A snowy battlefield at dusk in front of a frozen castle. A purple-haired warrior woman in armor points across the field, where one tiny soldier carrying a blue flag marches alone through the snow. Beside her stands a bearded warrior with a small squad. A skeleton in a green hooded cape charges ahead of an army, and four fighters stand in the open facing a much larger force. On the far side, a giant armored whale wearing a crown, with Lord Daniel written on its helmet, hides inside a glowing blue bubble. In the foreground a dead spider lies on its back on a rock.

2170 Brought a Billion Power to the Castle and Put a Shield on It

By Griff Harpoon · 2026-10-10

I've covered a lot of castle battles and I had never, before this one, watched actual whales put up shields. Small players shield. Farms shield. A whale at a castle battle is the one account on the map that's supposed to be there to get hit, and State 2170's did not see it that way.

It started small. A few of our players moved into empty spots on 2170's side of the map, and 2170 said we were breaking the rules. Then WHALESLAUGHTER and Bellum attacked every 2170 city in the red zone. This was against the rules. They did it with marches of one troop and sixty-nine troops, a number I don't believe was an accident, and 2170 said we were breaking the rules, which this time we were, and added that we were toxic. I won't pretend we were perfect. Juicy Berry teleported home and put up a shield.

Then an overenthusiastic member of 2170 hit Ntb, who hadn't done a thing to anybody and was completely innocent, and that one's on them.

Nobody Big declared war. I respect the decision more than the delivery, and I'll say as a friend of the state that the man needs to work on his trash talk. Captain Zaddy, who could not let it stand that WHALESLAUGHTER had been braver than him with her one troop, then rallied everyone 2170 had on the field, one after another.

That was when Lord Daniel shielded. Lord Daniel has a billion power. I had to read that twice, so I'll say it twice: a billion, under a bubble, at a castle battle. 2170 called us toxic. There are words for whales who shield too, and toxic is a good deal kinder than any of them.

By the end there were four players from 2170 still standing in the open: Dedew, Shakti X, Pablo Pablo and Lazy Shiekh. They didn't shield and they didn't go home. They stayed and fought a whole state, they were worthy opponents, and 2128 applauds each of them by name. If the billion had half of what those four have, I'd have had a different story to write. —Griff Harpoon, actually reporting.