Great War III

Alternative Names
The war is also known as: The Epic War, March Madness, Global War III, Great War II Part 2

Names By UIO Forces:

The War of Retribution, The Big Brown Cleansing

Casus Belli
NPO claimed that GATO was spying on them as well as harboring intentions of hostility,  as revealed by several leaked chat conversations between GATO and Legion leaders. NPO also discovered and banned a spy from GATO on their forums.

Declarations of War from various alliances which eventually joined GATO's side accused the Initiative of bullying tactics against any who disagreed with them, framing their fight against the Initiative as a war for freedom.

Events of the War
First, the NPO attacked GATO, who had, from the NPO's point of view, engaged in recent, questionable diplomatic policies, including at least some evidence of espionage against their enemy. Much speculation went on as to what would happen. It was well-known that Global Alliance and Treaty Organization and The Legion had a Mutual Defense Pact signed, and it was noted that The Legion's members were at DEFCON 1, so the questions that would determine the path the war took became "When are The Legion going to war?" and "Who will The Legion go to war against? " A topic was made on the forums, and some people said The Legion were going to declare against the New Pacific Order. However, on March 20, shortly before update, Ivan Moldavi posted a controversial statement praising The Legion on behalf of the New Pacific Order. The statement could have meant many different things, but The Legion interpreted it as goading them, and would eventually activate their Mutual Defense Pact with Global Alliance and Treaty Organization.

At 8:54 PM on March 21st, 2007, the National Alliance for Arctic Countries became the first power to enter on the side of Global Alliance and Treaty Organization, by activating their Mutual Defense Pact. At 8:58 PM the Imperial Assault Alliance became second to declare war.

Legion's position was made certain at 9:07 PM. VL Empire, Prime Minister of the The Legion, declared war on The Initiative, activating The Legion's Mutual Defense Pact with Global Alliance and Treaty Organization. "Ave Legio," the traditional battle cry of legionnaires, now became the battle cry widely-used by Global Alliance and Treaty Organization supporters, and the Declaration of War thread is filled with it. A reference to the movie 300 was later made (where?), and after this reference, people in the LUEnited Nations IRC channel became calling Global Alliance and Treaty Organization and allies "Sparta." There was less than an hour until update, and declarations began to fly.

Less than an hour after update, b|/b/, an alliance that had long been neutral in similar conflicts, declared war on the Viridian Entente and other select alliances of The Initiative. The Viridian Entente was outraged at b|/b/'s declaration and declared that they would never declare peace with b|/b/. This declaration caused Archon's DramaNations meter to go from Red (at which it had been for two days) to Black.

On the 22/3/07, alliances of the Sphere power block issued declarations of war. The first to do so was the BTA, citing a non existent defense clause in a unannounced PIAT as their justification for war. The BTA focused their attacked on the Confederacy of Independent states. 5 more alliances declared war on the CIS on the same day, citing activation of their MADP with BTA]. On the 29/3.07, the [[EoTS, GoG, RnR, MCB and MRA surrendered to the CIS . Heavy losses were inflicted on both sides, CIS initially, and the Sphere later after outside intervention.

LUEnited Nations, at 8:58 PM, officially renounced the terms of surrender to The Initiative, activating their Mutual Defense Pact with Global Alliance and Treaty Organization and declaring war on Genmay.

At 10:31, Orange Defense Network and Coalition of Defensive States jointly declared war on the Goon Order Of Neutral Shoving. Orange Defense Network have been known for being neutral. Goon Order Of Neutral Shoving returned the declaration a few minutes later, and about an hour later Farkistan entered on Global Alliance and Treaty Organization's side.

Many have drawn comparisons between this war and GW2 (FARK War). The lack of sanctioned nuclear attacks and the involvement of almost equally matched power blocs are the more notable similarities.

On 3/24-3/25 several smaller alliances responded to Legion and other GATO-aligned calls to 'join the good fight' and declared on Initiative forces. Their total Nation Strength added little to the overall fight and only temporarily masked both GATO and Legion's steepening declines in total Nation Strength.

