Barbary War

Summary
The Barbary War was a five day long conflict on the New World, as a result of spiralling tensions on the mainland, namely the Great War. It involved the majority of the nations of the New World via the Far Seas Alliance, versus an incursion by the New World Pirates. The FSA at this point was scarcely even two months old, being founded in August, and the alliance’s forces were a synthesis of a few older players and much more green fighters.

After a disastrous offensive by the FSA during the Battle of Polaria, the majority of fighting centred around a bunker in Krakatoa and the combat tunnel used to project force onto the Pirates' entrenchments in southern Gallagher (now Polaria). Intensification of hostilities, coupled with the high-profile loss of Adderall and escalation of the war in the Old World, prompted the Pirates to re-enter peace negotiations on a much more agreeable terms with the FSA. By the end of the 3rd of October, the Pirates had fully withdrawn from the New World with no significant gains.

There are significant connections between the Barbary War in the and the Great War in the Old World. Belligerents on both sides of the Barbary War were also involved in the Great War, most notably the New World Pirates connections to Laconia and Chungus and New Providence’s situation as a colony of the Otono-Varathian Empire. Some would consider the spillover of the Great War to be a contributing factor of the Barbary War. However, the Barbary War ended with the Treaty of Krakatoa before peace was seriously considered in the Old World, and many New World combatants of the Barbary War have taken significant steps to not become involved in the Great War.

The Logiche State Visit
On the 28th of September, Logiche, Emperor of Varathia arrived in the New World to survey his colonial holdings in New Providence. A group of exiles from the ongoing Great War, later to be regarded as the New World Pirates, were sheltering in the shard and alleged that he was visiting to make use of Varathian infrastructure in the area to pearl them. Logiche was shot at, before hiding in a building and logging off. New Providence was a member of the FSA, and this incident began to stir up doubt regarding the peaceful intentions of exiles from the mainland. It was not in of itself responsible for the escalation of the Barbary War.

Skirmishes in Gallagher
A day later, on the 29th of September, Binky (one of the NWP) pearled Ikea_Fridge of Gallagher. DustyRayton and KingOfTheMochas attempted to retaliate independent of the FSA. They lost this skirmish and were both pearled.

A task force of Swordmaster7777, InfinityXerox, Gordona22, Cdlinder, Fuji and MemeNemewere sent to the location of the pearls. Binky logged off and all parties were freed. Their gear was not recovered.

This marked the first FSA response to Pirate actions on the continent and the descent of the conflict into larger pitched battles.

First Battle of Gallagher-Polaria
Following the initial stages of conflict in the shard, the impetus was on the FSA to provide a response. During an extended period of investigation, members of the FSACM discovered what they believed to be the location of the bunker the NWP were operating out of. Initial scouting confirmed that this was likely the case. Unfortunately, when this information became more public WNS2 opted to investigate it more closely and tagged snitches, despite the FSACM’s insistence not to do so. In breaking exposed snitches to disguise his abrupt entrance to the bunker perimeter, WNS gave time for Yaahya to log in and catch him in the act. Finally following advice, WNS logged just in time, but was from this period logboxed. Gordona22 was additionally pearled in Polaria by Adderall and Yaahya. The combination of these circumstances overwhelming gave pressure to the decision to attack.

At the time, Spokesman of the FSA and nominal leader of coalition forces, ImperatorMendes_ was out, thereby leaving command to be devolved to the constituent nations of the FSA. The majority of coalition forces decided to assemble in Zeal where their supplies were topped up. While the FSA did have superior numbers, many of these were from the nicknamed "Sesorian Buildfriend Horde". Assembled by the efforts of MSPaintDaily, it was not only inexperienced but badly armed and ill prepared for a coordinated offensive. However thanks to Zeal, Sesorias sister nation the armor and gear issues were mostly fixed. Before riding via horse tunnel to attack the pirate bunker. During the onset of this assault, KingOfTheMochas was knocked from the mountain on which the bunker lied and was pearled by Yaahya.

