WarErZA — Behind the Tags: BFB

Mercenaries, Mountains & Romanian Vampires

An MU Interview by https://app.warera.io/user/68e538c09c4aafa6f1a0bd5c

This one went looking for https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 gave this one a Tea Room.

There was coffee. There were rusks. There were mercenaries. There were allegations involving Romanian vampires, suspicious cages, threats concerning the weekly bread supply and, somewhere underneath all of that, the story of how a group of friends became one of Southern Africa's ambitious mercenary units.

This one opened the notebook.

Things deteriorated quickly.

WELCOME TO THE TEA ROOM

The original plan was simple.

After taking a wider look at Southern Africa's Military Units, this one wanted to stop looking at names on a census and start meeting the people behind the tags.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 seemed like a good place to begin.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c had apparently only recently created their Discord, so a new Tea Room was hastily constructed specifically for the occasion.

There would even be rusks.

Everyone in https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 was given access. This one scattered questions around whenever there was time, and whoever happened to wander through could answer whatever they wanted.

It was less an interview and more leaving a notebook unattended in a room full of mercenaries.

The first question was easy enough.

For someone who has never met https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 before — who are you lot?

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c supplied the answer.

“BFB = Blunt Force Battalion. We are an independent military unit built around good players, good coordination and, naturally, a healthy appreciation for violence.”

They take contracts. They hunt bounties.

Or, as https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c immediately simplified matters:

“We’re a bunch of mates who like fighting and getting paid for it.”

Right.

Notebook updated.

The next question should also have been straightforward.

How did https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 actually start?

https://app.warera.io/user/6989bf57d754ae752d7ea9b0 answered first.

“As Brazillian Multis, deployed to infiltrate Southern Africa.”

Five people laughed. A few seconds later:

“Shit, wrong group chat.”

For avoidance of doubt, and because WarErZA has recently spent quite enough time investigating actual allegations involving Brazilian multi and bot accounts, https://app.warera.io/user/6989bf57d754ae752d7ea9b0 was joking. https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 are not confessing to being Brazilian multis.

This one checked.

Mostly because explaining to the Editor-in-Chief that an MU casually confessed to a bot farm during a Tea Room interview seemed like unnecessary paperwork.

Behind the joke, however, was a considerably longer story.

https://app.warera.io/user/6989bf57d754ae752d7ea9b0 remembered watching other MUs take contracts, only to sit on them and, in https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029's view, deliver mediocre coordination and execution.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 thought they could do better.

The dream was to become an elite mercenary unit, the sort of group called when somebody desperately needed damage delivered properly.

Today, https://app.warera.io/user/6989bf57d754ae752d7ea9b0 believes that little dream has become reality. https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 is being noticed for how it executes its contracts.

But another member offered a rather ominous alternative explanation for https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029's existence.

https://app.warera.io/user/6964dc895a06a60336894c0a:

“Tbh in my view I think BFB came as a result of the Vampires that were here hiding in our Rolling hills.”

This one made a note of that.

We would unfortunately have to come back to the vampires.

THE LONG ROAD TO MERCENARY LIFE

Becoming mercenaries wasn't a sudden https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 reinvention.

According to https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c, it had been somewhere in the plan almost from the beginning.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c had originally been sent to https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c on proxy duties in the early days of WarEra and conducted what https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 affectionately describes as his own “babyboom” amongst his real-life friends.

Many joined https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c.

For a large portion of the group, it became the only WarEra home they had really known.

With a collection of friends sitting together in one country, creating their own Military Unit made sense.

Then circumstances forced them into a long economic phase.

While building themselves up, they watched how BountyPon played the game.

They liked what they saw.

Mercenary life went onto the long-term agenda.

Things accelerated under https://app.warera.io/user/691df63ad9075fc1dbfaa8e6 presidency. Contracts organised within their alliance allowed https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 to build reputation, eventually opening the door to bidding on larger PRO contracts.

