History:Sandbox

Historian's Introduction: This is something I've been toying with for a while. With recent events, it's become necessary to hurry this work to a completion while certain involved parties are still around to contribute.

Part one will focus on war as reflected in contested blockades. Part two may focus on economic history. Part three, game design history.

If you disagree with this feel free to post, but I will not make any edits based on replies to this. Outright denying things easily proved to be true is a common forum tradition, and should not be leant too much credence.

Blockade Prehistory
This history opens in March of 2004. Blockades had not yet come out. War was a new creation, little used. But with colonization on the horizon, many flags struggled to get ready. Fleets were created, alliances forged, deals structured, and islands decided upon.

The Ruby Alliance
The Ruby Alliance emerged as a deal to take Jorvik, Eta, and Luthien. The flags involved were three democracies: Nyx's Scions, Looterati, and Silver Dawn. Jorvik would be the first to open; the other two would come many months later.

The Looterati had called Jorvik. It was this choice that caused an internal political struggle. Greenwolf, captain of the Looterati's best crew, Green's Wolves, had ruled over Jorvik in Azure. Spinn, however, was the monarch, and wanted glory for himself. Greenwolf wanted Spinn replaced and sought to achieve this by a democratic vote, but he did not get very far. Spinn used his powers to effectively ostracize Greenwolf and his crew from the Looterati, without regard to democracy. A brutal propaganda campaign by the Looterati followed.

The tendency of democracies to eliminate their greatest people dates all the way back to democracy's creation. Athens jailed Miltiades, hero of the first Persian War, ostracized Themistocles, hero of the second Persian War, and of course executed Socrates, often believed to be the greatest philosopher of antiquity or perhaps all time.

Greenwolf still wanted Jorvik. He took his crew and his sister crew, The Revenge, and formed the flag Tyr's Own, the flag he had ruled Jorvik with in Azure. Quixaroo and her crew the Last Exiles joined as did many others, and soon a large, highly skilled flag was formed.

It is said that if Tyr's Own had formed a week earlier, the Ruby Alliance may well have been Nyx's Scions, Tyr's Own, and Silver Dawn.

The Triumvirate: Thanos, Parthanos, and Greenwolf
Greenwolf found his allies elsewhere. The two largest flags in the game at the time were Crimson Tide, ruled by Thanos, and Imperio, ruled by Parthanos. These were the flags Greenwolf became the greatest ally of, lending them his flag's enormous skill while they provided immense manpower. (The alliance would later be called Crimperio, despite Greenwolf's involvement.) This triumvirate would become the dominant force in Midnight politics for many months. Almost all islands were taken by agreement of this triumvirate, and woe to those they opposed. Thanos, of course, opposed Rudder Revolution.

Rudder Revolution, Hell's Outcasts, Equinox
Rudder Revolution had been the most powerful flag at the end of Azure, and emerged as a powerful force in Midnight. Pennsuedo, monarch of the flag, had a gift for getting people to donate everything for the flag. With the immense profitability of flag-owned shops, pre-blockade, this produced one of the game's strongest economic powers. They worked largely on the island of Guava, and it was their goal to own it.

Their strongest alliance was with Hell's Outcasts, ruled by Woody. Eventually, after Guava I, they would merge the two flags into Rudder Hell. Later, X Marks the Spot, ruled by Dittemuzz, merged as well, to form Equinox. But this is much later in blockade history.

The Opening
Cleaver wrote: Initially only Emperor and Byrne islands will be open for blockades. The notice period is 24 hours, so we expect that the first blockades will begin at around 10am Thursday and last for 24 hours, concluding around 10am Friday. To start with there will be one 50 minute round followed by a 70 minute break, i.e. one round every two hours, a total of 12 rounds, and to seize the island a contending party will have to win 7 rounds.

If all goes well we will open all the islands in the Diamond and Emerald Archipelagoes, with the exception of Alpha and Epsilon, plus Jorvik in Ruby, to blockades on Friday afternoon at around 2pm PST, such that blockades announced immediately would begin 2pm Saturday PST and end 2pm Sunday PST.

April 29

 * Emperor I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - The Jolly Company
 * First island to be blockaded.


 * Byrne I
 * 1 - Defender - none
 * 7- Contender - Tyr's Own

Both these initial blockades had the support of Crimson Tide and Imperio. Emperor was won essentially without a fight.

Byrne was different. At Byrne, Nyx's Scions, with their allies's manpower, showed up to practice, bringing in frigate after frigate. A fundamental difference between them and Tyr's Own was shown. Tyr's Own had spent large amounts of time on the testing server, testing blockades and working out strategy. They had gone into Byrne intending to win.

Nyx's Scions went in to fool around. Fool around they did, and they lost many frigates, though they did manage to win a round. Rifkind, second in command of Nyx, later commented that they would have learned far more, and lost much less, if they just went in to try to win it.

May 1

 * All blockades started on this day were completed in two parts due to server problems.
 * Wrasse was blockaded by of doom and Innuendo, but the blockade was aborted after the server crashed.
 * Guava I
 * 6 - Defender - Vilya
 * 2 - Contender - Hell's Outcasts
 * First blockade of a colonized island.
 * First successful defense.


