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Table of Contents
The Colour Scheme War
AKA The Last Great Mapmaker War.
One of the civil wars of AH.com's past, the Colour Scheme War holds a peculiar place in AH.com history.
Origins
The war started over the board's long-term dispute about which colour to use on AH maps.
The Shot Heard Around the Board
Thande started a poll thread about deciding whether to colour Russia green or gold. Factions soon emerged, and the great colour scheme standoff was born.
Yeah. Blame Thande !
Major Factions of the CSW
Greensheviks - preferred to colour Russia green. Split soon into several subfactions, most notably the ACS Radicals, Girondins and an amorphous group of sympathisers.
Goldilocks - preferred to colour Russia gold. Didn't have that many subfactions of note.
Map Marauders - a neutral faction. Self-procclaimed “colouranarchists”, they were part of the CIWYL Movement.
The Plot Thickens...
The war is unusual in that it only nearly started, instead of escalating wholesale. Nevertheless, tensions were high and the outcome of the five day long standoff was very uncertain.
...And Then Reaches An Abrupt Anticlimax...
Eventually, things were decided by literally one vote. Thankfully, due to these favourable results, the potential war got narrowly averted thanks to diplomatic goodwill.
Aftermath and Legacy
The Colour Scheme War has been likened to the Trent Affair, the Phony War and (especially) the Russian Civil War - partly because of them being done to death in mainstream AH and on this board.
In AH.com Culture
Despite its brevity, the cultural impact of the Colour Scheme War remains fairly tangible in AH.com culture. One of the causes of this is that many AH.commers at the time were affraid of the CSW potentially escalating into the most destructive conflict the board has ever seen. (Back then. Nobody expected The Pony Wars, indeed…)
In AH.com Fiction
There were originally plans to create an AH.com comedy series based on this incident. Ideas for an AH.com The Series-like work chronicling the bitter paintshed of the war were drawn. The main proposal was pitched by Augustus Montes. Obviously enough, the CSW would be presented in-series as an AH.com-themed spoof of the Russian Civil War (in the style of old Soviet westerns) and of all sorts of other civil wars from throughout history. Due to relatively low interest and due to the war itself never really getting off the ground, this project idea was soon dropped indefinitely.
As of late 2013 and early 2014, the Colour Scheme War has been picked up by Alex Richards and Petike as a potential major story arc for the revived AH.com Series. Stay tuned.
See Also
Map Colour Schemes - Yep, this, of all things, is what AH.commers were willing to fight each other over. Truly: War, what is it good for ?! Absolutely nothing !