KvK K135 vs K270 - The Last Samurai

"We are born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Everything in-between is a gift." - Yul Brynner

Spring is that time of year when life is emerging. The snow

begins to melt, birds are singing, fields are green... But not this time, this time we have Kingdom versus Kingdom on the schedule!

Every month we look forward to this day of all-consuming chaos, when men, horses and dragons blend into one huge fighting mass, when people sacrifice the lives of hundreds of millions of soldiers to defend the Great Cities, when farmers sharpen their sickles and harvest their crops at the speed of light to ensure their kingdom wins.

After a series of adventures in many different kingdoms, our team decided to have a little rest and parked their castles in the home kingdom of NFI - K135. The fighters in the NFI camp were in high spirits, of course - almost all of our fighters were together for once. Everyone was anticipating a great battle, about which many legends and songs will be written. I think everyone imagined themselves as heroes of legends, where they make a decisive contribution to the victory of their alliance and kingdom with their heroic efforts. I was tempted to indulge in my own fantasies about it, but as one of the commanders, I need to keep a sober head.

Just after midnight, the scouts brought us important news - we were to fight K270, the home kingdom of OBV. Uhhhh, it promises to be an epic battle!

KvK rules

The rules in Kingdom vs Kingdom are pretty simple - two more or less equal in strength kingdoms are merged into a single battlefield for 24 hours. Players can gain points for their kingdom in three ways:

1. Farm resources in the enemy kingdom;
2. Kill enemy troops (higher the tier, more points you get);
3. Fill Great Cities (higher tier troops score more points for your side, King's Landing gives x3 more points than any other GC).

There are 4 regular types of KvKs and 1 is held annualy:

1. Lord of Light's Revival - troops lost in this KvK will be resurrected the next day but the amount of Merits will be decreased by 90% and you don't get tokens for elimnating opponents;
2. Lord of Light's Glory - Merits and Tokens will be increased by 15%, troops won't be resurrected;
3. Lord of Light's Blessing - 20% more diamonds from diamond mines the next day after KvK;
4. Lord of Light's Gift - Blessing Raffle will be available for lords and ladies after accumulating certain amount of kingdom points. You can get extra Rhea tokens from that Raffle
5. Lord of Light's Carnival (Anniversary) - occupation of GCs will result in Weak Defense troops to appear. Defeat them for additional rewards.

Winning kingdom will have access to lvl 1-5 diamonds the next day, losing kingdom to lvl 1-3 mines. In addition to that, you will get personal and alliance rewards after scoring certain amount of points. Top 100 in individual and top 100 in alliance rankings will get even more rewards once KvK is finished.

KvK: K135 vs K270

The battle will start soon, and there are not many of us who are awake and eager for battle. KvK is good because we don't have any time limits - everyone joins the battle when they can/want to. I, Frozor, king kira and Olden Cats joined the night watch. Checking my weapons for the tenth time, I headed towards the campfire.

‘There's not much activity in the OBV camp. Apparently their fighters are asleep, as are most of ours. We should be on our guard, though, because the enemy may be trying to fool us,’ I said, sitting down on a vacant chair near the fire.

‘Yeah something doesn't look like they're trying to outsmart us. Besides, it's the middle of the night for most of them. What do we even know about OBV? I haven't been in the NFI that long, so I might not know some things,’ Olden Cats asked.

‘We have met them many times in various events, but this is the first time we are meeting in KvK in my memory. They are roughly equal to us in terms of strength, however we have always gained the upper hand. There are some very strong and well known warriors among them such as IronFist1, ESTERHAZZY, Mohammed10 and others. I think we are a bit stronger, but we can't say that we will dominate without a chance for OBV,’ I summarised the information about OBV.

‘The battle promises to be interesting, at least I hope so. I'll be resting in the shadows for the time being, so please let me know when the enemy appears on the horizon. I'll be sure to join you,' Frozor said with one foot in the tent.

..........................

Has it ever happened to you, when you are waiting for something very much, so much so that you can see it clearly every time you close your eyes? And then it never shows up in your life. Not even a hint of it. That's what happened to us. We expected a fierce battle from beginning to end. We expected the opportunity to accomplish feats worthy of song and legend. Unfortunately, there was absolute silence in the OBV camp. So quiet that I almost fell asleep at my post. As suddenly king kira turned to me with a mad gleam in his eyes, gesturing to his right. I almost went blind, looking in the direction he pointed, as suddenly I noticed movement in the night - it was an enemy fighter!

