Great War

The **Great War** was a major conflict in EarthPol V4 between the world's main powers dividided in two sides: the Allies (led by SPQR and Ryukyu) and the Axis (led by Deutschland and Qin). It started on **17 December 2021** at 16:00 UTC after the Ottomans launched two sieges on German towns Feldkirch and Munich. It's considered to have ended by **3 January 2022** since Deutschland became inactive and EarthPol itself started to fall apart too.

The conflict (centered in Germany and Austria) lasted for **seventeen days**, although proxy-wars had begun two weeks prior to the outbreak of the actual war. The Ottoman side turned out to be short in numbers, but **overstocked in supplies** (mainly thanks to Ryukyu) and **full of experienced fighters**. On the other hand, the Germans faced the attackers with a higher manpower, but **lacked a developed economy** to support the war effort completely, being in need to develop farms during the war and receiving donations from their high-class citizens. They did not have as many experienced fighters available either, being in need to recruit some during the conflict.

A couple of rapid victories for the Allies on the first three days of the conflict set the outcome of the war already, but after they suffered a wave of bans and the enemy enjoyed some economic growth, the Axis were able to halt their advances and made them struggle at some later battles, The last German-loyal forces were defeated in Austria a week later during the Battle of Linz on 1 January 2022.

## Background

### Prior battles

The Germans and Ottomans along with their allies have been involved in a "Cold War" (series of proxy wars or small fights) since late November 2021, which seemed to have calmed by the Okinawa Pact signed after the bloody Battle of Budapest on 5 December. On 11 December they also fought indirectly against each other's allies in the Battle of Myrmidons.

The German side claimed the reasons for SPQR to invade were none, while the Ottomans stated that Deutschland broke the Okinawa Pact established two weeks prior, though not clarifying how or when.

### German expansion and preparation

During late November and early December, the prosperous Deutschland sought to expand into western Germany, as well as Prussia, northern Switzerland and western Hungary. The arrival of Nikocholas (nickykied) into the government made it feasible to establish a new colony somewhere in the world in order to gain influence and control near potential enemies. The place chosen was in the Americas, more exactly in Venezuela, based in an actual German colony (**Klein Venedig**, which means **Little Venice** in German) from the Early Modern Era. A little town was also to be established in the nearby Guyanas.

The order to establish Klein-Venedig was announced to the citizenship on 12 December 2021, after which three people offered their services. On the following days, \_ItzChris\_ and his brother were appointed *Kolonialgouverneurs* (governors) of New Augsburg, the colony's capital, while the governor of the now abandoned German Hungary moved to form the town of Gloria east of New Augsburg. Finally, it was Fornacis who was appointed mayor of the settlement in the Guyanas. All three towns were established and united by 17 December, although they were legally part of a "sovereign state" called Venezuela, which simply worked as a German puppet state in order to avoid attracting the attention of any enemies.

At this point, Erzherzog nickykied (mayor of Salzburg) foresaw the onset of a conflict between SPQR and Deutschland, so he and some other military officers, mayors and citizens began building the "**Maginot Wall**" (more than ten blocks tall9 along the French-German border on December 2nd, 2022 (three days before Budapest and two weeks before the war actually started). Three days later, most of the wall was finished, and it followed all the border from Lelystad (Netherlands) to Nancy (France). However, it turned out to have little to no effectiveness in preventing the upcoming events.

## Conflict

### Asian Theater

#### Siege of Hong Kong (18-19 December)

During the siege of some German towns, one of the Ottomans' closest allies in Asia, Hokkaido, started a siege in an outpost of Hong Kong (capital of Qin) and thus officially extended the conflict to Asia.

On the night of 19 December, the armies of Deutschland and Qin headed to Hong Kong's outpost to help in said siege. As it was already the norm, soldiers from the German side hurried up to build a fortress (made of special purple rock) around the Hong Kong banner in order to have total protection against bombings. However, after some skirmishing, Hokkaidan and Ottoman soldiers ambushed the fortress and effectively bombed it during a fight inside, destroying most of the structure and killing most of the defenders in the process and turning the defence ineffective.

