Alliance Conquest Season 18: Match 5 – 4TR vs DRg

After four relatively easy victories in the previous four matches this season, we came just one victory away from achieving the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season! I knew that in the last two matches we were facing the toughest opponents so far, but we were in a very good position - we only needed one win from two matches. I was optimistic about those two remaining matches - as I already pointed out in the previous matches we were quite lucky so that we still had a large number of speed up and heal items, in addition we had a full week to get to know our new players. Looking at the results from past seasons, I expected that in this fifth round we would get a far stronger alliance for opponents against whom we would not have much of a chance, which would pave the way for us to get much easier opponents in the last round, and thus achieve our goal. I was anxiously waiting to see who we got as an opponent, I even studied the standings and considered who could be our opponent. In doing so, I found quite a large number of high-scoring alliances that we can deal with. However, there were also plenty of alliances that were objectively stronger than us.

To my surprise - we got DRg as our opponent! I included that alliance in the group with which we have a chance! Maybe it seems a bit overbearing from me since they as an alliance are much stronger than us, besides they have almost a full alliance unlike us who don't even have fifty players, however they still don't have extremely strong players in their team against whom we have no chance. For that reason alone, I was of the opinion that we could handle them. An additional reason for optimism was the fact that, despite their number, not even half of their players participate in matches! However, it should also be pointed out that they, like us, have won all their previous matches and entered this match as favourites.

The preparation for the match was very short and simple - we have been playing together in the team for a long time and mostly have the same distribution of work. We eventually make a change if we play against a strong opponent, when we have to use a different tactic. It should also be noted that, still new players, they fully accepted everything that was asked of them and agreed with our game plan, which was very important for us since, as I pointed out in the last match, we got a very strong players. Now we just have to wait and see how many players our opponents will enter the match with...

And again we had an incredible amount of luck - out of 98 players, only 31 are in the match, which means that at the beginning of the match, we once again became favorites! Of course, it doesn't have to mean anything, their strongest players are playing, and despite the vast majority of their players not in the match, they still have more players than us.

The beginning of the match was almost perfect - we managed to occupy three of the four Great Castles! The only Castle that we did not manage to take was the Temple of the Mother, but for some reason the opponents did not send many troops to reinforce, which left a lot of room for our players to try to take it from them with solo attacks. That's exactly what happened!

We couldn't imagine a better start! Even though the opponents came with the strongest players, they have far fewer players in the match than I thought they would have, we easily took the only Castle they occupied at the beginning of the match and from the very start we have all four Castles under our control! An additional reason for optimism was the fact that they did not even try to attack the Temple of the Mother and the Tower of the Warrior, Castles where we had a large number of troops, which meant that they were aware that we are big favorites... Accomplishing our goal never been so close!

However, not everything is perfect - right before the race for the Ports, we lost supremacy over the Lannister Outpost...

At that moment I was only thinking about the final result. We were desperate to get that fifth victory, so I decided it was wisest to leave the Lannister Outpost to them and focus on the other upcoming battles - for the Ports and for Casterly Rock. I calculated that, in case we need to, we can always return to the fight for that Castle, but that our priority is to fight for the Ports and Casterly Rock, which bring us a large number of points. The positive thing was the fact that I was free again to fight for Casterly Rock.

The races for the Ports began and - we managed to occupy a Lannister Port!

And here comes a small change to our original plan - almost all of our strongest players already had Castles under their control, which meant that our weaker players, if they wanted to take over Targaryen Port, would have to do rallies. So I decided to try to help them and take out the enemy troops with solo attacks and then leave it to one of my teammates. At this moment in the match, it is very important for us to occupy Casterly Rock and Ports, almost crucially important. And that's exactly what we did - it took me a single solo attack to take Targaryen Port from them!

Immediately after capturing the Port, I abandoned it and left it to my teammate, and I completely switched my focus to Casterly Rock! At this point in the match we were in a pretty good position - the opponents only had Lannister Outpost in their possession which meant we generated a lot more points than them. If we succeed in occupying Casterly Rock, it would not only further increase the point advantage, but also completely demoralize an already unmotivated opponent, just as was the case in some of our previous matches. An additional weight on the already small chances of our opponents is the fact that I, as the strongest player in the match, would come into possession of Casterly Rock, which would mean that they can forget about that Castle. This means that all our hopes and dreams for this season have come down to this next battle! I knew that even if we lost the race to Casterly Rock we had a good chance of taking it from them, but winning that race would equal winning the match! I was anxiously waiting for Casterly Rock to open and…

I TOOK IT!!

