3. Screeps World War 1

Screeps World War 1


  • Dear inhabitants of the Screeps Multiverse,

    I hereby bring forth my account of the historic events of November 2016. This information is subjective and represents only my limited perspective. I urge individuals from different sides of the conflict to step forward and provide their own account. However, please do so in the spirit of this thread, foregoing any personal dissatisfaction you may hold.

    Short Overview

    November 2016 saw a conflict on a scale never before seen. It involved TK, TC, SUN, SWA and CoPS. This represented a majority of the top players and saw battles across all coordinates of the map aside from NW. A very rough estimate of the resources expended and destruction caused in reference to the current market prices would be 75 million credits (~30 sub tokens).

    Acronyms

    TK - ThunderKittens
    TC - The Culture
    SUN - the Screeps United Nations
    SWA - the South-Western Alliance
    CoPS - Greater North-Eastern Co-Prosperity Sphere
    TNG - unknown translation

    I. Prelude

    TK took out the veteran player thy_reaper from SE center (approx E0S10 to E10S30) with the intention of settling Jeb (a new recruit respawning) and gaining a foothold closer to the map center.

    Before TK could capitalize on their destruction of thy_reaper, TNG attacked Steeler, a core TK member, as part of an older ongoing territorial feud. TNG made good early progress knocking out a majority of Steeler’s rooms and some secondary TK rooms.

    The conflict between TK and TNG lasted a good while before the balance permanently shifted towards TK’s side and a peace agreement was negotiated.

    II. The Spark

    With the conflict closed, TK refocused their efforts on the settlement of thy_reaper’s ashes. However, by this time Skorp, TC member, had settled close (within? - clarification needed) the area previously held by thy_reaper. Bonzaiferroni (TK leader at the time) attempted to resolve the issue diplomatically with Skorp. Things get fuzzy at this point, but one thing is clear: diplomacy failed to produce meaningful results. TK decided to press their claim through force of arms. In response TC issued a formal declaration of war thus commencing Screeps World War 1.

    III. Escalation

    The SUN had maintained friendly relations with TK prior to this conflict. A superficial analysis of the conflict had mistakenly led SUN to believe TK would face a swift decisive defeat. This conclusion was based on the difference in size (TC was 2x TK) and the war weariness TK should have suffered from the war with TNG (resources and morale drained). After a rushed internal debate, SUN decided to offer TK a temporary alliance in pressing their original claim. TK accepted and SUN issued a formal declaration of war against TC.

    IV. First Phase

    At this point the conflict was in full swing focused mostly on the map center. Active warfare involved rooms from Skorp, DarkTrooper, Nhanho, Jeb, Taiga, Reini. During this time the original analysis of the power balance was proven false. TK and TC were evenly matched and SUN’s entry into the war had tipped the balance in favor of TK. Around 10 rooms from TC members had fallen within the first days of the conflict.

    On the other sides of the map, TK’s member vervorris made use of a portal into CoPS territory to target TC’s member tedivm with good initial results. Given the good relations between TC and CoPS these actions were seen as justification for CoPS entry into the conflict. They issued an official declaration of war and pursued the portal to successfully eliminate vervorris’ rooms on the other side.

    V. Second Phase

    TK’s expansion into the map center and active military policy were identified as a threat by their neighbor in the area, Hernanduer(SWA leader). He joined the conflict on TC’s side actively targeting Bonzai and Taiga’s rooms in the vicinity.  In response, SUN launched punitive raids against Hernanduer’s rooms within nuke range.

    By this time the scope of the conflict continued to expand to encompass an ever larger array of players and rooms in different corners of the map.

    Maka_rth(SWA) launched a surprise attack against Seancl(SUN) successfully destroying half of his rooms (7). This signaled the official entry of SWA into the conflict on the side of TC. In response, SUN launched counter attacks destroying half of Maka’s rooms (also 7). Stybbe and Bombedillo (SWA members in the vicinity), were bound by a NAP (Non-Aggression Treaty) and remained out of the conflict until the deal’s expiry (14 days).

