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Zindarian Recwar Society Charter
This charter for the Zindarian Recwar Society or "ZRS" is hereby granted by his Majesty King Luke of Zindaria.
(A) Recwar Rules
(101) Definition of Recwar
Recwar means "Recreational Warfare" and is similar to the civilian version of "war games". The primary difference between "Recwar" and "War Games" is that most war games involve moving symbols around on a map and rolling dice while Recwar is a primarily literary activity that is carried out via electronic publishing of creative writing about fictional wars. The activities contemplated in this charter are a literary game, not any form of violence or real warfare.
(102) The "Credible Press Release System"
ZRS recwar is carried out via the "Credible Press Release System" and the "Propaganda Principle" with neutral ZRS-appointed arbitrators to prevent irreconcilable disagreements about events in the recwars.
In other recwar systems, belligerent micronations post messages explaining what their military forces and other personnel are doing. This also occurs in the ZRS system. The key difference is that in other recwar systems, such posts are treated almost as if they were camera views of reality. In the ZRS system, anything posted by any participant other than the arbitrator, is treated like a wartime press release. That is, it may be accurate, or it may be just as inaccurate as wartime press releases by belligerent powers usually are in real wars. Messages and postings will have an effect on the recwar only to the extent that they are deemed credible either by other participants or by the arbitrator, or both.
Messages and postings directly from the arbitrator for a particular recwar should be assumed to be credible and accurate. They may only be superceded by subsequent postings by the same arbitrator or a successor arbitrator, if there is one, or another ZRS-arbitrator for another ZRS-sanctioned recwar.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.
Recwar posts in micronational recwars are frequently self-aggrandizing boasts. It is common for participants to whimsically invent improbably huge military forces with extremely high-technology equipment and send it all into battle, arriving within hours at some far-distant location while leaving nothing to guard the territory of the micronation that sent them. It is also a common problem for participants to post messages intended to control events in the recwar that are not properly within the control of that participant. This is commonly referred to as "godmodding". In the traditional view that posted writings are like a camera view of reality, godmodding seriously interferes with the progress of the recwar.
Another common problem in recwar is disputes over the extent of casualties and other results of combat. This is partly resolved in other recwar systems by having an attacker post details of an attack while leaving it to the defender to post the casualties on his or her own forces. There is usually a 24 hour rule that if the defender does not post casualties within 24 hours of the attack, then the attacker may post the casualties. In the Credible Press Release System, both the attacker and the defender may report casualties from any combat action without regard to any 24 hour rule. Others who were not even involved in the combat may also report the results of such combat if they wish. It is to be expected that such reports will contradict each other just as reports of combat results during real wars always do.
(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 judgment 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 fictiticious 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 micronation 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 ZRS 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 the Chairman of the ZRS or by a majority vote of the ZRS Council, even in the middle of a recwar.
"Ex parte" communications between a recwar participant and an arbitrator are allowed. That is, 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 role is similar to that of a judge in other recwar systems, but is a little more extensive. The arbitrator's primary role is to post information about what reality is in the recwar while the various participants issue press releases that may or may not be accurate. 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 this charter to determine any other matter which is relevant to the recwar, especially events in the homelands of the belligerent powers and any neutral micronations that may be relevant to the recwar. One of the most important of these functions is determining what troops and equipment are available to the various participants at the outset of a recwar and any reinforcements that may become available during the course of the recwar. This includes determining matters such as the population, economic production, and financial strength of various micronations. It also includes determining the capabilities of the arms industries and other relevant industries. Most importantly, the arbitrator has full authority to determine who has "de facto" (actual) control of any relevant territory at any particular time.
(105) Maps and Changes of Territory
Micronational mapping organizations such as the MCS and the GSO have thus far only marked "de jure" (by law) control on their maps. During recwars, territory often temporarily changes hands without any maps being adjusted. This same phenomenon can happen in ZRS recwars with the added bit of realism that armies do not return to their de jure borders automatically at the end of the recwar. If a recwar ends with an arbitrator saying that an army is still occupying foreign territory, the ZRS will recognize continuing "de facto" (actual) control of that territory by the occupier. De facto control, more than de jure control, will affect the population and economic resources available to different micronations for the creation and support of ZRS-recognized military forces. It is up to the mapping organizations whether they wish to show de facto annexations on their maps.
