Victory Comes To Those Who Dare! N0X vs NW1

After a pretty decisive victory against MBL in the opening bout of Siege of Winterfell the N0X camp was pretty elated, most of us had believed we could win this just not so easily while a few had even expected us to lose. Either way this was a good start to the season. The next match would obviously be a lot tougher as we had climbed up the SoW rankings quite a bit. We still had IMPERIAL ROCK in our ranks plus the attendance numbers from match one was looking good. So, I was hopeful about our chances in match 2 unless we got matched against say the top 4 alliances in the rankings. But this was unlikely so early in the season.

There were a few alliance names being bandied about when the ranking updated but the general consensus was NW1 is the most likely alliance we would face, which is exactly what happened. The event council (should be called war council in my opinion but I am not in charge of naming) were certain that this will be a really really hard battle, we could still win if we played well and followed orders but there was no room for mistakes.

During the preparation period NW1 side quickly filled up finally stopping at 95 fighters on their side while N0Xians trickled in slowly with some insistent prodding from N0X officials. We had a respectable 90 people on our side by the time the countdown hit zero.

Looking at the NW1 base before the start of match it was clear that they were planning to send a large force towards Hot Springs, so we countered them with an equally large force led by Belore, I had joined his entourage like I usually do because Hot Springs does tend to have the most action in most of the SoW games if not all. A smaller force veered off towards armoury led by Scythe.

Even as the first package spawned at Winterfell the fight at armoury and Hot Springs raged on, the rest of the map had seen no movement at all. We had all the objectives South of Winterfell and NW1 had everything North of Winterfell while the armoury and Hot Springs kept changing hands. NW1 had a small lead on us in terms of points so the package would make a difference. Either we would take a slight lead by delivering the package or else NW1 would pull further ahead.

The fight over the package was brutal and bloody Belore, IMPERIAL ROCK and a few other powerful N0Xians were waging a war of attrition on the mass of NW1s that had showed up at the package drop. Spuddles our designated package carrier was constantly under attack and had to reset and race back quite a few times while the struggle over the package raged on. Fortunately after a protracted battle, we were able to deliver the package and take a lead.

There was a lot of fighting and calls for reinforcements but surprisingly the fight was still mostly centered around armoury and the Hot Springs, we kept healing every time N0X took control of Hot Springs but it was never absolute control. The Stark Strongholds under NW1 were under fire from some brave N0Xians but actually getting control of those objectives were still far from a guarantee. The second package was already on the move and the fighting was hot in the vicinity . We had a narrow lead of about 1500 points and for the moment we had more points per minute but it could change any second. Giving them the second package would set us back quite a bit.

After a drawn out fight that lasted for over 5 minutes and cost both sides hundreds of days in healing speedups, IMPERIAL ROCK finally brought the package home much to NW1s chagrin. we jumped from a mere 1k lead to a 5k lead giving us a slight breathing room. The battle was far from over, we were only halfway through the game and every subsequent package would carry more points than the last making it imperative that we keep them out of NW1's hands if we were eto take home the victory.

By the time we geared up for the 3rd package NW1 had a large force pasted at Winterfell so we had to rush towards Winterfell and we needed a large force which meant the fighters on both right and left of the map were thinned out. Anyone resetting and coming out of the base were ordered to go after the package. While those defending the buildings had to hold on grimly until the package was secured and reinforcements could be sent to them.

NW1 took advantage of our focus on the package and even as they hindered us at every step from taking the package to a secure base, fighting us tooth and nail, their forces elsewhere took away buildings from us and pushed us back towards our base. But Belore was sure we could still win if only we took this package home, there will be time to liberate the buildings once this package was delivered. Thankfully we were equal to the task and even though much blood was spilt we finally rushed the package into a secured base. Phew, that was hard work.

With only 9 minutes to go in the match we had a 6k lead on NW1 but they had a points per minute lead on us but not by much. Belore ordered us to keep the last package off their hands at any cost. Even if we lost a couple more objectives we'd still win as long as they couldn't deliver this package.

So the defenders of the package gave it their all fighting to take the package to one of our secure bases while the defenders of the objectives reset and swept away the NW1 fighters from our strongholds bringing the map state back to a stalemate. Both sides now had equal points per minutes and win was guaranteed as long as the fight for the package went our way.

Ultimately the last package was never by either side. The fight raged on even as the battle ended and a loud cheer went up all through the assembled N0Xians. We had secured the second win of the season. The 3rd opponent will probably be someone we can't beat but for now we were going to savour our hard earned victory.