 * Jorvik I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - Looterati


 * Oyster I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender -Eccezionale


 * Spring I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - Imperio


 * Tinga I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - of doom

At Wrasse, a flag consisting of essentially three people took on of doom. But the flag of doom was occupied elsewhere, and Innuendo seemed poised to win each round. Unfortunately, every round crashed before the end, and Wrasse was cancelled.

At Guava, the Rudder-Hell alliance went up against Crimson Tide defending. Finer points such as oceanside entry were not used, and did not become well known for months. Crimson Tide was superior in strategy, and easily triumphed in the first successful defense. Due to high populations, the warchest price for Guava and other colonized islands was huge, well in excess of a million poe (as compared to 100k for uncolonized islands.) A failed attack, even nonsinking, could be financially crippling.

At Jorvik, a massive battle was expected, at least by the Ruby Alliance. Greenwolf's aim for Jorvik was well known. Nyx deferred its plan to take Turtle since it seemed every man was needed at Jorvik, but no opposition came that day.

May 5

 * Papaya I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 6 - Contender - Rudder Hell
 * 6 - Contender - Bloody Seas
 * First blockade to go the full 12 rounds.
 * First blockade to have two contenders.

Rudder Revolution and Hell's Outcasts had now merged. With some tentative support from the Ruby Alliance and others, they managed to field some excellent manpower.

On the other side, Bloody Seas had the support of the Triumvirate. Their superiority in blockade strategy showed, and the sink ratio was massively in favor of Bloody Seas. They won the first five rounds. Bloody Seas used largely frigates, while Rudder Hell repeatedly sent in, and lost, war brigs. Millions worth of ships were lost in this blockade.

After the first five rounds, however, night came. Much of Bloody Seas's forces went to sleep, confident that with a 5-0 lead the blockade would be resolved in their favor. It was not. The next 6 rounds were won by Rudder Hell, burning the midnight oil.

Before the 12th round, Parthanos woke from his slumber. He saw the score, 5-6. He pulled every mate in Imperio and the rest of his alliance he could. In a mad dash, Bloody Seas won round 12.

The blockade tied at 6-6. Since no one had a majority, the island remained uncolonized.

May 14

 * Turtle I
 * 0 - Defender - Vilya
 * 7 - Contender - Crimson Tide
 * 1 - Contender - Nyx's Scions

Turtle had been in the works for a while. Nyx's Scions planned for a Saturday afternoon blockade on May 15th, and seemed to assume it would be unopposed. Crimson Tide had other plans. They dropped the warchest first, and a Friday morning blockade ensued.

This battle was seen by future historians as of critical importance. Nyx's Scions possessed most of Turtle's shops. Nyx's Scions had the Ruby Alliance as well as Rudder Hell on its side. They lost miserably.

Before the blockade, Thanos had a little talk with the Looterati. Oppose him at Turtle, he said, and he'd be seeing them at Jorvik, with Greenwolf. Did the Looterati then abandon their ally Nyx's Scions at Turtle? Several members of Nyx's Scions thought so, but this is impossible to verify.

The Triumvirate, and all their allies, showed in full force at Turtle. Nyx's Scions was outclassed in both strategy and numbers. Later, Thanos would build shops on Turtle for many of his allies, in thanks for their help in this important and decisive battle. Nyx's Scions would splinter and collapse soon afterward. One remnant of it, Widows and Orphans remained in support of the Ruby Alliance for a long time.

May 21

 * Cnossos I
 * 0 - Defender - Vilya
 * 3 - Contender - Equinox
 * 7 - Contender - Black Sails

Black Sails had the support of Midnight Armada and Crimson Tide, in an odd deal somewhat different from the existing alliance structures, mediated by Thanos. Equinox had now formed from Dittemuzz's flag X marks the Spot merging into Rudder Hell.

Black Sails won the dubious honor of one of the more overbuilt and resourceless islands in the game. It would later be the first of the old island owning flags to collapse, and Cnossos was often blamed for this.

May 28

 * Jorvik II
 * 6 - Defender - Looterati
 * 0 - Contender - Tyr's Own
 * First blockade of a player-controlled island.

Finally, Greenwolf went after Jorvik. He did not, however, get much support. Many factors contributed to this: the unprecedented nature of attacks on colonized islands, Looterati's nonopposition to Thanos at Turtle, Looterati's the massive campaign to villify Greenwolf, people just seeing defenders as the good guys...

Greenwolf was massively outnumbered. He knew he would be even before he dropped the warchest, but he still wished to make a point.

Stagnance and Rebirth
After Jorvik II, the ocean calmed down somewhat. Contested blockades were rarer, and many yearned for action while being restrained by political forces. Gaea and Guava were still open and not owned by any player flags, but the warchest costs for them were prohibitively expensive. With the game's population spreading to the newly colonized islands, the warchest prices went down somewhat, but still were close to a million.

Few dared to attack an island of another player. After all, Greenwolf was a leading member of the most powerful alliance in the game, and yet the defense and lack of support at Jorvik left him not the slightest chance of victory. For anyone else, was there even a point?

