Zygomal — a true neutral’s perspective
I joined this server as my first - and likely only - .en world. What I found was… surprising, and not in a good way.
I dropped a week late, alone in O45, slipping into what was essentially empty space between JFL and Undead. Early on, I encountered a mix of personalities: Chucky from Supervisors was immediately hostile, while GetRektNerd, at least initially, was reasonable to deal with.
When it came time to choose a side, I joined Charlie and JFL. I expected the usual frontline experience: constant alertness, dodging short-range CS, trading hits, maybe sneaking in a few plays of my own. Standard high-pressure Grepolis.
That’s not what happened.
From day one, the tone was extreme. I was told I had “joined the worst of the worst,” that I wouldn’t be spared. And that wasn’t just talk - it translated into relentless pressure. Over a few weeks, players like Yoro, Phasmo, and Sleep alone sent me more than 2,000 attacks. Over 95% of them were min pop checks.
Yes, constant checks may be part of the game. Everyone slips up sometimes on workdays, missed alarms at night, real life. That’s normal.
What wasn’t normal were two patterns:
- Every time I attacked back, I hit empty cities with militia every single time. Even when players appeared offline as they were being ninja'd and didn't respond, there was no opening.
- When they caught me offline, the follow-up was weak: slow, uncoordinated clears, failed ninja CS, nothing resembling decisive play.
That’s when it became obvious: this wasn’t (just) activity. It was dependency. Scripts were doing the heavy lifting.
To be clear, some players were active and spending heavily. A few, like Yoro, were clearly around most of the day. But even they relied on that edge.
Despite that, I fought back clean. No spam tactics, no illegal tools. Some players noticed. Ionut and BadDecisions, for example, kept things respectful. Even GetRektNerd, while fighting me, avoided the worst behavior.
Others didn’t.
Whenever I hit Yoro directly, he would call in Aegis players to flood every one of my cities with min-pop attacks. BioQ, Ollie, and others, names barely worth remembering, would pile on. One day Yoro tried it himself; after I reported over 100 near-identical min-pop attacks, only half of which were not pulled back, he earned his first ban.
The peak came last week.
We targeted several of GetRektNerd’s cities. I sent spies (deep caves over here), and his tone immediately shifted, clearly feeling threatened. That same night, the worst spam hit:
- Over 1,000 attacks in one night (300 simultaneous incoming attacks at one point)
- Around five Aegis players spamming min-pop checks
- Main players attempting clears and ninja CS
The result?
I lost
one city, barely. They burned 2.7M silver, sent 1,000+ spam attacks, involved 20+ players… for a single town. Meanwhile, GetRektNerd lost four cities that night. Yoro and Sleep lost several more to follow-up plays.
I shrugged it off. The only truly bannable tactic was the alarm-trigger spam (send and instant recall) by BioQ. Oh, and the blatant admission of being allowed to break the rules (e.g. around gold blocking) because Mike told you it's okay. The rest? Clearly manageable.
So what’s the takeaway?
- I came looking for a fresh, fun community. Instead, I found one of the most toxic, low-skill environments I’ve played in. No timing or forcelands, no meaningful coordination. Just boosting, founding, and spam.
- The level of hostility was extreme. Simply associating with the “wrong” side made you a target for the lowest forms of gameplay.
- Despite constant pressure (nightly interruptions, endless checks), I lost one city while reaching #1 ocean and top 15 overall, starting a week late and alone, with minimal gold (one small starter pack and an event gold pack if you care).
- After over a month of this, the same players collapsed after bans. And when it happened? Mass resets and excuses. “We weren’t serious.” “We were just playing to delay Charlie.” “It’s a **** artifact anyway.” “I was just trying to help my friends.” “It’s just a game.” “Uthred told me to join this world.”
- The most fun part were the schizo forum posts (which I'm sure I'll be accused of as well here), and the AI songs. Nothing in-game, at least. Actually, maybe Chucky's mass mails with Charlie lore.
You knew the risks. Yet when the botters got banned as was expected from the start - you all reset, whine, and say it wasn't that serious.
Even so, I’ll stay consistent: I’ll be respectful to those who are respectful to me. No grudges, no multi-world vendettas.
I’m not convinced most of you can say the same.
Let's end with a nice song to celebrate Undead's demise: