Season 19 offically started!

Favourite event of many GoTWiC fans has returned with new exciting season!

Alliance conquest is back with the 19^th regular season to allow various teams face each other once again to find that one ultimate winner. Last season has been finished with top3 as below:

I must say this event is unique enough that each season a different team could be celebrating being the ultimate conquerors of Westeros. WTF seemed to be favourites for the last couple of years, mainly due their experience and cooperation with mercenaries from ATD. Will this happen once again this season? It is worth mentioning as BDR and N3O which were always biggest threats, as long as WxC, have not merged in to a team called BaN. This team is very scary and contains greatest fighters which even WTF struggles to face (2x lose of WTF vs BaN in recent Siege of Winterfell event)

What do you think will happen this season? Will WTF defend their title? Maybe WxC will lift the trophy this year? Or maybe we are about to witness the strength of BaN and their ultimate victory?

Alliance Conquest

Alliance conquest also called AC is definitely the favourite team event of all GoTWiC players. It contains quick decision making, planning and teamwork / cooperation skills, which all together allow a lot of underdogs to win over the stronger opponent. This is very unpredictable event where a lot of Suprises are being done each year, making it exciting for the viewer. In AC both teams start in two different corners of the map, and usually team contains rally lead, slow marcher and racers. Rest of the team is there to reinforce and support.

The task of the racers is to be the quickest to take the castle, once the timer is gone, as then it goes under protection and allows rest of the team to have time for reinforcing it.

Rally leaders task would be to create rallies against enemies

Slow marchers are there to send their troops for the castles that just open, yet not speed it up, until communicated and then a real showcase of teamwork is being under the line, as racer has to disband the castle and slow marcher take it from him, before enemy tries to steal it in between. It is very exciting and stressing process.

As you can see there are quite few castles that are able to be occupied, and each castle provides different amount of points.

The outposts give 100 points, ports 200, temple of the mother in the left top corner gives 200 but also provides buff in healing, so is very important. We also have temple of the warrior which used to be useless, but after recent updates, is one of the most important buildings in the event!

Additionally there is Lannister and Targaryen strongholds, Casterly Rock which is the main castle that provides 1200 points, and the two mines on the side, which are just new addition, that allows losing team to catch up, as those have together about 18k points that can be gathered as long its occupied.

You would ask yourself a question why would people do all this for, it must cost a lot of speedups for sure! Well, the rewards are really good, it allows you to fully awaken commanders like Mengo or Simon, but it also allows you to collect the castle exterior fragment for an SS castle skin which is pretty much desired by everyone.

Who are those teams?

Firstly, let me give you my perspective. WTF is clan I am currently in, I enjoy it very much, and people are as kind as strong they are. You could say WTF is hated by many, because this is the luggage you have to carry with urself, while you are one of the strongest in the game. NBe on the other side, has got many friends of mine playing for them, Ivvvy and Osthato, which I played with in DUM and tuf, Rezamsv and Gerasa, which we had fun on k105 back in the days, but they also have recent additions like BARBAROSsA for example. It is meant to definitely be a difficult match up, and anything could happen, depending of the attendance and the mood on the day.

When we look on roster of NBe we definitely must acknowledge BARBAROSsA, which has proven for many years to be very strong mercenary.

Additionally there is olso TheOnlyKing or Gabzs

Then in terms of WTF, we defenitly have to mention QUEENY, Josehf or recent new addition xTheMadQueen.

Who do you think has got bigger chances, the last year AC Champions – WTF or the new NBe which was always dangerous, and now have got some more strong players? You are about to find out!

Struggles of WTF

As I mentioned previously a big part in winning season 18 did mercenaries from ATD, which are not present nowdays in WTF. This is a huge blow for the team, and while still considered to be one of the top teams, the struggle has risen to the level some might think it wont be possible to defend the title this year. As there were many vacant spots, WTF had recruited a lot of new members, which obviously means that there is lack of cooperation and communication as many of those never played together before that, so it takes tame for some to adjust to the way WTF does it and comply.

