Alliance Conquest - MFs vs s77

Alliance Conquest had always been one of Eyaka’s favourite events. It was an opportunity to test one’s power against a huge variety of peers. Much like deathless KvK, there are no losses, so while it doesn’t quite emulate attacking a full castle, it’s a safe way to test your power.

The nineteenth season of Alliance Conquest had started the week before and the Misfits had already completed two matches, one win and one loss. Unfortunately Eyaka had missed the win, being in Pentos at a drawing class which he simply could not rearrange. The loss that followed however he had thrown everything into.

It had been an exciting match, even though it was a crushing defeat. NWL simply had too many strong players for the Misfits to handle. The situation was made somewhat worse by the fact that Eyaka and his fellow members from TsM had come down a league-level, meaning they were subject to a penalty of twenty percent of their fighting prowess. This penalty was supposed to prevent the most powerful lords from abusing the league system but Eyaka couldn’t help but think it was a little unfair for him in this particular match! Despite the handicap he’d made many kills, though at great cost and it highlighted the fact that perhaps this season we would not get to see Eyaka’s true potential.

“No point stressing about it, I’ll just have to play as though I was at full strength.” Eyaka muttered to no one in particular. “Are you still whining about our handicap?” Scott was suffering from the same deduction in power but had been more sanguine about the whole affair, though his build was a little less susceptible to a drop in stats so perhaps wasn’t feeling it quite so much. “It’s not whining, I am resigned to it, next season will be better. I just find it annoying that we're not getting a fair fight is all.” This sounded a lot like whining, even to him so he quickly added “Anyway, I’m looking forward to another good match against s77 today. I hope it's a good fight!”

The Misfits outpowered s77 by a not insignificant margin, however, years of experience had taught Eyaka never to judge an alliance by its power. It was, in his eyes, an almost meaningless number in most events. All it took was five or six powerful members, or one incredibly powerful member for an alliance to dominate despite being outnumbered or outpowered. ‘Never count your chickens before they’ve hatched’ as his grandmother always used to say. 

The preparations were made and the Misfits assembled on the battlefield, the turnout was excellent, sixty nine lords had turned up to fight. They had been assigned to the Targaryen ranks and the sight of their gathered forces around the Targaryen camp looked absolutely magnificent. It had only been a month since these sort of numbers seemed impossible. Just before the horns of Casterly Rock blue, signalling the start of the event, the scouts returned with the enemy numbers; MFs outnumbered s77 almost two to one. This was a very good sign but time would tell whether it played out in their favour.

The horns blew and the two teams raced to capture the first buildings. To Eyaka’s horror, MFs did not win a single one. This had been a problem for the alliance in their last match as well, they simply were not fast enough. They would need to fight their way in, always a harder prospect than defending.

With the seconds ticking down before the grace period of protection would end for s77’s captured buildings, Eyaka decided to target the Altar of the Warrior, he readied his troops for the attack. There were no reports as yet from the opponent so he would be going in blind, his troops were aware of this but not deterred so Eyaka felt no guilt about potentially sending them into the hospital. Ten seconds. He watched as march upon march arrived to reinforce the defending lord. Five seconds. The order would come the moment the shield dropped. Zero. The march launched… 

The first hit had been a victory, quite a substantial one, however, there were simply too many of the opposing forces to clear them out in one go. Eyaka rushed his troops home and sent them out again, several of his alliance had done the same; s77 were being hounded by marches. Eyaka’s second attempt hit the altar to find only a small contingent of enemy soldiers remaining, they made short work of clearing them out and raised the banner for MFs.

Eyaka quickly reinforced the soldiers but now faced an unfortunate dilemma; if he stayed here defending the altar of the Warrior he would be unable to launch an attack on any of the other positions on the map. He could join rallies of course, but he wouldn’t be able to lead any. As he pondered his options several of the other buildings were retaken from s77. Perhaps his help wasn’t needed and he’d be best served holding this position.

The next set of buildings became available for capture and once again MFs didn’t win a single race to capture. This was a problem they would have to address if they hoped to progress in this event. However, this sort of review could be done after the match, right now they simply had to focus on winning.

The decision was made, it was time to get back into the fray. The altar was abandoned with a call to the alliance to retake it as quickly as possible. To Eyaka’s great relief it was recaptured before the enemy noticed his troops departing.

With a rather fearsome degree of bloodlust march after march was sent towards the enemy. Each and every report came back as a victory. Eyaka’s kills were rising fast and the match seemed in control. Casterly Rock opened its gates and the race was… nevermind, the race was lost before MFs had a chance to blink. The enemy filled the castle with myriad reinforcements, it was hard not to be impressed. By the time MFs were allowed to attack the castle was almost full of soldiers. Once again a march was readied and sent out, expecting them to return victorious. Eyaka was not prepared for the sight of his troops returning, almost all being carried by the few who had survived uninjured. The faces of his soldiers told him all he needed to know. This defence would not be so easily overcome. s77 had a shrewd and powerful lord in command of Casterly Rock.

It took a mammoth effort for MFs to finally capture Casterly Rock. Their opponent had fought tooth and nail to keep hold but finally the Rock was cracked and MFs held every position. Their points were growing at an incredible rate and before long that magic number of eighty thousand was reached. The order went out immediately to abandon the map.

There was a certain etiquette in Alliance Conquest, just like there was in Siege of Winterfell, that once the eighty thousand point was reached (and thus the maximum reward earned), alliances would abandon the positions and allow their opponent to try and get as many points as possible. It was an unspoken agreement, one that Misfits always held to, that they had benefited from only days before.

The match came to an end and Eyaka had a chance to speak to his commanders and study the final scores. He had finished in second place for eliminations, losing out to his awesome team mate Hansdam and finishing just above Rudy. “My Lord, we could possibly have pushed harder for first place but we did not have the resources to heal.” The blame for this lay squarely on his shoulders. He had not been participating in rebel hunts for some time and was for all intents and purposes… skint. Perhaps the next match he would be better stocked, but for now, second place and a victory was fine by him.