June 25

 * Gaea I
 * 6 - Defender - Vilya
 * 0 - Contender - Mercenaries


 * Guava II
 * 0 - Defender - Vilya
 * 7 - Contender - Equinox

Guava II was announced well in advance by Equinox. By then, sympathies with them and their long string of failures had grown significant. Dittemuzz, a friend of Thanos, was made queen of the flag, and perhaps for this reason Crimson Tide did not show up in opposition. Imperio defended, but was outmanned and beaten.

The warchest for Gaea I was a surprise, dropped simultaneously to Guava's. It was funded by Robertdonald with his flag Mercenaries. The ideological basis for it was in the Mercenary Manifesto. One of the main ideas was the previously unprecedented payment of jobbers. Robertdonald funded this, including the still high warchest, by selling a familiar, won in the Best Pirate event, for 1.4 million. This move at the time created a lot of hatred.

Whitefire and Quixaroo organized an unpaid volunteer defense. Mercenaries managed to field not much more than a brig, and lost the blockade.

On July 16th Hephaestus's Forge opened for blockades. Thereafter, single islands would open every week or two. Most of these went uncontested, their ownership predetermined by the alliance webs of the time.

July 23

 * Byrne II
 * 6 - Defender - Tyr's Own
 * 1 - Contender - DOOFIS


 * Jorvik III
 * 6 - Defender - Looterati
 * 0 - Contender - Tyr's Own
 * First island to be blockaded three times.


 * Wrasse II
 * 6 - Defender - Cold Steel
 * 1 - Contender - Pirates of Roundtable
 * Sinking blockade.

July 24

 * Eta I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - Silver Dawn

Eta was the catalyst for the next big blockade event. Silver Dawn was Looterati's strongest and closest ally, and it had called the island of Eta. Greenwolf saw an opportunity here. While Silver Dawn was busy at Eta, he could drop a warchest on Jorvik and win with the Ruby Alliance's forces split. This time, he would have the full support of Crimson Tide and Imperio, as well as others.

News of this plan leaked somewhat, and Broccoli, monarch of DOOFIS, organized a counter plan. When Greenwolf dropped on Jorvik, he would drop on Byrne. A three island simultaneous blockade would be created.

Greenwolf, however, changed his mind. He decided, perhaps overconfident or perhaps overcompassionate, that he didn't want the whining associated with a simultaneous blockade. In addition, blockading Jorvik early would allow for his alliance to continue on at Eta if they won; they did not want islands in the archipelego with the Looterati in place.

The blockade of Jorvik was declared for Friday morning. An hour later, DOOFIS declared a blockade on Byrne. It is believed Broccoli had the funding and support of Maxdemian and Robertdonald... somewhat ironic in the face of Looterati's much later declaration of war on Robertdonald, and their decrying of the use of alt flags, diversionary blockades, and all that, later.

Still later, egged on by people excited about a three way blockade, Pirates of the Round Table dropped on Wrasse. This was a flag split off Cold Steel, resolving property disputes over shop ownership and such by blockade.

The first round of Jorvik was won by the Looterati. Perhaps Tyr's Own could have won the second round, but significant force was instead sent to defend Byrne. The attacking force at Byrne was extremely weak, so this was massive overkill.

In the end, Tyr's Own won not a single round at Jorvik. DOOFIS won one of the later ones at Byrne, but Tyr's Own's allies showed much stronger after losing at Jorvik than they had ever shown at Jorvik, and that blockade was nipped in the bud.

Cold Steel won at Wrasse. While they were a very small flag, they drew much support as defenders, even from at least one of Pirates of the Round Table's official allies.

After the successful defense at Jorvik, Silver Dawn had no real player opposition at Eta. Vilya came in to take up the slack, sinking large numbers of ships but intentionally not winning a round.

August 13

 * Turtle ceded to Vilya by Crimson Tide. Vilya ceded it to Death's Gate.

August 14

 * Xi I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - Crimson Tide

August 15

 * Turtle II
 * 6 - Defender - Death's Gate
 * 3 - Contender - Free Turtle

Xi had been the eventual goal of Thanos from the day the Midnight Ocean opened. He had ruled it in Azure. Turtle had merely been a large step towards it, providing shipyards and weakening his potential opponents. Thanos had stepped down as monarch of Crimson Tide soon after Jorvk III. Misery was now Queen. She carried on with Thanos's goals, but later their styles and beliefs would grow increasingly far apart.

In preparation for the opening of Xi, Crimson Tide sold its shipyard on Turtle for a bit less than 2 million. It then ceded the island to Vilya, hoping to eliminate any possibility of its forces being split. Xi was won without a fight, no one believing they had a chance of beating Crimson Tide for the island it had spent its entire existence preparing to win.

Turtle was now up for grabs. To encourage someone to take it, Cleaver gave it to the event flag of Hades, who slowly raised taxes. The first attempt came swiftly. The flag Free Turtle was a coalition of shopowners, many of them from Nyx's Scions of long ago. Rugbyofficer was the monarch. By casting themselves as the good guys, they garnered much flag support.

To make a fun event, Hades offered pay to mercenaries, based on how they scored. Two main groups emerged. One was headed by Danilynna and Shuranthae, under the official flag of Hades. The other was Robertdonald's flag, Scallywag Syndicate. The former used an infinite supply of magicked ships, the latter their own ships. This combination proved successful in defense.