I believe this will have its impact on the whole season, yet in this game, was causing any difficulties? Definitely yes.

Game 1 – WTF vs NBe

Evening, Wednesday the 31.07.2024, clash of titans, obviously everyone kept talking about it since the morning. Predictions were going on, and leaks about other strong teams, potential challengers for playoffs, and who they play against.

We knew that HOH was playing against BaN, which automatically leaves only WxC as the main contender to the title, that we did not know who they are playing. Considering HOH was matching BaN in first round, if we would potentially win NBe, this would be really good thing for is to happen.

Unfortunately I worked that day as I forgot the AC starts on Wednesday, not on Saturday. This was not a problem for me anyway as I left work early just to not let down my teammates and attend this bloodbath against NBe, I knew every single one of us is required for achieving a great result.

The time has come, we have all set our talents, equipement, lord, badges. Got all the buffs that possibly could be activated, war related and finally we could enter the map to meet our enemy.

As you can see there were a lot of empty spots, as our attendance during first match wasn’t good.

The morale were going down and people started whispering about it. We have decided to try our luck anyway, and wouldn’t give it to NBe without putting a fight.

NBe hive looked a lot better and attendance was also a lot better. It did not look good so far I must say. Everyone started taking their allocated positions based on your rally leader and troop type you use.

The ideal plan for the game would be to take both ports, mother, warrior and Casterly Rock

This is only wishful thinking, and nobody knew at this time, if it is possible especially considering attendance issues.

Countdown is over, Grab your weapons and prepare to fight!

The first towns that we were fighting for were Outposts, one on each side of the map, and the most important in terms of possession during entire battle – Warrior and Mother.

This was the moment when racers on both sides had to show what are they made of. It is really essential to capture the buildings first, as it is a lot easier to defend them rather than attacking them, but additionally, there are bonuses for the first capture.

The call has been given on the voice, counting down from 5 by 4 3 2 1, and suddenly our racers have been rushing on their horses like it would be their last race before death.

Unfortunately for us, the only building we managed to capture, was Outpost on our side, enemy racers were at better disposition that day, and we started this battle from a bad foot.

This meant that we had to quickly gather and start our rallies, which we focused on at this moment within discussions on the voice. As you can see some of the castles were captured by their big warriors such as Lancelot 69 known in Westeros from countless events where he managed to survive a lot of rallies, so was very experienced on the battlefield. Others, had to be changed to the stronger ones, so we were expecting a swap. Swap means that with the moment slow marcher is about to hit the destination, there is a call on the voice to disband the castle, and this way the owner is being changed. It is important to reinforce the castle very quickly just after, as the protection status disappears and enemy can solo it.

Our rallies did not work too well. We were outnumbered and outpowered on that day, the sour taste has been increasing yet we were not giving up.

Ports and uncommon decision

Shortly after we were preparing to race for ports, which give a lot more points than outposts. Ideally if we would capture ports and Casterly Rock, we would be on a good foot in the match. The counting has started, and racers have once again rushed to capture the buildings. Unfortunately once again, enemy was faster, and before we were able to make any decision, they have swapped the owners to very strong warriors such as ledogi or CHARL1E or iLLiDaN88. This was still allowing enemies to keep their super strong warriors free to attack, one that was worth mentioning was BARBAROsSA.

At this point discussions were directed towards if it is worth to spend speedups and heals in this game, as we were not doing too well. After couple of minutes of discussion, the decision was made to use this game as practice since we had a lot of new players within the alliance, it was good to focus on improving timing, communication and cooperation between old and new members. We had green light to attack enemy yet were not forced to go all in. I believe QUEENY made a right call as this way we could keep our precious benefits for the upcoming playoffs (UC).

