Grasslands Gambit
| Grasslands Gambit | |||||||
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 Yoahtl's capital Altepetl (left) being skybridged (right) by Gang Shi on December 10th | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
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| Strength | |||||||
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20+ Fighters 15+ Support Personnel |
20+ Personnel 20+ Support Personnel | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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One player killed, not pearled One player pearled, later freed (as of 11th December 2023) |
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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] In the aftermath of the Dawn Guard Pact victory, Gang Shi, Butternut, and other Gang Shi–allied nations were forcefully disbanded. Portions of their land were claimed by Icenia and Yoahtl, with other portions transferred to other nations or declaimed entirely.
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.
Preliminary planning
Initial Plot
On the evening of November 29, 2023 a meeting was arranged between Fastestgrass and several Icenian and Yoahtlan officials where Fastestgrass stated that he intended to inside Gang Shi and damage the Black Mesa Vault as much as he possibly could. With the help of an insider, later revealed to be Antea4204, Fastest planned to add several of his friends to Black Mesa groups and then have them break as much of the vault as they could before being caught and pearled. Following the reveal of this information, the beginning of a significantly more detailed plan was drafted by Quanton_Biscuit, Gjum, Huskydog9988, and Shadno and a planning discord was created.
Information Gathering
After speaking with Fastest and determining exactly what Antea had access to, Quanton requested a censored download of the Gang Shi discord as it was determined that Antea was still an admin in the Gang Shi discord. The download was scrubbed for personal information by Antea and Fastest prior to giving it to Quanton and access to the download was never extended further. Following the completion of the war, the download was deleted.
Following this, Gjum and Husky requested Antea perform a JA List command for each Gang Shi snitch group they had access to (this provided exact snitch coordinates for every major Gang Shi snitch group). Using this information, Gjum was able to create a web map highlighting every snitch Gang Shi owned, which ones were dormant, and what groups they were on. Using this map, the DGP were able to create a map of Gang Shi's iceroad and bunker network.
While analyzing the Gang Shi discord, Quanton was able to find web maps of Butternut's iceroad network, a complete list of who was in Gang Shi's council, fighter counts, estimates on Gang Shi wealth and ongoing projects, client states under Gang Shi's rule, numerous descriptions of Gang Shi's server wide goals, strategy discussions on how they would fight a war with Icenia or Yoahtl, admissions to crimes committed in foreign nations, and huge amounts of incriminating evidence suggesting that they were planning a war with Icenia and possibly Yoahtl.
Another major breakthrough occurred when Antea and Fastest were able to secure a schematic of the Black Mesa Vault. Additionally, a webapp was created that allowed the DGP to determine active times for Gang Shi's citizenry.
Assault Plan
After gaining access to the Black Mesa schematic, Quanton examined the design and developed a detailed plan on how to assault the vault. A major obstacle that the team faced was that Antea only had "member" level access on bastion groups which prevented the assault team from placing anything inside of the vault, pearling, or removing the bastions. Due to this, a more complex plan was developed that would maximize attacker safety without the need to build structures within the vault. The plan included splitting the Assault team into three different groups:
- Sky Bunker Team: Fastest, Antea, Fastest's friends (3-5 people)
- Ground Bunker Team: Core DGP pvpers (3 - 5 people)
- Rings Team: Less experienced DGP pvpers and support (9+ people)
Additionally, a set of "primary targets" were established for each of the teams. These targets either had large stores of Gang Shi wealth, were transport points inside of the vault, or were a core component of Gang Shi's defensive infrastructure (such as auto-brewers or bulk pot storage). Quanton was also able to locate a significant design flaw in the vault - there were only 8 doors that allowed transit between rings, each pair of doors located on the vault's cardinal axis. The Ring's Team were informed that if these doors were CTRed, anyone from Gang Shi who logged into the vault would not be able to easily transit the rings or ground bunker.
The secondary targets were the ring and bunker walls along with traps inside of the rings along with portions of the floor. This was by far the most time consuming target. The tertiary targets were the trench doors / walls, sky-defenses, and exterior lodestones.