Occupied territory may be converted from de facto to de jure by treaty agreed to by both the occupying power and the de jure owner of the occupied territory or possibly by other means such as if the government of the occupied nation ceases to exist and international mapping organizations adjust their maps to acknowledge the annexation.
Such continuing control may be contested in the future by anyone who previously had control of that territory and the power currently in control may face a new recwar in which they may have to defend it.
In the event that fighting in a ZRS-sanctioned recwar ends with de facto control of any territory having changed and the de jure owner not in control, any power that previously had control of that territory may resume hostilities at any time by contacting the arbitrator of the previous war or the ZRS to appoint a new arbitrator. However, 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. If an arbitrator determines that a former participant is not able or willing to respond within a reasonable time, he may allow the recwar to proceed anyway. Under such circumstances the arbitrator may have the occupying troops withdraw or fight.
(106) Order of Battle
In accordance with the Credible Press Release System, any micronation 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 micronation claims to have. The arbitrator should avoid saying that a unit does not exist at all if a micronation says it does exist. Instead, the arbitrator 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. For example, if a micronation claims to have created a new unit overnight called the "1st Elite Corps" and lists it in their order of battle as consisting of 100,000 elite troops with a long list of equipment, this is a problem, because it is almost impossible to create an elite unit that fast unless all the men were transferred from other elite units. In such a case, the arbitrator should recognize the existence of a unit by that name, but may report that it consists of 100,000 raw recruits who do not have their equipment yet. Or the arbitrator may report that the unit has an authorized strength of 100,000 men and an actual strength of only 800 raw recruits with more being recruited, trained and equipped over time.
A micronation may create a unit called the "9th Battleship Flotilla" and claim it has 20 battleships in it. If the nation has the capability to create 20 battleships in the time since the decision was made to create the unit, then the unit may be what was intended. If not, the arbitrator may report that the unit has 20 obsolete battleships purchased used from other nations or it may have 20 ships that are called battleships, but are more properly classified as frigates. If the nation is wholly incapable of even this, then it may be twenty small freighters with guns stuck on them. If a micronation tries to create a unit that it simply cannot create such as the "1st Starship Armada" when the nation doesn't even have any spaceflight capability, a unit with that name might exist and have men and funding, but of course, no starships. Maybe they're working on figuring out how to build some. If some micronational dictator orders his engineers to build starships or stealth fighters or super hover tanks or whatever, maybe they'll build some sort of mockup and try to convince the leader that it works or that it will work with just a little more time and funding.
It is common for small countries in the real world to refer to their small armed forces by grandiose names such as "brigade", "division", "corps" or "army" which properly refer to much larger forces. It is also common for troops to be labeled "elite" who are not noticeably better than other poor quality troops. It is common for units to have actual strength that is far below the "authorized strength" that their government intended, authorized and records in its own documents even in peacetime. It makes sense for these same problems to exist for the simulated armies of micronations.
In desperate wartime situations, these problems get even worse. Sometimes national leaders actually believe their forces are larger and more capable than they actually are. Adolf Hitler is known to have continued to issue orders to units which were no longer capable of any military operations and to have ordered the creation of new large elite units that were marked on his maps as elite Waffen SS forces when in fact they were made up of a handful of children from the Hitler Youth organization (a Nazi version of the Boy Scouts) and a few other odds and ends such as wounded soldiers and units that no longer existed. Hitler was by no means the only national leader to do this. He is more ridiculed than others because he seemed to believe his own propaganda. Allied leaders in the same war created fake tank forces in the North Africa campaign and an entire fake army near Dover under the command of General George Patton with the ostensible mission of launching an amphibious invasion of France at Calais. Patton's army at Dover consisted of radio operators sending out fictional orders to units that didn't exist and a few troops to march around and fool spies. (At other times Gen. Patton commanded real armies.) These allied fake units served a real purpose in deceiving the enemy. Allied leaders were well aware that these units were not really capable of effective combat. They did exist, however, and they had some real soldiers assigned to them, just far less than their names would imply. In the case of the fake tank forces, they were equipped with trucks modified to look like tanks at a distance, but they had no actual tanks.