It was at this moment that ImperatorMendes_ returned to see what was happening and joined up with coalition forces from Vibeville. At this point the secure voice chat had become clogged with at least seventeen voices talking, preventing any meaningful communications. This led to WNS2 receiving a faulty order to log on in from his logbox, resulting in his death. Additionally the density of the coalition forces prevented effective use of radar. It was in this environment that autonomous offensives began to be made: ramshackle tunnels dug into the mountain- despite being a poor location to start tunnels from. Surface traps were easily disabled due to the overwhelming numbers advantage the FSA enjoyed. In contrast, the tunnel offensives went poorly and due to poor radar intelligence, forces schizophrenically moved from tunnel to surface and vice verse. It was in these tunnel fights that InfinityXerox and Fisher were pearled. Attempting to restore order, the FSACM tried to organise the construction of an attack bunker with associated tunnel. This was hampered by the location and the fact that supplies when ordered, never came, or came extremely late. By the time the compactor was constructed, morale and numbers had waned so significantly that Imperator and other members of the FSACM ordered a retreat against the wishes of some.

Imperator led the retreat by sea, wherein the majority of horses were left on the battlefield. Boating from the coast of Western Gallagher, coalition forces successfully reached friendly infrastructure, wherein they retired for the day.

The offensive failed in all of its strategic goals: whether to gain pearls (namely Yaahya’s) or to dislodge the fighters from their fortified position on the mountain. Casualties were extremely heavy, being almost a quarter of those who came to fight and comparisons were drawn to the Battle of the Somme. The New World Pirates were sufficiently vindicated by events to present an offer of surrender to the FSA. Leaders of the FSACM made large efforts to keep morale up and so the offer was largely rejected on face value. However amongst the FSACM there was a strong feeling of borrowed time and that one more significant loss would have driven a nail into the coffin of the war effort, especially in the face of unfettered raiding in Polaria and enemy forces being able to walk there uncontested for many hours at a time.

Second Battle of Gallagher-Polaria
Following a meeting of the FSACM on the 1st of October, work began on an attack bunker on the southern coast of Krakatoa. The plan was to create an attack tunnel downwards, coordinate an offensive and avoid the mistakes of the First Battle of Gallagher-Polaria. Given the alarm in FSA nations, extraordinary measures were put into place: for example the requisitioning from the Vibeville Ironworks. Additionally the FSA was able to procure the services of one Saren_Solaris, a very talented pvper and tactician. His help would be invaluable in the FSA's prosecution of the war.

One feature of the Krakatoa attack tunnel was a planned 'early warning' system of its potential discovery following a close call in which Ikea_Fridge was spotted on an enemy radar. Regardless of this fail safe, the tunnel was discovered ahead of the scheduled 3rd of October attack, leading to a general call to arms to defend the attack tunnel. A reasonable force was gathered- notably smaller than in the initial coalition gathered on the 30th of September. The scene was set for another battle- this time for domination of the underground.

The fighting in the tunnels was very intense and there was numerous incidents of FSA pvpers nearly getting trapped and having to be broken out by allied forces. Arrows rained down from either side, and the New World Pirates barricaded the tunnels with SRO. At one point in the battle, Saren_Solaris was auto-banned, leaving the coalition to fight alone. When he was unbanned, his head was lodged in SRO and he was surrounded by the full forces of the New World Pirates who attempted to encase him. All FSA forces scrambled to the area, and were just able to free him with a mere seven durability left on his chestplate. Despite these worrisome moments, the FSA attack tunnel had advanced and no casualties had been taken. FSA forces also took the fight to the surface, building makeshift traps in Gallagher and exchanging in pvp with the NWP. Horses, presumably stolen from the FSA stock abandoned during the previous retreat were killed under the Pirates who rode them. Pirate bastions were damaged.

The tunnels were also now substantially widened, enabling much greater scope of offence. Issues with breaking bastions however did take their toll and once the European players retired from the fight, the fighting once again flared up. This resulted in the NWP gaining one pearl: CooCooMan156 who was not using a mic, and therefore was unable to communicate for help.