This is a huge deal for us! Not only did we create a big point advantage, but all our strongest players have the Castle under their control. Nevertheless, the match is practically at the beginning, there is still a lot of time left until the end, and even though our opponents have not shown too much desire to attack our Castles, it is very easy for everything to turn around. I knew we were very close to achieving our goal!

We still stuck to our plan - we will not enter the fight for the Lannister Outpost until the races for all the Castles are over, after which we will assess the situation and decide on the next steps. And we didn't have to wait long - not long after we occupied Casterly Rock it was time for the remaining two Great Castles - Strongholds!

The same situation as with Ports was repeated - we managed to occupy one Stronghold while we lost the other...

After these races, we were finally able to assess the situation with a cool head. And the situation was very good for us - all the Castles that bring a large number of points were under our control, the opponent did not show too much desire to attack those Castles, we hardly had to spend any of the speed up and heal items that we had at our disposal which meant that we could engage in larger battles if necessary, and we were already in a position where our opponents had to occupy both Mines if they wanted to catch up with us! And just at that moment when we were arranging the next moves - we realized that the match was not yet decided...

However, the loss of Targaryen Port did not change our plans - I ordered our players to launch attacks on the remaining Castles that are under the control of our opponents! And very quickly it turned out to be a great decision - first we captured the Targaryen Stronghold, then finally the Lannister Outpost and finally the Targaryen Port!

At that moment we finally had all the Castles under our control! The point advantage, although big, was still not enough for us to say with certainty that we won, we only needed a few more minutes to confirm the victory... However, our opponents did not give up either! First they took Lannister Port from us...

And right after that, the Lannister Outpost.

However, I wasn't too worried about it. We continued to generate many more points than our opponents which only increased our points lead. Therefore, I told my teammates not to engage in the fight for those two Castles, but the smartest thing to do is to wait for the fight for Mines. A few minutes before Mines will open its gates, it became official - our advantage in points was so great that they could no longer catch us even if they occupy both Mines, which means that we have fulfilled the main goal we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season and we reached the fifth victory!!

But the match was not over yet. Although we secured the victory, we still had to continue the fight if we want to reach 80,000 points and collect all the rewards from this match. Because of this, we did a swap on Casterly Rock so that I could fight for Mines, which once again proved to be the right decision - I won the race for Lannister Mine while on the other side of the map Gola Hudsona won the race for Targaryen Mine!

Once again the opponents did not even try to attack our Castles, including the Mines, which certainly made our job much easier. All that was left to the end was to take over the remaining two Castles from them: first we took Lannister Port...

And right after that, the Lannister Outpost!

At the end of this historic match for us, as confirmation of our dominance, I attacked one of their best players and killed all his remaining troops...

And that was it! Another easy win, the much-desired fifth win of the season!

Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that things would turn out like this? Five wins in five matches played!! Since the existence of this small alliance of ours, we have never had such a result until now! We even managed to surpass the result from last season, in which we also achieved five victories, but then we suffered a defeat. The success is all the greater when we know that in none of those five matches were we weaker than our opponents. I can only congratulate my teammates for the excellently played matches, they really listened to all the instructions I gave them and absolutely deserved to celebrate this great success! Once again, I would also like to point out that our new players fit perfectly into our team, although they only played two matches, they contributed to this result.

As for today's match itself, we were once again very lucky - the opponents did not come in their strongest form again. Although they were big favorites before the start of the match, the very fact that they came with only 31 players turned us into favorites, which we justified with another convincing victory. However, respect should be shown to them for trying, even though they quickly became aware that we are stronger. However, unlike some of our previous matches, they did not give up until the very end, and thanks to them for that! I hope that in the future they will have many more active players than in this match.

Although we achieved all the goals we set for ourselves - the season is not over yet. With an excellent game so far, we are in a position to enter the play-off, i.e. Ultimate Conquest, with a victory in the last round! After the end of this fifth round, we were in 24th place with a real chance to be in the Top 16. Although there is a chance, I am aware that it will be difficult for us to reach it, there are much stronger alliances in front of us, against which we objectively have no chance and it is very likely that we will in the last round to play exactly against such an alliance. But as long as there is even the slightest chance, we will fight!