Micronations in recwars may issue press releases referring in grandiose terms to military units that have been whipped up out of almost nothing and have very few men and little or no equipment. Some will do this for purposes of deceiving their enemies like the allied leaders creating Patton's phantom army. Others will do it out of megalomaniacal self-delusion like Hitler in his final days. It is not necessary for the arbitrators to know the motives, only to keep track of what capabilities each participating micronation has and ensure that the actual strength of military units is consistent with those capabilities as well as with how much time has been available to create or improve the units, what losses they have suffered and any other previously established facts about such units. Any order of battle that is not consistent with this, should be "deflated" by the arbitrator. An arbitrator need not announce to the world what each unit is really capable of, but the arbitrator's assessment of a unit's real strength must be the basis for combat results.
Micronational leaders may not even know that their armed forces are not nearly as strong as they appear. This can easily happen in the real world, too. Leaders of nations tend to give orders to their military and provide it with money and expect those orders to be carried out. Often the military will tell the leaders what they want to hear in order to keep their jobs and their funding. Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, is said to have been deceived by her own military as to the extent of their readiness by "Potemkin Village" type efforts where soldiers she was going to inspect were given new uniforms and weapons and presented as if they were typical when they were not.
Micronational leaders should be able to conduct inspections of their own forces to at least count the number of troops and various types of equipment (which may be done by private communication with an arbitrator), but even this does not tell much. The quality of troops and equipment is hard to test except in actual battle.
It is permissable 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
While any micronation can publish any order of battle it wishes and at least have units by those names that will have some resemblance to what was intended, they will be almost worthless if the quality and quantity of personnel and equipment is lacking due to their micronation having too little resources, too few people, insufficient technology or too little time to have brought the units to full strength, trained them, and equipped them.
Even a unit that is at full strength, is fully trained and fully equipped, but whose men and equipment have never been tested in battle is a poor match for a similar unit whose men are veterans and whose equipment has been previously demonstrated to have been effective in battle. In other words, 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. Very often the equipment can be redesigned and a new version can be manufactured that is better. The best equipment is often the third or fourth or even tenth generation of its type. How well a brand new design will work is often dependent upon the skill and experience that the manufacturer has with similar products. This will also be decisive in how well they can fix faults in the design and come out with a new version of the equipment. Sometimes existing equipment can be upgraded, especially large and extremely expensive equipment such as aircraft and naval vessels.
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. If the "Bummie Corporation" of Riponia has been building tanks for years of real time (not created with a backstory that says they've been doing it for years) and those tanks have been used in previous recwars with good effect, they should be treated as having good quality. If Micronation X decides, after war has already broken out, that they want to design and manufacture their own tanks, it will probably take a long time to get started and when they do make tanks, they will probably have major problems and perform poorly in combat. Over time, Micronation X may develop a competency in this area. Also, if Anthelia has a major automobile manufacturing company that is well established and has been participating in their simulated economy for a long time and that same company decides to start making tanks, the quality of their tanks and how fast they can make them will be somewhere between that of a more established tank manufacturer and Micronation X which is starting from scratch. Over time, they may do better.
One of the advantages of this system is that it will provide an incentive for micronations to buy military equipment and possibly other goods from established manufacturers in other micronations. It will help develop international trade between micronations. Another key point is that arbitrators should pay attention to whether a micronations' arms industry is competitive in the world market. If a particular company is successfully exporting arms to other micronations, those arms should be deemed higher quality than those from a company that does not have any foreign customers.
Micronations will be tempted to put up posts claiming they have companies manufacturing every conceivable type of weapon so that as time goes by they can point to this and claim to have quality weapons. For very large nations with high technology, extremely well developed economies and large military forces of their own that will buy such weapons, it is possible to develop a diversified arms industry that can supply all or nearly all of their own needs. Even then, similar large nations who successfully sell their weapons abroad or develop new models after the weapons have been tested in combat will have even higher quality. Small nations and nations whose economies are not well developed cannot do this so easily. Defense contractors that exist in small, underdeveloped contries and sell only to their own micronation's military may be able to excel in one or a few weapons systems, especially if they are not very complicated. They will not be able to make high quality weapons of all types and the effort to do so will squander economic resources and be a drain on the economy. Arbitrators should take this into account when determining the quality and quantity of equipment that various manufacturers can produce and the ability of nations to finance lengthy or otherwise expensive wars.