‘Frozor, wake up. We've discovered the enemy,’ I whispered faintly.

Without wasting a moment, Frozor jumped up and quietly whistled to his dragon. Whispering something in his ear, Frozor gestured to us to signal the impending battle.

As the unsuspecting enemy slowly crept towards our camp, a bright flash of flame lit up the night as Frozor's dragon blocked the enemy's escape route.

The enemy lord's name was Craig Newman, and apparently he specialised in spears. Any information about the enemy could be an advantage in battle, a chance to outsmart them.

Despite the enemy's lack of reinforcements, they vastly outnumbered us. So we can only win by trickery. I ordered my spearmen to line up in an unfamiliar loose formation. Each spearman was ordered to hide his spears so that the enemy would think they were being attacked by infantrymen. My men had long been accustomed to such tricks, so it looked pretty convincing.

Starting at a slow pace, my men slowly picked up speed. The men moved in complete silence, as if the coming battle was a routine business for them. As I approached the enemy within archery range, I was relieved to see that the enemy had bought our ruse and had lined up the cavalry in the front row. My men felt the same way, and drew their spears and rushed at the enemy's cavalry with a wild roar. With their long spears the spearmen smashed indiscriminately both horses and enemy soldiers. In an attempt to escape from this hell, the horses threw off their riders, who were either struck by the spears or trampled by their own allies.

When I saw the enemy fighter in front of me, I immediately threw a lunge with my spear, but at the last moment the horse took a step back and my spear did not reach the target. Having unsuccessfully tried a couple of times to get out of this massacre, the enemy fighter realised the hopelessness of the situation and tried to counterattack me in a desperate dash. Taking the blow of his spear on my shield, I dived to the right and made a counter-strike with my spear, only scratching him from the side. With a shriek, the enemy fighter pointed his horse in my direction, trying to trample me. Hiding behind my shield, I was ready to take the blow, when suddenly a spear flew out of the crowd and struck the horse in the neck area. As the horse reared up for the last time, it threw off its rider, and I only had to strike the decisive blow.

Having assessed the scale of the damage inflicted on the enemy, I ordered a tactical retreat to be blown so that we could organise the next attack with fresh forces. According to the intelligence, we have almost completely crushed the enemy cavalry and even inflicted significant damage to the enemy spearmen. The only thing left is to crush the enemy and inflict irreparable moral damage on the OBV.

Emboldened by our success, we immediately began to trumpet the rally for the next attack. Of course, it would have been ideal to have an experienced infantryman leading the attack, but at this late hour we had no choice, so I and my spearmen led the attack.

The enemy met us with a dense formation of infantrymen, but thanks to the skilful action of officers from my army, we succeeded in crushing their resistance. However, we had to pay a heavy price for it, but still the enemy's damage was greater.

There was almost no time left for the next attack, and Craig Newman was able to hide from our eyes. For the next few hours there was little or no enemy action, which made it seem to us that the OBV had simply decided to ignore the ancient tradition of fighting in KvK.

Some time later I received emails from the OBV leaders apologising for the lack of fighting on their part, as they face a crucial Ultimate Conquest quarter-final duel next week against in WAO.

For the rest of KvK there were only minor local skirmishes, with a clear edge in NFI's favour. Victory is ours, but why does it taste so bitter? Credit should be given to Craig Newman, who ignored the instructions of his leaders and honoured the tradition of the KvK battle like the last samurai who is not ready to abandon tradition.

It's hard to evaluate what the overall outcome of the confrontation between the two kingdoms would have been if K270 hadn't prioritised the other event, but we can evaluate the Alim vs Craig Newman confrontation.

In the first case, there was a clear advantage on my side, as I was able to trick him. In addition, Craig Newman sent pike commanders to lead the cavalry in a hurry. However, in the second round the outcome was close to a draw. Craig Newman again did not change commanders, but his infantry was able to hold off my kopjacks for so long that his own kopjacks did significant damage to us.