The first couple rounds went to the attackers. But then, steadily, the defenders began winning rounds. This provoked a horrified reaction from Cleaver, who apparently intended the island to be lost to the first competent people who decided to drop a warchest. Hades was knocked out of play. All the magicked ships were yoinked. All his flags alliances, made for the purpose of the defense, were eliminated. People who had gone in after round four expecting payment, and paying their jobbers, ended up high and dry, and out poe.

But the defense had not relied entirely on magicked ships. Working on their own, without developer assistance, an alliance of many flags and people, including Crimson Tide members, Anubis and his army, Whitefire, and Robertdonald's forces finished successfully defending the island.

The midblockade change of rules, broken promises and yoinking of money had left many people bitter.

The next week, Turtle was easily won by Turtle's Own, an alliance of shopkeepers backed by Tyr's Own and led by Janthina.

August 28

 * Remora I
 * 6 - Defender - none
 * 2 - Contender - Widows and Orphans

August 29

 * Chaparral I
 * 6 - Defender - none
 * 3 - Contender - Royale Fortune

A movement against "free islands," islands won without a fight, had begun. Spurred on by Shuranthae's nagging, Crimson Tide defended Remora, an outpost, against Widows and Orphans. Chaparral was likewise defended.

September 11

 * Cranberry I
 * 5 - Defender - none
 * 1 - Contender - Tyr's Own
 * 1 - Contender - Trans-Atlantic Empire

Greenwolf had long since left Tyr's Own. Cioj ran the flag now. Quixaroo had left it, but was soon to rejoin. Spurred on by Quixaroo, who had owned Cranberry in the days of Azure, Tyr's Own went for it. Cranberry, however, is right next to Eta, owned by Silver Dawn. Silver Dawn was the staunch ally of Looterati, sworn enemies of Tyr's Own. They showed up to defend, and Tyr's Own didn't win any of the first six rounds.

Silver Dawn left in the seventh round. Tyr's Own won round 7 to ensure Trans-Atlantic Empire didn't manage a win.

September 15

 * Remora II
 * 5 - Defender - none
 * 0 - Contender - Heros of Midnight
 * 7 - Contender - Blood Eagles
 * First island to be won in the twelfth round.

Again this worthless outpost was defended, but this time, the attackers pulled it out.

September 17

 * Park II, Winter III, and Oyster III were timed to run simultaneously.
 * Park II
 * 6 - Defender - Midnight Armada
 * 0 - Contender - Buri Armada


 * Winter III
 * 6 - Defender - Midnight Armada
 * 0 - Contender - Buri Armada


 * Oyster III
 * 6 - Defender - Nidiata Dei Draghi
 * 1 - Contender - Nidiata Dei Buri

These blockades were declared by one Notburi (or in the case of Oyster, Iamnotburi.) It is believed that Notburi was Robertdonald, responding to a perceived personal attack by a Midnight Armada royal.

These blockades were declared in the wee hours late at night, on a weekday. The underlying theory seems to be that by picking an inconvenient time and dividing the defending forces three ways, even a small force could win. The attackers indeed won the first round at Oyster, but thereafter the defense became much stronger and the attackers faded away.

September 18

 * Zeta I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - of doom
 * 0 - Contender - Midnight Horizon
 * First time that a flag has controlled two previously uncolonized islands.

This blockade was hotly contested, but the flag of doom had both slightly greater manpower and better coordination than Midnight Horizon. Midnight Horizon notably had the support of Crimson Tide, and it seems that Crimson Tide lost many frigates in this landslide defeat.

September 18

 * Cranberry II
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - Trans-Atlantic Empire
 * 0 - Contender - Tyr's Own
 * Tyr's Own dropped a war chest moments before round four began.

Silver Dawn (and, in some small part, their allies the Looterati) had decided that the best way to keep Tyr's Own out of the archipelego was to ensure that Cranberry was given to someone else. While they did not officially ally with Trans-Atlantic Empire, they put their blockade crew, Silver Armada, in the flag. They won the blockade massively against Tyr's Own's defense.

Tyr's Own hoped to catch Silver Dawn by surprise by dropping in round 4 and showing up with its full power, but its full power was simply not enough.

September 25

 * Nu I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - Epic
 * 0 - Contender - The Pirate Mafia

While the first few rounds of this blockade were hotly contested, Epic's manpower was greater. Epic won easily. The monarch of the Pirate Mafia, Calvinwest, quit the game midblockade.

October 2

 * Nu II, Cranberry III, and Luthien I were timed to run simultaneously.
 * Luthien I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 0 - Contender - No Homers
 * 1 - Contender - Ruby Phoenix
 * 7 - Contender - Carpe Noctem
 * First blockade with three contenders (excluding Epsilon I).


 * Nu II
 * 6 - Defender - Epic
 * 2 - Contender Saga


 * Cranberry III
 * 6 - Defender - Trans-Atlantic Empire
 * 3 - Contender - Trans-Pacific Empire

Luthien was billed to be the greatest blockade of all time, and the first few rounds did not disappoint. Fully three way contended, it put Kuibble's flag, Carpe Noctem, against the Ruby Alliance's favorite, No Homers, against the expected underdog, Ruby Phoenix. Ruby Phoenix showed much stronger than expected, but Carpe Noctem was the favorite from the beginning.

