In a war, there's always a winning or a losing side. And there's never a guarantee that you will be the winner. And despite that, it's always proper to upkeep the desired etiquette when rping a war and not devolve into an argument on who won or not. War rp is a back and forth, meaning that the attacking party initiates the attack and the defender, if in a position to do so, responds with a defensive action. The rp evolves from there. When faced with a defensive response from the enemy, you have a choice of weather you want to change up your plan or to proceed with the attack as planned. Both individuals then work together to decide the outcome in terms of casualties and the result. If you want a better chance of winning, rp so you'll come out in the better position and the mediator (hopefully one of the mods) will help decide the outcome (without bias, mind you).

Everyone knows that you don't just go into war without doing any sort of preparation. And no matter how impatient or under pressure you might be, preparations for war take time, weather you like it or not. While I may not have access to any detailed information about war preparation, estimates say that it takes between 6 to 12 months to have the army ready for any sort of warfare. So if you want to invade someone, you better start making posts at least that long before you decide to attack, or else you won't have a slither of chance. Not even the biggest armies such as Valnastal can stand a chance if they're not prepared.

When making a post about the attack, as much as we try to avoid it, details are VERY important. Miss one and, if the enemy is competent enough, no amount of complaining or arguing will help your situation. So it's important to state what forces you use and which path you take. The combination of equipment, landscape and a touch of army numbers always decide the outcome of the battle if used right.

The form of post I always write is split up into different parts:

1.) Explain which forces/units have been prepared. That goes for all branches, the army, navy and air force, if you're using them. Always list how many men and vehicles you're using and how they are split up, if they're in different armies at different locations etc. etc. So for example x amount of men have, under leadership of general/field marshal (whatever position you use) y, have gathered up and prepared at location z for the invasion of [country name].

2.) When initiating the attack, explain where/to which location they are planning to go. You can't just say, for example, you land in Labrador and you make a b-line for Ottawa. Along what road did you travel? No matter how primitive, an enemy will always have a chance to detect your movements. You have to explain what path you are taking to which location so you give your enemy a fair chance to potentially counteract your advance. So if you, for example, land in Quebec City and go straight to Ottawa, you'd go down the Highway 40 and the enemy would have a chance to intercept you at any location along that road, if it were in a position to do so.

3.) Once a battle actually commences, for example if the two armies meet in a field in Saint-Paulin, just outside Trois‐Rivières between Quebec City and Ottawa, the war rp slightly changes. Instead of roleplaying the army movements across the country, you'll be rping the individual units (however you set it up or how you go about that is up to you) and what actions they take. I'll go into detail in this example below. The battle is at Mont-Laurier in Canada:

Attacker: The Attacker Army, numbering 10,000 men strong, have gathered at the Lac Gatineau Camping Resort in order to rest after their long trek. After about an hour, they ready their positions. The First Regiment, numbering 3,000 men, moves north of the road and disperses, using the thick forest for cover and communicate by radio. The Second Regiment of 4,000 men keep position at the camp and fortify the main road slightly further east at the intersection before the camp in order to prepare for an enemy attack. The Reserve Battalion, numbering 1,500 men, stay behind at the camp. The First Mobile Regiment, with 1,500 men and 80 tanks, move quickly long the road east towards Lac Paradis, on high alert for an enemy attack.

Defender: The Defender Garrison near at Lac des Sources is alerted by intelligence of an incoming enemy forces (assuming you already rped any scouts or intelligence operatives going before the army to scout enemy positions or if your aircraft managed to find them on radar). The 3,000 strong army had 30 tanks available, but also had an independent artillery battalion ready for use on the southern tip of the lake. In hopes of slowing the Attacker advance, the Defender Garrison moves west towards Lac Paradis with the artillery battalion close behind. The Defender Garrison soon meets the Second Regiment and prepare for an attack. In order to stop them, the independent artillery fires at the enemy positions in order to buy the Defender Garrison time to entrench and their tanks to form a defensive line in front to block enemy fire. Defender tanks face the enemy head on and stay put with infantry either behind or by their side and fire at the enemy force.

Attacker: Once the Attacker Army met the Defender Garrison at the lake, they were met with resistance from the Defender artillery. The infantry spread the line further to create smaller targets, making it harder for enemy artillery to hit effectively. But that wasn't after a few devastating hits to the Attacker Army, leading to upwards of sixty soldiers dead or wounded. The 80 tanks split ranks, with a group of 10 going along the shore of the lake to disperse the Defender tank fire, while the rest form a defensive line in front of the infantry. Six tanks split from the main group and used the sub-urban area to the north as cover in order to make a slow advance towards the enemy line in support of the main line of tanks.

And so on and so on. Roleplay should never be taken personally. If you let go of your personal opinions towards your enemy, that you may have irl, this will be much easier to grasp. Both sides need to be fair and understanding about the casualties they take and sometimes you'll win, sometimes you'll lose. You will gain valuable experience in conducting warfare and trough the process, you'll learn about the importance of organizing your military, strategic positioning, cooperation between branches and so much more.