The members liked it. A lot.

The problem was everything surrounding the shooting.

WarEra politics moves quickly. Alliances change. Relationships change. Today's perfectly acceptable target can become somebody's ally tomorrow.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 had little interest in navigating all of that.

As https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c explained, they had “ZERO political involvement in the broader game politics.”

Neutrality offered a simpler solution.

Fight. Get paid.

And don't accidentally create an international incident because somebody forgot to check who signed what yesterday.

THERE IS ONE LINE

This one asked whether mercenary neutrality meant anything was for sale.

Could https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 be hired against anyone?

Were there contracts they would refuse?

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c answer required very little notebook space.

“We are open to business with all. Our only rule, no damage against RSA.”

That is the line.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 may operate from https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c.

Its members may sell their damage across the world.

They may want as little as possible to do with the politics surrounding those battles.

But https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af1612 remains off the menu.

Everything else?

Apparently there is a rate.

CRISIS PROFITEERS

So how does https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 actually sell a war?

According to them, rather simply.

They pride themselves on being able to deliver large amounts of damage almost immediately.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c claims their current best is:

10 million damage. Three minutes.

They watch battlefields for opportunities and offer their services. Repeat clients have begun returning, and increasingly people come directly to https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 looking for damage.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c sales pitch is remarkably efficient: “If you can meet our rate, we've got a date!”

https://app.warera.io/user/6989bf57d754ae752d7ea9b0 supplied the machinery behind the slogan.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 coordinates pill timing and determines how much damage is available. Commanders then use relationships built across borders to offer that damage to interested parties. If the price isn't met — or the damage isn't needed there — they look elsewhere.

They've also reached the point where some of those parties contact https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 first.

But there is a condition.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 doesn't want to “shoot from the hip.”

Give them notice. Give them the right price.

Let them coordinate.

Then they deliver what https://app.warera.io/user/6989bf57d754ae752d7ea9b0 describes as their MO: “Quality, co ordinated and highly effective damage.”

Somebody has apparently given this business model another name.

Crisis Profiteers.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 does not appear particularly offended by this.

A MERCENARY'S WORD

There is more structure behind the chaos than simply finding whoever has the fattest wallet.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c laid out the rules BFB tries to follow.

Don't deliberately undercut another MU that already holds a contract.

If https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 commits damage to somebody, don't suddenly turn around and shoot that client in the same battle.

No swapping sides halfway through.

If you give your word, keep it.

And unless the contract specifically requires otherwise:

Hit fast. Hit efficiently. Move on.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c summed up what https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 wants its reputation to become:

“At the end of the day, we want to be known as an MU that hits hard, moves fast, respects contracts, and keeps its word.”

There is also a motto. “Get it before you regret it.”

This one suspects that applies to several things in the Tea Room.

THERE IS, HOWEVER, THE MATTER OF THE VAMPIRES

By this point the notebook contained several unexplained references to vampires.

Romanian vampires.

Romanian vampires hiding in https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c's rolling hills.

This one had also been in https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af1612 on the morning when something went spectacularly wrong across the border and remembers the panic rather well.

Eventually journalistic responsibility demanded the obvious question:

Right, this one needs someone to explain something: how exactly did the Romanian vampires infiltrate https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c?

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c

“Ohhh yes this must be told.”

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c

“This one is legendary 🤣😭”

HOW TO ACCIDENTALLY LOSE A COUNTRY

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c version begins innocently enough.

He goes to https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c on proxy. He brings friends.

Everyone is having fun, farming eco and figuring out how WarEra works.

One of those real-life friends is https://app.warera.io/user/69289bed7675f7015089a14b.

Eventually, several members return to https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af1612 because war is coming and, at roughly level 25, they believe they are now absolute monsters.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c remembers the discovery that followed: “Reality check: we can barely hit anything.”

https://app.warera.io/user/69289bed7675f7015089a14b remained in https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c as President to keep watch.