Dark Friday
March 30th 2007 began as the prior days of the war had always begun, there was still fighting between nations and heated battles amongst the forums. A day prior to this however the FAN Forums had been brought offline by a DOS attack, but remained uncompromised. Then a bit of good news for the Initiative came from the front, King Raptor Jesus of Raptoropia, the Emperor of /b/ had banned himself from the game. Then more good news, Furseiseki unofficially announced the disbandment of the /b/ alliance, it seemed as though the end of the war was atlast drawing near.

But then something happened, that would threaten the very existence and stability of Cybernations herself.

Within moments of their disbandment, prominent members of the /b/ alliance, including their emperor, began /b/ombing the forums with unspeakable images: child pornography, goatse, mutilated animals, and human torture, just to name a few. The moderators flew swiftly to try and erase these images, but they were not swift enough, and with every IP ban another /b/er, using an anonymous proxy would take its place and continue the trend. Shortly following this incident, NAAC announced that in their disgust, they were ordering all their nations to stand down. The Sphere alliances, excluding the BTA, as well as the Old Guard also followed suit. LoSS is currently attempting to do likewise.

Shortly following the incident, the Admin implemented the "Confusion of Babylon" and closed down the Open World Forums -, the entire forum soon followed.

But /b/'s actions did not stop there. On the night of the incident that had come to be known as "Dark Friday" /b/ members launched a DOS attack on the Cybernations Server, in an attempt to bring the server down by increasing bandwidth beyond capacity; the attacks also lead to the theft of a piece of CN Source Code. As a direct result of these actions, the Admin momentarily closed down Cybernations on 3/31/07. -. Several members of the 7chan board /i/, stated before the DDoS attack on CyberNations that /b/ was planning the DDoS.

So thus with the forums and main site down March Madness took a pause with the very existence of CN teetering on the brink.

Independent and Neutral Nations
This third great war of CyberNations has been perhaps the largest in all of CN history, involving more alliances and certainly more nations than ever before. This has caused some previously/unaligned neutral alliances to join the fight. The polar nature of this conflict has sparked discussion of entering the war in every alliance across CN. Some notable members of neutral/independent alliances have even taken a temporary leave of absence to fight alongside friends, whether they know them in person or through CN, or even just to fight for whichever cause they believe to be just.

The two largest alliances that are still declaring neutrality regarding GWIII are the Green Protection Agency (GPA) (see the Declaration of Neutrality) and Independent Republic of Orange Nations (IRON). The importance in mentioning these two alliances is that their entry could certainly turn the tide of the war in either direction. Both IRON and GPA have long term relations with alliances on both sides.

The GPA has issued statements that they are holding to their neutrality. Any deviation from this neutrality will fundamentally alter the basis of the alliance.

IRON, being Independent, is free to choose war, however have opted to remain out of it for now. Rumors persist of a build up of forces to take advantage of the CN forum closure to launch a surprise attack against The Initiative on April 1st. Though with the overall closure of the game as of 3/31, this cannot occur.

Other Events

 * Mar28-Aft. FAN Alliance Forums knocked offline by apparent DDoS attack
 * 3/29 - Admin Kevin and his wife have their first baby girl, Emily Michelle.
 * Various former /b/ members including the ex-Emperor attack CN Forums by posting Child Pornography and Animal Cruelty. (causes the CN forum to shut down from 1pm 3/30/07 to 4/2/07.)
 * Legion member uses dead friend's 'memorial' nation to aid allies. And posts intent to use attacks on it for political hay.
 * Former /b/ members in 7chan launched a massive DOS attack on CyberNations
 * Cyber Nations momentarily shut down on March 31st, 2007

Surrenders and Withdrawals
3/26 - APIN has an coup d'etat and surrender to GGA

3/30 - Furseiseki disbands b|/b/. 3/30 - NAAC expresses disgust with b|/b/ and withdraws.

3/30 - The Sphere alliances surrender to CIS.

3/30-3/31 overnight - Old Guard Announced their withdrawal from the conflict

The DramaNations Meter
With the declaration by b|/b/, for the second time since its inception Archon's Dramanations Meter went to Black, after having been at Red for three days prior. This was elicited mainly by the surprise of b|/b/'s entry, however, some had speculated before that if the New Pacific Order were victorious the meter would go Black anyway. The meter first reached Black during the Second Great War following the declaration from Global Alliance and Treaty Organization on The Initiative. Archon later considered adding a level to the Dramanations Meter (Plaid), to more accurately measure the sheerly massive scope of this conflict.