Grasslands Gambit

War of the Icenian Coalition
Yoahtl's capital Altepetl (left) being skybridged (right) by Gang Shi on December 10th
Date 8th December 2023 — Present Location Gang Shi, Yoahtl, in quadrants -,- and +,- Result Ongoing Black Mesa Vault griefed Florence Bunker griefed Hostilities continue
Combatants
Dawn Guard Pact Icenia ChrisChrispie (President) JuniorTide (Lieutenant) Lagiacrus Shadno (Secretary of Defense) Drekamor (Lieutenant) Raeders Auqust Kingstell Anvil hugepoopie 7_Misun Forged_TK Sdorr Zolo17 Jaimiemie Dr_Bacon_Hair Yoahtl Simpology MechanicalRift VilyanZ Huskydog9988 ArkenX (General) Awesome_Daniel matt4fun9 Quauhtli Pqrrot Ascant Spoonce Jaydon	Gang Shi Gwua (Leader) jbblocker ___TheBoss___ HassDaMahn TheRealJewy 7joshh Highroll SirFrenchie_ Toaxbis butter_villager UghBraces LeJonas mrpearlyogirl _Altelier Dark_Muffin23 CryptoClixy Tuna420 ObedientSlave Squilliam Villainize oMqtt undoxed IbisMan Squidhasthebad loo_wee_gee SQOpenSpellBook Spenduh UB40 Butternut chosentwicelol XxTBxX3276 Fur ZibeKabir Salerno realmichael TheIowanGod Luminous15 n0stalgiic DiamondVictor zman083104
Strength
10+ Fighters 15+ Support Personnel	10+ Personnel 15+ HCF/Loka logons (Dawn Guard Pact allegation)
Casualties and losses
One player killed, not pearled (as of 11th December 2023)	3 vaults griefed Altepetl attack bunker griefed Jbblocker logboxed 11 players pearled (As of December 11th 2023)

The War of the Icenian Coalition, also known as the Grasslands War, is an ongoing war on CivMC. It was initiated with a surprise attack by Icenia and Yoahtl, allied with one another in the Dawn Guard Pact, 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 the two in order to establish dominance over the server.

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 insiders. 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.

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, including the bombing of unreinforced Icenian structures and the pearling of an Icenian senator. 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 CivClassic 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", claiming that Icenian and Yoahtl fighters had disabled and ctr'd most of the vault with the help of an unnamed insider, before explaining the coalition's stated reasons for the attack.

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.

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 PM EDT 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.

Fighting continued throughout the night, but the main assault was repulsed by 4 AM.

Counterattack

Throughout the day, 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, succesfully 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 10 pearls without any defender casualties.

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.

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.

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

See also

• SEC–Gang Shi War: First conflict between Icenia and Yoahtl, and Gang Shi
• Butternut-SEC War: involved conflict between Icenia and Yoahtl, and fighters from Gang Shi
• List of Conflicts on CivMC