Warband Maxxing: Build Your Tribe Part Deux

Like many men, when times get tough, I naturally close inward and cut off contact with friends and family. I refuse to ask for help or even talk to anyone. This is a huge mistake. You have to fight your instincts. 

This also seems to be more common especially in an extremely individualistic, isolated and cold society like America, where we only usually come together in times of direct threat. No surprise that the rise of prepper culture is mainly an American thing. Where you keep a stockpile of food, supplies and weapons to ride out a crisis or emergency. 

But Lone wolves die quickly & quietly. And as usual there were some interesting takes on X that point to the right mode to get through these times of poly-crisis. 

Homeric Futurist: “But if you look at people in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Brazil, or wherever. Nobody is living on years of stockpiled supplies. That is a bourgeois notion. 

They thrive through their networks, local influence, capacity for violence, black market economies etc.”

Titus Manlius describes what happened during the brutal decades long civil war in Lebanon in the 1970s & 1980s: “Christians in Lebanon stockpile ammo and supplies. Fortify their homes (gates, barred windows, cameras, solar, generators). But yes, they thrive with family, local/international networks, influence, neighbors, associations, churches. It sh-t hits the fan, the bells ring.” 

Source: https://x.com/HomericFuturist/status/1998799690020827635.

This is absolutely the way. You need to build your tribe. Maybe better said, your war band. 

Like “Rogue Frontier” you have to actively work on building these communities before a crisis. And there are many old historical precedents beyond recent times. It’s almost like men are wired for this in reaction to societal breakdown and challenges. 

“Modern man feels a profound sense of meaninglessness precisely because his bonds of fraternal brotherhood have been shattered. 

The great lie is that civilization is "evolving", progressing toward some bright, utopian future. The reverse is clearly true — as we move further from traditional hierarchy, the more rapidly society degenerates. 

We men of tradition strive to become the most exemplary members of our folk, capable of reorganizing hierarchy around our superiority. We must be of such powerful quality that men find purpose through service to our ideals. 

Now is the time to revitalize traditional structures of camaraderie and manifest a new destiny for our people — this begins with the formation of your own comitatus. 

Ghengis Khan, in fact, began his conquest of the world with his "four fierce wolves" or "the dogs of Chinggis" — Khubilai, Jelme, Jebe, and Sübedei. Naturally, like Ghengis, the more heroic qualities you embody, the more men who will seek to serve your greatness. 

In the ancient world, benefits of a comitatus were abundant: 

"The lord in turn rewarded his comitatus, especially the core group of friends, by treating them as his own family, sharing his habitation and worldly goods with them, and bestowing much wealth upon them. 

Warriors belonging to a comitatus were rewarded with almost unimaginable wealth and honor in their societies, not just once but over and over throughout their lives, as long as they served their lord, and in the afterlife as well.”

Source: https://x.com/RoguesPhilo/status/1998873215020708237.

Exploring this topic led me down the path to an old fictional book “Kara’s Game” that took place during the horrific Serbian siege of Sarajevo in 1994. It’s a gripping read and a frightening reminder of the depths that people can fall to. But there was a quote that seemed apt for the times, you learn about who you can count on when things get bad. “If you cannot help those who help you and yours, who can you help? If you can’t be loyal to those who are loyal to you and yours, then who or what the hell can you be loyal to.”

History is a great educator. Mike Shelby wrote: 

“History is littered with the good guys losing the war and atrocities perpetrated against their innocent family members. 

Stop thinking America could be any different. Don't lose faith that we will win, but be realistic that we could lose. Then keep training and preparing to win.”

So go build your war band. Everyone needs their crew during challenging times. 2026 to 2029 is going to be wild.