On 19 February 2018, three days after forming, the Federation attacked HackForums' 111 territories; by 22 February 2018 HackForums held none, ending Hax as a territorial power a year after its peak of roughly 350 territories. It is the event behind the community memory of "the fall of Hax", which is usually misdated to 2017.
The wipe of HackForums was the operation in which the newly formed Federation took HackForums' remaining 111 territories. The attack came on 19 February 2018 and wiped Hax's holdings "to 0 in under 12 hours"[1]; the guild held zero territories on 22 February 2018[2]. It ended Hax's years as a territorial power.
Background
HackForums was the dominant territorial guild of the mid-2010s. In September 2016 Hax held 146 of roughly 332 held territories — more than double the next guild, Libertas (60), with UltimateXeons third (53)[3]. Its 2017 peak approached 350 territories[4]. It held that map at the head of a bloc, not alone: HackForums, Libertas [Lir] and Blacklisted [BLA], with UltimateXeons [UXs] a party to the pact in mid-2016[5][6][7]. Contemporaries had no name for the arrangement, calling it "a mutual land agreement"[8]; the label "Hax & Co" was a later community coinage, first recorded in July 2019[9]. No exchange-level war data survives from before 2018[10].
By early 2018 Hax was a member of the Coalition, and on 16–17 February 2018 it left with the breakaway Alliance Alliance bloc, starting the Coalition Civil War[11]. The Federation — formed on 16 February 2018 from the Coalition remnant and War Syndicate's remains — was three days old when it struck[11].
Course of the war
On 19 February 2018 the Federation attacked Hax's 111 territories "and wipes them to 0 in under 12 hours"[1]. A thread of 22 February 2018, "Haxforums Has Fallen At Last.", announced: "After years of being number 1, HaxForums has lost all its territories. Now its much easier to be on the leaderboard, since the guilds with the most territories have only 43. Everyone celebrate!"[2] A moderator closed the thread four minutes and two replies later[12]. No fuller account of the fighting survives: the attacking guilds, the order of the territories, and how the 19 February attack relates to the 22 February result were never recorded.
Aftermath
Hax's land was dispersed rather than inherited: no guild held more than 43 territories immediately afterwards[2]. In community memory the event is usually placed a year earlier — one participant called the fall of Hax "probably the biggest event that happened in 2017"[13] — but the recollection is about two months out: 2017 was the decline, and the fall itself belongs to February 2018 and to the Federation rather than to the Coalition[2].
The guild itself survived: it held 33 territories in March 2019[14], and it was later a member of Valhalla (2021)[11] and the Hestia community alliance (June 2021)[15] — but it never again approached its 2016–17 scale.
References
- ^ Wynncraft guild history timeline (community document)secondary original
- ^ Haxforums Has Fallen At Last. original
- ^ Pre-2018 territory snapshots (recovered leaderboard captures) original
- ^ A Very Never Ending Guild Timeline! original
- ^ Alliance - The Separatists original
- ^ Alliance - » Seraphim Alliance « For Those Who Give Very Few Shits original
- ^ Guild - ⚔☠ Blacklisted | Lv. 52 | Recruiting Lv. 80+ original
- ^ Alliance - The Separatists original
- ^ An Argument Against The Current Monopoly On Territory original
- ^ territory_exchanges — the territory capture log original
- ^ Chronicle alliance and event records (TAq database)derived original
- ^ Haxforums Has Fallen At Last. original
- ^ A Very Never Ending Guild Timeline! original
- ^ Pre-2018 territory snapshots (recovered leaderboard captures) original
- ^ Info - Read Before Applying To A Guild - All Currently Recruiting Guilds Megalist original capture 2021-11-28