Another issue related to the quality of troops is morale. Many things affect the morale of the troops. One of these that is noteworthy is "esprit de corps" which is generally greater with units that have a long and glorious history. This is one more factor favoring micronations that have consistently used the same military units in many recwars over long periods of time. Other factors influencing morale are the troops' perception of their chances of survival, their chances of victory, the justice of their cause, their confidence in their leaders, how many hardships they are enduring and how many casualties they've suffered. The arbitrator should take into account morale in determining combat results.
(108) Population and Economy Size
Micronations may publish any figures they wish on the size of their population or how productive their economy is. Though most people don't know it, it is quite common for real nations to exaggerate these figures for the same reasons they exaggerate their military capabilities. Arbitrators should make their own determination of the population and economic production of various nations. In the case of economic production, since all or almost all micronations have their own currencies and exchange rates set by their governments, direct comparison of economic strength is utterly arbitrary.
Arbitrators can use this to keep things realistic and consistent with very little stress and strife. In the real world official currency exchange rates are virtually always different from the real exchange rate that prevails in the market or black market. Arbitrators can and should generally accept as true any economic production figures a micronation publishes and its official exchange rate. The arbitrator need only determine the market exchange rate of the currencies of various micronations to ensure that the relative size of their economies is appropriate. If a real market in micronational currencies ever develops, the task becomes only slightly more complicated. If a micronation's currency ever actually has a value, that should be evidence enough that such micronation's economy is prospering and should be greater than before.
The ZRS recwar system envisions the population and economic strength of micronations being based on the territory they control, not the "activity level" of their forums or the number of real people who are citizens of the micronation. Those who object to this should recall that on both Micras and Giess, territory is generally based on activity level of forums and the number of active real citizens. A system based on territory is indirectly affected by activity level and number of real citizens, but it is based on the assessments already made by the MCS and GSO rather than duplicating their effort. Our method does make it easier for de facto control of territory to change hands via recwar.
At first, the populations and economic strength of various micronations may be determined quite arbitrarily, but once it is established, subsequent estimates should be based on the original. To the extent that there is already any generally established information about the population or economic strength of any micronation, arbitrators should make every effort to respect that and encourage a generally accepted set of statistics on such matters.
If a new micronation takes the place of an old one for whatever reason, the population and economy of the new micronation should be based on that of the territory they control. They do not start with a blank slate, but takeover what was there before.
(109) International Observers
International observers under ZRS rules are similar to those in real life. They can be just about anyone from formal military observers from neutral nations (or non-neutral nations) to reporters to bloggers to tourists.
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 micronation participating in the recwar or of any micronation at all. If they do not have permission to be near the fighting, they may be subject to arrest or even death at the hands of belligerent forces as determined by the arbitrator. Further postings by observers known to be imprisoned or hospitalized will lose credibility. Further postings by observers known to be dead will be assumed to be written by an impostor and have still less credibility.
International observers from neutral micronations may be neutral and if so, should endeavor to make their posted reports of the action consistent with those of the arbitrator and, to the extent feasible, consistent with those of others. When they are being genuinely neutral, international observers can do most of what an arbitrator does and provide greater detail than the arbitrator has. It is much easier for an arbitrator to say that the postings by a particular observer are correct than to post such a thing himself.
On the other hand, there is no ZRS rule requiring international observers to actually be neutral. Such a rule would be unenforceable anyway. International observers may be from nations allied with one side in the conflict. They 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.
It is common for international observers in real life, especially military observers and reporters, to be biased towards one side or another in an armed conflict. Some real world nations have extensive programs to co-opt foreign and domestic journalists into their propaganda efforts. Micronations can too.
(110) Espionage
Other recwar rules systems ban espionage. The ZRS rules system has a different approach. Simulated espionage is permitted. This can be accomplished by notifying the arbitrator that your micronation is sending spies, intercepting radio signals, carrying out covert reconaissance overflights or some other activity and the arbitrator will determine the results. If these activities would become known to other participants, the arbitrator may notify them even if the intention of the instigator of the espionage was to keep it secret. For example, if an arbitrator determines that a spy was caught in the act, the participant who captured the spy will be notified.
Recwar espionage by real-world methods is a violation of ZRS rules if it is considered by the arbitrator or the Chairman of the ZRS or the ZRS Council to be eggregious real world behavior. For example, real world hacking of someone's computer in violation of applicable macronation law could be considered eggregious real world behavior and penalized by the ZRS. (See penalties in the administrative rules section.)
