Grasslands Gambit

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Grasslands Gambit

Yoahtl's capital Altepetl (left) being skybridged (right) by Gang Shi on December 10th
Date8th December 2023 — 12th December 2023
Location
Gang Shi, Yoahtl, in quadrants -,- and +,-
Result

Dawn Guard Pact Victory

  • Temporary DGP occupation of Florence, Lambeau, Butternut, Gang Shi, Ma Seli, Asgard, and Salerno
  • Asgard subsequently annexed into the Imperial Federation.
  • Florence, Lambeau, Butternut, and Gang Shi dissolved.
  • Salerno de-claim of Caerdun.
  • Estalian seizure of Blacklight (GS Capital) and Black Mesa Vault.
Combatants

Dawn Guard Pact

Strength
10+ Fighters
15+ Support Personnel		 10+ Personnel
10+ Support Personnel
Casualties and losses
One player killed, not pearled
One player pearled, later freed (as of 11th December 2023)
  • 3 vaults griefed
  • Altepetl attack bunker griefed
  • Jbblocker logboxed
  • 6 Personnel 4 Support personnel pearled (As of December 11th 2023)

The Grasslands Gambit, also known as the DGP-Gang Shi War or Post-Nut Clarity War,[1] was a war on CivMC fought from 8 December 2023 to 12 December 2023. It was initiated with a surprise attack by Icenia and Yoahtl, allied with one another in the Dawn Guard Pact, as well as the eponymous Fastestgrass and some non-Civ players, against Gang Shi on the 8th December 2023 in response to leaks from the Gang Shi Discord that implied Gang Shi intended to eventually go to war with Icenia and Yoahtl in order to establish dominance over the server.[2]

The war opened on 8th December with a joint Icenian-Yoahtlan surprise attack on the Black Mesa pearl holding vault, disabling it via groups obtained by Grassland insider Antea4204, with over 75,000 blocks of the vault ctr'd over. Early the next day, Icenians skybridged to the Florence bunker, eventually disabling it, while also obstructing a Gang Shi iceroad. Late on 9th December, Gang Shi launched a massive, five-hour long, and eventually vain attack on Altepetl that ultimately ended with the Gang Shi attack bunker disabled, 10 Gang Shi fighters pearled throughout the campaign, and ultimately one defender killed (not pearled). A skirmish between Gang Shi forces and Icenians in Icenia City on 11 December ended in one Gang Shi fighter pearled. The war ended on 12 December upon the insiding of Gang Shi and Butternut by ComradeNick, relinquishing control of both nation's defensive infrastructure to the Dawn Guard Pact.

Background

Gang Shi had initially been dissolved in the SEC–Gang Shi War in April 2023, as part of a war between Gang Shi and the Security Enhancement Coalition, including Icenia and Yoahtl. Following the end of the Butternut-SEC War, in which Icenia and Yoahtl, still in the SEC, fought a failed war against Butternut County and fighters from Gang Shi, Gang Shi was reestablished (with the SEC dissolved). Subsequently, Icenia and Gang Shi were the subject of several incidents,[3] including the TNT-bombing of unreinforced Icenian structures and the pearling & spiking of 2 Icenian senators. Meanwhile, Yoahtl and Gang Shi signed a non-aggression pact to ease post-war tensions and promote peace. But after a leak including plans to divide and conquer Yoahtl, Icenia and other nations (detailed extensively in the "Pearled Harbor" post on the CivMC subreddit), Yoahtl and Icenia decided to preemptively strike Black Mesa, Gang Shi's primary pearl holding vault.

Course of the War

First strike

On 8th December 2023, on the anniversary of the insiding of the Crucible on CivClassics and also a day after the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Icenia and Yoahtl launched an surprise attack on Black Mesa, Gang Shi's main pearl holding vault. A Reddit post was made, called "Pearled Harbor" (an allusion to the Pearled Harbor event in CivClassic 2.0, which in turn was an allusion to the attack on Pearl Harbor), claiming that Icenian and Yoahtl fighters had disabled and ctr'd most of the vault with the help of an unnamed insider (later identified as Antea4204), before explaining the coalition's stated reasons for the attack.[4]

Attack on Florence

On the morning of December 9th, a squad of Icenian fighters began a skybridge over the Florence bunker located south of Whole Foods, believing it was a staging ground for an attack against the farming complex. A watercubing operation was briefly interrupted by the arrival of XxTBxX3276, UghBraces, loo_wee_gee, and 7Joshhh, but ultimately continued and was later augmented by a bombing operation on the 10th, firmly disabling Florence from being used. The Florence bunker was discovered to have been commanded by chosentwicelol, at the time of its disabling.[5]

DGP Propaganda by MechanicalRift depicting Gang Shi as a threat to buildfriend nations such as Pavia, Nara, Mercutio, and others.

Logboxing of Jbblocker

Concurrent to the operation in Florence, other Icenians trapped a section of Gang Shi's northern iceroad heading through the -,- and created a section that could be easily closed off to prevent escape. Later in the day on December 9th, Emperor of Gang Shi Jbblocker was spotted coming up the iceroad, and the iceroad was sealed on opposite ends, trapping him inside. Jbblocker logged out before he could be combat tagged. Attempts to free him by XxTBxX3276, UghBraces, loo_wee_gee, and 7Joshhh were driven off and Jbblocker was entombed within a fortified logbox. Following the battle, most fighters moved to the city of Altepetl upon server restart.

