Wet Bandits raiding campaign

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Wet Bandit raids

Location of fights in the campaign
DateJuly 5, 2024 – July 24, 2024
Location
-,- and +,-
Result

Allied victory

  • Wet Bandit bunkers disabled
  • Five Bandits pearled
  • Remaining Bandits still at large
Belligerents

Ascendancy of Sovereign Nations


Independent nations

Strength
≥20 players (July 21 battle in Icenia City) 11
Casualties and losses
20 pearled, later freed 5 pearled, of which one was banned
All bunkers griefed

A group of players called the Wet Bandits waged a raiding campaign across various nations in the northern portions of CivMC from July 5, 2024 to July 24, 2024. Players from many nations, including the Ascendancy of Sovereign Nations (ASN), Lyrean Commonwealth, and Estalia, organized efforts to counter them. The campaign ended with the Wet Bandits' vaults being disabled, all allied pearls being freed, and five of the Bandits being pearled.

Background

Many of the Wet Bandits have been involved in past conflicts against the Security Enhancement Coalition, and SEC-linked nations.

SOGGYHOBO (once Prime Minister of the 2nd Icarian Republic) and Dawsonisrainy were both once Icarian players, but during the Butternut–SEC War, in which the SEC was dissolved, both players defected to Butternut County[1] during the ill-fated bridge attempt of the Nuthole. Dawson had also participated, and was pearled, in an conflict during March of 2023 based around an SEC military operation against a group, colloquially named "Kibblestan" - the conflict was fought due to an alleged plan by the group to pearl SEC members.[2] They both were affiliated with the Estra group. Cqrs0n was also a Butternut fighter during the Butternut–SEC War, who got pearled during the conflict. They were also pearled during the Generic War, when fighting on the Estalian side.[3] He also took part in the raid that initiated the Finite War, together with Airakazz, chosentwicelol, and others.[4]

ZibeKabir is formerly Estalian, but he was also given ownership of Cordoba. He would later participate in chosentwicelol's nation Lambeau. Two of his citizens were Cqrs0n and Airakazz,[5] who fought on Butternut's side during the Butternut–SEC War. Lambeau was later forcibly dissolved by the Dawn Guard Pact in the aftermath of the Grasslands Gambit.[6]

Campaign

July 5: First raid

Initial attacks were marked on 5 July when SOGGYHOBO and dawsonisrainy[7] raided and obbybombed the nation of Pacem, which was followed by immediate cleanup efforts from Pacem's neighbors, such as The Commonwealth, Mercutio, and members of the Lyrean Commonwealth.[8]

July 12–July 19: Initial campaign

On 12 July, there was a renewed wave of fighting, with five pearls for the ASN - those of ChilfroySigibald, BradoTomato, CatistStudy, Sdorr, and DSbulldogs[9] - being taken by the expanding raiding crew in fierce, and uncoordinated, fighting at Baile, which had now been joined by ZibeKabir, who is a former Estalian,[7] Gruht, AbyssalWalker9, and Airakazz. The five pearls taken were only rescued by the player Toaxbis, who, as seen in a video they recorded, was able to break into their incomplete bunker and seize and free the five pearls while the raiders were offline.

On 13 July, however, Toaxbis had his own pearl taken by the raiders in continued fighting around Baile. The raiders then set their sights on the neighboring Arctic nation of Winterbourne, where they pearled Winterbourne's Princess Bow, as well as TophatAlexYT, who had gone to rescue Bow,[10] and very nearly stole the Northlandic gem at the memorial for NoOneTruePunk, which was only one break from being stolen.[11] ASN forces operating from Pavia later freed the pearls of Toaxbis, Princess Bow, and TophatAlexYT from the raider's bunker.[10]

Despite those successes in freeing pearls, the raiding threat had not subsided - on 15 July, SoggyHobo warned global chat to "be careful" on 20 July around 7 PM EST,[12] prompting concerns that they were intending to disrupt the Yoahtl Olympics. The threat of raiding activity, plus the continued focus by foreign nations on confronting the raiders, prompted Yoahtl to postpone their Olympics indefinitely to focus on removing the raider threat.[13]

July 20–July 24: Escalation and conclusion

stratmatt hit off the initial bridge to their death by Gruht.