Carpe Noctem paid 2k per person per round, and its victory marked the beginning of widespread use of jobber payment (though Robertdonald had been paying people for a long time.) The other two sides paid nothing. Carpe Noctem had better navigators and somewhat more manpower. But when this became apparent, the other two sides still did not team up, likely too far into the blockade to solve the necessary political and coordination problems.

The other two blockades were diversionary blockades, believed to be orchestrated by Robertdonald. Trans-Atlantic Empire and Epic were both allies of Carpe Noctem and the intent was apparently to draw manpower away from Luthien. Oddly enough, attacks on Cranberry later seemed to be viewed by Silver Dawn as attacks against it (or its sphere of influence) despite this attack favoring its strong ally, No Homers, in the Luthien blockade.

Cranberry went 3-3, but by the seventh round, Carpe Noctem was unopposed at Luthien. It sent in a large force backing up Trans-Atlantic Empire, and that blockade was settled.

October 9

 * Cranberry IV
 * 6 - Defender - Trans-Atlantic Empire
 * 0 - Contender - Sea The Constellation
 * First island to be blockaded four times.

This blockade came from a flag split. After Cranberry III, the crew They Might Be Pirates was expelled from Trans-Atlantic Empire. As at Wrasse there was a dispute over shops: They Might Be Pirates had been promised a shipyard, and had contributed funds, supplies, and ships to blockades with that in mind. With their expulsion, the monarch kept the contributed funds but had no intention of giving them the shop.

Robertdonald in particular took this as a personal affront, since a major member of the crew, Ridestowe, was a pillaging friend of his, and had apparently been expelled in part for being a friend and pillaging with him. He promised to drop 20 more warchests on the island of Cranberry. This would be the first.

After a couple rounds Sea The Constellation pulled out, and Robertdonald began planning next weekend's blockade of Cranberry.

October 9

 * Beta I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 2 - Contender - Allied Foundation
 * 7 - Contender - Water Sleeps

Water Sleeps had been a flag split from Imperio. They had substantially greater manpower, largely inherited from Imperio and its alliance structure, and easily won.

October 22

 * Cranberry V
 * 6 - Defender - Trans-Atlantic Empire
 * 0 - Contender - DOOFIS
 * First island to be blockaded five times.

This blockade was settled before round 1. Bibity, monarch of Trans-Atlantic Empire, decided to cut a deal. They Might Be Pirates was given a distillery and returned their 100k, and the attack was called off.

October 23

 * Cleo I
 * 0 - Defender - none
 * 7 - Contender - Boochin Katfish
 * 3 - Contender - Skulls and Sticks

An unusually contested outpost. Boochin Katfish had the backing of the flag of doom, owners of the nearby island of Zeta. Skulls and Sticks was an unserious attempt by Unikhell and Jainasolo, who loved sticks. Apparently they wanted to get sunk a lot. This was probably the most successful unserious fool-around blockade.

October 29

 * Cnossos II
 * 6 - Defender - Black Sails
 * 1 - Contender - Scallywag Syndicate
 * Sinking blockade.

By this blockade, Black Sails was a dead flag. In response to the blockade, the Black Sails's monarch Dolzar cleaned out the navy, made Kissa governor, and let others handle the defense. That it was defended successfully shows how much defenders still were advantaged due to public sympathies.

Scallywag Syndicate sunk substantial numbers of Black Sails's ships while losing nothing of its own. Its strategy seemed to be to run its opponent out of ships in preparation for the next blockade.

November 6

 * Papaya III
 * 2 - Defender - none
 * 0 - Contender - Technicolor Armada
 * 7 - Contender - Don't Panic


 * Cnossos III
 * 1 - Defender - Black Sails
 * 7 - Contender - Scallywag Syndicate
 * Sinking blockade
 * First large island to be taken from another player-controlled flag via blockade.


 * Angelfish II
 * 0 - Defender - Fear and Loathing
 * 7 - Contender - Dream Reapers

Rumor after rumor came before Papaya: who was going for it? But everyone knew who was defending. Pennsuedo, with the remnants of his now-dead flag Equinox, and Thanos, his opponent of old. To them, Papaya a major and important battle that ended in no one winning, not to be sullied by some upstart flag winning the island.

It was rumored that Dolzar, monarch of Black Sails, would be going for the island with the support of Crimson Tide by will of Misery. But, at the last minute, Crimson Tide withdrew support. Possibly this was because of Thanos's opposition to anyone taking the island, though Thanos was no longer monarch. Nevertheless, this was probably the reason Scallywag Syndicate timed the blockade of Cnossos to coincide with Papaya.

At Papaya, the defenders were outnumbered and low on frigates. They lost.

At Cnossos, the defenders quickly ran out of ships, and lost.

At Angelfish, the tiny defending flag used up their few war brigs, and lost.

It was a great day for attackers.

November 9

 * Eta II
 * 0 - Defender - Silver Dawn
 * 0 - Contender - Silver Dusk
 * 7 - Contender - Merciless Exploit of War
 * Sinking blockade.
 * Silver Dawn reciprocated only Merciless Exploit of War's declaration of war.

