Alliance Alliance ("Double AA") was the breakaway war alliance of February 2018: five guilds that split from the Coalition over a proposed division of the province of Wynn, joined by Fantasy and Necronomicon. It held most of the map in the days after the split, lost it to the newly formed Federation on 21 February, retook it for three days in early March, and was reduced to a single territory on 19–20 March 2018.
History
Formation
On 17 February 2018 (16 February in some accounts)[1], HackForums, Paladins United, House of Sentinels, Emorians and Kangronomicon left the Coalition — also called "The 1st Coalition" — over map disputes.[2] Together with Fantasy and Necronomicon they formed Alliance Alliance and declared war on their former alliance, beginning the Coalition Civil War.[2] (The seventh guild, spelled "Necromonicon" in some records, was Necronomicon, a guild active on the map through 2018.)[3]
Drew1011, the Coalition leader who published the disputed map, wrote that the alliance had divided Gavel but never Wynn, that a vote to divide Wynn was called by AscendedKitten of Imperial and passed, and that "within an hour of announcing the map, on February 16th, 2018, five guilds left Coalition. Hax, PUN, Snt, Fuq, and Emorians [ERN] left and made their own alliance combined with Fux and Feq."[4] He added that the new bloc "attacked the rest of the Coalition, and had the map before the night was over"[4]. Alliance Alliance held 337 of 376 territories on 17 February, against the Federation's 28[5].
The proposed division of the province of Wynn, drawn over a territory map in coloured regions, from the ninth redraw of the Coalition's plan. Drew1011 identified its announcement on 16 February 2018 as the cause of the split.[6]
Whether the departing guilds tried to settle the dispute before leaving is contested. Drew1011 wrote that they did not — "there were no straightforward and direct attempts to solve the issues beforehand" — while noting that others had claimed the opposite; he described the contacts he received as offhand remarks rather than negotiations.[4] No account by any of the departing guilds survives.
The Coalition Civil War
The war set Alliance Alliance against the Coalition remnant, which had merged with War Syndicate's remains into the new Federation. The Federation struck first and hardest: three days after forming, it attacked member guild HackForums' 111 territories and wiped them to zero in under 12 hours, ending HackForums as a territorial power.[7] The war's first engagement was an attack on Emorians' Llevigar territories, opened by Snowythewolf of Hall of Fame on 17 February; Emorians was bankrupt within two days[8]. Drew1011 dated Viaire's move of Fantasy out of Alliance Alliance and into the Federation — mid-battle, in exchange for keeping his canyon territories — to 18 February, a month earlier than the guild's recorded membership boundary[8][7].
The bloc's one recorded counter-offensive came a fortnight later, after a Wynncraft mob update took effect on 1 March 2018: Alliance Alliance attacked Gavel from midnight "using broken defenses that the vast majority of players were unable to overcome", held the initiative for several days, and lost the map again by 5 March[8]. The Federation's founder called it the only break in the bloc's map control, "~3 days in March"[9]. Alliance Alliance held 308 of 383 territories on 3 March against the Federation's 43, and 236 on 4 March, before the Federation recovered to roughly 300 territories from 6 March[10].
The alliance then came apart guild by guild: Paladins United asked to join the Federation on 7 March and was admitted; House of Sentinels left Alliance Alliance on 12 March, briefly considered joining the Federation and instead returned to neutrality; and Kangronomicon largely stopped warring[8].
The end date
The bloc's member stints closed on 19–20 March 2018. Alliance Alliance fell from 72 territories to one on 19 March, while the Federation reached 380 of 383 territories, or 99%, on 20 March[11]. No formal dissolution was ever recorded; Fantasy, Paladins United and Emorians appear on the Federation's rolls from the same date.[7]
The Federation had taken the map earlier, on 21 February 2018, when it held 356 of 383 territories[12]. The 20 March date sometimes given for the Federation taking map control[2] marks the end of the war rather than the change of map control. Drew1011 dated the bloc's end as a fighting force earlier still, to the week of 7–12 March, when Paladins United joined the Federation and House of Sentinels returned to neutrality[8]; it went on holding territory in reduced numbers, around 75, until 19 March[13].
Membership
Legacy
Alliance Alliance existed for barely a month, but its split ended the Coalition and provoked the merger that created the Federation, the alliance that dominated the rest of 2018 (the Federation era). One participant, Slayne, later tied the Federation's creation directly to it: "I created Fed because I (along with some others) created Double AA."[14] Two of its seven guilds — Paladins United and Fantasy — were inside the Federation before the month was out.[8]
References
- ^ A Very Never Ending Guild Timeline! original
- ^ Wynncraft guild history timeline (community document)secondary original
- ^ territory_exchanges — the territory capture log original
- ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild historyretrospective original
- ^ territory_exchanges — the territory capture log original
- ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild historyretrospective original
- ^ Chronicle alliance and event records (TAq database)derived original
- ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild historyretrospective original
- ^ Alliance - Federation Tribute original
- ^ territory_exchanges — the territory capture log original
- ^ territory_exchanges — the territory capture log original
- ^ territory_exchanges — the territory capture log original
- ^ territory_exchanges — the territory capture log original
- ^ Alliance - Federation Tribute original