Infinity War

The NATO-Mir War, also unofficially known as the Infinity War, is a major conflict between NATO and Mir, Entente, UDF, and select members of 'The Coalition' formed during the War of the Coalition.

The conflict started during the early months of 2019 and ended on July 19th, 2020 with the fall of "The Litterbox" to Coalition forces.

= Early stages of the conflict=

First skirmishes
The NATO-Mir war was sparked after Mirians were harassing at the Pinkerton Vault in HJE. As a result of a Mirian fleeing to S4NTA's bunker in Mount Augusta, NATO decided to pop the bunker under the orders of HanTzu of Hallow. The bunker was popped, which led to the start of the war.

The Siege of Pinkerton
In early January 2019, Mir launched a large scale ground attack against Pinkerton. At the time, Pinkerton was a large hole with a bunker at the center. Pinkerton was eventually taken by Mir on February 2nd.

Following the Siege of Pinkerton, and the large Columbian presence there, the UDF would officially join the war.

SPQR Border Crisis
In Late February, HanTzu approached UNC leadership as a result of Mirians being suspected of setting up an attack bunker used to attack Hallow in SPQR. The situation was resolved, with an official statement that the UNC would blockade both NATO and Mirian fighters.

The Sacking of Hallow
= The Escalation =

In mid-2019, several NATO nations such as Valyria, Annwyn and Columbia reached agreements with Mir to exit the war.

In late 2019 however, the conflict intensified after LSD was attacked by the Entente and Laconia came to their aid. The Entente progressively joined Mir in their effort against NATO. NATO, on the other hand, received the help of Corvus, Laconia, and LSD.

During the first weeks of 2020, the UDF, which now included Columbia, joined the war on the side of Mir and the Entente and took part in the assault against Pinkerton after NATO took in remaining obby bombers from the War of the Coalition.

The Fall of Rhodesia
Rhodesia would fall to Mir in the first stages of the war. Rhodesian's would later group up in Columbia, starting a civil war called the Columbian Bush War, which was put down by Shadedoom and the UDF.

The Siege of Laconia
After ashnwill's vault Hotel California was attacked by SATO-Entente forces, and other fellow members of the Latvian Soccer Dogs were attacked in various places around the map, Laconia came to LSD's aid. Laconia allowed the soccer dogs to reside within Mt. Doom, and organized an attempt to salvage the vault materials. They were intercepted on the way back home, leading to the Battle of Hotel California. Later, Laconia's capital Mt. Doom was attacked, starting the Entente-Laconia War in full swing.

The LSD members integrated into Laconia during the 4-month siege of Mt. Doom, and the remaining forces fled to Hallow and the Holy Jaded Empire after the mountain fell.

Eventually NATO involvement in the defense of Mt. Doom led the Infinity War to become a world war after the Entente followed them back to the northwest quadrant after the fall of Laconia, joining Mir's war effort.

Today Laconia maintains that this element of the war is still ongoing due to no formal peace negotiations between Entente and themselves taking place.

The Battle of The Crucible
 See The Battle of The Crucible

The Opening of the Columbian Theater after The Battle of The Crucible
After the successful defense of The Crucible, the focus of the war shifted from skirmishes at NATO vaults to a prolonged siege of Columbian lands. NATO would quickly roll through Rotterdam, the capital of Columbia, and move onto Valyria, outside of The Crucible where they would set up fortifications. Seeing this, many more UDF, Mirian, Entente, and Coalition forces were brought to Valyria to defend the city and the vault.

In March of 2020, Valyria was obby bombed by NATO forces in an attempt to force a surrender. Two days later, Robokaiser was pearled in a skirmish in Polska, by Mirian JKH and Gregy165. After this, opposition in Polska essentially collapsed and NATO retreated back to their vaults on the world border. Eventually a skybridge would be built and Polska would be disabled as a functional military outpost for NATO, thus ending the Siege of Columbia.

Cracking the Hallow Vault
On June 27th, 2020, Coalition forces broke the Hallow Vault after a 24 hour siege. The pearl of FlashMigma was freed and ComradeRick and hockey328 were lost in the process. The pearl of Kicky was gained by Mir. The cracking of Hallow is notable as it is currently the largest vault to ever be successfully attacked and disabled.

Cracking Best Western and Vault 76
On July 18th, 2020, Coalition forces broke the Best Western vault after a 24 hour siege. During the fight, various pearls that had been secured throughout the war were released, including those belonging to Lodish, bgbba, ComradeRick, among others. ObtainableSplat was vitacoco'd off the skybridge but later freed when Vault 76 was cracked. The remaining pearls that were unreleased from Best Western by Pirater were carried by Crackerjack to the Geo Vault "Litterbox".

Cracking Geo Vault & Conclusion
On July 19th, 2020, Coalition forces broke the last remaining NATO vault, the Geo vault, located by Admintown and SPQR land claims, which held the remaining SPQR pearls. With the final break of the vault, this marked the end of NATO forces and the conclusion of the war.

Aftermath
The Infinity War had a massive influence on server population and desire to play. Critics of the war claim that its world wide nature, lack of nuance, and effective "permapearling" of individuals resulted in a drop-off of player activity. Others claim that nobody was ever effectively permapearled during the duration of the war, and argue that most captured pearls were simply on POW status, awaiting sentencing and or release for time served until after the conflict ended.

Several nations involved in the war would die out, particularly on the NATO side of the conflict due to infrastructure destruction and pearling of citizens, but also on the Coalition side due to war exhaustion and other factors. Hallow's citizens would completely move to Realms, HJE's would do the same, and Polska would be utterly destroyed as a functioning city and state. Laconia, although several players still exist on the server, would go inactive too. Other notable nations that would cease to exist in an active capacity during the war would be Coventhia, who would drastically reduce the size of their claims and give their vault and most of their land to neutral nation Grand Imperium. New Sovia, although split by the time of the UDF/Entente's entry into the war officially, would also cease to function as a true state. Bloom, involved in the war on the side of the UDF until its departure from the alliance, would also go to Realms and go inactive.

There is some evidence that server population is recovering though in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. Imperial Truidence, Icenia, and SPQR have all shown signs of a boost in activity and it remains to be seen if this will continue into the future.

= References =