Siege of Altepetl

At approximately 11 p.m. EST on December 9th, Gang Shi forces began an skybridge assault on Altepetl, the capital of Yoahtl. Toaxbis was initially shot off the skybridge by defenders, resulting in the first pearl of the war. Yoahtl player Spoonce was later killed due to a bowshot from the attacking skybridge, but DiamondVictor didn't have a pearl on his hotbar, and Spoonce escaped being trapped in the nether.

Counter skybridges from the city were able to successfully hold the attackers back from the trench, and eventually a decisive breakthrough was made on the bridge after additional fighters rotated to the defense of the city following the daily server restart. TheRealJewy was trapped in a 3 deep obsidian pit on the skybridge, where Shadno attempted to jump in and fight him in the enclosed space before being pearled. Icenian fighters, including Lagiacrus and Auqust, quickly moved to secure Jewy, and were able to footgrind him along with 4 other Gang Shi fighters (Highroll, SirFrenchie_, realmichael, and DiamondVictor) who attempted to rescue him from the situation. Shadno was then freed by Lagiacrus.

By 4 a.m., the main assault had been repulsed.

Counterattack

Throughout the day on December 10th, engagements continued to occur on the skybridge and around the city. In the afternoon, Dawn Guard Pact forces launched a ground tunnel against the only iceroad supplying Gang Shi's attack bunker for the skybridge, successfully cutting it off and obtaining Butter_Villager's pearl in the process, causing Gang Shi to retreat from the area. Following this, the ground and sky bunker were fully disabled and looted, yielding a large number of compacted potions. By the end of the day, Gang Shi had lost 8 pearls without permanent defender casualties (as one player had been killed and not pearled, and another had been pearled but soon freed).

DGP propaganda created by VilyanZ depicting Yoahtlan and Icenian skybridges.

Fastestgrass, the supplier of the initial "Pearled Harbor" leak, was friendly pearled by Antea on December 10th.[6]

Icenia City skirmish

At around 2am on December 11th, chosentwicelol and Squilliam appeared in Icenia city. They briefly attempted to raid various shops around the city by breaking into them, but were largely unsuccessful due to the proliferation of relay chests. After Shadno, Jaimiemie, and Raeders moved in, there was a fight at Jah Park which resulted in Squilliam being knocked into a foot grinder and subsequently pearled, with chosen fleeing the scene.

Insiding of Gang Shi and Butternut

In the early hours of December 12th, ComradeNick published an open letter admitting that he had turned coat,[7] allowing the Dawn Guard Pact to completely seize control of what remained of Butternut and Gang Shi's defenses, a killing blow for the two nations. Soon thereafter, Icenian President ChrisChrispie announced that the Dawn Guard Pact would temporarily occupy the territories of Florence, Lambeau, Butternut, Gang Shi, Ma Seli, Asgard, and Salerno until the sentencing of enemy combatants.[8]

The Final Handoff

Following the compromise of Butternut vault and the end of the war, Jbblocker used his primary ownership on many Gang Shi groups to transfer control to members of Estalia, causing both the city and remainder of the vault to become owned by the Elysian Pact. This would lead to Estalia expressing claims over the city, ironically preventing some former Gang Shitters (now refugees in the Yoahtlan state of Exilus) from returning to their builds.[9] This would mark the final namelayer upset of the conflict.

Aftermath

The aftermath of the war saw the dissolution of Gang Shi, Butternut, and Lambeau, with their remaining members going into exile, quitting, or joining other nations. In the days following the Estalian seizure of Blacklight, a number of Salerno, Lambeau, Butternut, and Gang Shi military installations were further seized and looted by the DGP and the Imperial Federation (allegedly in cooperation with the DGP), despite previous statements indicating that raiding of Salerno would not continue following the effective end of the war.

As of 12/19/2023, several key Lambeau and Butternut leaders including Chosentwicelol and Kibbles remain at large, despite a large number of former GS fighters coming forward to pay demanded reparations and to negotiate deals with the DGP. On the 18th of December, the DGP released pearled Salernan fighters TheIowanGod and DiamondVictor early in a sign of goodwill.

The state of war invoked by Icenia was ended in a unanimous Senate vote on December 27.[10]

Reactions

On the 8th December, a poll was created on Reddit asking which side they supported in the war. As of December 10th, 2023, 51% of voters supported the Icenian Coalition, 27% Gang Shi and allies, and 23% were neutral.[11]

In an war update posted on December 10th, Yoahtl claimed that Gang Shi was recruiting players from HCF to fight in the war.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 2023 December War name by Lodish https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mTh7C5JRvdgXMVyPpy8gyytbCYtGlJ520x55Knyq0ko/edit#gid=54211360
  2. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18dkxm7/pearled_harbor/
  3. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/17u0xqo/gang_shis_drama_factory/
  4. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18dkxm7/pearled_harbor/
  5. ↑ https://civwiki.news/newsletter/newsletter-12-11-2023/
  6. ↑ https://civwiki.news/newsletter/newsletter-12-11-2023/
  7. ↑ https://redd.it/18glq8g
  8. ↑ https://redd.it/18gmvy2
  9. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18knx7x/land_claims_update/
  10. ↑ https://civicenia.github.io/2023-12-27/end-state-of-war-bill
  11. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/s/EK7wMAC7tY
  12. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18fdh4o/our_smoke_war_recap/
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