### American Theater

#### German arrival (13 December)

On 13 December 2021, New Augsburg was founded at modern-day Venezuela, being the first town and capital of the German colony in the Americas. The nearby towns of Gloria and New Venice (Guyanas) soon were formed to complete the colonial plans.

#### Opening (19 December)

A nation loyal to SPQR was established in the Falkland Islands (east of Argentina), so the Germans sent a small army to deal with the puppets in what was later known as The Falklands Landings. This action (unathourized by the German emperor) had the goal of ensuring control in the region of the Americas.

#### Fights in Central America and the Falklands (21 December)

Mexico (owned by RomanDiCario) renamed to SPQM claiming to be the Roman Empire in America (now allied to SPQR), and willing to expand through all the continent, first sieging Maracoveedo near modern-day Panama.

Later, a revolt occured in the Falkland Islands where three towns had formed a "puppet nation" linked to SPQR previously. One of these towns (East Falkland) decided to rebel and switch to the side of Deutschland while the two towns in West Falkland joined SPQM still backing SPQR.

#### SPQM disbands (23 December)

The new Rome of the Americas seemed to be a rising power in this conflict sieging towns like Jamaica and Maracoveedo and winning after a while due to the advantage of skilled fighters from the Latin American Union (Panama, The Caribbean, Gran Perú, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina) with help from minor generals of the SPQR as well as friends such as NotsoJuicy , NotsoKristy, and EricdeViking.

Normal infantry from the invading forces such as German or Mexican soldiers couldn't budge the defense, only skilled infantry from Qin could really allow the defense to have a struggle, though due to decesive battling and timing, the defending forces got a 100k lead in points from the invaders, at that point OttomanDiCario the leader of SPQM had a mental breakdown, disbanded SPQM, as well as griefed his own town.

### European Theater

#### Invasion begins (17 December)

With help of KawadaJP, the Ottomans striked two sieges at Feldkirch and Munich on the afternoon of 17 December. There was no response from the German Army, as the attack was done at a time when most of the soldiers were offline (probably on purpose). These double-siege offensive was also unexpected by the German commanders, though the Erzherzog nickykied had predicted one two weeks earlier.

Despite the lack of defenders, German allies from Qin, Earth, Hawaii and Mexico went first to Feldkirch, then to Munich to help. They quickly found out the attackers in Feldkirch were too many to be able to make progress, so they gave up that town (being the second biggest in Deutschland) and went to Munich instead, which had way less attackers. They attempted offensives rallying from Salzburg and bombed the Ottoman positions at once, but couldn't pierce in the battlefield.

While fighting was happening, Berlin (led by GeneralT\_123) decided to leave Deutschland as they did not want to fight SPQR directly (they had friends there) and made a nation called 'Germany' to be a subject of SPQR. New Wolfsburg and Hamburg followed him stating the same reasons. Salzburg and Düsseldorf declared they would stay on Deutschland to death. After all this, Great Britain, aware of Deutschland's inability to defend three towns at once, decided to finally siege Truro (the disputed town on the south-west of Great Britain owned by the Germans), with this town joining Earth later.

On 18 December at 1 AM UTC, the government of Munich decided to surrender their siege and leave Deutschland, Berbery left too. The German Army Elite, along with Qin and Earth, started to offer resistance at Feldkirch, but the Hokkaido Army arrived and outnumbered them, forcing most of the defenders to stay inside the bunker next to the banner. Doing this, they couldn't make much damage more than trapping although they made SPQR lose +70k points out of the 320k they had.

#### Ottomans advance (18 December)

With little German resistance, SPQR and Hokkaido continued advancing substantially on the siege of Feldkirch and slightly on Lugano. The other ally of Deutschland, Earth, was as well defending the town of Truro from Great Britain although the British won lots of points earlier and made it impossible for the defenders to comeback. The government of Earth then decided to merge with Deutschland, as the leader arescartier announced he would be quitting EarthPol. However, he regretted later.

The newly-made Germany merged with Prussia and kept gaining influence through Europe, although not being involved directly in the war. The effects of the war might have also reached Scandinavia where Swedish passed from Earth's hands to a civil war between the loyals to KingMista (Stockholm) and the loyals to ImASaltyPenguin (Malmö).

