I hope that in the future you can enforce a rule saying that if players are absent for some reason, the DM's will take matters into their own hands and move things forward
We had something like that in our tabletop game - we called it the "Steward Option" Hilarity Ensued.
This will generally be done, however Bjørn chose to complete the western conflict war moves with player involvement. It has a central importance to the future of the game and is as such not one to be completed lightly - since it was the first regular conflit. For the future it will obviously be conducted sooner and swifter, depending on player activity.
In any case, this chain was solely started in order to remove the general misconception that a lockdown is in effect. There will never be a lockdown in effect unless it is announced first.
