The Battle of Turning Tides

The Battle of Turning Tides
300px WG charges into DB and the battle begins.
Date	27 June 2010
Type	P2P Knock-Out
Location	Members' Gate
Clans Involved
Wilderness Guardians 38 members Attacking	Dangerous Business 24 members Defending
Terms of War
P2P Knock-Out Members' Gate
Result
WG victory with ~35 members remaining DB cleared

The Battle of Turning Tides was a war between the Wilderness Guardians and Dangerous Business which took place on 27 June 2010. It is the second war in WG history to be given a special name, following The Great War which occured six months previously. WG's victory over DB ended a six-month losing streak for the clan.

Background

Following The Great War, WG continued to lose all of their planned fights until June 2010, when His Lordship began preparations for another large-scale war. He originally considered around 20 other clans for the battle before finalising a war with DB, as they were the only clan who would accept WG's conditions of a P2P, knock-out (no returning) Wilderness war on a Sunday.

The war had one week's preparation, and the intensity was even greater than that of the Great War. Forum signatures were made in a film-ticket style, as well as a custom Flash banner. His Lordship stated that all attendees of the war were to get a limited-edition GuardianScore medal, have their names entered in a draw for a WG T-shirt or cash equivalent, and to have their character drawn in the next clan Flash movie. The draw for the WG T-shirt was held on 4 July, and won by RiGiiD.

War Preparation Video

A war preparation video was made in Flash by His Lordship, and is considered one of his greatest Flash works. The video is done in the style of a news report, and features various artistic interpretations of WG members (all voices were done by His Lordship). A public version was released to the wider clan community which was slightly edited to retract some specifics such as exact gear setups.

The Battle

File:Turning tides 2.png

A screenshot taken near the end of the fight, with DB numbers dwindling.

WG massed on world 56 at Juliet's House in Varrock, as with the Great War and others before it. The gear setups were also similar to those of the previous war, comprising of more Dragon than Rune, but with new options available such as hand cannons for rangers. His Lordship gave a pre-war speech to the clan, before they marched to the Monastery to gain the prayer bonus. They also travelled to the war zone via the western edge of the Wilderness, which caused some disruption with aggressive Revenant NPCs, before hopping at the Moss Giants to the war world of 72.

WG was the attacking clan, and charged DB at the Members' Gate with an opening spam of "Unleash the Guardian Power!". Numbers were counted about three minutes into the battle, with WG having 38 in the Clan Chat. A DB leader confirmed that the enemy had 24 members at the start. The fight was almost the reverse of the Great War, with many DB being killed instantly and WG ending the war within under 20 minutes. Allegedly, WG only sustained 3 casualties.

Aftermath

The victory over DB ended WG's six-month losing streak and the clan's downturn. Even so, DB was recognised for a great performance - even matching WG's expensive gear. The war gained a significant amount of respect for both clans on the fansites of the day.

A total of five videos of the war were made by three different members of the clan. Underciege produced a video, though it has since been deleted. WGStarbreakr produced two: a five-minute video released the day of the war, and a six-minute re-release the following month which includes His Lordship's speech. Vio also produced two, the first of which became the most well-known version and uploaded two days after the battle. It also included the pre-war speech, and this version was described by His Lordship as "...the new best WG video, over taking the DOA war." A "Director's Cut" version of Vio's footage was later produced with significantly fewer special effects, though due to the inclusion of TeamSpeak audio it was not made publicly available until being added to the WG YouTube channel in 2018, almost eight years after the war.

Gallery

• Turning tides 3.png

  WG heading to the Monastery from Juliet's house.

• Turning tides 4.png

  WG hops the Wilderness Ditch.

• Turning tides.png

  WG charges into DB and the battle begins.

• Turning tides 5.png

  An alternate view of the opening charge and spam.

• Turning tides 6.png

  A DB member is killed swiftly.

• Turning tides 7.png

  A screenshot taken mid-fight.

• Turning tides 2.png

  A screenshot taken near the end of the fight, with DB numbers dwindling.

Trivia

• Though the GuardianScore medal and WG T-shirt draw were completed as planned, attendees were not included in the next chronological Flash release, which was the 2010 Golden Gnomes.
• The opening sequence for the preparation video includes CGI made by WG member and graphic designer Samurai JM.
• The only non-WG member whose likeness appears in the video is Elisha Cuthbert (Juliet Capulet).
• Several animations from the 2010 Machinima animation were re-used for the preparation video.
• Vio makes an appearance during the "advert" of the video; referred to as Keanu, his real name. He is also the only figure to have a full real-life photo, while the other members have Flash-animated bodies.
• Darkzero101's appearance in the preparation video as the "Spokesperson for Heterosexual Affairs" and his attire references the real player frequently wearing a pink cape to events.
• The very start of the pre-war speech was present in the first version of Vio's video, albeit recorded through a microphone as it was heard through a set of laptop speakers. This portion was lost due to the entire audio being muted as a result of copyrighted music. When the video was reuploaded to the WG YouTube channel in 2018 it had to be re-edited, using WGStarBreakr's recording of the speech.
• The opening spam references WG's original theme song, The Guardian Power.
• His Lordship was present for this fight, though he chose to bring a Fighter Torso which had significantly lower magic defence than the recommended Black Dragonhide Body. A similar event occured in WG vs Dead on Arrival, where he wore a Gnome Amulet.