During the Government's October 2023 wipe on Rustopia US Large, The Government village and ORP's Channel Fortress acted as bases in a proximity war. ORP had attempted to build a raid base, with the effort repelled in an undocumented battle. The Gov laid a minefield on the southern edge of their village (nearest to the ORP fortress).

ORP ended up building a raid base on a hill on the southern end of the village after their earlier attempt, and on 12th Oct, an ORP member was supposedly killed by a mine - the battle begun shortly afterwards. Around 6 ORP members operating from their raid base started firing rockets at the Government buildings. It sounded like the mines caused many casualties among the attackers, with the defending Gov members cheering each time a mine exploded.

There were 7 Gov members online during the battle, although not many were around at the start of the battle (active Gov membership was low at the time, and there had been (atleast a partial) lack of leadership). ORP had the advantage of using their raid base on high ground and were armed with tier 3 "end game" weaponry, while the Gov were generally using tier 2, and were outnumbered (atleast during the early phase of the battle).

Atleast 4 raids were made by ORP, breaking Gov base walls or ceilings each time, but they captured little to no loot. Around 15 rockets or more would have been fired. Three of the raids were all against one of the Government towers in the middle of the village, and the fourth (against Blockhouse 55B) was patched up without ORP getting inside it (perhaps ORP only intended to suppress or damage it). In return, the Gov fired explosives at the ORP raid base and also at the Channel Fort.

A Gov tower that was attacked; the raid base is in focus in the background:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3050036610

Against spirited resistance, ORP sent reinforcements and moved supplies up to their raid base, but came under long range fire from a Blockhouse. ORP were being sniped by a semi-automatic rifle, and eventually returned fire with an L96, winning the long range firefight.

ORP were then at their strongest (on paper) when they had around 10 members online at the same time and had used nightvision when the sun went down. The Gov fought back well at close range during the day (one member even fighting with a shotgun), and had captured countless tier 3 weapons, which balanced the conflict against the ORP reinforcements. The Gov soon put pressure on the ORP raid base.

There had been flashes of action as the Gov harassed any ORP attacks, becoming a stalemate. By around 8 hours into the battle, ORP took a defensive stance, firing from the roof of their raid base. Around 9 hours in I stopped to get food, and came back just as the Government charged at the raid base, and blew into it before sealing it to end it in classic Government fashion.

Gov communication could have been higher, but they had enough teamwork. ORP profiles appeared to be new to the game, so their lack of experience may have been a disadvantage in this battle; they appeared to retreat, and sniped from their Channel Fort (which had little view of the battlefield). Fighting continued for a (relatively) short time afterwards, bringing the engagement into its 10th hour (having now lasted into the morning of the 13th Oct). I would say there were alteast 11 ORP members total involved in the battle, and the Gov had around 8 total, but perhaps not all at the same time.

One of the Gov members assumed that they would be offline raided and left during the battle. The raids put an end to the Gov constructing creative buildings, but there seemed to be no interest in creative culture within the Government at this point anyway. ORP did end up conducting offline raids against the village, and the war continued until ORP reportedly left the server on 30th Oct. This appeared to have been the major battle of the war, and (most of) the Gov members had enjoyed it despite any dramas.

On the second day of the battle (13th Oct 2023) an article about it was published on Rust News, titled: Gov repels 10-hour assault by ORP, which preserved some initial details of the battle, which was used for this article, but it's worth noting that Rust News had been accused of publishing propaganda.

The battle was mentioned (briefly) in the Screenshot Albums in the Rust Adventures (2023) discussion (post #35), which had been the perspective of the Blockhouse Garrison, noting disadvantages leading up to the battle including the unfortunate October 2023 rebellion, and the difficulty of the snow biome when teammates had taken much of the local resources before disappearing.

The title of the battle was a funny misnomer, as it implied that there were multiple minefields, but in reality this would have been misdirection - there was only one patch of mines, and (somewhat humorously) ORP had been operating in it.

The Offline War
Government Oct 2023 wipe

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