Silverdusk, believed to be Robertdonald, initiated this blockade. The flag statement of Silver Dusk is an interesting read, perhaps more relevant to the present day. There is also a link presumably given as an explanation for the blockade: http://www.puzzlepirates.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=206349#206349

To sum up the link, a royal of Silver Dawn had declared a social and economic war to rid the game of Robertdonald and Scallywag Syndicate. Robertdonald responds by taking the war to the blockade board.

Silver Dawn used an alt flag mechanism to make the blockade sinking, without putting its own ships at risk in the open ocean. Merciless Exploit of War actually consisted of Silver Dawn's blockade crew Silver Armada, and Looterati's blockade crew Looterarmy. They decided to take the exploit a step further than a sinking blockade, however. By winning the war with an alt flag, they ensured they could make future blockades sinking for free, without risking war with their actual players. Additionally, they could potentially embargo flags they disliked without risk, and anyone thinking of attacking Eta would be scared off by the prospect of endless alt-flag war, with no risk for Silver Dawn.

There was a downside, however. By winning the island with a flag that had a war declaration on Silver Dawn, Silver Dawn embargoed themselves from Eta until 3 days later, when they could retract the declaration.

As for the actual blockade, it was uneventful. MEOW showed up with a couple frigates and a lot of war brigs, and Silver Dusk showed up with one war brig. Silver Dusk did manage to outsink MEOW, but this was largely just beating up random spectators who foolishly entered the board.

Interestingly enough, the Ruby Alliance's long time enemy, Crimson Tide, actually supported Silver Dawn in this blockade. Thanos and others later left the flag.

November 13

 * Gaea II
 * 2 - Defender - Vilya
 * 7 - Contender - No Homers
 * 0 - Contender - Warriors of the World
 * First time that all available islands have been under player control (excluding when only Emperor and Byrne were available). Gaea was available for twenty-nine weeks.

No Homers had the support of the Ruby Alliance. But many merchants on the island did not want to see Gaea taken, preferring the zero taxes, no new construction, and general freedom provided by Vilya. Beryl was among these, and pledged her personal fortune to organize a defense.

Badly outnumbered, navigated by Shuranthae and SpinalT, Beryl's defenders massively outsunk their enemy. They came much closer to winning than the scores might indicate, but in the end No Homer's superior manpower triumphed on the scores. As it was a non-sinking blockade, they simply continued to throw in large numbers of ships as they sank, covering more flags than their opponents could.

Warriors of the World, Zarathustra's flag, did not really show up.

November 13

 * Tinga ceded to The Jolly Company by of doom.

November 21

 * Emperor II and Tinga II were timed to run simultaneously.
 * Emperor II


 * 6 - Defender - The Jolly Company
 * 1 - Contender - Ayliv


 * Tinga II
 * 6 - Defender - The Jolly Company
 * 0 - Contender - Free Tinga

The flag of doom sold Tinga in an event. The Jolly Company now held two (fairly small) islands. It is believed that Robertdonald was behind both these blockades, though one was led by Chewyshoe (who had his eyes on Tinga for a while) and the other by the infamous Casnorf.

After this blockade, blockades were changed to be five rounds, with three rounds required to win.

December 19

 * Zeta II
 * 3 - Defender - of doom
 * 0 - Contender - Scallywag Syndicate

One last blockade before they were shut down for the holidays. The flag of doom had split and weakened, and maybe Scallywag Syndicate saw an opportunity in this. But, perhaps due to the 3 out of 5 format, this blockade was far larger than either side anticipated. After round 1, Scallywag Syndicate pulled out due to "logistics problems," likely not bringing enough ships or supplies.

January 4

 * Tinga ceded to Of Convenience by The Jolly Company.

January 8

 * Tinga III
 * 3 - Defender - Of Convenience
 * 1 - Contender - Running with Scissors

The Jolly Company realized Tinga was somewhat worthless, and sold it for an almost ridiculously small amount of money. But people doubted the flag that bought it was prepared for island defense, and one flag, Running with Scissors, seized the opportunity. In a very close and hard-fought battle, they lost, but would come back for another try later.

January 9

 * Zeta III
 * 3 - Defender - of doom
 * 2 - Contender - Scallywag Syndicate

In this down to the wire blockade, Scallywag Syndicate won the first two rounds, but faced increasing numbers as the rounds wore on. This blockade was likely won on fleet size: both sides ran low on ships.

January 15

 * Endurance ceded to Final Stand by The White Tree.

Several flags had been planning to blockade Endurance, over the winter break. Among these were Final Stand, ruled by Zarathustra, and Midnight Sun, ruled by Icabob. Upon learning of these plans, Tedv, who had won the island as a player and was now a developer, closed the island to blockade and had an event to give it away. This was decried by many players. However, Final Stand was the likely winner of a blockade, and won the event.

January 15

 * Tinga IV
 * 1 - Defender - Of Convenience
 * 3 - Contender - Running with Scissors

This time, Running with Scissors won.

January 27

 * Zeta ceded to Bloodmoon Immortals by of doom.