Some forms of recwar espionage by real-world methods is not a violation of ZRS rules. For example, going to a micronation's forum and reading what is posted there that is readily available to the public is not a violation of ZRS rules. Asking citizens of a hostile micronation questions that would reveal secret recwar information is not a violation of ZRS rules. Sending a real world spy to join a micronation, report their recwar activities, spread disinformation about the recwar, win their trust to gain access to restricted forums, or uncover similar espionage efforts by the target micronation are not violations of the ZRS rules. Deciphering codes used by other micronations in order to read secret recwar information is not necessarily a violation of ZRS rules, but if such act is prohibited by applicable macronational law, it may be. Breaking MICROnational laws is not necessarily a violation of ZRS rules, but may still be punished by the micronation whose laws were broken. All these methods are discouraged since they are likely to lead to hard feelings and they may be banned by future rules amendments. 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 be severely punished. (See penalties in the administrative rules section.)
(111) Fog of War
Fog of War is a military term that refers to the difficulty of getting timely and accurate information about what is happening in the middle of a battle. The term may derive from a literal "fog" of gunsmoke that obscured 18th century battlefields when smoke from thousands of muskets and hundreds of cannons billowed out. Now the term refers to the difficulty of perceiving accurately what is happening on the battlefield regardless of the cause.
Reports from battlefields are usually filled with inaccuracies, rumors, assumptions, misperceptions, exaggerations and omissions. This is even when the person reporting the action is speaking privately to a superior officer by radio while watching the action and is honestly trying to tell the truth. Communications break down. People get killed before they can report things. No one sees everything in a battle anyway. Military tactics are often devised to deceive the enemy. Everyone is under huge amounts of stress. It may seem unlikely to some people, but the truth is that in combat every military headquarters is deluged with false or misleading information along with true information and gaps where needed information is lacking.
This phenomenon has been observed in actual war for centuries and has continued to be seen in even the most recent armed conflicts.
The Credible Press Release System already recreates some aspects of what is called "Fog of War". The arbitrator may choose to enhance this 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 relvant participants or publish it so everyone will know.
(113) SNAFU
SNAFU is an informal military acronym which stands for "Situation Normal: All F****d Up. It refers to the fact that a huge amount of mistakes, problems and even mind-blowing fatal blunders are normal in the military even in peacetime and they get much worse under the pressure of war.
Fictional stories about war typically show things proceeding as planned and victory going to the army with the best plan, the bravest men and a bit of luck. Real war more typically involves huge masses of troops blundering around with no clear idea of exactly what is happening, making constant errors, many of them large enough to lose the entire war.
Wars are more typically won by exploiting an enemy's stupid mistake while making the best of your own muddled situation after your ingenious plan for victory has completely fallen apart shortly after the first gun was fired, if not earlier.
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 their army can't seem to follow orders, keep its troops supplied, find the enemy or even figure out why some its equipment isn't working. A multitude of astonishingly foolish blunders compounding each other is a normal situation for a military force, especially in war time.
(114) Command and Control
Other recwar systems require that a micronation may only deploy one "unit" of a defined size per real person from that micronation who is participating.
The ZRS rule system does not require that. A micronation's military forces are carefully determined as explained elsewhere in this charter and a micronation does not lose control of those forces or have them cease to exist simply because they don't have enough real people available at the time to command all the units.
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 in the same way he or she may determine the actions of all the other fictional soldiers in the recwar and all the fictional civillians. Micronational leaders and commanders may post their version of what is happening, but the arbitrator may decide that the troops did not do what their leaders said they did.
Under some circumstances, soldiers and officers may not obey orders. This might be due to incompetence, miscommunication, cowardice, disloyalty, a difference of opinion on the best way to go or even an officer being ambitious and trying to do more than was ordered. Participants should be prepared for this and not lose their temper if this happens. The main reason that real armies emphasize discipline so much is that it is extremely hard to get anyone to obey orders when their lives are at stake. Even with the best discipline, it is common for officers and even more common for regular soldiers to disobey orders and do things like run away, fail to move into enemy fire, fail to maintain radio contact or open fire when they feel threatened even when ordered to hold their fire. It is especially hard to get troops in combat to cease fire on command.
If a commander or all commanders from a micronation 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. Arbitrators may post some or all of the results or may simply provide them privately to certain participants who are in a position to have direct knowledge of the results of the battle such as commanders involved in combat and international observers who are eyewitnesses.
Whatever method is used to determine combat results, it should include all relevant factors mentioned this charter and also some amount of luck.
Other participants may use any method whatsoever to decide what results of combat to report since their reports are not definitive and are dealt with by the Credible Press Reports System and the Propaganda Principle.
(117) History and Consistency
Arbitrators should endeavor to make sure that all their decisions are consistent with all other arbitrator decisions, past and present and with the history of the relevant micronations, especially other ZRS-sanctioned recwars.
Records should be kept of all ZRS-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. Posting more often does not give troops or other military units the ability to do more than they could in the available time. For example, if a participant posts that a particular Brigade marches all day and covers 20 miles, a second post that day cannot involve them marching another 20 miles. In fact, they can't do anything more that day unless it's something they can do after they finish marching "all day".
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. One of the main purposes for which such posts may be helpful is to explain details, especially how travel times were calculated.
The arbitrator also may post out of character and in fact might never post in-character since the arbitrator role is not itself an in-character role. The arbitrator may post in-character posts as various characters not played by anyone else if the arbitrator wishes. In-character posts by the arbitrator may not be accurate. Out of character posts by the arbitrator must be accurate.
(121) Logistics
Logistics refers to details such as efforts to resupply troops with food, water, ammunition, spare parts and medicine. Modern armies will start to fall apart within days if their supplies are cut off. This is why military tactics and strategy often focus on efforts to disrupt enemy logistics efforts. Participants and arbitrators should take into account logistics. Military units with insufficient logistics support should be weaker than they otherwise would be.
(B) Administrative Rules of the Society
(201) Charter Members
Charter members of the ZRS are members who have the right to vote on changes to the ZRS charter. It does not mean the original founding members. As the name implies, the ZRS was founded by the Kingdom of Zindaria alone.
(202) Participating Members
Any person or micronation which participates in a ZRS sanctioned recwar. This is a very informal thing and does not give such members any voting rights in the ZRS.
(203) Membership
It is only possible to join the ZRS by invitation from an existing Charter Member if approved by a unanimous vote of the other Charter Members.
A majority vote of the Charter Members may remove an inactive Charter Member. The Chairman of the ZRS Charter Council may reasonably determine who is active and who is inactive.
If the Kingdom of Zindaria ever leaves or is banned or suspended from Charter Membership in the ZRS, the name of this organization must be changed immediately in some way that removes any reference to Zindaria at any time thereafter that the head of state of Zindaria may demand it.
(204) Charter Council
Each micronation that is a Charter Member may appoint one representative to be on the Charter Council. If any individual ever becomes a Charter Member, that individual shall have a seat on the Charter Council.
The Charter Council may amend this charter by unanimous vote.
(205) Chairman
The council may elect a chairman who may be chosen by a majority vote of the ZRS Charter Council. The chairman may also be removed at any time by a majority vote of the ZRS Charter Council.
The chairman is the executive of the organization. He has the authority to appoint and remove arbitrators.
(206) Penalties
Violations of the rules may be punished by an arbitrator or by the Chairman of the ZRS or by a majority vote of the council. In the event that the decisions of these three conflict the council has the highest authority and the arbitrator the lowest. Higher authority overrules lower authority.
There are two forms of penalties. One is penalties within the recwar. The other is administrative.
Administrative penalties take two forms. One is for Charter Members only and is a temporary or permanent removal of Charter Member status. The other administrative penalty is a temporary or permanent ban on participation in ZRS sponsored recwars.
In the event that a micronation is relevant to a recwar or actually involved in one and one or all of its participants are banned, the simulated troops and civillians of that micronation may continue to be involved, but the banned person or micronation will no longer be able to give orders to them.
Recwar penalties take the form of events which occur in the recwar that are adverse to the person or micronation being penalized. Ordinarily, the arbitrator can decide that natural disasters, economic downturns, insurrection or other problems occur for participating members. These are generally chosen at random and are ordinarily not severe. Recwar penalties are one or more of these type of problems that adversely affect the participant being penalized. The participant must be told when it is a penalty and what the penalty is for.
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