#### Instability in Europe arises (19-20 December)

On Hungary, the mayors panicked that the nation could be invaded easily as Deutschland was already falling apart, so four towns first joined SPQR to avoid being sieged and then made their own nations starting a mutual civil war against the king GoulashDaddy. The following nations were made in Hungary:

* **Pest Empire (Pest):** led by those loyal to GoulashDaddy
* **Pannonia (Zágráb):** leaders of the rebellion against Goulash
* **Tátra Aja (Tatraalja):** followed the lead of the rebels from Zagrab
* **Debrecen Republic (Debrecen)**: randomly created for no reason, disbanded the next day.

On Sweden, the Swedish Civil War came to an end as ImASaltyPenguin disbanded Malmö, while on Great Britain, the town Glasgow declared independence and made Scotland.

On 20 December, shortly after the siege of Feldkirch ended, the Kaiser grantykied was able to convince the mayors of New Wolfsburg, Hamburg and Linz to rejoin the empire. Hannover joined later on.

#### Ottoman fake rebellion (21 December)

On the afternoon, SPQR attacked the German town of Socialist Guerilla on West France (it was actually a part of Earth) and a new nation called "Ottomans" backed the defenders, but later on, when some German soldiers were defending the town alongside allies, the Ottomans unallied everyone they allied and killed the defenders, thus getting their sets. This incident was widely repudiated afterwards, as a dirty strategy from SPQR to acquire necessary resources to extend the war, although they were not that needed afterwards.

In Hungary, the revolts calmed down after all the rebel nations were disbanded along with their capitals.

#### Deutschland gains momentum (22-23 December)

One minute after the day began, CharlieAW7, LShadow35, Cheeseloopins, Mastifly, Apigale, SkippZ\_, KawadaJP and SmallMigrant were banned for 7/14 days because of the previous incident of making a fake rebellion and unallying the fake rebels' allies (SPQR enemies) to kill them and get their items. Certaria (a town of SPQR) left and made the Gothic Horde. Luxembourg also left to join Earth.

Taking advantage of the bans, Deutschland sieged Istanbul (major town in SPQR) at 2:10 UTC and gained 70k points on the first session with help of Qin, Earth and SPQM. At 2:40 UTC, Earth sieged Edinburgh (major town in Scotland, part of Great Britain) with the help of Deutschland gaining 30k points and fighting inside the city against some British and Ottoman enemies. Later on, the fights intensified while Hokkaido arrived and the German and Earth soldiers started disconnecting, though a few stayed and bombed the siege zone until early hours on the morning. Hokkaido and Great Britain together could then control the banner with some difficulty though due to the aerial bombings, and got ahead on the score by 40k points.

On the afternoon, the EarthPOL staff cancelled the siege of Istanbul and increased all SPQR's siege immunity to 6 days, so it would end when most of the banned members got unbanned. This was received as very bad news on Deutschland as the Germans considered this unique chance to make it fair against the Ottomans' warmongering.

By 23 December, SPQR practically gave up on fighting seriously after the bans and Deutschland and Earth didn't have major issues with gaining points quickly at Edinburgh, winning for 116k by 11 PM UTC. On the other hand, the Ottomans (close ally of SPQR) had sieged Belgrade, one of Gothic Horde's towns (led by Certaria, a former SPQR town which turned against them). This last siege did not go well for the attackers, as the Gothic Horde fighters (skilled on PVP) managed to gain banner control with ease and were winning the siege by -122k points at 11 PM UTC.

#### Ottoman revolts & German relief (24-25 December)

The first major revolt on SPQR was executed by Certaria (Gothic Horde), backed by Genoa and Belgrade. These towns created the Ostrogothic Kingdom, whose influence grew substantially during the following days, since towns such as Graz, Split and Siberia joined in. The Ostrogoths joined the German side in the conflict as well.

Later, another revolt occured on Turkey, where Bursa (led by xTurkishCoffe) created the Anadolu Selçuklu Empire, backed by Adana, Edremit, Sakarya, Valletta, Gelibolu and Vienna (who betrayed and left Deutschland). They also enemied the nation of Kazakhstan for having an outpost within their claims.