Training
Following the creation of the Assault Plan, Drekamor was brought into the planning discord and created a private practice server which included the Black Mesa schematic. Following this, each of the team leaders, along with a limited number of trusted fighters began familiarizing themselves with the vault and practicing CTRing specific areas of the vault. Several members of the planning team including Drekamor located the optimal break locations for the Vault's bastion tree.
To assist with the plan, Gjum created a branch of Nexum (DGP's client mod) to include waypoints of lodestones, targets, and other useful utilities.
Subreddit Post
After analyzing the discord leak, Quanton began writing a subreddit post designed to justify the use of a first strike, expose Gang Shi's server wide intentions, cause a diplomatic / public relations crisis, and convince members of Gang Shi's client states to stay out of the war. The belief held by the Planning Team was that hitting Gang Shi on every front (including the subreddit) would both shock them and cause mass chaos, further reducing their ability to retaliate following the strike on Black Mesa. There was also a significant portion of the post intended to inform and convince the Elysian Pact to join the war on the DGP's behalf by highlighting the threat Gang Shi posed to Nara, one of the Elysian Pact's members.
Other Tactics
Gjum, Drekamor, and Husky developed a system where they could disable Gang Shi's snitch relay by adding a member to the snitch group and then spamming snitches via rapid movement. This tactic proved to be effective but also resulted in several player's game crashing so use was discontinued.
Since Antea was still an admin in the Gang Shi Discord, the DGP intended to have Antea delete all snitch relay channels in the discord, then ban all Gang Shi members once the attack group was discovered to further cause chaos and slow Gang Shi's response time. Additionally, there was some consideration given to deleting all channels in the Discord but this idea was abandoned as everyone in the planning team agreed that it would be a war crime and would be taking things too far. The discord related plan had to be abandoned when Gwua randomly demoted Antea a few days prior to the attack.
Shadno and Drekamor determined a way to add DGP members to groups and then hide them from the group admin, thus allowing limited DGP members to continue to be on groups even after the initial insiding incident was discovered.
Day Two Planning
Once the Black Mesa assault plan was complete and the subreddit post prepared, Quanton, Husky, Gjum, Drekamor, and Shadno developed a broader strategy for the war and created a list of "next day" targets. Due to most of the DGP fighters needing sleep and the likelihood of a Gang Shi counter attack, it was determined that a shaping operation was best and the primary targets would be iceroads and exposed bunkers as this would limit Gang Shi's ability to consolidate fighters and launch counter attacks. Once the targets were identified, specific commanders were chosen to lead team that would target each Gang Shi position.
Final Preparations
The final question that remained was how to get the Assault Team to Black Mesa. The entirety of Gang Shi was city bastioned so any tunnel the attacker's were to dig would have to be unreinforced thus presenting a massive safety issue. Quanton determined that it would be safer to dig from Yoahtl's capital, Altepetl into a Gang Shi iceroad, then CTR that iceroad all the way to Black Mesa. This would provide a secure retreat route for the Assault Team and would also disable a Gang Shi owned iceroad.
Final preparations were made and it was determined that the first strike would occur on a Thursday night / Friday morning as that was the lowest activity period for Gang Shi. Over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, Icenians traveled a secret nether road from Icenia to Yoahtl to mask the fighter deployment. Additionally, all troop transfers were staggered as to not alert Gang Shi of the military buildup. Finally, a supply bunker was established in Altepetl and a pilot hole was dug to the border of Gang Shi.
First strike on Black Mesa
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]
Pre-Operation
Prior to the beginning of the operation, the Icenian Senate and Yoahtlan Council was briefed on the situation and existing plan. Following the briefing a vote to declare war and launch the operation was called in the Icenian Senate in which all Senators unanimously voted in favor. Following this, numerous Icenian and Yoahtlan military personal were briefed on the plan and brought into the Operation Discord. From there they were told components of the plan and were sent to Altepetl to prepare.
Icenian and Yoahtlan forces began to congregate in the operations discord around 6pm, EST and waited until the time of the attack, approximately 3am, EST. During this time, Gang Shi activity was closely scrutinized and assessed to see who would be on during the night and early morning. An extremely limited number of DGP people remained online to monitor activity, while the remainder checked Gang Shi discord and CivMC General for any activity. One by one, Gang Shi players went to bed, by 1:00am all but ComradeNick, a Gang Shi Council member had went to sleep. By 2am, Nick was still online however, speculations were beginning to arise in the Operation Discord as to whether Nick was botting, afk, or had "fallen asleep at his keyboard."
It was decided that a scout had to be sent to determine what, if anything Nick was doing. Jaydon was chosen to scout MtA, Nick's primary residence. Upon entering MtA, Jaydon was immediately messaged by Nick and struck up a conversation and was then able to verify Nick's location. With Jaydon distracting Nick with a lengthy discussion on newfriend housing, Quanton decided that it was now or never and gave the order to begin the operation. DGP forces interdicted Gang Shi's iceroad and began CTRing the road to Black Mesa. Initial fears of discovery diminished when Nick appeared none the wiser of the ongoing operation.
Destruction of Black Mesa
Due to Nick remaining online, a change in the initial plan had to be implemented as it was no longer tactically sound to log in 15+ fighters at the same time as Nick would have immediately known something was going on. Quanton implemented a strategy of a "Slow Trickle" to get fighters online. Every 15-30 minutes a new fighter would log in and then join the assault team. The fighters chosen to log in were chosen based on how suspicious it would look for them to be online. Core Icenians like Lagiacrus, Shadno, and Juniortide were told to wait as any of them being online would be suspicious. Antea then began adding the Assault Team to Gang Shi groups.
While the "Slow Trickle" tactic was ongoing, DGP forces spent approximately 45 minutes CTRing the route to Black Mesa. During this time, Antea, who was logged out at Black Mesa logged in and began destroying loot chests in the sky bunker and burning the loot.Following this, Antea CTRed portions of the Skybunker and ground bunker to better control the area.
When the bulk of the Assault Force reached Black Mesa, fighters rapidly spread out throughout the Vault eliminating primary targets and securing core transportation sites in the vault. In under 15 minutes the bulk of the doors and lodestones in the vault were under DGP control. During this time, the ground bunker was secured and loot stores were destroyed.
The second major hiccup of operation occurred when Antea attempted to destroy Gang Shi's auto-brewer; a waterfall from the broken brewer hit a patch of pots which in turn caused the entire chunk to crash. Several DGP fighters were simultaneously disconnected. The DGP collectively held their breath as they waited to see if Nick would notice the 4+ fighters all disconnecting at the same time. Fortunately for the DGP, no alarm was raised and the attack on Black Mesa could continue unimpeded.
Another hour or so passed and the DGP were able to CTR the vast majority of the rings. At this point DGP leadership decided it was time to send in everyone. It was assessed that Gang Shi fighters would soon begin waking up and logging in; secrecy was no longer critical and it was time to get as many people in the vault as possible. With the additional fighters, the DGP were able to CTR most of the sky limit sky defenses, inner trench wall, and floor of the vault.
DGP forces were beginning to break the bastion tree when Gang Shi - Axis leader, Chosentwicelol logged in and jumped into VC with Nick. At this point Antea received a message from Chosen and it became apparent that the word was out - the Assault Team had been detected. Given the level of damage to the vault, Quanton ordered a complete withdrawal. During the withdrawal, numerous DGP fighters were removed from Gang Shi groups but were able to safely return to Yoahtl due to the iceroad the team had secured earlier.
With all DGP fighters safely back in Yoahtl, Quanton posted "Pearled Harbor[2]" to the CivMC subreddit beginning the Grasslands Gambit War.
Continuation of the war
Day Two Attacks
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]
In accordance with the "Day Two" portion of the First Strike plan, Yoahtlan fighters targeted two key Gang Shi iceroads that passed through their territory and disabled them deteriorating Gang Shi's ability to travel to MtA and Asguard.
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). Later in the day, a second insider began feeding the DGP information on Gang Shi troop movements, strategy, and operations. This would continue until the end of the war.
