Welcome back to Penguin Puzzlers, the Club Penguin Armies column, where we test the knowledge of the army community. In this edition, we are covering the Second Great Holy War, also known as World War VII.

Context

In 2018, tensions started rising. The Rebel Penguin Federation was essentially the only major army at the time and held a monopoly over Club Penguin Rewritten. This acted as the catalyst for the anti-RPF movement. Tensions were fueled when anti-RPF armies fought the RPF under the cover of the Tubas in the Great Tuba War, which the anti-RPF won. The anti-RPF movement only got stronger from Elmikey‘s coup by army creator Commando717. This caused Elmikey to join the Underground Mafias Army Dark Knight Empire alliance and eventually create the Rebel Penguin Marines. Predictably, RPF and RPM went to war. However, the war stagnated as anti-RPF sentiment grew.

The first major anti-RPF alliance was the New Viking Alliance. A series of declarations happened in January, but mismanagement led to no action being taken. Despite signing up, RPF decided not to participate in the 2018 Club Penguin Army Syndicate project actively. RPF decided to pull out of their long-term brother alliance with Romans due to the anti-RPF figures they had, such as SavageCobra as leader and NullType as HCOM. In April 2018, RPM shut down and eventually merged into Templars. This led to the foundation of the Templars by Xing.

Following an RPF raid on July 6, the RPF declared war on July 7, accusing the Templars of multilogging. Despite the reason behind the war being multilogging, the consensus at the time was that the RPF was waging the war over Elmikey’s involvement in the Templars. The next battle of the war was the raid on July 9th. Despite the Templars losing, this was a rallying moment where they realized RPF might be beatable with sustained tactics and numbers.

Operation Dynamis.

Near the outbreak of the war, RPF fired the second-in-command, Plane, who quickly managed to sneak into the Templars, grab their messages, and run back to RPF. Later, RPF revealed that it was all a ruse to make Templars reveal their messages, which RPF released. This was dubbed Operation Dynamis.

The Tuesday Raids

These were pivotal moments in the war. Two raids by RPF, one upon TCP and one upon the Pizza Federation, helped add fuel to the fire and turn a minor skirmish into a world war. The 40-minute raid upon the Templars, despite being a slight RPF victory, was less clear-cut and still a rallying cry for the Templars.
Despite not being organized by RPF HCOM, the raid upon one of the Pizza Federation’s first recruiting events on Club Penguin Online. This caused PZF to bring in TCP reinforcements, which soon came. This made RPF officially get involved with the raid. Random bans made this raid extremely frustrating upon PZF; this may have been partially why PZF leader Chelpopkick decided to declare war upon RPF, becoming the first third party to get involved in the war. The PZF raid later served as propaganda during the war proper.

The Fortnight of Silence

The next two weeks, the battlefield was extremely quiet; no battles considered major enough occurred. But behind the scenes, there was chaos. 13 July: Hawk Knights of Club Penguin and Underground Mafias Army, in that order, would join the conflict on RPF’s side. In the Templars’ former Light Troops and Pirates, leader Epic101 enlisted in TCP; with him, he brought the army legends Freezie and Reacon.

Whilst Elite Guardians of Club Penguin was just having their event, intending to stay neutral, RPF stormed in and raided their event; however, the Rebels had underestimated their foe. Despite no victor being officially declared, Club Penguin Online Army League Owner Riley did say he favored EGCP. This may have been because EGCP was able to max over 50. This battle, despite not even technically being a war battle, became a critical turning point, proving RPF was not, in fact, unbeatable.

Founding of the Red Dawn Alliance

At this point in the war, there were already talks between Templars and EGCP of making an official anti-RPF alliance. And on 19 July, a group chat was created by EGCP leader Edu14463, containing important figures from Wild Ninjas, Templars, and Elite Guardians of Club Penguin, to determine the plans regarding the alliance’s formation. In one week, the war plans had been created with a founding council consisting of Edu14463, Cookky2, Cobra, Xing, and Elmikey.

The Red Dawn Alliance officially formed on 25 July, containing Templars, EGCP, PZF, and Club Penguin Socialist Movement at first. Then later expanding to other armies such as Water Ninjas and Shark Gang. At their first event, mostly using EGCP and TCP, the Red Dawn Alliance managed to gather a maximum of over 50. This alliance was so grand that it was seen as the successor to the New Viking Alliance. Their flag, created the same day as its founding, would go on to be one of the most memorable images in early CPPS history, fitting since it was the largest assembly of anti-RPF forces since the Tuba war in summer 2017.

27 July raid on Templars

On 27 July, Templars held the biggest event of the war, led by Epic101, Elmikey, and Reacon. The event stirred up a bit of controversy due to the use of administrator/moderator powers to influence maxes. However, TCP managed to obtain a max of 30-50, the largest size recorded up to that point.
At around 18:50 GMT, RPF launched a raid upon TCP that lasted about half an hour. However, RPF was not fighting the same TCP it used to; this TCP was prepared and kicked them out easily. Admittedly, Epic101 used his moderator power to grow TCP.

At this point in the war, RPF has managed to build relations with Elite Trackers and Activities. ETA managed to get quite large sizes, getting to the finals of Legends Cup VIII, but they were untrained in traditional warfare. Eventually, forming the United Armies of Club Penguin Online with Malcolm (ETA leader), this alliance could have posed a threat to RDA.

On 28 July, EGCP declared war on RPF. On July 29, RDA invaded the server Alaska, sizes were up to 60. RPF was a no-show, so RDA easily won. Not long after this, CPO banned TCP and RDA kicked them out, but Elmikey was kept despite Xing being ejected. On 31 July, Omegas joined RDA, right before the first, and only, formal war battle of the war, the Battle of Flurry.