Swordmaster of Vibeville, who was on duty at the time, characterised the battle as something that whilst "it could've gone better, it could've gone a lot worse". The FSA had successfully defended its attack tunnel and importantly bought time to continue the offensive.

Third Battle of Gallagher-Polaria
On the day of the planned FSA offensive, there was auspicious news for them. The enemy accounts: Binkette, Gay69, Mamatom and Yaahya were spotted leaving the shard. It was initially thought to be a ploy, until many of the accounts landed in the mainland- though some would return when fighting intensified. This may have been correlated with the pearling of FSA general Saren_Solaris, who lost an engagement over a horse in the hours preceding the battle. The final bastions around the NWP bunker were therefore not broken as planned, only weakened. This set the stage for a very contestable battle for both sides.

Fighting was extremely heavy and the tunnels were once again contested. The decision was made that in order to capitalise on the damaged bastions, FSA forces would abandon their fixed positions in the attack tunnel further than before. At several points the coalition forces were pushed back, only to regain ground and eventually go onto break the bastion.

Eventually FSA forces were at the very foot of the Pirate bunker. A reinforced floor was made for the pvpers to stand on in sieging the bunker, however the material used was stone, making it difficult for the fortified sections to be distinguished. As a result nominal FSACM leader ImperatorMendes_ was spleefed into a secured tunnel, where he began to 2v1 the Pirates inside with some limited success- despite being trapped. Prompted by this, the whole FSA detachment surged into the tunnel, blocking off enemy access. Imperator managed to break out of the tunnel and rekit, whilst the others fought a rearguard out of the tunnel. Adderall was pearled in this fighting- having already lost pots to Imperator- in the heaviest combat yet.

Seeking vengeance, the remaining Pirates came forward upon the retreating coalition forces. Imperator and Incentives fought a rearguard whilst the others retreated, with the access to the tunnel being heavily obbied by the Pirates. FreestyleJr was separated from the group and had to be extricated and then Fuji, a Zeal combatant, additionally got trapped. This time, despite multiple interventions, he was unable to be extricated and was pearled. Ploughing through the obby barricades, the FSA managed to re-enter the combat bunker.

In the last action of the battle, Imperator escorted Incentives, with the pearl, to allied infrastructure. PermaPearl attempted to intercept but failed to arrive in time and was promptly chased off by the two. The FSA had taken a further two casualties, but had advanced significantly more, eliminating the bastions that had enabled the prolific trapping of tunnels and captured a prominent fighter. Given the distractions of the old shard for the Pirates, morale was high on the coalition side for the first time in a while. As the coalition once more headed down the attack tunnel, fully expecting and ready for many more days of fighting, the New World Pirates contacted the pearled Saren_Solaris as a mediator to discuss significantly more generous peace terms- essentially a white peace, with full Pirate withdrawal from the shard.

The available members of FSACM and constituent nation leaders signed the Treaty of Krakatoa, ending the war.

Aftermath
The Barbary War illustrated the one-sidedness of defensive meta on CivRealms. Parallel to it, the Great War would continue on for some time before ending partly due to non-game factors. The coalition on the mainland would attempt to officially call in the post-war FSA to no avail: the mainland had not intervened in the Barbary War and thus the natives of the new world felt no obligation to them. The end of the war meant demobilisation for the shard and many players chose to take breaks or after the war, to help their mainshard affiliates (primarily the case with Gallagher and New Providence) rebuild. The Barbary War was a source of pride for the FSA, which had performed in relative terms much better than other contemporary belligerents. A small number of memorials were put up across the shard: a statue of Saren_Solaris planned for the far North and a statue being dedicated to ImperatorMendes_ in Athens, Boria. The main Pirate bunker complex would be disabled in fairly short order after peace was signed by the FSA members already fighting that day. The majority of valuables had been evacuated from said site.

After the war, the ad-hoc organisation of the FSACM was replaced with a permanent sitting military council more representative of the general membership of the FSA. The FSACM has since become completely redundant by contrast.