Fastestgrass, the supplier of the initial "Pearled Harbor" leak, was friendly pearled by Antea on December 10th.[6]
Fall of Gang Shi and Fempire Armistice
Following the failed attack on Altepetl, DGP forces advanced north into Gang Shi disabling iceroads and bunkers. During this time, it was discovered that Gang Shi was operating out of their ally, Fempire Union's vault[7]. The DGP posted a statement outlining their recent victories and who they were targeting in the war[8]. In the statement they explicitly outline that they are primarily after Gang Shi leadership and did not have "smoke" with lower level fighters, some Gang Shi allies, or Gang Shi associates. In the evening of December 10th, negotiations were opened with Fempire Union, Arsenia and the DGP where an armistice was discussed and later agreed to. The Fempire Union and Arsenia then expelled all Gang Shi fighters and withdrew from the war. Following this, Gang Shi began the process of completely withdrawing from their core claims and transferring wealth to Butternut. DGP forces continued to mop up Gang Shi infrastructure and by the end of December 10th, had completely secured the Yoahtl front.
In back channels, the DGP had begin to make arrangements for the IF and Kaowta to enter the war. The IF would primarily target Asgard, Gang Shi's southern ally and Kaowta would target neighboring Salerno. Additionally, SPQR had begin sharing information with Icenia about Gang Shi operations in the north and had begun preparations with Volterra to join the war.
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. Later on December 11, ZibeKabir (Abyssal Sire) and TB withdrew from the war and fled to Pavia.
Insiding of Gang Shi and Butternut
In the early hours of December 12th, ComradeNick published an open letter admitting that he had turned coat,[9] 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.[10]
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.[11] 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.
Several key Lambeau and Gang Shi 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. Chosentwicelol was later banned for associating with and aiding banned player and VPN isGuut aka ggramp / TommyShelby.
The state of war invoked by Icenia was ended in a unanimous Senate vote on December 27.[12]
Sentencing of Combatants and Leaders
Following the conclusion of the war, the DGP released a joint statement[13] detailing the sentencing for pearled enemy combatants and reparations demanded of unpearled fighters. The reparations demanded by the DGP are noted to be significantly less than what Gang Shi and Butternut enacted in the SEC-Gang Shi War for the vast majority of pearled fighters (18 stacks of Diamond Blocks[14] vs ~5 stacks[13]). Notable exceptions to this were Gang Shi and Lambeau players such as Gwua, Kibbles, Squidhasthebad, Chosen, and Jbb who either received no sentence or significantly higher reparation demands due to a refusal to surrender to DGP forces.
A controversial sentence was that of Kommi who was pearled immediately after the fall of Butternut Vault. Kommi stated a desire to surrender and accept a reparations package but only communicated their agreement after the fall of Butternut Vault. DGP officials believe that voided the deal and have kept Kommi pearled with a loose October 2024 release date scheduled.
Additionally, Highroll was held for 3 months, made to pay over a stack of diamond blocks, and had to write an essay on the Stone Wall Riots due to the DGP citing extremely bad behavior such as attempting to organize a vault attack on Christmas and general toxicity.[15]
PhysicsGamer, a notable character who had been pearled by Gang Shi following him obby bombing Icenia was released on the condition that he transfer all of his old national groups to the DGP and be exiled from the -,- quadrant[13].
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.[16]
In an war update posted on December 10th, Yoahtl claimed that Gang Shi was recruiting players from HCF to fight in the war.[17]
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
References
- ↑ 2023 December War name by Lodish https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mTh7C5JRvdgXMVyPpy8gyytbCYtGlJ520x55Knyq0ko/edit#gid=54211360
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18dkxm7/pearled_harbor/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/17u0xqo/gang_shis_drama_factory/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18dkxm7/pearled_harbor/
- ↑ https://civwiki.news/newsletter/newsletter-12-11-2023/
- ↑ https://civwiki.news/newsletter/newsletter-12-11-2023/
- ↑
Gang Shi leader Kibbles using Fempire Vault as a rally point for Gang Shi's military. - ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18fdh4o/our_smoke_war_recap/
- ↑ https://redd.it/18glq8g
- ↑ https://redd.it/18gmvy2
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18knx7x/land_claims_update/
- ↑ https://civicenia.github.io/2023-12-27/end-state-of-war-bill
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18k1i3n/grasslands_gambit_sentencing_and_land_claims/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/157v5ib/resolution_war_reps_summary/
- ↑ https://imgur.com/a/8sZtBHE
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/s/EK7wMAC7tY
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18fdh4o/our_smoke_war_recap/
