50 Players Simulate World War 2 in Minecraft – Hearts of Iron Ore
Our story begins on July 28th, 2023, the official start date of the server. Well, actually, the story begins on August 11th, the TRUE release date of the server. On August 15th, we set the tech tree date to 1938 and decided that the server was stable enough to allow true PVP.
American Marines Probe Tokyo Bay
On August 19th, we had our first battle that was actually fun to watch. Finnish troops decided to attack the Russian border near Leningrad. Eventually, Polish and Yugoslav reinforcements arrived to aid the Soviets. Russian tanks also made it to the frontline.
In response, German panzers rolled up and immediately destroyed the Polish Tank. A Finnish commando stole the Russian tank and turned its guns against its creators. Russian tanks finally went on the offensive. An attack-biplane appeared, but the rockets were not accurate enough to do any serious damage.
This time, a Russian fighter tried to strafe the Finns. A Japanese volunteer snuck into Leningrad and began wreaking havoc behind enemy lines. Before dying, the Japanese Volunteer dropped a live grenade as a last act of defiance. By this point, Russian morale was faltering while Axis troops continued rallying.
A broken T-35 Heavy Tank was deployed behind the walls of Leningrad. However, enemy attacks prevented the Russians from fully repairing it. Axis troops made it over the East Wall and opened fire upon the unprepared Russians. The T-35 crew successfully escaped, but the rest of the Russians were not as lucky.
Eventually, people got bored of spawn-camping Leningrad, and the battle officially ended. After witnessing that battle, the devs were confident that the server was ready for the next level of warfare: Skirmishing.
Skirmish Mode Launch
During a skirmish, nations can actually conquer a little bit of land, unlike the battle of Leningrad which just wasted tanks for both sides. On August 20th, over 80 excited players logged in to enjoy their first skirmish! The server then crashed, and angry players started a revolt.
After trying to fix the lag, we wanted to try enabling skirmishes again on August 25th. However, the player revolt triggered a boycott which caused the death of most nations. The United States, Yugoslavia, Greater Bulgaria, Finland, and Japan were the only “online” nations for the August 25th skirmish.
Japan’s master plan was to paradrop into American-occupied Philippines so we could liberate their main airfield. I personally took part in this daring operation. We also had two fighters as an escort, but they were killed by the seat-kick glitch. However, the Americans finally noticed us.
I tried going for a different part of the Philippines, hoping it would be undefended. Meanwhile, American marines counter-attacked us in “Taiwan,” so I summoned our Bulgarian allies to save us. (They had already defeated Yugoslavia and were eager to help). A little friendly fire was inevitable.
Eventually, the Americans got tired of wasting planes, so we decided to have a school picture-day…which then turned into a shooting. This skirmish was successful enough that many players decided to abandon the boycott, and we then attempted a true war day (not a mere skirmish).
War-day Mode Launch
However, the increased player count once again pushed the server to its limits, and we had several unrelated bugs that allowed people to conquer and bomb land without actually fighting. Since Russia was unfairly destroyed, their territory and base were restored after the war. The only lasting effect of the war was the destruction of Tokyo by American Naval Bombardment. This was the final straw that caused most of Japan to quit the server.
On September 2nd, we had our first successful True War Day: The 1941 Campaign. Although Japan had fallen, Germany, Russia, and Poland were revived. The stage was set for the decisive battles for Poland and the USSR! And so begins Operation Barbarossa…
During an off-camera skirmish, Greater Bulgaria had already captured a beach-head in Mariupol. This allowed Axis troops to begin advancing into the Donbas region. Meanwhile, on the Bessarabia front, anti-tank rifles were useless against the T-34’s armor. Perhaps something bigger would do the trick.
Meanwhile, the Germans were still attacking Poland. American naval guns were the key to Poland’s defense. Since they were configured by Rainfire, they had much more health and armor than they deserved, and they were loaded with advanced Proximity-Fuze shells from 1945. Poland had also received equipment from the Russians. The Battle of Bessarabia continued to rage on…
All of that action was just the first 30 minutes of the 1941 war! We have THREE more hours of footage to sort through! And we have TWO more wars and a skirmish to cover! So don’t touch that dial because the game’s not over yet! Make sure to tune in next time, kids!