This did not mean that we have not tried to fight back. I have few reports to share with you as there were a lot of spears offline that day, so not many rallies that I could’ve joined, yet I managed to participate in few!

Firstly ChainsawMan tried his chances against TrueeProdigy in LannisterPort, we have won the rally, yet it was just a rally, we were not able to keep the port. As usual, strong spearman troops have conuntered cavalry squad, and I was fully convinced that joining Denkura (ChainsawMan) rally, will not be a mistake, once again he has shown his strength.

 There were also other rallies which were sent on that Port yet it has been constantly reinforced, and other rally I have joined, was not as successful as the one before.

Casterly Rock and couple more rallies

Casterly rock was about to open, if we would capture it with the racers, that would be a potential sign as we can still fight for victory, and probably would change our decision to not go all in, as then potentially we had to only keep the CR and focus on rallying enemy until mines will open, which could’ve been a game changer.

This time we were lucky to win the race and Casterly Rock was ours! The confidence boost was real, and we started discussing what should we do next. 

In the meantime, enemy has started their rallies towards the casterly rock, they did not want to waste time and give us any points. After couple of minutes the rallies have rushed, and as long we were able to defend from first couple of shots, the lack of communication and focus has been clearly seen, which resolved in this conversation I had with AeliN Ash

Following this loss, we were devastated, and at this point there was no coming back. We kept doing rallies purely for training and fun.

It did not take long till the protection status from our and enemy personal castles has disappeared and everyone started soloing each other. I knew some players from enemy team, and some of them knew me, this way we knew what troops to expect from certain warriors. I have been immediately attacked by CHARL1E.

I managed to dodge the hit this time, as I have sent almost all my troops away.

Shortly after Josehf started rally against CR in which was BELZEEBUTH to which I have decided to join.

Josehf is very strong, and I was full of hopes for killing a lot of enemy troops. The rally has started and hit the enemy, the results were very good, considering it was spear against spear fight, so pure test of ‘who is stronger’.

As you might or might not know, when we join rallies, we don’t send our commanders, so I was still able to use them elsewhere. I have been scouting enemy castles and shortly after I have found my target.

Unfortunately for me, enemy full weakness has been too strong for me to ‘win’ the battle, yet the damage I have made, was big enough that made me quickly return, and hit once again to finish enemy off.

Following those 2 hits I have been spotted by enemy once again, as someone with troops, so it was just a matter of time when I will be hit by some big player.

In the meantime another rallies were created, and I have managed to join Mackaveli this time, which was going against TrueeProdigy which was already mentioned previously in this story.

The fight was good, yet it was too much for our player, and he had to call it a defeat.

Once we have hit the enemy, and I tried to heal and return my troops, evil BARBAROSsA has sent his regiment towards my castle. This has killed a lot of my troops, and I was wondering if there is a point to keep going and loosing my speedups.

This was just a temporary thought as shortly after the rallies were called and I just couldn’t stand still.

I have healed my troops and went once again, to join my teammates in the battlefield!

This was pretty much perspective for the rest of the matchup, as we would randomly rally enemy, which most of our rallies would lose, some would win, yet we would not re-capture the cities. Especially we did not manage to steal mines either, so our last survival option was also taken away.

Was it worth to fight?

I believe it is important to mention that NBe did great, they came fully prepared and fought like they mean it. Our understaff and underperformance that day, was tragic, and unfortunately resulted in us changing our approach from fighting to practicing rallies and communication. Well done to NBe and I hope we meet each other at some point, once again in this season, so we can test ourselves once again, hopefully in better way from our side.

End of the day it was worth to use this defeat as a practice game which gave us very important minutes together to practice shotcalling, racing, and overal cooperation.

It doesn’t matter if we lose or we win, it is important to always get back on our feet, no matter what happens to us. Keep believing In urself, and turn every defeat in to a long term victory, is what I keep repeating to myself, each time such situation occurs in my life, and I suggest the same for you.