Another attack on Zeta by Scallywag Syndicate was planned for a couple days later. This time, Scallywag Syndicate had a massive fleet of frigates, and would not run out of ships. The flag of doom did not like their chances, so they raffled off the island rather than fight.

As the plan to take Zeta was fairly well known by now, they only made 250k in their raffle.

If Bloodmoon Immortals did not know Zeta was about to be blockaded, they learned very quickly. Thinking they could not succeed in a defense, they sold the island to RobertDonald for 450k. The developers refused to execute the island transfer, so this was executed by assigning the governor of RobertDonald's choice, Legacy. Bloodmoon Immortals broke up soon after.

January 29

 * Nu III
 * 3 - Defender - Epic
 * 0 - Contender - Notorious Fandango

This was Fandango's first blockade. Fandango opened with a plan to extort money from the entire ocean, attacking the island that paid them the least. This was not taken well. Misery and Rome of Crimson Tide organized the Gladiators, an alt crew built specifically to thwart Fandango. At Nu, the Gladiators showed up with amounts of people never before seen, probably several hundreds. There were more frigates on the board in round 1 of this blockade than any other, including Luthien.

Fandango continued to fight until the end of this blockade, though they had no chance of victory.

February 6

 * Remora IV
 * 3 - Defender - Allied Foundation
 * 0 - Contender - Notorious Fandango

Fandango no longer picked their islands by extortion, but rather strategized to eventually wear out its opponents. Here, they attacked a worthless outpost. Gladiators nevertheless showed up in massive force.

Instead of pointlessly fighting to the bitter end, Fandango had fun, doing sloop races and the like. This was massively complained about.

February 6

 * Endurance II
 * 0 - Defender - Final Stand
 * 3 - Contender - The Midnight Sun
 * Final Stand disbanded after the war chest was dropped, but before the blockade started.

Zarathustra, monarch of Final Stand, had been banned for abusing a cloning bug. Icabob had been planning to take Endurance since long before Tedv's event, and he seized his chance. In response to the blockade, Final Stand disbanded, many of their crews joining Elysian Fields. The island was won without a fight.

The Midnight Sun was supported by Scallywag Syndicate, and was later accused of being a puppet of Robertdonald by the Ruby Alliance.

February 12

 * Zeta IV
 * 0 - Defender - Bloodmoon Immortals
 * 3 - Contender - Lost Legacy

Bloodmoon Immortals had collapsed, and the remaining crew no longer acknowledged the purchase of the island. The governorship was changed. In response, the island was taken by force by those who had earlier purchased it.

February 26

 * Emperor III
 * 3 - Defender - The Jolly Company
 * 2 - Contender - Avalon
 * Sinking blockade.

Long before, the flag of Imperio had split. Parthanos went his own way, and the flag he had been in renamed itself to Avalon and retained the island of Spring. Parthanos's new flag was Imperio. Imperio became quite a power in the ocean, and hoped to eventually retake Spring. To this end they formed many allies, and retained many of the allies of the Imperio of old. Among these were The Jolly Company.

Avalon sought to punish The Jolly Company for their allegiance. After all, Imperio did not have an island of their own to attack directly. Avalon's manpower came largely from Crimson Tide.

This was an incredibly close, hard-fought blockade. Avalon won the first two rounds. As time wore on, the defense got stronger. Many frigates sunk in this blockade, and by the end both sides were scrounging for ships.

February 26

 * Ostreum II
 * 2 - Defender - Ragnarok
 * 1 - Contender - Black Sheep Brigade
 * 2 - Contender - Notorious Fandango

At Ostreum, Fandango saw an opportunity to use the element of surprise to avoid intervention by the Gladiators. Black Sheep Brigade dropped the first warchest, and Fandango planned to drop in round two. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen game design issues, this was not possible. Fandango won round two, but it counted for the defenders.

Eventually, with some developer help, the warchest got dropped. But the defenders won.

February 27

 * Gaea III
 * 3 - Defender - No Homers
 * 0 - Contender - Carpe Nox
 * Sinking blockade.

A week before this, the No Homers had planned a blockade of Endurance, with the support of Silver Dawn. The plan leaked, probably due to the ships being moved in advance. The monarch of Carpe Nox posted this information to the forums.

Several things happened in response. Firstly, No Homers declared war on Carpe Nox, embargoing them from Gaea. Carpe Nox was quick to reciprocate, and sunk many No Homers ships that week. No Homers offered a truce within a day of Carpe Nox's reciprocation, hoping to end the war as soon as possible.

Secondly, a large fleet of frigates was moved down to Gaea by Scallywag Syndicate. Perhaps in response to this fleet movement, No Homers postponed their plans for Endurance.

The war declaration had left No Homers vulnerable to a sinking blockade at Gaea, and this was immediately exploited. Carpe Nox was backed by RobertDonald. But, despite having a large enough force to make a win quite possible, RobertDonald did not attempt to win round 1, and pulled out afterward.

This blockade was likely a feint to draw No Homer's ships away from Scallywag Syndicate's ally at Endurance, as well as sink them. But it did not buy Endurance too long a reprieve.