On 20 July, Estalian fighters tracked the raiders down and clashed with them. The_Orange_Lord was pearled by Gruht in or around his town of Norden, near the bunker of the Wet Bandits, after making a series of comments supportive of the effort against the Wet Bandits. He'd had his horse taken by allied forces (including XxTBxX3276) earlier, and his town was snitched by allied forces, prompting some annoyance on his part, but soon became a vocal advocate against the Wet Bandits, even (and especially) after his pearling. Very shortly after, Walkers was also pearled by Gruht, with Watermashen pearled later in the clash.[14]

On 21 July, fighting once again returned to Pacem, with Soggy and Dawson obbybombing the territory. Drillage joined the band of raiders, while Jumpycat and Wheaties were pearled.[14] As the raiders were believed to have their bunker in Icenia, ASN and Estalian forces clashed with the raiders around Icenia City that day - Icenian authorities ordered civilians to /logout once the battle in the city began.[15] A 20 player coalition then rapidly mobilized, bringing the server player count to 94 players at a point,[16] and forcing the raiders to retreat.[14] The raiders attacked the Commonwealth that same day - however, as they left, ASN and Estalian forces intercepted the raiders at around -7000, -7000, near Norden and Southshire - while most of the raiders escaped the attackers via lodestone, allied forces blocked the lodestone using cobwebs before Soggy could escape[17] - thus, after attempting in vain to block himself from the allied forces using obsidian, he got pearled, representing the first pearl lost by the Wet Bandits, the first major allied success in the war. Part of the fighting, and the pearling of Soggy, was caught on a video from EstraPVP,[18] while more parts of the general -7000,-7000 fight (from Gregy165's PoV), including Soggy's pearling, were recorded in another video by Gregy.

On 22 July, a large amount of allied players were pearled, by Gruht and ZibeKabir - stratmatt, PFP_nexl, Gray9111, MechanicalRift, adeadhead, and Seldomshock were pearled in continued fighting, surpassing 12 July as the deadliest day for allied fighters.

On 23 July, Drillage was pearled by auqust and Mantaay was also pearled.[19] The next day, on 24 July, ZibeKabir and dawsonisrainy attempted to raid the coalition's compactor bunker, but they were found by ArkenX and attacked in the midst of their attempt. Initially a 2v1, ArkenX soon got backup from Raeders, and while Dawson could flee, ZibeKabir was unable- he was pearled by Raeders. ZibeKabir's pearling was caught on video.[20] Later, Cqrs0n was pearled by zolo17 outside the Bandits' final bunker, in a series of major losses for the Wet Bandits that ended up being the Bandit's deadliest day. Their bunker was griefed and disabled soon after, with all pearls being released. SOGGYHOBO was also banned.[21]

Affected areas ranged across the northern world border of the map. Losses by the Wet Bandits make most major cities in the area safer for travel now, though the far northern areas remained potentially dangerous for some time, as some Bandits remain at large.[21][22] Eventually, a notice was given explaining that most Bandits were pearled, or had disappeared, and the security situation was over.[23]

References

  1. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/14gatpv/comment/jp7c294/
  2. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/11vuikp/theboss_shits_and_pisses_all_over_the_cringe_a/
  3. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/xh2sei/easy/
  4. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/z45txv/a_denouncement_and_declaration_against_temporal/
  5. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/10uzm32/the_nation_of_cordoba_has_dissolved/
  6. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/18k1i3n/grasslands_gambit_sentencing_and_land_claims/
  7. 7.0 7.1 https://youtu.be/-iJh22Z534k?t=141
  8. https://civwiki.news/newsletter/newsletter-07-08-2024/#three-drama-on-the-same-day
  9. https://civwiki.news/newsletter/newsletter-07-15-2024/
  10. 10.0 10.1 https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/1e2hxx1/raid_on_winterbourne_castle/
  11. https://imgur.com/vY6ioLY
  12. https://imgur.com/emk9DEp
  13. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/1e46fkk/the_yoahtlan_olympics_experiences_unexpected/
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 https://civwiki.news/newsletter/newsletter-07-22-2024/
  15. https://imgur.com/ss2d5uJ
  16. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/1e8wta7/youre_not_the_only_one_that_wants_to_kill_burn/
  17. https://imgur.com/1QyPWNQ
  18. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/1e95yhw/soggyhobo_pearled/
  19. https://imgur.com/47bQOam
  20. https://www.reddit.com/r/CivMC/comments/1ef4ta9/temporarily_declassified/
  21. 21.0 21.1 https://civwiki.news/newsletter/newsletter-07-29-2024/#oyster-pearls
  22. https://imgur.com/26a9RYU
  23. https://imgur.com/9gd1EZj