Neo-Imperium

The Neo-Imperium
The Neo-Inperium was first introduced by Zynga during the "Cuba in Crisis" mission as a shadowy organization that was taking control of Cuba in order to establish a New World Order. What we know so far is very limited, they are a large and powerful organization that's capable of taking down any country or previous boss that the player has taken down. The Mafia Wars team seems to be leading the players and community towards the Neo-Imperium symbol and what it might mean or what it tells us about the mysterious organization. In the image of the Cuban Newspaper (seen below) the following text can be read:


 * "General Sandoval has been found dead near the downton district. A mysterious symbol was found on his arm, which is similar to graffiti tags that have been found all over the city. While is is safe to say that this symbol is... Continued on A3."

Also in the image of the Russian newspaper (also below) the player reads:


 * "The mysterious symbol, likened to an ancient ziggurat, first surface on the streets of San Paulo, Brazil, and then reappeared during the recent cirsis in Havana. It is definitely clear that whatever is behind the... Continued on A3."

The Neo-Imperium has an uncanny likeness the the Illuminati, New World Order and Zeitgeist organizations in real life. All three links are to YouTube video that are all recommended watching, if not purely for entertainment. This page was made on March 3rd 8:30PM Zynga time and will be updated with pertanent information about this new Mafia Wars Nemesis as soon as it is released.

Crisis in Cuba
The first anyone heard of the Neo-Imperium was when Zynga introduced the Global Mission: Cuba in Crisis on February 24th, 2011. A direct quote from the Zynga Blog stated:

"In six days, Cuba will be overrun!

A shadowy organization called the Neo-Imperium is secretly working to destabilize the current world order and control all criminal activities throughout the planet. The Neo-Imperium are attempting to overthrow the government and install a puppet leader to establish one of the biggest drug trafficking centers in the world. This is a warning to all Mafia crime bosses that Cuba is no longer safe.

It’s time to head to Cuba and complete a series of missions to combat this new organization before time runs out and all players will be locked out from Cuba. You have until March 2 to complete these missions and do all other activities in Cuba. Job mastery in Cuba will be 5X and a new loot item will drop from jobs and fights in this unstable country. There are also new loot items and a 10% cash bonus for Mafia players who complete all the tasks in the allotted time.

You’ll need a lot of Politico Corruptos from your Bribery Ring property in Cuba to finish your “Crisis in Cuba” mission. If you’re running low on corrupt politicians, don’t worry. You’ll be able to send Politico Corruptos to your Mafia and request them from your friends through the Gift Page. The “Crisis in Cuba” Mission is available to users level 18 and above.

Go to Cuba now before it’s too late!" -Mafia Wars Blog

The Mission was accompanied by 2 new loot items, the Prop 4 and the Embargo Net. Players could collect 10 Prop 4's a day and once they finished all the mission requirements, they could collect one of the Embargo Net's.

Zynga also included a 5x Mastery Boost to all Cuban jobs and introduced the Politico Corrupto as a free gift so players that hadn't finished the area yet could do so without missing out on the Mastery Rewards, Achievements, Skill Points and Cuban Loot. The player was given 7 days to complete the tasks associated with Cuba. Once the 7 days was over, the Neo-Imperium took over and all attempts to fly into Cuba were halted abruptly with the image seen below and then re-routed to the city that the player attempted to fly in from. There were still a few buggy things associated with Cuba after it closed however. Such as being able to collect from your properties via Mafia Wars Mobile, or still collecting Prop 4's after it was closed. If you look closely on the newspaper, you can clearly see the sentence "Russian Mob Boss Dead" leading the player to believe that Moscow would be the Neo-Imperium's next destination.

Massacre In Moscow


Well the newspaper from Cuba was right, the next destination that was going to be overrun by the Neo-Imperium was, in-fact, Moscow. This mission was introduced on March 3rd, 2011 and acted almost identically to "Cuba In Crisis". The mafia wars blog released another newspaper with the heading "Massacre In Moscow" Cuba locked down, is Russia next? Perhaps the most interesting thing about the newspaper from Moscow is that Zynga had to change the bottom right quote, that leads us tobelieve Bangkok is the Neo-Imperium's next target. It originally said "Thai King Deported" as seen on the right, then they changed it to "Unrest In Thailand" seen on the left, due to very upset Thai players shouting about how disrespectful it was to publish that image. It's important to note that Mafia Wars has a very large fanbase in Thailand.

Here's a response from the Zynga team about the mix up.



Whoopsies!

Anyway, in a similar fashion to Cuba in Crisis, Massacre in Moscow also had an item that you could collect 10 times a day from doing jobs or fighting called the Snow Resist Layer and a single Mission Mastery item called the Snow Cat.

Zynga again included a 5x Mastery Boost to all Moscow jobs and introduced the Stick of Dynamite as a free gift so players that hadn't finished the area yet could do so without missing out on the Mastery Rewards, Achievements, Skill Points and Moscow Loot. The player is, again, given 7 days to complete everything they need to do in Moscow before the Neo-Imperium takes it over and we are presented with yet another city that we don't have access to. Upon competion of the mission, the player is presented with the Neo-Imperium logo and a message saying

The newspaper obviously states that Bangkok is next, but the player is left to wonder whether or not the Neo-Imperium will move any further than that. Vegas and Italy are new cities and I doubt Zynga would remove them or New York (although Italy would be much easier to take over than Russia, rom a military standpoint) we will wait and see what happens to our beloved cities. Many players are arguing that this removal of old cities is a deterrant for new players because they will miss out on all the aformentioned goods and skill points. Others think that Zynga is going to replace these cities with newer versions of themselves, much like New New York, to give new players something to aspire for. Either way it will be interesting to see how this all shakes down.
 * "You receive a text: "We captured Bassinov. Flee Moscow before it is too late. We are the Neo-Imperium. We will not be challenged by you or anyone." You trace the text to Bangkok." Screen_shot_2011-03-03_at_4.54.34_PM.png

Battle for Bangkok/Brawl for Bankok/Bloodbath in Bangkok/etc...
(coming soon)