Battle of Flurry

Both sides agreed to the battle; it shall happen on Flurry with predetermined rooms, not in our sources. During the pre-room, RDA was able to amass a size typically listed as 70, probably around the 60s in reality. UACPO managed to reach similar sizes of 60-70. In the left corner is UACPO, led by Left and Chip representing UACPO; in the right corner are Cobra, Epic, Cookky, Edu, and Elmikey representing RDA. It was a well-fought battle despite accusations that UACPO was room sniping, causing lockout issues. Despite no official declaration on the matter, UACPO was unofficially disqualified from the battle because they found proof that UACPO was joining early, causing RDA to lose around 30 troops, and RPF confessed when trying to defend it.

The final battle of the war was a raid. The raid happened on August 3, but it was a tie. This caused conflict with the CPO administrators, causing an attempted coup, and a lot of the armies in RDA were banned from CPO. And just when it could not get worse, Epic101 decided to deface the RDA Discord server. However, RDA continued to operate in their private group chats, but fighting had at last stopped on 3 August 2018.

Aftermath

RPF closed down, marking the official end of the war, 15 August. This was cause for celebration, as at last, liberty had been achieved. Omegas rebrand to Pirates, and the Templars decide to rebrand themselves to RPF.

Club Penguin Armies decided to reach out to several community members to quiz them on this saga. Feel free to try and answer the question yourself if you are bored. Here are their replies:

 

1. When did the war start?

Madonis22, Penguins of Agartha leader: July 7th, 2018
Moon, Templars leader: ummm 08/10/2021
Thunder, Shadow Legionnaires Leader: July 28th, 2018
Ugly, Void Troops leader: 14/7/2018

CORRECT ANSWER: 07/07/2018

2. When did the war officially end?

Madonis22, Penguins of Agartha leader: I don’t know, i’d say start/middle august
Moon, Templars leader: like 15/11/2021, somewhere around that time
Thunder, Shadow Legionnaires Leader: August 15th 2018
Ugly, Void Troops leader: 10/8/2018

CORRECT ANSWER: 15/08/2018

3. What was the war originally called?

Madonis22, Penguins of Agartha leader: No idea
Moon, Templars leader: second silver rush war
Thunder, Shadow Legionnaires Leader: The Second holy war
Ugly, Void Troops leader: Second Great War

CORRECT ANSWER: the Second Great Holy War

4. Who was the war originally between?

Madonis22, Penguins of Agartha leader: Red Dawn alliance, which i think it had RPF, UMA and some other armies, against EGCP, TCP, PZF, i think
Moon, Templars leader: silver empire and help force
Thunder, Shadow Legionnaires Leader: Templars and rpf
Ugly, Void Troops leader: RPF and TCP

CORRECT ANSWER: Rebel Penguin Federation versus Templars

5. What two alliances formed during the war?

Madonis22, Penguins of Agartha leader: Red Dawn Alliance and i dont know LOL
Moon, Templars leader: the western bloc and the vengeance alliance
Thunder, Shadow Legionnaires Leader: Red dawn alliance vs BIA
Ugly, Void Troops leader: No clue

CORRECT ANSWER: Red Dawn Alliance and United Armies of Club Penguin Online

6. How many major battles did the war consist of?

Madonis22, Penguins of Agartha leader: 9
Moon, Templars leader: umm i think like 3?
Thunder, Shadow Legionnaires Leader: i dont know
Ugly, Void Troops leader: 3

CORRECT ANSWER: 9

7. When did fighting conclude?

Madonis22, Penguins of Agartha leader: Later August
Moon, Templars leader: ummm i think a few days before 15/11/2021
Thunder, Shadow Legionnaires Leader: August 3rd
Ugly, Void Troops leader: 9/8/2018

CORRECT ANSWER: 03/08/2018

8. Which army rebranded itself to RPF after the war?

Madonis22, Penguins of Agartha leader: tcp
Moon, Templars leader: i feel like red ravengers
Thunder, Shadow Legionnaires Leader: Templars
Ugly, Void Troops leader: No clue

CORRECT ANSWER: Templars

9. What percentage of the battles were raids?

Madonis22, Penguins of Agartha leader: 69%
Moon, Templars leader: 65% ? LOL
Thunder, Shadow Legionnaires Leader: like 40%
Ugly, Void Troops leader: 60%

CORRECT ANSWER: 66,6%

Conclusion

The points have been tallied. For numerical questions, we have made it easier by allowing whoever is closest to gain points. For questions with multiple, equally correct answers, all parties in the tie get points. No participant got a perfect 9⁄9 score; the highest score was a tie between Thunder and Madonis with 4 points.

• Madonis22 was the only one to give the correct date for the start of the war.
• Thunder was the only one to correctly pinpoint the official end of the war.
• Nobody got the name of the war right, though Thunder was close with “The Second holy war,” it should be “The Second Great Holy War“.
• 2/4 of the participants could name the two original belligerents.
• 2/4 of the participants could name one alliance; none could name the other (UACPO).
• Madonis22 was the only one to get the number of major battles right.
• Thunder was the only one to get the last date of fighting right.
• 2/4 could name what army rebranded itself to RPF after the war.
• Moon was the closest to the true % of raids with a difference of only 1,6%

Overall, this yields a total score of 10⁄36 and thus had an accuracy of 27,7%.

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Overall, this shows current army leaders’ knowledge of history and a trend toward new blood in the community, as new people take charge and slowly forget the stories of old. While the total accuracy was barely above 25% a lot came close to the true answer despite not quite getting there. What is your opinion on the usage of moderator powers to influence maxes? Finally, how many answers did you know?

WilliamW2010
Reporter-in-Training

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