Then https://app.warera.io/user/69289bed7675f7015089a14b didn't log in.

For three days.

At the time, the group hadn't properly understood the game's inactivity and AutoKick mechanics.

Their President disappeared.

The arrangement keeping https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c secure collapsed.

And the Romanians found an opening.

Only https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c and a few others managed to return under auto-approval because of https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c's low population.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c took criticism back in https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af1612 for what had happened.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 took it personally.

Suddenly the friends who had mostly been learning the game had an objective.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c wrote it rather clearly: “GET RID OF THE ROMANIAN VAMPIRES.”

What had started as friends messing around had become, in his words:

“a proper little WarEra saga.”

Removing vampires, it turns out, requires paperwork.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 started recruiting.

Not mercenaries. Friends.

Friends who then needed to play enough WarEra to reach the level required to vote.

While that happened,https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c's politics became increasingly chaotic.

Impeachment laws appeared repeatedly.

Numbers on both sides grew.

Negotiations continued.

https://app.warera.io/user/696e3e8e82ecc0f3cf807c59 remembers that only hours before a NAP was eventually signed, BFB's side had reached an 11-to-6 numerical advantage.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c remembers the more painful part:

“It was harder to recruit 11 friends to get to lvl 10 to vote them out.”

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c also alleged during the interview that the opposing group had been removing funds from https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c's treasury, which he says was why https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029's side repeatedly proposed impeachment laws to burn money. That claim is https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c account of the dispute rather than something this article has independently established.

Just as https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 believed it finally had the numbers to take political control, a NAP was signed.

The immediate crisis ended. The consequences did not.

THE VAMPIRES ACCIDENTALLY CREATED BFB

https://app.warera.io/user/690ef10b04b35517d8e05a25 wandered into the Tea Room later and supplied perhaps the most important answer of the entire interview.

In his view, losing https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c was probably the main catalyst for https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 becoming what it is today.

They had been supposed to be the gatekeepers.

Instead they became, as https://app.warera.io/user/690ef10b04b35517d8e05a25 put it, the “incompetent, bad guys” who had allowed control to slip away.

That gave them something to prove.

The group became more invested.

They grinded levels. They recruited.

They spent months working toward reclaiming https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c.

Eventually they did.

And then came the strange realisation.

They didn't really want https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c.

Not in the way they once thought they did.

They didn't want to spend their game fighting political wars over territory.

They wanted to influence battlefields.

They wanted enough income to sustain something approaching a permanent war build.

They wanted to swing wars.And they wanted to do it together.

The long fight for a country had taught https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 that governing countries wasn't really what interested them.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c now describes https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c simply:

“Lesotho is a merc state now.”

Control matters because it gives https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 the freedom to operate without having its fighting dictated by outside politics.

So, in one of WarEra's stranger origin stories:

The Romanian vampires accidentally helped create a mercenary unit.

WHEN NOBODY ELSE IS WATCHING

From outside, https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 wants to look organised.

Fast. Reliable.

Professional enough that somebody can hand over coins, point toward a battlefield and know the promised damage will arrive.

Inside?

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c offered another description.

“Honestly, behind the recruitment message, we’re just a bunch of friends who happen to be pretty good at MUing and WarEra.”

There is banter.

Arguments. Questionable decisions.

Arguments over whose eco plan is better.

Arguments over whose war plan is better.

Stickers. Memes.

Taking the piss out of each other.

Nobody, https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c says, pretends https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 is a perfectly organised machine twenty-four hours a day.

But when something actually needs doing, they get serious.

His final diagnosis:

“Absolute fucking chaos — just organised chaos when it counts.”

https://app.warera.io/user/695d33d4c617ea3c92aed6ed offered perhaps the strongest evidence that the arrangement is working for the people inside it: “No war mode has been as exciting as it has been since joining BFB.”

He used to look forward to entering war mode.