Due to the losses suffered on the past days (still half of SPQR's side losses), Deutschland was surpassed by the German Empire on the /n list by having more residents. One of Deutschland's newest settlements (led by fellow ally 1ett) west of rival Berlin grew in size and residents, and the Deutsch influence reached the Caucasus, as the town Krasnodar joined. Earth as well had Edinburgh and Cardiff to leave Great Britain and join them, and the British town Birmingham left automatically due to lack of residents.

Economically speaking, Deutschland was strengthened on this day, as their new colonies in South America disguised as allies agreed to donate several stacks of various potion types to the German government in order to contribute to the war effort. The works in the Salzburg XP Farm were mostly finished by this day, allowing the Germans to supply more XP potions by themselves and repair the armor sets easier and quicker.

#### Ottomans strike back (26-28 December)

All those who were banned on 22 December were unbanned by 0xBit after he discussed the situation with the admin KeijoDPutt. They joined the server back right after they got unbanned, and the rebel Ostrogothic Kingdom sieged Venezia (a major town of SPQR). Several allies came to help, and nations like Hungary and Falklands turned against the Deutsch side once again. Picturesque got banned for alting and team killing on the siege. Despite all these events, the attackers dominated the siege zone for most of the time. SPQR renamed to Holy Albanian Empire after the unbans.

Although some attackers stayed over the night, the Hokkaidans arrived on Venezia being loyals to SPQR once more, and helped to comeback the siege points as the Ostrogothic side was winning by 250k. Hours later, they would be winning by only 100k, and at 4 PM UTC, the last push was executed by SPQR and Hokkaido, with 21 people capping around the banner and patrolling around Laibach (attackers' main base) to hunt any enemies that attempt going to the siege zone. Thus, there was basically no combat this session other than two failed offensives made by the Ostrogoths. At the same time, Deutschland sieged Xining, a town owned by Franz15, a very infamous person inside Deutschland.

Venezia was already dominated by SPQR, as this time they played more tactical than ever: they blocked the main attacker path from Laibach to Venezia with soldiers patrolling and they set a cobweb roof around the banner to stop TNT minecarts and thus made it impossible for the Axis to take advantage from the skies either.

The main focus was now on the siege of Xining, and though the Germans alongside Earth made good progress, the attackers crumbled with the arrival of Hokkaido and SPQR, making it very difficult to control the banner. Hours later, as Hokkaido have capped overnight as they always do, the siege was considered lost just as Venezia.

#### Final Ottoman push at Linz (29 December-1 January)

***Main article:** Battle of Linz*

On the afternoon, SPQR had decided to siege Linz, another major town within Deutschland and the main supplier to the war effort. The spot chosen for the banner to be placed was very close to where the Xining siege was at, allowing both attackers and defenders to go from Xining's siege to Linz's siege in a few minutes. This advantage, though, wasn't exploited much as the Xining siege was pretty much a defeat for Deutschland and allies already. On the late sessions, Deutschland brought Ottoman advances to a stop and made around 300k points in 3 sessions.

The fights in Linz were gradually bigger and tighter, while the Deutschland and Earth knights stayed awake later than ever to defend the big town. After some sessions of fighting, African Empire decided to back off from the siege, rejoining back shortly after. Initially, SPQR was able to bring the negative siege balance down to -16k (almost taking the lead), but Deutschland stopped their progress again and made several thousands of points on the next sessions, with a record-breaking number of 30 soldiers capping for the defenders. Later on, Edinburgh decided to leave Earth after some discussions, thus rejoining Great Britain.

By 1 January, Deutschland was ahead for more than 400k points, but the New Year truce kicked in late (0xBit apparently forgot) and when it ended, 25 attackers gained 200k points in only three sessions, taking advantage of timezones once again in the war. After these sessions passed, more allies of Deutschland started showing up, but they were outnumbered all the time, and despite one session won, they could not stop SPQR from winning the siege with 120k points.

#### Deutschland breaks apart (2-3 January)

After the loss at Linz, some towns (specially newest and oldest ones) started leaving the nation for the fear of getting sieged just like the first time. This time, despite only a few towns left the nation, Deutschland itself became so inactive as it was never seen before, with some of their key people stating they would either move to another nation or quit the server.

