The Battle of the East French Nuclear Power Plant
| Coordinates: (1163,786) | Date and Time: Saturday, April 2 2022, 22:10-23:00 GMT |
| Main attacker | Main defender |
| Ludwig Ahgren (streamer) 10,000-20,000 | French community 2,000-4,000 |
| Supporting attackers | Supporting defenders |
| Leftover viewers defending The Yard 250-1250 | German community 800-1,600 |
| Irish community 50-100 | |
| r/fuckcars 50-100 | |
| Attacker strength | Defender strength |
| 10,000-20,000 (peak) 250-1250 (Ludwig offline) | 2,900-4,800 |
| Result: | French coalition victory |
Background
April 2nd was streamer Ludwig's first day on r/place. He spent some time messing around with artworks in little ways such as turning the French wine in the French community's northwest flag into Italian wine and adding pimples to the Greek vs Turk art, but after seeing other streamers put their art on r/place, he wanted to do it too.
Ludwig attacks
Initial assault
At about 22:10 GMT, Ludwig turned his eye from the Greek vs Turk art and decided to put the logo of his podcast The Yard, a white picket fence with a black background, on the bottom 2/3rds of Place France's eastern flag, mobilizing his 25,000 viewers to attack. He cites the fact that the French already have multiple flags as a reason for his attack, and says "let's be honest, if there's one country that's going to instantly surrender, it's France." Even though many of Ludwig's 25,000 viewers likely didn't verify their email account and could only place pixels every 20 minutes as opposed to 5 minutes for verified accounts, sheer numbers well compensated for this and The Yard's black colors began appearing on the French flag.
French allies
France's sworn ally Germany quickly mobilized to defend France, not only because of their strong cultural and geopolitical ties but also because the logo ruined their arte collaboration, further infuriating many Germans. The Irish community and r/fuckcars rushed to France's aid as well, making announcements in their Discords to help France and contributing 50-100 people each. Germany, however, contributed the most as they put all of their construction projects on hold and gathered 800-1600 people to defend France, nearly all of their online population at the time.
Fall of France
Despite France and their allies fighting hard, they were completely overcome by Ludwig's 25,000 viewers, and could only delay the inevitable. When Ludwig was attacking, he specifically said to "not go north above the 760th parallel", respecting the Daft Punk art and not aiming to totally wipe out the French flag. However, he still destroyed France's nuclear power plant art and 2/3rds of the French flag.
Occupation
Rejected compromises
Initially Ludwig had an immense upper hand, and rejected the French community's suggestions to compromise and put the French tricolor on the fence, or to make the fence blend in with the colors of the French flag and do away with the black background altogether.
False flag heart
After some time, Ludwig attempted to make unilateral peace with the French, ordering his viewers to construct a heart signifying friendship with France, but people quickly discovered that this was a false flag maneuver as the French did not consent to a forced peace, much less so a forced alliance.
First counterattack
The first joint French-German-Irish-Fuckcars coalition counterattack to reclaim the French flag was launched on the :30 minute mark and failed to deal any significant damage as Ludwig was still streaming and commanded his tens of thousands of viewers to successfully repel it.
Liberation
Ludwig goes offline
Though Ludwig easily fended off the first counterattack, he stopped streaming soon after, believing that his viewers would be able to hold their positions until he streamed again. The coalition understood the nature of streamer attacks, and patiently waited as The Yard's defenders melted away by the thousands every minute without Ludwig to motivate and encourage them.
The Yard's situation
As many of Ludwig's viewers abandoned r/place as soon as he stopped streaming, The Yard's manpower was just a tiny fraction of the 25,000 when Ludwig was online and any defenders who remained had no templates to rebuild the fence, no effective leadership to organize a coherent defense, no experience with conflict on r/place, little endurance to fight for extended periods of time, and no allies who would help them, unlike the established communities they've picked a fight with, who have all those advantages in spades.
Second counterattack
Sensing blood in the water, the French community who were previously trying to reach a compromise turned completely against The Yard as soon as Ludwig stopped streaming. The coalition launched a second counterattack 15 minutes later on the :45 minute mark, having rallied even more troops. The Yard's impromptu diplomats desperately brought back up the proposed compromises from when Ludwig had the advantage, but the French now rejected them out of hand as they were in a position of strength to reclaim their entire flag. Heavily outmatched and outnumbered, The Yard's logo stood no chance. Resistance collapsed as soon as the onslaught of blue, white, and red began making the fence unrecognizable by the second wave of attacks 10 minutes in, and what remained of The Yard was soon quickly and completely demolished in just under 5 minutes by the coalition, and absorbed by the French tricolor. The Yard was destroyed in only 15 minutes after the start of the second counterattack.
Aftermath
France and allies
The French community's bonds with its allies only grew stronger coming out of this battle, especially with Germany who they later helped multiple times against the Void, directly citing the fact that Germany had helped them when France needed it, and it was time for France to repay the favor.
Ludwig
Ludwig came back to r/place the next day and remarked that his The Yard logo was completely gone, but didn't hold it against the French or their allies. After learning from his one time mistake invading the French community flag, Ludwig would go on to create beautiful art on r/place like Kirby, and become one of the few streamers to positively cooperate with other communities.
Related media
- Ludwig's first day VOD, the attack of the French flag starts at 1:44:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYwGj-KjLso
- Footage specifically of Ludwig's invasion of France, first counterattack at 15:23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfJ5u5GI9vI