N0X vs win; A Rematch To remember!

As the 5th round of SoW approached GCM leadership took a strategic decision to forgo the round, we were on rank 7 with every likelihood of matching up against NBe and being slaughtered. A big loss here would count us out of the Play Off race entirely, it seemed the GCM leadership were unwilling to take the risk.

Understandably the idea of missing out on the game and the potential rewards wouldn't sit too well with the members, leadership knew that so they gave a free ticket to us to go and play with any alliance of our choosing. The second I laid eyes on that raven, I wanted to rush off to N0X and knock on the door until they let me in. But I had to consider Elda, my long time partner in crime in the equation too. He and N0X had had their share of problems, but THAT is not my story to tell. Unfortunately it meant considerable bad blood, and Elda being set in his ways would probably get rather grumpy at the suggestion that we join N0X for one game of SoW. So, I just put the idea out of my head as an unattainable dream.

So, when just a day before the match Elda proposed that we try to play with N0X for the 5th match, my shock and delight was palpable. I must have asked him, "are you sure about this?" at least 5 times. Once I was certain that this wasn't some sort of joke and Elda promised to be on his best behaviour during his sojourn at N0X, I ran off to persuade Scythe, the queen of k385 and Duchess of N0X to let us play. She was delighted at the idea but needed to talk to her council regarding Elda. After a few hours of nail biting wait which I spent worrying and hoping, Scythe came back with her answer. Her marquis had spoken and we were welcome for a short stay. Phew, that wasn't stressful at all!

It had come as no surprise to anyone that we were once again matched up against win, the alliance N0X fought not too long ago in match one of the season I believe. This is a strong alliance and between that match and this one, they have had a major upgrade; YTU IN a giant of a player whose bows I met not too long ago in AoH had joined win's ranks. There was a bit of panic at N0X when the news of this spread. But this was all the more reason for us all to show up in large numbers; which we did. 86 vs 85 didn't give us much of an advantage, but every bit counts right? The atmosphere in N0X voice chat was tense but not oppressively so. Everyone knew we had a tough fight on our hands but we also knew that with concerted effort and a willingness to constantly heal we could bring home the victory. I was looking forward to the fight. In the last battle vs win, they were the clear favourites, with YTU IN their chances went up quite a bit more.

As the countdown hit zero and action began I was quick to march towards Hot Springs where the action is usually the hottest and where I knew Belore II, would be. This was an opportunity to fight alongside him like the good old days, and I was making the most out of it. From the corner of my eyes I noticed Elda marching towards Hot Springs as well though his infantry were being slow as usual. At this rate by the time he got there the fight might be all done one way or the other.

Well I was wrong on that count, it looked like 80 percent of the win forces had come to the Hot Springs, we were sorely outnumbered in the beginning, but Scythe's forces on the armory side were taking over the side with very little contest so reinforcements began to arrive soon enough to bolster our forces fighting tooth and nail at Hot Springs. YTU IN was there laying into our troops but Belore was urging us on to focus all our attention on YTUIN as well. If we could eliminate his marches, we would have a small window to take Hot Springs and heal at a lower cost.

Even as the fight for Hot Springs continued, the time for the first package was approaching. Scythe and her warriors had convened at WF to escort our package carrier Golden Stilettoed Spuddles on her journey to a secure base with the package. But suddenly win forces started to redirect towards WF in droves. flooding the area. Our forces at WF found themselves surrounded and outnumbered. Belore made the rallying cry and N0Xians from all over the map answered his call, racing towards WF to relieve our beleaguered forces. This was not an easy battle, the package kept changing hands and being pulled from one direction to another. Guerilla forces from win were trying to snatch away the bases from us so we'd have a hard time taking the package anywhere. All my marches died at least 3 times during this fight.

Inch by bloody inch we crawled towards Base 4 which was also under attack. But all this time the Hot Springs had been under our control which gave us a big advantage in terms of healing. Slowly but surely win were lagging behind. After a concerted effort to eliminate most of the low health marches from win we were able to find a more or less clear path for Spuddles though YTU IN desperately kept trying to kill her. It took us less than 15 minutes to deliver the first box, but it sure felt like forever to me!

After the first package was delivered we went back home to redeploy with full marches, win were taking back bases all over the map and they need to be recovered before the package drop at WF. Again Scythe took charge of the forces going towards WF while other players formed impromptu groups to liberate bases. By the time the package spawned we had recovered most of the maps with a few still being fought over. But WF was sorely undermanned. Belore singled out some players including I and Elda to go to WF and help out. But YTU IN was again causing havoc in our ranks and win forces had laid siege on Base 2, clearly their objective was to snatch the base from us and take the package there. We had to divide our attention all over the map trying to keep win from taking any buildings! The net result was that win had the upper hand at the package fight!

Try as we might we couldn't stop the progress of the package towards what I assumed would be Stark Outpost 2. But win had other plans, much to the collective shock and outrage of the N0Xians, instead of trying to deliver the box, win decided to carry it home to their base!. The surprise and shock in N0X voice chat was tumultuous. We redoubled our efforts at taking back the package but unfortunately despite a long drawn out battle at their doorstep spearheaded by none other than Belore, win managed to take the box behind the barrier.

As the package disappeared behind the barrier, any goodwill we might have felt for the alliance evaporated along with it. As a matter of principle N0X never base camps any opponent but win had forced our hands. We will have to keep them surrounded so nobody tries to sneakily deliver the box while we weren't looking. Multiple objectives on the map were under fire especially the Stark Outposts were being hotly contested. But it became quite apparent that win wouldn't bring the package outside the barrier until anytime soon.

Maybe they didn't even care about winning. To me and a few other N0Xians it looked like win didn't care about winning (sullying their own name what a shame) they would rather lose than let us make points. With most of win holed up at their base and the outposts we had the run of the map and a healthy points per minute. We will win but we probably couldn't even make 60k.

With only a few minutes to go YTU IN brought out the package and Belore went immediately to stall him while we redoubled our efforts to stop them from capping any of the outposts. They had denied us a good game so we were not inclined to let them reach 30k either.

In N0X's last encounter with win in the first match of the season, win were the favourites on paper, it was something of an upset that N0X clinched the win. N0X abandoned all the buildings and tried to give 30k points to win after reaching 80k in that game but unfortunately they could only make 29k. But this time due to their innovative strategy (read dishonourable strategy) they couldn't even get close to 30k while we also fell short of 60k win. This was certainly a rematch for the ages, just not a very glorious one. Hopefully our next opponents would show more honour.