Now he actively tries to avoid going back to eco.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c, currently suffering through exactly such an eco stint after prestiging, was less composed.

He has apparently been crying ever since.

The mercenaries would like their guns back.

THE MOZAM BOYS AREN'T THE MOZAM BOYS ANYMORE

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 has also recently grown.

A group from Mozambique joined the MU, and importantly, the Tea Room gave this one both sides of that story.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c says the newcomers have already been a massive help.

Same goals. Same mindset.

But he was also quite deliberate about something else.

They aren't simply “the Mozam boys” anymore.

They're https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029.

From Mozambique's side, https://app.warera.io/user/688e72ae9ba385a60816df04 explained that they had reached the conclusion that their value as mercenaries would be considerably greater as part of a larger mercenary organisation.

They already knew people in https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 from their days in https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af1612.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 gains more fighters.

The Mozambicans gain mercenary experience, existing relationships and somebody else to shoulder some of the work involved in finding contracts.

https://app.warera.io/mu/694d627cd792579fa9416dbe, originally intended to be Mozambique's primary MU, consequently now serves largely as an economic MU.

https://app.warera.io/user/691df65233063ef3c6f28ec9 also wished to assure WarErZA that everything is going extremely well.

They are being treated wonderfully.

The food is five-star.

They are absolutely, definitely, not being kept in the cages originally built for the vampires.

He would now like his weekly bread.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c

“Supreme leader said maybe.”

WarErZA has been unable to independently verify the condition of either the prisoners or the bread.

“SHIT... BFB IS HERE.”

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 has already reached one of the targets its members set themselves.

According to https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c, the original ambition was Top 10 MU reputation.

They achieved it. Now they want Top 5.

But listening to them talk, the ranking itself doesn't seem to be the real objective.

They want https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 to mean something when it appears on a contract.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c wants people to know they can call https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 when they need a swing on the battlefield.

https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c was slightly more colourful.

He wants the reaction to be: “Shit… BFB is here.”

Ideally, he says, countries will eventually be fighting over who gets BFB onto the contract first.

Bigger. Stronger. Richer. More feared.

But still the same people having fun together.

That last part came up too often during the interview to dismiss as recruitment copy.

When asked why he remained, https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c answer was almost embarrassingly simple.

He started https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029.

Now he's attached.

For https://app.warera.io/user/68fa3729e4d53537a6f6997c, the biggest reason is the people.

Friends who turned a strategy game into what he described as a second social life, occasionally accompanied by partners looking over and wondering why these boys are still playing that game.

The damage matters. The contracts matter. The reputation matters.

But apparently so does having the same idiots sitting beside you when everything goes wrong.

THE TEA HAS GONE COLD

This one arrived intending to interview a Military Unit.

Several hours later, the notebook contained mercenary economics, South African loyalties, Mozambican integration, a lesson in electoral mechanics, Romanian vampires, cages, bread, hemp tea and at least one joke that nearly caused this journalist to open an entirely different investigation.

Somewhere amongst all of that, https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 answered the original question.

Who are you lot?

Perhaps https://app.warera.io/user/68fba1cd1e6dc00c9dc6e04c had already answered it at the beginning.

A bunch of mates who like fighting and getting paid for it.

The longer answer is messier.

https://app.warera.io/mu/69b06cc64922375a1b5a2029 is a group of friends who were sent into https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f5c, accidentally lost control of it, took that personally enough to spend months becoming stronger, eventually got it back and discovered along the way that possessing territory wasn't really what interested them anymore.

They wanted the battlefield.

So now they sell what the whole ridiculous journey taught them to do.

Get organised. Get there.

Hit hard. Keep your word.

Get paid.

And apparently keep the old vampire cages available for new recruits.

This one quietly finished the tea.

The bread situation remains unresolved.

https://app.warera.io/user/68e538c09c4aafa6f1a0bd5c
War Correspondent

YOUR. VOICE. MATTERS.