A Guide to NationStates Warfare

Warfare in Nation States involves controlling regions. In order to effectively control a region, the target region must be founderless. A region can be controlled by installing a new WA Delegate before the update times.

The Update Times
The Update times are the times in which the game resets or updates. The update times in GMT are at 5.00 am (major) and 5.00pm (minor) sharp. Or at 12.00 am (major) and 12.00pm (minor) for Eastern (US) time. Check out time zone converter. It is important to know the update times.
The update times for each region is displayed beside the region's name at the top.

The WA Delegate
Is the World Assembly member nation which has the most endorsements from other WA member nations in the region. The WA Delegate is important in the defense of a region and raiding or other offensive operations.

Your nation must be a WA Member to participate in any Offensive or Defensive action.

Defending- Involves endorsing a friendly WA nation in order for that nation to be the WA Delegate of the region and remain the regional delegate in the event of a raid/invasion. The more endorsements the Delegate has, the stronger the region's defenses. It is simple, in the event of a raid/invasion, the native nations of the region who are WA members should endorse the true WA Delegate, the WA Delegate friendly to the region. The defending WA Delegate must have more endorsements then the raider nation that took over delegate status, in order to remain in control of the region. The defending WA delegate will then ban and eject all raider nations.

Spotting raider nations can be difficult depending on the goal of the raider, whether their aim is to control the region long term or tag raiding. A good defender identifies raider nations well.

Invading/Raiding- Involves moving WA nations into a target region, and instructing all WA nations to endorse one nation and get that nation more endorsements than the regional WA Delegate. After update time, the endorsed nation will be the new delegate and has some control over the region. The new WA Delegate can change the factbook of the region. Tag Raiding involves raider nations having temporary control over target regions. This involves installing a new WA Delegate for the purpose of changing the factbook of the targeted region only.
In order for invaders to remain in control of the regions, the invader nations must make sure that their chosen WA delegate must have more endorsements than the defender WA nations. When the invader WA delegate has enough regional power, the WA delegate must password protect the region and ban or eject all non-raider nations.
Raiding/invading for the purpose of permanently controlling a targeted region can be difficult and involves long term planning; especially if the targeted (founderless) region has a lot of members. In such a case it is advisable that two or more 'sleeper' invader puppet nations (who will be WA members) be moved into the targeted region and remain there until those nations have enough regional influence to ban/eject native nations in the future and impose a password on the region. This will usually take months and years. When the raider operation finally occurs, raider nations should endorse one of the 'sleeper' invader nations; before switching to the other 'sleeper' invader nation once the regional influence of the previous nation runs out, due to ejecting/banning of non-raider nations.

In raiding a region, it is important to make sure that the region's natives do not suspect that your nation is a raider. That's why Forward Operating Regions (FOR) and bases are important; as well as using other regions as an intermediate jump-off point to the targeted region.

Note: An effective raid can only be carried out on founderless regions where the WA Delegate will have administrative powers. Also multying (where you have two or multiple puppet nations which are WA members) is against NS rules. Multying severely hinders the effectiveness of a raider operation as it leads to the nations which multied to be deleted, so don't bother trying.

Region Hawking
Involves refounding a targeted founderless region (which has been emptied of all nations) in order to deny the enemy/other nations use of the region's name.
In order to refound a region, the region must be emptied of all its inhabitants so that it will cease to exist at the next update. This usually requires the WA Delegate to eject any nations that have not left voluntarily, and to place a password on the region so that new nations are unable to move in. Once the region has ceased to exist, a new one can be created with the same name. It is important to refound as soon after the update as possible, because the first person who attempts to create a new region with that name will become the new Founder. Some players wait for regions to cease to exist so that they can refound them before the original inhabitants. This is known as "region hawking".

A WA Liberation Resolution
A WA Liberation Resolution is a Resolution of the World Assembly Security council to liberate a region from invaders.
Defending nations can use a Liberation Resolution to remove the effect of a WA Delegate imposed password on the region. Defenders primarily use Liberations to prevent raiders from refounding a region, since passwords are most often used to prevent nations from reentering the region while the Delegate attempts to refound it. Defenders may propose a Liberation independently, or at the request of natives of the region. Without the involvement of a region's natives, however, it may be difficult to justify bringing a Liberation resolution before the World Assembly.
A WA Liberation Resolution, however can also be used by invader nations to remove a password-protected region in order to invade that region.

For more detailed guides on NS warfare, see:
Basics of Military Gameplay
Guide to Overlooked Aspects of Warfare
Step by step guide to Region Hawking
Official TBR Raiding Guide