Hello everyone! Minister of Defense Witchcraft and Sorcery here with the first big, public step in the fulfillment of the most important goal I set out to to fulfill when I took this job - revamping the Tidal Force. This announcement is meant to give an idea of what the plans are going forward, what the Tidal Force will look like, and how YOU can get involved in shaping defender activity even if you’re not a full-fledged member of the SPSF.

The Tidal Force will be the civilian arm of the SPSF. Its directive is simple and twofold: to run off-update, low-time-commitment operations accessible even to those who are not trained in military gameplay and those who cannot regularly make updates, and to support the Tsunami Force on missions where a large number of extra endorsements are needed as pilers. The central idea of this revamp is that you do not need to be a full member of the SPSF - you don’t even need to be on the forum or Discord to participate. The Minister, Generals, and/or Tidal Force Coordinators will post operations on either the TSP RMB or the RMB of a dedicated region a la Knowhere and Psomewhere Over the Rainbow, and in a dispatch, with the goal of carrying out at least one mission per day, perhaps two, and getting gamesiders involved in defender operations.

Inspiration for this project is drawn from TGW’s Guardian program, the TITO Expeditionary Force, and other dedicated non-update forces - a large and active group of off-update folks who are incredibly consistent and dedicated to cleaning up raider messes, closing raider embassies, and taking some of the load off the update crew. A GCR offers a few exciting advantages to this - notably, a large and consistent number of gamesiders who could be more easily recruited by not having to go offsite.

To assist in this endeavor, I am proud to announce that Swifty and Melix will be coming on-board as Tidal Force Coordinators. Both of them have demonstrated excellent ability in target selection and operation coordination, and personability. These are civilian positions that will act as a sort of deputy to the Minister of Defense, and will report directly to me as Minister, in coordination with the General Corps. The Coordinators will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Tidal Force, and will be the ones primarily responsible for selecting targets and posting orders.

So what are the next steps?

We will begin developing the infrastructure to make this function as both a forumside and a gameside entity. A lot of this already exists: I’ve been given access to the nation SPSF Tidal Force and will be using this to coordinate gameside Tidal Force ops, as well as keep a dispatch with current missions and records of participants.

As those of you on Discord may have heard whispers about, I’ve begun modernizing existing infrastructure - including updating dispatches and changing language to reflect our defender alignment. The master dispatch for the SPSF Tidal Force can be found here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1190718. It will be updated with current and past missions, participants, and more information as it is available.

If you’re interested in signing up, feel free to talk to me, Swifty, or Melix and we’ll be happy to set you up! Signup consists only of letting one of us know your main nation and the puppet nation you intend to use for missions. We will then add you to the master dispatch and give you a role on Discord that gives access to the SPSF Barracks and orders channels. Information on where missions can be found gameside is forthcoming, but they will get rolling very soon. Until then, I’m happy to answer any and all questions here, on Discord, or via telegram or PM.

Witchcraft and Sorcery
Minister of Defense
SPSF Commander