. The general idea is that if the waller doesn't expect a sudden increase in the number of attacks, he/she will be caught off guard, and his/her country will be killed. The risk of wasting turns and losing offensive units in failed attacks is high, for if a country buys defense while being rushed, the speed and momentum of the rushing may delay stopping of all the countries involved in the killrun, resulting in more turns wasted. The risk is less evident in a chem rush, where the knowledge of a country's SDI defenses, and the fact that it takes more time to properly defend against chemical missiles make this sort of rushing attractive in some cases.
Buy Out
Just buying up all of whatever defensive units on the public market may be enough to make stonewalling very difficult, especially if the defending country has already bought out its private market. However, this is hard for larger alliances to accomplish, and will be nearly impossible for smaller alliances to pull off, as there is usually a gargantuan amount of military units on the market by the time war starts.
A desirable side effect of stonewalling for an alliance is that the more turns wasted on killing a country, the less turns will be available for killing the next one. While it is usually considered more worthy to have stonewalled and lived to fight another day, some alliances consider it more honorable to have died while saving some of your fellow alliance mates. Each alliance has its own methods and desires when it comes to stonewalling, and it will be up to you to determine whether or not your alliance lasts longer than the enemy.