March 13

 * Endurance III, Jorvik IV, Luthien II, and Zeta V were timed to run simultaneously.
 * Endurance III
 * 0 - Defender - The Midnight Sun
 * 3 - Contender - No Homers
 * 2 - Contender - Notorious Fandango
 * Sinking blockade.
 * The Midnight Sun reciprocated only No Homers' declaration of war.


 * Jorvik IV
 * 3 - Defender - Looterati
 * 0 - Contender - Scallywag Syndycate
 * Sinking blockade.


 * Luthien II
 * 3 - Defender - Carpe Noctem
 * 0 - Contender - Scallywag Syndycate
 * Sinking blockade.


 * Zeta V
 * 0 - Defender - Lost Legacy
 * 3 - Contender - Carpe Noctem

The Ruby Alliance, masterminded by Silver Dawn, had decided to make its move to rid the game of RobertDonald once at for all. Their war declaration makes an interesting read. They scheduled their first strike at the beginning of March Madness, a month of familiar events. RobertDonald was known for participating in and winning familiar events, so this gave them a schedule conflict in their favor, as well as delaying any retaliation for a month. These blockades occurred during the sailing duty puzzle familiar event.

A minute or two before the blockade window closed, warchests were simultaneously dropped on Zeta and Endurance, both named as owned by RobertDonald's puppets by the Ruby Alliance.

The plan had leaked, however, and RobertDonald was prepared. A few seconds later, retaliatory warchests were dropped on Luthien, Carpe Noctem's island, and Jorvik, the most valuable island owned by the Ruby Alliance.

Endurance was the most interesting blockade of these, with Harbingers defending and Fandango attacking. With the Ruby Alliance busy at three other islands, Fandango won two of the first three rounds. But when the other three blockades ended after three rounds, the full force went to Endurance, and No Homers pulled out a win.

For round 1, most of Scallywag Syndicate's forces went to Jorvik. After losing the round, they retired from the blockades completely, just barely in time for the familiar event.

After these blockades, the construction sites placed by the previous flags on the islands taken were almost immediately demolished. This was a deviation from the past, as construction sites on both Cnossos and Zeta were allowed to sit, the ones on Cnossos demolished after one month of no building.

The Ruby Alliance had won the battle, and gained two islands. But when the familiar events were over, RobertDonald would strike back.

March 19

 * Cnossos IV
 * 3 - Defender - Scallywag Syndicate
 * 0 - Contender - Harbingers

Cnossos was Scallywag Syndicate's main island. Expecting Silver Dawn or another Ruby Alliance member to take the island as part of their war on RobertDonald, the Harbingers decided to take it first. They lost.

While the blockade was not dramatic, there was a great race against the clock going for Scallywag Syndicate to finish construction of its Inn before the blockade ended. This became moot when it won the actual blockade.

March 29

 * Cnossos ceded to Scuppering Seven Seas by Scallywag Syndicate.

Anticipating an attack by the Ruby Alliance, Scallywag Syndicate raffled off the island of Cnossos with an innovative drinking game lottery. Scupperer won, and became the most entertaining governor Midnight has ever seen, raising taxes to 100% and trying to burn things down. He eventually burned a shop and the palace itself, and managed shut down most of the stalls.

April 2

 * Heph's Forge II
 * 3 - Defender - Seraph's Nightmare
 * 0 - Contender - The Uprising

The Uprising had waited a long time for the island it called, Uxmal, to open up. It never did.

Backed by Crimson Tide, they decided to go for the island of Crimson Tide's hostile neighbor, Seraph's Nightmare. They were significantly outnumbered, and lost.

April 9

 * Angelfish III
 * 3 - Defender - Elysian Fields
 * 0 - Contender - Blockade Practice


 * Cnossos V
 * 3 - Defender - Scuppering Seven Seas
 * 1 - Contender - Raptus Regaliter

Angelfish III was the first time the sole attacker truly no-showed. No one found out who was responsible for this blockade. It was timed simultaneously to Cnossos.

At Cnossos, Raptus Regaliter saw an opportunity for an easy island. After all, it was owned by a one man flag. They and some allies had shops and stalls on the island, and wanted an end to the 100% tax.

Many people came to Scupperer's defense, most notably Fandango and Scallywag Syndicate. Fandango approved of the taxes, and Scallywag Syndicate saw a benefit in ensuring its raffle winner kept the island. While the defenders were outnumbered, superior strategy won the day for them.

April 10

 * Jorvik V
 * 1 - Defender - Looterati
 * 3 - Contender - Scallywag Syndicate

March Madness was over, and the time had come to strike back at the Ruby Alliance. In response to the attack, the Looterati laughed, didn't take it seriously, and set up a blockade event: LooteRally. When the blockade came, they were slaughtered.

After the blockade, Scallywag Syndicate asked for peace: an end to the Ruby Alliance's war on RobertDonald. This did not occur. RobertDonald's post is particularly prophetic in light of what happened next.

A year has now elapsed since the beginnings of blockades. I will end this history here.

Acknowledgements
Thanks for Barrister's brief history of Midnight blockades, for providing a template against which to write. Thanks to Greasy for bringing errors on the matter of Luthien among other things to my attention. Thanks to Christoban and Timm for pointing out miswordings. Thanks to everyone who has opined to me on historical matters. Thanks to all the movers and shakers for making such interesting history.