Infinity War

The NATO-Mir War, later the Infinity War, was a world war fought by Mir, the Entente, and UDF, against NATO and the broader anti-World Police axis.

The conflict started on 30 January 2019 and ended on 19 July 2020, with the fall of the Litterbox vault to Coalition forces.

Prelude to war (early 2019)
The war largely started due to tensions in the city of Mt. Augusta. These tensions go back to the existence of the FRIENDS alliance, which frequently had heated disputes with the World Police. The FRIENDS alliance disintegrated, and its member states, such as Hallow and the Holy Jaded Empire, later reassembled under the NATO banner.

On 4 January 2019, Baes20 (aka Arctikz_), a citizen of the Holy Jaded Empire, entered Mt. Augusta alongside two accounts, 'LeaveMeTallone' and 'Rhiannasbutt'. These three proceeded to break a few minor laws and started a small fight with citizens of Mir. In order to escape the Mirians, they ran to bunkers built on property owned by the Holy Jaded Empire. The two players alongside Baes20 were later revealed to be the banned players bewsiej and dovahkiin, using VPNs to bypass their bans.

On 6 January 2019, apparently in response to the actions taken by Baes20, the Mirian fighter Gregy165 went to one of the Holy Jaded Empire's bunkers near Mt. Augusta and attempted to break in. He was engaged and made to retreat by the fighter thomasih, who was much later discovered to be a VPN alt of the banned player poortea. Around this time, a Mirian fighter, theJKH, returned to the server, and began to perform rogue actions. He griefed another bunker owned by the Holy Jaded Empire in Mt. Augusta. In response to this, S4NTA, an officer of Mir, attempted diplomacy with Emperor ComradeNick, revoking Gregy165 and theJKH's permissions to Mirian bunkers in the area. Unfortunately, these discussions were ultimately unsuccessful.

Despite promises from S4NTA, additional Mirians were allegedly still helping theJKH and Gregy165 with operations in Mt. Augusta. As a punitive action on 29 January 2019, 20 NATO troops were deployed to destroy the Mir bunker in Mt. Augusta. This operation was completed overnight. In response, Mir considered all who helped disable their bunker to be pearl-on-sight map-wide.

The next day, 30 January, Mir constructed a trap on the Great Overland Rail (GOR) between The Commonwealth and Mount Augusta. Mirian fighter Ez2Clutch baited NATO fighters to the trap, where a contingent of Mirian fighters was logged out. The trap was successful, resulting in the pearling of Hangoverd, a NATO fighter.

Mir then made a post on the subreddit, named "Let the Hammer Fall", declaring war on the NATO alliance. With this post, 30 January 2019 became the official start date of the war. The NATO alliance at the time consisted of Hallow, the Holy Jaded Empire, Polska, Tel Aviv, Annwyn, Valyria, Columbia, and unofficially Rhodesia.

Siege of Pinkerton
Mir launched a large scale ground attack against the Holy Jaded Empire-owned Pinkerton vault near Mt. Augusta, and captured it on 2 February. At this time, Pinkerton was just a large hole with a smaller bunker at the center.

SPQR Border Crisis and invasion
In late February, NATO alleged that Mir had established a bunker in SPQR territory, intended to be used as attack infrastructure against Hallow. NATO leader HanTzu approached the leadership of the UNC alliance, of whom SPQR was a member, and inquired about whether or not they were helping Mir. The situation was initially resolved, with the UNC providing an official statement that they would blockade any fighters from either Mir or the NATO alliance.

Tensions flared when the Holy Jaded Empire disabled a rail line running between the city of Roma in the SPQR, and the city of Westminster in the Commonwealth. Imperial leadership claimed that it posed a wartime security threat to the Empire, given that it ran directly underneath its territory. The rail was restored to an operational status by the UNC, with the Entente alliance assisting in force, despite protests from the NATO alliance.

NATO responded to this action with anger, renewing their accusations against the UNC of aiding Mir, and launching a full-scale invasion of the SPQR. The SPQR was quickly occupied with little to no resistance, and their leadership was mostly pearled. This caused the SPQR to be undefended during the Ransakistan conflict, allowing it to be extensively carpet-bombed with reinforced obsidian.

The Siege of Sempiternal
The Empire of Columbia's vault, Sempiternal, was besieged repeatedly by Mirian forces, until it finally fell on 23 February 2019.

The Sacking of Hallow
The city of Hallow was attacked repeatedly from 24 February, until 17 March 2019, when it was finally sacked by Mirian forces. The city's defensive infrastructure was disabled, but the nearby Hallow vault remained operational.

The Fall of Rhodesia
Rhodesia fell at some point in the early stages of the war. The displaced Rhodesians would later join Columbia, eventually sparking the Columbian Bush War.

Detente
Beginning in May 2019, several NATO nations such as Valyria, Annwyn, and Columbia reached agreements with Mir to peacefully exit the war.

The Latvian Soccer Dogs and the Laconia War


In September 2019, the Latvian Soccer Dogs alliance, or LSD, was founded by ashnwill in an attempt to create a true neutral alliance. Due to the questionable histories of some players involved, and the establishment of defensive infrastructure in the southwest region of the map, concerns grew within the largely southern Entente and SATO alliances that it was merely a front for a raider crew; or even a hostile arm of NATO. As a result, both alliances controversially declared war on LSD weeks after its formation.

The LSD vault Hotel California, very early in its construction, was attacked by SATO-Entente forces, and soccer dogs were attacked in various places around the map. Somewhat unexpectedly, Laconia threw their full weight behind LSD, and came to their aid, allowing the soccer dogs to reside within Laconia's fortress capital city Mt. Doom.

Laconian-LSD forces organized an attempt to salvage the vault materials. They were successful in this, but were intercepted on the way back home, leading to the disastrous Battle of Hotel California. Later, Mt. Doom was attacked, starting the Entente-Laconia War in full swing.

Around this time, the leadership of NATO, Corvus, and Laconia began speaking about military cooperation, due to suspicions on NATO's part that the Entente were already helping Mir.

The Fall of Mt. Doom


Mt. Doom was besieged for over 4 months, enduring weekly attacks by the Entente alliance. Despite being severely outmatched in terms of manpower, assets, and logistical capacity, the Laconians managed to persist in their defense. During this time, the soccer dogs became fully integrated into the Laconian nation and culture.

After the Ransakistan conflict galvanized much of the server against the anti-World Police, a final push consisting of Entente, SATO, Mir, and UDF forces, taking place over several days, managed to bring about the fall of the mountain fortress.

After the fall of Laconia, the surviving defenders fled to the northwest, hoping to continue the fight in the defense of NATO vaults. They were followed by the Entente, who officially joined Mir's war effort.

Today, Laconia still maintains that this war is ongoing, due to a lack of diplomatic agreements between themselves and the Coalition.

The Fall of the Hallow vault


On 27 June 2020, Coalition forces broke into the Hallow vault, following a massive siege, with ~60 attackers, lasting over 24 hours. The pearl of FlashMigma was freed, and the pearls of attackers ComradeRick and hockey328 were lost in the process. The pearl of Kicky was gained by Mir. Hallow remains the largest vault to be successfully disabled in the history of the CivCraft genre.

The Fall of the Holy Jaded Empire and Vault 76


On 18 July 2020, Coalition forces broke the Holy Jaded Empire's vault, Best Western, following another massive 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 pearled after falling off of the skybridge, but was later freed when Vault 76 was broken. The remaining pearls that were unreleased from Best Western by Pirater were carried by Crackerjack to the vault known as the Litterbox. This vault was constructed by the Zoomers, a group of players that joined NATO's side in the Infinity War after migrating from the Geographica server.

The Fall of the Litterbox
On 19 July 2020, Coalition forces broke the last remaining NATO vault, the Litterbox, located near SPQR, which held the last remaining pearls acquired by NATO during the war. This marked the end of NATO as a functioning military force 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.

Columbia took over stewardship of Hallow and Polska cities, and the Jaded Confederation was formed to prevent grief in HJE's cities (that no newfriends could feasibly benefit from) after an incident occured involving various individuals.

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.