By this point, the German government (specially Nikocholas) had already planned different ways to move on in the server after the defeat, though the poll's results failed to give a fair veredict. Among the options, it was considered that the Germans could move to a strong ally like Qin, or form a new nation somewhere else far away from the enemies. The German colony established in Venezuela a week prior (New Augsburg), served as a safe shelter for any citizens who were willing to stay in EarthPol.

## Tactics

Overall, both sides looked forward to concentrate their forces into capturing the banner at times when the enemy's forces were mostly offline due to timezone differences. This strategy helped both Deutschland and SPQR reduce the casualties suffered on the battlefield while gaining thousands of decisive points, which would later give them time to resist in their most-inactive hours of the day.

### Ottoman side

The Ottomans did not really use any specific tactics inside the siege zone, though they constantly tried to ambush enemy reinforcements on the battlefield's boundaries while fighting a defensive siege. This way, reinforcements would not really get to the siege zone alive, losing their equipment or spending supplies on the process.

In some latter sieges such as Venezia and Xining, they also installed cobweb roofs over the banner, which turned German bombings completely useless and unsuccessful.

### German side

The Germans practiced massive bombing of the battlefield in many battles just like the Ottomans, but they were a bit more effective in the artillery tasks. They also tried to trap and spleef enemies into ganks to kill them right after and damage their armor. In order to counter any attackers' ambushes, they used to have various paths designated to get to every siege zone safely and avoid unnecesary losses.

In the Battle of Myrmidons, the Germans employed the use of cacti as physical barriers to prevent the enemies from getting close enough to the banner, intending to damage their armor and health and trap them as well.

## Logistics

### Ottoman side

The Ottoman side relied on SPQR's abundant war equipment and Ryukyu and Hokkaido's huge economy, completely supporting the war effort. Ryukyu and Hokkaido provided not only potions and sets but soldiers as well, though most of these were conscripts and lacked any discipline, being the easiest targets on the battlefield and doing the job of capturing the banner and gaining points while the European and American-based Germans were asleep.

### German side

For the Deutschland side, logistics were undoubtedly a major problem throughout the war: although the manpower itself was wider and more active than that of the Ottomans', the war equipment was limited most of the time, thus shortening the defenders capacity of fighting for long times. Due to a smaller economy, there were shortages of potions (very important for long-term combat, as well as for repairing armory) at most of the battles, and those soldiers who lost their set in combat had to save gold for days and buy another one if wealthy enough, or fight under deplorable conditions. Actually, the major part of the German nobility did not have a netherite set at the beginning of the war, so the King along with some allies bought some for them. The German side attempted to fix the lack of supplies by having the city of Linz as the main potion supplier, while Leipzig was expanding its XP farm (a project that was halted due to the war and never finished).

As the Leipzig project was brought to a stop, the city of Salzburg in Austria supplied both Germans and their allies with XP potions as well, as the mayor nickykied (Nikocholas) assembled some of his citizens and some German nobles on New Year's Eve (23 December 2021) in order to build an automated XP farm (*Kaiserfarm*). Finished four days later, the result was a 20-story tall 1 chunk XP farm, which could only produce a couple of XP potions per minute. Though it could not support the logistic requirements of all the Germans due to the extremely low production rate, it supplied those who fought the most and was the main logistic pillar of the Deutschland side throughout the last week of the conflict.

In 25 December, New Augsburg (the capital of the German colony in Venezuela) officially donated several stacks of speed, strength, health and fire resistance potions to the Salzburg government in order to contribute to the war effort. Their people also fought in some moments of the late war.

## Aftermath

The Great War ended in a disastrous defeat for Deutschland and their allies, yet somewhat expected due to their economic, military and logistic inferiority. A big issue for the Germans was also the time difference between both sides, allowing each side to control the banner and gain points while the enemy soldiers were asleep in real life. Some could argue Deutschland could have won the war if it wasn't for this major disadvantage.

Most of the Axis nations' active people (who composed a high percentage of the EarthPol's active users by this time) quit the server hours or days after the defeat, as it was also well timed with the release of rival server NewEarth, an event which confirmed the fall of EarthPol V4 as a whole.