In this post I will be giving my idea about how the game should be played, what goals should players and nations set for themselves and what could be viewed as meaningful playing of the game.

I've seen this idea of 'mastering the game' come up in different threads during the last few weeks. It is probably clear for all that there are different views about it circling around the community. Therefore, I'd like to point out how I see things, maybe it might help to clear up what I think or better understand the different views of what is considered as mastering. Pretty much this here is the continuation of the post here that gives and idea which strategies one should use in different roles.

So, first, let me list the different aspects of the game that I think are all equally important:
  • netting
  • warring
  • diplomacy


Nice list, one might say, but what's behind the words and why did you list those?

Netting
Who's the top ranked player/state in game scoreboards? Obviously, the one with most networth. Netting is the part of the game that's used for ranking both states and nations. The more networth you have on day 28, the better your rank will be in the end.

Warring
Who's going to be on top of the scoreboards at the end of the set? Not the one who's going to die in a war, but also not the one who doesn't gain anything from the war. That should say it all about the importance of warring.

Diplomacy
Well, this is a key ingredient for avoiding wars, and in case of war, necessity for having decent allies that can and will back you up. This certainly is not a must for every player, but sure is something a true nation needs in order to be efficient. Therefore, necessary skill for tag leaders.

Given the three aspects that I see in the game, I believe it's all about dominating the ranks. Of course, there always will be players doing better in the netting aspect and others doing not so well. Therefore, usually wars are pretty hard to avoid, because for the latter ones, warring is the only path to rankings domination - just take down other nations's top players and ensure yours get the top spots. Keeping in mind the motto of the game 'Domination leads to war'.

So, mastering the game. As a player/state, mastering means(FOR ME!) that you are capable of both netting and warring.
It has been stated many times by different respectable community members that NW is a team game. I see no reason to disagree. If you disagree, then prove it wrong by trial and end up #1 without a tag behind you. Therefore, for a good team/nation, mastering means having master players, of whom some dominate the scoreboard and others help ensure their team members's domination. Plus having an equally good diplomacy skill-set to back it up when necessary.

In today's game-play we have two interesting, but incomplete opposites - netters aka 'bean counters' or 'retards' and anti-infantry hoarders aka 'anarchists' or 'idiots'.

Let's start with the netters side. Netters are great at, obviously, netting. There are proven best practices for reaching best possible networth and these are being used at it's best. Some call it infantry hoarding, some call it maximizing your day 28 networth. The problem with netters is that netters don't like being warred, because this is not good for your networth. In addition to that, netters have become comfortable with the way they have been playing for years and now actually seem to lack either the warring or diplomacy aspect. Every netter should ask himself if it's time to adapt, to get out of the comfort zone and start dominating as a team rather than only using nations for NA and tech? Is it actually meaningful to net if your nation is not capable of defending you from competitors or anarchists?

So, anti-infantry hoarders. Great at warring aspect. Again best practices exist in this league and the practices are being used rather well(netters taken down all the time ). But what I see missing here is the goal for the play. Some say it's fun, some say it's principles. But what it really should be, is DOMINATION! The war machine could be used to play for top ranking. The question here - is it meaningful for the anti-infantry hoarding to ruin the game for netters without dominating the ranks themselves?

No names and examples given for a reason and I'd like to keep it that way

Feel free to point out what I'm missing here.