    Diplomatic attempts to resolve or de-escalate the conflict had begun a few days earlier. Unfortunately, the conflict had taken an emotional turn and the intended spirit of the game had been trampled on by all sides. Diplomacy continued to fail and instead inflamed the tensions ever higher. The long period of military activity (1 month +) had taken its toll upon Bonzaiferroni (TK leader) and led to his decision to retire from the game. He respawned with the intention of staying out of alliance and diplomatic affairs, playing only the core game.

    With the loss of their leader and attrition running high, a ceasefire for the rest of the year was finally agreed upon between TK and TC/SWA/CoPS.

    VI. Final Phase

    Although SUN had given their blessing to TK for their ceasefire, the situation was not looking very promising. The conflict was now SUN vs TC/SWA/CoPS. More and more players were joining active military duty: domnomnom(CoPS), dormando(TC), Zergling(SWA).

    The war had shifted its focus to rooms at the borders of SUN. The conflict raged on with losses from all sides. The holidays were starting to come into range and player activity began to fluctuate wildly. SUN managed to break through Zergling’s defenses and knocked out the majority of rooms. Through an unusual turn of events, the portals connecting SUN territory to TC/CoPS closed restricting the scope of the war.

    Eventually SUN and SWA agreed to a white peace returning to their prewar borders and maintaining a state of non-aggression until end of February. Following this agreement, SUN and TC/CoPS came to a similar agreement. The map would be split into North/South spheres of influence forbidding expansion by SUN into the North or TC/CoPS into the South. The agreement would remain in place until beginning of February.

    Thus ended the First Screeps World War.

  • Culture

    The Spark - Let me just clarify the events that began the war. I will do my best to remain unbiased and just give the facts. 

    Bonzai had previously expressed interest in a portion of sector E15S15 before the portal to ThyReapers sector had opened and it was difficult to get to due to Skorp's rooms forming a blockade on the eastern side of E15S15. Skorp cleared out eric in the north of E15S15 planning to develop better defenses where he felt weak, intending to clear out TooAngels rooms shortly after. Bonzai seeing Skorp attack eric felt he was ready for a conflict and cleared out TooAngel's rooms in E15S15 from ThyReapers side of the sector with the intention of giving Jeb room to expand. Skorp saw this as Bonzai following up on his previously expressed desires and took a room in the area Bonzai had cleared in an attempt to strategically secure his borders and protect himself from a direction he felt he was weak from. Bonzai expressed that he had cleared the rooms for Jeb and would attack in the future when Jeb was needing the space. Skorp requested a diplomatic agreement that involved a long term peace that Bonzai did not feel comfortable agreeing to. Skorp felt a threat hanging over his head and The Culture determined it was not acceptable for Bonzai to threaten its members without any recourse. Thus the war began. 

    Please correct me or add details or perspective if anyone disagrees. 


  • TNG here, (Yeah, we don't actually have a "translation")

    Thanks for this, I have been out of it for a while, only checking up on some rooms lately. I myself was actually unaware that TK was attacking thy_reaper. We got our expansion blocked by steeler, so he turned into our target. We had to stop cause we ran out of boosts, which caused that battle to shift massively in favor of TK.

     

    Funny to see how much conflict actually was going on near us. 


  • I don't think it matters, because I didn't have the impression that I was involved in the WW (was I?).

     

    Bonzai took out most of TooAngel's rooms in E15S15, E5S15 and E5S5, after TooAngel helped out ThyReaper defending. (@Skorp)


  • A very good account of the war, thank you for write-up. Skorp's additions are also very accurate from my perspective. You are so thorough that there is very little left for me to add.

    One interesting thing is that the declaration of war by TC came the very same day that we resolved our conflict with TNG. They definitely could have used that as a bargaining chip had the timing been just a little different.

    Edit: I started to get a little sidetracked, already thinking about SWW2. In the interest of not hijacking this thread (the purpose is to give an account of the war) i've started a new post and moved everything there.


  • see above ^


  • World map as of 11/16/16, the participants highlighted: Culture (light blue) + CoPS (yellow) + SWA (violet) vs SUN (green) + TK (dark blue)

     

    11 days later, when the cease fire took hold: